Plantation System Essay

This essay seeks to account for the emergence of the plantation system in the Caribbean. Discuss with special reference to the sugar industry. According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary a plantation is a long, artificially-established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption. The term plantation is informal and not precisely defined. Plantations are grown on a large scale as the crops grown are for commercial purpose Crops grown on plantations include fast-growing tress (often conifers), cotton, coffee, tobacco, sugar cane, sisal, some oil seeds (notably oil palms) and rubber trees. Farms that produce alfalfa, Lespedeza, clover and other forage crops are usually not called plantations. He term â€Å"plantation† has usually not included large orchards (except for banana plantations), but does include the planting of trees for lumber. A plantation is always a monoculture over a large area and does not include extensive naturally occurring stands of plants that have economic value. Because of its large size, a plantation takes advantage of economies of scale. Protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have contributed to determining where plantations have been located. Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, which produced large quantities of wine and olive oil for export. Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic activity, it has changed over time. Earlier forms of plantation agriculture were associated with large disparities of wealth and income, foreign ownership and political influence, and exploitative social systems such as indentured labor and slavery. The history of the environmental, social and economic issues relating to plantation agriculture is covered in articles that focus on those subjects. In the 17th century Europeans began to establish settlements in the Americas. The division of the land into smaller units under private ownership became known as the plantation system. Starting in Virginia the system spread to the New England colonies. Crops grown on these plantations such as tobacco, rice, sugar cane and cotton were labor intensive. Slaves were in the fields from sunrise to sunset and at harvest time they did an eighteen hour day. Women worked the same hours as the men and pregnant women were expected to continue until their child was born. European immigrants had gone to America to own their own land and were reluctant to work for others. Convicts were sent over from Britain but there had not been enough to satisfy the tremendous demand for labor. Planters therefore began to purchase slaves. At first these came from the West Indies but by the late 18th century they came directly from Africa and busy slave-markets were established in Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston and New Orleans. The death-rate amongst slaves was high. To replace their losses, plantation owners encouraged the slaves to have children. Child-bearing started around the age of thirteen, and by twenty the women slaves would be expected to have four or five children. To encourage child-bearing some population owners promised women slaves their freedom after they had produced fifteen children. In the early days of the Southern colonies land was inexpensive but workers were hard to find. Men could buy up huge estates on which to grow profitable crops such as tobacco, but they couldn’t find anyone willing to work the land. At first they solved this problem by using indentured servants. An indentured servant was a type of temporary slave, contracted to work for a period of several years in order to pay back the cost of a passage by ship from Britain to the colonies. The conditions of plantation life were harsh and dangerous, and 40 percent of indentured servants died before paying off their debts. The classic plantation was a politico-economic invention, a colonial frontier institution, combining non-European slaves and European capital, technology, and managerial skill with territorial control of free or cheap subtropical lands in the mass, monocrop production of agricultural commodities for European markets. The plantation system shaped Caribbean societies in certain uniform ways: the growth of two social segments, both migrant, one enslaved and numerous, the other free and few in number; settlement on large holdings, the choicest lands (mainly coastal alluvial plains and intermontane valleys) being preempted for plantation production; local political orders excluding the numerically preponderant group from civil participation by force, law, and custom; and a capitalist rationale of production, with the planter a businessman rather than a farmer-colonist, even though the investment of capital in human stock and the code of social relations lent a somewhat non-capitalist colo ration to enterprise.

Finance and Company Essay

So Wrigley has to make decisions on whether or not to borrow $ 3 billion for recapitalization. Question Based on the above situation, there are few questions that arise as seen below: ? Whether the recapitalization would be good for the company’s development in the long run? ?After borrowing $ 3 billion dollars what would the impact on the company’s debt rating be? ?What’s the impact on the company’s share value; would the recapitalization increase the company’s share value? ?What’s the impact on the company’s WACC, an increase or decrease? Would recapitalization increases the EPS of the company? Hypothesis Before capital restructuring due to not having any debt, return on capital and operating income as a percent of sales can be used based on exhibit 2(it is $513,356/$2,429,646= 21%) which is the A to AA range of investment grade. After recapitalization, the company’s debt rating will fall to a BB/B rating which reflects a higher risk and lower debt rating that will cause higher yields. According to Exhibit 7’s given information, the yield is between BB (12. 753) to B (14. 663) to obtain a cost of debt. Impact on share value If the company chooses to repurchase the stock, the WD will be 22. 89% (3,000,000/13,103,000), the WACC will be 10. 19% (22. 89% (1-40%)*13%+77. 1%*10. 9%). Both 10. 32% and 10. 19% are lower than the WACC before recapitalization, which indicates that after the recapitalization the company will have a lower minimum rate of return for the company that it needs to earn on its investments to maintain its wealth. Impact on Voting Control If the company is using the dividend plan to do capital restructuring, there will not be any impact on voting control. However, if the company is using the stock repurchase plan, it will have an influence on the voting control. The current Wrigley family ownership includes 21% of common shares and 58% of B shares. The total numbers of shares outstanding for Wrigley consists of the sum of the common shares of 189. 8 million and class B shares of 42. 641 million (10 votes each), a total of 232,441 million shares. So the company will have 46. 6% ((189. 8*21%+426. 41*58%)/616. 21=46. 6%)voting control before recapitalization. After the recapitalization the voting control will increase to 49% [(179. 22-42. 641)*21%+426. 41*58%]/ (136. 58+426. 41) =49Based on the above analysis, my suggestion is not to borrow $ 3 billion dollars, or if the company insists in doing a recapitalization I would suggest for them to not borrow as much and to make some investment on assets instead of it all in equity. For the Wrigley Company I think they should keep their debt below 50 percent. Because after recapitalization, it will have negative impacts on EPS, debt rating, share value and it has a slightly positive impact on WACC and voting control. The results of impact on EPS analysis shows that EPS will drop from $ 1. 61 to 0. 46 and, the debt/ assets ratio will be 169% which will increase the company’s risks. From a debt rating aspect, after borrowing $ 3 billion dollars, the debt rating of the company will decline from AA/A to BB/B which means that the company will have a higher interest rate, more interest expense and a lower credit rating in the future. This is not good for the company’s future development. From a long term prospective, I believe it’s important that the company be careful in determining whether they should pursue a dividend or stock repurchase strategy. If the company chooses to use the $ 3 billion to pay dividends now, it might increase the investor’s satisfaction in the short run but once the dividend has been paid, the investor will expect the same amount of dividend in the future and a lower dividend might disappoint investors and that might affect the company’s stock price in the future. The stock repurchase is temporary as well, so after the repurchase the ending stock price might drop and it may hurt a potential new investor who made a purchase during the repurchase period. All things considered as long as Wrigley keeps an eye on their long term goals and continues to look at the big picture whilst making good solid financial choices for their company they should be most successful.

Malaysia Unemployment Rate Essay

An unemployed person is one who is able and willing to work yet is unable to find a job. Unemployment rate is the number of people officially unemployed divided by the labor force. Official unemployment measures those over the age of 16 who are able for employment, but are unable to obtain a job. The labor force is the number of people over the age of 16 who are either employed or unemployed. In year 2005, unemployment rate in Malaysia (3.0%) higher than unemployment rate in Cambodia (2.5%). Malaysia is a heaven for job seekers who are not so particular on what job is available. As long as there is a job, they will just take it. The fact is true for foreigners especially from Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, China and many more. With their presence, the field of job market in Malaysia is becoming more competitive. This is because employers prefer to hire these foreigner rather than Malaysian due to the relatively cheaper labor cost and easier to manage. That is why graduate Malaysian who is having straight A’s is no longer to secure a job or to give one a competitive edge in career advancement. Unemployment rate in Malaysia increases to 3.6 % while Cambodia remains the same which is 2.5% in year 2006. Another contributing factor of higher unemployment rate in Malaysia is due to job matching. Even though there is over 300 thousand of graduate Malaysian from university or college entering the job market in 2006, the competency of these graduates is still a concern where their qualification and experiences cannot directly match the needs of the employers. Graduate might choosing the wrong course or with the poor result. Nowadays, the employer will hire the worker who had a lot of experienced one. In Malaysia, the private sector today is not interested in recruiting local graduates because they lack of essential skills, such as proficiency in English, a lack of ICT proficiency and interpersonal skill. This leads to appears to be gaps between what employers require and what skills graduates have. Graduates themselves have to realize that they need to adapt to the needs and wants of their future employers. In year 2007, the unemployment rate in Cambodia still remains constant which is 2.5%. Unemployment rate in Malaysia had decreased to 3.5%. The unemployment rate in Cambodia does not decrease and remains constant in three years started from 2005 until 2007. The first cause is poverty. Most of the Cambodia citizens are poor, that is why they cannot send their children to school. Children will be lack of knowledge, skills and qualification. As a result, it will be difficult for them to find a job. Besides, with the poor quality of education system in Cambodia, schools can produce only non-quality human resources. With the limited number of university, there is no guarantee that all graduated students will find job which relevant to them because only people with quality are selected to work. The unemployment rate in Cambodia is 3.5% in year 2008 is greater than in Malaysia, 3.2%. The unemployment rate in Cambodia suddenly increased 1.0% from year 2007 to 2008. This happened due to the job opportunity. Since Cambodia is small and poor, it is not good enough to attract foreign investor. In this case, only small numbers of job opportunities are available for the rest of population. Moreover, this cause might due to lack of encouragement from government in the investment climate. In addition, the development of technology is another reason why unemployment rate in Cambodia increased. With the advantages of using machinery in their factory, some owners have dismissed their workers. Therefore, many people suddenly lose their job. This helps nothing but to increase unemployment rate higher and higher. In year 2009, the unemployment rate in Cambodia remains the same as the year of 2008, 3.5% while there is an increase in Malaysia unemployment rate which is 3.3%. Even though there are many job opportunities in Malaysia, the unemployment rate among Malaysian are increases. Obviously the reason contributing this factor is due to the world economy meltdown. Malaysia is a developing country which fully relies on foreign direct investment (FDI) especially from countries such as Americas, Japan and Europe. Most of these FDI are into the manufacturing sector. Many major multinational companies (MNC) in Malaysia have announced layoff plans including factory and office shutdowns to mitigate the impact of the economic slowdown. With the presence of manufacturing of MNC in Malaysia are significant, the layoff plans contributed to the increase of the unemployment rate.

Sustainable Solutions Paper (Answering Questions) Essay

Sustainable Solutions Paper (Answering Questions) - Essay Example This indicates a challenge that the company faces in its supply chain business. This paper represents an analysis of the company using traditional strategic thinking tools. Stakeholder Identification and Value Analysis Stakeholders refer to organization, persons, or groups of persons who may be affected by a company’s decision. Customers are the main stakeholders of the company. This is because the company has a responsibility of meeting their perfume and fragrance requirements. Thus, any decision made by the company concerning the nature of the product is likely to affect the customers. The customers define the corporate-level strategy of the company. This is because customer’s satisfaction indicates `Albani’s main business. Business-level strategy is the other significant enterprise level strategy. The strategy defines the company’s competitiveness and sustainability in the perfume industry. The company’s employees have contributed to the companyà ¢â‚¬â„¢s sustainability through the creation of high quality products. The company’s lenders and promoters have also contributed to the company’s growth and sustainability by ensuring that the company has sufficient capital. Albani promoters and lenders fulfil the functional-level strategy of the business. Finally, the company has a social responsibility that is beyond making of profits. These responsibilities define the role of the organization and the basic perception of the public towards the organization. The society, which is a bigger set that contains the company’s customers represent Albani’s public image. Culture: Organizational culture refers to â€Å"a collection of values and norms within an organization which are shared by all stakeholders and they determine or control how people interact (Macmillan, 2007). According to the article, Albani’s organizational culture can be classified as â€Å"bet your company culture.† The company ’s decisions have a major impact on its customers. Thus, big decisions are taken after considering the views of all the stakeholders. For instance changing the brand name of a particular perfume will require the approval of the customers and other relevant stakeholders. Such decisions require market research that might take a long time to materialize. Integrated Concepts from Readings According to the previous documents, the success of a company depends on various factors. Each of these factors has a role to play in determining the overall nature of the company’s external or internal environment. The enterprise level strategies define the role of the business and its perception according to the society. Thus, enterprise strategies are concerned with the corporate social responsibility of the business. The company’s culture and enterprise strategies are congruent despite not been closely related. This indicates that a company might have mission statement that is not aligned to its enterprise strategies. However, the company’s vision should be congruent to its enterprise strategies. Otherwise, its vision will not be significant to its operations. General Force Analysis General forces are factors that affect all business operating in a certain industry. This indicates that the general forces define the overall business environment. General forces relate to the society and the country’

My leadership style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

My leadership style - Essay Example As such, all individuals develop a feeling that they are vital in the group activities. This style is highly influenced by the sensing and feeling MBTI’s. The sensing stems from the fact that decision making is reliant on the data that is gathered from different sources while applying an element of sense to unique data sources. Such is also dependent on the elements of rational and logical thinking to ensure that the decisions and participation of the group members is effective. While leading the team, the use of a participative leadership style is preferable. Such is because the style ensures that it is possible to lead the entire group in effective manner. Thus, this style creates an opportunity for brainstorming and sharing ideas, which are vital in ensuring that the team accomplishes its objectives. Participative leadership style also eliminates chances of some of the group members failing to focus on delivery of results. This occurs because all the team members are actively involved in all the activities. Moreover, participative leadership ensures that fear, which team members may have towards their leader is eliminated. Hence, there is a free interaction environment among the team members and the leaders, which is vital for social growth and development. Personal decision is influenced by the event of supervising cleaning work in school. A story related to this was when I had the role of supervising the cleaning activity in the school compound as a student leader. I noticed that when I participated in the cleaning activity all the other members did the same without resistance, but when I did not there was laxity among the cleaners. On the side of internship, I discovered that my supervisor at work could not deliver effectively by being an authoritarian. However, such supervision work was smooth from the end of the other team because the supervisor was actively involved in the business activities

Business culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business culture - Research Paper Example USA and South Korea have maintained a very strong and supportive relation among each other since 1960. The multicultural relation among these two countries has started since the Korean War during the early fifties. During the Korean War US played a very vital role towards South Korea to give them the financial and political support towards the establishment of new developed nation. Since then South Korea has grown fast and it has reduced its dependency upon the United States of America. United States is one of the largest oversees trading partners of South Korea, In 1998 due to the dictatorship of the ruling party United Democratic Front and Combined Force Command (CFC), the relation among US and South Korea has faced some frictions which made South Korea to divert their way from US. However, in 2007 June South Korea and United States of America have signed a free trade agreement (FTA) which helped them to sustain the positive trade relation among the two countries. Business relation has become very strong among these two countries but if the focus is given thoroughly towards the nature of doing business and the socio-cultural differences between these two countries then, it can be seen that, the way of doing business in each of these countries are totally different. It is very important to understand the socio-economic structure of any country to do business or to set up a new industry. South Korea’s business culture is very much different than the US. South Korea is the fourth largest developed economy among the Asian countries, but it would be a big mistake to presume what worked for Japan, China or any other Asian Countries are same for South Korea. In other hand United Sates of American (USA) is a mixture of many races, cultures and religions, it is the best known cosmopolitan country in the world. The free mind and mixed cultural balance have made USA the powerful business

A study of how to synergize the works of internal auditors and Research Proposal

A study of how to synergize the works of internal auditors and external auditors to listed companies - Research Proposal Example Auditing has been designate as an important part of the disclosure process. The proposed research will identify the functions of internal and external audits, and determine how these functions can be synergized to ensure fairer and true audit reporting. The proposed research study intends to meet the following objectives: determine the significance of internal and external audits; determine the relationship between internal and external audit functions; and develop strategies to better audit functions in listed companies. Investment decisions are made based on financial information available at the time the decision is made. If theinvestor’s intentions are to be matched then the financial information provided must be fair and true. The concept of fairness involves impartial accounting of financial efforts. One such method of ensuring that the financial information is fair and true involves audit(Alzurqan&Al_Sufy 2011, p. 56). Audit is afinancial control toolapplied incorporate governance to acts as a safety measure against financial fraud and/or negligenceby company managers. It certifies that the stated financial information candidlyrepresentsreality, and that expenses have been sustained with regard to consistency and correctness. The principal function of audit is to:authenticatefinancial informationcorrectness and comprehensiveness;ensurefinancial information is tabulated correctly; and ensure that all expenses are approved and assured. Audit confirms that financial guidelines and instructionssatisfylegal provisions (Yuniarti 2011, pp. 84-85). Auditors are responsible for financial reporting, observance of code of ethics, risk management and compliance with pertinent regulations. The internal and external auditors work independently but on duplicated functions with the internal audit team responsible for preparing financial statements while the external audit team is

Strategic management of Apple Inc. and Samsung Group Case Study

Strategic management of Apple Inc. and Samsung Group - Case Study Example Their main strategy was elaborated product development cycle which grows on anticipation level among customers. Simultaneously the company showcased their innovations globally very well. Samsung on the other hand used time very well. They always try to make their presence felt in the market. Primary focus of Samsung was to capture low and middle end market. But with the help of fast innovations the company was able to perform well in premium end market also. The company is presently enjoying huge popularity for their products in every segment of global society. Internal capacities of both these two companies are very high. Both companies are having super innovative capabilities. Apple has done a good mixture of both science and arts in their products. Apple over the years has delivered super, elegant and simple experiences out of their products. It has made the organization a dominant player in the smart phone market. Apple is fighting legal battles with Samsung regarding infringemen t of patent rights. It is a very well thought business strategy from Apple to keep more firm foot on the global mobile industry. In this way Apple is trying to break free from competitions. The mission and vision statement of Apple is very much in line with their long term goals. Apple reinvented mobile phones and brought revolutionary changes in digital music systems. Samsung’s mission and vision statement is also in line with their long term goals. According to the company they believe in devotion of their human resources and their technology for the creation of good quality products and services which would contribute towards global society. Samsung is contributing towards South Korean economy heavily (Jeremy, 2010). Strengths: Samsung has unparallel ability to market their brands. Integration of hardware with many open sources like software and OS is also a great strength for Samsung. Superior product

Gregor and Meursault are certainly problematic characters. What is the Essay - 1

Gregor and Meursault are certainly problematic characters. What is the main problem both confront - Essay Example Therefore Gregor’s alienation is less deliberate than Meursault’s alienation, as Rossignol says, â€Å"GREGOR’S alienation is slightly less deliberate. Used as a tool for money and for control by his family, yet has been indoctrinated in only seeing their good side (if it exists). This however also stems from self-denial and self-alienation.† (56) Apparently Gregor seems to be the poor victim of the society, in which he lives, that cruelly has robbed him of all of the opportunities to survive decently on his own worth, gradually restricting him within the periphery of a room. Ironically the way how Gregor views others in his family and orientates himself in the society essentially shows that Gregor’s psychological inertia has reached the height that prevents him from looking into his discomfiture and from identifying the causes. He cannot -more appropriately, does not want to- search for the underlying reasons of the discomfiture. Gregor simply take s the discomfiture as it is. Such non-resistive acceptance of the situation as well as the humiliation inflicted by his family members is reminiscent of Meursault’s disinterest in the ‘well and woe’ of life and other social affairs. Whereas Gregor’s self-alienation is illusive and evading, Meursault’s self alienation is more obvious. Indeed the psychological inertia of Kafka’s protagonist is camouflaged in his apparently innocent stance that invokes the readers’ sympathy towards him against the hostility of the family members. The root of Meursault’s alienation lies in his disinterest in social affairs. Again his disinterestedness evolves from the meaninglessness or the absurdity of life. Both Meursault and Gregor deceive themselves and subsequently their deceptions result their isolation from their societies. In this regard, Rossignol says, â€Å"In L’Étranger (Camus) and The Metamorphosis

Busi 650-ILP Final Essay Example for Free

Busi 650-ILP Final Essay Table of Contents I. Abstract II. Organizational Setting III. Key Concepts a. Quality b. Total Quality Management c. Innovation d. Strategy Map e. Balanced Scorecard f. Six Sigma g. Bench Marking h. Inventory Management IV. Conclusion V. References Abstract The main purpose of the Integrative Learning Project (ILP) is to introduce an authentic or fabricated company/industry to research. The company’s organizational setting includes the mission statement of the company, who the internal/external customers are, what aspects can be contributed to achieve the organizations mission, and what role Christianity has with the organization. The research includes using eight different concepts learned throughout the course, explaining in detail how these concepts relate to the organization and the benefits the concepts offer to the organization, and what needs to be done to implement these concepts into the organization  successfully. This ILP will prove that a successful business can be run effectively and efficiently when implementing the key concepts. Organizational Setting Dover Saddlery, Inc. is a leading specialty retailer in the English-style horseback riding industry in the United States. The company offers a large selection of quality and premium equestrian products to care for, ride, train, and compete a horse. Founded in 1975 by Jim and David Powers, the company has grown to be the largest multi-channel marketer of premier equestrian products by selling through direct and retail sales. The company serves the English rider through Dover Saddlery and the western rider through Smith Brothers. The company sells their products using catalogs, the internet, and retail stores. The product line includes a variety of items such as tack, horse clothing, horse health, footwear, and specialized apparel. Dover Saddlery, Inc. is headquartered in Littleton, MA, including a warehouse and call center facility. The company has 18 retail locations in Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolin a, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. The company’s third quarter 2013 total revenues were $63.6 million, a 6.4% increase from the $59.7 million achieved in the corresponding period. Dover Saddlery, Inc. stock trades on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol DOVR. The company’s mission is to grow the business by providing a broad variety of quality and most advanced equestrian apparel, equipment, stable, and horse care products to all equestrians, while operating efficiently and being profitable. The company carries 5,800 items comprising of approximately 28,000 different SKU’s. The company carries entry-level price points to the premium high-end price points to meet the wide range of customer needs and expectations. The company carries a distinctive and broad selection of need-based and high quality products at competitive prices with prompt order fulfillment ability. The company differentiates itself from competitors by their large inventory consisting of non-branded products, private label products, and premium brands. The current equestrian products market is  estimated by the American Horse Council at $7.6 billion with an estimated 9.2 millions horses in the United States. American Sports Data estimates that over 16.8 mill ion people ride horses. The equestrian industry has many indicators that the equestrian products industry will continue to grow. The company is known for their excellence in customer service and large comprehensive selection. The company promotes a culture of courteous, knowledgeable, and prompt customer service representatives. 90% of the sales and customer service representatives are horse enthusiast. The company offers customers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. The company has one of the largest detailed customer databases. The database consists of customers that have purchased items with the last 12 months and their demographic information. The use of the catalog, internet, and retail stores has enabled the company to capture customer information, cross-market products, and provide a convenient shopping experience for customers. The company’s customers are primarily females with a passion for the riding sport. The customers are affluent and luxury oriented who tend to choose to buy from the company for the high quality and premier products. The customer base shows high repurchase rates and has been ve ry loyal customers. The role Christianity has in this organization is customer service is essential and Matthew 10:31 states, â€Å"Fear not, therefore; you are more value than many sparrows† (ESV). In the service industry, customer satisfaction is key and the company has to recruit the right people and reward them for there expertise. Colossians 3:23-24 states, â€Å"23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving† (New International Version). Another verse that can be applied in this organization is 1 Peter 4:10, â€Å"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace†. The company uses the gifts God gives us and pass them on to consumers to benefit from. The role of Christianity plays a great role in this company. Key Concepts The first key concept that is applicable to Dover Saddlery is Quality. Quality has a huge impact on the quality of products and the success of the organization. According to Dinh, Igel, Laosirihongthong (2010), â€Å"quality, considered a key strategic factor in achieving business success, is more than ever required for competing successfully in today’s global marketplace and it has become the key slogan as organizations strive for a competitive advantage in markets characterized by liberalization, globalization, and knowledgeable customers† (p. 931). The design and performance of the product are two very important concepts of quality. Quality should start with the customer, the experience the customer has with the product or service will impact the customer’s satisfaction with the total experience. The management and control of the quality of the products and services is very important to the success of the organization. It is very important for organizations t o implement a quality assurance program (QAP) to ensure the quality of the products and services. According to Rouse (2007): In developing products and services, quality assurance is any systematic process of checking to see whether a product or service being developed is meeting specified requirements. Many companies have a separate department devoted to quality assurance. A quality assurance system is said to increase customer confidence and a companys credibility, to improve work processes and efficiency, and to enable a company to better compete with others. Quality assurance was initially introduced in World War II when munitions were inspected and tested for defects after they were made. Todays quality assurance systems emphasize catching defects before they get into the final product (Quality Assurance). There are many advantages for the company to have a QAP in place, include a competitive advantage, increase in sales and market share, increased customer satisfaction, better management control, clearly defined organizational tasks, structure, and responsibilities, more effective recalls, and price premium (Aramyan, Meuwissen, Oude Lansink, van der Vorst, van Kooten, van der Lans, 2009, p. 624). According to Yang (2006) â€Å"several studies on quality management have demonstrated that delivering superior service quality enhances productivity, reduces costs, increases customer loyalty, improves market share, and brings other general benefits to a service organization (p.1129). The QAP helps fulfill the needs  and expectations of the customers and improves the quality of the products and services. The second key concept that is applicable to the company is total quality management (TQM). According to Richards (2012), TQM can be defined as an integrative approach to management that supports the attainment of customer satisfaction through a wide variety of tools and techniques that the end result is higher quality of goods and services (p. 37). TQM is an organizational-wide concept of continuous improvement to ensure the products and services exceed their customers’ expectations. According to Richards (2012), â€Å"this kind of quality management requires the company to always check to make sure that product or service is at the standard that both the company and customer wants is maintained† (p. 37). Exceeding the internal and external customers satisfaction is a key focus of TQM. According to Talib, et al. (2011), TQM â€Å"has received a great attention due to its effectiveness in achieving sustainable competitive advantage and enhanced business performanceâ₠¬  (p. 1331). TQM is â€Å"a total look at the quality of the organization† (Richards, 2012, p. 41). â€Å"All service industries should seek to adopt and implement TQM so that proactive identification and response to needed changes can lead to continuous improvement† (Talib, et al. 2011). â€Å"Quality-conscious companies normally have a strong quality culture, which is helpful for achieving customer satisfaction† (Delgado-Hernandez Aspinwall, 2008, p.1016). The practice of TQM can grow a company to have a sustainable advantage in local and international markets (Richards, 2012, p. 36). The third key concept that is applicable to the company is innovation. â€Å"In the modern business world, innovation is just as important as quality, so they must go hand and hand and one complements each other† (Perodomo-Ortiz, et al. 2009, p.5088). Innovation is one if the driving forces of a successful business and allows an organization to introduce new and improve products in the market place. According to Bigliardi (2013), innovation is a complex phenomenon that involves the production, diffusion and translation of knowledge in new or modified products or services, or the development of new production processing techniques. Innovation is very important to the  success of an organization, it creates jobs and promotes the growth of organizations. The fourth key concept that is applicable to the company is the strategy map. As a strategic part of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), a strategy map provides an organization â€Å"with a tool that helps them better monitor important details about their strategic business processes, thereby enhancing their employees’ understanding of the strategy interactions, which in turn facilitates implementing the business strategy† (Meredith and Shafer, 2013, pg. 99). According to Kaplan and Norton (2004), â€Å"the strategy map provides the visual framework for integrating the organization’s objectives in the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard† (pg.45). According to Markiewicz (2013), a strategy map is a tool integrating the developed strategy with operating activities of various organizational units operating in an organization. A specific feature of strategy map is that it describes in a clear manner the process of creating values in organization by indicating a number of cause and effect relationships between four perspectives (learning and growth, intemal-business-processes, customer, financial) and goals adopted within these perspectives. (pg. 161-162) The four perspectives a strategy map addresses include the financial perspective, the customer perspective, the internal business process perspective, and the learning and growing perspective. According to Markiewicz (2013), a strategy map â€Å"enables illustration of cause-and-effect relationship between the processes in all four perspectives and performance indicators at the organizational level. Strategy map and performance indicators at the organizational level constitute the basis for different departments when preparing their individual effectiveness indicators† (pg. 160). The top of a strategy map is the goal that has been specified by management, the next step is how the goal be accomplished, and the remainder of the map shows the cause-and-effect relationships that manag ement has developed on how the goal can be accomplished. The strategy map is used very frequently by all organizations as a simple strategy development tool by management to report the progress of the strategy implemented in their organization to achieve its vision or mission.  The strategy map is a powerful technique that can be applied to any type of business from a public sector organization to a non-profit organization. It is very important to organizations because it encourages its managers to think logically about the elements of their strategy and how the strategic elements interact. This effective tool ensures the managers understand the role of the strategy and how the effective strategy embraces all of the organization’s activities. According to Umayal Karpagam and Suganthi (2012), the strategy map describes â€Å"how the four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, learning and growth are linked and how they create a balance between the more tangible outcomes through intangible resources† (pg. 7). The fifth key concept that is applicable to the company is the balanced scorecard. Kaskey (2013) says the balanced scorecard â€Å"provides an organization with ways to develop and evaluate strategic objectives and goals† (pg. 22). The balanced scorecard uses financial and nonfinancial strategic information and is â€Å"an accounting report that includes the firm’s critical success factors in four areas: financial performance, customer satisfaction, internal processes, and learning and growth† (Blocher, Stout, Juras, Cokins, 2013, pg. 11). The benefits of the scorecard include ability to implement strategy, ability to track the process of the organization in their achievement of the strategic goals, the organization’s ability to determine manager’s compensation, achieving organizational change, and the ability to achieve the critical success factors. According to Werner and Fuyuan (2012), â€Å"when the score card is adopted, employees become awar e that their performance will be judged based on these measures and targets. Accordingly, employees will act to achieve the established performance targets† (pg. 92). The balanced scorecard is a critical tool for organizations in todays challenging and competitive business environment. It is very important for organizations to achieve its critical success factors to help the overall performance of the organization and to stay competitive. The sixth key concept that is applicable to the company is Six Sigma. This concept is a strategy to increase employee engagement that will then increase customer satisfaction. According to Meredith and Shafer (2013), six  sigma is a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining and maximizing business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving, and reinventing business processes. (Page 129) This method is an inspiring factor for employees and employees have to be completely engaged in the program for it to be successful and impact employee satisfaction. Six Sigma has been embraced by many organizations, that drive’s improvements in processes, products, and services. When implementing the Six Sigma approach, first provide necessary leadership and resources, implement a reward system, provide ingoing training, select early p rojects, break up difficult projects, and avoid employee layoffs. â€Å"Six sigma’s popularity and success is catching fire throughout the service industry across the globe as no other process improvement (PI) movement before (Sunder, 2013, pg. 34). The seventh key concept that is applicable to the company is benchmarking. According to Cruceru (2013), benchmarking is â€Å"viewed as a continuous process of evaluation of products, services, processes and performance of competitors in order to obtain competitive advantage, benchmarking involves knowledge of all elements occurring when implementing in practice† (pg. 6). Benchmarking is a strategy where the desire to be competitive is a challenge for managers to become knowledgeable and analyze their competitors in the industry and implement competitive strategies to be successful. According to Meredith and Shafer (2013), benchmarking is used for a variety of purposes, including the following: Comparing an organization’s processes with the best organization’s processes. Comparing an organization’s product and services with those of other organizations. Identifying the best practices to emulate. Projecting trends in order to be able to respond proactively to future challenges and opportunities. (pg.133) Benchmarking involves three steps: the first step is concerned with preparing the study, the second step is collecting the data, and the third and final step is what was learned to improve the organization. This process has become one of the most valuable processes to identify performance improvement areas. Benchmarking allows an organization to analyze and improve performance, profitability, business  processes, and market share. There are many types of benchmarking including: process benchmarking-compares business processes and operations, product benchmarking-compares products and services, strategic benchmarking-compares organizational structures, internal benchmarking-internal comparison, competitive benchmarking-comparison of direct competitors, functional benchmarking- comparison of organizations in the same field, and generic benchmarking- comparison of the best com petitor in other fields. According to Cruceru (2013), â€Å"those competitors who will know to focus on benchmarking implementation in management and marketing activities of the organization will achieve increased performance and competitiveness in terms comparable to the best competitors of the time† (pg. 9). Appendix A In order to implement benchmarking in Dover Saddlery the following steps are needed: 1. Understand the company’s current process performance gaps. 2. Obtain support and approval from the executive leadership team 3. Document benchmarking objectives and scope; document the original process. 4. Agree on the primary metrics and put them in writing. 5. Agree on what to benchmark. 6. Develop a data collection plan. 7. Identify research sources and initiate data gathering. 8. Determine how to contact and screen companies. 9. Design a detailed survey to gather information. 10. Decide if gathered information meets original objectives. 11. Conduct a site visit. 12. Apply the learning to performance gaps. 13. Communicate to the executive leadership to ensure continued support. 14. Develop a recommended implementation plan with process owner. 15. Know when to update and recalibrate. The eighth key concept that is applicable to the company is inventory management. Inventory management is extremely important for the success of a organization and having the correct number of items in inventory that is necessary for operation is vital for inventory management. According to Chen (2011), â€Å"the inventory in an organization may contain a large amount of items. A logical inventory classification is necessary for managers to have efficient plan and control of the items† (pg. 1702). Inventory management can be a challenge for any business, but can be even more important for businesses with changing product life cycles or product needs. The development of information systems, has eased some challenges faced with inventory management. The introduction of advanced information system, which aim at better performance than manual product identification and inventory data-keeping procedures, hold much promise for the reduction of inventory inaccuracies. Inventories include work-in-process, raw materials, finished goods, component parts, and so on. By eliminating storage space to business is not only saving on space but also removing defective parts from being hidden until no one knows who had made them (Meredith Shafer, 2013, p. 176). Appendix B Inventory An additional way that we differentiate ourselves from our competition is through our breadth and depth of inventory. We believe our inventory is deeper than our competitors with $10.1 million in on-hand inventory as of December 31, 2005 and more than 5,800 items comprising approximately 28,000 different SKUs. With our extensive inventory position and rapid fulfillment capability, we have historically been able to fill approximately 95% of the items ordered within an average of 1.5 business days. Based on our inventory management systems, continuous monitoring of the products we carry and the fact that we carry very few fashion products, we have historically had very little obsolete inventory. Despite the high level of inventory we have historically maintained, we have turned inventory approximately four times per year and we historically have had no material inventory write-downs. All of the products that are presented in our catalogs are available online and customers can use our websites to enter orders, shop online and check order status and inventory availability. On average, our retail stores stock inventory items represent over 70% of the merchandise  sales we make available through our direct sales channel. All items are available to customers entering our stores by either direct shipment to a customer’s home or for in-store pickup. Conclusion Dover Saddlery is a company that prides on their success and always providing 100% customer service to their customers. Utilizing these eight key concepts, along with successful implementation into the company’s initiatives, they will produce overall success and a winning organization. References Aramyan, L. H., Meuwissen, M. M., Oude Lansink, A. M., van der Vorst, J. J., van Kooten, O., van der Lans, I. A. (2009). The perceived impacts of quality assurance systems on tomato supply chain performance. Total Quality Management Business Excellence, 20(6), 633-653. Bigliardi, B. (2013). The effect of innovation on financial performance: A research study involving SMEs. Innovation: Management Policy Practice, 15(2): 245-256. Blocher, E. J., Stout, D. E., Juras, P. E., and Cokins, G. (2013) Cost Management: A Strategic Emphasis (6th Ed). McGraw Hill: New York, NY. Chen, J. (2012). Multiple criteria ABC inventory classification using two virtual items. International Journal Of Production Research, 50(6), 1702-1713. Cruceru, A. (2013). Benchmarking a method of improving organizational competitiveness. Romanian Journal Of Marketing, (1), 6-9. Delgado-Hernandez, D., Aspinwall, E. (2008). A framework for building quality into construction projects Part I. Total Quality Management Business Excellence, 19(10), 1013-1028. Dinh Thai, H., Igel, B., Laosirihongthong, T. (2010). Total quality management (TQM) strategy and organizational characteristics: Evidence from a recent WTO member. Total Quality Management Business Excellence, 21(9), 931-951. Inventory. (2011). Appendix B of Dover Saddlery, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.hotstocked.com/companies/d/dover-saddlery-inc-DOVR-description-52723.html Kaplan, R. S., Norton, D. P. (2004). How Strategy Maps Frame an Organizations Objectives. Financial Executive, 20(2), 40-45. Kaskey, V. L. (2013). The Balanced Scorecard: A Comparative Study of Accounting Education and Experience on Common Measure Bias. Advances In Management, 6(7), 22-25. Markiewicz, P. (2013). Methodical Aspects of Applying Strategy Map in an Organization. Business, Management Education / Verslas, Vadyba Ir Studijos, 11(1), 153-167. Meredith, J. R., Shafer , S. M. (2013). Operations management for MBAs (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons. Perdomo-Ortiz, J., Gonzalez-Benito, J., Galende, J. (2009). The intervening effect of business innovation capability on the relationship between Total Quality Management and technological innovation. International Journal Of Production Research, 47(18), 5087-5107. Richards, J. (2012). Total Quality Management. Business Management Strategy, 3(2), 36-42. Rouse, M. (2007, Feb). Quality Assurance (QA). Retrieved from http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/quality-assurance. Sunder, V. (2013). Six Sigma— A Strategy for Increasing Employee Engagement. Journal for Quality Participation, 36(2), 34-38. Talib, F., Rahman, Z., Qureshi, M. N. (2011). Prioritising the practices of total quality management: An analytic hierarchy process analysis for the service industries. Total Quality Management Business Excellence, 22(12), 1331-1351. Umayal Karpagam, P. L., Suganthi, L. L. (2012). A Strategy Map of Balanced Scorecard in Academic Institutions for Performance Improvement. IUP Journal Of Business Strategy, 9(3), 7-16. Werner, M. L., Fuyuan, X. (2012). Executing Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard. International Journal Of Financial Research, 3(1), 88-94. Yang, C. (2006). Establishment of a Quality-Management System for Service Industries. Total Quality Management Business Excellence, 17(9), 1129-1154.

Communist Insurgency In The Philippines History Essay

Communist Insurgency In The Philippines History Essay The idea of Communism has come a long way, since its early Marxist conception. In its very sense, Communism is concerned with the abolishment of the ruling class and the right to private property. Basically, it connotes social justice to everyone residing in a given territory. Social justice in this sense would mean that every constituent, regardless of the social strata to which they belong, would be treated with equal importance in terms of human rights and property and be given access to the resources that the state should provide to its people. Communism in the Philippines is basically synonymous to the ideals and principles that classic Marxists uphold. The inequality between the ruling and working class paved the way for communism in the country to develop. Throughout the previous decades, advocators of the ideology (particularly the CPP-NPA-NDF) proliferated all over the island and have continued to uphold the belief that everyone inhabiting this country should be given equal opportunity to access resources that the country owns. They have continued their struggle of fighting the bureaucrat-capitalism, feudalism, imperialism, corruption, and other forms of social injustice that continue to haunt the country from the Pre-World War II era until the present time. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) indeed, made significant impacts in Philippine society. Although declared illegal by the government, the forces of the CPP nevertheless manifested itself in various parts of the archipelago. They have managed to resist the military forces which constantly work for their downfall over the years. Why is this so? Why, in spite of the downfall of Soviet Union, communism in China, and many other socialist countries, the CPP managed to endure as a political organization? To answer these questions, this paper intends to enumerate the several factors that contributed to the emergence and persistence of communist insurgency in the country. From the original communist party, which is the PKP, this paper will discuss how it was re-established along with the internal and external crises that contributed to the present state of the movement. Furthermore, a brief discussion of the partys strategy of a protracted peoples war, as well as the different counter-insurgency programs implemented by the government to combat the rebels will be presented. A thorough report of the facts behind the pervasive endurance of the Communist insurgents here in the Philippines will be explicated. Hence, this paper is timely as it could contribute to the shaping of public awareness and opinion regarding on a very substantial issue in the country. The long-time struggle of the working class to achieve a society that will cater equality and justice among people who belong to various socio-economic strata has resulted to the formation of revolutionary movements (Dela Cruz, 2006). Even before the Philippines managed to achieve its independence from foreign colonizers, communist insurgency has started. According to Cusi (1996), the Communist insurgency in the Philippines had its early beginnings when a number of supporters of Tan Malaca, an Indonesian Communist leader, started to recruit and organize members during the early 20s. The recruited members, most of them labourers, were then formally set up on August 26, 1930 as the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP, Philippine Communist Party) at the Templo del Trabajo which was then the most important place of gathering for the labor elements of the city during the early 30s. With its original 60 members, it was then officially proclaimed as the Communist Party of the Philippines (C PP) by Crisanto Evangelista on November 7, 1930 at the Plaza Moriones, Tondo which is known to be the center of the working-class district of Manila (Saulo, 1990). The establishment of the PKP as a genuine party of the working-class has aimed to uphold the unfinished revolution of Andres Bonifacio, the Great Plebeian. Though Bonifacios struggle is more of the anti-colonial type of revolution, his example was seen by the PKP as the Proletarian hero for them to advocate their struggle of class equality through armed revolution. According to Jose Lava, former general secretary of the party, the PKP will serve as the workers instrument of upholding their rights against the exploitative tendencies of the bourgeoisie. Through the movement, it will be easier for the working class to make their sentiments known aside from the fact that they comprise the class with the highest percentage in the society. It is but proper to create a group that will promote the welfare of the class that sustains the other members of the society (Saulo, 1990). During the 26th day of December 1968 however, a group of disgruntled young members of the PKP led by Jose Maria Sison re-established a Marxism-Leninism-Maoist leaning CPP in a small barrio somewhere in Pangasinan. Sison, who was then a student of the University of the Philippines, criticized the leadership of the Lava brothers whom he blamed when the Huks were defeated during the 1950s. He was expelled from the PKP then took the leadership of re-establishing the Communist Party of the Philippines together with 90 other cadres (Gutierrez, 2001). On the other hand, some Red fighters and Commanders of the dwindling peoples liberation army along the countryside of Central Luzon also loss confidence with the way their leaders are acting. Due to greediness and corruption, the army became inhumane and anti-people. Bernabe Bucayno (Commander Dante), together with his group of peasant guerrillas, then decided to go to Manila to seek for the group of Sison who was then beginning to strengthen the re-established CPP. Together with this group of young students and professionals, Commander Dante founded and became the Commander-in-chief of the New Peoples Army (NPA) which became the armed wing of the Communist Party. The decision of coming up with a new military group transpired from the need of an armed force that will pursue the proletariat war in the Philippines (Cusi, 1996). On April 24, 1973, the CPP-NPA established its legal front the National Democratic Front (NDF). NDF is an alliance of 15 underground democratic mass organizations led by the CPP that aims to wage a national democratic revolution that will uphold the goal of achieving a socialist state. The establishment of the NDF, along with its 10 point program, is a manifestation of the CPPs formal declaration of war against the Philippine government. Its connections with the different sectors of society including the religious, teachers (ACT), farmers (KMP), students (LFS), and the labor sector (KMU) helped the CPP a lot on its goal of expanding its influence and power primarily through winning the hearts and minds of the masses (Ferrer Raquiza, 1993; Cusi, 1996). Meanwhile, Sison was capture by the military in 1977 a year after Commander Dante was captured in 1976. However, the capture of the two leaders did not encumber the continuous growth of the CPP-NPA. Its strength grew exponentially throughout the years and reached its peak in 1987 with 25, 200 members and 15, 500 firearms (Adriatico, 2000). Up until the present time, the party continues to grow and manages to endure the numerous counterinsurgency programs implemented by the different administrations from Marcos until Arroyo. In further analyzing the persistence of the CPP-NPA and the implications that it may bring to the Philippine society, it is necessary to outline the different crises that lead to the restructuring of the original communist party as well as the effects of the faction groups that occurred within the party. These factors being mentioned are vital in this study for they have contributed to the overall objectives and present structure of the movement as well. The internal crises are indeed significant to the continued existence of the insurgents for it helped the members of the movement learn from previous mistakes as well as in determining their goal of accomplishing a protracted peoples war. The main problems that occurred and that caused great division among the members of the party might be traced back to its founding roots. In 1968, a document was published by the Congress of Re-establishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines wherein the main errors and weaknesses of the Party were enumerated. In this document entitled Rectify Errors and Rebuild the Party, the four drawbacks of the Party, namely: 1) ideological weaknesses; 2) political errors; 3) military errors; and 4) organizational errors, were enumerated and discussed thoroughly how it affected the insurgents struggle. Subjectivism on the previous leaders ideologies has caused a great trouble on the original communist partys goals and objectives. Because most of the leaders and members came from affluent clans, they carried with them their primary bourgeois ideas. The partys leaders relied on the subjectivist and opportunist idea of competing or cooperating with the bourgeois parties and groups in the city as a means of achieving socialism. The party became incorrectly city-based and city-oriented that they have neglected the revolutionary initiative and force of the peasants located along the countryside. Furthermore Sison, as cited by Dela Cruz, said that the failure of the original party to come up with a definite strategy that will serve a revolutionary and thoroughgoing proletarian world outlook has lead to the partys paralyzation once the US Imperialists and running dogs came into the Philippine picture (Dela Cruz, 2006 ; CPP 1968). Aside from subjectivism in ideology, political errors that have been committed also affected the insurgents progression. Political errors, in this sense, refer to the right opportunism and left opportunism that the party leaders have committed. Instead of pursuing their aspiration to abolish differences in social strata, the party leaders became opportunistic in the sense that they pushed for subordination of the working-class movement to their enemies by surrendering to them totally through peaceful agreements and compromise. Moreover, rejecting the idea of a socialist revolution and bringing up the concept of class cooperation was advocated by the leaders. This lead to further discrepancies on what does the communist party really advocate. The Party suffered from political disasters because it maintained its urban, parliamentary, and open character and failed to arouse and mobilize the peasants in the rural areas to coordinate with them as a main force for the revolution. Emanating from the subjectivist world outlook, the leaders of the party became consumed with the idea of being regarded as Left opportunists by the bourgeoisie and failed to enact their illegal activities simultaneously with the legal ones. Furthermore, the party leaders became corrupt and greedy resulting to the loss of confidence of other members and also the masses as well (Weekley, 2001). Another flaw that caused the downfall of the first communist party is military error. The party leaders failed to assimilate an armed struggle, agrarian revolution, and rural base-building in the countryside, of which according to Maoist thought are the three crucial and indispensable components in waging a peoples war (Mercado, 1989; CPP, 1968). According to Adriatico (2000), the absence of an armed struggle alone has a big impact on their failure because arms, supposedly, will serve as their main weapon towards a democratic revolution. Their failure to established one crippled the movement when US Imperialists and Japanese troops colonized the land. One more lapse that the party has suffered is the weakness of its organization. According to Sison, the main [organizational] disability of the Communist Party of the Philippines has been its failure to build up an organization that has a broad mass character and that is national in scale. This means that the party was not able to expand thoroughly in number. They were not able to recruit members all over the archipelago that could have helped them in the planned revolutionary war. The party did not able to mobilize other groups belonging to the working class which could have added a significant number to their force (CPP, 1968). The four main errors and weaknesses that led to the re-establishment of the first communist party in the Philippines have been briefly discussed above. These drawbacks have served as lessons to the members of the reformed communist party the CPP-NPA. However, the CPP-NPA is still facing a lot of crises within the boundaries of its sphere. Throughout the years of their existence, there still exist a number of difficulties that challenged their persistence as a party that will uphold the welfare of the working-class and peasants. In an interview with Professor Benjamin Mangubat, a History professor of the University of the Philippines Manila, he said that the CPP-NPA-NDF insurgents have experienced factions within the movement some time during 1990s. The two main groups include the Re-affirmists and the Rejectionists. The Reaffirmists, from the term itself, affirm the basic principles of Maoism-Leninism-Marxism thought of an armed struggle in order to achieve the main goal of a classless the society. The group asserts the need of coercive power towards the strategy of a protracted peoples war.. On the other hand, the Rejectionists are the ones who abandon the need for an armed struggle. They also reject Sisons view of the Philippine society as a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. Furthermore, they have also retracted Maos thesis of anti-revisionism as well as the idea of a peoples democratic leadership. For this group, achieving a socialist-communism like that in the Soviet Union is not possible. They have given up on the idea of democratic revolution but instead focused themselves in improving the elite democracy that the Philippine society has been experiencing for the past and present regimes. Elite democracy, like that in the Philippines is not a true democracy. It is a democracy in the most superficial level because it is the rule of very few powerful and affluent political clans, more like aristocracy as such. Essentially, the Rejectionists goal is to change the power relations prevailing in the society through counter-hegemony by the means of ideological state ap paratuses. These include educational discussions, basic mass integrations and organic intellectuals who stay in rural areas to teach the masses regarding the current situation of Philippine society. Like the Reaffirmists, the Rejectionists also want change in the Philippine society. But as to what that change is, and how it would be attained, there remains not only the question, but a divide. The number of internal crises that transpired within the old and new communist party has been concisely discussed above. These problems have indeed affected the insurgents organization as well as their dynamism as a group. The fragmentation of the movement into two factions with contrasting beliefs has brought out the ideological discrepancies and weaknesses among the members which in turn crippled the overall undertakings of the party as well as the weakening of their political hold in the Philippines. However, some notable positive consequences arouse from the split. Dr. Nathan Gilbert Quimpo, former head of NDF and a Rejectionist himself, enumerated several benefits of this split. In an interview conducted by Emere Distor of the online publication Kasama, Quimpo said that the most positive consequence has been the emergence of a more pluralist Left and there ´s no more hegemony on the part of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front-New People ´s Army (CPP-NDF-NPA). We have a Left which is now more plural. This pluralism had produced many other small groups that are relatively stronger and influential in certain sectors compared to the monopolized Left by the CPP before. The groups Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) of the labour sector for example, has contested the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU). Moreover, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), a peasant group aligned with the CPP, is also challenged by other bigger peasant organizations. With these situations of the different sectors of the working-class, the pluralized Left could act in a strategically specific manner of upholding their privileges as marginalized sectors thereby creating greater possibilities of being heard by the government. Aside from the pluralism of the Left, the disintegration of the Communist Party became the key for them to rectify, look back and learn from their previous errors in order to build a stronger party that will cater to the goal of every member. At this point, the different events that happened within the internal affairs of the CPP-NPA have been discussed thoroughly by the researcher. The crises and struggles that contributed to the re-establishment of the communist party as well as the fragmentation and clash of ideologies along with its adverse and favourable consequences have been briefly explicated. Now, this paper will address the external factors that contributed to the persistence of the communist insurgents in the Philippines. According to Dela Cruz (2006), there are three main factors that contributed to the persistence of the communist insurgents in the country. These three include the political, economic and social factors directly or indirectly observed in the Philippine society. From the CPPs perspective, these three factors are seen as the root cause of the widespread exploitation of the working class. Jose Maria Sisons view of the Philippine society as semi-colonial and semi-feudal depicted his purpose of leading the working class towards a struggle that will benefit the majority of people being exploited by the upper-middle class. The political factors, basically, refer to the unequal distribution of power in the country. The existence of an abusive ruling class, who only comprise a very minimal percentage of the countrys population, has paved the way for severe oppression of the working class. These political factors composed of semi-colonialism, imperialism and bureaucrat capitalism. Semi-colonialism and imperialism refers to the indirect control of the United States to Philippine affairs. Though nominally declared as independent on the 4th of July 1946, the shadow of the US imperialists have still remained within the structures of the country haunting every powerless Filipino. Even if these foreign entities do not exist physically in the land, their power is implicitly felt by the workers and peasants through the traditional politicians, elites and the comprador big bourgeoisies (Rocamora, 1994). Bureaucrat capitalism on the other hand is the use of public office as an instrument of acquiring private assets and land. The concept mirrors those traditional politicians who make use of their position for business opportunities in order for them to increase personal profit and capital. Basically, it is a form of graft and corruption in the sense that these politicians use public funds, which is supposedly for public services, for their own self-interest setting aside the welfare of the poor people who are in need (Dela Cruz, 2006). Aside from the political factors mentioned above, another aspect that contributed to the continued persistence of the CPP-NPA are the economic factors which include semi-feudalism, sham land reforms, unemployment and foreign monopoly capitalism. The concept of semi-feudalism has been defined by Sison as an economic term that refers to an economy whose internal forces of production are mainly and essentially agrarian and pre-industrial, and whose relations of production are dominated by the combination of the comprador big bourgeoisie in the cities and the landlord class in the countryside (Dela Cruz, 2006). This condition of the Philippine society has made the life of the Filipino masses, particularly the peasant workers who till hectares of land in exchange of a very low wage, a miserable one. The landlords and business elites become richer while the peasant farmers stay poor without even experiencing a secured and stable life. In connection to this are sham land reforms which are p retentious modification of existing land laws. These land reforms are formulated to deceive the farmers but in reality, these will just give more benefit to the landed elites once implemented. Furthermore, the widespread unemployment and the inability of the government to provide basic social services are also some of the factors that provoked the persistence of the insurgents. In addition, foreign monopoly capitalism, which refers to the dominance of foreign monopolies in capitalist economies, made use of the Philippines as a source of cheap raw materials and as a free market where they can dump all surplus products at a very low price. Another factor that should be considered in answering the question why do the communist insurgents continue to persist is the social factors. In this aspect, the existence of social inequality, injustice, poverty and deprivation in the society are being regarded as a critical contributor to the existence of revolutionary movements. Social injustice and inequality refers to the unequal distribution of resources and services, to delayed administration of justice, and greed for power and wealth that lead to violation of human rights. Furthermore, it includes the inefficiency of the government bureaucracy to implement laws that will protect the environment and will cater to the needs of the marginalized and indigenous cultural communities. Moreover, the lack of respect and recognition to ancestral domains as well as to indigenous cultural and political systems are also included here (Cusi, 1996). In a society where tremendous changes and advancement of technology is highly observable and practiced, tremendous exploitation of indigenous beliefs and ethnic practices is highly probable to occur. Such as in the case of the Philippines, the long-time experience of foreign colonial rule has been a big influence to our adherence to a Westernized type of culture leading us in patterning our own system of rules and beliefs to theirs. This in turn has caused the downfall of our native practices and the exploitation of indigenous peoples rights by the elites who are Filipinos themselves. Many rural places have been neglected by the national and local governments. Many people suffer from deprivation of basic services such as education and health. With these reasons, many Filipinos living in the countryside cannot surface themselves from the deepening roots of poverty for they do not have any alternative and choice. With the number of factors being mentioned above, the emergence and continued existence of the CPP-NPA insurgents is likely to occur. What other means is possible in order for the working class to be heard by this unjust society? For the party, no other way is effective enough but to form a revolutionary movement. The dream of the insurgents to achieve a classless society where people are equal, where people are given respect and dignity, where there is no foreign intervention, where people are able to achieve their highest possible esteem as a human being, where people are treated with reverence and exploitation is definitely out of the picture has motivated them to continue the struggle that they have been fighting for the past decades. In spite of the numerous crises that the party has been through, they have managed to continue their fight for a democratic revolution. With this, it is but necessary to enumerate and explain the strategies that the CPP-NPA has done throughout the years of their fight for a protracted peoples war. The overall objective of the communist insurgency movement is to overthrow the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system prevailing in the country. Apparently, the primary means seen by the party towards achieving such goal is through a democratic revolution. Sison (1971), as cited by Saulo, followed Mao Tse Tungs idea that a democratic revolution will only be successful through the involvement of three primary organizations namely: 1. a party that will provide the brain and overall leadership (CPP); 2. an army that will serve as the military force during armed encounters (NPA); and 3. a united front that will extend political influence, support and that will mobilize the masses (NDF). Weekley (2001) mentioned the primary strategy of the CPP-NPA-NDF which is composed of two major categories: 1. general strategies pertaining to the protracted war as a whole, and 2. particular or tactical strategies pertaining to individual counter campaigns covering a specific base area. The protracted armed struggle is the primary means of the movement to offset the government force, particularly the military which have the advantage of monopoly over firearm resources. This is done through conducting limited armed conflicts with the government troops in different localities, mostly mountainous area chosen by the insurgents themselves to ensure victory (Cusi. 1996; Kintanar, 1999). According to Weekley (2001), the strategy of a protracted peoples war involves 3 stages namely strategic defensive, strategic stalemate and strategic offensive. The initial strategy in conducting the protracted war starts at the countryside wherein the NPA forces try to establish as many rural bases as possible. They try to encircle the rural areas, where bulk of the peasant farmers and workers reside, so that they would be able to recruit more members that will strengthen their force. This strategy stemmed from the idea that people in remote areas are more vulnerable to radical thoughts and revolutionary ideas since most people living in there are poor and exploited because they can hardly feel the presence of government programs (Hoeksema, 1990). The strategic defensive stage is the critical part of party building, army building, base building and united front organizing. In this stage, the NPA initiates offensive steps by provoking the military troops to an armed encounter for the purpose of accumulating firearms and also to show the population that they have the capability of engaging in a war, to boost self-confidence and build up support perhaps. Also included in this stage is the strategy of conducting militant mass actions in urban centers simultaneously with the initiation of larger scale tactical offensiveness launched in the countryside (Cusi, 1996; Weekley, 2001). The strategic defensive stage basically aims to destabilize the military forces so that the insurgents could easily penetrate and mobilize the masses. On the other hand, the strategic stalemate stage is reached when the NPA forces reach parity with that of the military group. The NPA launch offensive operations in the form of ambush, attacks on AFP installations or captures of town halls. At this point, the NPA aims to match the manpower of the AFP since their attention is subdivided into the different disorders occurring all over the country (Cusi, 1996; Saulo, 1990). Finally, in the strategic offensive stage, the NPA conduct simultaneous military offensive techniques accompanied by general strikes, massive demonstrations, and sabotage activities in major cities while the AFP is on the defensive side trying to protect the towns, cities and major military installations. Aside from the general strategy of conducting a protracted peoples war, another one include those particular or tactical strategies pertaining to individual counter campaigns covering a specific base area. The members that are assigned to different areas carry the responsibility of enticing the people to join the movement. In this technique, cadres (mostly college graduates) educate the people about the prevailing system as well as the social injustices and inequality that are occurring in the country (Cusi, 1996). At this point, the researcher has already presented the different strategies that the CPP-NPA has done to achieve their main objective of a socialist society. The CPP-NPAs side has been thoroughly discussed in the above sections. How they manage to persist and continue their struggle up until the present time has always depended on the type of society that the Philippines adapt. Looking at the other side, the government on the other hand did not remain as mere passive observers of the insurgents existence. Using the AFP as the primary machinery, the government has been trying its best to combat the party through the conduct of counter-insurgency (COIN) measures (Ferrer Raquiza, 1993). The dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos is the first administration to initiate counter-insurgency programs through security and development. Security, in this sense, refers to the efforts of the military to destroy the insurgents through clearing, mopping-up, and ranger-type operations. Because Marcos considered the insurgents as a threat to his regime, he used the iron hand technique in destroying the insurgents spreading forces. Development, on the other hand, refers to the measures implemented by Marcos which primarily addressed the root causes of insurgency. He strengthened the economic and socio-political structure of the society through programs that catered to development. The Republic Act 1700 or commonly known as the Anti-Subversion Law was implemented. Through this law, all communists, even those who are just suspected by the military, were put into prison. The Oplan Katatagan was another program implemented by Marcos that addressed belligerency primarily through gainin g the support of the people against the insurgents. However, the program failed because of military abuses thus paving the way for insurgency to grow extensively (Rocamora, 1994). After the martial rule of Marcos, the new set of AFP under the Aquino administration assessed the previous regimes strategy of combating insurgency. Hence, the Oplan Mamamayan counter-insurgency program was carried out. Under the said program, civilian volunteer organizations, territorial forces consisting of the PNP and paramilitary forces, and the mobile forces of the AFP were combined to form the Three-Tiered Defense System against the CPP-NPA (Cusi, 1996). According to Adriatico (2000), the joined forces of the three would have been effective if not again for the abuses of the AFP. In addition to the Oplan Mamamayan, the National Ceasefire Committee (NCC) was established and several ceasefire agreements between the insurgents and government have been tried to enact but apparently failed due to the instability of the AFP during those times (Ferrer Raquiza, 1993). The Ramos administration went one step farther in achieving peace and stability in the countryside. He debunked Marcos Anti-Subversion Law and released amnesty proclamations to the alleged rebels imprisoned during Marcos regime. The National Unification Commission (NUC) was formed whose task is to investigate all concerned sectors and then recommend probable peace negotiations to the Office of the President (Ferrer Raquiza, 1993). However, Ramos was not able to destroy the forces of the CPP-NPA due to a variety of reasons. The failure of the different regimes to address the problems of insurgency has added to the strength of the CPP-NPA. The insurgency continued to prevail along the remote areas adding more desperation to the AFP. In this light, the AFP came to the point of spreading black propaganda techniques against the party. But still, the CPP-NPA was able to counter those techniques and is still managing to continue their struggle for a socialist society (Dela Cruz, 2006). More than just a threat to national security, the emergence and continued persistence of the said organization could lead to other problems that may be more difficult to address if the government will not initiate genuine reforms. The persistence of the CPP-NPA i

Intensity Of Competitive Rivalry Marketing Essay

Intensity Of Competitive Rivalry Marketing Essay Fraser Neave Holding Bhd has 3 business portfolios which are soft drink, dairies product and property. The soft drink division has developed its own brands such as 100Plus and Seasons. Dairies product division is producing sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pasteurised milk, UHT milk, juice and ice cream. FN properties is to unlock the value of land acquired and held by the company. There are external environmental factors will affect the company to achieve their mission which catogorized under PEST section. An economic factor affected the company growth which subsidy of sugar is being removed by government. Porters 5 forces used to evaluate the industry competitive environment. There are threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers and Rivalry among existing firm. 100Plus has developed strong brand and gain 88% of market share which posted entry barrier to new entrant. Soft drink and Dairies products are very less degree of differentiation with competitors. Therefore, buyers are allowed to compare product especially price is factor buyers considered the most. Those suppliers who still getting sugar subsidy have greater power because many companies are looking for lower sugar cost. In addition, there are few big players in beverage and dairy product in the industry, the intensity of competition is very strong. GE model was applied to evaluate attractiveness of different business portfolios. Economic was used as industry attractiveness factor and brand strength as business strength. FN properties doesnt have strong brand among the property industry. But the company has strong brand such as 100Plus, Season and also sweetened condensed milk in Malaysia. However, the economic factor wasnt always favourable to all division. Efficiency and Effectiveness in utilizing liabilities in funding related assets of business portfolio is evaluated by ratio analysis. The company portfolios have high current ratio because the liabilities have reduced. And 100Plus has gain over 88% of market share in the isotonic drink segment. Introduction Fraser Neave holding Bhd. (FN) was incorporated at year 1883 when founders John Fraser and David Chalmers Neave formed a company named Singapore Straits Aerated Water Company in Singapore. Few years later, FN was consolidated and enter the food beverage industry. FN has its own vision to become the leading total beverage company in Malaysia and the region and their mission is to be a world-class multinational enterprise providing superior returns to their shareholders, excellent value for their customers and a rewarding career for their employees. FN Company is one of the Malaysia well known beverage company which the famous product is the isotonic drinks 100plus launched at year 1984. FN produce wide range of beverage that can be classified as soft drinks, dairies, non-carbonated beverages as well as separate business property. They were launching the sweetened condensed filled milk in year 1973, and the acquisition of Nestlà ©s canned milk business in Thailand and Malaysia in year 2007. Other than that FN high quality canned milk was also gain excellent reputation in Malaysia. This product is largely use as beverage mixers in coffee, tea and chocolate drinks and now canned milk has successfully to export this product to more than 20 countries around the world. In addition, the halal certification offers strong reassurance to Muslim customers in the growing Halal markets in the Middle East and Africa. FN Company was awarded The Readers Digest Trusted Brand from year 2005 to 2008, Media Magazine Top 1000 Asian Brands 2007 and so on. It proves that their customer was confident when using their products since they are concern about their health and safety quality. FN Company was continuously improve their quality and brands to challenges the marketplace and to become the leader. FN Company is also well-known company that caring about the social environment and working environment. They implemented and executed various environmental stewardship and launched numerous recycling campaigns in schools to inculcate good environmental habits among young people and thus, create awareness on the importance of recycling. FN Company also set-up a RM1.2 million funds named Chairmans Award to encourage educational excellence and to identify high-achievers among children of FN Groups employees. FN Company has accomplished a safety record of zero accident (no loss time accident) accumulated from 1 February 2007 to 21 September 2009 with a total 962 days or 2.3 million working hours. Zero environmental compliance status has achieved. FN Company has three main businesses which are soft drinks, dairy products and property. (Fn.com.my, About us) Soft Drink FN Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd represent Malaysias largest soft drinks manufacturer and distributor. There are four manufacturing plants nationwide, including its state of the art facility at its headquarters in Shah Alam, Selangor. Their products are 100PLUS, FN Fun Flavours, FN Originals, SEASONS, Ice Mountain and Fruit Tree. The company operated in 1936 when FN Ltd obtained the franchise of Coca-Cola in Singapore and Malaysia. Later that FN Coca-Cola (M) Sdn Bhd (FNCC) was born and license agreement would end in September 2011, the company renamed as FNBM. In Malaysia, 100PLUS is a outstanding local success story, cover 90 percent share of the isotonic drinks market and also the No.1 ready to drink (RTD) brand in Malaysia. For non-carbonated portfolio, SEASONS is currently No.2 in Asian drinks category while Fruit Tree continue to grow within the juice segment. The soft drinks division perform well during the festive periods and continue to pursue world class excellence in distribution so that the products are readily available with focus on market execution. Over the years, FNBM has used few strategic measures that emphasize on its brand presence by invested in advertising and promotions, product availability and operational efficiency. In April 2010, FNBM was selected to become distributor of Red Bull energy drinks in Malaysia and has improved FNBMs beverage portfolio. (Fn.com.my, Soft drink) Dairies Products FN Dairies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd has produced variety of products such as sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pasteurised milk, UHT milk, juice and ice cream.In 1959, FNs dairy business had constructed Southeast Asias first sweetened condensed milk plant in Petaling Jaya while joint venture with Beautrice Foods of Chicago, USA. The Carnation Company from US joined the partnership in 1965 to form Premier Milk as the manufacturing arm. The Group continually pursues product innovation and invention, more products adding into portfolio and after that the Group had a successful journey into ice cream business. In 1989, the Group purchased the interests of Beatrice Foods and restructured its dairy operations under FN Dairies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. It was expanded further with the acquisition of Magnolia in 1995. In 1998, the Group started its pasteurised business. Today, FNs dairies division has a vision of being Malaysias leading dairy and food marketer with world class products, standards and capabilities forming part and parcel of its offerings. In 2011, FN Dairies (Malaysia) disposed off its entire ice cream business to FN Creameries (M) Sdn Bhd. (Fn.com.my, Dairies Product) Property FN Properties is one of business unit of Fraser Neave Holdings Berhad, the purpose is to further add in value of land acquired and held by the company by developing into real estate property. The very first property developed at Jalan Foss by FN is the former FN factory land that has been developed into for commercial use which called Fraser Business Park. The development is leaded by FNs underlying philosophy which is being socially responsible corporate citizen. The key value of the business unit lies within the emphasizing of creating innovative design with high class application towards the development, leaving its occupant a feel of the modern and future alike features. FN Properties is expected to launch more properties in the future as its properties units are being recognized to be fill with innovative design and product development that particularly focus on FN brand name feature. In the far future, the division will focus on redeveloping of existing Premier Milk plant into a landmark in Petaling Jaya.(Fn.com.my, Property) PEST Mission: To be a world-class multinational enterprise providing superior returns to our shareholders, excellent value for our customers and a rewarding career for our employees. Vision: To become the leading total beverage company in Malaysia and the region. Every company has their mission and vision statement served as overall purpose of business. The mission and vision statement above are set by FN. There are external environmental issues have or will affect FN to achieve their mission. These external environmental issues are being categorized according to PEST(EL) model. PEST(EL) model is to analyze the external environment issues of company. It categorized environment issues into political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal influences. Economic Improving growth prospect of Malaysia, Thailand and the region brings more income to FN as is signals economy are in good condition and peoples are willing to spend hence will increase sales in that particular region. The growth prospects include rising of Malaysia GDP in year 2010 that is approximately 10% compare to 4.5% in 2009 that rise from some major factor of manufacturing industry production with a double digit growth of 16.9% in year 2010. ASEAN countries are growing quick in their economy thus putting FN a favourable factor in growing of profits.(Annual Report 2009 pg 013) FN has built up positive consumer sentiment to their product. For example 100PLUS, isotonic drink that is specialized for sportsmen to retain the metabolism. It is a concept well-built that it is voted number 1 isotonic drinks in Malaysia since its introduction in 1983. That well-built positive sentiment brings others drinks of FN to be well marketable. It is the consumer sentiment to the products enhance d the profitability factor of FN towards other competitor thus is at an advantage in the market. (Annual Report 2010 pg 043 044) Political Government had put initiative to boost spending of consumer with new economic model (NEM), with this model being pursue, Malaysia economic boost as consumer purchasing power increases and are advised to spend. FN will get benefit by provide goods to be sold to the market hence boosting sales. FN products are all Halal hence are entitled for Halal Hub Tax Incentive. The incentive offered had decreased FN some percentage of tax liability to the government. It made FN more profitable compare to those companies which does not qualified for the incentive. (Annual Report 2011 pg 028) Government has removed subsidy of fuel and sugar has put an impact to FN as most of the FN core businesses needed large amount of sugar which is dairies and soft drink business. The withdrawal of sugar subsidy lower the overall profit of the FN although there is a large improve a sales but the profit doesnt show much improvement as the sugar cost increases. Withdrawals of fuel subsidy did also impact on FN as the cost of their internal and external distribution cost increases thus reduces profit. (Annual Report 2011 pg 037) Technological In the beginning of 2011, FN introduced new product, Ice Mountain and it has faster share gain among bottler waters player which established 5% market share in Malaysia. (Annual Report 2011 pg 035) FN launched new beverage Zesta across Malaysia in October 2011.Zesta has remarkably great tasting berry soda flavored soda. It contents the Guarana tropical berries that originate from Amazon, South America. In addition, Guarana tropical berries invigorate the body and mind. Zesta is an extension of our already large array of FN beverages, a beverage that was initiated to complement our existing range of FN brands, creating a transition vehicle for our growing band of consumers, said Dato Ng Jui Sia, CEO of Fraser Neave Holdings Bhd. FN believes that Zesta is the illustration of growing trends for beverage enhanced soda. (Zesta 2011) Environmental Sichuan Earthquake of May 2008 has caused the raw material cost increase and companys profit is affected. Natural disaster is beyond expectation and control of the company. Profit before interest and tax in 2008 grew only 5%. This environmental factor has affected company to achieve their mission. Natural disaster would serve as obstacle that FN provide superior returns to shareholders. (Annual Report 2008 pg 052) Porters 5 forces Today, Fraser Neave Holdings Bhd (FN) has extended business at more than 20 countries worldwide and established itself as a regional player. So that, FN need use Porters five forces model to analysis and understanding the nature of the competitive environment. FN has a lot of benefits from using Porters five forces model. They can ensure that management considers a wide range of potential impacts when devising strategy. They allow the division of the work in environmental analysis and make decision in time. In addition, Porters five forces also help to develop effective strategies to raise FN profitability, power, and competitive position in an industry. Porters five forces is divided into threat of entry, intensity of competitive rivalry, threat of substitute product, bargaining power of buyer and bargaining power of suppliers. Threat of entry Threat of entry is new entrants into market will bring extra capacity and intensify competition. The strength of the threat from new entrants will depend upon the strength of the barriers to entry and the likely response of existing competition to a new entrant. FN produce two new soft drink FN Clearly Citrus and Zesta were launched in soft drink market at year 2011. Zesta and FN Clearly Citrus was getting customer support and the new produces also have a higher demand from the buyer. Zesta sales would attract other competitors enter into tsoda market, it will be posted a threat on FN market sales. (Zesta 2011) Bargaining power of supplier Bargaining power of suppliers definition with the stronger power of suppliers in an industry the more difficult it is for firms within that sector to make a profit. It is because suppliers can determine the terms and conditions on which business is conducted. Most of the products are contented sugar, sugar is essential for production. Malaysian Government has removed sugar subsidies on selective basis and subsidy for Dairies Malaysia was removed. Increased of sugar cost and global commodity cost forced price of Sweetened Condensed Milk increased by 25%. However, sugar subsidy was removed on selective basis which means FN can look for suppliers whose sugar subsidies werent removed. In addition, competitors will also search for new suppliers and it may not easy to reduce cost as low as before. Apart from that, FN may have to concern about any switching cost for current suppliers. Bargaining power of buyer Bargaining power of buyer sense of the powerful buyer can force price cuts and quality improvement. The government removed sugar subsidy, FN material cost increased and affected the product selling price increased. In 2011, Sweetened Condensed Milk has increased 25% of the price which cause the demand reduced. Revenue and profit was decline during the year. Buyers also have full information about the soft drink and dairy product market. They should know which company product cheaper, more health and best quality. FN need to retain the customer by improving product quality and introduce new product. Buyers always have different choice for their beverage and dairy product. Apart from that, same type of competitors product will be display nearby companys products. For example, Jusco will be placing same type of products together which allowed buyers to search easily. There is low switching cost for buyers. Beside, degree of product differentiation is low which customer may feel all bran ds are similar. This threat is more difficult to control, because FN management need to concentrate on changing buyers preference and also maximize the shareholders wealth. Threat of substitute product Porters 5 forces have indicated that the threat of substitute product is the other firms within the industry has offers similar product with similar benefits for the customer. This threat may affects the competitive environment of the company and influence our ability to achieve profitability. On FN Magnolia have offers Pasteurised Milk and Sterilised Milk. The range of the customers is children and adults. The Pasteurised Fresh Milk can be enjoyed chilled or warm, plain or mixed with other foods or beverages and they innovate into Lo-Fat Hi-Cal Milk provide less fat and more healthier of the Fresh Milk for our body. However, Marigold has offers HL Milk is low-fat milk No.1 in Malaysia. HL Milk has perfect balance of nutrients for everyone in the family and it consists high in calcium and protein, low in fat and lactose and fortified with 9 essential vitamins to supplement healthier lifestyle. Marigold HL Milk is first choice for the customers who are caring health conscious. FN should innovation their milk product provide more healthy to attract or retain consumer choices. Another competitor is Dutch Lady has provided a Dutch Lady Milk powder for satisfy customer needs who want mix it with other coffee or tea favour and it has a rich and creamy taste and allowed to dilute in hot or cold water easily. Furthermore, Dutch Lady also has provided different formulations to cater to children of different ages to promote their brain development and healthy growth. Therefore, most of the mother would choose Dutch Lady Milk products of their children rather than choose FN milk products. FN SEASONS offers soft drink products are leaders in countrys most comprehensive range of consumer, catering to every occasion. The Soya range provides protein nourishment while the Chrysanthemum and Grass Jelly provides healthier refreshment with less sugar let FN SEASONS become best quality and healthy drinks. However, they are having lesser favors for the customer choose. YEOS have more favors, such as Lychee drink, Sugarcane drink, Bandung Rose drink, coconut juice, soursop drink and guava drink for the customer to choice. Hence, consumers who are Sugarcane drink lover may change its option to YEOS products. Although there are many competitors for isotonic drink, 100Plus still able to gain over 88% of the market share. Company has done a lot promotion for 100Plus which the reason 100Plus is successfully gain more than half of the market share. (Annual Report 2010 pg 036) Intensity of competitive rivalry Intensity of competitive rivalry among competitors in the industry strives to companies to gain competitive advantage over the rivals and drives the profit of the rivals firm to zero. The company can gains the competitive advantage by several ways, such as pricing policy, improving the products differentiation with other and exploiting relationships with suppliers. If can gain more competitive advantage over competitors can increase the profitability of the company. FN only provided soft drink products and dairy products, appears less competitive advantage compare with others. Nowadays, people more have health conscious when they buying products may choice to buy the products which consists more nutrition. In food and beverage industry also have many company has provide more diet product to satisfied the requirements of the different customers. Dutch Lady Low Fat Yoghurt is a healthy snack and it will enhance the absorption of nutrients, ensuring digestive system stays healthy. It contains Vitamin A, C and E, calcium and Active Live Cultures. In Addition, the Marigold have offer the Yogurt and cultured milk Vitagen which have consists nutrition products for the body. The Vitagen has billions of live probiotic cultures to helps maintain a healthy digestive system. Probiotic cultures in VITAGEN can withstand bile and acidic stomach juices and reach the intestines alive to fight harmful bacteria in the intestines. Furthermore, the Yoghurt contains live and active cultures help digestion and promote a healthy digestive system and calcium for the development of strong bones and teeth. Marigold also has offers Jelly is a great-tasting double-layered jelly that is filled with fresh fruits. Its cool and refreshing taste makes it great for everyone in the family and contains no preservatives and is a healthy alternative to fruits after a hearty meal. This makes Marigold become Malaysias first and only pasteurised Jelly. Beside, sugar subsidy was removed on selective basis which posted unfair competitive environment to FN. And it also created very intense pricing war for soft drink and dairy product. In order to protect the revenue while still retain consumer loyalty, the price of sweetened condensed milk increase 25%. This all is key reasons that the consumer may change favors to this type of products. To gain competitive advantage, FN should provide more nutrition products for the customers have more choose. Porters national competitive advantage diamond Porters diamond model suggests that there are inherent reasons why some nations and industries within nations are more competitive than others on a global scale. The argument is that the national home base of an organisation provides organisations with specific factors which will potentially create competitive advantages on a global scale. (Michael Porter 1990) Porters diamond model consist of four conditions of national advantage which are factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries and firm strategy, structure and rivalry. Factor conditions Factor condition is about important elements that exist in a company which lead to national competitive advantage. It can be country specific or industry specific. FN Dairies had constructed plant in Pulau Indah costs RM350 million and will be completed within the second half of 2011. The new plant promotes cutting edge green technology which would have huge gains in water, energy and environmental conservation. With existence of this plant, FN Dairies could be on the top list of worlds largest producers of canned milk. (Annual Report 2011 pg 41) An increase in production line is an advantage of the company. FN had launched a new RM45 million polyethylene terephthalate (PET) monoblock production line which is the first in Asia Pacific. This able to done all the things in only one production line, for example blow bottles, fill and pack all carbonate soft drinks products. (Annual Report 2010 pg 32) FN has the latest innovation and technology that bring advantages to them. With this latest technology, FN can enhance its operations by continuing improve production lines. FN can produce more products in effective and efficient way. In addition, the new machineries increase as the production lines increases. The warehouse management system has implemented to make operation work run smoothly. Besides, the introduction of new sales forecasting tools helps in manufacturing, if sales forecast is low, the manufacturer will produce less stock. (Annual Report 2010 pg 36) Supply chain act as an important role in a business. Without supply, production would not be carried out. Improvement in supply chain lead to high efficiency of production and logistic by upgrade the systems. FN introduce higher level of operational automation and inventory management to ensure the manufacturing process has no error. Besides, the product quality management has to make sure that the products are in acceptable quality and safety measures are enhanced in order the product would not harm people. (Annual Report 2010 pg 36) Demand conditions Secondly, the demand conditions state that if the local market for a product is larger and more demanding at home than in foreign markets, local firms potentially put more emphasis on improvements than foreign companies. This will potentially increase the global competitiveness of local exporting companies. FN non-carbonated portfolio has slightly increased from 25.4 per cent to 28 per cent in soft drinks business. This represent there is a growing demand for drinks. During the year, FN included fruit teas and juices to its range of soft drinks, and launch new drink called Zesta recently catering consumers of this segment. The ability to innovate, differentiate and manufacture new product lines will bring advantages such as gain more market share. (Zesta 2011) FN Fruit Tree released five new flavours in bottle form which are orange, apple, lychee, blackcurrant and mango. As the demand increases, Fruit Tree has becoming one of the fastest growing categories in Malaysia. The new flavours are the extension to the Fruit Tree cans range and the research shows that consumer preference toward these flavours compared to other brand in the market. (Annual Report 2010 pg 36) FN Holding Berhad has built a new warehouse in Kuching which triple larger than previous warehouse capacity to improve the quality of service and make sure delivery to customers is on time. Furthermore, it utilised advanced warehousing technology such as high selective racking, super flat flooring and Very Narrow Aisleway (VNA) trucks. (Annual Report 2009 pg 38) Related and supporting industries Thirdly, the related and supporting industries mean that when local supporting industries and suppliers are competitive, home country companies will potentially get more cost efficient and receive more innovative products. In February 2010, 100PLUS signed a partnership agreement with AirAsia Berhad, officially sell 100PLUS on AirAsia flights which depart from Malaysia. AirAsia Berhad is a Malaysia top airlines company, being a partner of AirAsia Berhad has a real competitive advantage for FN. This agreement is a big step for division to extend business offshore. Passenger dehydration happened frequently in air travel, with 100PLUS the passenger can get over the dehydration. Support from AirAsia is like an advertisement effect, whenever there is a flight, there is an appearance of 100PLUS. (Annual Report 2010 pg 038) Firm strategy, structure and rivalry Structure and management system can affect competitiveness. FN is running beverage and dairies business in addition to food business too. FN buy 23.08 per cent share in Cocoaland Holdings Berhad. Cocoaland is a major snack food manufacturer in Malaysia. FN is diversifying the business risk to various subsidiaries. FN develop the food business to supplement beverage and dairies business. As the Malaysia grow into high income economy country, the consumption of middle income will increase and food business will be benefited. (Annual Report 2010 pg 9) GE model 3 portfolio business Property Dairy product Soft drink GE business matrix Industry Attractiveness- Economic Factor Business Strength- Brand Strength High Medium Low High Investment/ Growth Soft drinkSelective Growth Selectivity Medium Dairy productSelective Growth Selectivity Harvest/Divest Low Selectivity Property businessHarvest/Divest Harvest/Divest FNs business has divided into 3 portfolio and that are Soft Drinks, Dairy Products and Properties. First of all, we will use the environmental factor and brand strength as the industry attractiveness factors and business factors benchmark. Soft Drinks FNs core soft drinks business portfolio will be classified at the classes of selective growth. The company soft drinks 100plus and Zesta are popular in Malaysia and have helped the company in bringing certain level of stable income.100plus as the companys core product have promoting an active lifestyle and healthy living to consumer. Many events have been run to promote 100plus as it is isotonic drink of choice at major sporting events. 100plus is present at top sports events such as Piala Malaysia Final 2011 100plus Tunku Abdul Razak Cup, KL Marathon 2011 and so on to continue building prestigious images of 100plus to consumers. Profit of division has been growing from year 2007 to 2011. However, sugar subsidy withdrawn by Malaysian Government has major impact on price of sugar. The division has lesser growth rate for year 2011. In addition, global commodity cost has increased which is unfavorable economic factor. Soft Drink division has very high brand strength but economic factors are not really favourable to the division. Dairy Products FNs dairy products will be classified at the classes of selectivity. Companys dairy products have included sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pasteurised milk, UHT milk, juices and ice cream. Dairy Products also suffered from withdrawal of sugar subsidy and global commodity price increased in 2011. FNs dairy products business has classified at selectivity, with medium level of attractiveness and medium business strength on the dairy products. Although the product Milo is popular in Malaysia, Milo is not owned by FN, it was franchised. This product reduces business strength as it is not the only major player in the market. The dairy products will seem less attractive to the investors to consider investing because the deliberate of the milk market is very costly. In addition, the cost for hire workers and the cost to obtain technology for producing the dairy products are costly for subsequent production of dairy products. Moreover, the dairy products license also difficult to be approved by the government. New entrant will find difficult to entry, because the market has been controlled and played by a few major competitors. New entrant will find difficulty to enter to the market as these factors created entry barriers. Properties FNs property business is unlocking the value of land holding by the company. The economic factor of the company placed at medium level because volatile commodity and financial market. The company is more concentrated in the soft drink products and has no initiative to promote companys property to the public, not many people knows that FN has already entered into properties. FNs property business is non-comparable with beverage business that seems to be so successful and FNs property business strength is low in this industry. The property business that has high profitability in the industry will attract more investors to invest. The government encourage removing of old building and build more new business park in order to bring in more prosperity to our country. Moreover, our property business is at growth stage because it is newly introduced into the industry, hence it does not have strong business strength on the property business. Ratio analysis and Key performance Indicators Revenue of continuing operation continues to grow from 2009 to 2010 by 11.2% and 2010 to 2011 7.6%. In 2010, the revenue is able to grow better than 2011 due to improved economic conditions. Malaysia Government has