Ethical Social and Legal Issues of Internet of Things Essay

Ethical, Social and Legal Issues of Internet Although internet of things provides lots of advantages to human beings, there are also some issues that IoT has a bad influence on our daily environments. Some internet users are not aware of the danger waiting for them while using the internet of things recently. In legal perspective, since the internet of things is fairly new, there are so many issues related to the laws by using internet that they still haven’t been solved in society. An example of sharing the media tools, songs, software, or illegal downloading/uploading the documents and releasing them in public without authorization, these are all current problems that society have been facing recently harming many businesses, software†¦show more content†¦There is no ownership of the data and this causes them for other people to control and capture the original data that potentially can be spread to even more other users later. While date is being shared and spread, some users consciously and some unconsciousl y break the legal protection of the copyright law this by putting themselves in a very tough situation against the courts. Even smaller things that people think that it will never ever hurt them can cause people to break the law easily like unconsciously putting for example a song on your website without the permission, or posting an article without any permission, even though the article is about yourself. In social perspective, Internet of Things causes people to have an internet addiction, to make people lazy and informal. Especially with high advanced technological changes recently, the young generation is affected mostly in negative ways. Wasting so many hours in front of the digital screens, and smart phones cause them to be isolated from their social lives. 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Drinking At A Frat Party Sounds Like A Lot - 954 Words

The graduating Class of 2015 quickly learned that college really is the best time of our livesÍ ¾ but with great power, comes great responsibility. Drinking at a frat party sounds like a lot of fun until you wake up at 6 in the morning at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. While many students drink, not many know the health and personal risks that come making the decision to consume alcohol. According to the Science Inside Alcohol Project, a study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, people who consume too much alcohol pass out when the large amount of alcohol overwhelms the Reticular Activating System. This is the system that decides when one is conscious or not. Because alcohol is a depressant, it depresses the central nervous system. Passing out is the body’s attempt to preserve its energy to keep performing the basic bodily functions that keep people alive, such as maintaining heartbeat and breathing. 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Business Valuation and Financial Analysis - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about theBusiness Valuation and Financial Analysis Answer: Introduction With the advent of science and technology in the present global environment, all the companies that are performing in the global market analyses their own functions in accordance to the industrial benchmark to the region where the organizations perform. This paper has been constructed in order to evaluate the financial and the annual reports of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited with the help of several authentic sources like the financial statement of the organization and various other journals and internet sources. The annual report of the firm along with the Australian annual report has been useful for attaining best possible data that would be useful for the completion of the paper (Ghose, Pizzol and McLaren 2017). Cleanaway Waste Management Limited is an Australian Stock Exchange listed company and is associated with in the clean and waste industry. The concerned company is one of the renowned companies that is associated with the waste management industry and looks to make the country and the region free from wastes. The company has the aim of creating a waste free environment and making the world and the country a better place. For the last few years, the company has been progressing in an effective manner as the company has been gaining profits. The need for initiating this analysis has mainly been due to the rise in the level of competition and the increase in the level of waste in the country. Recently, there has been a rise in awareness among the consumers with respect to the environment (Betz et al. 2015). The annual report of the firm helps in obtaining useful data for the operations of the business. The utilisation of several assessment techniques like the macroeconomic analysis, industry analysis, business strategy analysis and the accounting evaluation would aid in understanding the financial position and the business valuation of the organization. Macroeconomic Analysis Economic environment of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited The word economic environment comprises of the extrinsic variables that are associated in the business economy and in the vaster global economy that has an effect on the operations of the business. The economic aim of the Cleanaway Waste Management Limited has been to contribute in a positive manner to the concerned industry within which the firm performs and look to provide a waste management process that is hassle free and free from economic threats and risks. Zhang et al. (2014) has explained that economic environment can be segmented into two divisions namely micro and macro environment. The two mentioned types of the economic environment have a significant role to play in evaluating the success rate of the organization. The performance with respect to the economy of the community where the company is associated with the help of their business is important for Cleanaway Waste Management Limited. The organization concentrates on the crucial precedence that aids them in gaining the information with respect to the economic liability for the concerned stakeholders and undertakes construct various reports and articles that would be beneficial in creating awareness among the customers. The organization even undertakes a review and scrutiny of the waste management services that intends in recognising the factors that would be unfavourable and the factors that would be useful on the economic extent. Macroeconomic factors that influence the performance of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited The macroeconomic factors have been discovered to be a vast range of economic variables that can have an impact on the financial growth and performance of the firm. The macroeconomic factors are inclusive of growth in the population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), rate of interest, prices of oil, unemployment etc. GDP has been known to be the final services and goods that are manufactured within the geographical boundary of a country, which in this report is Australia as the paper concentrates on the business and financial analysis of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited. The indicators that are macroeconomic in nature are exploited in order to understand and compute the level of economic activity within Australia. The rate of growth in the GDP is a country is directly associated with the financial position and performance of the company (Luthra et al. 2014). The GDP of Australia has shown a rise of 2.8% on the year 2015-2016 and the country has a low rate of unemployment with a percent age value of 5.6%. Even though the rate of unemployment has come down, it has been observed that there has been a rise in the level of part time and underemployment in the country at a significant level. The rise in the level of part time and underemployment has mainly been due to the availability of an increasing number of labour forces in the market. The main factor for the increase in the labour market has been migration of foreign as well as domestic population in search of jobs and other factors (Yeheyis et al. 2013). The rise in the level of part tine and underemployment has motivated Cleanaway Waste Management Limited to increase their labour force so that they can undertake various plans of actions to improve their operations and expand their business to the next level. Another one of the economic factor has been the rise in the value of export in Australia. The rise in the value has suggested that that international business transaction has been undergoing in an effective manner thereby reduci ng the burden from the domestic industries. The rise in the value of export lowers the degree of risk of stock pile that would reduce waste and in a way decrease the level of waste in the country. In the current scenario, Australia does not have a significant amount of inflation in the country as the current rate of inflation is 2% and is expect to rise to 2.10% within the next twelve months. The rate of inflation being so low is good for Cleanaway Waste Management Limited as they can purchase and bring in new and improved waste management equipments and serve them at a lower cost. The use of these techniques would increase their level of work and they can even expand their operational region thereby increasing their level of earnings. The interest rate aids in calculating the rate of return anticipated by the lender for providing loan (Rostamzadeh et al. 2015). The rate of interest being higher lowers the level of investment in the business and directly has an impact on the revenue level of the firms. This is due to the fact that the rise in the rate of interest lowers optimistic Net Profit Value investments in the business. However, interest rate being lower motivates the organizations to borrow money and make various changes in their business so that they can increase their level of profit. The present rate of interest of Australia is 1.5%, which is very low and thus m otivates Cleanaway Waste Management Limited to undertake various expenditures related to the business so that they can increase their profitability and reach their business objectives. It is seen that lower rate of interest decreases the level of financial risk and improves the level business growth. Global Economy that has an influence on the company over the last 5 years During the last five years, the company has been performing in an ineffective manner even though due to the economic slowdown there has been an impact on the operations of the firm for a few years (Jayant et al. 2014). The uncertainty in the market worldwide had led to the postponement of the expansion of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited. The restriction of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited has even been due to economic depression during the year 2008 to 2009. However, the transformation in the economy for the last few years has been fundamental for the firm to stand around and perform efficiently. Future Prediction The GDP of Australian economy has been expanding sustainably year by year and it has been anticipated that Cleanaway Waste Management Limited will look to diversify their business. Additionally, the policies implemented by Reserve Bank of Australia have decreased the level of inflation and thereby gain the objectives of the firm (Allesch and Brunner 2014). Therefore, the financial performance of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited would improve thereby helps the firm to reach out globally. Industry Analysis In this particular section, emphasis has been given on understanding the waste management and recycling industry on how it operates in Australia and the company that belong to this industry is named as Cleanaway Waste Management Limited. Porters five forces model is one of the effective tool that is preferably used as it brings out the external environmental factor that govern a particular industry and country as a whole. Every industry faces some forces that they need to face and try hard for mitigating it as far as possible. There are five external environmental forces that are elaborated in the diagram of the model that comprises of, threat from new entrants, threat from substitute products, competitive rivalry, bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of customers (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014). Figure: Porters Five Forces Model of Cleanaway Waste Management (Source: Dahlbo et al. 2015) Rivalry from existing competitors Cleanaway Waste Management Limited operates in Waste management and recycling industry where it is important to know fact the fact on how far the company face competition from the rivalry firms. Here, it is easy to find out from the below underlying reasons that the company faces low threat from its competitors (Ferro et al. 2014). Low level of competition among the rivalry firms- The waste management and recycling industry faces low level of competition from its rival firms in Australia. This attribute or forces is highly beneficial for Cleanaway Waste Management Limited as the company operates in the industry where the competition is low and they have a chance to generate more revenue in their business (Shamsuzzoha, Helo and Sandhu 2016). Higher strategies stakes or approaches- The management of Cleanaway Waste Management Limited are capable of taking strategic decisions for their firm as the level of competition is lower than any other industry under study. Waste collection industry The waste management and recycling industry put more emphasis upon factors where analysts give more importance to their existence in the industry as they face less competition from any of the rival firms (Garca et al. 2014). Threat from new entrants Cleanaway Waste Management Limited operates in Waste management and recycling industry where it is important to know fact the fact on how far the company face threat from the new entrants. Here, it is easy to find out from the below underlying reasons that the company faces low threat from the new entrants (Yl-Mella et al. 2014). High investment cost- For any new entrant who is willing to enter in the waste management and recycling industry, it is quite difficult for them as the establishment of this type of company need huge cost of investment. It is for this reason Cleanaway Waste Management Limited face low threat for any new entrants who start operating in the industry (Garlapati 2016). Higher barrier to exit- For any new entrants who is willing to enter in the waste management and recycling industry, they will face difficulty as exit to barrier are higher and new entrants cannot afford in. This force act as a positive influence for Cleanaway Waste Management Limited who already occupies the position in the industry for few years (Govindan et al. 2015). Strict and rigid laws and regulations- For any new entrants who are interested in operating in the industry need to face or tackle strict regulations and time taking process at the same time. This force act as a positive influence for Cleanaway Waste Management Limited who is already listed in the Australian Stock Exchange (Zaman 2015). Huge investment- For any new entrants who are interested in operating in the industry need to invest huge money in the industry that is not possible for any of the new companies. This force act as a positive influence for Cleanaway Waste Management Limited who is already well-established company operating in Australia. Threat from substitute products Cleanaway Waste Management Limited operates in Waste management and recycling industry where it is important to know fact the fact on how far the company face threat from the substitute products. Here, it is easy to find out from the below underlying reasons that the company faces low threat from its substitute products. Few to zero substitutes for waste management- On analysis, it is noted that there is only few substitutes to this industry and this is the positive forces for Cleanaway Waste Management Limited that can help them in attainment of future goals and objectives. High exit barriers in the waste management industry- There is high exit barrier for the new entrants. It is for this reason why Cleanaway waste management limited has no close substitute to what they offer for given period of time (Milutinovi? et al. 2014). Bargaining power of suppliers Cleanaway Waste Management Limited operates in Waste management and recycling industry where it is important to know fact the fact on how far the company faces bargaining power from the suppliers. Here, it is easy to find out from the below underlying reasons that the company faces high bargaining power from the suppliers. The suppliers in the industry have high bargaining power (Parkes, Lettieri and Bogle 2015). Paying premium for licenses and rights- On analysis, it is noted that the industry (waste management and recycling) in actual faces high bargaining power from the suppliers. It is because of the fact that suppliers that belong to this industry pay premium prices for getting the access where they can use licenses and rights that is otherwise not possible. It is therefore to note the fact that Cleanaway Waste Management Limited should be keeping their cost higher so that they will be able to pay to the suppliers. Strong big supplier- On analysis, it is understood that the industry (waste management and recycling) in actual faces high bargaining from the suppliers. The suppliers in this industry have high bargaining power. It is the suppliers who are the final price maker and take that price from the company and company has no say in this industry. Bargaining power of customers Cleanaway Waste Management Limited operates in Waste management and recycling industry where it is important to know fact the fact on how far the company faces less bargaining power from the customers. Here, it is easy to find out from the below underlying reasons that the company faces less bargaining power from customers. The customers in the industry have less bargaining power. Commercial and business customers to make own choices or preferences- On analysis, it is important to consider the fact that both commercial and business customers has the medium where they can make choices in the particular industry under study. This forces that is mentioned can be termed as a qualitative factors where most of the industries compete with each other and it become difficult to face it in the near future (Ross 2016). Business strategy Analysis For Cleanaway Waste Management turning a food waste in to the nutrient rich soil enhancer or discovering the innovating method of recycling, the company has always managed to arrive with the business strategy in order to helps its businesses attain their sustainability goals. During the financial year of 2016, Cleanaway Waste Management has launched a unifying brand for waste management and recycling (Kubasek, Brennan and Browne 2016). The introduction of innovative method of waste management bears a solitary minded mission of making a sustainable future for humans. The new business of Cleanaway Waste Management signifies that it is a major transformation of the business along with the company shareholders and stakeholders. With the introduction of new business strategy, the company has been able to operate in more consistent manner that is supported by innovative rage of total waste management. The industrial and ecological service supported by its market leading innovation and services (Kew Stredwick 2017). The business strategy of Cleanaway Waste Management has significantly reflected that it aims to strengthen the commitment of the company by making a sustainable future for the citizens of Australia. Commenting on the financial sustainability of the business the total revenue of the company increased by 5.1 per cent to $1,455.1 million. This was particularly driven by the increased revenue from the collection of solid and solid post collection business. For Cleanaway Waste Management it has managed to attain strategy formulation to achieve its operational objectives (Dumitru and Jinga 2015). It is noteworthy to denote that the strategy formulation forms the review and acted as the catalyst for numerous actions, which the company has implemented over the past years in achieving the sustainable business profits (Wetherly and Otter 2014). In order to secure the long term future of the company, Cleanaway Waste Management has implemented a variety of actions to secure the company and its business functions. This comprises of renewed focus on the health and safety of the environment. The company has successfully acquired the Melbourne Regional Landfill and the entire feel of the management system. The company constantly restructures its sales team with the objective of improving the effectiveness of its sales and reviewing the remediation provision of the landfill. Such kind of business initiative by Cleanaway Waste Management has them the market leader in the waste management industry and the company is well positioned to achieve sustained growth (Palepu, Healy and Peek 2013). The company in comparison to the statutory loss of $23 million attained the statutory after tax attributable profit to ordinary shareholders of $44.8 million last year. The number of significant items that totals approximately $18.5 million, which was primarily attributable to the cost of restructuring and cost of rebranding the company, mainly impacted the statutory profit after tax. On analysis the business performance of the company, Cleanaway Waste Management is pleased to announce in its annual financial report that the shareholders have made encouraging amount of progress over the past years (Wahlen, Baginski and Bradshaw 2014). As evident from the analysis, it is understood that the company wanted its people to align with the people and the organization on the common platform. One of the most visible form of business strategy for Cleanaway Waste Management was to bring into the change in the name of the company with the mission of sole reinvigorated brand. With the objective of creating a single brand name that binds Cleanaway Waste Management together as one, the company develops a critical but truly sustainable business practices (Wild and Staden 2013). The creation of fit purpose structure saw the organization align with the structure of the business strategy to support the motto of go to the market business model. The fit for the purpose contributed significantly to the major cost cutting program. An ambitious target of $30 million was annualized cost reduction that was established and the company is confident to increase its working capital by June 2018. Concerning the increased capital discipline Cleanaway Waste Management implements control on the spending to be in accordance with the depreciation and amortization (Jenkins and Williamson 2015). During the year of 2015 capital expenditure of Cleanaway Waste Management witnessed a 130 per cent of depreciation and amortisation which was well beyond the industry standard. Subsequently in the financial year of 2016, the depreciation and the amortisation expenditure witnessed a significant reduction to 95 per cent. In addition to this, Cleanaway Waste Management efficiently manages and rectifies the remediation of cash flows. Against the background of the muted economic activity in Australia, Cleanaway Waste Management has commenced to witness the benefit of business strategy in an important improved operational performance across all over the business (Batkovsky, Batkovsky and Klochkov 2016). The company reported an increase in the collection of underlying revenue EBIDTA and EBIT of 3.0 per cent and 5.8 per cent respectively. In addition to this, the company reported a net decline in the running of corporate functions at the EBIT level which felled by 20.4 per cent. Considering the risk of the business strategy of Cleanaway Waste Management the operations of the company is entirely dependent on the continued performance, efforts, abilities and expertise of its key administration person. However, the loss of such service could be viewed as the major threat to the company as it might create an adverse impact on the business functions of Cleanaway Waste Management since the company might not be able recruit suitable replacement within a relatively short period of time (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014). The company business strategy could be further hampered by the operational risk. A prolonged and unintended interruption might cause a severe impact on the the operations of Cleanaway Waste Management from the unplanned financial performance. The company is exposed to large number of risk such as site or loss damage, environmental and climatic events, disruptions to the industrial systems and securities (Raubenheimer and Stammen, 2016). However, to ov ercome the operational risk, Cleanaway Waste Management has implemented a variety of controls and strategies to administer those risk, compliance programs, site business continuity and crisis management plans, training and interruptions systems securities. The company during the financial year of 2016 witnessed a growth of 3 per cent improvement in the solid collections revenue with an attractive rate of 3.5 per cent in revenue for the second half the financial year 2016 in comparison to the corresponding period of previous year. Cleanaway Waste Management has been able witness a volume growth across most of the collection categories in comparison to the last year (Drnevich, and Croson 2013). As evident from the analysis the telesales and the functions of save desk are completely operational and there are early indications of improvements in the figures of customer churn with new business of Cleanaway Waste Management have gained exceeding churn rate (Pettersson and Sorensen 2016). The pricing analysis and discipline of Cleanaway Waste Management has been constantly improving however it is worth mentioning that further amount of work will be required in the financial year of 2017 (Mishra and Zachary 2014). The company has cited that the sales productivity has remained to be an opportunity for Cleanaway nationally and shall also remain a focus in the later part of the financial year of 2017 together with the operational improvements and continued focus on the customer service. This has been considered for Cleanaway Waste Management as the key attain a future growth with profitability increasing by 8.4 per cent in EBITDA to $149.8 million and pleasing enhancement of 19.3% margin in comparison to 18.3 per cent in the preceding year. Accounting analysis The accounting analysis framework consists of six stages, which are assessed in the context of Cleanaway Waste Management as follows: Tracking the primary accounting policies: The annual report of Cleanaway Waste Management clearly depicts that the financial statements are prepared to conform to the Australian Accounting Standards and Interpretations, which the Corporations Act 2001 and the Australian Accounting Standards Board have enforced. It has been observed that the firm has enforced AASB 9 from the financial year 2016 for enabling hedge accounting in relation to its business operations (Cleanaway.com.au 2017). In addition, the organisation has enforced a new model relating to impairment for the financial assets with a three-stage approach. Such approach mainly constitutes of a single year expected credit losses (ECL), lifetime impaired ECL and lifetime ECL. The company uses to adopt the concept of historical cost, as modified with the help of revaluation relating to financial assets, contingent considerations and derivative financial instruments. Moreover, it is involved to round off the figures to the close dollar in thousands in compliance with the Australian Securities and Investments Commissions Instrument 2016/191. Analysing the overall accounting flexibility: The pliability in accounting could be assessed with the help of the resulting content pertaining to information. If the managers have limited pliability in choosing the estimates and policies of accounting associated with the major success factors, the accounting data are probable to constitute of less information for gaining an understanding of the overall business economics (Briner and Konrad 2014). However, these are the qualities of choosing, which the organisation could have selected from the pool of options available to the same. In the context of Cleanaway Waste Management, it has been observed that the firm has focused on adopting stringent accounting policies to conform to the accounting standards of AASB and IFRS. The organisation has not provided the access to the managers in exercising pliability in choosing the policies associated with estimates and policies of accounting. The top-level management of the company has framed the accounting policies and related anticipation s, which urges the requirement for the accounting managers in adopting the norms and guidelines of the firm. Hence, it could be stated that the accounting information associated with the organisation highly contains information where the users would have an understanding of the economic position of the organisation (Christodoulou, Clubb and Mcleay 2016). Analysing the overall accounting strategy: As laid out by Jian et al. (2016), when the managers have pliability in accounting, it could be used to communicate the economic situation of the firm or to limit the actual performance. One of the major needs in analysing the overall accounting strategy associated with the organisation is its ability to deal with the industrial norms. For example, the policies and accounting estimates of the organisation have been developed in such a way that effective compliance is made with the Trade Practices Act 1974. Moreover, all the financial gains made are disclosed in the financial statements of the organisation. Along with this, no sufficient incentive amount has been offered to the management of the organisation in order to tamper with the accounting figures and no changes in accounting policies and estimates have been made in the financial year 2016. Analysing the overall quality of disclosure: The entire disclosure quality of a company could be analysed with the help of the quantity of disclosures made, beginning note of the accounting estimates and the existing performance (Levin et al. 2015). Based on the beginning note depicted in the annual report of Cleanaway Waste Management, it relies on the method of developing the financial reports in accordance with AASB and IFRS. The disclosures have been made in relation to financial impaired assets and the overall principles of consolidation. Some of these consolidated principles of the organisation include summary of changes in interest of ownership, share trusts, joint venture, translation of foreign currency and subsidiaries. Moreover, the balance sheet statement, statement of changes in equity, income statement and cash flow statement have been prepared in a way that helped in depicting the present financial condition and performance of the organisation in the operating market. Locating the potential red flags (information distortion): In this phase, the assessor needs to investigate certain items closely or collect necessary information on them. Hence, this phase needs the assessor in collecting the unqualified audit reports, unanticipated large write-downs and undescribed accounting modifications (Liu 2017). According to the report of Ernst Young, which is the auditor of the organisation, it has conducted write-downs related to the business operations failing to achieve the desired objectives. However, the report also signifies that no change has taken place in the accounting year 2016 and the estimations have conformed to the existing norms as well as legislations prevailing in the country. In addition, no associated party transactions have taken place and thus, there is no serious distortion of information that could lead to heavy complexities for the organisation to carry out its daily operations. Correcting the accounting distortions: As commented by Moarif (2014), in case; any issue is detected in the above phase, the organisation is required to correct the same. However, after crucial evaluation of the above step, the report of the auditor does not state any major accounting distortion. The sole issue is related to write-off associated with the business operations of the firm, as it has failed to meet the desired objectives. In order to rectify this distortion, the organisation has two possible ways available. The passing of journal entries is the initial option and the second alternative is to change the financial ratios based on the gathered data from the annual report of the organisation. However, it is to be noted that passing journal entries is not an option during the time of impairment. This is because it would have direct effect on the ratios. In this specific case, the organisation could use any of the two options, since the issue is not related to impairment. This could be made with the help of the foo tnotes of financial position or the statement of cash flows (Schaltegger and Zvezdov 2015). Conclusion The analysis based on the macroeconomic policies has shown how the company has been able to cushion itself with the fluctuating GDP growth rates. It has been further able to keep its services stable even in a fluctuating economy. The various types of considerations made for single economy review has been seen with evaluating performance of the company with the growing inflation. The company during the financial year of 2016 witnessed a growth of 3 per cent improvement in the solid collections revenue with an attractive rate of 3.5 per cent in revenue for the second half the financial year 2016 in comparison to the corresponding period of previous year. Cleanaway Waste Management has been able witness a volume growth across most of the collection categories in comparison to the last year. It is an asset that the company has been able to sustain its business even with the deteriorating inflation rates. The main strategy of Cleanaway Waste Management has been seen in terms of maintainin g a cost leadership strategy. The accounting approach has shown the compliance with Australian Accounting Standards and Interpretations, which has been further based on the Australian Accounting Standards Board and Corporations Act 2001. The industry analysis has revealed waste management industry in real has a significant impact where the analyst put more importance to its existence. It is the waste management and recycling industry in Australia that have long-term positive impact on the current business entity that adds value to it. The pricing analysis and discipline of Cleanaway Waste Management has been constantly improving however it is worth mentioning that further amount of work will be required in the financial year of 2017 Reference Allesch, A. and Brunner, P.H., 2014. Assessment methods for solid waste management: A literature review.Waste Management Research,32(6), pp.461-473. Batkovsky, A.M., Batkovsky, M.A. and Klochkov, V.V., 2016. Implementation Risks in Investment Projects on Boosting High-Tech Business Production Capacity: Analysis and Management.Journal of Applied Economic Sciences. Romania: European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration,11(6), p.44. 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NonProfit Management Case Study free essay sample

Introduction The civil society has taken a very active role in the quest for democracy that continues to spread across the continents till it reached the Middle East region only recently. This is clear given the successive revolts that have taken place in many of the Arab countries calling for real democracy. Therefore, especially in Egypt, efforts should be directed toward defending civil society organizations and activists who are being threatened by the coercive authoritarian government actions over the past decades (Naidoo, 2007). The civil society as identified by Khallaf (2010) comprises â€Å"non-governmental organizations (NGOs hereafter), community groups, professional associations, trade unions, media organizations, research institutes/ think tanks, and advocacy and human rights civil society organizations† (p. 2). However, the current paper aims at focusing mainly on the role of NGOs in strengthening democracy. This is due to the major role NGOs play in several areas in order to enhance democracy. Among these are their role in: (1) allowing a wider range of interest groups to have a ‘voice’, pluralizing institutions to act in a ‘watchdog’ role vis-a-vis the state, networking and creating alliances of civic actors to place pressure on the state, (2) working with grassroots organizations comprised of poor and marginalized groups, and (3) exerting some pressures on the state by pressing for change and developing alternative policies (Mercer, 2002). We will write a custom essay sample on NonProfit Management Case Study or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Previous Studies of civil society in Egypt, over the past twenty years, have been both superficial and confined to only limited areas, namely (issue based publications, academic publications, training materials/ manuals, directories, conference publications, empirical comparative studies, civil society organizations’ (CSOs) publications, donor guide books and publications, CSOs coalitions occasional papers, evaluation studies, and web based sources) (Khallaf, 2010). (Figure: 1). Figure : The diversity of civil society research in Egypt Therefore, more detailed studies should be directed toward deeply investigating the civil society organizations operating in Egypt. Khallaf (2010) has mentioned that more research has been directed recently to track the actual magnitude of civil society through donor efforts in Egypt. However, the literature has pointed to serious gaps in the study of NGOs in Egypt. These include; First: Updated statistical information on number of NGOs. Second: The systematic evaluation of NGOs activities. Third: periodic assessments such as the CIVICUS or Civil Society Index and the Philanthropy study. Forth: studying participatory governance and the involvement of civil society in decision making processes. Fifth: changing Laws and regulations governing NGOs in Egypt. Sixth: An impact assessment of all new NGOs working in charity or development. Seventh: an assessment of aid effectiveness to Egypt (Khallaf, 2010). Finally: a detailed diagnosis of the NGOs operating in Egypt is needed. This should focus on both internal and external analyses of the selected NGOs and provide policy recommendations for possible improvements in the sector. The current paper attempts to draw light on how the civil society operates in Egypt. A well recognized Egyptian NGO was selected in this ethnographic research. It is called the Future Protectors Association for Care and Development or â€Å"Homat Al-Mostakbal†. The reason behind selecting it is the higher credibility and the good reputation it is enjoying. This is quite well perceived by the researcher based on her personal experience with this association. The current research can add valuable insights both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, it attempts to cover few of the gaps mentioned about the civil society research in developing countries and Egypt in particular. Practically, proposed recommendations can serve as strategic agendas for improving the performance of the selected NGO in particular and the entire NGO sector in general. The current paper is organized as follows; the first section will provide detailed information about association’s background. This will be followed by the analysis section which would sum up the major facts collected about the association. The analysis is based on qualitative in-depth interviewing1 conducted with five key persons in the association including its founder. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are presented, to guide future research directions, at the conclusion part here later. Background Future protectors association for care and development (homat al mostakbal) is one of the well known non-governmental organizations in Egypt. It is located at 425 Avenue Road, Roushdy, Alexandria, Egypt. It is a group of young people who work in the field of developmental work and volunteerism in for a better future and a true renaissance to Egypt. It serves in the great Cairo area and some other governorates including; Alexandria, Dakahleya, Gharbeya, Menoufeya, and others. It was originally founded on the 2nd of Novermber, 2004 by Eng. El-Dreiny and his daughter engineer Marwa El-Dreiny. It was mainly founded seeking community development. The vision of the association is to be one of the largest civil society organizations working in the field and leading the areas of development, community care, and voluntary work in Egypt and the Arab world by year 2020. The mission of the association is the development and care of the community through several dimensions including; raising the general level of education and the development of production philosophy, increasing awareness of drug taking problems, providing health awareness, raising the cultural level of young people, and providing a variety of social services. These are to be achieved while taking into account the mastery of work and commitment to the principles of ethics and team work cooperation. The primary objectives to fulfill the pre-mentioned vision and mission include the following; Providing guidance and better utilizing the power of potential volunteers in various activities of the association and developing their skills while strengthening their moral values. Increasing the awareness of community members about the dangers of drugs and training of cadres for different age groups. In addition to providing technical support to partners and trainers in the field of awareness against the dangers of addiction and drug. Training community members by spreading the production thinking and helping youth and poor families in establishing small craft projects to supply industries with high quality products at competitive prices. Providing social services (in kind physical technical) and the work projects for poor families, orphans, deaf and dumb cases. Developing different segments of the society, especially children and young people both culturally and scientifically. This would entitle them to acquire new skills, open their horizons to different lives, and raise the level of education among the educated classes with aim of bringing progress and prosperity to the society in large. The major values of the association comprise the following; Intentions precede action Our basic principles are our main priority. Understanding the priorities and giving a high commitment to them. Mastering our work. Best employing our resources. Our clients are our core interest. Team work spirit. Commitment to a safe environment. The association is registered under the old NGO law. This entitles the association to be under the scrutiny and supervision of the Directorate of Social Affairs. Here is the copy of the registration certificate. Figure : Formal Registration Certificate The association tries as much to manage its institutional memory. This can be manifested in the form of reports including information about what happened in the past. Other reports are prepared for each activity and collected annually to be archived and documented for each committee. Also, there are few attempts to record religious seminars and cultural meetings either video or audio. Sometimes the association registers the campaigns to serve the new members by providing them with information about the work flavor. These tentative mechanisms are aimed at saving association heritage of knowledge and transfer it to the future generations who would complete the mission. The organization chart of the association was revised recently. There are intentions to modify it also however some limitations hinder this at the current period. The chart is decomposed into the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director, the Chairmen of the various Committees the Vice Chairmen of the various Committees -who are appointed by the administration according to experience and seniority- the executive management including Secretary, the financial management. There were areas for development and the last updated organization chart was reproduced recently in 2011. The association was built on the basis of predominantly volunteerism however; there are 17 formal employees who are getting paid monthly. There are mainly three managers; executive, financial, and legal affairs. Staff members do not perform overlapping roles, instead there is a clearly specified job description for each single role. This would allow the upper management to apply a strict accountability procedures based on assigned responsibilities. The association is able to deal smoothly with the threat of losing any/all staff member(s). Sometimes, the operations of a highly specialized department, which loses a key staff member, can be postponed until the appointment of a new person. However, in the key roles like secretarial work, work cannot be stopped and duties can be referred to any interested volunteer. The collectivity and shared team working spirit that characterize the association enable it to face sudden problems of this sort. The association is having a board of directors. It is composed of 9 members, 1/3 of them are dropped during each nomination period. The nomination is made for 6 upcoming years. It is preferred to nominate persons with strong public relations to offer some facilities and those who have the expertise and strong knowledge about association’s policies. The association is membership based. There are different types of members including volunteers, affiliated, and working member. The membership status is documented only for continuing members who are then entitled to receive a formal membership card. Members pay a symbolic annual fee of about 20 pounds which represents one of the financial resources received by the association. The following chart represents the progress that has occurred in association’s membership from 2004 to 2008. In 2010, the number of volunteers has reached 4000. Figure : The number of volunteers The following chart represents the geographic allocation of volunteers across the different governorates. Figure : The geographic allocation of volunteers The social and economic background of the members is diverse. Majority of members are classified to be from the middle to upper middle social class. They are almost well educated having a clear intent toward the importance of charity and development societal roles in their country. They have strong religious understandings which enable them to volunteer their efforts for the sake of making others happy while earning credits (thawab) and pleasing the only god (ALLAH). The association has completed a huge number of successful projects2 and some of which are seasonal. The seasonal projects include distributing El Kheir bags and Ramadan lamps. It is planning to undertake some continuous projects not to be owned by the association but by encouraging the youth to execute them and the association can be a partner by 10%. Attached here below in the appendices is a list of the projects and activities the association is involved in. The primary beneficiaries of the association are; Volunteers, university students, school children, widowed women, poor families, knowledge seekers, patients, orphans, and the elderly at large. The association is not specifying a certain population to focus on serving. Activities are therefore not based on the coverage of a particular area, but they are tailored to achieve certain goals across the various geographic segments. 3 The association has unique policy for recruiting both members and staff. For the former, recruitment is based on the real intention to perform volunteer work. For the latter, recruitment is based on the exact mission to be completed within the functional department the potential candidate will join. The association views the current recruitment policy to be an effective one. Therefore, there are no plans to change its policy during the current period. The ratio of association’s founders to its members is roughly estimated to be 10%. Taking into considerations that the number of registered volunteers is roughly 4000, only 100-200 of them are active ones. The association depends on a self financing scheme. Majority of funds come from membership fees, donations (in cash or in kind), and revenues from profit-based committees. There is one company which operates in the field of quality and 75% of its income is transferred to the association. There are some funding projects such as the share the good, CSR, and Ijada company. Only 10% of the directed donations are taken to cover a proportion of administrative expenses but the money of Zakat is kept untouched. The association collects money from Egyptians. The money comes in forms of Zakat, sadakat, and in cash or in kind donations. It utilizes no foreign funding alternatives except for the single initiative with the United Nations. This partnership agreement was made under pressures from Dubai police and entitled the association to receive a fund of $ 10. 000 in order to execute some projects. The association has neither an initial endowment nor an emergency fund. It depended mainly on donations during the initial construction phase. There is a bank account for the association where the money collected from the various sources is being deposited to or withdrew from when necessary. The association does not always profit from most of its projects because they have low profit margins. Some seasonal projects might generate profit like the partnership with Toshiba Company to distribute Ramadan lamps. Donations are considered as part of the revenues. The association uses money coming from donations, sadakat, and the yield of some revenue-based activities. The general overhead costs of the association are estimated roughly to be from 30-40% of the budget. The ways to manage costs to the least possible level include, inducing members to rationalize consumption rates, closely monitoring monthly expenses, rationalizing staff recruitment process, and covering the costs of high telephone bills, hospitality and administrative outlays through collecting in kind donations. The association does not recognize any kind of support offered by the Egyptian government. The old government has provided only some facilities to make agreements with some concerned authorities such as ministries. This was mostly perceived prior to the revolution. However, the picture of the new potential government is still vague and there is no assurance that the new government would adopt a pro-civil society philosophy or not. There are tentative expectations about possible cooperation from the ministry of environment in the future. Analysis Based on the results of the in-depth personal interviews conducted with key persons in the association two types of analysis were made. The following section starts by presenting the first type of analysis which is the SWOT. This will be followed by the PEST analysis. 1. SWOT analysis The association enjoys a number of strength points. These strengths include, but not limited to, the following; a. Strong team spirit is a huge asset, good and efficient management system, good public relations, raising the skills of volunteers through gained experience, and very good reputation perceived by partners and the community at large. b. The presence of strong networks both locally and internationally. Locally with government institutions such as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, the Adult Education in Alexandria, the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Environment (protocol of cooperation),partnership training with the engineering industries sector TV ITVs affiliated to the Ministry of Industry, Alexandria Biblotecha library (Department of Public Relations and Information), Morkoseya Church, the Food Bank, and the Egyptian (permanent agreement). Internationally, networks with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Organized Crime in the United Nations, the Dubai Police (working as technical/training consultants to raise awareness of the damages of drug addiction. c. Good coordination with other local and international organizations. Examples include organizing joint training programs with renaissance makers club in Kuwait, the Ministry of Awqaf in Kuwait, the American University of Kuwait, Gulf University, CID in Kuwait and the Ministry of Defense, Union of Arab Doctors (donations to Libya), the office of Dr. Muhammad Salim Al-Awa, Toshiba Arab company and Ocean Express Company and Isam Abu-setta for heavy transport, New Horizons and Xeon, Arab Academy for Science and Technology, University of Pharos, Alexandria University, Cairo University, Helwan University, Ain Shams University, Menoufiya University, Western University , Mansoura University, Assuit University. Alshanek ya Balady Association, Alexandria west investors association, and set your goal association, the future hands Hospital. In addition to cultural partnership cooperation with the Egyptian-Turkish Friendship Association. d. The presence of a strong infrastructure in the main headquarters in Alexandria. It is located in a prestigious location, well furnished, and highly accessible. However it is not a private property and thus imposes the burden of paying high monthly rent. This location is equipped by personal computers, laptops, wireless network, and they have electronic marketing forces empowered by strong specialists in the field. e. The presence of an independent financial management and independent social affairs and legal affairs units whose staff are paid. The recycling project, the specialized teams used in field case studies, the illiteracy teachers, and volunteers. f. The lack of specific religious or political directions and the presence of strong relationships with respectable figures in Alexandria. The inclusion of small associations in the many events organized by the association. Dependence on respectable personalities in providing certain services. g. Partnering with the association provides the partner several privileges and huge returns. A list of those privileges and returns to partners and individuals can be found later in the appendices. The obvious weakness points observed in this association include the following; a. Funding problems (almost self-financing by 99% from members) and the presence of many projects in second row but (senior management has recently begun to train the middle class members to complete these projects and continue the transfer of expertise to their followers). b. There are no integration links between the projects. c. Some personal conflict problems might arise sporadically among members. d. Administrative problems, and lack of strictness and formalization procedures due to a conflict between the role of leader and manager, but they overcome this problem by appointing an executive director. e. Inadequate promotion for the association in the media compared to other competitors. The reasons are mainly to reduce expenses and due to the imposed security restrictions. f. The absence of headquarters in some governorates like Dakahleya and Gharbeya which constitutes a big problem because the teams there are highly specialized and they need the proper setting to grow on it. g. The lack of specialization between the work forces in undertaking the projects. h. Some communication problems were present however, the Human Resources Director has solved them. i. Lack of volunteers and problems with their continuity/tenure. In some cases the volunteer has a desire to see the immediate result of his voluntary work which makes them less patient to continue. Most of the projects carried out by the association have longer term impacts and feasibility. j. Shortage in financial resources and operational tools. The major opportunities, brought from the external environment, facing the association for the time being include the following; a. Activating some agreements with the Union of Arab doctors, the Ministry of Environment, various associations, political awareness teams, in addition to different charitable and awareness-raising teams seeking support from the association in terms of logistics and training. b. A strong deactivated relationship with Al-Jazeera training center which is currently under study. c. The existence of many public figures, associations, and young modest advocates who have neither political nor religious direction. The association can take advantage of their cooperation efforts. d. A number of donors from America, Canada and Morocco who have appeared after the revolution as service volunteers like doctors. e. Localities and the Council of the People elections. This can be achieved by nominating independent members. Any successful nominated member can offer some facilities and services to the association. Also, this will give the chance for the association to be presented as one of the active civil society organizations participating in crafting the new constitution. f. Offering many partnerships to join the association with large well known institutions such as New Horizons, the Arab Academy for Science and Technology, and other new companies through exhibitions. Their offered contributions come mainly in the form of donations. g. The existence of promising facilities to complete some strategic projects through governmental entities. h. Reducing some of the strict scrutiny procedures imposed previously by the old government and the security apparatus. i. The expansion and proliferation in the environment of charity work, the launch of various public events and the intense presence of the civil society activities. j. The potential for participation with other unknown may be small, associations to perform some other projects outside the scope of work of the association. This represents the potential for diversification and expansion of work coverage. k. People’s Openness and their new reconciliation with the community with the desire to join the civil society institutions to provide charity services. l. The presence of various finance institutions through which the association can expand its operations scale after getting approvals from concerned authorities. m. The neutrality of the association both politically and religiously is a major strength. It is manifested in attracting bodies of various ideologies either as beneficiaries or participants. These include for example, Morosely Church or El-Azhar in my life project. The major threats or challenges, brought from the external environment, facing the association include the following; a. The societal openness can produce many competitors; some of them are supported by huge funding schemes and are biased toward the fulfillment of certain political religious agendas. b. Security threats to volunteers and the possibility of exposure to risk in places where they provide services. The possibility of being abused by law breakers due to the lack of security in the Egyptian streets mainly after the recent events. c. Exploiting association’s activities for the beneficial interests of others. This is totally rejected. This might impose the threat of diluting the association’s public image. Examples include candidates’ coverage for elections or political support using association’s name and good reputation. d. The presence of some competitors with high media coverage, such as resala. e. The culture of voluntary work is still somehow tentative. The lack of awareness of others about the culture of volunteerism and societal responsibility. f. The necessity to invest in volunteers to improve their skills and derive maximum value out of their participation. g. The unstable economic situation of the Egyptian State. h. The role of the Ministry of Social Solidarity has been hindering the progress of the work of the civil society for long years ago. i. The emergence of the Muslim brotherhood and the ancestors (salaf) as major competitors. j. Lack of human rights and political awareness and the prevailing unjustified freedom leading to chaotic results. k. The culture of the conspiracy against Egypt and the presence of some many unnatural Egyptian T. V talk show moderators. l. The owners of certain rented headquarters are drug dealers. This represents a major threat calling for immediate actions in moving those headquarters. 2. The PEST analysis a. Political Factors The political environment in which the association operates appears to be unstable. This status has recently turned to be much intense following the revolution due to the emergence of new political groupings. There are some promising expectations that the new democratically elected government will set new policies that are pro the civil society. The new policies are expected to contain modified laws that regulate taxation and provide more support and facilities to NGOs’ operations. The old government economic policies seemed to be incredibly inefficient resulting into a deteriorated national economic performance. This government had also no hand on regulating the marketing ethics of operating NGOs. Its major concern was on prohibiting religiously oriented activities and banning NGOs participation in the political life. b. Economic Factors The slowdown in Egyptian national economy has impacted the role of the association. This was reflected into low interest rates on savings and high interest charges on borrowings. The inflation rate continued to grow reducing the purchasing value of the Egyptian pound. The long-term prospects for the economy Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and other economic indicators will depend on the policies and procedures adopted by the new elected government. c. Socio-cultural Factors The dominant religion in Egypt is Islam. The association is not discriminating against either religion or gender. The partnership with morkoseya church is an evidence to support this claim. The role of women continues to grow largely and rapidly in the Egyptian society. They are becoming well educated, highly paid, and having a self commitment toward volunteer work. The majority of people the association is targeting its services are illiterate. The general population lacks a solid awareness regarding green environmental issues. This is a very important role of the association in advocating for a green environment and promoting green activities. These include reducing consumption and disposal rates, saving energy, recycling disposed items†¦etc. d. Technological Factors Technological innovations make life easier for all. The association utilizes as many of the technological facilities like wireless connections, fax, and international calls to carry out daily activities. The emphasis should be directed toward strengthening association’s technological infrastructure to be able to do business through online communication channels. There are strong promises regarding what the future can bring to the civil society in general and to the association in particular. This is manifested in several key points. First: the majority of people are becoming motivated to volunteer work. Second: the increased public awareness of the importance of civic and collective actions in contrast to confining the role of the individual to achieve purely personal goals. Third: the strong promises and positive perception maintained by the majority of the poor toward the role of the civil society due to government failure to satisfy their needs. Forth: the diversity in working areas removes many of the restrictions imposed on the civilian work. Fifth: the potential for cooperation from the new elected democratic government. Sixth: the potential for receiving huge inflows of international donors’ funds. Finally, the presence of many initiatives aimed at community and society renaissance that could be built upon. Conclusion and Recommendations Based on the previous systematic analyses, the following conclusions are reached. The selected association is one of an above medium size. It has several branches covering a range of governorates in Egypt. In addition to that it has multiple international partnership agreements abroad with some countries like Kuwait and Dubai. It is innovative due to the creativity exercised by its members in proposing and launching new project initiatives given the limited financial and physical resources available to them. The diversity of its projects adds to its effectiveness by solving problems in multiple critical areas. Administratively, the association can be run more efficiently than its current status. The overhead costs can be controlled so that not to exceed 10% of the annual budget. This can be achieved through cutting back on hospitality, renting, and utilities expenses or finding a sponsor company to offer them for free. The remainder of the budget should be entirely devoted to implementing key projects and programs. Once those two objectives are met – keeping O. H costs to the minimum and maximizing the pool of resources available to projects – the association can enhance its reliability and credibility as perceived by the various stakeholder groups. It has to overcome one of its critical weaknesses which is the deficient public media coverage. Adopting innovative promotional campaigns, through media, flyers, and positive word of mouth, can bring in extra revenues, many volunteers individuals or corporations, government support, and a favorable public image. It has to integrate advanced sophisticated techniques to save institutional memory for the next generations. Applying digital archiving, video and audio recordings of important projects, seminars, and events, keeping records of association’s best practices are all effective methods to save memory beside the conventional paper-based archiving mechanism. Web presence is very critical to the association. It is not well developed because the current website is down and the main gate to potential members is through the social media like the face book. Thus, developing a full featured website can provide good communication channels for the association both locally and internationally. The association has to allow potential members to register online. The composition of the board of directors needs some adjustments. A combination of co-founders, highly prestigious figures, wealthy capitalists, experienced technocrats – given the fact that they are all politically and religiously unbiased will allow the association to leverage each party’s privileges respectively. The reason is that co-founders are well informed about the association, its mission, vision, goals and have an intuitive inner commitment to achieve them. The highly prestigious, well known, famous, and rich members – who represent the status symbol can bring in extra money through their special donations and strong contacts with bureaucrats. The wealthy capitalists can have a win-win situation. On the one hand, they can enjoy public credibility and commitment toward social responsibility and on the other hand they will cash in the association to derive this legitimacy. Experienced technocrats can propose better structural reforms, manage operational complexities, and implement strategies to improve performance by capitalizing on strengths and overcoming weaknesses. The association is membership-based and it serves multiple interests. It channels members’ annual fees to implement projects serving members of the poor communities. It also develops the skills and competencies of its members in return for their volunteer time, money, and efforts. The non-profit nature of the association should not hinder its attempts to implement profit-based projects. These projects are important to cover the high overhead cost, keep an emergency fund â€Å" to hedge against bad economic conditions,† invest surplus in revenue earning initiatives, finance new developmental projects, and finally keep work flow smoothly while enjoying the tax exemption privilege. Providing full fledged free support should be only restricted to severe cases. These include very poor, eldery, disable, and young sick children in highly marginalized areas. Otherwise, providing services should have something in return. For example, providing microfinance for poor families can be balanced against donating a certain percentage of periodical revenues to fund other projects. One more thing that should be emphasized specially after the revolution of January 25th is augmenting international funding options. The association has to devise an effective strategy to share a large portion of international donor money coming into Egypt to support democracy. Only with a clear schedule of valuable projects, the association can guarantee international donors’ support without facing the threat of policy conditionality i. e. , imposing a certain development agenda on fund recipient as a condition to be granted the money. This can secure association’s activities financially, allow it to cover O. H costs, implement expansion plans, and better serve society’s compelling needs. General recommendations to improve the civil society in Egypt; 1. The presence of a regulatory environment for transparency rather than for control. 2. Ensuring enough flexibility in law application and enforcement i. e. , the law versus the implementation issue. 3. Promoting an openness commitment to partnership between government and public institutions and the civil society. 4. Supporting a bottom-up approach to development from donors’ side. 5. Supporting the creation of institutions rather than only short or medium term programs to promote for sustainable development. 6. Mobilizing mechanisms to maximize the real value perceived by the beneficiaries from the donors’ dollars. Page (2011) mentioned that only 10 to 30 percent of this actual grant will go to the real beneficiaries. 7. Supporting the youth-led NGOs so that they can actually participate in leading the winds of change toward democracy in Egypt. P. S. for those interested in accessing the association for donations, or more research work, here are association’s contacts. Address