Sunday, December 29, 2019

George Lucas s Star Wars - 1015 Words

George Lucas s Star Wars, is one of America s most prominent modern epics. The same can be said for Joss Wedon s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They share many similarities, most notably in their respective hero s journey. Both stories are told through modern mediums, television and cinema, rather than clay tablets or written word. This change of medium is a product of the time period the works were created in, and reflects the massive technological advances of the last century. In 1977, the United States was in a seemingly perpetual state of animosity towards the Soviet Union. The Cold War had stretched on for almost three decades. The U.S was in the middle of the malaise period where fuel prices were skyrocketing, and the national debt was rising. The Iranian Hostage Crisis started just six months before The Empire Strikes Back was released into theaters. The future looked bleak, and literature of the period reflected that. Grim dystopias were the order of the day in science fiction. T hen came Star Wars, a futuristic tale coated in a shell of fantasy, chivalry, bravery and knighthood. It promised hope, in a time where societies had little left to spare. This lead to the unexpected and unprecedented success of Star Wars. Inversely, Buffy was created in a time where the wounds of the past were present. However, the future looked bright. The Cold War was over. America was the dominant superpower of the era. Business was booming, and technology was advancing ever moreShow MoreRelatedStar Wars : Episode Iv A New Hope1225 Words   |  5 Pages Pop Culture Milli Loos 9/9/16 The first Star wars movie â€Å"STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE† was a game changer in the world of movies. According to the National Information Services, LLC â€Å"STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE† made $1,554,475 just in the opening weekend on May, 25,1977 and made a whopping $786,598,007 according to the worldwide box office ticket registry. Box Office History for Star Wars Movies. Star Wars Franchise Box Office History. Nash Information Services, LLC., n.d. WebRead More George Lucas: One of the greatest filmmakers Essay1444 Words   |  6 Pages George Lucas: One of the greatest film makers â€Å"With the exception of maybe a handful of people, no one has made an impact on the movie making world like George Lucas has. With hundred of hours of film with his mark out there, Lucas has amazed his audiences time and time again with expert story telling† (The Gods of Filmmaking). George Lucas has written, directed, and produced countless films, many of which are some of today’s most highly regarded films by critics all over the world. â€Å"George Lucas’sRead MoreGeorge Lucas s The New Hollywood1114 Words   |  5 PagesGeorge Lucas founder of Lucasfilm Ltd. (1971), director, writer, producer known for his creativity, due to the film Star wars and TV series Indiana Jones. â€Å" A Filmmaker, visionary and entrepreneur, George Lucas has not only changed the way we experience film and filmmaking but also revolutionized film industry practices and standards.† â€Å" George Lucas, on an economic, aesthetic and cultural level, has contributed more th an any other individual to the shaping of the New Hollywood and is, by far, oneRead MoreThe Origins of Star Wars801 Words   |  4 PagesOrigins of Star Wars† Not so long ago in a galaxy a bit closer to home, George Lucas crafted one of the most iconic movies of all time. That movie was soon followed by a series of mind bending movies that captured the hearts and minds of generations up to this day. From light saber duels to the destructive power of the Death Star, Star Wars is one movie saga that we are all familiar with. But how did this captivating series come to be? How did it all begin? Just how did George Lucas come up withRead MoreDisney s Roster Of Heroes1013 Words   |  5 PagesLightyear and Iron Man in Disney s roster of heroes (USA Today). Disney Chairman and CEO Robert Iger, along with Star Wars creator George Lucas, set the financial world and nerd-universe on their ear when they announced that Disney was purchasing Lucasfilm for the out-of-this-world sum of $4 billion (the same amount they paid for Marvel) (Screenrant). Disney is buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion, adding the legendary Star Wars franchise to the entertainment giant s stable of characters. Lucasfilm isRead MoreStar Wars is a science fiction universe, created by the minds of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg,1000 Words   |  4 PagesStar Wars is a science fiction universe, created by the minds of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, which has been taking the world by loved since the 70’s. With its only main competitor being Star Trek, Star Wars has becoming ever more popular ever since its first red carpet premiere in 1977. There are six known movies, 2 different cartoon television series, countless merchandise sold, and much more. Recently Disney spent $4 billion for the ownership rights of the franchise. Was this a good ideaRead MoreStar Trek And Star Wars1101 Words   |  5 Pagesscience fiction phenomena—Star Trek and Star Wars— appear to have the same basic creative foundations; both were designed to speak to Americans in need of social and moral guidance. George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry were responding to th eir own social times and acted upon the contemporary issues that faced America in the sixties and seventies.† -Lincoln Geraghty â€Å"Creating And Comparing Myth In Twentieth-Century Science Fiction: Star Trek and Star Wars.† Star Trek and Star Wars are science fiction franchise’sRead More The contemporary Hollywood blockbuster is not so much a film as a dev1631 Words   |  7 Pageseasily reducible narrative, which offer a high degree of marketability. This marketability might be based upon stars, the match between a star and premise or a subject that is fashionable. For these movies to earn more money in other merchandising, they are normally easily reduced to a single image. Such as a man flying for Superman (1978), or the two robots, R2D2 and C3PO from Star Wars(1978). This reducibility of narrative to a single image lends its self to the tactile representation of the filmRead MoreStar Wars : The Phantom Menace933 Words   |  4 PagesDuring the summer of 1999, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace stormed theaters with a wave of anticipation that was unprecedented. By that point, Star Wars was assumed to be a thing of the past – until George Lucas decided to revisit his beloved creation. It sent fans into a frenzy of immeasurable proportions, lighting a fire in the adolescent hearts of millions and millions†¦and millions. But, then something strange happened. The Phantom Menace wasn’t the Star Wars we all knew and loved. It was riddledRead MoreFilm and Its Impact on the American Culture1076 Words   |  4 Pagesinvented by William George Horner in which pictures were put into slots and spun around and when these were viewed through a mirror the images would appear to move. The Zoetrope was later adapted by Eadwaerd Muybridge into the Zoopraxinoscope in 1878 while settling a bet on if a horse’s hooves left the ground while it was galloping by setting up 12 cameras. Each one was hooked up to a trip wire so when the horse tripped them the camera takes a photo of the horses hooves. Later in 1888 George Eastman designed

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Return On Capital employed (McBride plc) Example

Essays on Return On Capital employed (McBride plc) Essay Introduction Critical study of capital structure attempt to show the growth in capital employed and also explains the mixture of securities as well as other capital sources use by corporation and individuals to finance any real investment. Most of the research on capital structure focuses on the proportions of equity to debt ratio observed on the company’s balance sheet statement. Considering the first landmark work of Millar and Modigliani (1963), a number of theories would be used to predict and explain the company leverage behavior as one of the key cornerstone for determining the worthiness of a sound investment. Therefore this research will provide a more insight into empirical determent of the target capital structure of McBride Plc so as to evaluate the return on capital employed which is the main component is assessing the money value realized by any investor in the shares of this companies that are listed in the UK stock exchange. Return on capital employed is conside red to be the most appropriate and the best measure of profitability of any company in order to assess and determine the overall performance. It shows how well management has used the investment made by the creditors and owners into the business. For any investor who would like to make an appropriate and a profitable investment decision, then, determination of return on capital employed would be one of the key indicators of firm’s worthiness as well as financial soundness. Findings McBride is one of the largest suppliers of private personal care and labeled household product in its major markets in the United Kingdom and increasingly to Poland. It works so closely with the stake holder who has a significant influence on the ongoing success of the business. The group customers are the most leading retailers across Europe which has been achieved by maintaining and developing an excellent customer service relation. The UK market private Label House sales grows by 4 % in an overall market that grew by 1%, where as personal care also grew by 4%, this shows that group operates in a highly competitive and dynamic market characterized by increasing customer concentration, the growth of discount retailers, numerous private label as well as branded competitors evolving customer product preferences and the selling pressure. This positive and stable trend has given McBride an advantage over other rival companies, therefore guaranteeing all the investors a higher return of the capital employed while investing in this company. The capital structure of McBride shows a constant common stock of 18.1M for all the three year and a huge additional capital. This clearly indicates that the company is anticipating to improving the financial position in future. Analysis To determine the growth of McBride Company, there is need to screen the companies year to year as well as three year growth in the overall sales and earnings which is preferable 20% 0r above for any financially sound company. Where as, the return on capital (ROC) should be at least 10% so as to find some potential competitive advantage over investors. According to the findings above, there is more capital employed in to business so as to finance the company operation rather than over relying on debt as a source of capital. In determining the capital employed the following formulas is used; Return on capital employed=fixed assets+ investment+ Current assets Net capital employed= Fixed assets+ investment+ working Capital Where working capital =current assets-current liabilities Comparing the three consecutive years 2009, 2010 and 2011, based on the balance sheet statement provided in the appendix 1, the following results would be used to evaluate the progress to the company in order for the investor to make a health investment decision. In the year 2009, ROCE=227.5+1+203.6=432.1 NCE=227.5+1+ (203.6-220.4) =211.7 In the year 2010, ROCE=220+1+218.1=439.1 NCE=220+1+ (218.1-229.3) =209.8 In the year 2011, ROCE=265.9+1+252.1=519 NCE=256.9+1 + (252.1-278.9) =231.8 % growth in = (231-209)/209*100=22% The result shows that the overall return on capital employed is increasing from the year 2009 to 2011, which shows a positive growth of 22% as seen in the current period computation. This is attributable as a result or more sale made by the company which intern increases the amount of revenue collected. A growth of investment strategy can be combined with the value investing concept so as to give a performance a lift and limit the downside risk exposure. One has to remember buying growth companies stock when the prices are cheap i.e. growth at a reasonable price (GARP) and later sale when the prices are high so as to realize more returns. Conclusions The investment strategy adopted by the client is referred to as growth investing strategy which involves investing in accompany that grows very fast. Any stock with superb growth prospect, financial health, steady growing stock price and expanding profitability tend to attract more investors, fund managers and bankers who are the key movers of the market. Considering the calculation in determining the overall return expected for investing in McBride plc, then it is worthy for the client to invest his pound one million in this companies. This amount will considerably be realized in future as the market condition of UK is guaranteed as well as the company performance is anticipated to perform better. Appendix 1: McBride Plc Balance sheet statements for the three years (2009, 2010, 2011)    2011 2010 2009 Period End Date 06/30/2011 06/30/2010 06/30/2009 Assets          Cash and Short Term Investments 9.6 5.0 2.8 Total Receivables, Net 149.1 133.8 128.8 Total Inventory 81.6 69.9 68.0 Prepaid Expenses 5.5 3.6 4.0 Other Current Assets, Total 6.3 6.3 0.0 Total Current Assets 252.1 218.6 203.6             Property/Plant/Equipment, Total - Net 190.9 179.9 189.2 Goodwill, Net 34.9 32.9 29.7 Intangibles, Net 3.7 5.4 5.7 Long Term Investments 0.0 0.0 0.0 Note Receivable - Long Term 0.0 0.0 0.0 Other Long Term Assets, Total 3.1 3.5 3.1 Other Assets, Total 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total Assets 484.7 440.3 431.3 Liabilities and Shareholders Equity          Accounts Payable 169.5 141.4 133.3 Payable/Accrued 0.0 0.0 0.0 Accrued Expenses 35.6 39.5 38.8 Notes Payable/Short Term Debt 46.5 15.0 25.7 Current Port. of LT Debt/Capital Leases 0.8 0.4 0.8 Other Current Liabilities, Total 26.5 33.0 21.8 Total Current Liabilities 278.9 229.3 220.4 Total Long Term Debt 46.0 49.6 58.7 Deferred Income Tax 11.4 11.4 14.3 Minority Interest 0.6 0.6 0.0 Other Liabilities, Total 23.0 25.3 19.4 Total Liabilities 359.9 316.2 312.8 Redeemable Preferred Stock 0.0 0.0 0.0 Preferred Stock - Non Redeemable, Net 0.0 0.0 0.0 Common Stock 18.1 18.1 18.0 Additional Paid-In Capital 139.9 143.5 143.5 Retained Earnings (Accumulated Deficit) -33.2 -37.5 -43.9 Other Equity, Total 0.0 0.0 0.9 Total Equity 124.8 124.1 118.5             Total Liabilities Shareholders’ Equity 484.7 440.3 431.3                                  Bibliography; Rajang, R, G, Zing ales, L, 1977, what do we know about capital structure choice? Some evidence from international data, Journal of Finance, 50(5), 14212-60 Ro, B, T, 1999, the disclosure of capital information and stock prices, Journal of accounting research, 16(2), 315-340 Beattie, V, Edwards, K, 2003, Issue concerning Business reporting: an analysis of the views of interested parties, British Accounting Review, 35(2), 155-187 Bevan, A, A Dan bold, J, 2002, Capital structure and its determination in the UK, applied financial economics, 12(3), 159-170 Hertz, R, H, 2003, a year of change and change for the FASB, accounting horizon, 17 (3), 247- 255 http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt.aspx?lstStatement=Balancestmt View=Ann symbol=GB%3AMCB Joshi, L, P, Ramadan, S, 2002, adoption of international accounting standards by small and closely held companies: evidence from Bah ran, journal of accounting, 37(4) 429-440

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Qualitative Data Analysis-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Discuss about the International Business Teams by the Organizations. Answer: Introduction In this assignment, the purpose of the business research is finding out ways for generating as well as maintaining a dream team, which will assist in harvesting more success and doing the preservation as well as promotion of better environment. The goal of this business research is evaluating the ways to manage a virtual team effectively. The nature, process and strategy of the business research The research work is mainly delving with the building of the international business teams by the organizations. The major challenge that the business managers within the global teams are facing is associated with the capability for accessing and utilizing the strengths of each member and doing the minimization of the losses that Research design and planning the research process I did the designing of the research process by offering the reader with certain information as well as strategies towards the implementation and management of the virtual teams. For planning the research process, certain research questions have been cited. I have also performed several studies to build and manage virtual teams to focus on the factors regarding trust as well as technology (Bryman 2015). Literature Review and Writing Business Research I did the preparation of the literature review by stating that development of the team in addition to teamwork is considered being a bigger challenge in respect of any company. In respect of navigating the leader of the team successfully in the correct direction there is an absolute requirement to understand the several developmental stages regarding the team as well as their role towards all the developmental phase within the team (Ott 2015). I had considered the ethical and legal conditions relating that was associated with the aspect of business research due to various reasons. Primarily, they are assisting in the promotion of aims of research that are based on the information and ways to avoid committing mistakes. Then, there will be the promotion of the values via the ethical standards that are essential regarding the collaboration of the work (Miles 2013). In two stages, I have conducted the qualitative research such as the basic level and superior level. I will take into consideration the method regarding coding and data sorting in respect of the substance relating to the investigation. Moreover, I did the consideration of the participant observation tool towards the collection of data in respect of individuals, methods as well as cultural scenarios concerning qualitative research. In addition, data collection methods in respect of qualitative research will include the interview process, inspection process as well as assessment process regarding various documents. (McMillan 2014). To undertake qualitative research method, I focused on the two processes that include the interview process and the focus group process. In respect of designing the structure of the interview, the questions that I have framed were done in such a manner that it provided adequate research knowledge and did the addressing of research objectives and plans. I have designed the question structure towards being open-ended, having clarity as well as being impartial. (Hair 2014). Moreover, to do the generation of information that was depending upon shared aspect, I did the utilization of the focus groups. This will take into consideration the condition for research that was associated with the types of group, different processes, as well as exploration of a topic or collection of narratives, which will be used later. Qualitative Data Analysis I did the design of the research study and determined whether participant observation tool will be used as the method of data collection. The various qualitative techniques for analyzing the data has been used in the research study such as content evaluation, grounded evaluation, social network evaluation, discourse evaluation, and so on. In addition, data collection methods in respect of qualitative research will include the interview process, inspection process as well as assessment process regarding various documents (Good 2013). Quantitative research sampling and its nature In respect of quantitative research, I have conducted the method of sampling to provide an explanation regarding the target group, selecting a sampling structure, determining the selection of a method of sampling that based on probability or non-probability technique. In addition, to plan the selection process regarding the sampling units, I have determined the sample size, made the selection of actual sampling units and ultimately conducted the fieldwork. Regarding the selection of the sampling methods, I have considered the probability sampling and non-probability sampling methods. (Glesne 2015). Designing of Questionnaire In majority, I did the using of non-structured interviewing process that comprised of open-ended questions and the use of structured interviewing method was very much restricted, as because there will be close-ended questions in such questionnaires. (Friese 2014). Evaluation of the content In respect of the data collection process, I have utilized the method of structured observation, which comprised of two key traits. Moreover, there will occur content analysis via the texts that are considered being written, oral, audio-visual and so on. Regarding the sampling process, I have considered two sampling methods, which are known as probability sampling as well as non-probability sampling. Four kinds of random samples have been selected in this regard such as random, stratified random, cluster and methodical. In addition, I will be using the non-random sampling method that will comprise of quota sampling, purposive sampling and convenience sampling. (Erikkson 2013). Amalgamation of quantitative and qualitative research I have undertaken the scenario of combining the data via the consideration of two characteristics regarding the amalgamation of quantitative and qualitative research, such as integrated design and component design. The scenario of component design included the aspect of data collection independently and then I combined it at the end for interpreting as well as concluding (Rustici 2013). Conclusion From this assignment, it can be stated that the business research has been conducted in respect of the global economy and for this reason the qualitative and quantitative approaches have been considered. Regarding the sampling process, I have considered two sampling methods, which are known as probability sampling as well as non-probability sampling. Four kinds of random samples have been selected in this regard such as random, stratified random, cluster and methodical. References Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015.Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA. Eriksson, L., Byrne, T., Johansson, E., Trygg, J. and Vikstrm, C., 2013.Multi-and megavariate data analysis basic principles and applications. Umetrics Academy. Friese, S., 2014.Qualitative data analysis with ATLAS. ti. Sage. Glesne, C., 2015.Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson. Good, P.I. and Good, P., 2013.Resampling methods: A practical guide to data analysis. Springer Science Business Media. Hair Jr, J.F. and Lukas, B., 2014.Marketing research. McGraw-Hill Education Australia. McMillan, J.H. and Schumacher, S., 2014.Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry. Pearson Higher Ed. Miles, M.B., Huberman, A.M. and Saldana, J., 2013.Qualitative data analysis. Sage. Ott, R.L. and Longnecker, M.T., 2015.An introduction to statistical methods and data analysis. Nelson Education. Rustici, G., Kolesnikov, N., Brandizi, M., Burdett, T., Dylag, M., Emam, I., Farne, A., Hastings, E., Ison, J., Keays, M. and Kurbatova, N., 2013. ArrayExpress updatetrends in database growth and links to data analysis tools.Nucleic acids research,41(D1), pp.D987-D990