Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 9

Report - Essay Example In India, the impact of technology has seen her make commendable strides in the coffee industry. Italy, Brazil and India are all exporters of coffee. From the culture differences in these nations, it would be preferable to lay coffee shops in Brazil and Italy compared to India. No place comes to mind more readily than Italy when you think of passion for coffee per excellence (Halevy 57). A large proportion of India’s production is for export. One may also argue that there is less competition if we decided to put a chain of coffee shops in India. This is in comparison to Brazil and Italy. The Brazilian coffee market has been stable over time and the projections for the next four years are seen to be positive. According to Euromonitor.com, the on-trade channel is expected to grow to a value of 35% by 2019 (28). In Italy, market fluctuations are prevalent, and the industry is widely hit by the global recession and unforeseen inflation. India’s coffee industry faces the same challenges. Therefore, it would be prudent to venture in Brazil despite the stiff competition. Taking competition as one of the factors differentiating these countries, investment in Brazil should be done in the form of mergers with the existing coffee operators. This will lessen competition. However, investment in Indian will require fully owned shops and less or no mergers. Taking geographical location as a factor, the rural and semi-urban India is driving the economy of the coffee industry. In Brazil and Italy, the urban areas promote the market for coffee consumers. As a marketing strategy, India will see more coffee shops set, in the countryside, to drive

Modern Japan and Meiji Restoration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Modern Japan and Meiji Restoration - Essay Example The Charter Oath, which was promulgated made very democratic and great pledges that would see Japan people being involved in decision making regardless of their social status as well as embracing the natural law of nature. This was a very important step made by the Meiji in transforming Japan people and putting them ready for new improved Japan (Goto-Jones 42-46). Privileges introduced were absolutely different and were meant to propel Japan into a civilized system of governance. Meiji Restoration was driven by the need to create a very powerful nation with strong political structures that could not be humiliated by the Western powers simply because their system of governance was exotic compared to the Westerners’. The new administration wanted the Western powers to respect Japan and treat them as equal partners and as a way of reducing humiliation brought about by unequal treaties. Influence on demands of foreign powers was imminent in Japan and therefore it was significant for japan to institute strong legal and political system (Goto-Jones 42-46). Indeed, the new government fought tirelessly to stop cultural imperialism that was imposed by the Western powers and in the end, treaties were renegotiated after riots and protests in Japan. Japan now had a formal constitution that governed them and there was evidence of imperial power in Japan. They even managed to organize a civilized military power, which was used in defeating powerful China (Goto-Jones 42-46). Generally, the reforms in Japan during Meiji Restoration were as a result of both domestic and international pressures. The regime was pressurized to form their own state because of the powerful foreign forces, which they were not pleased with. Yes, there was need to remain an independent state and this was even part of the Tokugawa project. Traditional Japanese injustices and the

No more excuses, Hollywood needs to hire more female directors Research Paper

No more excuses, Hollywood needs to hire more female directors - Research Paper Example Sexism in Hollywood is real and such unacceptable situation for female film directors persists partially because the society at large is reluctant to take measures in order to address the problem and fix it once and for all. A young film director Lexi Alexander is not the only one who might think that Hollywood needs to put lame excuses aside and finally start hiring more female film directors. However, she is obviously one of few in film industry, who has courage to admit that the problem of gender inequality in Hollywood is not solved today just because the troubleshooting has been sabotaged at the highest level for years. There is no need to unmask conspiracy in here but it is utterly important to understand that the problem of sexism in Hollywood cannot be solved if it is only talked about with no real practical steps being taken to change the situation for better. And the first step for those, who have a enough enthusiasm to eliminate gender-based discriminatory practices, might be tapping out and acknowledging the fact that the main problem within the context of gender inequality in Hollywood is... indifference. As a matter of fact, male film directors are satisfied with the way it is right now in Hollywood, even if nobody articulates that. Those who are in charge of major Hollywood filmmaking companies are not interested in changing the existing status quo either because they are sexists themselves, who consciously encroach on female directors legitimate rights, or they are unaware of the problem and believe that there is just not enough female film directors in movie-making industry. Those who are unwilling to fix the problem of gender inequality within the framework of film industry often say that there are not enough female film directors to choose from and women are just not interested in directing the way

Organizational Culture of Toyota

Organizational Culture of Toyota Toyota is a globally recognized automobile manufacturer. It is one of the top auto mobile manufacturers in North America. Passion, integrity, and innovation are element of great importance at Toyota. It is an innovation leader in the industry, and well known for its philosophy of management its mass market hybrids. Toyota is delivering diverse line up of vehicles around the globe. The integrity, innovation and passion are extended beyond the vehicle manufacturing; this statement by Toyota is backed by procedures and policies that are practiced at Toyota. Toyota has been distinguished among its competitors for its ability of forward thinking. In the current environment of rapid growth and development, Toyota plans in advance to deal with the prospected growth rate and demands of diverse market. For Toyota to predict the growth in future, start must be from looking behind to their past. Behind the Toyotas remarkable success, there is excellent corporate culture of Toyota that hires the people as individuals not employees. At Toyota, everyone involved in the process strives for excellence and committed to his duties. Lean manufacturing practices of Toyota helps it move fast toward incorporation of TQM in its organizational process. Toyota has strong relationship with its all stakeholders and remarkably with its suppliers and customers. There is high degree of understanding between Toyota and its suppliers that enables Toyota to use Just in time technique of inventory. Toyota understands well about the fact that people possess different abilities and skills and these skills are their strengths, thus its exploits as many possible talents of its employees in one area and able to create great opportunity for growth within the corporation. Diversified employment approaches are used y Toyota that helps to generate a set of new ideas for future growth and become the leader of automobile industry by incorporating these ideas (Christensen, Overdorf, 2000), not only on loc al basis but also globally. From top ten official business strategies of Toyota is to recruit brightest and best among candidates, this strategy also help Toyota to create new opportunities for partnership. This approach of Toyota, help it to build an image of Toyota that it is committed to excellence. Ethics and social responsibility are of basic concern of Toyota. Ethics begins with core value of Toyota and whole process goes with these ethical set of values, creating a distinction as the Toyotas way. Despite having a very diverse workforce, there are no prejudices or stereotypical assumptions are apparent at Toyota, as there is a fair policy (Liker, 2004), that is concerned to hire the best and talented employees for company that can be source of leadership and innovation at Toyota. Due to its concern for society Toyota has a positive corporate image, a company that believe in helping people to improve their quality of life. In this regard Toyota is working with many organizations, universities, schools, and other businesses in support of programs that are beneficial for our world. Rules/norms at Toyota: Some important rules and norms at Toyota include the following: Respect for human rights: At Toyota, people are respected for their human rights. There are no discriminating practices on the basis of gender, race or ethnicity, age, religious, physical disability or material or social status. Intimidation or work place harassment is not tolerated at all (Yu, 2008). Toyota provides social protection to its employees and remuneration in accordance with local regulations. Safe and healthy working environment: Providing safe, healthy and comfortable working environment is the ultimate priority at Toyota. Systems at Toyota are designed to prevent disasters and accidents (Gowen Iii, Tallon, 2003). If any disaster or accident occurs, Toyota will cease the all related areas of operation and try to save and rescue the people. Team work: A culture of team work and cooperation is supported and practiced at Toyota, to achieve objectives and tasks effectively and efficiently and strive to enhance the capabilities of individuals and organization. All individuals at superior positions such as managers, supervisors etc. will encourage the team work (Gowen Iii, Tallon, 2003) and guide their subordinates to perform their duties efficiently. Customer opinion is an invaluable asset: Toyota has greater concern for the safety of its customers and thus provides adequate information to them on new safety related equipment that helps them to operate the vehicles in safe and sound manner. Honoring and observing the terms of contract: Toyota takes due note on terms and conditions of its contracts with it research and development partners and show full honor and respect for them (Liker, 2004). For such agreements, all relevant laws and regulations are considered. Contents for restrictions on joint research are always considered and practiced according to regulatory requirements of different countries. Organizational hierarchy of Toyota: Toyota is a multinational corporation; major decisions come from Toyota motors Japan. There is three tier executive systems at Toyota, executive vice president, senior managing director and managing officer who deals and manages the group affairs. Decision making lies on the side of executives in Japan. In Toyotas structure following important attributes include: Decision making is based on centralized style as major decisions are made at top level of management in Japan. Authority to make important decisions is retained at top of the hierarchy. To group the job tasks, Toyota uses departmentalization of different types, functional departmentalization, product departmentalization, geographic departmentalization and cross functional departmentalization namely. Toyota has tall hierarchal structure of organization as it has several layers of management between top level and frontline employees. There is narrow span of control, 49 managing directors at every department (Marksberry, 2012). Due to its rigid hierarchal structure, formalized communication system, tall structure and centralized decision making, Toyota can be said to have highly mechanistic structure (Sako, 2004). In Toyota every employee has not only to answer superior authority or manager, but also to engineer who representing the interests of customer. So it crosses a traditional structure with product structure. Finally it is a boundary less organization with no definite design. Toyota is managed to create strategic alliance. Internal communication practices at Toyota: At Toyota motors, written communication takes place at all levels of business. Corporate communications and newsletter writings are the vital elements that have kept staff informed and publically perceived notion of reliability and credibility that is highly important to its bottom line and given corporate and company image. To disseminate information from corporation, notice board is used. This way of communication is not so effective as people commonly ignore and do not read news from it. Bulletins are also used at Toyota which is an effective tool of internal communication. Bulletins are placed in front of counters or offices which are open to every member of organization. In order to pass urgent messages, Toyota motor uses cell phones as tool of internal communication. Telephones and cell phones are part and parcel of communication at Toyota Motor Corporation. Instant messaging allows staff at Toyota to communicate effectively and efficiently, as this system is featured with inst ant acknowledgement or reply. E-mail as a mean of communication is also popular practice at Toyota. Face to face interaction and communication also takes place. All these means of communication used at Toyota, plays critical role in passing important and necessary messages that help build the company. Planning and decision making at Toyota: As the hierarchal structure of Toyota reveals that important commands and decisions come from the top management in Toyota. Top management makes decision and then these decisions are communicated for implementation at lower levels. There is tell type of culture for decision making at Toyota. Top management issues commands and orders and seeks for implementation. Leadership at Toyota: Toyota perceives lean as continuous improvement and respect for people, embodying in two simple but powerful concepts (Cusumano, Kentaro,1998). Respect of people for Toyota lean leadership is viewed as having long term partners in business that mines the value by challenging people to stretch themselves and grow (Liker, 2004). By lean leadership approach in place, people who are not so challenging and are stagnant, are handled in nice way, they find opportunity to grow and enhance their capabilities by participating under process of continuous improvement. Conclusion: This paper provides a detailed view of organizational culture and characteristics of Toyota. Toyota has culture that is attributed with, commitment to excellence, respect for all inside the organization, concern for all stake holder including community, strong ethical values and code of conduct, hiring talented and bright people without any discrimination of race, ethnicity. Toyota has structure of mechanistic organization in decision making style. There is centralized decision making takes place at Toyota (Takeuchi, 2008). As far as communication system of Toyota is concerned, different effective tools for internal communication are used by Toyota such as bulletins, newsletters, email and text messaged and telephone system and face to face communication method. All these tools are used in mix to have effective and quick communication at workplace. Toyota is committed to excellence and in this journey, it not only uses lean manufacturing techniques but approach of lean leadership is also being practiced at Toyota (Cusumano, Kentaro, 1998), that helps Toyota to move forward towards process of continuous improvement.

Rhetorical Analysis of a Manual :: essays research papers

Rhetorical Analysis: Quick Start Guide of an MP10 MP3 Player Audience The audience of the Quick Start Guide (QSG) is going to be composed of men and women who have purchased the mp3 player or received it as a gift. The owners of an MP10 mp3 player may or may not have experience using an mp3 player, and even if they do, the experience may not be with this exact model. One way the designers of the QSG allow for a wider audience is by providing a Spanish alternative to the English side. The reader of this guide needs thorough instructions and diagrams in order to begin operating the MP10 as quickly as possible. For this reason, the instructions are laid out in numerical order to introduce the user to the different features and options that are available. These instructions correlate with diagrams of the MP10. Callout boxes point out the buttons and their functions to allow the user of the QSG to use as much or as little of the guide as they desire. One can assume that because of varying levels of technological knowledge, a user of the guide would want to be informed on all of the capabilities the MP10 possesses. The reader may ask a question like; What is possible with this expensive mp3 player? In turn, the designers of the QSG have to display the functions of the MP10 without turning the guide into a complete owner’s manual. The user of the guide wants to use a feature of the MP10 as quick as possible, and probably doesn’t want to read that much in order to do so. Therefore, the readers’ design preferences include solid diagrams, distinct headings, and comprehensive directions without being overly long. Purpose The overall purpose of the QSG is to inform the reader how to use the MP10. The designer of the guide had to display each of the potential functions of the player and provide the short, yet complete instructions associated to performing each task. A QSG is exactly what the title suggests, a brief way of introducing the MP10 to a user. It is not an all-inclusive owner’s manual, but a guide with the intent of allowing the user to find their specific function in one of the bolded headings and follow the instructions to perform the task. Knowing that most buyers of electronic equipment want to get their purchase home as soon as possible and put it to use is the issue that generated the QSG. Rhetorical Analysis of a Manual :: essays research papers Rhetorical Analysis: Quick Start Guide of an MP10 MP3 Player Audience The audience of the Quick Start Guide (QSG) is going to be composed of men and women who have purchased the mp3 player or received it as a gift. The owners of an MP10 mp3 player may or may not have experience using an mp3 player, and even if they do, the experience may not be with this exact model. One way the designers of the QSG allow for a wider audience is by providing a Spanish alternative to the English side. The reader of this guide needs thorough instructions and diagrams in order to begin operating the MP10 as quickly as possible. For this reason, the instructions are laid out in numerical order to introduce the user to the different features and options that are available. These instructions correlate with diagrams of the MP10. Callout boxes point out the buttons and their functions to allow the user of the QSG to use as much or as little of the guide as they desire. One can assume that because of varying levels of technological knowledge, a user of the guide would want to be informed on all of the capabilities the MP10 possesses. The reader may ask a question like; What is possible with this expensive mp3 player? In turn, the designers of the QSG have to display the functions of the MP10 without turning the guide into a complete owner’s manual. The user of the guide wants to use a feature of the MP10 as quick as possible, and probably doesn’t want to read that much in order to do so. Therefore, the readers’ design preferences include solid diagrams, distinct headings, and comprehensive directions without being overly long. Purpose The overall purpose of the QSG is to inform the reader how to use the MP10. The designer of the guide had to display each of the potential functions of the player and provide the short, yet complete instructions associated to performing each task. A QSG is exactly what the title suggests, a brief way of introducing the MP10 to a user. It is not an all-inclusive owner’s manual, but a guide with the intent of allowing the user to find their specific function in one of the bolded headings and follow the instructions to perform the task. Knowing that most buyers of electronic equipment want to get their purchase home as soon as possible and put it to use is the issue that generated the QSG.

Ameritrade’s Cost of Capital Essay

Executive Summary After careful analysis of Ameritrade and comparable companies, I have estimated a 14.784% cost of capital that should be used to evaluate Ameritrade’s upcoming investments in technology and advertising. After analyzing the historical return on Ameritrade’s investments, I have concluded that if the firm manages this project at least as well as its previous investments, the return on the proposed project will exceed the cost of capital resulting in a positive NPV project. Based on the estimated cost of capital, relative to the company’s historical returns on investment, I recommend that Ameritrade undertakes this investment project. I believe that the estimated cost of capital is appropriate because it is partly based on a set of companies where the main source of revenue is similar to that of Ameritrade, deep discount brokerage companies. In addition, the nature of the project is to increase the customer base of Ameritrade, a frequent and archetypal venture for a deep-discount brokerage firm. Because Ameritrade has very limited data due to its recent IPO, I will be using the comparable data of Waterhouse Investors, Quick and Reilly Group Incorporated, and Charles Schwab Corporation to estimate Ameritrade’s levered beta using a bottom-up approach. I will be using these comparables because they are all characterized as deep-discount brokerage firms with similar sources of revenue. I used data from 1992-1996 because in my experience, I have found that five years of data provides a reasonable and precise measure of information. It should be noted that I consistently used the same amount of data from five calendar years for all of Ameritrade’s comparables. The key stakeholders involving this decision are management and those providing the capital, both debt and equity, for this new undertaking. For these stakeholders, priority lies in the return of the investment, the success of the company, and the ability to meet the financial obligations of the firm. These priorities can be best predicted with my provided estimation of the cost of capital in relation to the company’s historical return on investment. Market Overview As Ameritrade continues to grow and make investments in projects, it is important to realize the effect the market has on the brokerage. One thing I want to emphasize is the direct correlation between the deep discount brokerage market and the stock market. While the S&P 500 during the last two years (1995 and 1996) have had returns of 34.11% and 20.26% respectively, it is easy to be optimistic about the health of the economy and the performance of the company. In the case of an economic downturn, Ameritrade should be ready for a decrease in consumer activity and should consider diversification. Perhaps taking on other types of activities such as investment banking roles like mergers, acquisitions, and security underwritings would also be wise. This would diversify away some of the risk involved in strictly deep-discount brokers. Ameritrade should also be conscientious of the very price-sensitive nature of its consumers when evaluating this investment. My calculated cost of capital i s subject to a variety of factors affected by the uncertainty of the future. For instance, it is conceivable that the company’s beta will change over time due to the dynamic characteristics of the market and the economy. In addition, stakeholders could change their comfort regarding the degree of risk aversion, which would affect the market risk premium. In order to mitigate the risk, Ameritrade could place a premium cost of capital on top of my estimated cost of capital when discounting future cash flows. This would mitigate the risk of future cash flows that are too optimistic in potentially harsh economic times. I believe that this would be an appropriate way to help stakeholders feel more comfortable with investments, especially investments as large as this advertising and technology project. In order to estimate the cost of capital of Ameritrade, I had to determine standard parameters, such as beta, from comparable companies because of Ameritrade’s recent IPO and subsequent short track record of performance. I was able to obtain comparable companies’ betas by way of running a regression on the returns of the companies in relation to the return on the market, or the S&P 500. By applying Ameritrade’s capital structure to the comparable companies’ unlevered beta, I was able to approximate the beta of Ameritrade. I was subsequently able to estimate the cost of equity assuming the same capital structure prior to the prospective investment with the  Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). I used CAPM to find the cost of equity for this particular project, not to evaluate the potential change in the process. The capital asset pricing model can be used in evaluation of the cost of capital because it reflects the reward for postponing consumption, the relative amount of systematic risk, and the reward in the market for bearing systematic risk. Thus I can estimate the cost of capital using the true systematic risk. I believe that in the future, a capital structure consisting of more debt may lower the weighted average cost of capital and keep a larger proportion of the benefits of the project to the current stakeholders, while keeping in mind that Ame ritrade should abstain from taking on too much debt considering its sensitivity to the market. I used three comparable companies to estimate Ameritrade’s cost of capital: Waterhouse Investors, Quick and Reilly Group Incorporated, and Charles Schwab Corporation. These deep-discount brokerage firms, along with Ameritrade, source most of their revenues through transactions and net interest. Situation Overview The WACC is a measurement of the riskiness of the firm as a whole and can be applied to standard company projects. Ameritrade has been first movers on introducing features such as an automated phone trading service and an online trading platform in the deep discount brokerage market. Both of these investments are characterized by substantial investments in technology, as is the proposed project. Based on this, I consider the stated project as a typical project of the firm, yielding an average risk equal to that of Ameritrade’s nature. Therefore, I find that evaluating the stated project with WACC as a hurdle rate of whether to undertake the project is correct. One of the parameters that has a large effect on WACC is the capital structure applied in the calculations. In my calculations of the WACC of 14.783%, I assumed a debt to equity ratio of 0.261. I based this on the balance sheet numbers you provided me with for the two available years; it is a weighted? average of the two years of data. When looking to the market comparables Quick and Reilly Group Incorporated and Charles Schwab Corporation, one can see that the debt to equity ratio of Ameritrade is an industry standard. I decided to omit Waterhouse Investors for this comparison because of their atypical capital structure. In the calculation  of the WACC, debt has the advantage that it brings a tax shield since interest on debt is tax deductible. Therefore taking on more debt relative to equity can be profitable to a certain point where, cost of potential financial distress for undertaking that extra debt is less than the value of the interest tax shield. In addition, taking on too much debt carries the risk of major credit rating agencies downgrading the company, where eventually, debt becomes too costly because the cost of potential financial distress is greater than the value of the interest tax shield. Therefore, the management in the evaluation of the investment must have a clear focus on which capital structure is the optimal for Ameritrade in the future. Below I have done a sensitivity analysis of the WACC that should be applied in the evaluation of the investment project in relation to the capital structure. D% – E% 10/90 20/80 30/70 40/60 WACC 14.54% 14.32% 14.11% 13.89% Based on these calculations, I would recommend that management look into the optimal capital structure after the proposed investment. While keeping in mind the disadvantages of taking on too much debt, I would recommend a higher, though incremental, debt to equity ratio. I found Ameritrade’s after-tax cost of debt to be 7.28%. To find Ameritrade’s after-tax cost of debt, I collected the credit rating of Ameritrade’s outstanding debt through Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency. Ameritrade’s debt is currently rated at B+. The default spread on B+ corporate debt is listed at 5.01 on 10-year debt obligations. To find the cost of debt you add this number to the risk-free rate, which as of August 1997 is 6.69%, and multiply that number by 1 subtracted by the corporate tax rate of Ameritrade. The corporate tax rate of Ameritrade I found to be 37.7%, by averaging Ameritrade’s tax rates  over the two available years. It should be noted that the default-spread rate applied in my calculations are projected rates, not current rates (2014). The risk free rate of applied throughout my calculations is the annualized yield to maturity of a 20-year government T-bond has and has a yield of 6.69%. I have chosen to use this because I consider the proposed investment project a long-term investment. When choosing the risk-free rate, there can be no uncertainty about reinvestment rates in the calculations, meaning that one should use a zero-coupon bond with the same maturity as the project. The Market risk premium is defined as the difference between the expected return on the market portfolio and the risk-free rate; in other words, it is the compensation that risk adverse investors need to receive in order to invest in the market portfolio. I calculated the current market risk premium by finding the geometric average of the return on the market subtracted by a 20-year government T-Bond. I used the geometric average because we are valuing the average over a long period of time and the arithmetic average tends to overestimate the value. I then found the beta by using a bottom-up analysis. The bottom-up approach tends to make the standard error of the beta much lower than other types of analyses. In addition, the bottom-up approach can reflect the current and the expected future beta of the company. I looked at the beta of the comparable companies and found the average of the betas over the 1992-1996-time period. I then had to un-lever the beta and then re-lever the beta by Ameritrade’s capital structure to find Ameritrade’s levered beta. By using this beta, I was able to calculate Ameritrade’s cost of equity to be 16.06% by using the Capital Asset Pricing Model. In terms of the size of the investment, increasing advertising expenses to $155 million and technology expenses to $100 million is a huge undertaking for Ameritrade. If you look at your total assets at the end of 1996, you will see that it values at a little more than $400 million. Thus, the investments of this project would be 64% of Ameritrade’s total assets. When looking at the comparable companies Schwab, Quick and Reilly, and Waterhouse, a similar investment would only be 2%, 6%, and 21% of their total assets respectively. Because the investment is so large for Ameritrade, in comparison to its competitors, Ameritrade should be conscientious of the enormity of the project and require a higher proportional return. After consulting the database of Bloomberg Financial  Records, I found that your return on assets and return on equity exceeded my estimated weighted cost of capital. Thus, I conclude that Ameritrade undertakes this project with full-invested confidence in the m anagement. Conclusion My extensive research on Ameritrade and its comparable companies yielded an estimated 14.784% cost of capital for this project. Because of the nature of the proposed investment, I decided that the WACC would be applicable to the project. While this project may require a significant amount of resources, an optimistic return like the one you proposed and the historical average of your return on assets and equity would more than make up for the costs. Therefore my recommendation based on my calculations is that this is an attractive investment opportunity for Ameritrade, to grow its customer base and revenue, which the management should accept. However it must be taken into account that the beta and thereby the cost of equity I used to calculate the cost of capital were influenced by the comparable companies because I used data of these companies in my estimation of Ameritrade’s beta. Further the beta is estimated on historical return and not the future return. Consumer preferenc es and market conditions may lead to a change in Ameritrade’s beta over the projects lifetime. Since the future is unknown estimating a historical beta is the best guess of what the future beta will be. The market risk premium that I have applied in my calculations is also a subject to the changes of the future. The market risk premium is the compensation a risk adverse investor needs in order to invest. In periods of economic and financial depression, this market risk premium will increase resulting in a higher cost of capital. On the other hand, periods with good economic and financial conditions will lower the market risk premium. Further the market risk premium applied in my calculation is based on a projected default spread (2014) instead of the actual spread in 1996; this may be a source of variability. The capital structure of Ameritrade has a substantial effect on the cost of capital. In my calculations, I have applied the historical capital structure of Ameritrade. Increasing Ameritrade’s debt to equity ratio can bring down Ameritrade’s cost of capital. Therefore it would be in Ameritrade’s management best interest to look at the company’s future capital structure prior to this investment.  Ameritrade’s management should also look into the projected revenues of the investment. With projections ranging from 10% to 50%, only the most pessimistic forecasts are lower than the cost of capital of the project. However by cutting the transaction fees and thereby relying on a higher volume of executed trades can make Ameritrade even more susceptible to future economic depressions. As per my calculation, the size of the investment is proportionally large and must be treated in the most delicate manner. Ultimately, I suggest that management find the optimal capital structure before investing in this project. However, I do believe that with my calculated cost of capital in comparison to the average return on equity and return on assets, the investment will be a worthy venture.

An Analysis of Oroonoko by Aphra Behn Essay

Oroonoko is a short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn (1640–1689), published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African inSurinam in the 1660s, and the author’s own experiences in the new South American colony. Behn worked for Charles II as a spy during the outset of the Second Dutch War, ending up destitute when she returned to England, and even spending time in a debtors’ prison, because Charles failed to pay her properly, or at all. She turned her hand to writing in order to survive, with remarkable success. She wrote poetry that sold well, and had a number of plays staged, which established her fame in her own lifetime. In the 1670s, only John Dryden had plays staged more often than Behn. She began to write extended narrative prose toward the end of her career. Published less than a year before she died, Oroonoko is one of the earliest English novels. Interest in it has increased since the 1970s, critics arguing that Behn is the foremothe r of British women writers, and that Oroonoko is a crucial text in the history of the novel. Plot summary and analysis Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a relatively short novel concerning the Coromantin grandson of an African king, Prince Oroonoko, who falls in love with Imoinda, the daughter of that king’s top general. â€Å"Coromantee people† were Akan slaves brought from present-day Ghana, a polyglot band known for their rebellious nature. the sacred veil, thus commanding her to become one of his wives, even though she was already married to Oroonoko. After unwillingly spending time in the king’s harem (the Otan), Imoinda and Oroonoko plan a tryst with the help of the sympathetic Onahal and Aboan. They are eventually discovered, and because she has lost her virginity, Imoinda is sold as a slave. The king’s guilt, however, leads him to falsely inform Oroonoko that she has been executed, since death was thought to be better than slavery. Later, after winning another tribal war, Oroonoko is betrayed and captured by an English captain, who planned to sell him and his men as slaves. Both Imoinda and Oroonoko were carried to Surinam, at that time an English colony based on sugarcane plantation in the West Indies. The two lovers are reunited there, under the new Christian names of Caesar and Clemene, even though Imoinda’s beauty has attracted the unwanted desires of other slaves and of the Cornish gentleman, Trefry. Upon Imoinda’s pregnancy, Oroonoko petitions for their return to the homeland. But after being continuously ignored, he organizes a slave revolt. The slaves are hunted down by the military forces and compelled to surrender on deputy governor Byam’s promise of amnesty. Yet, when the slaves surrender, Oroonoko and the others are punished and whipped. To avenge his honor, and to express his natural worth, Oroonoko decides to kill Byam. But to protect Imoinda from violation and subjugation after his death, he decides to kill her. The two lovers discuss the plan, and with a smile on her face, Imoinda willingly dies by his hand. A few days later, Oroonoko is found mourning by her decapitated body and is kept from killing himself, only to be publicly executed. During his death by dismemberment, Oroonoko calmly smokes a pipe and stoically withstands all the pain without crying out. The novel is written in a mixture of first and third person, as the narrator relates actions in Africa and portrays herself as a witness of the actions that take place in Surinam. In the novel, the narrator presents herself as a lady who has come to Surinam with her unnamed father, a man intended to be a new lieutenant-general of the colony. He, however, dies on the voyage from England. The narrator and her family are put up in the finest house in the settlement, in accord with their station, and the narrator’s experiences of meeting the indigenous peoples and slaves are intermixed with the main plot of the love of Oroonoko and Imoinda. At the conclusion of the love story, the narrator leaves Surinam for London. Structurally, there are three significant pieces to the narrative, which does not flow in a strictly biographical manner. The novel opens with a statement of veracity, where the author claims to be writing no fiction and no pedantic history. She claims to be an eyewitness and to be writing without any embellishment or theme, relying solely upon reality. What follows is a description of Surinam itself and the South American Indians there. She regards the locals as simple and living in a golden age (the presence of gold in the land being indicative of the epoch of the people themselves). It is only afterwards that the narrator provides the history of Oroonoko himself and the intrigues of both his grandfather and the slave captain, the captivity of Imoinda, and his own betrayal. The next section is in the narrator’s present; Oroonoko and Imoinda are reunited, and Oroonoko and Imoinda meet the narrator and Trefry. The third section contains Oroonoko’s rebellion and its aftermath. Biographical and historical background Oroonoko is now the most studied of Aphra Behn’s novels, but it was not immediately successful in her own lifetime. It sold well, but the adaptation for the stage by Thomas Southerne (see below) made the story as popular as it became. Soon after her death, the novel began to be read again, and from that time onward the factual claims made by the novel’s narrator, and the factuality of the whole plot of the novel, have been accepted and questioned with greater and lesser credulity. Because Mrs. Behn was not available to correct or confirm any information, early biographers assumed the first-person narrator was Aphra Behn speaking for herself and incorporated the novel’s claims into their accounts of her life. It is important, however, to recognize thatOroonoko is a work of fiction and that its first-person narrator—the protagonist—need be no more factual than Jonathan Swift’s first-person narrator, ostensibly Gulliver, in Gulliver’s Tra vels, Daniel Defoe’s shipwrecked narrator in Robinson Crusoe, or the first-person narrator of A Tale of a Tub. Fact and fiction in the narrator Researchers today cannot say whether or not the narrator of Oroonoko represents Aphra Behn and, if so, tells the truth. Scholars have argued for over a century about whether or not Behn even visited Surinam and, if so, when. On the one hand, the narrator reports that she â€Å"saw† sheep in the colony, when the settlement had to import meat from Virginia, as sheep, in particular, could not survive there. Also, as Ernest Bernbaum argues in â€Å"Mrs. Behn’s ‘Oroonoko'†, everything substantive in Oroonoko could have come from accounts by William Byam and George Warren that were circulating in London in the 1660s. However, as J.A. Ramsaran and Bernard Dhuiq catalog, Behn provides a great deal of precise local color and physical description of the colony. Topographical and culturalverisimilitude were not a criterion for readers of novels and plays in Behn’s day any more than in Thomas Kyd’s, and Behn generally did not bother with attempting to be accurate in her locations in other stories. Her plays have quite indistinct settings, and she rarely spends time with topographical description in her stories.[2] Secondly, all the Europeans mentioned in Oroonoko were really present in Surinam in the 1660s. It is interesting, if the entire account is fictional and based on reportage, that Behn takes no liberties of invention to create European settlers she might need. Finally, the characterization of the real-life people in the novel does follow Behn’s own politics. Behn was a lifelong and militant royalist, and her fictions are quite consistent in portraying virtuous royalists and put-upon nobles who are opposed by petty and evil republicans/Parliamentarians. Had Behn not known the individuals she fictionalizes in Oroonoko, it is extremely unlikely that any of the real royalists would have become fictional villains or any of the real republicans fictional heroes, and yet Byam and James Bannister, both actual royalists in the Interregnum, are malicious, licentious, and sadistic, while George Marten, a Cromwellian republican, is reasonable, open-minded, and fair.[2] On balance, it appear s that Behn truly did travel to Surinam. The fictional narrator, however, cannot be the real Aphra Behn. For one thing, the narrator says that her father was set to become the deputy governor of the colony and died at sea en route. This did not happen to Bartholomew Johnson (Behn’s father), although he did die between 1660 and 1664.[3] There is no indication at all of anyone except William Byam being Deputy Governor of the settlement, and the only major figure to die en route at sea was Francis, Lord Willoughby, the colonial patent holder for Barbados and â€Å"Suriname.† Further, the narrator’s father’s death explains her antipathy toward Byam, for he is her father’s usurper as Deputy Governor of Surinam. This fictionalized father thereby gives the narrator a motive for her unflattering portrait of Byam, a motive that might cover for the real Aphra Behn’s motive in going to Surinam and for the real Behn’s antipathy toward the real Byam. It is also unlikely that Behn went to Surinam with her husband, although she may have met and married in Surinam or on the journey back to England. A socially creditable single woman in good standing would not have gone unaccompanied to Surinam. Therefore, it is most likely that Behn and her family went to the colony in the company of alady. As for her purpose in going, Janet Todd presents a strong case for its being spying. At the time of the events of the novel, the deputy governor Byam had taken absolute control of the settlement and was being opposed not only by the formerly republican Colonel George Marten, but also by royalists within the settlement. Byam’s abilities were suspect, and it is possible that either Lord Willoughby or Charles II would be interested in an investigation of the administration there. Beyond these facts, there is little known. The earliest biographers of Aphra Behn not only accepted the novel’s narrator’s claims as true, but Charles Gildon even invented a romantic liaison between the author and the title character, while the anonymous Memoirs of Aphra Behn, Written by One of the Fair Sex (both 1698) insisted that the author was too young to be romantically available at the time of the novel’s events. Later biographers have contended with these claims, either to prove or deny them. However, it is profitable to look at the novel’s events as part of the observations of an investigator, as illustrations of government, rather than autobiography. Models for Oroonoko There were numerous slave revolts in English colonies led by Coromantin slaves. Oroonoko was described as being from â€Å"Coromantien† and was likely modeled after Coromantin slaves who were known for causing several rebellions in the Caribbean. One figure who matches aspects of Oroonoko is the white John Allin, a settler in Surinam. Allin was disillusioned and miserable in Surinam, and he was taken to alcoholism and wild, lavish blasphemies so shocking that Governor Byam believed that the repetition of them at Allin’s trial cracked the foundation of the courthouse.[4] In the novel, Oroonoko plans to kill Byam and then himself, and this matches a plot that Allin had to kill Lord Willoughby and then commit suicide, for, he said, it was impossible to â€Å"possess my own life, when I cannot enjoy it with freedom and honour†.[5] He wounded Willoughby and was taken to prison, where he killed himself with an overdose. His body was taken to a pillory, â€Å"where a B arbicue was erected; his Members cut off, and flung in his face, they had his Bowels burnt under the Barbicue†¦ his Head to be cut off, and his Body to be quartered, and when dry-barbicued or dry roasted†¦ his Head to be stuck on a pole at Parham (Willoughby’s residence in Surinam), and his Quarters to be put up at the most eminent places of the Colony.†[5] Allin, it must be stressed, was a planter, and neither an indentured nor enslaved worker, and the â€Å"freedom and honour† he sought was independence rather than manumission. Neither was Allin of noble blood, nor was his cause against Willoughby based on love. Therefore, the extent to which he provides a model for Oroonoko is limited more to his crime and punishment than to his plight. However, if Behn left Surinam in 1663, then she could have kept up with matters in the colony by reading the Exact Relation that Willoughby had printed in London in 1666, and seen in the extraordinary execution a barbarity to graft onto her villain, Byam, from the man who might have been her real employer, Willoughby. While Behn was in Surinam (1663), she would have seen a slave ship arrive with 130 â€Å"freight,† 54 having been â€Å"lost† in transit. Although the African slaves were not treated differently from the indentured servants coming from England (and were, in fact, more highly valued), their cases were hopeless, and both slaves, indentured servants, and local inhabitants attacked the settlement. There was no single rebellion, however, that matched what is related in Oroonoko. Further, the character of Oroonoko is physically different from the other slaves by being blacker skinned, having a Roman nose, and having straight hair. The lack of historical record of a mass rebellion, the unlikeliness of the physical description of the character (when Europeans at the time had no clear idea of race or an inheritable set of â€Å"racial† characteristics), and the European courtliness of the character suggests that he is most likely invented wholesale. Additionally, the character’s name is artificial. There are names in the Yoruba language that are similar, but the African slaves of Surinam were from Ghana. Instead of from life, the character seems to come from literature, for his name is reminiscent of Oroondates, a character in La Calprenà ¨de’s Cassandra,which Behn had read.[6] Oroondates is a prince of Scythia whose desired bride is snatched away by an elder king. Previous to this, there is an Oroondates who is the satrap of Memphis in theÆthiopica, a novel from late antiquity by Heliodorus of Emesa. Many of the plot elements in Behn’s novel are reminiscent of those in the Æthiopica and other Greek romances of the period. There is a particular similarity to the story of Juba in La Calprenà ¨de’s romance Clà ©opà ¢tre, who becomes a slave in Rome and is given a Roman name—Coriolanus—by his captors, as Oroonoko is given the Roman name of Caesar.[7] Alternatively, it could be argued that â€Å"Oroonoko† is a homophone for the Orinoco River, along which the English settled, and it is possible to see the character as an allegorical fi gure for the mismanaged territory itself. Oroonoko, and the crisis of values of aristocracy, slavery, and worth he represents to the colonists, is emblematic of the new world and colonization itself: a person like Oroonoko is symptomatic of a place like the Orinoco.