Charles Ponzi Essay Example

Charles Ponzi Essay Name: Course: Instructor: Date: We will write a custom essay sample on Charles Ponzi specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Charles Ponzi specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Charles Ponzi specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Charles Ponzi Charles Ponzi was born in Parma, a city in Italy from a family that had its recognition as being prosperous. He was born as Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi on the third day of March in 1882, to his parents known as Roberto and Maria Ponzi (Dunn, 16). He was infamous for his fraudulent and swindler lifestyles. To date his schemes were regarded as among the worst in the United States resulting in the term â€Å"Ponzi Scheme† for what is considered as Ponzi scheme (Zuckoff, 21). His schemes were synonymous with promises of doubling the funds and the purchase of postal coupons with claims of substantial returns on investments. Ponzi arrived in the United States on November 15 1903, in Boston, in the state of Massachusetts. This was on the vessel S.S Vancouver. He carried with him the hopes of achieving the American dream. He had gambled all of his savings during his voyage into the United States. During his stay in the East Coast of the United States, he performed odd jobs to enable him survive. In Boston, he managed to work as a dishwasher, and he was later promoted to a waiter. However, he was later laid off for claims of theft and shortchanging the restaurant customers. In the year 1907, he opted to move north into Montreal where he sought employment. He was lucky and managed to get employment at a new bank in the city that had just started operations known as Banco Zarossi. The bank’s owner Luigi Zarossi, aimed at tapping into the large Italian consumer market living in the city of Montreal (Zuckoff, 39). The bank at the time issued a 6% return of bank deposits, which was significantly higher than the going market rate at the time. This was one of the main attractions of consumers to the bank resulting in rapid growth of the bank. Ponzi was later appointed as the bank manager of Banco Zarossi (Dunn, 28). However, it became evident to Ponzi that the entity was not as profitable as it implied because Zarossi used funds form newly opened bank accounts to pay for the enormous interest rates. The bank eventually collapsed, was closed, and Zarossi ran away to Mexico with all the funds saved by the populace in Montreal. Ponzi had come into the United States to find employment. Ponzi was later arrested in Montreal for forging a check of $423 that he aimed to use to travel back to the United States. He was later released in the year 1911 and was involved in a crime for smuggling illegal Italian immigrants through the border. He was arrested and sent into the Atlanta Prison where he spent another two years in prison. This prison played a momentous responsibility in influencing him into the world of crime and specifically that of fraud and theft. He befriended an infamous mobster by the name Ignazio Lupo alias â€Å"the Wolf†. In addition, he also befriended a Wall Street businessperson by the name Charles W. Morse who was also in the same prison (Dunn, 33). Ponzi, after release, went back to Boston and married Rose Gnecco in the year 1918. He was unable to find appropriate employment and opted to work in the home product store that was owned by the father to his wife. During this period, he came up with an idea to make money through advertising and started his individual advertising company, which failed. In the same period, a Spanish firm wrote to him with interests in the catalog. The letter was accompanied by an International Reply Coupon that he thought had a weakness that would enable him to make money. An international reply coupon was used by people for payment of postage of a reply after receipt from a correspondent. Such were usually charged at the price tag of the postage from the country where the post originated. The IRC’s could be used to make exchanges for stamps in the country of receipt; hence, there was potential from making a profit by the recipient of the IRC. Thus, the newfound idea by Ponzi could be simply termed as arbitrage, in that an asset was purchased from one country and sold in another country for a massive profit. Ponzi claimed that such exchanges would result in excesses of more than 400%. He began his scheme by sending money to his relatives in Italy to make purchases of the vouchers, and then forward them to the United States. However, this resulted in an alarm by the authorities after he tried to redeem numerous coupons. His scheme materialized, and he began to employ agents and reward them with good commissions for the dollars that they brought in terms of the investments. This spread the word about the rapid growth of the firm that he had started and named Securities Exchange Company. His deposits of the funds collected happened in the Hanover Trust Bank of Boston (Dunn, 73). He hoped to attain a large stake in the bank and bought shares with some of his friends who had helped him in the growth of the scheme. From his previous skills and experience as a bank manager in Montreal, he applied identical tactics used by Zarossi and paid the clients with new deposits of funds with promises of vast returns (Dunn, 36). His scheme, however, brought about suspicion given the short rise to wealth by Ponzi, coupled by the rapid growth of his entity given the short period between inception and substantial returns achieved. His day of reckoning began with the claims from McMaster of the presence of fraud, theft and irregularities from the incriminating evidence found in the financial records held by the Securities Exchange Company. The Post in Boston later published that Ponzi had been earlier involved in crimes such as the forgery and fraudulent activities of the Banco Zarossi, where he worked as the Bank manager. This claims played a vital position in the crash of the Hanover Trust Bank given that Ponzi had borrowed massive amounts from the entity, which he could not repay with his swindled money. In addition, despite the numerous investments that were received by the bank in from of checks, his account was in the negative given his large overdrafts to furnish the interest payments (Zuckoff, 44). The fall of the Hanover Trust Bank was also followed by an additional collapse of another five banks. The investors in his scheme lost amounts estimated to be about $20 million, in the year 1920, which could be translated to about $225 million as at the year 2011. After his arrest, he was almost awarded bail, a decision, which was later withdrawn after more incriminating evidence, came into light that showed he had committed significant financial misdeeds. In addition, he was denied bail because he was considered as a flight risk given the large amounts of investments in his name, which could easily enable him to escape from the United States. The investors of this scheme received less than $30c for a dollar of investment (Dunn, 41) He was arrested and charged with two federal indictments and eighty-six mail fraud counts. With potency for a lifetime in prison, Ponzi pleaded guilty to the charges based on pressure from his wife, in the year 1920. He received a prison term of five years that was to be served in a federal penitentiary, due to his involvement in instigating one of the largest defrauding schemes in the world. He was later released after a period of forty-two months but was immediately rearrested by the Massachusetts State on charges of Larceny. He had been promised by the Federal courts that his guilty plea would waiver any other criminal charges against him in his concoction of the fraudulent scheme. Ponzi sued the state with claims that it did not have any jurisdiction to charge him, given that he was a state prisoner. In the year 1922, in one of the larceny charges hearings, he was self-represented since he had inadequate funds to find proper legal representation. He was able to actualize his smooth talking skills and was found not guilty by the jury. In the second charges, he was charged on five counts of larceny resulting g in a jury deadlock. However, during the third trial he was found guilty by the courts and sentenced to nine additional years in jail. Federal agents worked to have him deported given that he had not obtained American citizenship since his arrival in the United States in 1903. In addition, he was released on bail and fled to Florida and initiated another fraudulent scheme known as the Charpon Land Syndicate with the first words as initials for his name. He sold land to people majority of which was swampy in the county of Columbia. He was indicted by the Grand Jury of the state of Florida, specifically in the Duval County in the year February 1926. He posted bond of $1,500 and was released. He tried to flee but was arrested in New Orleans and served seven years in the state of Massachusetts. After his release in the year 19 34, he was met with an order for his deportation back to Italy given the harm he had caused to the American people (Dunn, 57) Ponzi always stands as one of the greatest concocters of fraudulent schemes in the United States resulting in the infamous term â€Å"Ponzi Scheme† to refer to any fraudulent schemes with promises of high returns. Ponzi was able to disclose the presence of loopholes within the postal industry, which enabled the postal services around the world to find new forms of postage to prevent the presence of fraud. In addition, he also enabled the American populace to proceed with caution in relation to investments that promise suspiciously higher returns than the average market returns on any investment. In essence, his schemes were a valuable lesson for the American society in relation to management of individual funds and the necessity for evaluation of investments and investment entities. Work Cited Dunn, Donald. Ponzi: The Incredible True Story of the King of Financial Cons (Library of Larceny) (Paperback). New York: Broadway, 2004. Print. Zuckoff, Mitchell. Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend. New York: Random House, 2005. Print.

Names of Occupations and Job Titles in Spanish

Names of Occupations and Job Titles in Spanish Chances are that when you start talking with native Spanish speakers, one of the first things youll talk about is your jobs or occupations- or what you hope to do someday. Heres a guide to talking about occupations in Spanish along with a list of the most common types of jobs. List of Occupational Names Many of the job titles below seem familiar, as many are English cognates, having come from Latin. Keep in mind, though, that in a few cases the meanings in similar-sounding titles dont always line up exactly, sometimes because of cultural differences. A secondary-school teacher in Latin America, for example, might be known as a profesor, while in the United States, at least, the word professor is used primarily at the university level. In this list, the masculine forms are given. The feminine forms are given following a slash (/) in cases where they dont follow the rules above. Note also that different words may be used in some areas, or for certain specialties. Accountant- contador, contableActor/actress- actor/actrizAdministrator- administradorAmbassador- embajadorArchaeologist- arqueà ³logoArchitect- arquitectoArtist- artistaAthlete- atleta, deportistaAttorney- abogadoBaker- panaderoBarber- barberoBartender- mesero, cantineroBeautician- esteticistaBiologist- bià ³logoBusinessman/businesswoman- hombre/mujer de negocios, empresarioButcher- carniceroCaptain- capitnCarpenter- carpinteroChemist (pharmacist)- armacà ©uticoChemist (scientist)- quà ­micoChief executive officer- director generalClerk (office worker)- oficinistaClerk (retail worker)- dependienteCoach- ntrenadorComputer programmer- programadorCook- cocineroDancer- bailarà ­n/bailarinaDentist- dentistaDoctor, physician- mà ©dicoDriver- conductorEditor- redactorElectrician- electricistaEngineer- ingenieroFarmer- agricultor, granjeroFirefighter- bomberoFlorist- floristaGeologist- geà ³logoGuard- guardiaHotelier, innkeeper- hoteleroJeweler- joyeroJournalist- cronistaKing/que en- rey/reinaLandlord- dueà ±oLawyer- abogadoLibrarian- bibliotecarioMail carrier- carteroMechanic- mecnicoMidwife- comadronaMinister (politics)- ministroMinister (church)- pastorModel- modelo (no separate feminine form)Musician- mà ºsicoNurse- nfermeroOptometrist- optà ³metraPainter- pintorPharmacist- farmacà ©uticoPilot- piloto (separate feminine form rarely used)Poet- poetaPresident- presidente/presidentaProfessor- profesor, catedrticoPsychologist- sicolà ³gicoRabbi- rabinoSailor- marineroSalesman/saleswoman- dependiente, vendedorScientist- cientà ­ficoSecretary- secretarioServant- criadoSocial worker- asistente socialSoldier- soldadoStudent- estudianteSurgeon- cirujanoTeacher- maestro, profesorTherapist- terapeutaVeterinary- veterinarioWaiter- camarero, meseroWelder- soldadorWriter- escritor Grammar of Occupations Gender One matter of some confusion can be the gender of the occupational names. In many cases, the same word is used to refer to a man as to a woman. For example, a male dentist is el dentista, while a female dentist is la dentista. In some cases, there are distinct forms, such as el carpintero for a male carpenter and la carpintera for a female carpenter. In many cases, both forms can be used to refer to a female. For example, the boss is el jefe if hes male, but either la jefe or la jefa if shes female, depending on the region and, sometimes, whos speaking. Similarly, la mà ©dica is used to refer to a female doctor in some areas, but in other areas la mà ©dico is used and/or might be considered more respectful. In nearly all cases, using la with the masculine form is the safer choice if youre not sure of local usage. Otherwise, the feminine form of the occupations ending in -o are formed by changing the -o to an -a. Occupations that end in -dor are changed to -dora for the feminine. Occupation names that already end in -a are the same in masculine or feminine. Use of the Indefinite Article Unlike English, Spanish does not use the indefinite article- a or an in English, and un or una in Spanish- when specifying someones occupation: No soy marinero; soy capitn. (I am not a sailor; I am a captain.)Mi madre es profesor de ciencia. (My mother is a science teacher.)Felipe Calderà ³n era presidente de Mà ©xico. (Felipe Calderà ³n was president of Mexico.)Se hizo actriz extraodrinaria. (She became an extraordinary actress.) However, the article can be used in other situations, such as when talking about an occupation in general: Un actor es una persona que interpreta un papel. (An actor is a person who plays a role.)El juez condenà ³ a un dentista por hacer extracciones innecesarias. (The judge sentenced a dentist for performing unnecessary extractions.) ¿De dà ³nde saca la inspiracià ³n un escritor? (Where does a writer get inspiration from?) Some occupation names can be used in ways characterize actions rather than referring to occupation, in which case the article can be used. Todos sabà ­an que el despota era un carcinero psicoptico. (Everyone knew the dictator was a psychopathic butcher).Mi moto es un psicolà ³gico, y la velocidad mi terapia. (My motorcycle is a psychologist, and speed my therapy.) Key Takeaways Many occupations names in Spanish are similar to those of English because they both come from Latin.The indefinite article (un or una) is not typically used when referring to someones occupation.Separate feminine and masculine forms exist for the names of some occupations, although their use varies across regions.

Why do consumers purchase fair trade products Discuss Essay

Why do consumers purchase fair trade products Discuss - Essay Example The traditional theories of consumer behaviour were strongly related to the rational aspect of consumers whereas in the present scenario the consumers buy more of justice, intangibility and conscience. The issue of ethical consumerism has gained its importance in the recent times which clearly states that while making purchase decisions the factor of ethics is highly integrated by the consumers. The concept of fair trade can be related to an organized social movement with a goal to help the producers located in developing countries to make the best practices of trading and even to encompass sustainability. The fair trade practices comprise of high environmental and social standards and even advocates a higher price payment to the exporters. It is a kind of trading partnership that is based majorly on transparency, respect and dialogues that secures more of equity in the practice of international trade (Ransom, 2006, pp. 94-95). The major benefit of such fair trade is that it tries to establish the best conditions for trading and even secures rights for those marginalized workers or producers. These fair trade practices usually demands for the support of the consumers in order to raise awareness, campaign for changes, and even support the producers so as to eliminate the loopholes that are in conventional trading. There are certain fair trade organizations such as FLO Intern ational, World Fair Trade organization, Network of European Worldshops, European Fair Trade Association that involves into various forms of ethical marketing programs and aims at selling fair trade products mainly through supermarket channel so as to create a real impact through large volumes of product sales. The fair trade products provide the opportunity to the customers to shop everyday and help to reduce the level of the poverty across the world and develop a bright future (White, Macdonnell and Ellard, 2012, pp. 103-118). The fair trade mark on the

Using Facebook at Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Using Facebook at Work - Essay Example People tend to spend hours and hours of their time stocking other profiles, uploading photos, commenting on photos, updating their statuses and catching up with their numerous friends. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Tagged, etc. although prove beneficial in building up your social network and strengthening relations its use has many adverse effects as well particularly when you are using Facebook while you are at your workplace. Using Facebook at work place has a very few advantages and benefits in comparison to the great many drawbacks and threats it poses to its users as well as the security of the office or the company. Though the use of Facebook is permitted in some companies but many companies have banned the use of Facebook during work hours or limited the access for its users. Advancements in technologies and introduction of smartphones and other multi-purpose devices have made the access to such networking very easy and have brought about problems fo r the offices and companies who do not allow its use. These sites may be of great use if used domestically or at home because it helps you to keep you linked to all your family members, friends, colleagues, workmates and to build new acquaintances but it certainly is not of much use while used during office hours (Sutherland 2011). Executives and managers of many different offices and companies do not allow the use of Facebook to their employees during the office hours. The offices have mentioned in their policy that it is strictly prohibited to use Facebook while at work and can have serious implications if found using in the office. The major reason why the officials are against of using Facebook is that they are major attention diverters. When you get yourself logged into Facebook and start navigating through the page it seems as if the world has stopped behind you and you do not realize how much you have spent just scrolling through pages, visiting

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Case Study Example Hertz offer fantastic customer experience in providing best cars and comfort as par as the car hire is concern. The combination of great brand value and the potential financial efficiencies made the Hertz one of the most profitable business leaders in the business. Hertz business was matured and profitable enough to be acquired. The initiative from the CD& R financial partners David Wasserman, Micheal Baiarz and Nathan Sleeper on a capital structure which would have lowered the Hertz capital cost was really beneficial for CD&R. The Hertz was a potential investment opportunity as Hertz business was mature and competitive in all the countries where they had their business fleets. The CD&R’s Consortium is well-known as CCM which includes the Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private equity; both of them are the most dominating companies in the business scenario. On August 30th the CCM submitted its final bid of five point four billion dollars including a request that Ford make a certain tax election which would step up the tax basis of Hertz asset. However, there were some several companies who had submitted the final bid on the same date and among them one is the private equity consortium, composed of Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Texas pacific

Organizational controls and structure in business

Organizational controls and structure in business Introduction Organizational structure can be defined as the formal system of task and authority relationships that control how people coordinate their actions and use resources to achieve organizational goals. (Jones, et al, 2010)  [i]   Organizational structure specifies: The firms formal reporting relationships, procedures, controls, and authority and decision-making processes; and, The work to be done and how to do it, given the firms strategy or strategies Developing an organizational structure that effectively supports the firms strategy is difficult, especially because of the uncertainty about the cause-effect relationship in the global economys rapidly changing and dynamic competitive environments.  [ii]   Organizational Controls Organization Control includes any process designed to assure that organization plans are carried out the way they were designed. Control in the organizational context can be classified as: 1. Strategic controls 2. Financial controls Strategic controls are largely subjective criteria intended to verify that the firm is using appropriate strategies for conditions in external environment and the companys competitive advantage.  [iii]  Strategic controls are concerned with examining the fit between: What the firm might do (opportunities in its external environment) What the firm can do (competitive advantages) Financial controls, on the other hand, are largely objective criteria used to measure the firms performance against previously established quantitative standards.iii Financial controls have two criteria: Accounting-based measures include: Return on investment Return on assets Market-based measures include: Economic Value Added (EVA) Relative use of controls varies by type of strategy. Large diversified firms using a cost leadership strategy emphasize financial controls. Companies and business units using a differentiation strategy emphasize strategic controls. In relation with organizational structure, organizational controls are important to measure the effect caused by a change in the structure. Relationships between Strategy and Structure Strategy and structure have a reciprocal relationship. Structure flows from or follows the selection of the firms strategy but once in place, structure can influence current strategic actions as well as choices about future strategies. Evolutionary Patterns of Strategy and Organizational Structure The relationship between organizations strategy and structure was studied extensively by Alfred D. Chandler in his legendary book Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise. According to Chandler (1962), firms grow in predictable patterns: First by volume Then by geography Then integration (vertical, horizontal) And finally through product/business diversification Chandler also says that a firms growth patterns determine its structural form. All organizations require some form of organizational structure to implement and manage their strategies. Firms frequently alter their structure as they grow in size and complexity. The three basic structure types are: Simple structure Functional structure Multidivisional structure (M-form) Global expansion structure The following figure explains the change in organizational structure with growth and strategy. D:Chap11graphicsMultidiv_fig 11.1.jpgD:Chap11graphicsFunctional_fig 11.1.jpgD:Chap11graphicsSimple_fig 11.1.jpg Efficient implementation of formulated strategy Efficient implementation of formulated strategy D:Chap11graphicsSalesHigher_fig 11.1.jpgD:Chap11graphicsSalesLower_fig 11.1.jpg Simple Structure A simple structure is where the owner-manager makes all the major decisions and monitors all activities while the staff serves as an extension of the managers supervisory authority. (C. Levicki, 1999). This type of a structure is matched with focus strategies and business-level strategies where firms commonly compete by offering a single product line in a single geographic market. Functional Structure A functional structure is a design that groups people together on the basis of their common expertise and experiences or because they use the same resources. (Jones, et al, 2010) Functional structure supports use of business-level strategies and some corporate-level strategies single or dominant business with low levels of diversification. Multi-divisional Structure The multi-divisional structure (M-form) consists of operating divsions, each representing a separate business or profit center in which the top corporate officer delegates responsibilities for day-to-day operations and business-unit strategy to division managers. Multi-divisional structure has three major benefits: Corporate officers are able to more accurately monitor the performance of each business, which simplifies the problem of control Facilitates comparisons between divisions, which improves the resource allocation process Stimulates managers of poorly performing divisions to look for ways of improving performance International Strategies and Worldwide Structures International strategies are becoming increasingly important for long-term competitive success in what continues to become a global economy. The following framework explains how organizations proper in a global economy: Global expansion strategies Global expansion strategies can be understood in terms of local responsiveness and geographical integration within the company. On the basis of these two parameters, four strategies of global expansion have been arrived at. These are: International strategy Multi-domestic strategy Global strategy Transnational strategy International Strategy In case of international strategy, firms decentralize all value-creation functions except for RD and marketing. Multi-domestic Strategy Multi-domestic strategy is oriented towards local responsiveness by decentralizing control to subsidiaries and divisions in each country. Global expansion Strategy Global expansion strategy is oriented towards cost reduction, with all the principal value-creation functions centralized at the lowest cost global location. Transnational Strategy In a transnational strategy some functions are centralized, while others are decentralized at the global location best suited to achieving these objectives. Transnational Global Expansion International integration Multi-domestic Strategy International Strategy Local Responsiveness An observation on structure and strategy The theory developed above is only a guideline to how organizations might structure themselves in their pursuit of growth and global expansion. However, these are not universal rules and many organizations have prospered in spite of structures completely out of sync with those discussed above. Organizations can also use structures which are a hybrid of those detailed above. This study analyses the cases of two organizations, ABB and Semco, which have used contrastingly different structures to implement their strategies. ABB File:ABB logo.svg Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) is seen by more and more global business leaders as the model of the way that organizations will have to operate to thrive in the 21st century-that is, streamlined in structure, rapid in transferring information, having employees who are highly empowered, committed to continuous learning, running world-class HRD programs, and team working and networking globally.  [1]   ABB became one of the most widely admired companies in the world, not because of its products, or its innovative technology, but because of its organizational structure. ABB prided itself on being an organization that its former CEO, Percy Barnevik, saw as being simultaneously global and local, big and small, centralized and decentralized. Formation of ABB: Merger of Asea Brown Boveri ABB was created by the merger in 1987-88 of two companies whose roots lie in the nineteenth century: Asea, founded in Sweden in 1890, and Brown Boveri, established in Switzerland in 1891. The two companies were among the surge of industrial enterprises established towards the end of the 19th century to provide equipment for the rapidly expanding electrical power industry, which involved generating, transmitting, and distributing power, and using it in industrial motors. The strategic commitment to the power industry and to a global strategy was demonstrated in a rapid series of alliances and acquisitions. These moves rapidly extended ABBs international reach into North America and Eastern Europe. The speed with which these acquisitions were integrated into ABB was attributed to the flexibility of its new organization design. Strategic Context ABBs largest business is producing and servicing the equipment for generating, transmitting, and distributing electrical power. The customers in this business are electric utilities around the world, many of which are state-owned or strongly state-regulated. Because national or local governments either directly own or indirectly control the utilities, they had a strong tendency to favor suppliers with a local manufacturing presence, both because local companies are contributing to the local economy and because they can be relied upon for servicing and replacement parts for the complex power systems, any breakdown of which can have enormous costs for local business and for the reputation of the utility. But they have also pressed suppliers to lower their prices and increase the lifetime of equipment, cutting profit margins for suppliers that are unable to achieve greater efficiency in production. ABB is also a world leader in rail transportation systems, such as locomotives, light rail vehicles, and signaling. Again, this is a business in which rail networks are state-owned or state-regulated and subject to the same somewhat contradictory pressures to manufacture locally and to be locally responsive to customers, while achieving efficiency through scale economies and cost savings. A third set of products in ABB is directed to a very different type of customer. Its building systems and industrial production systems are sold to industrial companies, whose concerns are much more focused on price. ABBs businesses require the company to be locally responsive and to maintain a credible local presence in each of its major markets, and simultaneously to be efficient and cost-competitive. Moreover, operating in 140 countries in a wide variety of product lines, many of which are closely related in the eyes of the customer, the company needs to have a high degree of intra-product and cross-product coordination if the company is to capture fully the benefits of its product diversity. However, it also needs to be able to respond quickly to customers and local problems, and to encourage its managers to take responsibility for their units. Organizational Design of ABB One of the first steps taken after the merger of Asea and Brown Boveri was announced in August 1987 was the creation of a task force of five top managers from each of the two companies to generate an organizational architecture for ABB. The task force had agreed on the principal features of the new organization. The structure was to be an international matrix of business and geography. The basic organizing principle was to create highly focused local companies reporting both to a worldwide business manager, who would be responsible for achieving efficiency in that product line and growing the business on a global scale, and to a country manager responsible for coordinating the various businesses within a particular country. In drawing up the shortlists for the high level managers, emphasis was placed on identifying flexible individuals who could cooperate in multi-cultural environments and for whom innovation, risk-taking and the ability to motivate others were almost second nature. One of the goals of the new design was to push accountability, decision-making, and the responsibility for action far down the organizational hierarchy. One of the first steps taken by the new top management was the radical reduction of the company headquarters. Within a few months, the headcount at corporate HQ in Zurich went from over 1,300 professional staff to just over 100. Another crucial step in the process was the design of a company-wide information system, called ABACUS (Asea Brown Boveri Accounting and Communication System).ABACUS collected monthly performance data from each unit, put it into a standard currency (US dollars), and transmitted the information to its main data processing center in Sweden, which compiled the data and passed it to the top managers at the Swiss headquarters and to the designated managers at each level of the company. The basic unit on which performance data are collected for ABACUS is the profit center, the smallest organizational unit in the new organization. Each month they report their performance data to the next highest level of the organization, the local operating company/Business Unit (BU) , which in turn put the data into the ABACUS system. The local operating company composed of two or more profit centers and focused on single business and market. ABBs strategy was to concentrate on radically reducing costs in each site, reducing throughput times, maximizing design and production flexibility, and focusing on local customer needs. The local operating company president had CEO responsibilities for his operations. However, the heads of the local operating companies report to two bosses one was the Business Area manager; the other was the country manager for the country in which the operating company was located. The Business Side of the Matrix: The Business Area The Business Area (BA) manager was responsible for the worldwide strategy and performance of a business.BA management tasks include coordinating technology development, deciding on transfer prices among local operating companies in the BA, transferring expertise within the BA, capturing economies of scale in purchasing, and, perhaps most important, allocation of markets and production to local operating companies. The fact that the BA manager was also the head of a local operating company increased his or her motivation to push responsibility and decision-making down to the local operating companies, on the basis of time pressure, if not personal management philosophy. In addition, they were supported by a BA Board, which assisted the BA manager in setting strategy, reviewing performance, and identifying and addressing key problem areas. The BA Manager selected the members of the Board, and membership varied considerably depending on the nature of the business. The BA Board was an international group, and usually met in a different location for each of its meetings over the course of a year. In addition to the BA Board, the BA had a number of functional councils that brought together key managers in a function for quarterly meetings to assess and exchange internal best practices and to identify and propose solutions for key problems in their area of expertise. For particular problems, the BA Board also formed task forces from among the high-potential younger managers in the BA. The BA manager received monthly reports through ABACUS on the performance of each of the profit centers and operating companies in the BA. The BA manager decided how to disseminate this kind of information across the local operating companies. One of the most important roles of the BA was the dissemination of best practice. Sharing information about performance and exposing managers to different ways of operating, through transfers and through travel help in achieving this. The combination of strict performance requirements with the resources for performance improvement was a powerful driver of change in ABB. The Business Segment The BA managers in turn reported to Business Segment Managers. Business segments were groupings of related BAs. Each segment was headed by a member of the Executive Committee, the highest-level organizational unit in the company. The Country Level The local operating company managers also reported to the country manager of the nation in which it is located. The country manager had profit-and-loss responsibilities for all ABB activities within that country. The country managers task was to realize the potential synergies across the various ABB local operating companies, to present a local face for major projects within that country, to provide the legal and political infrastructure for operations, to coordinate certain personnel development programs, and to make sure that the local political and social environment was understood and considered appropriately in business decisions. The country manager received monthly reports through ABACUS on the performance of each of the local operating companies in the country, and could use these data to identify common problems they faced. The heads of the local operating companies were supported in their contrasting duties to the country manager and the BA manager by a Steering Committee, with representatives from the national company, the BA, and other closely-related local operating companies in the same company. Performance evaluations of the president of the local operating companies were conducted by both the BA head and the country manager. Each share the same basic performance metrics, but each has somewhat different expectations. Managing the Matrix: The Top Management At the top of the company the two dimensions of the matrix met at the level of the Executive Committee, which was chaired by the CEO. The CEO chaired the Committee, and each of the ten Executive VPs had responsibility for one or more of the segments and countries. The extent of their individual responsibilities varied by the scope of their tasks. Each BA manager and each country manager reported directly to a member of the Executive Committee. With ABBs acquisitions, the individual responsibilities assigned to Executive Committee members changed over time, especially in terms of geographies. The major change was on geography: instead of having different members responsible for a portfolio of different national companies, geographic responsibilities were clustered into three regions: Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. Each member was assigned either one of the four industrial segments or one of three geographical regions.The move to make the geography side of the matrix report to Committee members with regional rather than individual country responsibilities also reflected ABBs global strategy. Each Executive Committee member was involved in the annual planning process of each of the BAs and geographic units reporting to him. But as important were their collective responsibilities in charting the overall strategic direction for the company. Extensive communication in a company that operates in 140 countries required a common language, which in ABBs case was English. Communication also took place on a more individual level, between the Executive Committee and their direct reports, and even between the Executive Committee and the heads of the local operating companies. Executive Committee members had access to monthly performance data for all the operating companies, national companies, and business areas for which they were responsible. The ABACUS system provided rapid feedback on changes in the performance of any of these units, and the monthly data were routinely scrutinized carefully at the top of the company. Alignment: Developing the Global Manager One of the key challenges which faced ABB was developing managers who could work effectively in the demanding system. The development of the global managers who could occupy key positions in the Business Areas and at the top of the company on the Executive Committee was the most important task. The global managers should be capable of balancing the often contradictory pulls of being locally responsive and globally efficient, pushing decision-making and responsibility for action down while enforcing accountability and control, and simultaneously encouraging local operating companies to be entrepreneurial while making sure that ABB does not lose the competitive advantage of being a multi-business global company. Keeping this philosophy in mind, such people were developed through the training programs, experience on cross-national teams, and rotation across locations. One of the hallmarks of the cadre of global managers was that they spent a lot of their time travelling internationally. Region Business SegmentExecutive Committee Region Local Operating Company Profit Centers Ce Business Segment Figure 1. ABBs Organizational Structure from 1988-1998 (note: ABB has now moved on from a matrix organizational structure to a more customer-centric organizational structure). Learning from the ABB organizational structure and its impact on its strategy and performance ABBs example clearly shows the example of an organization which can successfully compete on a global level by being both locally responsive as well as paying attention to its global integration strategy. Each local operating company head was given the freedom to operate as the CEO of his business and was free to make his own decisions. By fixing dual responsibility, both to the country manager as well as to the product manager on a global level, ABB was successful in achieving its strategic aim of becoming the leader in the electrical systems and the power generation and distribution business. ABB successfully demonstrated how successful matrix organizations can be. Matrix organizations always had been an important theoretical concept but even other very large organizations with a global presence had failed in implementing it. Matrix organizations were widely touted to be as the organizations of the future in the 1970s and organizations such as Citibank and IBM tried to model their organizations around the matrix structures, but failed, as they found the model too complicated. In fact, ABB was the first company on a global level to implement the matrix organizational model so efficiently. Seeing the success of ABB, many organizations around the world also adopted the matrix structure successfully. The various performance indicators of ABB during the 1988-1996 period clearly showed that when the organizational structure is in sync with strategy of the organization and vice-versa, it results in achieving great results. ABB achieved the co-ordination of 210,000 employees, 310 business units and 5000 profit centers in 140 countries through the matrix structure. This demonstrated the crucial role of linking mechanisms in turning a complex kaleidoscope of grouping patterns into a smoothly functioning organization. ABB simultaneously achieved the goal of acting as a global powerhouse amassing resources know-how on a global scale and responding swiftly to meet the demand of local markets and customers. ABBs net income rose to $1.3 billion in 1996 and its stock price doubled between 1992 and 1996, reinforcing the choice of its organization structure. The SEMCO Model What makes the SEMCO model so interesting is that it for the first 20years it was in operation its structure and culture were autocratic and relied heavily on command and control management styles. However, for the last 20years it has been run democratically. SEMCO is a mode lf how companies who have not yet evolved into democratic cultures can make the transition with credible success. What is also unique about the SEMCO model of democratic organization is how effectively it works in Brazil-a country that is still developing, often unstable and known for economic boons and busts. One could reason that in highly unpredictable environment, command and control corporate structures are even more inadequate for dealing with a dynamic socio-economic climate. Perhaps this is why the SEMCOs adaptive model has been a highly effective model of company Introduction Semco a Brazilian company which manufactures over two thousand different products including industrial pumps, cooling towers etc. and also provides environmental and internet services, saw its revenues growing from $32 million in 1990 to $212 million in 2003.It achieved this growth rate in an economic environment characterized by staggering inflation, and chaotic national economic policy in Brazil. Between 1982 and 1998, Semcos productivity increased nearly sevenfold and profits rose fivefold. Semco was also one of the most sought after Brazilian companies as far as employment was concerned. Turnover among its 3,000 employees was about 1% during the period 1994 to 2004. Repeat customers accounted for around 80% of Semcos 2003 annual revenues. The culture at Semco was unique in the sense that there were no power-packed job titles; employees including top managers themselves did the photocopying, sent faxes, typed letters, and made and received phone calls. There were no executive din ing rooms, and parking was strictly first-come, first-served. Organizational profits were shared with the employees and the salaries were set by the employees themselves. Behind this maverick organization was Ricardo Semler (Semler), the CEO of the company who referred to himself as the Chief Enzyme Officer Wrote Semler, If you ask me to describe it in conventional business terms, Id have to admit I have no idea what business Semco is in. For years, I have resisted defining Semco for a simple reason: once you say what business youre in, you create boundaries for your employees, you restrict their thinking and give them a reason to ignore new opportunities. Semlers way of thinking resulted in an organisation which had no conventional structure, no organisational chart; no fixed CEO, no VPs, CFOs, COOs or CIOs. There was no long term strategic business plans, no career plans, no job descriptions or dress codes for the employees. Some of the important organisational decisions like relocating a unit or acquiring a company were taken on the basis of employees votes. History Semlers father, Antionio Curt Semler, an Austrian-born engineer, migrated to Argentina in1937. A visit to Brazil in 1952 prompted him to think about the prospects a vast, undeveloped country like Brazil presented. During this time, he was working on a centrifuge technology capable of separating oil from vegetables. With an urge to start his own business, he selected the city of Sao Paulo to start his venture, Semco, a contraction of Semler Co, in 1953. Soon after, he obtained a patent for his technology. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Semco was mainly a manufacturer of marine pumps. In the late1960s, ninety percent of the sales of Semco were to the Brazilian shipbuilding industry. Semco was a hierarchical organization with twelve layers of management. According to a Fortune article, Fear was the governing principle. Guards patrolled the factory floor, timed peoples trips to the bathroom, and frisked workers as they left the plant. Anyone unlucky enough to break a piece of equipment wo uld replace it out of his own pocket.According to Semler it was a company with a pyramidal structure and a rule for every contingency. Enter Semler In 1980, at the age of 21, Semler took over as the CEO of Semco. Semlers views on running the company were completely different from those of his father. He felt that the company in its existing form was too rigid. He wanted to replace the old way of doing business and planning with a participatory style of management. But the old guard at Semco was not open to this, with the result that Semler fired two thirds of the top management. Semler started out with a functional organizational structure at Semco. Under this structure, decision-making took a long time and each department took independent decisions that sometimes were not in the interests of other departments. Then, the company shifted to a matrix structure. But, unhappy with its effectiveness, Semler changed the structure of the organization once again. New Organization Structure: From Pyramid to circle Though the company worked on the principle of no Organization structure but it actually had was a very flexible organization structure in the form of 3 concentric circles and few triangles floated in it. The smaller innermost circle would include team of a dozen people the eqivalent of VPs and above Second circle would include the 7- 1o leaders of SEMCOs business units and be called partners. Last immense circles would hold virtually everyone else at Semco machine operators, cafeteria workers, janitors, salesman, security guards and so on. They will be called associates The triangles- They will be distributed around the big circle each enclosing a single person we would call a coordinator. These people would comprise the first crucial level of Management A the marketing,sales and production supervisors, the engineering and assembly area foreman, anyone who had a basic leadership role in our old system. Organizational Culture The replication of business units into smaller units as and when the need arose created units small enough to operate with a commonly shared set of values, philosophy and culture. The organization was bound together by the three interdependent core values: Employee Participation, Profit Sharing and Free Flow of Information. These three values stemmed from the belief that participation in design and implementation of work procedures would give employees control over their work; profit sharing would bring in a sense of ownership; and the availability of information as and when needed would help the employees understand to improve their work practices continuously Leadership and Change Management Semler can be credited with sustaining the radical changes at Semco. He nurtured changes that might have been viewed as taking away his power and authority. He created an empowered environment where employees could innovate continuously. An idea he generated would later permeate to the whole work force. For example, after seeing a company order file cabinets worth $50,000, which were meant only to keep documents which were hardly ever referred to, Semler said that every person in the company should clear his own file cabinets of documen

The Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

Sherlock Holmes: Is a detective who solves mysteries. Watson: Is detective Sherlock Holmes partner. Helen Stoner: A woman who wants Sherlock Holmes to solves the mystery of her twin sister Julia’s death. Julia Stoner: Helen Stoner’s twin sister who mysteriously died the night before her wedding day. Dr. Grimsby Roy Lott: Is Helen and Julia’s stepfather who had a bad reputation with murder and doing bad things to people and some how keep getting away with it. Mrs. Farintosh: A friend of Ms. Helen Stoner who told her about where she could find Sherlock Holmes for help. Mrs. Stoner Roylott: Is Helen and Julia’s mother who married Dr. Roylott when her daughters were two years old. And died eight years afterwards. Ms. Honoria Westphail: Is Mrs. Stoner Roylott maiden sister and Helen and Julia’s aunt. Whom Julia visited her every now an then but always at Christmas. This story takes place in England where a woman by the name of Helen Stoner. When she and her twin sister Julia were only two. Their mother met a man named Dr. Grimsby Roylott. A short time afterwards Helen and Julia’s mother Mrs. Stoner married Mr. Roylott. Mrs. Roylott died eight years after they were married. The two girls had to go live with their stepfather Mr. Roylott in Stroke Moran, England. Who inherited their mother’s money and the only way they could get their share of the money was after they married. As the twins got older their stepfather got meaner. At one point he had killed one of his butlers with his bear hands and then he got off Scott free. Mr. Roylott got away with a lot of things because of his bad reputation. Julia was the first to get engaged. But when Dr. Roylott found out about the engagement he tried to do everything in his power to make Julia end her engagement. But she didn’t agree. So the day before her wedding, that night she went to talk with her sister Helen because she was so excited that she couldn’t sleep. After their talk she finally went to bed. Mysteriously Helen heard her sister voice. So Helen got out of her bed and went to check on Julia. Julia‘s door was open but that was unusual, because it is normally locked. She walked in and there she saw her sister with a frighten look of terror on her face. She ran to he r and grabbed her, but Julia’s legs got weak and she fell to her knees and died.

English Banking Law Essay

INTRODUCTION: There are three types of cheque frauds exists in UK viz. forged, counterfeit and fraudulently altered cheque fraud. In 2005, the cheque fraud in U.K was estimated about  £ 40.3 million – a 13% decrease from the 2004 total of  £ 46.2 million. The earlier year figures also revealed a steady increase totaling  £ 36million in 2002 and  £ 45million in 2003.In U.K during 2005, counterfeit cheque fraud was estimated at  £ 3.23m, forged cheques fraud was estimated at  £ 30.9 m in 2005 and fraudulently altered cheque fraud was estimated at  £ 6.2 millions. SOURCE: FRAUD FACTS -2006 APACS- UK This paper studies the various protections available to banks and customers when using cheques as opposed to cards, as method of payment. PROTECTION AVAILABLE TO CHEQUE PAYMENTS UNDER BILL OF EXCHANGE ACT, 1882, UK (BEA) AND CHEQUES ACT 1957 Under Bill of Exchange Act, 1882, under section 81 A, a non-transferable cheques has been defined as follows†   Ã¢â‚¬Å"81 A (1). Where as cheques is crossed and bears across its face the words ‘account payee’ or a/c either with or without the word ‘only’, the cheques shall not be transferable but shall only be valid as between the parties thereto. (2) A banker is not to be treated for the purpose of section 80 above as having been negligent by reasons only of his failure to concern himself with any purported endorsement of a cheque which under subsection (1) above or otherwise is not transferable. (Cheques Act, 1992). One risk associated with the cheques bearing forged or unauthorized endorsements’. However protection is available under the English Bills of exchange Act, (BEA, or the Act). Under BEA, a legitimate holder of a cheques payable to bearer attain a good title to the instrument overcoming thereby any adverse claim of ownership that might have been hold good against his predecessor. Accordingly, the payment by the drawee bank to those acquirers discharges the cheques as well as the drawer’s engagement thereon so as to permit the drawee bank to debit the drawee’s account. But this is not applicable to cheques payable to order. In the case of payable to order cheques, effect of an unauthorised or an absence of endorsement or forged endorsement shall have to be looked into under the circumstances of forged endorsements. One of the ways to prevent forged endorsement or loss due to stolen cheques is to use crossed cheques or cheques payable in account. Cheques crossing are available under the BEA, UK. The crossed cheques requires to deposit the cheques into account rather than payable to bearer does not reallocate the cheques theft losses but it minimizes the loss and thus benefits the party on whom the loss falls. Further the losses arose due to stolen cheques or loss cheques payable to bearer fall on the dispossessed owner under BEA. Thus under BEA , reallocation of loss away from dispossessed owner may not be successful in case of crossed cheques payable to bearer as the onerous shifted to bank for its negligence. If a bank has acted in good faith and it is protected under BEA for the payment made to open cheques to bearer.    In the case of crossed cheques, if the bank seeks protection, it should have acted without negligence and in good faith. Under BEA, if forged endorsement losses fall on the taker from the forger who is naturally a bank. Further, the cheques payable to the order under the BEA, loss reduction thus seems to be mainly advantageous to the collecting bank. Further the collecting bankers of the crossed cheques are protected under the BEA over forged endorsements as long as they acted in good faith and without negligence. Further under BEA, the drawee bank is protected and this shifts the reallocation of forged endorsement losses to the first innocent party prior to the collecting bank.   Where the one who grabbed the payment through a bank account was the conman, such innocent party is construed to be dispossessed owner. Thus the crossing has reassigned the loss to the dispossessed owner, thus excluding the collecting bank that took the cheque from the conman. Thus under BEA, protection is available to banking channel had they acted in good faith and without negligence even in case of crossed cheques .If an open or crossed stolen cheque has been collected by or paid to the conman , the loss is assigned to the dispossessed owner .Under UK laws , where a cheque is payable to order is collected or paid over a forged endorsement for or to a non-bank situated in the chain of title subsequent to the conman, loss is assigned to the non-bank from that of the conman. This is apart from of whether the cheque was collected for or paid to the innocent taker from the conman or someone obtaining title from the conman despite of crossing.   Where the cheque is crossed and it has to be paid into a bank account and then only it can be encashed as it will be convenient for the dispossessed owner to trace that person and assign the loss to him. Thus the crossing of cheque becomes more helpful to the true owner. However thus the innocent endorser has to bear the loss as the benefit is not in the reallocation of losses. The best example of the above is the Nigerian gangsters operating in UK and taking the gullible students who are in the poverty to carry out cheque fraud worth  £ 50 million a year. These Nigerians conman recruit poor students with promises of good cash reward for just providing the conman with their bank account particulars. By using stolen corporate cheque books, they then deposit huge amount of British pounds through the accounts. No sooner the account is credited with the collection amount from the fraudulent cheques, the account will be emptied before the firm or bank realizes what has happened. The major lion’s share goes to the conman and only a very meager amount goes to the innocent, poor student who has provided the bank account number to the conman. When the fraud comes to light due to alerting by the bank to the police, it is the poor, innocent student who will become the scapegoat. The conman mainly selects the students from Camden in North London where thousands of students from the capital’s universities congregate. Conman liberally offer them up to  £ 5000 for doing nothing. Then the conman approaches an insider who is working in the royal mail and induces them to steal a company’s cheque book. Then the conman visits the company office to collect the director’s signature from the dustbin and thus they scrupulously copy the same in writing the bogus cheques.   Thus the conman had a fortune by sharing a lion’s share in the booty leaving the innocent, poor account holder to face police and possible fraud investigation.[i] Banks and building society’s in UK from September 2006 onwards is not to accept the cheques that are issued in favour of the banks itself in a move to avoid frauds. Bank is to insist to issue the cheques payable to an individual or to include the individual’s name on the payee line after the name of the institution. This strategy is mainly designed to ensure that the money lands in the right account and to bring to an end to cheque fraud which reached to a height of  £46.2 million in 2004 which includes counterfeit and stolen cheques. This modification is being launched following a case in which an independent financial advisor informed his clients to draw cheques out to the financial institutions where the money was going to be invested. He then paid them in to his own account, rather than the customers account.[ii] Under the BEA , there is a provision with a bill containing words prohibiting transfer or indicating an intension that it should not be transferable and these instruments is termed as ‘ not negotiable’. As such these instruments can not be negotiated by the payee to another holder. In UK, an account payee or a/c payee and with or without the words only can be encashed only by the account holder and thus it can not be encashed other wise than by an endorsement. Further, under the BEA, the consequence of an unauthorised or forged assignment is similar to that of forged endorsement as both do not convey title. Under BEA, in there is no acceptance, the drawee can not be held liable on the instrument and it does not exclude in tort or in receipt of money provided elements of such liability are present. If the drawer has given sufficient notice well in advance informing the drawee about the forged endorsement and the remedy available to the drawer against drawee for the forged endorsement is under contract and this arises regardless of any particular provision of the BEA. Further under BEA , no remedies is specified for the misappropriation under forged endorsement but the injured can avail the common law remedies for the embezzlement of property in chattels generally rather than stipulating specific recourse to the true owner of misappropriated cheques. Further the loss of cheque does not forfeit the action on it under the BEA. Under BEA, no title is passed on under the forged endorsements and one who derives the title under forged endorsement can not enforce payments against a prior party to the forgery. Further no payment is made under due course so as to discharge the cheque and to preclude drawee’s liability against the drawer. Thus the original owner from whom the cheque was stolen and forged inherits the right to and on the cheque and he has a right to sue for the wrongful interference with his rights. Further under BEA, an endorser is barred from refuting the authenticity and promptness of all previous endorsements and at the time of endorsement, he had a good title and this denial will be advantageous for the holder in due course later. Further under BEA, the drawee bank can base its reliance on laws governing mistake and restitution for the payment made over a forged endorsement. Further, under BEA provisions, true owner may recover on the lost cheque from any party prior to the falsification till up to the drawer. Under BEA, cheques payable to fictitious or non existing persons is deemed to payable to the bearer. A collecting bank can not be held responsible for payment made to a thief if it is drawn on fictitious name and if they have acted in good faith which absolves the collecting from its liability. In Fok Cheong Shing Investments v. Bank of Nova Scotia, the president of the drawer who turned to be the authorised signatory of the company issued a cheque to a real person with an intention for misappropriation. The loss was allocated to the drawer under the fictious payee provision. Thus the drawee bank is being protected under the BEA if it has paid a cheque over forged endorsement in the ordinary course of business under good faith. Thus the statutory protection is extended to the collecting bank which collects in good faith and without negligence a cheque bearing a forged endorsement. S 60 of the BEA does not warrant that drawee bank should act with out negligence. However one may assume that a bank has to act without negligence in the ordinary course of business. The UK Review Committee on Banking Services Law and Practice considered provisions ss.60, 80 and s.1 of the Cheques Act 1957. The committed recommended to combine these provisions under single enactment so that statutory protection may be extended to a paying bank acting in ’good faith’ and without negligence. Both the s 82 and s.1 of the Bills of exchange (crossed cheques) Act were repealed by the Cheques Act 1957 in UK which mainly extended the protection to open cheques and other payments documents. In UK, the drawee is primarily liable to payment, the endorser is liable secondly and the drawer is the ultimately liable to payment upon dishonor. Not withstanding this, the drawer and the endorser may sign without recourse. The United Nations Convention on international Bills of exchange and International Bills of Exchange and International promissory notes , 1988( UNCITRAL Convention) specifies that the drawer may exclude his own liability for acceptance or deferment by an express stipulation in the Bill. Such stipulation will hold of use only where another party is or becomes liable on the bill. PROTECTION AVAILABLE TO PAYING BANK: Section 24 of the BEA states that a forged signature is no signature. In Brown v Westminster Bank (1964), the estoppel caused from the misleading facts from the client. In this case , the bank has reminded a old lady , the customer against the veracity of the signature as her signature was forged more than in 300 cheques and in turn she certified that the signature was her own.   When the bank was sued by her son later, it was held that bank was not liable and they were estopped from denying the genuineness of the cheques. In Tai Cotton Mills Ltd v Liu Chong Hing bank (1985), it was held in this case that a customer of a bank needs to check his bank statement to keep on watch that the forged cheques were processed. The bank’s express condition to the contrary in the contract with customer can absolve the banks from the wrongful debit. Like wise if a bank pays a cheque in breach of a mandate by oversight, it has the right of subrogation and the bank has the right to take the possession of a title or good that it effectively paid for. PROTECTION IN THE CASE OF CONVERSION: It is not necessary for the bank to check every endorsement on the cheque and it would be time consuming and onerous to do so. So as to assuage the liability of banks, BEA (1882) and the Cheques Act (1959) offer defense for the paying bank. Bank of Ireland v Hollicourt (Contracts) limited (2000) EWCA Cir 263. A suit was filed against a bank which continued to pay on cheques against the company’s bank account even after filing of a petition for bankruptcy. It was held that the bank had acted as an agent and didn’t have any beneficial interest and the legislation made the disposition void but that did not operate the way claimed. Roger Smith and Christopher Trimothy Esmond Hayward and Lloyds Bank TSB; Harvey Jones Ltd and Woolwich Plc (2000). Where a cheque has been misused falsely to change the name of the payee, then the piece of paper can not be termed as a cheque and an action for alteration against the collecting or paying bank will stand only as the nominal value of the paper and not as to the face value. As the material alteration was carried out with out assent of any one but the fraudster and under the bill is avoided save against a party consenting or making to the alteration. PRECAUTIONS TO BE OBSERVED WHILE WRITING A CHEQUE: Write clearly the name of person in whose favour your are writing a cheque with additional information like Dr, Er, his shop name or company name etc. From September 2006 on wards whenever you issue a cheque to UK building society or to a bank, add additional information other than the name of the bank or society like account no, bank branch name etc. To prevent fraudsters to add words in the empty blank space available in the written cheque, it is always better to draw a line through unused spaces. Don’t pre sign blank cheques and also try to fill all the details like full name, amount in figures and words and don’t issue undated cheques. Always issue ‘account payee only ‘crossed cheques’ to avoid any frauds. CREDIT CARD CHEQUES: These cheques have been issued as an additional facility on credit card accounts for the last 10 years in UK. These are similar to the normal bank account cheques and can be deployed for the same purpose. During 2004 , about 3.4m credit cheques have been issued which constitute a very little percentage (2%) as opposed to overall number of credit card in operation which totaled to 1.727 billion in the UK according to APACS , the UK payment association. The credit card cheques are likely to bounce in most of the cases if credit limit has been crossed. These credit card cheques are utilised for high value transactions ranging from  £ 850 as against  £ 58 for a UK credit card purchases and  £ 120 for payment of a personal cheque. In credit card cheques, the customer need not ask for the cheques from the credit card issuer but they are issued at the discretion of the card provider and there are different terms and conditions applicable to transaction done through credit cards cheques as compared with a credit card and this is being unaware by the most of the customers. One of the disadvantages is the fraud that is prevalent in the credit card cheques as the most of the issuer are forwarding it to their customers on discretionary basis. These credit card cheques are vulnerable to fraudulent activities as most of the customers do not aware that credit card cheques have been dispatched to them. In the case of these credit card frauds, lender has to bear the losses rather than customer. CREDIT CARD FRAUDS: Credit and debit card frauds cost  £ 400 m during 2004 and devise deployed by the fraudsters have become sophisticated.One of the remedy is to insure against the ID theft. Some insurance company offer it as free adds on with home insurance policy. One of the protection for the prevention of credit card frauds   is the introduction of new industry standard namely ‘Chip and Pin† which required implanting a microchip inside the credit and debit card and mandates that consumers key in a secrete four-digit personal identification number to complete a transaction using the card. As the result the consumers deceived by the fraudsters are on the decrease in UK. [i] Dan Evans, â€Å"Gang’s Pounds 50m stolen cheque racket ‘, Sunday Mirror, Jan, 12, 2003. [ii] â€Å"Banks put checks on Cheques in new bid to beat pounds 46 million fraud, The Birmingham post, December 8, 2005, page 24. â€Å"Check Your Balance before the Match.† The News Letter (Belfast, Northern Ireland) : 11 â€Å"Cheques in the Post-Mortem.† The Birmingham Post (England) 21 Jan. 2006: 27. Cheques to Be Stubbed Out. After 350 YEARS; Signed and Sealed.† The Mirror (London, England) 10 Nov. 2004: 1. â€Å"Fraud Bill Shock.† Evening Gazette (Middlesbrough, England) 31 Jan. 2006: 2. Ghost Workers Help Fraud to Soar.† Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) 2 Feb. 2005: 6. â€Å"King of the Cons.† The Mirror (London, England) 11 Jan. 2005: 10. â€Å"Postman Given Asylum Plundered [Pounds Sterling] 20million.† The Daily Mail (London, England) 21 Dec. 2005: 17. â€Å"Store Bans Slowcoach Cheques to Speed Checkouts.† Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) 3 Apr. 2006: 4. Sally Ramage Dabydeen, â€Å"Legal and Regulatory Frame work â€Å"iUniverse, 2004.

The Lyrics for Christmas Eve by Tatsuro Yamashita

The Lyrics for Christmas Eve by Tatsuro Yamashita Here are the lyrics for Christmas Eve by Tatsuro Yamashita in Japanese, with a romaji translation. You can also hear the song, Christmas Eve on Youtube. There is an English version; though the lyrics are not a literal translation of the Japanese version. ã‚ ¯Ã£Æ' ªÃ£â€š ¹Ã£Æ'žã‚ ¹Ã£â€š ¤Ã£Æ'â€" é› ¨Ã£  ¯Ã¥ ¤Å"æ› ´Ã£ â€˜Ã© Å½Ã£ Å½Ã£  « é› ªÃ£  ¸Ã£  ¨Ã¥ ¤â€°Ã£â€š Ã£â€šâ€¹Ã£   Ã£â€š Ã£ â€  Silent night, Holy night 㠁 Ã£  £Ã£  ¨Ã¥ â€ºÃ£  ¯Ã¦  ¥Ã£  ªÃ£ â€ž 㠁 ²Ã£  ¨Ã£â€šÅ Ã£  Ã£â€šÅ Ã£  ®Ã£â€š ¯Ã£Æ' ªÃ£â€š ¹Ã£Æ'žã‚ ¹Ã£â€š ¤Ã£Æ'â€" Silent night, Holy night Ã¥ ¿Æ'æ · ±Ã£   ç §ËœÃ£â€š Ã£ Å¸Ã¦Æ' ³Ã£ â€ž Ã¥  ¶Ã£ Ë†Ã£â€šâ€°Ã£â€šÅ'㠁 Ã£ â€ Ã£â€šâ€šÃ£  ªÃ£ â€ž Ã¥ ¿â€¦Ã£ Å¡Ã¤ »Å Ã¥ ¤Å"㠁 ªÃ£â€šâ€° è ¨â‚¬Ã£ Ë†Ã£  Ã£ â€ Ã£  ªÃ¦ °â€"㠁Å'㠁â€"㠁Ÿ Silent night, Holy night 㠁 ¾Ã£   Ã¦ ¶Ë†Ã£ Ë†Ã¦ ®â€¹Ã£â€šâ€¹ Ã¥ â€ºÃ£  ¸Ã£  ®Ã¦Æ' ³Ã£ â€ž Ã¥ ¤Å"㠁 ¸Ã£  ¨Ã©â„¢ Ã£â€šÅ Ã§ ¶Å¡Ã£   è ¡â€"è §â€™Ã£  «Ã£  ¯Ã£â€š ¯Ã£Æ' ªÃ£â€š ¹Ã£Æ'žã‚ ¹Ã£Æ'„ãÆ' ªÃ£Æ' ¼ 銀è‰ ²Ã£  ®Ã£  Ã£â€šâ€°Ã£â€š Ã£   Silent night, Holy night Romaji Translation Ame wa yofukesugi ni yuki e to kawaru darou Silent night, Holy night Kitto kimi wa konai hitorikiri no kurisumasu-ibu Silent night, Holy night Kokoro fukaku himeta omoi kanaeraresoumo nai Kanarazu konya nara iesouna ki ga shita Silent night, Holy night Mada kienokoru kimi e no omoi yoru e to furitsuzuku Machikado niwa kurisumasu-tsurii giniro no kirameki Silent night, Holy night Vocabulary é› ¨ (ame): rain Ã¥ ¤Å"æ› ´Ã£ â€˜ (yofuke): late at night é› ª (yuki): snow Ã¥ ¤â€°Ã£â€š Ã£â€šâ€¹ (kawaru): to change Ã¥ â€º (kimi): you 㠁 ²Ã£  ¨Ã£â€šÅ Ã£  Ã£â€šÅ  (hitorikiri): all by yourself ç §ËœÃ£â€š Ã£ Å¸ (himeta): hidden, secret 㠁‹ã  ªÃ£ Ë†Ã£â€šâ€¹ (kanaeru): to grant, to answer a prayer Ã¥ ¿â€¦Ã£ Å¡ (kanarazu): certainly ä »Å Ã¥ ¤Å" (konya): tonight æ ¶Ë†Ã£ Ë†Ã¦ ®â€¹Ã£â€šâ€¹ (kienokoru): remain unmelted è ¡â€"è §â€™ (machikado): a street corner 銀è‰ ² (giniro): silver(color) 㠁 Ã£â€šâ€°Ã£â€š Ã£   (kirameki): sparkling, twinkling

Free Essays on Galileo Galilei

Brecht’s famous play Galileo Galilei is about the famous scientist of the Renaissance age, Galileo. Galileo tried to show the church that the copernican system is actually true; however the church accepted the Aristotle’s way of thought and therefore the inventions Galileo announced were considered as a blasphemy to the Bible. This is the basic story of Galileo; however Brecht tried to find out what is humane behind this story. Beginning from the facts, he created a totally dramatic play which shows the reader the way Galileo felt when he was making those discoveries. He also opened a debate on the conflict between the search for truth in science and religious authority. The first scene starts with Galileo’s talking with Andrea. While explaining him about the copernican system, Ludovico comes and shows him a telescope. The telescope impresses Galileo much, so he starts to work on it. The first scene also gives us background information on Italy and the economic system. Galileo perfects the telescope, however the idea is stolen from Ludovico and invention is stolen, so it is plagiarism. However we feel not so bad about Galileo in that scene, because we see that he thought about the telescope and he is aware that it is a plagiarism. By the help of telescope, Galileo finds out that the Copernican ideal on universe is actually true so he writes to the court in Florence. The main idea here is the danger of truth and the curator in the museum finds out about the plagiarism. In the court he had a debate with the aristocrats on his new discoveries and that scene shows us that the aristocrats fear from the truth, because they are part of a world that has not been existing for sometime. the age is Renaissance and it is the age of reason. In scene 6, Brecht questions whether man must find all the answers to the questions in the Universe. Are we really individuals?, who are the center of the universe? or are we the best fruits of... Free Essays on Galileo Galilei Free Essays on Galileo Galilei Brecht’s famous play Galileo Galilei is about the famous scientist of the Renaissance age, Galileo. Galileo tried to show the church that the copernican system is actually true; however the church accepted the Aristotle’s way of thought and therefore the inventions Galileo announced were considered as a blasphemy to the Bible. This is the basic story of Galileo; however Brecht tried to find out what is humane behind this story. Beginning from the facts, he created a totally dramatic play which shows the reader the way Galileo felt when he was making those discoveries. He also opened a debate on the conflict between the search for truth in science and religious authority. The first scene starts with Galileo’s talking with Andrea. While explaining him about the copernican system, Ludovico comes and shows him a telescope. The telescope impresses Galileo much, so he starts to work on it. The first scene also gives us background information on Italy and the economic system. Galileo perfects the telescope, however the idea is stolen from Ludovico and invention is stolen, so it is plagiarism. However we feel not so bad about Galileo in that scene, because we see that he thought about the telescope and he is aware that it is a plagiarism. By the help of telescope, Galileo finds out that the Copernican ideal on universe is actually true so he writes to the court in Florence. The main idea here is the danger of truth and the curator in the museum finds out about the plagiarism. In the court he had a debate with the aristocrats on his new discoveries and that scene shows us that the aristocrats fear from the truth, because they are part of a world that has not been existing for sometime. the age is Renaissance and it is the age of reason. In scene 6, Brecht questions whether man must find all the answers to the questions in the Universe. Are we really individuals?, who are the center of the universe? or are we the best fruits of... Free Essays on Galileo Galilei GALILEO’S LIFE AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO ASTRONOMY Galileo was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Galileo Galilei was born near Pisa, Italy, on February 15, 1564. Galileo was the first child of Vincezio Galilei, a talented musician, and Giulia degli Ammannati. In 1574, Galileo’s family moved from Pisa to Florence, where Galileo started his formal education (Drake, 1978). Seven years latter, in 1581, Galileo entered the University of Pisa as a medical student. In 1584, home on vacation from medical school, Galileo began to study mathematics and physical sciences. A Family friend and professor at the Academy of Design, Ostilio Ricci, worked on translating some of Archimedes, which Galileo read and became interested in. This is where Galileo got his deep interest in Archimedes (Shea, 1972). When returning to medical school, medical school became less appealing to Galileo, and his deep interests in Archimedes and mathematics drew him in, Galileo left without a degree in the spring of 1585 (Drake, 1978). Starting his studies, in 1585, in Aristotelian physics and cosmology, Galileo had to leave the University of Pisa before he got his degree, because of financial problems. Galileo became renowned in 1588, when he gave a lecture at the Florentine Academy on the topography of Dante’s Inferno, where he showed his extensive knowledge on mathematics and geometry. In 1589, Galileo’s rising reputation as a mathematician, earned him a teaching position at the University of Pisa (Sharratt, 1994). Galileo spent three years at the University of Pisa. His position required him to teach astronomy based on Ptolemy’s theory that all planets and the sun revolved around the earth. At Pisa, Galileo was in conflict with many other professors and various disputes seem to have made him despair of advancement in the University. In 1591, Galileo’s father died and this increased his financial responsibilities, when in 1952 he res...

Ethics Harassment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Ethics Harassment - Essay Example In today's world, organisations and workplaces have become extremely diversified and have adopted varied stance s in terms of job processes and the general outlook. What is striking in such a scenario, is the prevalence of organizational or work ethics. Ethics has evolved to become an important aspect fo organizational functioning, since it deals with the self-esteem and the very importance attached to employees in an organisation. Is it but well known, that an employee is the building block of an organisation and the importance attached to ethics in today's organisations are a reflection of the same. In today's workplaces, harassment has become a very repetitive occurrence, with cases being reported every now and then. The various forms of harassment range that come under the purview have increased by the day, with sexual harassment topping the list. The issue came to the fore-front, in the 1970s and ever since, a number of committees, benches and organisations have come into the picture, to outline the relationship between work ethics and harassment. Sexual harassment as an abuse of power has become front-page news in the U.S. business press. Recently, BusinessWeek detailed the sexual harassment endured by salespeople at the U.S. subsidiary of Astra AB, a major Swedish pharmaceutical firm (Maremont 1996). This harassment was perpetrated by people at the highest levels of the organization and salespeople who did not comply found life at the firm extremely difficult. The attention to workplace sexual harassment generally focuses on harassment of employees by others within the same firm. [Insights into Sexual Harassment of Salespeople by Customers: The Role of Gender and Customer Power Leslie M, Fine, C. David Shepherd and Susan L. Josephs] When workplaces become diversified and new parameters of work assessment emerge, it is important to maintain workplace ethics. However, when cases of favourtism and sexual harassment emerge, it certainly goes against what is legally permissive in the ethical nature of actions in workplaces. It becomes difficult when talented individuals are put down, on account of the sexual favours received from other quarters. Besides this, when bosses do harass their subordinates and the like, it goes against moral codes of conduct. Organisational Behaviour is often considered at four different levels. Individual Behaviour, which deals with the single fundamental unit of the organisation, talks about the individualistic perspective. It revolves around an individual's perceptions, actions, notions, temperament and contribution to the organisation. At a higher plane, we have the Group Dynamics, that involves interactions of a group. It is inclusive of team work and team-bonding, while also delving into the nature of interactions, inter-group interactions, departmentalization and the like. An organisation can also be demarcated in terms of the diverse processes and the clubbing of

Managing the Artist Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing the Artist - Case Study Example His development in the music scene has recently seen him fall out with the recording company that signed him up because of losses that he was making. Therefore, the work considers personal management as a contributing factor to his down fall and hence proposes a way in which Jackson should follow in order to get a new recording deal from the theory mentioned herein. In doing this, his music career would start to follow in the right track. This text intends to look in to the artistic works of the musician Leon Jackson. It intends to unravel the themes envisaged inside the music works of this famous and renowned music artist. In identifying the nuances in his musical work, and management plan would be developed that would provide and exemplary basis in which Leon Jackson could use in furthering his career in the music industry with out managerial problems. Leon Jackson is a musical artist of this current time. He was born in December of 1988 in the country of Scotland. He began his career in the music industry as of 2007. The music genres that he exhibits in his songs are adult contemporary, pop and jazz. Leon Jackson music career became noted in the year 2007. This is when this music artist came to be known in the international music scene. Leon Jackson musical career was discovered and uplifted when he joined and won in the X Factor. The x-Factor was and is a UK based television series that encompasses talented upcoming musicians in discovering their vocal abilities. The participants compete among each other through the vocal tasks they are given and a panel of judges grade their performance which is further influenced by the public voting for their favourite contestant. Jackson advanced through the many stages of the X Factor in escaping elimination. He eventually reached the finals where he was awarded a one million contract music recording deal. The deal was sponsored by the Syrop music company, a branch of the popular Sony BMG music entertainment group. (BBC News, 2007) His first single debut was the song 'when you believe'. This song he produced after winning the X factor in the same year, 2007. The song was ranked among the top Christmas songs of the year. The original song was composed by Stephen Schwartz as a soundtrack to the animated movie 'The Prince of Egypt'. The song was first sung and released by vocalists Mariah Carey and Whitney Huston in a pop genre for the movie. The song exhibits a love theme according to its original composition for the romantic film it was prepared for. In 2008, Jackson was invited to the Wembley arena to do a performance to the song 'lost'. The song of pop genre was done by the Canadian singer Michael Buble. Buble welcomed Jackson to perform the song in a duet. (Holly wood grind, 2008) Still in the same year, Jackson released his first original single which topped the position three in the UK music chart and number eight in Ireland. The single was tilted 'don't call this love' and its theme was based on love relations. This performance in the charts made him begin producing more songs of this theme that has seen him become one of the most popular pop music artists in the UK. (A charts, 2008) Personal management and artists In divulging in to the management of artists, this section would look at personal managers as a theme in artist management. This section would trying to look at the