...MIX OF FUNDING STRATEGIES FOR DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES TO PROMOTE POVERTY REDUCTION AND SUSTAINABLE RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA PRESENTED TO: Professor Chung – Sik Yoo PRESENTED BY: Samuel Danaa DATE: September 23, 2014 1.0 Introduction: Ghana was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to attain independence and the post-independence economy appeared stable and prosperous raising the development hopes of its citizens. This was a period of real hope and expectations. After over fifty years its actual development is far below the development potential it holds and various propositions have been offered as to the way forward. Nearly more than half of Ghana’s population live in rural areas under what, by modern standards may be characterized as harsh and subnormal conditions. Every Ghanaian government since independence has been committed to improving the quality of life in the rural areas; however, they have been overwhelmed by economic conditions most of which they have been unable to control. Examining the achievements agencies tasked with responsibility, it is quite apparent that their successes in combating the development problem in rural areas are dismal. Having come to grips with the failures of past development model, development experts and practitioners have not relented in striving to find and propose new models that can best improve the lives of the citizenry. While the debate continuous as to what strategy is best workable...
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...1. Chase’s International Strategy and Objectives As the largest bank in the United States by assets and market capitalization, JPMorgan Chase is a major provider of financial services with assets of $2 trillion and according to Forbes magazine is the world’s largest public company based on a composite ranking. Being one of Disney’s top 10 relationship banks, Chase was the third largest bank in the United States with more than $400 billion of assets and $175 billion of loans in 1999, and was a leader in the field of syndicated finance. In 1999, Chase was the lead arranger for 34% of total syndicated loans by dollar volume in the world’s largest market, the United States, compared to 21% for the next largest competitor.6 In the U.S. market for loans greater than $1 billion, its dominance was even more pronounced: it led 47.5% of the deals, three times more than its nearest competitor. Years of leading performance in the field of syndicated finance has led JPMorgan Chase a world’s well-known expertise in arranging large volume syndicated loans and thus significantly improved its returns as an underwriter, and its credit exposure as a lender, which reflect its high criteria of service. In addition to the great reputation, Chase has established relationships with many of the world’s famous companies and groups, which will bring it lots of business opportunities. It had over 400 professionals in its Global Syndicated Finance Group with offices in New York, London...
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...each line item increase or decrease for your forecast-ed statements. Discuss and interpret the financials in relation to the initiative. Make recommendations on potential discretionary financing needs. Pro Forma Statements This individual assignment presents an initiative that can be implemented to increase sales over the next five years. The purpose of this assignment is to present pro forma statements of five year projections, and to make assumptions that support each line item increase or decrease for the forecasted statements. Furthermore, this assignment will discuss and interpret the financials in relation to the initiative. It will make recommendations on potential discretionary financing needs. Finally, this assignment will present an analysis of the company's short term and long term financing needs, and determine strategies for the company to manage its working capital. In today’s business world it is very important to understand the business environment and create strategies according to market fluctuations. As the market fluctuates small, medium, and large corporations take short-term and long- term measures to remain in business and become profitable. Budgeting, forecasting, and diversifying are the main common measures companies take to increase market shares. Strategies, Market Product, and Corporate Expansions Increasing sales in an existing market is one of the easiest ways to grow a business...
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...Team 5 Bernadette Freeman Kelly Krider Leah Saaka •1. How will you determine how the work/tasks will be distributed/shared among the group? All team members will determine the specific tasks to be completed. Each Team member will then pick a task based on his or her strengths and experiences. If a team member is uncomfortable with his or her task, we will offer some guidelines to make him/her comfortable •2. How will you match individual strengths/weaknesses to the tasks? The team will first determine each member’s strengths and weaknesses as related to the tasks. Each person will choose to focus on his or her strengths. Team members will supplement the weaknesses of other if need be to ensure a balance. • 3. How will you select a leader for the group? Any person can volunteer to be a team leader. The team will however agree whether to let the person be a leader or not. • 4. What authority is vested in the leader and the group? The team leader will ensure that the team is on track. As a team, other team members will also check on each other to ensure that the work is been done. • 5. How will you handle nonperformance or non-participation of a group member should it occur? A non-performance team member will be encouraged be team members by assisting him/her with any difficulties. We will encourage the person to seek our help anytime she/he needs it. If after all the support the team member just proves stubborn, we shall let the team member know and report to the...
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...Meeting the Challenges of Stakeholder Engagement and Communication: Lessons From Teacher Incentive Fund Grantees The Harvesting Project Julia E. Koppich J. Koppich & Associates Meeting the Challenges of Stakeholder Engagement and Communication: Lessons From Teacher Incentive Fund Grantees As of August 2010, a total of 33 states, school districts, charter school coalitions, and other education organizations¹ had received Teacher Incentive Funds (TIF) to redesign compensation programs for teachers and principals. The U.S. Department of Education named a new cohort of TIF grantees on September 23, 2010. TIF grantees have faced a number of challenges as they have worked to design and implement new educator pay programs. Among the most demanding challenges has been developing a targeted set of metrics around available and manageable data. Grantees use these metrics to measure teacher or principal effectiveness and assign pay. Recently, grantees have made it a priority to sustain operation programs once their federal funding expires. TIF grantees have also found, often belatedly and unexpectedly, that effective stakeholder engagement and communication are challenging and essential to the success of their pay programs. Stakeholder engagement helps to create buy-in and initial acceptance of the TIF plan. It allows different voices and perspectives to be heard and recognized as new approaches to compensation develop. Communication provides the synergy to broaden buy-in and...
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...3 - Assessing the Economic/Geographic Environment Module 4 - Assessing the Social- Cultural Environment Module 5 - Assessing the Political Legal Environment Module 6 - Selecting a Global Company Structure Module 7 - Financing Sources for Global Business Operations Module 8 - Creating a Global MIS (Management Information System) Module 9 - Identifying Human Resources for Global Business Activities Module 10 - Managing International Financial and Business Risks Module 11 - Product Target Market Planning for Foreign Markets Module 12 - Designing a Global Distribution Strategy Module 13 - Planning a Global Promotion Strategy Module 14 - Selecting an International Pricing Strategy Module 5 - Determining Organizational Financial Results Module 16 - Measuring International Business Success Conclusion Bibliography...
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...Guide to writing a Strategic Plan Step One - Getting Ready An organization that determines it is indeed ready to begin strategic planning must perform five tasks to pave the way for an organized process: • identify specific issues or choices that the planning process should address • clarify roles (who does what in the process) • create a Planning Committee • develop an organizational profile • identify the information that must be collected to help make sound decisions Step Two - Articulating Vision & Mission • A Vision Statement outlines what the organization wants to be. It concentrates on the future. It is a source of inspiration. It provides clear decision-making criteria. Vision Statements define the organizations purpose, in terms of the organization’s values rather than bottom line measures (values are guiding beliefs about how things should be done.) The vision statement communicates both the purpose and values of the organization. For employees, it gives direction about how they are expected to behave and inspires them to give their best. Shared with customers, it shapes customers’ understanding of why they should work with the organization. • A Mission Statement tells you the fundamental purpose of the organization. It concentrates on the present. It defines the customer and the critical processes. It informs you of the desired level of performance. A Mission Statement defines the organization's purpose and primary objectives. Its prime function is...
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...Functional strategies mainly focused on the events associated in practical areas of a business that support the anticipated competitive business level strategy and balance each other. These strategies describe the methods selected to be used within the practical areas of a business that’s utilized in the corporate level or business strategy. Functional strategies recognize and organize temporary actions, usually under a year. Structure of functional strategy is normally delegated by the business manager to lower management teams that oversee the operations of the business. Businesses vary in structure as well as the roles and responsibilities of their practice areas, these areas are research and development, marketing, finance, purchasing...
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...Strategic Initiative Paper FIN/370 Strategic Initiative Paper Starbucks Strategic Planning Initiative Strategic initiatives are a special set of strategies that an organization sets up to help that organization reach certain goals and achievements that are set up in that strategic plan. The platform in the strategic planning initiative of the Starbucks organization is to make certain they use only high quality goods, and they treat their customers and employees with respect. Starbucks is “committed to ethically sourcing and roasting the highest quality Arabica coffee in the world” (Starbucks Corporation, 2012). Starbucks’ mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks Corporation, 2012). Starbucks Corporation uses this statement as a fulfillment to their success: Under ethical sourcing the company outlines the goal that by 2015 the organization will use coffee that is only produced and obtained through the use of ethical trading and responsible growing (Starbucks Company Profile, 2011). The initiative discussed in Starbucks Annual Report says “Blair Taylor, Starbucks Chief Community Office, announced the launch of a new nonprofit corporation with a $1 million seed grant to introduce job skills, leadership and apprenticeship programs to young people across the company’s multi-billion-dollar supply chain, and further expansion of the company’s support for U.S. manufacturing through an order...
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...4.0 BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGY 4.1 How and Why Vida Beauty Adopt This Growth Strategy First of all, growth strategy refers to an organization substantially broadens the scope of one or more of its business in terms of their respective customer group, customer functions and alternative technologies to improve its overall performance. Then, in developing growth strategies for growth firm there are two strategies which is internal growth strategy and external growth strategy. Internal strategy involves efforts taken within the firm itself. Then, for perform internal strategy they need to create new product development, other product related strategy and international expansion with the purpose of increasing sales revenue and profitability. External strategy is relying on establishing relationships with third parties such as mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, licensing and franchising. In our opinion, Vida Beauty use internal strategy to make sure that the companies become a growth firm and expansion. In internal growth strategies the distinctive attributes of internally generated growth is that a business relies on its competencies, expertise and the employee also. In addition, internally also called as “organic growth” because it does not rely on outside intervention. Organic growth is growth that comes from a company’s existing business as opposed to growth that comes from buying new business. Besides that, it also the process of business expansion due...
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...Objectives 1. To target a 20 percent increase within one year. The firm can thus aim to increase its profits by utilizing its available resources in the most efficient manner 2. by creating new products and better processes with the help of the latest technology. It is imperative that the firm undertake rigorous research and development programs to develop new ideas targeting all the required accounting services. There are many accounting firms and CPAs, so you must gain the competitive advantage by procuring new accounting resources, such as computer software. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3. To control a greater percentage of the market share, the business must ensure customer satisfaction by providing the highest level of service possible to its clients and increasing the product range. The members of the firm should combine their expertise, experience and energy to provide each client with close personal and professional attention. For example, they should channel their efforts toward enabling a business to optimize its profitability and minimize its tax exposure. 4. 5. To secure and setup an office space which start operating in three months’ time. 6. Sign up at least one client per month for the next six months; and up 15 clients for the first 12 months of operation. 7. To . Doggies Best Friend will be guided by its mission vision and strategic plan, which clearly stipulates that customer satisfaction, is a guarantee. The company outlines some...
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...Analysis – how well was the SWOT analysis completed? Was there any missing information? Did the students clearly label what was internal and external to the case? Overall, the team did a good job identifying the main points of the situation analysis. However, it did not clearly label which points are internal and which are external to the case. We would also recommend including the following missing points into SWOT: One of additional strengths that we would include is the high quality of the ice cream and “super premium” ingredients that Marble Slab uses in its products. Penny Thomas can use this strength to the benefit of her promotion strategy to stress brand differences to better position the franchise against its competitors. Another strong characteristic of a franchise is assistance with expertise in areas like financing, real estate and marketing. This is a major advantage for a startup company, where potential financial risks can be minimized due to backing by the head company. A weakness that was not pointed out is relatively high pricing of Marble Slab offerings. This weakness indicates that Penny Thomas will have to target a market of customers who would be willing to pay for “affordable luxury.” An additional opportunity that we would suggest to list is changes in tastes. While the rich and flavorful taste of original ice cream is still more appealing to the majority, there might be an increase of followers of ongoing trends towards healthy...
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... In particular a strategic plan, determines a company’s long term goals and then identifying the best approach for achieving those goals. From the financial perspective, financial planning initiatives are long-term plans aimed at generating capital with objectives focused on greater return on assets, growth in market share, and at solving foreseeable problems. When Strategic plans are met, such as plans focused on certain products or departments, it helps the overall health of the company’s financial status in different areas such as with the store’s revenue, over head spending control, and maintaining a store’s budget. Both Strategic and financial planning share the same company goals for success and the understanding of where the financing must come from to accomplish these goals. Lowes is a leader in home improvement and is committed to never stopping improvement. Lowes mission is to deliver better customer experience, to drive long term sales growth, increased profitability and share holder value. One of Lowes strategic plans is to make the shopping experience for home improvements simple from every purchasing opportunity. By doing this, the company hopes that consumers do not hold back on starting home improvement projects because they do not know how to start. They hope to do...
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...August 20, 2010 Abstract My research topic on how implementing a differentiation and cost leadership strategy in parallel will facilitate mortgage companies to design a competitive advantage making industry conditions irrelevant within San Bernardino County is a quantitative analysis requiring a comprehensible methodology approach. In this paper I will discuss my research topic and provide sample research questions and hypotheses. Within the body of the analysis I will include a literature review and a draft methodology outlining the participants involved in my research, describe the purpose of sampling and the techniques I will use. Finally, I will illustrate the significance of my study and the anticipated findings as result of my research endeavor. Assignment 7.1 This detailed analysis will provide both depth and breadth vis-à-vis my research topic utilizing various research techniques and approaches. My research problem focuses on how implementing a differentiation and cost leadership strategy in parallel will facilitate mortgage companies to design a competitive advantage making industry conditions irrelevant within San Bernardino County. My research topic is designed to uncover the current strategies real estate companies are using to remain profitable and increase market share within San Bernardino County. This research problem will indentify generic strategies and uncover how focusing on both differentiation and cost leadership can create new market space or...
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...lease the land from the county while owning the building. It then leases the building and the land to Hoke County Schools. The involvement of a private firm allows for tax credits the school system could not use under traditional school construction financing. This manifestation is the first of its kind in the nation. Sandy Grove’s energy efficiency is built with more than two-thousand, three hundred solar panels. The school produces thirty to forty percent more energy than it utilizes. Hoke County is expected to save approximately sixteen million dollars on its energy bill over the next forty-years (NC State University). Discussion It is apparent that creating a strategic plan and implementing goals, allows for a successful organization. Accordingly, a long-range strategic plan is a roadmap to growing organizations, it is to help the company succeed. In addition, an organization’s vision leads to shaping what an organization should resemble as it successfully implements its strategies and accomplishes its full potential (Bryson & Alston, 2011). Included in strategic plan are several key elements, they are: the mission statement, the vision – a description of the organization’s long-term goals and objectives, and the strategies (Bryson & Alston, 2011). According to Bradford, Duncan and Tarcy, (2000), the strategic plan team size is important. It is recommended that there needs to be enough individuals on the team to obtain a variety of perspective but not so many that the...
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