Case Study: iPod, Apple’s Best Innovation

Apple had in effect recognized an opening inside the digital music market. They had acknowledged that there was a drop in sales of digital music players due to the goods presently on the market being inadequate. Apple will have believed that the then current crop of music players were insufficient thus prompting them into designing the phenomenon that is the iPod. Due to the success of the Sony Walkman, Apple decided they wanted to enter the music player market. Therefore the company expanded from the core product of computers and software manufacture into many areas including personal music/media players (iPod). The creator of Apples iTunes was Steve Jobs, an in-house software creator. Apple released the first iPod into the market place on 23rd of October 2001. It proved hugely successful due to the software created by Steve Jobs which allows users to download music directly from the internet to the Continue reading

Human Resource Management (HRM) in a Global Environment

As the organizations continue to grow globally at a rapid pace, nations are increasingly permeable to the international exchange of knowledge, capital, goods and services, giving rise to more complexities and uncertainties. Intensified rate of globalization is evident from the changing trends in foreign direct investment which is increasingly indicating a shift toward developing economies like China and India. Growing internationalization is breaking down organizational and geographical boundaries with business processes and structures undergoing complete transformation. This has brought the role of human resources to the fore as the competitiveness of these organizations is contingent on their ability to adapt and design human resource strategies that can sustain global nuances and dynamics. International human resource management (IHRM) from an organization’s perspective is defined as the effective management of human resources in global markets for multinational companies(MNCs), in order to gain a key source of competitive advantage and to be globally Continue reading

Tax Collection Methods

There are three important types of tax collection methods: cadastral, at the source (before the receipt of the income) and through self-assessment (at the declaration of the income). The cadastre method implies the use of the cadastre. The cadastre is a register of all the typical objects (land, real estate) classified according to physical features and where the average profitability of the object is determined. Physical features include: for the land tax–the size of the land area, the distance from transportation ways and markets; for the house tax–the number of windows, pipes, doors, the type of the building; for industry tax–the number of employees and machines. The average profitability of the object, which is based on physical features, may differ significantly from actual profitability; this constitutes the main disadvantage of this method. Taxation at the source is calculated and deducted at the accounting unit of the company, which pays the Continue reading

Country Risk Analysis

Country Risk Analysis is the evaluation of possible risks and rewards from business experiences in a country. It is used to survey countries where the firm is engaged in international business, and avoids countries with excessive risk. With globalization, country risk analysis has become essential for the international creditors and investors. Country risk analysis identifies imbalances that increase the risks in a cross-border investments.  Country risk analysis represents the potentially adverse impact of a country’s environment on the multinational corporation’s cash flows and is the probability of loss due to exposure to the political, economic, and social upheavals in a foreign country. All business dealings involve risks. An increasing number of companies involving in external trade indicate huge business opportunities and promising markets. When business transactions occur across international borders, they bring additional risks compared to those in domestic transactions. These additional risks are called country risks which include risks Continue reading

Creative Accounting – Definition, Techniques and Ethical Considerations

Definition of  Creative Accounting   Creative accounting is accounting practice that falls outside the regulation and give benefit to certain people. It can be described as a practice with a clear aim to interrupt the financial reporting process which affects reported income to make it looked normal and provides no true economic advantages to relevant parties like shareholders. Concisely, creative accounting is the transformation of financial accounting figures from what they actually are to what users’ desire by taking advantage of the accounting policies which is permitted by accounting standards. Creative accounting is a practice that potentially being undertaken as a result from some individual care more on their own interest and indirectly causes issues arise in ethical dimension of creative accounting. From information perspective, agency theory gives a clear picture on creative accounting scenario. Whereby managers misuse their privileged position in manipulating financial reporting in their own interest which Continue reading

Marketing’s Impact on Individual Consumers and Society

Marketing is offering significant benefits to organizations and to society, while the fact that marketing is a business function operating in close contact with the public where extensive criticism is subjected to this functional area, some of this criticism is justified: much is not. The function and practice of marketing has been criticized because it is claimed that it creates partial truths about products and services by emphasizing the gap between a person’s reality and their expectations in such a way that people feel lacking in either self esteem so that they feel compelled to close the gap by unnecessary spending. The philosophy of Milton Freidman and the belief that the “ends justifies the means” endorses the marketing way or its aim. In other words businesses are accountable to shareholders and shareholders alone where marketing is the tool. Social critics claim that certain marketing practice hurts individual consumers and society Continue reading