...to the business. One such opportunity is the offshore outsourcing of finance and accounting services. The business process outsourcing (BPO) market has grown substantially over the last decade and is expected to continue to increase rapidly. Offshore financial institutions can also be used for illicit purposes such as money laundering and tax evasion. Many countries, territories and jurisdictions have offshore financial centers (OFCs). These include well-known centers like Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and less-well-known centers like Mauritius, Dublin and Belize. The level of regulatory standards and transparency differs widely among OFCs. Supporters of OFCs argue that they improve the flow of capital and facilitate international business transactions. ‘Outsourcing’ is the management and / or daily execution of a business function by a third-party service provider. Firms have been encouraged to outsource non-critical areas of business in order to focus on core competences (Quinn et al, 1990). There are many different outsourcing models, including the outsourcing of activities to firms in foreign ‘host country’ locations, which is called ‘offshoring’, and is the focus of this report. Offshoring means located or based outside of one's national boundaries. The term offshore is used to describe foreign banks, corporations, investments and deposits. A company may legitimately move offshore for the purpose of tax avoidance or to enjoy relaxed regulations. In the...
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...to date and based on the many other factors in play, could the Doha Round come to a successful conclusion? The WTO conducts negotiations through what they call ‘rounds’. The November 2001 declaration of the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, known as the Doha Development Round, provides the mandate for negotiations on a range of subjects. Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, permitting free trade among countries of varying prosperity. The negotiations of the Doha Round take place in the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) and its subsidiaries. Other work under the work programme, such as issues concerning the implementation of the present agreements, takes place in other WTO councils and committees. The Doha Round was to begin at the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle, and was supposed to be called ‘the Seattle Round’, however, some developing countries refused to launch the second round by blocking the “explicit consensus” needed at the final Heads of Delegation. It was later decided via explicit consensus at a meeting in Doha, Qatar, that all countries involved were committed to negotiations opening agricultural and manufacturing markets, services negotiations and expanded intellectual property regulation. This new agenda of the developed world was dubbed the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). Proponents of the Round claim that its intent was to make trade rules fairer for developing countries whilst opponents charged that the Round...
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...reflecting growing appetite for chocolate in emerging markets. The challenge for the industry’s major players is how to make best use of this boom to profitably grow their volumes faster than the markets, achieve sustainable improvements in core operating margins and make the right investments – be they in capacity, acquisitions, the supply chain, marketing or R&D – to seize the significant opportunities ahead. The single biggest factor improving the industry’s performance is the fact that, at long last, the global economy is showing signs of sustained recovery. Growth in many major markets is accelerating. The stellar performers are India (expected to grow by 22% this year), Brazil (13%) and China (11%). The potential long-term growth in emerging economies – many of which have growing middle classes – is vast. To give just one example: the per capita consumption of chocolate in China is only a tenth of that in Switzerland. Yet, as this global tour of the chocolate industry suggests, the future is not without challenges. The immediate concern is the balance between supply of cocoa and the chocolate industry’s demand. Manufacturers are already confronting this issue, investing in the development of higher-yield beans, encouraging more sustainable practices, collaborating more closely with farmers to improve efficiency and exploring potential new sources of cocoa in countries such as Australia and Vietnam. Across the world, consumer tastes remain diverse. In the US,...
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...100 years of Strength. Performance. Passion. Corporate Sustainable Development Report 2011 20 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 37 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 54 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 71 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 88 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Holcim’s original cement plant in Holderbank in the Swiss canton of Aargau. 100 The new Ste. Genevieve plant of Holcim US in Missouri. Contents Introduction Performance against targets Chairman’s statement CEO interview Vision and strategy Q “Delivering value to your stakeholders is part of your mission. How do you achieve results while operating with sustainability and integrity? Are incentives for sustainable practices integrated into performance compensation plans?” SD challenges Sustainable solutions and construction Q “What is Holcim’s contribution to improve efficiencies in the building materials industry?” Energy and climate Q “Holcim appears to be ahead of its competitors with regards to its level of carbon emissions. How does Holcim plan to further reduce its CO2 footprint, while providing the construction materials for the schools, hospitals, homes and infrastructure the world needs?” Biodiversity and water Q “Reducing energy use will in turn reduce CO2 emissions and water consumption. How can Holcim ensure that the overall synergies between energy, climate, biodiversity and water are taken into consideration?”...
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...Road, Bangalore – 560076 yatin.mohane@iimb.ernet.in Charan Singh RBI Chair Professor Economics & Social Science Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore – 5600 76 Ph: 080-26993818 charansingh@iimb.ernet.in Year of Publication-October 2014 Basel Banking Norms – A Primer1 Abstract This paper aims to first build a deeper understanding of the emergence of Basel banking norms (Basel I), and the transition to each of the subsequent regulations (Basel II and Basel III). The primary purpose of developing this understanding is to further analyze the extent of effectiveness of the Basel norms. To explore how such regulations impact an economy, we have specifically looked at five economies of the world (including India), which are geographically apart, in this context. The idea here is to study how, for instance, banking institutions have shaped up to these norms – and whether the effects were favorable or adverse. We then conclude by conceptually looking at the future direction of regulations such as the Basel norms in the banking industry. Keywords: Banking, Financial Services, Regulation, Basel Norms, Capital Adequacy, Liquidity 1 The authors would like to thank Dr. Anupam Prakash, Ms. Sharada Shimpi, Ms. Lavanya Srinivasan and Ms. Shara Bhattacharjee for their inputs. They are also grateful to the participants of the internal seminar at IIMB for their suggestions. The WP originated as a term project in 2013 for the first two...
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...BANDRA WORLI SEA LINK Table of Contents Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Facts About Bandra Worli Sea Link .................................................................. 6 1.4 Location of Bandra Worli Sea Link .................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Need of the Project. .......................................................................................... 8 2.2 Design Selection Process ................................................................................. 8 2.3 The Project life cycle. ........................................................................................ 8 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................. 16 3.1 Risk Management ........................................................................................... 16 3.2 Identification of Risk In Bandra Worli Sea Link ............................................... 18 3.3 Risk Migitation and Reduction ......................................................................... 21 Chapter 4 ...............................................
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...HBR Spotlight Making a Real Difference by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer Strategy G & Society The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility overnments, activists, and the media have become adept at holding companies to account for the social consequences of their activities. Myriad organizations rank companies on the performance of their corporate social responsibility (CSR), and, despite sometimes questionable methodologies, these rankings attract considerable publicity. As a result, CSR has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country. Many companies have already done much to improve the social and environmental consequences of their activities, yet these efforts have not been nearly as productive as they could be – for two reasons. First, they pit business against society, when clearly the two are interdependent. Second, they pressure companies to think of corporate social responsibility in generic ways instead of in the way most appropriate to each firm’s strategy. harvard business review | hbr.org DOUG FRASER 78 HBR Spotlight Making a Real Difference The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so fragmented and so disconnected from business and strategy as to obscure many of the greatest opportunities for companies to benefit society. If, instead, corporations were to analyze their prospects for social responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business...
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...Responsibility by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer • Reprint R0612D HBR SPOTLIGHT Strategy and Society The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer COPYRIGHT © 2006 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Governments, activists, and the media have become adept at holding companies to account for the social consequences of their activities. Myriad organizations rank companies on the performance of their corporate social responsibility (CSR), and, despite sometimes questionable methodologies, these rankings attract considerable publicity. As a result, CSR has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country. Many companies have already done much to improve the social and environmental consequences of their activities, yet these efforts have not been nearly as productive as they could be—for two reasons. First, they pit business against society, when clearly the two are interdependent. Second, they pressure companies to think of corporate social responsibility in generic ways instead of in the way most appropriate to each firm’s strategy. The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so fragmented and so disconnected from business and strategy as to obscure many of the greatest opportunities for companies to benefit society. If, instead, corporations were to analyze their prospects for social responsibility using the same frameworks that...
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...previous off-shoring by bringing manufacturing back home – has gained momentum recently. However, little is known so far about the magnitude of this phenomenon, about its geographical boundaries, and about the underlying motivations. In this paper a characterization of back-shoring as part of the dynamics of firms’ internationalization strategies is offered. Next, building on emerging empirical evidence, open questions are identified and an agenda for research is proposed. KEYWORDS Reshoring Back-reshoring Near-reshoring Off-shoring Internationalization 1. Introduction In the last few years numerous manufacturing companies have announced the return of part of their off-shored production (either in-sourced or out-sourced) to their home countries. Industrial giants such as Caterpillar, Bosch, and Philips are featured among them, but also a plethora of smalland medium-sized enterprises that are reconsidering their international...
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...Management Report 2008 © 2009, Nestlé S.A., Cham and Vevey (Switzerland) The Management Report contains forward looking statements which reflect Management’s current views and estimates. The forward looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include such factors as general economic conditions, foreign exchange fluctuations, competitive product and pricing pressures and regulatory developments. The World’s leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness Company Photography Nicole Bachmann, Gaëtan Bally/Keystone, Nathan Beck, Patrick Brown/Panos Pictures, Markus Bühler-Rasom, Goh Seng Chong/Keystone, Douglas Engle/Panos Pictures, Sam Faulkner/NB Pictures, Jonathan Fong, Peter Ginter, Georgina Goodwin, Marcel Grubenmann, Alain Herzog/EPFL, Harmen Hoogland/Nestec, Wollodja Jentsch, Marc Latzel, George Osodi/Panos Pictures, Philippe Prêtre/APG Image, Sergio Santorio, Qilai Shen/Panos Pictures, Christian Vogt, Cédric Widmer Printing Entreprise d’arts graphiques Jean Genoud SA (Switzerland) Paper This report is printed on Consort Royal, a paper produced from well-managed forests and other controlled sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Management Report 2008 Letter to our shareholders Board of Directors of Nestlé S.A. Executive Board of Nestlé S.A. Corporate Governance and...
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...industry reference for financial performance Table of contents 2 6 7 8 10 12 14 18 22 26 27 28 38 40 42 44 46 48 Letter to our shareholders Board of Directors of Nestlé S.A. Executive Board of Nestlé S.A. Creating value for society UN Global Compact – Communication on Progress The Nestlé Roadmap to Good Food, Good Life Competitive advantages Growth drivers Operational pillars Financial review Principal key figures (illustrative) Overview Management responsibilities: Food and Beverages Leading positions in dynamic categories Geographic data: people, factories and sales Corporate Governance and Compliance Creating Shared Value Key Performance Indicators Shareholder information Accompanying reports Creating Shared Value and Rural Development Summary Report 2010 Corporate Governance Report 2010; 2010 Financial Statements The brands in italics are registered trademarks of the Nestlé Group. Key figures (consolidated) E I 1 1 1 In millions of CHF (except per share data) Sales EBIT (Group) Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, restructuring and impairments as % of sales EBIT (Continuing operations) Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, restructuring and impairments as % of sales (Continuing operations) Profit for the year attributable to shareholders of the parent Net profit (a) as % of sales as % of average equity attributable to shareholders of the parent Capital expenditure as % of sales Equity attributable to shareholders of the parent before proposed appropriation...
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...Human Development Research Paper 2010/30 Dealing with employment risk: Policy options for emerging markets Simon Commander United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports Research Paper November 2010 Human Development Research Paper 2010/30 Dealing with employment risk: Policy options for emerging markets Simon Commander United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports Research Paper 2010/30 November 2010 Dealing with employment risk: Policy options for emerging markets1 Simon Commander Simon Commander is Managing Partner at the EBRD, IE Business School and Altura Advisers. Email: scommander@alturaadvisers.com Comments should be addressed by email to the author(s). 1 Thanks to Jeni Klugman for discussion and comments and to Ginette Azcona for help with data. Abstract The paper looks at the experience of advanced economies in dealing with employment volatility. It examines in detail the impact of labour market institutions on equilibrium unemployment and the p ossible le ssons f or e merging ma rket e conomies tr ying to d esign p olicy f or d ealing w ith unemployment and a wider, growing demand for social protection from their citizens. Part of the paper concentrates on t he t ransition e conomies whose i nstitutional c ontext m ay b e r elevant t o other emerging ma rkets. S ome leading principles in policy d esign a re elaborated th at take into account s ome o f t he co mmon f eatures o f em erging m arkets, n...
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...Global Financial Crisis: Likely Impact on Bangladesh [Abstract: The current financial crisis that originated in the United States and quickly spread to Europe and Asia could be a global crisis soon. Reckless lending by banks and financial institutions and slack regulatory system were at the root of the crisis, which is perhaps the gravest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Amid a severe credit crunch, the rich economies have entered into a deep recession. IMF economists predict the global economic growth to fall from 5.6% in 2007 to 3.9% in 2008, and to 3.0% next year. Billions of dollars pumped by the rich and the emerging economies to bail out the distressed banks or to boost their economies have failed to stop the rot. Bangladesh is apparently immune from the crisis, its economy not being very tightly linked with the rest of the world. It has been enjoying a relatively healthy growth of exports, industrial activity and remittances. Yet, a prolonged recession in the rich countries may cause a slowdown in exports, inflows of remittances, foreign aid and FDI, thereby hurting GDP growth. IMF has said that GDP growth in Bangladesh this year will be lower – 5.5% instead of the officially projected 6.5%, if the global recession lingers. Bangladesh policy makers will need to stay alert to the possibility of the economy being hit by the global slump and adopt appropriate mitigating measures.] Introduction The United States economy is now experiencing a severe credit...
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...from the contentious problems it is supposed to solve… MEMBERS: AYUSH KUMAR-030 NIPEKSH I MAHAJAN-082 PRABHAV MISHRA-0 PRATEEK KUMAR-096 VAIBHAV JAIN-164 “Why should a financial engineer be paid four, four times... to a hundred times more than the real engineer? A real engineer build bridges, a financial engineer build, build dreams. And when those dream turn out to be nightmares, other people pay for it.” - Andrew Sheng “Contrary to the vulgar belief that men are motivated primarily by materialistic considerations, we now see the capitalist system being discredited and destroyed all over the world, even though the system has given men the greatest material comforts” - Ayn Rand “In fact, there is ultimately a limit to how much regulation can do. In the final analysis, you could write all the rules you want, but there has to be a philosophy of ethical behaviour that comes from human beings operating in a professional way” – William H. Donaldson, CFA “The global crisis was caused by “the over-50s not knowing what the under-30’s were doing” – Johann Rupert, Remgro Chairman “The first casualty of a downturn is truth” - Financial Times Columnist 30 Sept 2008 Introduction- The banking crisis was triggered by largely unregulated trading of complex financial instruments, including mortgaged-backed securities, which dragged down some of the USA’s largest banks and brokerages as the housing bubble of the mid-2000s collapsed and foreclosures soared...
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...sustainable economic growth and to reduce the poverty around the world. IMF was created in 1945 and it’s an organization of 187 countries. Why IMF was created and how it works? The IMF, also known as the “Fund,” was conceived at a United Nations conference convened in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, in July 1944. The 44 governments represented at that conference sought to build a framework for economic cooperation that would avoid a repetition of the vicious circle of competitive devaluations that had contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Work of IMF The primary mission of the IMF is to provide financial assistance to countries those countries who experience financial and economic difficulties and to sought those difficulties they are given financial help by using funds deposited with the IMF from the institution’s 187 member countries. Member of IMF states with balance of payments problems, which often arise from these difficulties, may request loans from IMF to help fill gaps between what countries earn and/or are able to borrow from other official lenders and what countries must spend to operate, including covering the cost of importing basic goods and services. In return, countries are required to launch certain reforms which have often been dubbed the Washington Consensus. These reforms are thought to be beneficial to countries with fixed exchange rate policies that may engage in fiscal, monetary, and political practices that may lead to the crisis...
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