...Why is technological superiority especially significant for international firms? Technology: The technology of a society is the mix of the usable knowledge that the society applies and directs toward the attainment of cultural and economic objectives; it exists in some form in every cultural organization. Technology surely plays a vital role in business today. Businesses have become reliant on technology and if it didn’t exist, almost all business operations around the world could not function. Technology is used in all industries extending from the most basic to the most complex of operations. Commerce and trade around the world most definitely is thriving because of technology. Long before there were computers the world has been doing business; starting from the simple concept of barter trade when the concept of a currency was not yet introduced but trade and commerce was still slow up until the point when the computer revolution changed everything. Technology is used for Point of Sales systems, information management systems capable of handling all kinds of information such as employee profile, client profile, accounting and tracking, automation systems for use in large scale production of commodities, package sorting, assembly lines, all the way to marketing and communications. It doesn't end there, all these commodities also need to be transported by sea, land, and air. According to Ball, “Technological superiority is the goal of most companies, of course, but it is especially...
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...Globalization in Business Donovan Chase PHL/320 12/22/2014 Bridget Peaco Globalization in Business Is globalization good or bad for your business? (1, premise) Globalization is viewed as either good or bad depending on your particular situation. For example, if you are an emerging growth industry, globalization represents a significant opportunity to access broader geographic markets, to accelerate growth and expand your business. (1, conclusion) However, if your business is an industry that has imploded due to the onslaught of global competition, or you have suffered a job loss due to downsizing or outsourcing you probably have a very negative view on globalization being good for business. Is Globalization “Good” Before we can decide what is good we need to have a definition of “good” as it relates to our topic. According to "Merriam Webster" (2014), Good is defined as something that is right or good. Something that has economic utility or satisfies an economic want. An example of good in the way we are defining it is the difference between good and bad. I personally feel that globalization is not good for the business of America. (2, premises) Globalization takes jobs away from people in the United States which raises the unemployment rate. (2, conclusion) Therefore, negatively impacting our economy. Workers can often be forced into accepting worsening...
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...Additional Protocol to the Treaty of Asunción on the Institutional Structure of MERCOSUR Protocol of Ouro Preto * Date: December 17, 1994 * Number of Chapters and Articles: 12 Chapters and 53 Articles * Main Motive: To create an institutional structure for MERCOSUR In this protocol, the institutional structure of the MERCOSUR was defined. Each article describes in detail the languages to be used, the various bodies, their roles and their objectives. The various bodies identified under this are: * Common Market Council: The CMC is comprised of the ministers of Foreign Affairs and of the Economy of the four countries. It is the highest-level organization in charge of MERCOSUR’s decision-making and it is responsible for overseeing compliance with the strategic objectives laid out in the Asunción Treaty and the Ouro Preto Protocol. The Council meets twice a year, in two-stage sessions: the first involves only the ministers that make up the CMC, and the second includes the presence of the countries’ presidents. In spite of being the highest-level organization, the Council has delegated many of its responsibilities to the Grupo Mercado Común (GMC, Common Market Group), thus diminishing its ability to generate policies and promote actions aimed at consolidating MERCOSUR. In practice, the Council’s meetings have had political importance in terms of setting grand directions and sending political signals within and outside of MERCOSUR. * Common Market Group:...
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...Channel and Pricing Strategies MKT/571 May 31, 2012 Understanding various markets and strategies when dealing with the launch of a new product can be challenging. Below is a breakdown of the channel strategies, pricing strategies, and environmental factors. In addition, the government and economic factors, innovation and technology, and the demographics of the new product are factored in the plan for the launch. Channel Strategies Most manufacturers do not sell their goods directly to the final consumer. Between the final consumer and the manufacturer stands a group of intermediaries who perform various functions. The intermediaries are referred to as marketing channels, groups of interdependent organizations involved in the process to help make a product or service available for consumption or use, marketing channels (Kotler, & Keller, 2007). Every manufacturer needs a marketing strategy in order to promote their product and make it readily available to the public. So choosing the correct strategy is a critical decision facing management. Apples launch of the new mini iPad will need two channel strategies, one for their domestic market (U.S.A), and one for their international market (Japan). Since the product is new choosing the correct market is crucial for the success of the mini iPad. Apples reputation in their domestic market is one of high brand loyalty. Apple has many brand loyal customers that demand Apple products and choose to...
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...LOGISTICS For the manufacture and sale of commercial and industrial pumps, there is no export controls placed on the selling of the company’s product to the target primary market. There is no validated export license required to export the product to the primary target market. Product can be exported under the NLR (no license required) provision. Licensing requirements were determined from the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Export Administration. Government regulations and standards do exist in the primary market of Kazakhstan. These requirements govern material contents, labeling requirements, electric current cycles and voltage, environment standards, CE marking requirements, and ISO compliance. With the use of an outside partner agency, the company can easily fulfill these standards and regulations. There are no geographic or climate differences that will affect product functions. The product is impervious to humidity, heat and/or cold conditions. With the product being sold to industrialized and commercial operations, there are no buyer preferences that must be acknowledged in this new buyer group. There are no product size, packaging or color preferences that need to be addressed. There are no outside preferences that will influence buying decisions. Cultural aspects might influence acceptance of the product. Religious beliefs, taste preferences, habits and lifestyles will need to be discovered and addressed prior to the implementation of the plan to...
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...ALL TEN questions are compulsory and MUST be attempted Please use the space provided on the inside cover of the Candidate Answer Booklet to indicate your chosen answer to each multiple choice question. Each question in this section is worth 2 marks. 1 Which of the following is NOT a statutory right of the auditors of a limited liability company? A B C D A right of access at all times to the company’s books and records. A right to attend all directors’ meetings. A right to speak at general meetings on any matter that concerns them as auditors. A right to attend any general meeting. 2 What is the PRIMARY purpose of an auditor taking action to evaluate and test the internal controls of a limited liability company? A B C D To enable the auditor to advise management of the strengths and weaknesses in the internal controls. To enable the auditor to eliminate analytical review procedures. To provide the auditor with the opportunity to reduce substantive procedures. To enable the auditor to restrict substantive procedures to income statement items only. 3 ‘Audit risk’ is the risk that the auditor expresses an inappropriate...
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...SANGAWEHand in Date: 27th APRIL 2016 | | | | Table of Contents Qn1. (a) Substantive procedures 2 TRADE PAYABLES AND ACCRUALS 2 RECEIVABLES 2 Reorganisation 3 SOURCES OF INFORMATION 3 The previous year Cherry Blossom’s audit file 3 The Cherry Blossom’s Management 3 Permanent Cherry Blossom’s Audit file 3 Cherry Blossom’s Website 3 Cherry Blossom’s Competitors financial statements 4 Audit risks and Auditors responses 4 The factors the finance director should consider before establishing an internal audit department. 6 WEAKNESSES IN THE SALES AND COLLECTION DEPARTMENT 7 The effects of the above weaknesses 8 Recommendations 8 REFFERENCES 10 Qn1. (a) Substantive procedures TRADE PAYABLES AND ACCRUALS * The comparison of Sakura’s trade payables and list of the accruals should be done against the prior year and investigate the significance differences. * Check the after date payment and then compare if they relate to the current year so as to follow through the purchase ledger or accrual listing to ensure that they were all paid in the correct period as stated. * Discuss with management the process they have undertaken to quantify the understatement of trade payables due to the cut-off error that happened that the purchase ledger earlier than its period and consider the materiality of the error. * Calculate the trade payable days for Sakura Beauty Club Co (Sakura) and compare to prior years, investigate any significant difference...
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...Impact of Internal control system over customer service in financial aspects Definition of Internal Control? Internal control or an internal control system is the integration of the activities, plans, attitudes, policies, and efforts of the people of an organization working together to provide reasonable assurance that the organization will achieve its objectives and mission. Four Purposes of Internal Control 1. To promote orderly, economical, efficient and effective operations and to produce quality products and services consistent with the organization's mission; 2. To safeguard resources against loss due to waste, abuse, mismanagement, errors and fraud; 3. To ensure adherence to laws, regulations, contracts and management directives; and 4. To develop and maintain reliable financial and management data, and to accurately present that data in timely report FOUR COMPONENTS OF INTERNAL CONTROL 1. CONTROL ENVIRONMENT Control environment is the attitude toward internal control and control consciousness established and maintained by the management and the employees of an organization. It is a product of management's philosophy, style and supportive attitude, as well as the competence, ethical values, integrity, and morale of the organization's people. The organization structure and accountability relationships are key factors in the control environment. 2. COMMUNICATION AND INTERNAL CONTROL Management should ensure that...
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...internal control Qver Financial Reporting CASES INCLUDED iN THIS SECTiON 1. Simply Steam, Co. 155 Evaluation of Internal Control Environment 2. Easy Clean, Co. 155 Evaluation of Internal Control Environment 3. Red Bluff Inn & Café 165 Establishing Effective Internal Control in a Small Business 4. St. James Clothiers 169 Evaluation of Manual and IT-Based Sales Accounting System Risks 5. Collins Harp Enterprises 177 Recommending IT Systems Development Controls 6. Sarbox Scooter, Inc. 185 Scoping and Evaluation Judgments in the Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting 7. Société Générale 195 How a Low-Risk Trading Area Caused a $7.2 Billion Loss case5.!-2 Easy Clean/Simply Steam, Co. Evaluation of Internal Control Environment Mark S. Beasley • Frank A. Buckless • Steven M. Glover • Douglas F. Prawitt INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES 1] To reinforce aspects relevant to the internal control environment. 2] To illustrate the degree of judgment involved in making internal control environment evaluations. 3] To provide students experience in making subjective evaluative judgments. 4] To provide a forum to discuss inquiry techniques as well as inquiry as a form of audit evidence. 5] To provide students direct experience with, and discovery of, issues surrounding the control environment, making inquiries, and the framing (e.g., positive or negative) of information provided by management. 6] To illustrate...
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...and procedures. Tomorrow morning, you begin a two-week training program on internal controls and you have a whole binder of information that you must read in preparation for the exercises and role-playing that are included in the training. You recognize most of the materials in the binder because you studied them in your ACC 409/609 class: The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations Report, Internal Control—Integrated Framework. You also notice that there are several cases addressing internal control issues. One case is the Barings Bank collapse and there is a video of this case that you and the other staff auditors will view as part of the training. You want to be prepared for the discussions during the training sessions, so you conduct some research on these topics, especially Barings Bank, because you are not familiar with that case. The COSO Framework You search the COSO website and find the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework that outlines five essential components of any internal control system: (1) control environment, (2) risk assessment, (3) control activities, (4) information and communication, and (5) monitoring. This updated version of the Framework introduces 17 principles associated with the five components. These principles provide clarity for the user in designing and implementing systems of internal control and for understanding requirements for effective internal control. You decide to summarize each of the five components as a first attempt...
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...eportDutch Lady Milk Industries Berhad Laporan Tahunan 2011 Annual Report Dutch Lady Milk Industries Berhad is a subsidiary of Royal FrieslandCampina NV. www.frieslandcampina.com This Annual Report is printed on 100% recycled paper BLUE VALUES Believe in Growth Look Forward Unite as One Team Excel in Execution contents Notice of Annual General Meeting Corporate Information Chairman’s Statement Corporate Governance Statement Directors’ Profile Audit Committee Report Corporate Social Responsibility Statement of Internal Control Directors’ Report Statement of Financial Position Statement of Comprehensive Income Statement of Changes in Equity Statement of Cash Flows Notes to the Financial Statements Statement by Directors Statutory Declaration Independent Auditors’ Report Financial Highlights Additional Compliance Information Other Information Proxy Form • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 3 6 8 14 16 20 24 28 30 31 32 33 34 59 59 60 61 62 63 65 notice of annual general meeting 1 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Forty-Ninth Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held at Hotel Armada, Lorong Utara C, Section 52, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, on Wednesday, 13 June 2012 at 10.00 a.m. for the purpose of transacting the following business: AGENDA AS ORDINARY BUSINESS Ordinary Resolution 1 1 To receive the Audited Financial Statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2011, together with the Reports of the Directors...
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...into the details with regards to the collapse of one of world’s oldest (~233 years old) and most respectable bank in London, Barings Bank on 26 Feb 1995 due to uncontrolled and well-concealed derivatives trading arising from ethical improprieties of a person called Nick Leeson in their Singapore office. End result is ~$1.4 billion in losses. On the surface, we may be tempted to conclude that the blame rests solely on him but an in-depth & analytical mind would ask the simple question on “how is it possible that this one man was able to cripple a financial giant?” Further possible questions which would pop up would be “What was the senior management’s role in this situation and did they contribute to the demise? How effective were the internal control systems and was the Singapore operations managed effectively? etc” In short, for this incident to happen, it involved more than one factor and similarly for this to be avoided, it also involved more than one lapse or system to be further reinforced and closed. As such, let’s take a deeper look into these aspects in the subsequent paragraphs. Factors behind the collapse of Barings Bank Nick Leeson started well as a star trader and was tasked as SIMEX floor manager by Barings to manage the Singapore trading operations to profit from low risk arbitrage opportunities with derivatives contracts between SIMEX and Japan’s Osaka Exchange. Arbitrage involves going long in one market and short in the other one and thus making the differences...
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...Tone at the Top............................……………………………………………...8 3. Conditions of the fraud......…………………………………………………….10 4. Control reliance testing………………………………………………………..11 5. Control deficiency..............................…………………………………………12 6. Promoting personnel across functional departments………………......………14 7. Audit Materiality...……………………………………………………………..15 8. References……………………………………………………………………..16 1) CONTROL RELATED TERMS • CONTROL ENVIRONMENT It is the main component of the internal control that management designs and implements to provide reasonable assurance that their objectives would be met. The control environment consists of the actions, policies and procedures that reflect the overall attitudes of top management, directors and owners of an entity towards internal control and its importance to the entity. It provides discipline and structure, and encompassing both the ethical values and technical competence. Management has to be serious and provide indications to the employees that they are very serious about the policies and procedures that have been adopted by the company with respect to the controls. The biggest mistake that Societe Generale’s committed was to be least bothered about the Delta One desk. There should have been more frequency of interaction between the senior management and operating management. If the management had shown the...
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...bank (by total assets) with net operating profit of $A6728 million in 2011. However, due to already competitive trading environment, every major banking institution is beset by increasing pressure on their trading performance – and NAB is no exception. NAB has responded to these challenges by increasing its proprietary trading positions within the Corporate & Investment Banking division, which was in contrary to the customer-focused strategy. The traders engaged in large unauthroised transactions with minimal supervision, which turned into fraud and significant trading loss due to volatile market conditions. However, the integrity of the traders was not the sole cause that led to the $360 million loss. Along with NAB’s unreliable internal risk and control framework and an inappropriate level of governance, the traders exploited the loopholes within NAB’s operations and created fictitious transactions. These were not discovered immediately due to the lack of oversight from the senior management and a complacent corporate culture. The findings and analysis outlined in this case study report addressed the major risk management issues ASB Trading Enterprise needs to learn from the NAB foreign exchange trading loss as well as an enhanced corporate governance approach within the...
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...Checklist for Evaluating Internal Controls Lisa Cook ACC 544 October 31, 2011 Bret Mann Checklist for Evaluating Internal Controls Internal Control is to assist companies with reviewing and assessing its accountability within the organization. Internal controls are best practices for an organization that sets the tone and its main purpose is reducing business risk by controlling loss because of the misuse of the company’s assets. Fraud is sure to be detected through internal controls as well as help with the accuracy of its financial reporting. This analysis will provide a comprehensive checklist for evaluating internal controls and show how to apply the checklist to outline phases of the control evaluation. Evaluating Internal Controls Checklists The Committee of Sponsoring Organization (COSO) defines controls as the “process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following three categories: * Reliability of financial reporting. * Effectiveness and efficiency of operations. * Compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Internal control is designed to achieve objectives in various categories” (Louwers, et al, 2007, p. 149). The purpose for an internal control checklist is to analyze the efficiency of the organization’s controls in place, document the controls, and make recommendations and necessary improvements. Management...
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