Play analy Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Play analy - Movie Review Example During the divorce process she meets more women in the same boat with her. The husband marries the gold digger and Mary decides to move on but she later realizes how unhappy the ex husband is and decides to fight for him. In this paper I will try explain and portray critically the different characteristics and function of each actor. All through the play there is no presence of a male figure although they are talked about often. The main theme is the relationship of the women with men and with themselves as portrayed by one character, Nancy Blake who is single and likely a bi-sexual and she is a feminist who is direct and unemotional. The props showed a lot of attention to detail for example only female figures is embodied and even the pets in the play are all females apart from the bull drawing in the magazine Peggy reads before lunch in Mary’s house. The film color of black and white shows the originality and the time the play was created since it is old. Mary Haines is a contented, faithful and cheerful wife of Stephen and has a daughter little Mary. She is in her middle 30 and has appositive outlook towards marriage. Crystal is in her middle 20s she is single, enticing, deceitful, disrespectful, manipulative and ambitious. She is the gold digger married to Stephen and she is a fragrance salesperson. She is also unfaithful. Mrs. Morehead is 55 the mother of Mary who is a widow, traditional and wise. Mrs. Fowler is a gossiper, selfish, and inconsiderate lady who is married to Howard and have two children. Mrs. Day or Peggy is 25 who is married to John has no kids but she longs for one. She is the type of lady who has cash but she complains. She is sympathetic and awkward. Mrs. Potter is a dull non confrontational house wife who does not like children. She has sexual tendencies. Finally Countess De Lage is an outgoing hopeless romantic who has been divorced four times. There are three themes, the ideal woman who takes care and depend fully on

What's the Good of Plato's Republic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

What's the Good of Plato's Republic - Essay Example said to be parallel to ascent which is described in the cave parable implying that for all terms in epistemological promotion there exist corresponding different objects or object. Looking at the analogy of divided line, it is worth noting that forms are different from things which are perceptible. Also, accessing epistemic things is not related in any way to intelligent forms. The stages in the ascent of the cave are given as prisoners being chained, prisoners in the cave who are not chained, those who use sun’s light to view things which are perceptible and those who see the sun and understand the power of the sun. States of mind which are four in number are distinguished as for four unique stages using the ascent from the cave as3: The unchained prisoners who are not able to be up the steep which was considered to be steep saw artifacts and fire that casted shadows on walls4. Such prisoners are said to see more clearly and correctly since they were seeing what is closer to real or more real. However, before prisoners grew accustomed to what they saw, they are forced to think the shadows are true as compared with what they were then able to see. The prisoners, who managed to be in the cave via the rough steep wall, are said to be in day light and they are dazzled at the beginning. After the dazzling they saw shadows, reflections and perceptible things in that order5. Afterwards, they saw the sky, the moon and the stars. The prisoners who managed to be out of the cave are said to have seen the real sun or the sun as it is. After seeing the sun itself, they realized that the sun is responsible for the change of years and seasons. Such prisoners are said to have overseen everything in topos of visibility. This group of people is said to have seen all the visible; they have attained the final goal of visibility. The sun is responsible for the provision of light which is used in seeing things. This sun is viewed to be analogous to good6. The term good refers to

Bureaucratization of My Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bureaucratization of My Life - Essay Example Students are people too and their overwhelming academic requirements put pressure on their lives. Some deadlines cannot be met so professors must understand the situation. There are also rules that were written a long time ago which does not fit a dynamic learning environment anymore. Although is a school is a bureaucratic system, it must also be the leader in innovation and change since it leads society towards the future through the learning process.The third characteristic is Impersonality. A bureaucratic system is objective and people assigned to do their duties are impersonal in their attitude. Weber thought this was good so that people can easily perform their routine and stick to the tasks being performed. The school staff assists students regardless if they are academic performers or not. There is no discrimination as the school staff perform their duties by rendering service to all students regardless of race, creed, color or even financial status. Unfortunately, impersonali ty and objectivity have its drawbacks. What I am pointing out is that since a bureaucratic system is impersonal and objective the situation of an individual is overlooked since the rules have to be followed. Regardless if one has been sick and cannot submit on time, the student can be given a failing grade despite the circumstances. In conclusion, bureaucracy is practiced inside PGCC and it has its advantages; however, it also has its disadvantages since a school system is not a perfect organization.

Imagine that you are living in colonial America. Write a LETTER either Essay

Imagine that you are living in colonial America. Write a LETTER either supporting or condemning the activities - Essay Example The price of tobacco has declined due to constant wars and we are facing cutthroat commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas. Moreover the English manufactured products are high priced and so we can’t afford to buy them. All these cause serious problems that our very basic existence will be difficult if the situation continues. Mr. Bacon’s hostile attitude has taken the lives of our so many of our colleagues. In his expedition to our villages he ruthlessly plunders our homes and destroys our cultivated lands. Mr. Bacon knows that it is not we who are behind the slashing of the prices of tobacco products. We too do suffer terribly from this and still made scapegoats of this ill-fated incident. Our only request to the Queen is to call back Mr. Bacon and provide us the opportunity to live peacefully in our own

Is Strategic Leadership Necessary to Effectively Manage Global Strategy in Todays Essay Example for Free

Is Strategic Leadership Necessary to Effectively Manage Global Strategy in Todays Essay Critically evaluate whether strategic leadership is necessary to effectively manage global strategy in today’s turbulent business environment In today’s environment, companies need more and more flexibility to success in a rapidly changing world which evolves constantly over the year. It is interesting to speculate if a strategic leader is necessary to lead the company to the success and to well manage the global strategy of the firm. The term of leadership is hard to define and there are over 400 definitions of what it really is. Leadership can be in a poetic way, according to Warren Bennis, â€Å"like beauty: it’s hard to define but you know it when you see it†. Or in a more concrete way, we can say that leadership† is a matter of making a difference. It entails changing an organization and making choices among plausible alternatives. It depends on the development of others and mobilizing them to get the job done. â€Å"(Useem, 2001). Consequently, strategic leadership is the vision of the leader, the directions chosen by him to lead the company to the success. Strategic Leadership consists also in persuading the members of the organization in order to build an organizational structure whose aim is the strategic productivity. (managementstudyguide. com, 2010). This concept of strategic leadership is more and more important in a context of global strategy. Indeed, nowadays, it is more and more usual to globalize its company in order to gain in productivity and performance. Thus, the global strategy of a company is somehow, a kind of strategic guide to succeed in the globalization process. This is a guide which permits the company to go ahead the barriers to international trade by gaining competitive advantages according to (quickmba. com, 2010). A global strategy must ask itself some questions like what must be the presence on the market in each country? How to build an international global presence? Regarding to these two important aspects of a business, it is interesting to wonder if the strategic leadership is related to the global strategy and more precisely if the strategic leadership is necessary to success in globalizing its company within this turbulent business environment. The strategic leadership may have an impact on the global strategy of a firm; nevertheless, strategic leadership is sometimes subject to some issues which can impair the viability of the company and its potential success. Indeed, the leaders have a lot of pressure, they have to deliver results and manage the personal, which is more and more complicated in a changing world directed by the development of new technologies which implicated more and more reactivity. And sometimes leaders can make mistakes, Gerald Ratner, CEO of Barclays Bank, has said in front of TV cameras and reporters that he didn’t have a credit card because it’s too expensive! That wasn’t very professional Thus, the position of the leader is always a kind of a precarious position because he has to make decisions which will determine the success of the company. Charan and Colvin (The quest for quality of work life: a TQM approach) highlight some strategic mistakes that a leader could make, some misjudgements which can lead to issues in term of strategic leadership. The first one may be people related. Indeed people can’t be underestimating, and sometimes it happens, people of an organization are the glue of this one, so it is necessary to understand people skills to have a harmony in the corporation, especially in terms of relationships, according to Bill Donaldson and Tom O’toole (strategic market relationships: from strategy to implementation, 200), â€Å"personal contact cannot be underestimated†. So it is crucial to have some strategic leadership to make sure that everybody is held at fair value. Moreover, another difficulty for the leader is to fail putting the right people at the right place, this task requires a analysis of each people in the staff in order to place them in the job in which they are the most efficient and in which they will work the best and do their best contribution. According to Buckingham and Coffman (1999) in their book† First, Break All the Rules: What The Worlds Greatest Managers Do Differently†, they put forward twelve questions which are really useful to put people in the adapted job (bainvestor. om, 2010). Another people related problem can be the fail to deal with managers who are underperforming. The decision making process is also seen as a issue in strategic Leadership, some decisions are not made which can implied a cost in term of time and money. The leader has to use good tactics to make their decisions. The problem is that, according to Nutt (researchnews. osu. edu, 2010) a good tactic in decision making require time and leaders are looking for quick fixes, but over the long term, theses tactics turn out to be successful. Beyond these issues, the leaders have also to face some challenges in particularly concerning the environment which is changing. Lao Tzu says that â€Å"resisting change is like holding your breath; if you persist, you die†. The challenge that faces the leader is how to adapt them to a changing environment, and more precisely in this context of globalization, because the employee may feel suspicious relative to the change. This kind of barrier has to be destroyed by the leader by setting objectives, having open discussions with employee or showing their commitment. Manage the employee is a challenge, but the nature of the strategic environment is another one. According to (airpower. au. af. mil, 2010), there are four components which can be seen as challenges to the strategic leader: Complexity, Ambiguity, uncertainty and volatility. The leaders have to anticipate scenario to avoid volatility (ex Bosnia/Kosovo), and to highlight the act of the competitors to reduce the uncertainty and the complexity of the interdependence of the components. Moreover, the ambiguity can be solved by working in team; this work will permit not to have multiple interpretation of one problem for example. As said before, the economic world has change over the past few years, with notably the financial crisis which has affect business productivity. This event shows us that the situation can change one day to another. Thus Brigid L. Bechtold explains in his book â€Å"Chaos theory as a model for strategy development†, the necessity of putting in place news strategies to balance a random economic situation. Moreover, the author emphasize the notion of interaction between the company which are now interdependent, a strategic leadership must deals with this situation in order to communicates and acts conscientiously, and notably in the case of corporate parenting. The corporate parenting has to set priority for the strategic leadership. Corporate parenting is a management which is intern to the company, no others actors of the market are taking in account; there are no interaction with others actors such as competitors or buyers. The aim of corporate parenting is to give value to the firm, but these operations require money and generate cost. There are three different types of this kind of management, strategic planning, strategic control and financial control. The strategic planning puts resources together in order to reinforce each business units to achieve a common goal, for example providing central services and resources. The strategic control consist in using the corporate parent ability to build some value for the business and finally under the financial control type the corporate parent evaluate and ontrol the performance of each business unit (scribd. com, 2010 ), and then business units are more independent even if they are subject to performance standards. The corporate parenting provide thus a clear image of the strategy to all the business units, managers can focus on the same goal. Moreover, a corporate parent can interfere and guides its business units if they are underperforming for example. A s an example we can talk about Virgin which is the perfect example of a successful corporate parenting: Robabdul. com, 2010 Virgin was able to understand and institutionalized markets, but also in terms of innovation, by buying and created partnership with good skilled company. Moreover the management is flexible and gives flexibility to business units. (robabdul. com, 2010) But the corporate parenting can also destroy value instead of adding this one. (accessmylibrary. com, 2010), some might say that the destruction of the value is created by the â€Å"level of corporate overhead costs†, but even if these costs are high, it is not the principal cause of failure. The most often, the influence of the parent are bad, because they put in place invalid objectives and unsuitable strategies. Thus, the managers have to use this strategic leadership of the corporate parents to develop the same and adequate strategy within the business units and the strategic leadership must be aware of the objectives given to ensure that they are realizable. In a context of globalization, this corporate parenting can face culture issues which can impact on the global strategy. The globalization is a phenomenon which is more and more spread; it’s a new way of working and in to manage people who come from different countries, some authors had created some dimensions dealing with cultural dimensions and the different value orientations. Indeed the majority of these workers don’t understand the attitude and the reactions of their colleagues because of the culture which includes different ways of thinking or acting. A strategic leadership has to leverage on cultural difference for competitive advantage. To create opportunities of collaboration a strategic leader must understand the management philosophy and the national character, to help this, Greet Hofstede created dimensions (hofstede. com, 2010) which permit to analyze and understand people from a different culture. A good strategic leadership is needed to manage these cultural gaps, because culture can be assimilating to the driving force beyond a man behavior. To succeed in a multicultural environment, the leaders must adopt the concept of global leadership, (Managing cultural differences: global leadership strategies for the 21st century, by Robert T.  Moran,Philip R. Harris,Sarah Virgilia Moran, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007 ), they have to be capable of operating in the globalized world and being respectful of each culture, he must be flexible and open in order to perceive and understand people reactions. Companies have also to take care of what they said, if they didn’t pay attention to their slogan, they can get into trouble, thus the slogan of American Airlines â€Å"Fly in Leather† has been translated in Spanish by â€Å"fly naked† (brandingstrategyinsider. com, 2010). To have this open-minded spirit, the relationship between management and strategic leaderships must be define The leadership, and more particularly the strategic leadership are the eyes of an organisation, they have to see what is coming, to anticipate the future in order to give the opportunities to the company to create the future. Instead, the management, according to the figure, is more about execution. Indeed, the management deals with organization, they follow and accomplish the mission given by the leadership, they have to â€Å"comprehends the vision and the road map† (relationship-economy. com, 2010). A good example of the relation Leader/manager is the story of the creation of the iMac by Apple. 2-speed. com, 2006) The ex-CEO of Viewlogic relates its anecdote: all the work on the iMac was done, the product was about to be launched when Steve Jobs, a great leader, require that the case for the computer has to be transparent. This resulted in additional cost and engineering work had to be restarted because it has to be pretty either. This story shows well the differences of vision between a leader and a manager; Steve Jobs has seen the importance of the design over the long term and put the base of Apple competitive advantage. Relationship-economy. com, 2010 In this climate of economic uncertainty, the role of the strategic leadership within the global strategy is important notably speaking of the globalization phenomenon which is playing a major role in the business environment of today. Strategic leaders are necessary because they are the inspiration of the company, the guide of the managers. As seen before, in terms of corporate parenting, strategic leadership plays a crucial role in the success of the different business units, but sometimes, it happens that the influence of this one compromise the viability of the different business units. Globally speaking, a company has often resort to internationalize itself, to succeed in this way a strategic leadership must be set, in order to understand and leverage of cultural differences. Concerning the relationship between the relationship between management and strategic leadership, they have a special relationship, on could not function without the other. Whitout the execution of the ideas of the strategic leader, these ones would be useless. These two concepts are interdependent, the management deals with organizing, planning and answers short terms questions, while conversely, the strategic leader responds to long terms issues and determines the position of the company and its strategic direction. The strategic leader must communicate to the company values. He should increase the belief of employees in the company and be transparent and involve them in their role. It must be open in order to speak freely of market information, because employees want to know where the company is going and want to know what the leader knows. It is also important for the leader to take into account the opinions of everyone. Indeed even if the decisions that are not suitable with the wish of the employees, having been listening reinforce their membership to the business. Even if there are bad decisions making by some strategic leaders, (notably speaking of the CEO of the banks which didn’t pay attention to the mistakes that they have done and start the financial crisis), they are necessary in the global strategy of a company but some strategic leadership can be at the origin of failure and being not adapted to some kind of company. Thus strategic leadership is important to manage global strategy to give confidence and to innovate in the turbulent environment. But to avoid some mistake the management can be stricter and let more place to concrete work instead of just ideas in order to stabilize and create a secure environment for the business. References http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/global/ http://www.managementstudyguide.com/strategic-leadership.htm http://www.cmoe.com/strategic-leadership.htm

IT Applications and Groupware Essay Example for Free

IT Applications and Groupware Essay Groupware Technology uses software that collaborate the work of different groups. It is based on internal networks and centralized storage space. The purpose is to facilitate fast communication without physical contact. Groupware includes email, workflow, calendaring, instant messaging and conferencing. Implementation Strategies The three main strategies for effective implementation and use of groupware are as follows: Understanding the Organizational Requirements This is the most important part for implementation any technology or group in an organization. Different organizations require different groupware products as they have different requirements. (Hills) A groupware that is good for one organization might turn out to be a disaster for another. Therefore it is necessary to understand the requirements of the organization before implementing any new technology. This involves the study of underlying business processes and work flows, mapping them and then identifying gaps and areas which need improvement or need to be automated. The goals of the company, its organization structure and size are important factors in evaluating what is best for the company. Large companies with great number of employees require higher level of collaboration as compared to small companies and therefore need more complex technology. The communication structure within the organization is also an important factor. Some organizations follow a strict and formal structure of conversing while others rely on less formal way. Thus the communication style needs to be understood before implementing technology to automate it. Lastly the new technology must blen d well with the existing systems. Most of the organization do not follow a sharing culture and people like to work independently and are reluctant to share information. Implementing Groupware technology in such an organization will not be effective as people would oppose any change that will be threat to their existing culture. The solution lies in first changing the organization culture and then implementing the new technology. The company should promote a collaborative culture that encourages people to work in teams and share their work and ideas. (Hills) Managing and Training People People are an important asset of any organization. If their needs and requirements are not satisfied then any change introduced in bound to fail.   Unless the technology is accepted by the users, any investment in that technology would be a complete failure. People usually oppose change because they like doing the things they have always been done. Therefore it is important to understand their concerns, problems and interactions before implementing the groupware technology. They need to be assured that the new technology is not to replace them but to make their work more efficient and fast. Employees most fear the loss of control and privacy as groupware makes everything available to everyone through a centralized system. These fears can be overcome by making people a part of implementation process and involving them as much as possible. Moreover people do not like to follow standard operating procedure and follow the more convenient methods. Thus the actual work practices need to be studied and incorporated in the groupware systems. (Hills) The success of any investment in technology depends on how readily it is accepted by the users. Therefore whenever a new technology is introduced the user must be trained to use it. They must be made to feel secure and assured that the technology is to improve their work. Organizations must hold training and interview sessions to cover all their needs and to involve them in the implementation process as much as possible. The purpose and benefits of the new groupware technology must be well communicated. 3. Using the Right Technology and Tools Once the organization and people requirements are well understood, the organization knows which technology is suitable for them. However other than the organizational structure and people, the technology infrastructure of the organization is also an important factor. There are four main factors to consider:  · Internal Network Structure The groupware technology is meant to provide a shared environment through collaboration and therefore require good understanding of the existing network technology. Network delays, User interface, audio/video quality, notifications and concurrency control are vital considerations since they all affect the user experience. (Brinck, 1998) If the existing Networks of the company are not up to the standard and face considerable delays and suffer from slow response time then implementing any new technology would do no good but will actually make things worse. Therefore organizations must upgrade their technology infrastructure including internal networks to utilize full benefit of the new technology.  · Collaborative tools One of the challenges in the collaborative environment is the tracking of shared documents. In a shared environment documents are used by multiple people and there exist multiple copies of the same document in different places. This makes hard to identify which the final version of the document. So Tracking and Version Control tools in groupware keep a record of all changes in a document and present the user with one final version. Features like Digital Signatures also help in tracking documents by storing information about who holds the document at what time and what changes were made. (Miller, 2005)  · Maintaining Privacy and Control Since collaborative systems allow sharing of information, thus Privacy and Security are the two major challenges faced by organizations implementing groupware. However some information is private and needs to be protected. The collaborative environment of groupware technology allows all information to be available to everyone at all time. This may lead to unauthorized access of information. One way to protect confidential information is to gives users control over what information they want to share. Also enforcing controls over what information a user can view saves private information to be seen by users who do not require it.   (Brinck , 1998)  · Consistency and Concurrency In groupware systems, one document is viewed by multiple users. Therefore it is important that consistency is maintained and all users view the same type of information. For example if one user has red color for a particular document and the other user has a blue color for the same document then this will create confusion. All users must be view the same data. To avoid this misunderstanding users must now what information is private and what information is shared. It is also important that users are provided customized view as all users don’t require everything. However customization requirements must not conflict with consistency. Every user must know how others are viewing the information. (Brinck, 1998) Concurrency is coordinating multiple tasks that are done at the same time. In a shared environment one document can be accessed by multiple users. This causes problems like one person accessing the document for all the time, unauthorized access and conflicting changes made by all users. To avoid such issues techniques like floor control, locking and merging is used. In this only one person can control over who accesses the document and for what time. The person who wants to access the document locks it so that other users can just view it without modifying. Similarly all users can edit the document during the time it is locked with them. In the end all the changes by different users are merged together so that the users have one final document at the end. (Brinck, 1998) Conclusion Technology infrastructure including the internal networks of the organization is important  issue that needs attention for any new technology implementation. However the social impact  cannot be ignored. It is highly required for successful implementation that the technology fulfills  the needs of users and is accepted by them.

Continental Cablevision Inc Expansion

Continental Cablevision Inc Expansion Executive Summary The Joint-Venture agreement: On February 1994, Continental Cablevision Inc., the third largest U.S. cable TV Company and Fintelco, Argentinas leading television-cable operator had drafted a joint venture structure after several meetings and negotiations. The joint-venture structure took six months to develop. Continental Cablevision: Two Harvard graduates founded Continental in 1963, and the success of the company based on growth strategy i.e. ‘cluster cable system, and as on Dec 1993, the company serves has 3 million subscribers in 19 states of U.S. The company starts exploring international market because of saturation of US cable market and Governments deregulation of cable industry. In 1993, company started explores joint venture in Singapore and Australia. In the meantime, Robert Stengel received a call from Jack Crosby, associate of Texas businessman showed concerns investment opportunity with Fintelco. Fintelco: Samuel Liberman, an Argentine entrepreneur founded Fintelco in 1980. The growth strategy was also same as Continental. The company was Argentines largest cable operating service provider and around 390,000 cable subscribers by 1990 in Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Rosario and other Argentine cities. The company also bought Video Vision in 1993, the largest cable-television-system operator in Cordoba. As the cable market was optimistic, Liberman wants to expansion of the company but due to lack of well-developed local capital market as well as the Argentinas capital market did understand cable market, and it is new for the Argentines bank to do investment in media sector. Factors enhanced the joint venture: Exhibits 10 shows that Argentinas cable market had become most developed in Latin America, by 1994 approx 4 million subscribers and the growth rate of 50% while U.S. cable market towards maturation phase. Argentinas cable industry deregulated by the Government, which created competitive and strong cable market in Argentina. Under the deregulation plan, U.S. investors can invest 100% in cable systems and 25% of broadcast- television station in Argentina. Conclusion: The joint venture of Continental and Fintelco and 50-50 deal was as a win-win for both partners as commended by Sachs even though there are few pit holes. Fintelco needs investment to expand the services in Argentina where Continental exploring foreign investment for expanding business outside U.S. In this deal, Continental gets a local partner so that the investment risk reduces where as Fintelco not only get financial investment also gets technological assistance, experienced management team, which helps Fintelco aggressive entry in Argentinas cable market with new strategy. Continental Cablevision, Inc. is a leading provider of broadband communications services. As of December 31, 1996, the Companys cable television systems and those of its U.S. affiliates passed approximately 7.4 million homes and provided service to approximately 4.4 million basic cable subscribers, making the Company the third-largest cable television system operator in the United States. In addition, Continental has pursued investments in sectors that are complementary to its core business, including interests in International broadband communications Telecommunications and technology, including competitive-access telephony and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service and Programming services. On November 15, 1996, Continental merged with and into Continental Merger Corporation; a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. WEST, Inc. Continental Merger Corporation changed its name to Continental Cablevision, Inc. on the Merger Date. The Company or Continental refers to both the Successor Corporation and the Predecessor Corporation. Continental is one of the multimedia businesses of U.S. WEST and is a member of the U.S. West Media Group (the Media Group). The Media Group is comprised of: cable and telecommunications network businesses outside of the Communications Group fourteen state region, domestic and international wireless communications network businesses and domestic and international directory and information services businesses. Media Group is one of two major groups that make up U S WEST. The other major group, the Communications Group, provides telecommunications services in fourteen western and midwestern states. See the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information related to the Merger. U.S. Cable Television Business Cable television is a service that delivers a wide variety of channels of television programming, consisting primarily of video entertainment, sports and news, as well as informational services, locally originated programming and digital audio programming, to the homes of subscribers who pay a monthly fee for the service. Television and radio signals are received by off-air antennas, microwave relay systems, satellite earth stations and fiber-optic cables and then distributed to subscribers homes over networks of coaxial and fiber-optic cables. The joint venture of Continental and Fintelco was a long-term strategic move in the history of cable service provider. Entry of continental in to the Argentine market was a good strategic move for the company. Continental exploring the international market hence, the U.S. cable market reaches stage of saturation and the deregulation of cable industry by U.S. government make the cable market is more competitive in U.S. so joint venture of Continental and Fintelco is a good strategic move because it will reduce the market entry risk in foreign market using local partner in joint venture For Continental six months will be not enough to study a foreign market and invest so getting a local partner who is premier service provider will help to run the business in profit in very short time. The foreign investor no need license to provide the cable service otherwise it will delay the process in this Continental will save the time and they can use best the local resources. Fintelco is Argentines largest cable operating service provider and they have a better understand of the cable market than a foreign investors and it will be difficult to fight head to head for a foreign investor against a local company so for Continental a good move to choose Fintelco a venture partner. Amos and Samuel both are self-made man and they have similarities of personality and they are quite comfortable each other not just at business level they are personally comfortably each other. This means they trust each other and have respect for each other so in this situation doing business will be easier for long-term partnership. Continentals success of the company based on growth strategy i.e. ‘cluster cable system, which is same strategy of Fintelco so it is easier to executive and understand the management of the company together as well if they have common strategies it will be easier to make future marketing strategies of the company. Argentinas government deregulation plan helps Continental to move strategically to invest in Argentinas cable company Fintelco. Even though if Fintelco will discontinue with Continental in this scenario the Continental does not need to find venture partner urgently because Continentals investment in Fintelco is subject to regulatory approval by Federal authorities working in Argentina. The recent approval of a bi-lateral investment and trade agreement between Argentina and the U.S. make it possible for the first time for U.S. companies to own cable systems in Argentina. Therefore, it allows U.S. investors to invest 100% in cable industry. So there is possibilities for Continental to buy the 50% share from Fintelco. When Argentina entered the decade of the 1990s, the economic performance was dull it over a prolonged period of time. From the period of 1975 through 1990, the country was plagued by high inflation and general economic stagnation. Inflation seldom fell below 100 percent; there were bouts of hyperinflation, notably in 1985 and 1989-90. In the year 1990, real GDP stood 6 percent below the level in 1974. Over this period of time, the general stance of economic policy was inward-looking and interventionist, although there were occasional attempts to adopt more market oriented policies. All-out crises erupted twice during the 1980s. But with the help of joint venture of Continental and Fintelco, these companies were able to cope up with the Inflation. All the above factors indicate that the Continentals move to entry into Argentines market was a good strategic move, and Fintelco was an appropriate venture partner. In Businesses joint ventures or partnership is very important to strong the relation for long-term commitment or collaboration to start or continue short-term project. The opportunities and risk of Continental and Fintelco joint venture are as follows: Opportunities: Local market knowledge This venture has an advantage of a local partner, knowledge of the local market is extremely important for a company to do business in other country. It is more important for an entertainment industry to know about their customs, culture, political scenario and regulatory laws. In this venture, Fintelco is a local leading cable provider so it is easier for the company to customize the programme and marketing accordingly. Sharing of resources Fintelco is a local company so there are many data available with the company, which can be used for marketing and customizing progemme otherwise for Continental it will take time to conduct surveys, gathering data and analysis it consume lot of money as well as time. So with this venture there are lots of opportunity to save time and money which is so important for a company so that they can use the money for strategic investment. Continentals technical assistance offering will help the venture to upgrade the technology in Argentinas cable market without any cost paying. Advance technology edge will give business advantage as well as lost operating cost. Later, the venture can sell their technology skills to small cable operator so they can extend their services. Argentinas cable market In Latin America, Argentinas television and cable markets it has the largest number of television receivers (8,000/thousand population) in the region affter Brazil and Mexico by 1994. And its cable penetration was 50% (case studys exhibits 10). It is good opportunity for the venture to make strategy to capture market share as much as possible while acquiring small cable service provider or extending the services in new regions. Flexible venture One important aspect of the venture is the venture is flexible and partner of Fintelco is Continental, which based in U.S. The recent approval of a bi-lateral investment and trade agreement between Argentina and the U.S. make it possible for the first time for U.S. companies to own cable systems in Argentina and invest up to 100%. Therefore, it allows Continental to invest as much as possible to expand the market. Fintelco get regular investment from the venture partner and on other side Continental able to expand the business international market without and legal barrier for investment. The flexible venture also be a risk that both partner might be internally try to increase the percentage of share holding of the camapany. Telephone and Satellite markets Argentinas tele-communications and wireless cable is underdeveloped so there are opportunities for the venture to investment in this sector as well as extend their business to reduce the risk doing one business. Risk: Different cultures and management styles Both companies culture and management style is different which may be result in poor integration and co-operation among the staff. Continental not just limited to investment they will share the management committee. Objective of the venture The objectives of the venture were not very clear and communicated to everyone involved. This venture is most like to their personal preference and level of comfortable and mutual trust. But in future absence of their may create confusion and may the venture get trouble, Leadership If the management committee will share by venture partner then it will be difficult for both leader to be present at all meeting to guide and mentor the newly formed managerial committee that may be difficult to follow the value of the company. Success of the joint venture was dependent on clear aims and objectives, mutual trust and open discussion among partners. The business plan should be communicated effectively and clearly at all levels of staff and involvement of majority of employees. In 1994, the senior management of Continental Cablevision contemplated acquiring a 50 % interest in the largest Argentine television cable company, Fintelco, for $80 million up front, and an additional $70 million over the next few years, Continental is facing a maturing market in the U.S., and sought new avenues of growth and outlets for its strong positive cash flow. Meanwhile, Fintelco needed cash for the aggressive build-out of its cable system. Strategically and organizationally, the investment seemed to make sense. The forecasted cash flows in Argentine pesos. As a matter of government policy, the peso was pegged to the dollar at 1:1 exchange rate. But whether this was sustainable, the Economist Intelligence Unit projected inflation in the dollar at 2.5 % for the next 5 years and inflation in the peso at 6 to 12 % over the same period. There were no firms comparable to Fintelco listed for trading on the Argentine equity market. Continentals analyst took a sample of betas for cable firms in the U.S,, unlevered and averaged them, and then relieved the average to drive a firm beta for Fintelco. The country beta for Argentina currently was 1.96. The countrys risk yield premium was 350 basis points over U.S. treasuries at the time. Continental was uncertain about the governments commitment to maintaining a 1:1 convertibility between the Argentine peso and the U.S dollar, so the analysts modeled the cost of capital estimate under both scenarios. Under the 1:1 convertibility and devaluation scenarios, the resulting estimates of cost of capital were 20.75 and weighted cost of capital (WACC) 19.21% respectively. Exhibits 1 2 give the calculations of the WACC and NPV for the investment. The result presents two exchange rate scenarios: 1:1 and depreciating peso. Under the stable scenario, the NPV would be $96.2 million and under the depreciating peso scenario, the NPV would be -$15 million. At that point in time analysts should not be biased with the new venture and valuate the price of the deal again, specifically with the depreciating peso scenario. Both the companies were offering different kinds of deals. One was offering 75% while the second was offering 25% but finally they came to 50-50 partnership deal. Apart from few pit holes, this deal was a fair deal for both the companies. Continental wanted to enter into the Argentine market and Fintelco needed capital at that time. So, overall, the deal worked well and both companies were in win win position. In an international joint venture, generally, small enterprises suffer two basic disadvantages that large enterprises by definition are without: Elevated rates of employee costs. Working capital requirements. Large enterprises like Continental cablevision have lower costs per unit turnover and substantially larger cash flow capacities. Moreover, these kinds of joint ventures represent a high risk factor in terms of debt repayment capacity, often because of inadequate financial know-how and limited access to guidance and consultation. Long term success of the joint venture is additionally contingent upon a heightened degree of financial flexibility that enables rapid adaptation to changing market needs. The disappointment with large scale, capital intensive and often import-dependent businesses has been growing long before the current global economic downturn set in. Continental and Fintelco has a lot to blame on themselves for their experience with large enterprises, reports of their diminishing impact on inclusive economic growth is emerging unmistakably from across the globe. As new economic realities begin to hold sway, slowly but surely the practicality of these kinds of ventures running on gigantic employee and capital turnovers is slipping away. It holds out a multitude of short and long term benefits that are of especial relevance to this joint venture. In the context of both immediate and long term goals, a policy shift in favor of rapid promotion of smaller enterprises is perhaps the only policy priority standing between Continental and Fintelco and a rapidly prospering economy. There are significant challenges in this direction, none more pressing than the need to create a mindset change among these companies with regards to grassroots entrepreneurship. Further practical problems were in the form of skilled manpower shortage, a disturbing enterprise mortality rate and devastating infrastructural deficiencies, especially in terms of security, power and roads. Improving availability and access to finance and equity was the most critical challenge by far,. In order to ensure rapid development, both companies must effect swift fiscal, monetary and industrial policy changes in order to capitalize on its huge potential of venture. A lot more things depend on the effective management of its human resource capital its sizeable population that has been traditionally dependent on extremely small, subsistence-level enterprises. It is a matter of fact that the fate of Continental and Fintelco ambitious economic goals rests largely on its ability to convert this talent into tangible economic growth.