Paragon Tool

Executive Summary Considering the situation that Paragon Tool is currently in, with uncertainty regarding company’s future, management in disagreement and the lack of tangible information regarding MonitoRobotic’s acquisition it is recommended that Paragon Tool, take a week, gather all of senior management and develop a concrete and agreed upon strategy regarding Paragon Tool’s future growth strategy. Once such a strategy is formulated, if the service business and MonitoRobotic’s fit with these plans, then Nickolas should take the next step in conducting the necessary due diligence to determine that the MonitoRobotic acquisition price and it’s culture will fit with Paragon Tools. Current Situation While Paragon Tool Company seems to be a healthy machine tool manufacturing company surviving in a tough industry, a primary concern for Nickolas Anaptyxi, CEO, is continued growth for the company. Paragon’s current tool manufacturing line is surviving in a fairly saturated market, but not exactly thriving. Mr. Anaptyxi’s primary goal since his start at Paragon is to grow the then small company through acquisitions. The company continues to fund more and more acquisitions while continuing to show diminished profits. While the CFO continues to debate with the CEO, Nick Anaptyxi, Mr. Anaptyxi’s strategy continues to be growth for Paragon through frequent acquisitions while continuing to show poor margins to investors. His belief is that the cost now will pay off in the future. The current situation that Paragon faces is that the recently added line of business of services (repairs, service calls, etc. ) has been experiencing losses which has been pulling down its previously well performing tool manufacturing line. Mr. Anaptyxi believed that a key way for this slow growing and cyclical company to grow and thrive in the difficult market is to expand its market base by offering a service line to complement its tooling business. The CEO has to explain to the company’s investors that it will take time for the company to see a return on its investment in the service sector. Potential New Acquisition In the interim, Paragon has been recently courting a technology company, MonitoRobotics, that focuses on the ability to identify manufacturing malfunctions much more quickly than before through the services of software and technology. While contemplating this relationship, it is made known to the CEO that a major competitor of Paragon is going in on a hostile bid for MonitoRobotics Company. The acquisition of MonitoRobotics would essentially double Paragon’s sales revenue collaborating on remote servicing technology for machine tools. A big plus is that this acquisition would give Paragon a presence in this type of robotic diagnostic business while at the same time, blocking a major competitor from doing the same. The CEO believes this collaboration would greatly benefit the growth of Paragon by offering this additional service to its customers. Mr. Anaptyxi now needs to step up his decision and make his next move. The company first needs to understand that this possible acquisition is more than just a move to attempt to grow sales revenue. It is more a strategy to reposition the company into a more profitable and growing line of business that compliments its existing tool manufacturing line. The company has to make sure it is making a well researched decision with sufficient due diligence versus making a knee jerk decision based upon the threat of the competitor’s impending hostile bid. They need to consider if the company has enough management support and staff to succeed at the overhaul of the company from manufacturing to technology. Executives need to not only be concerned about the investors’ position on the acquisition and continued diminished returns, but on the opinion and attitude existing staff has and their related motivation, whether the culture’s of the two companies can mingle into one. The top management is divided on their stance regarding the acquisition. An effort must be made to get the entire team on the same page or else, half of the team will lose their motivation regardless of the decision made. The acquisition has to be at a fair price and make business sense. Analysis must be done to make sure that Paragon’s existing service line will become profitable in the future, if not, the acquisition of an additional service line that may be unprofitable may mean death for Paragon. Details such as the acquisition costs and performance figures would have been welcoming information in determining if MonitoRobotics’ acquisition makes business sense. However given the lack there of, it is difficult to determine what kind of hardship the acquisition would be on Paragon. The description from the CFO makes it sound like it may be tough on the company’s capital if the deal where to go through. Although the CEO states that the CFO’s style compliments his own style, their differences in strategies and overall mindsets may prove disastrous for the company. The fact that the CFO thinks the company should consider selling of their existing services line while the CEO is talking about acquiring an entire company for their service lines makes not synergy between the two. They may spend more time spinning their wheels arguing over viewpoints than making progress in the company’s growth. Additionally, the CEO’s concern that he may lose the CFO if the deal is finalized should not be a showstopper for the CEO if the deal is in the best interests of the company. Recommendation Before a decision with such magnitude can be made, Paragon Tool must understand its current capabilities. After understanding what it’s management, financial and production capabilities are, then after determining the company’s growth strategy, Mr. Anaptyxi and the rest of Paragon Tool will know if MonitoRobotics is the right fit for Paragon Tool. There exists too much confusion and disagreement between management to make a decision, and even if Mr. Anaptyxi, were to force the acquisition upon his management, as it stands now, Paragon Tools lacks the management team to follow through on the merger process. While MonitoRobotics feels like a can’t miss opportunity, with the services business becoming a booming industry, there will be other opportunity to either acquire smaller service businesses or give time to grow the service business within.

Comparison of Early American Literature Essay

The two selections Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford and The General History of Virginia by John Smith are some of the earlier pieces of American literature. Although they were both written in the same time period the style and attitudes vary greatly. William Bradford had a very direct form of writing; commonly known as â€Å"plain puritan† style, whereas, John Smith had a somewhat confusing, more elaborate, writing style. Bradford’s piece also seemed more accurate than John Smith’s account. For example, John Smith wrote of his capture by â€Å"†¦three hundred bowmen, conducted by the king of Pamunkee†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which seems more than a little exaggerated. After all, it generally doesn’t take three hundred men to capture one. Smith exaggerated many times in order to boast about himself. There are many times when he refers to his greatness. In the following quote he boasts of his leadership skills and compassion for his fellow men while belittling his superiors: â€Å"The new President and Martin, being little beloved, of weak judgment in dangers, and less industry in peace, committed the managing of all things abroad to Captain Smith, who, by his own example, good words, and fair promises, set some to mow, others to bind thatch, some to build houses, others to thatch them, himself always bearing the greatest task for his own share, so that in short time her provided most of them lodgings, neglecting any for himself†¦Ã¢â‚¬  William Bradford, on the other hand, boasts about his colony: â€Å"†¦there was but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains night or day, but with abundance of toil and hard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loath some clothes, clothed and unclothed them.† Bradford and Smith, both leaders of their colonies, wrote of their hardships in the new world. Despite these similarities the way they acted was very different. When John Smith writes about the Native Americans he refers to them as â€Å"savages† and â€Å"barbarians.† He even calls Pocahontas, the girl who saved his life, â€Å"a young wench.† Bradford writes of the Native Americans as  human beings. He even had a peace treaty with them that lasted twenty-four years. They also had different motifs for writing, which may contribute to the many differences. Smith wrote his selection to encourage people to come to America to find excitement and adventure. Bradford simply wanted to inform the readers of what the lives of colonists was really like. As different are their writing styles, motifs, and views these two men share some common ground, one being they are some of the earliest works of American Literature. So no matter how different or alike Smith and Bradford’s writings are, History of Virginia and Of Plymouth Plantation will always be remembered as great American literature.

Market Risk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Market Risk - Essay Example However, despite such innovation, risk management has not been able to prevent the distortions in markets as the use of sophisticated financial engineering methods have only contributed towards covering up the true nature and value of the economies. The traditional tools of risk management group the overall risks run by financial institutions into market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, operational risk, legal risk, business risk as well as strategic risk. Based on above broader categories different methods have been devised which measure the respective risks which can then be effectively managed through prudent risk management policies. This paper will study the market risk and the developments which are taking place in market risk assessment methods due to changes in the economic conditions besides assessing their adequacy for current economic environment. Market risk is the risk that the changes in the prices and rates prevailing in the market can reduce the dollar value of any security or portfolio of assets. Generally speaking, market risk can be broken down into two components i.e. the risk of the overall market that the prices or rates will generally fall or rise and the second element involves the market risk which specific to that particular security or assets i.e. the changes in prices or rates taking place solely due to individual characteristics of that particular asset. (Crouhy et.al, 2006). Effectively, market risk is defined as the risk of incurring losses, which may be incurred from off and on-balance sheet items which arise due to changes in the prices in the market. Market risk is important for banks and other financial institutions because they hold different positions in financial instruments on their balance sheets. Carrying such financial instruments on balance sheet therefore put them under the risk of movements in the market prices. It is because of this unique nature of the market risk that the market risk is further split into sub categories of interest rate risk, equity position risk, foreign exchange risk and commodity position risk. It is however, important to note that all the sub-categories of market risk are not mutually exclusive as changes in one type of risk can potentially create or increase another risk. Steps involved in market risk management Before discussing the market risk assessment and different methods, it is critical that a comprehensive review of how the market risk is managed by the financial institutions. The management of market risk is a very systematic process and involves different steps which needed to be taken so that the risk can effectively be managed. These steps are: 1. Risk Identification: any good risk management system must first have the capability to identify the risks as accurately as possible. Identification of the risks therefore involves accurately what are the different types of risks which are faced by the bank or financial institutions. 2. The next step involves the measurement of risk i.e. the employment of different market risk measurement models which effectively capture and measure the risk with better degree of accuracy and predictability. 3. Based on the risk measurement parameters, banks and financial institu

Marketing Strategy TOTAL INTEGRATION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Marketing Strategy TOTAL INTEGRATION - Essay Example Piercy places great emphasis on the brand identity of the company in integrating marketing and communication campaigns. Total integration involves; Today Primark has established itself as one of the competitive retail store chain in UK, Ireland and Spain with a total of 173 retail outlets at strategic locations. Employing more than 25000 people the company has been in value clothing for well over 35 years and has also been voted as 'Best Value High Street Fashion' by GMTV and ITV viewers1. This study is an effort to look into the practical implementation of the theoretical aspects relating to marketing strategies, HR support, marketing communication, brand equity proposition, strategic alliance etc. which have been instrumental in the success of Primark. To evaluate the strategies adopted by Primark, while using various tools like Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT, PEST, Ansoff Matrix etc. an effort would also be made to compare the performance of Primark with some other retail companies like Topshop, Prada, Asda, Tesco etc. and how Primark has been able to beat the competition. One of the key weapons in the armoury of Primar k has been its ability to come out with items at rates cheaper than the rivals. It will be quite interesting to learn how the company has been able to come out with such lower prices. ... and how Primark has been able to beat the competition. One of the key weapons in the armoury of Primark has been its ability to come out with items at rates cheaper than the rivals. It will be quite interesting to learn how the company has been able to come out with such lower prices. Retail business is at the base of running a retail store, trying to earn the loyalty of customers, while at the same time trying to grab attention of newer customers. Piercy (2001) has also pointed out the desires of many company executives some of the issues as prerequisite towards being more customer friendly. The issues pointed out are like; Value of the product or service in achieving a successful strategy in taking on the competition. This is also concerned with customer relationship management. Mele and Colurci (2006) provide distinctive paradigms for value as such. It is stated that the term 'value' can be defined in different ways according to the adopted perspective of analysis; it is possible to determine a 'customer value', a 'firm value' and a 'stakeholder value'. Online presence of the companies to cater to customers spread across a larger area and keeping in mind the convenience of the customer Total integration of company's resources and capabilities to deliver a product which is able to fulfil the needs of customer. Consideration of effective planning, strategizing and creativity as the key to come out with effective performance. From the strategic planning point of view, competitor analysis is very important for any company's long-term survival (Kotler, 1972). The first step towards such an analysis begins by identifying the strengths and

What policies, if any, should Europe implement to address Spains Essay

What policies, if any, should Europe implement to address Spains economic problems of declining prices and high unemployment - Essay Example ies include provision of financial assistance to Spain and its banks, substantial economic reforms, improve liquidity in the Euro zone banking system and initiate reforms on economic governance (Lee, 1). As a point of departure, the economic crisis in Spain going down to the rates of inflation and unemployment need immediate response to help the situation. The euro zone should release financial assistance from the it’s lending facility called the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to Spain and its banks to rescue the nation’s financial base from further sliding prices. This facility provides loans in a direct manner to the euro zone governments (Patrick, Cohn-Bendit, and Griffiths, 38). The money is meant for recapitalization and purchase of government bonds primarily on the secondary markets. With the purchase of government bonds through the commercial banks of Spain, the situation is expected to slowly come to normal due to the ability of the government to pay for its spending, particularly the capital expenditure intended for national development. Equally, the European Union should seek that the Spanish government reaches and adheres to the set fiscal asceticism and structural reforms benchmarks. It is realizable that, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF help most of the euro zone nations to create and monitor implementation of sound reform programs. This process reassures a stable market for the euro zone goods and services and attracts rescue funds from the EFSF (Patrick, Cohn-Bendit, and Griffiths, 45). In addition, the reformed structures help in faster comeback from an economic downturn. For this case Spain stands a better chance of receiving these funds, because of its early adoption of the reforms assures a stable market free of volatility. The other rescue response involves the unprecedented steps intended to improve the liquidity status of the Euro zone banking structure. For instance from May 2010, the ECB

Intermediate Econometrics Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Intermediate Econometrics - Coursework Example Let and denote their unadjusted counterparts. Then; The answer is FALSE; in loglinear regression analysis is used to describe the pattern of data in a contingency table. A model is constructed to predict the natural log of the frequency of each cell in the contingency table. For a 2x2 table, that means the model is . So we can always say, as a simple function, that the coefficient represents an increase in the log of predicted counts. If , for instance, we could say that this model shows that factor increases the predicted log count by 2 (all other factors held constant). The answer is TRUE; all the three tests (Wald test, Lagrange Multiplier, Likelihood ratio test) address the same basic question, which is, does constraining parameters to zero (i.e. leaving out the predictor variables) reduce the fit of the model? The null hypothesis for all three tests is that the smaller model is the "true" model, a large test statistics indicate that the null hypothesis is false. The only difference between the tests is how they go about answering that question. The graph below explains more on the relationship; The graph below illustrates what each of the three tests does. Along the (labelled ) are possible values of the parameter . Along the are the values of the log likelihood corresponding to those values of  a. The test compares the log likelihoods of a model with values of the parameter constrained to some value to a model where  Ã‚  is freely estimated. It does this by comparing the height of the likelihoods for the two models to see if the difference is statistically significant (having in mind, higher values of the likelihood indicate better fit). In the figure above, this corresponds to the vertical distance between the two dotted lines. In contrast, the Wald test compares the parameter estimate  Ã‚  to  ; where  Ã‚  is the value of  Ã‚  under the null hypothesis, which generally states that  . If  Ã‚  is significantly different

Managing Your Time as an Adult Learner Research Paper

Managing Your Time as an Adult Learner - Research Paper Example An instance whereby the teacher is able to fashion the learning activities in such a manner, that the learners identify with the concept being taught, there is a great likelihood that, the learners will identify themselves with the contents being taught (Turner, 2001). For learning to be effectual, the need to set realistic goals is vital. All processes are worth undertaking if the learner is directed towards achieving a certain goal. Goals allow learners define what they work for and at what levels, they would also be in a better position to attain their goals. It is also imperative to note that, creating weekly schedules is crucial if individuals have to achieve their set goals and standards. Through set schedules; learners are able to detect extra time that they have, that can be dedicated to remedial classes. With strict timelines, learners are able to create quality and uninterrupted study time. Creation of schedule lists allows the learners schedule what they have to do in the following day. Schedules have been credited for their ability to allow learners plan on what to do and what not to do. According to Matema (2007) understanding one’s schedule is of importance to adult learning. ... Anderson, Samimi and Bohl (2010) argue that, time management is the major ingredient in the success of learning among learners. Learning how to manage time requires that learners come up with a daily occurrence list that needs to be constantly updated. Prioritizing activities allows learners plan what to do first and according to their urgency. The learners are also able to discern the repercussions of not following their time schedules. The learners must always update their skills and be in a position to assess their performance. Adult learners are faced with a myriad of barriers in their course of study. Rothwell (2008) indicates that, learners must devise solutions towards procrastination. The study recommends that adult learners can handle this problem through strictly following their set schedule. The schedule must be set on limits that the learners must plan their work in a manner that will not strain their abilities. Procrastination is known to instill guilt feelings among lea rners; a factor that drains their abilities to perform well. In order to work without interruptions, the leaner may need to understand the contents of their tasks, so as to allocate enough time for all of them. In this way, the learners will be in a better position to meet deadlines of the specific tasks as well as, acquire help when need in a timely manner. It is possible to eliminate stress in the learners if they understand the fact that, they do not have to be perfect, but do what they can within the allocated time. The learners must always attempt to make their learning interesting despite the fact it may prove extremely difficult at times. Conclusively, it is justified to argue that, adult education can only be successful if all the tips of effectiveness are followed