Importance Of Theme In Movies Film Studies Essay

Importance Of Theme In Movies Film Studies Essay Since the cinematography was invented movies became an integral part of our lives. We cannot live without them because they tell us about our and the other peoples life and still every time we watch them we find something new. They tell us about ourselves, that is why movies attract our attention so much. Films are often described as life s visual representation (Tran, 2008). Everything we encounter in our daily undertakings is reflected in numerous movies. Movies create dreams and enjoy people. They depict our everyday life but still cinematography is something fantastic, mysterious and enigmatic. Each and everybody of us can be related and associated with protagonists or antagonists of a movie. We see ourselves in movies, that is why we are so interested in them. We want to find answers to our numerous questions. Every person has his or her own ways and methods of analyzing a movie. But still, there are some generally accepted techniques to analyze a movie. Each movie has a definite number of elements that are aimed at guiding the audience through the whole story (Pollick). Finding them out, analyzing and interpreting them it is possible to evaluate a movie and determine whether it is good or bad, successful or not. Sometimes it is possible to anticipate whether it will live for ages or die the following day. A movie cannot be good or bad by definition. There usually are some elements that make it perfect and overwhelming or uninteresting and boring. Sometimes the most visible elements of a movie are its actors. A disastrous movie can be saved by the perfect performance of some actors or only one of them. But a really good film can be spoiled by the disastrous play of its actors. Sometimes a movie is differentiated from the others with the perfect job of other craftsmen. They perform a lot of different functions in order to make the film finished and perfect for an audience. In order to comprehend the reasons of one films success and another films failure, it is important to know what the collaborative filmmaking is. One person can never make a film successful. There are several important issues that contribute to films success or failure. Without them it is next to impossible to imagine that a movie can be a success. Thus, the effectiveness of the storyline and dialogs should be estimated. The true architects of a movie are screenwriters. They are not as popular as the director or the actors but their job sometimes is much more valuable. Only they can perfectly adapt a book into a screenplay. Sometimes the new created script form appears to be a new masterpiece with its own original story. It is especially important to sense attention to plotlines and details in the dialog. If scenarios and dialogs are authentic, the movie script is considered successive. If the script is not very successive, characters are placed in artificial and contrived situations. The language used in dialogs is also very important, as it may be obscene, or high flown; it can be natural or it can seem artificial, coming from the writers mind, but not from the characters. Analyzing writing in the film it is necessary to determine whether the dialogs feel honest and the scenes flow in a logical progression. Set pieces and background are very important points that should be evaluated while analyzing an entire movie. These are two major factors that create the proper atmosphere in the film. It is necessary to pay attention to the pictures shapes and colors of the sets, costumes and scenery. Only working together they create a special ambiance and mood. Among some other important factors is the use of darkness and light, shadows and fog. The background information does not overwhelm the scene, but enhances it. The background and the setting should not distract from the scene, but add more to it. All these factors are of major importance. The individual actors performance is one of the most essential factors that should be evaluated while analyzing a movie. Sometimes magnificent performance of one actor attracts the audience attention and the other actors efforts are not noticed. It is also necessary to observe what the other characters of the movie are doing if they are not the part of the action at the moment. Good actors drive the plot of the movie forward. They also establish the character in the mind of the audience. A good actor can make the audience feel his or her presence even if he or she has no dialogs. Editing is an integral part of the finished and successful film. Sometimes it happens that a movie has many components that would make it successful, but poor editing spoils everything. In this case the essential parts of the movie are entirely cut out or the scenes of the film that contribute nothing to the move are left in the final cut. The unmistakable proof of the quality is the editing in which nothing confuses the audience. The perfect editing is usually invisible; the pace of actions is exciting but steady. One scene flows to another one and the audience easily and the audience easily follows the arc of the story. Sometimes the directors cut of a movie can be much less successive than the usual cut. However there are also cases when a movie can be interpreted extremely different after watching the directors cut that appears to be much more successive. Director is the person whose fingerprints are most distinctive in the movie. Definitely he or she is the person who influences the atmosphere in the movie, its character to a great extent. The directors job is totally aimed at film production; it starts and ends there. Thus, directors feelings, thoughts, and ideas are apparent in the movie. The good director is able to understand the actors capacities, the scriptwriters intentions and the crew skills. A professional director usually has his or her own style that is easily traced in the movie. The professional directors contribution to the film bears his or her signature elements, among which familiar actors, unique devotion to particular perspectives and camera angles, edgy dialogs and creative music are noticed. At least one distinctive outstanding feature is inherent each skillful director. So, it is necessary to look for such features in a movie while analyzing it. Sometimes it is next to impossible to determine the meaning of a movie. It can у too complicated sometimes. But there are also cases when there is no meaning in a film. Meaning construction is a vital issue that should be considered while analyzing a movie (Axelson, 2006). Movies generate ideas to a various degree are used as resources within the construction of identity (Jansson 2001). A historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form by means of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life. (Geertz, 1973). Culture and meaning has become increasingly important in media studies (Clark, 2003). Studies in media now look toward how meanings are constructed, making possible connections with the branch of studies that focuses on the role of media in the development of values, and conceptions of the world (Linderman, 2002). Exploring the meaning of a movie, it is essential to start such important characteristic as the sequence of events that form the parts of the story. It should be considered as a whole. All events are combined in order to form a part of the story. All these events become interesting only if we can observe the effect on all the characters of our story. It is not that important what happens, but it is important how it happens, how the characters react to events and various conflicts with other characters. Such conflicts can manifest themselves as dramatic actions or dialogues. Dramatic action is usually not what is said, but what is not said, what is implicit in a movie. In order to understand the meaning of a movie, everything it implies, it is necessary to read between the lines while watching a movie and analyzing it. It is very important to watch the actions of the characters; only this way it is possible to understand their points of view. In the course of time as the story develop s watching the characters and their actions we can anticipate and predict what is going to happen next. These characters development usually expresses the central theme or concept of a movie. These themes may be various: harsh war problems, terrible conditions of growing up in a deprived area, the importance of expressing your free will and individual behavior, the idea of helping other people. The nature of love is also one of the most favorite directors themes. My own personal criteria for evaluating movies mainly coincide with those features that are important to evaluate while analyzing an entire movie. First, it is necessary to find a theme in a film. Sometimes it is very difficult to discern the message a movie tries to convey. The theme is usually what struck us the strongest in a movie. Besides, there might be some minor themes that contribute to the principal one. Looking at the storyline, it is necessary to observe whether the plot of the movie that easily moves from one scene to another. A screen-writer may use a well-known formula of the hero cycle or add twists in order to make a film more believable or draw the audiences attention to the plot of the story. It is also necessary to listen to the dialogs in order to determine whether they are original or contrived, believable or artificial. Sometimes there are forced explanations and conversations that explain the story to the audience. Special attention should be paid to scenery and set used for the movie. Costumes, backgrounds, special effects and lighting are thing that enhance the special atmosphere of a movie. Being organized professionally these things bring the audience to the story instead of distracting and overwhelming senses. Main and supporting characters are also of great importance. Sometimes our attention is mainly attracted by a pretty woman or malignant villain but not by the elaborated plot. Stereotyped characters can contribute to a movie but can hardly make it genius or important. Sometimes a movie contains some scenes that add nothing to the story and even spoil it. Bad editing can let it happen, but a good editor will make everything possible to avoid unnecessary scenes that make the comprehending of the plot difficult. All needless pieces should be cut out. While one scene moves to another it is very important that nothing prevented from understanding the plot; otherwise a movie is considered not very successful. It is desirable not to lose the track of the story; however sometimes due to the poor editing a movie can jump around from scene to scene. Those who pay more attention to movies than an ordinary viewer definitely know that symbolism is very often used to represent some idea or topic from the scene. It can be reflected in a number of ways: thus, a camera may be focused on one and the same object for several times, or a word may be constantly repeated. On the other hand it is important not to overdo and try to find symbolism everywhere. Sometimes a meaning can be found n those places where the director did not intend to show it. Among other important issues that should be taken into consideration are identifying parallel plots alongside with the main one, inciting indictment, spine of action, the protagonist object of desire, values at stake in each scene of characters lives, the turning points of the scenes, the length of the scenes, all major pay-offs and set-ups, climax, climaxes of different subplots and act structure, image systems, crisis decision, the controlling idea ad counter idea of the story (Script A Wish) The world of movies is a unique one: dreams come true in it, every revolution succeeds, and mysticism and magic become real and ordinary. Films tell us about ourselves but in a different way. That is why we like them. Movies have a perfect possibility to fill the gap between fiction and reality. Those various features as actors, sounds, music and pictures present vivid descriptions of everything that can happen in a large and boundless cosmos. Unexpected and wonderful events, thoughts, actions represent our life, everything that happened, happens and will happen to people in all times. The meanings and interpretations rendered by the viewers are determined by their endeavors and personal experience. No doubt, that interpreting films and analyzing them is subjective by its nature. However, it is evident, that in order to analyze a movie, it is necessary to break it down into essential parts and constituent elements. Sometimes these easy steps can really help to comprehend while one movie is a real masterpiece and becomes classic and the other one has nothing special about it and becomes distant memories.

Euroland food Essay

In early January 2001, the senior-management committee of Euroland Foods was to meet to draw up the firm’s capital budget for the new year. Up for consideration were 11 major projects that totaled more than â‚ ¬316 million. Unfortunately, the board of directors had imposed a spending limit on capital projects of only â‚ ¬120 million; even so, investment at that rate would represent a major increase in the firm’s current asset base of â‚ ¬965 million. Thus, the challenge for the senior managers of Euroland Foods was to allocate funds among a range of compelling projects: new-product introduction, acquisition, market expansion, efficiency improvements, preventive maintenance, safety, and pollution control. The Company Euroland Foods, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, was a multinational producer of high-quality ice cream, yogurt, bottled water, and fruit juices. Its products were sold throughout Scandinavia, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, western Germany, and northern France. (See Exhibit 1 for a map of the company’s marketing region.) The company was founded in 1924 by Theo Verdin, a Belgian farmer, as an offshoot of his dairy business. Through keen attention to product development and shrewd marketing, the business grew steadily over the years. The company went public in 1979, and, by 1993, was listed for trading on the London, Frankfurt, and Brussels exchanges. In 2000, Euroland Foods had sales of almost â‚ ¬1.6 billion. Ice cream accounted for 60 percent of the company’s revenue; yogurt, which was introduced in 1982, contributed about 20 percent. The remaining 20 percent of sales was divided equally between bottled water and fruit juices. Euroland Foods’ flagship brand name was â€Å"Rolly,† which was represented by a fat dancing bear in farmer’s clothing. Ice cream, the company’s leading product, had a loyal base of customers who sought out its high-butterfat content, large chunks of chocolate, fruit, and nuts, and wide range of original flavors. This case was prepared by Casey Opitz and Robert F. Bruner and draws certain elements from an antecedent case by them. All names are fictitious. The financial support of the Batten Institute is gratefully acknowledged. The case was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright ï £ © 2001 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to dardencases@virginia.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Euroland Foods’ sales had been static since 1998 (see Exhibit 2), which management attributed to low population growth in northern Europe and market saturation in some areas. Outside observers, however, faulted recent failures in new-product introductions. Most members of management wanted to expand the company’s market presence and introduce more new products to boost sales. These managers hoped that increased market presence and sales would improve the company’s market value. Euroland Foods’ stock was currently at 14 times earnings, just below book value. This price/earnings ratio was below the trading multiples of comparable companies, and it gave little value to the company’s brands. Resource Allocation The capital budget at Euroland Foods was prepared annually by a committee of senior managers, who then presented it for approval to the board of directors. The committee consisted of five managing directors, the prà ©sident directeur-gà ©nà ©ral (PDG), and the finance director. Typically, the PDG solicited investment proposals from the managing directors. The proposals included a brief project description, a financial analysis, and a discussion of strategic or other qualitative considerations. As a matter of policy, investment proposals at Euroland Foods were subject to two financial tests, payback and internal rate of return (IRR). The tests, or hurdles, had been established in 1999 by the management committee and varied according to the type of project: Minimum In January 2001, the estimated weighted-average cost of capital (WACC) for Euroland Foods was 10.6 percent. In describing the capital-budgeting process, the finance director, Trudi Lauf, said, We use the sliding scale of IRR tests as a way of recognizing differences in risk among the various types of projects. Where the company takes more risk, we should earn more return. The payback test signals that we are not prepared to wait for long to achieve that return. Ownership and the Sentiment of Creditors and Investors Euroland Foods’ 12-member board of directors included three members of the Verdin family, four members of management, and five outside directors who were prominent managers or public figures in northern Europe. Members of the Verdin family combined owned 20 percent of Euroland Foods’ shares outstanding, and company executives combined owned 10 percent of the shares. Venus Asset Management, a mutual-fund management company in London, held 12 percent. Banque du Bruges et des Pays Bas held 9 percent and had one representative on the board of directors. The remaining 49 percent of the firm’s shares were widely held. The firm’s shares traded in Brussels and Frankfurt. At a debt-to-equity ratio of 125 percent, Euroland Foods was leveraged much more highly than its peers in the European consumer-foods industry. Management had relied on debt financing significantly in the past few years to sustain the firm’s capital spending and dividends during a period of price wars initiated by Euroland. Now, with the price wars finished, Euroland’s bankers (led by Banque du Bruges) strongly urged an aggressive program of debt reduction. In any event, they were not prepared to finance increases in leverage beyond the current level. The president of Banque du Bruges had remarked at a recent board meeting, Restoring some strength to the right-hand side of the balance sheet should now be a first priority. Any expansion of assets should be financed from the cash flow after debt amortization until the debt ratio returns to a more prudent level. If there are crucial investments that cannot be funded this way, then we should cut the dividend! At a price-to-earnings ratio of 14 times, shares of Euroland Foods common stock were priced below the average multiples of peer companies and the average multiples of all companies on the exchanges where Euroland Foods was traded. This was attributable to the recent price wars, which had suppressed the company’s profitability, and to the well-known recent failure of the company to seize significant market share with a new product line of flavored mineral water. Since January 2000, all the major securities houses had been issuing â€Å"sell† recommendations to investors in Euroland Foods’ shares. Venus Asset Management had quietly accumulated shares during this period, however, in the expectation of a turnaround in the firm’s performance. At the most recent board meeting, the senior managing director of Venus gave a presentation in which he said, Cutting the dividend is unthinkable, as it would signal a lack of faith in your own future. Selling new shares of stock at this depressed price level is also unthinkable, as it would impose unacceptable dilution on your current shareholders. Your equity investors expect an improvement in performance. If that improvement is not forthcoming, or worse, if investors’ hopes are dashed, your shares might fall into the hands of raiders like Carlo de Benedetti or the Flick brothers.1 At the conclusion of the most recent meeting of the directors, the board voted unanimously to limit capital spending in 2001 to â‚ ¬120 million. Members of the Senior-Management Committee Seven senior managers of Euroland Foods would prepare the capital budget. For consideration, each project had to be sponsored by one of the managers present. Usually the decision process included a period of discussion followed by a vote on two to four alternative capital budgets. The various executives were well known to each other: Wilhelmina Verdin (Belgian), PDG, age 57. Granddaughter of the founder and spokesperson on the board of directors for the Verdin family’s interests. Worked for the company her entire career, with significant experience in brand management. Elected â€Å"European Marketer of the Year† in 1982 for successfully introducing low-fat yogurt and ice cream, the first major roll-out of this type of product. Eager to position the company for long-term growth but cautious in the wake of recent difficulties. Trudi Lauf (Swiss), finance director, age 51. Hired from Nestlà © in 1995 to modernize financial controls and systems. Had been a vocal proponent of reducing leverage on the balance sheet. Also had voiced the concerns and frustrations of stockholders. Heinz Klink (German), managing director for Distribution, age 49. Oversaw the transportation, warehousing, and order-fulfillment activities in the company. Spoilage, transport costs, stock-outs, and control systems were perennial challenges. Maarten Leyden (Dutch), managing director for Production and Purchasing, age 59. Managed production operations at the company’s 14 plants. Engineer by training. Tough negotiator, especially with unions and suppliers. A fanatic about production-cost control. Had voiced doubts about the sincerity of creditors’ and investors’ commitment to the firm. Marco Ponti (Italian), managing director for Sales, age 45. Oversaw the field sales force of 250 representatives and planned changes in geographical sales coverage. The most vocal proponent of rapid expansion on the senior-management committee. Saw several opportunities for ways to improve geographical positioning. Hired from Unilever in 1993 to revitalize the sales organization, which he successfully accomplished. De Benedetti of Milan and the Flick brothers of Munich were leaders of prominent hostile-takeover attempts in recent years. Fabienne Morin (French), managing director for Marketing, age 41. Responsible for marketing research, new-product development, advertising, and, in general, brand management. The primary advocate of the recent price war, which, although financially difficult, realized solid gains in market share. Perceived a â€Å"window of opportunity† for product and market expansion and tended to support growth-oriented projects. Nigel Humbolt (British), managing director for Strategic Planning, age 47. Hired two years previously from a well-known consulting firm to set up a strategic-planning staff for Euroland Foods. Known for asking difficult and challenging questions about Euroland’s core business, its maturity, and profitability. Supported initiatives aimed at growth and market share. Had presented the most aggressive proposals in 2000, none of which were accepted. Becoming frustrated with what he perceived to be his lack of influence in the organization. Humbolt, Strategic Planning 1. Replacement and expansion of the truck fleet. Heinz Klink proposed to purchase 100 new refrigerated tractor-trailer trucks, 50 each in 2001 and 2002. By doing so, the company could sell 60 old, fully depreciated trucks over the two years for a total of â‚ ¬4.05 million. The purchase would expand the fleet by 40 trucks within two years. Each of the new trailers would be larger than the old trailers and afford a 15 percent increase in cubic meters of goods hauled on each trip. The new tractors would also be more fuel and maintenance efficient. The increase in number of trucks would permit more flexible scheduling and more efficient routing and servicing of the fleet than at present and would cut delivery times and, therefore, possibly inventories. It would also allow more frequent deliveries to the company’s major markets, which would reduce the loss of sales caused by stock-outs. Finally, expanding the fleet would support geographical expansion over the long term. As shown in Exhibit 3, the total net investment in trucks of â‚ ¬30 million and the increase in working capital to support added maintenance, fuel, payroll, and inventories of â‚ ¬3 million was expected to yield total cost savings and added sales potential of â‚ ¬11.6 million over the next seven years. The resulting IRR was estimated to be 7.8 percent, marginally below the minimum 8 percent required return on efficiency projects. Some of the managers wondered if this project would be more properly classified as â€Å"efficiency† than â€Å"expansion.† 2. A new plant. Maarten Leyden noted that Euroland Foods’ yogurt and ice-cream sales in the southeastern region of the company’s market were about to exceed the capacity of its Melun, France, manufacturing and packaging plant. At present, some of the demand was being met by shipments from the company’s newest, most efficient facility, located in Strasbourg, France. Shipping costs over that distance were high, however, and some sales were undoubtedly being lost when the marketing effort could not be supported by delivery. Leyden proposed that a new manufacturing and packaging plant be built in Dijon, France, just at the current southern edge of Euroland Foods’ marketing region, to take the burden off the Melun and Strasbourg plants. The cost of this plant would be â‚ ¬37.5 million and would entail â‚ ¬7.5 million for working capital. The â‚ ¬21 million worth of equipment would be amortized over 7 years, and the plant over 10 years. Through an increase in sales and depreciation, and the decrease in delivery costs, the plant was expected to yield after-tax cash flows totaling â‚ ¬35.6 million and an IRR of 11.3 percent over the next 10 years. This project would be classified as a market extension. 3. Expansion of a plant. In addition to the need for greater production capacity in Euroland Foods’ southeastern region, its Nuremberg, Germany, plant had reached full capacity. This situation made the scheduling of routine equipment maintenance difficult, which, in turn, created production scheduling and deadline problems. This plant was one of two highly automated facilities that produced Euroland Foods’ entire line of bottled water, mineral water, and fruit juices. The Nuremberg plant supplied central and western Europe. (The other plant, near Copenhagen, Denmark, supplied Euroland Foods’ northern European markets.) The Nuremberg plant’s capacity could be expanded by 20 percent for â‚ ¬15 million. The equipment (â‚ ¬10.5 million) would be depreciated over 7 years, and the plant over 10 years. The increased capacity was expected to result in additional production of up to â‚ ¬2.25 million a year, yielding an IRR of 11.2 percent. This project would be classified as a market extension. 4. Development and roll-out of snack foods. Fabienne Morin suggested that the company use the excess capacity at its Antwerp spice- and nut-processing facility to produce a line of dried fruits to be test-marketed in Belgium, Britain, and the Netherlands. She noted the strength of the Rolly brand in those countries and the success of other food and beverage companies that had expanded into snack-food production. She argued that Euroland Foods’ reputation for wholesome, quality products would be enhanced by a line of dried fruits and that name association with the new product would probably even lead to increased sales of the company’s other products among health-conscious consumers. Equipment and working-capital investments were expected to total â‚ ¬22.5 million and â‚ ¬4.5 million, respectively, for this project. The equipment would be depreciated over seven years. Assuming the test market was successful, cash flows from the project would be able to support further plant expansions in other strategic locations. The IRR was expected to be 13.4 percent, slightly above the required return of 12 percent for new-product projects. 5. Plant automation and conveyer systems. Maarten Leyden also requested â‚ ¬21 million to increase automation of the production lines at six of the company’s older plants. The result would be improved throughput speed and reduced accidents, spillage, and production tie-ups. The last two plants the company had built included conveyer systems that eliminated the need for any heavy lifting by employees. The systems reduced the chance of injury by employees; at the six older plants, the company had sustained an average of 223 missed-worker-days per year per plant in the last two years because of muscle injuries sustained in heavy lifting. At an average hourly total compensation rate of â‚ ¬14.00 an hour, more than â‚ ¬150,000 a year were thus lost, and the possibility always existed of more-serious injuries and lawsuits. Overall, cost savings and depreciation totaling â‚ ¬4.13 million a year for the project were expected to yield an IRR of 8.7 percent. This project would be classed in the efficiency category. 6. Effluent-water treatment at four plants. Euroland Foods preprocessed a variety of fresh fruits at its Melun and Strasbourg plants. One of the first stages of processing involved cleaning the fruit to remove dirt and pesticides. The dirty water was simply sent down the drain and into the Seine or Rhine Rivers. Recent European Community directives called for any wastewater containing even slight traces of poisonous chemicals to be treated at the sources, and gave companies four years to comply. As an environmentally oriented project, this proposal fell outside the normal financial tests of project attractiveness. Leyden noted, however, that the water-treatment equipment could be purchased today for â‚ ¬6 million; he speculated that the same equipment would cost â‚ ¬15 million in four years when immediate conversion became mandatory. In the intervening time, the company would run the risks that European Community regulators would shorten the compliance time or that the company’s pollution record would become public and impair the image of the company in the eyes of the consumer. This project would be classed in the environmental category. 7 and 8. Market expansions southward and eastward. Marco Ponti recommended that the company expand its market southward to include southern France, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain, and/or eastward to include eastern Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. He believed the time was right to expand sales of ice cream, and perhaps yogurt, geographically. In theory, the company could sustain expansions in both directions simultaneously, but practically, Ponti doubted that the sales and distribution organizations could sustain both expansions at once. Each alternative geographical expansion had its benefits and risks. If the company expanded eastward, it could reach a large population with a great appetite for frozen dairy products, but it would also face more competition from local and regional ice-cream manufacturers. Moreover, consumers in eastern Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia did not have the purchasing power that consumers did to the south. The eastward expansion would have to be supplied from plants in Nuremberg, Strasbourg, and Hamburg. Looking southward, the tables were turned: more purchasing power and less competition but also a smaller consumer appetite for ice cream and yogurt. A southward expansion would require building consumer demand for premium-quality yogurt and ice cream. If neither of the plant proposals (i.e., proposals 2 and 3) was accepted, then the southward expansion would need to be supplied from plants in Melun, Strasbourg, and Rouen. The initial cost of either proposal was â‚ ¬30 million of working capital. The bulk of this project’s costs was expected to involve the financing of distributorships, but over the 10-year forecast period, the distributors would gradually take over the burden of carrying receivables and inventory. Both expansion proposals assumed the rental of suitable warehouse and distribution facilities. The after-tax cash flows were expected to total â‚ ¬56.3 million for southward expansion and â‚ ¬48.8 million for eastward expansion. Marco Ponti pointed out that southward expansion meant a higher possible IRR but that moving eastward was a less risky proposition. The projected IRRs were 21.4 percent and 18.8 percent for southern and eastern expansion, respectively. These projects would be classed in the market-extension category. 9. Development and introduction of new artificially sweetened yogurt and ice cream. Fabienne Morin noted that recent developments in the synthesis of artificial sweeteners were showing promise of significant cost savings to food and beverage producers as well as stimulating growing demand for low-calorie products. The challenge was to create the right flavor to complement or enhance the other ingredients. For ice-cream manufacturers, the difficulty lay in creating a balance that would result in the same flavor as was obtained when using natural sweeteners; artificial sweeteners might, of course, create a superior taste. In addition, â‚ ¬27 million would be needed to commercialize a yogurt line that had received promising results in laboratory tests. This cost included acquiring specialized production facilities, working capital, and the cost of the initial product introduction. The overall IRR was estimated to be 20.5 percent. Morin stressed that the proposal, although highly uncertain in terms of actual results, could be viewed as a means of protecting present market share, because other high-quality-icecream producers carrying out the same research might introduce these products; if the Rolly brand did not carry an artificially sweetened line and its competitors did, the Rolly brand might suffer. Morin also noted the parallels between innovating with artificial sweeteners and the company’s past success in introducing low-fat products. This project would be classed in the new-product category of investments. 10. Networked, computer-based inventory-control system for warehouses and field representatives. Heinz Klink had pressed unsuccessfully for three years for a state-of-the-art computer-based inventory-control system that would link field sales representatives, distributors, drivers, warehouses, and possibly even retailers. The benefits of such a system would be shorter delays in ordering and order processing, better control of inventory, reduction of spoilage, and faster recognition of changes in demand at the customer level. Klink was reluctant to quantify these benefits, because they could range between modest and quite large amounts. This year, for the first time, he presented a cash-flow forecast, however, that reflected an initial outlay of â‚ ¬18 million for the system, followed by â‚ ¬4.5 million in the next year for ancillary equipment. The inflows reflected depreciation tax shields, tax credits, cost reductions in warehousing, and reduced inventory. He forecast these benefits to last for only three years. Even so, the project’s IRR was estimated to be 16.2 percent. This project would be classed in the efficiency category of proposals. 11. Acquisition of a leading schnapps2 brand and associated facilities. Nigel Humbolt had advocated making diversifying acquisitions in an effort to move beyond the company’s mature core business but doing so in a way that exploited the company’s skills in brand management. He had explored six possible related industries in the general field of consumer packaged goods, and determined that cordials and liqueurs offered unusual opportunities for real growth and, at the same time, market protection through branding. He had identified four small producers of well-established brands of liqueurs as acquisition candidates. Following exploratory talks with each, he had determined that only one company could be purchased in the near future, namely, the leading private European manufacturer of schnapps, located in Munich. The proposal was expensive: â‚ ¬25 million to buy the company and â‚ ¬30 million to renovate the company’s facilities completely while simultaneously expanding distribution to new geographical markets. The expected returns were high: after-tax cash flows were projected to be â‚ ¬198.5 million, yielding an IRR of 27.5 percent. This project would be classed in the newproduct category of proposals. Conclusion Each member of the management committee was expected to come to the meeting prepared to present and defend a proposal for the allocation of Euroland Foods’ caital budget of â‚ ¬120 million. Exhibit 3 summarizes the various projects in terms of their free cash flows and the investment-performance criteria. Any of various strong dry liquors, such as a strong Dutch gin. Definition borrowed from American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. UVA-F-1356 Exhibit 1 EUROLAND FOODS S.A. Nations Where Euroland Competed Note: The shaded area in this map reveals the principal distribution region of Euroland’s products. Important facilities are indicated by the following figures: 1 The effluent treatment program is not included in this exhibit. The equivalent annuity of a project is that level annual payment that yields a net present value equal to the NPV at the minimum required rate of return for that project. Annuity corrects for differences in duration among various projects. In ranking projects on the basis of equivalent annuity, bigger annuities create more investor wealth than smaller annuities. This reflects â‚ ¬16.5 million spent both initially and at the end of year 1. 4 Free cash flow = incremental profit or cost savings after taxes + depreciation – investment in fixed assets and working capital. Franchisees would gradually take over the burden of carrying receivables and inventory. 6 â‚ ¬25 million would be spent in the first year, â‚ ¬30 million in the second, and â‚ ¬5 million in the third. 2 View as multi-pages

Life Span Development and Personality Essay

Today the topic of discussion will focus on the famous Sigmund Freud and his viewpoints on developmental psychology. This discussion seeks to answer four questions about Sigmund Freud’s life. The first topic is Sigmund Fraud’s influences and environment in psychological development. Second the discussion seeks to reveal Sigmund Freud’s view of family issues or support systems that influenced Freud’s developmental growth and adjustment. Third the discussion seeks to explain two different theories of personality. The discussion seeks to explain how each theory differs in terms of the explanation of Freud’s unique pattern and traits. The fourth and final topic of discussion seeks to explain the theatrical approach that explains both Freud’s behaviors and achievements. The reason this paper chose to write about famous Sigmund Freud explained. Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 and died in 1940. Freud studied the personality of humans. Freud describes three major systems of the human personality. Sigmund Freud’s structural model is as follows: 1. the id holds the human sexual and aggression energy driven by impulses and characterized by a human’s primary thinking (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). 2. The superego explains a human’s conscience and a major source of ideas established through a person’s identity (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). 3. The ego describes a person’s desires, morality, and desires (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual development suggest in the first five years the human personality begins. Zero to one is the oral stage of development. Children from zero to one gain the most gratification from sucking than from biting and chewing food and sometimes other objects. In stage one through three describes the anal stage. During the anal stage children seem to gain gratification from defecation through the anus. The conflict begins when children begin potty training. Some children hold back feces causing him or her to become constipated. Generalized by some children’s behavior and the way he or she does, for example, cleanliness, stinginess, or stubbornness. On the other hand some children may have accidents in his or her pants. This may relate to expulsive personality, for example, disorderly conduct, messiness, and throwing fits. The final stage of three to five referred to as the phallic stage (Maitland, 2011). In this stage the genital area becomes a sense of pleasure. This causes the superego to begin and guards against incest and aggression. Children also can feel a sense of inferiority in this stage. Freud suggests mental disorders may come from an individual’s history and not just an individual’s physical impairments. Freud developed a new way to analyze human behavior. Freud’s view explained mental energy comes from the body. Freud believed all humans can only obtain a limited amount of mental energy. Freud believed human behavior was from causation. Freud also believed tension-reduction consist of a human goal for behavior. Freud claims humans consist of two human impulses for example, sexual impulses, and libido. Sexual impulses consist of life affirming impulses. Libido consists of energy source impulses. Needs consist of basic life impulse, aggression consists of death encouraging impulses, and aggressive impulses consist of an energy source for aggressive impulses. When a human impulse grows the more likelihood the human will react on impulses to reduce the need he or she feels to do so. Life affirming libido consists of activities, people objects, or goals. Cathexis consists of the process of investing libidinal energy. When an individual uses excessive cathexis this may lead to neurosis, however, neurosis is treatable. Treatment for neurosis often referred to catharsis or in other words a talking therapy. Sigmund Freud believed mental processes were unconscious. Sigmund Freud believed the conscious contains an individual’s specific information that a person’s paying attention at any given time. Freud believed the preconscious contains information or clues most individuals do not pay attention to unless recalled by a specific situation. Sigmund Freud believed the unconscious contains an individual’s desires, feelings, and thoughts held without an individual’s knowledge. However, these desires, feelings, and thoughts affect an individual’s everyday life. Freud believed the information in an individual’s unconscious emerges by ac cident, such as joke telling, dreams, symptoms of illness, and the associations between individual’s ideas. Sometimes the anger in a person’s unconscious comes out by mistake Understanding Psychology (nd). Another theory of Sigmund Freud contains the three components of personality, for example, id, superego and ego. Freud claimed the three components appear always in conflict with each other, according Freud the conflicts usually appear sexual or aggressive and most violate the societal rules. From a personal standpoint Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalyst theory the way an individual’s personality develops during ages zero to five. However, from a personal standpoint an individual’s personality develops throughout his or her life. For example children’s development goes through the age of 18. Some children take longer to develop than others. Even in adulthood an individual’s experiences and environment may change a person’s personality. Many individual live and are raised in bad environment’s that would affect his or her personality. On the other hand many people are also raised in a good environment that also affects his or her personality i n a positive and occasionally negative manner. In both scenarios an individual’s actions and behavior may affect his or her personalities throughout life. This paper was chosen on Sigmund Freud because he was a very intriguing and an expert in psychological research. In conclusion, this paper revealed the famous research in psychological research by Sigmund Freud. The paper revealed the three components of personality, according to Sigmund Freud. The three components of personality according to Sigmund Freud are id, superego, and ego. Sigmund Freud suggests that most human behavior develops during the age of zero to five. This paper revealed the Sigmund Freud’s view human personality and the unconscious mind of a human. Freud also suggests that many disorders may come from an individual’s history and not just an individual’s physical impairments. Freud suggests most disorders deal with sexual disorders or an individual’s aggressive behavior. Freud also suggests humans act on his or her impulses. Some people may act on bad impulses that may lead to terrible outcomes and consequences for his or her actions. Sigmund Freud was greatly scrutinized for his psychological research. Sigmund Freud was chosen for this paper because his research was very intriguing research in human personality and human behavior. Reference: Kowalski, R., and Westen, D. (2011). Psychology (6th ed.).Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Retrieved from University of Phoenix eBook Col Maitland, L., L. (2011). Personality Theories and Approaches for AP Psychology Retrieved from http://www. education.com Understanding Psychology (nd). Chapter 14 Theories of Personality Retrieved from http://www.glencoe.com

CRNA Entrance - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 557 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/10/10 Did you like this example? Yearning to become a nurse Anesthesia is my dream. It is not only my person but my inner most ambition. This interest became vivid when I started working in the ICU. This critical care unit challenged me and gave me an opportunity to utilize my critical thinking ability and skills. Being in this field will allow me to exercise my nursing skill that I have leant and also help boost my critical thinking ability. Having had some experiences in the field and also held a surgical mission trip to Guatemala, I realized that nurse anesthesia is my professional that I was destined to pursue. Backed up by my personal and professional strengths, am very confident that I would offer the best care to patient especially those in critical state. One of the most essential personal strength is my hardworking ability. In all sort of life, whether in school, at work or in my personal life I have always worked smart to achieve my set objectives. I highly like working under challenging condition. For instance, during my nursing practice I worked in the ICU since I strived to take care of the most critical patients. I therefore ensure that I challenge myself in the field to enable growth in my level of skills. This fundamental strength will make me a strong candidate for the TCU Nurse Anesthesia Programme. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "CRNA Entrance" essay for you Create order Passion for learning is another vital strength that I possess. In my professional line, I have always looked for opportunities to learn and this clearly will make me a strong asset as a nurse and will also make me strong and confident in my field. As a registered nurse, I have advanced my knowledge in CRRT, Balloon Pump, Impella, therapeutic hypothermia among others. I have been awarded CCRN certificate and also I have undertaken practice project. To better my knowledge on the nursing field, I have been a leader on my project in the implementation of evidence based in EBP practice project in the ICU at my hospital. This project has increased my ability to manage patients who are in critical state. Nevertheless, over and above the strength mentioned above, I am a very compassionate and very dedicated to the patients under my care. Recently I attended a surgical mission trip to Guatemala and performed over a 100 surgeries and procedure I within a duration of two weeks. This gave me ample experience in the nursing field and improved my assertiveness as well as transforming many lives of patients we attended to. This vital experience and exposure would be more efficient and highly motivating if exercised in our own land. The TCU Nurse Anesthesia Program will be very beneficial in my career line. I highly believe that my critical skill and my thirst in knowledge will be material to the people who highly need this services. Personally I shall have achieved my heart felt goal of serving the people and bettering my knowledge in the same field. This will offer me satisfaction by performing what my heart have been yearning to accomplish. My anesthetic services are not only meant for the patients in the United states but also to patients in those under developed countries whose health care services are either inadequate or unavailable. It is my humble request that this plea goes through and will help me achieve my desires.