Royal Dutch Shell free essay sample

Shell plc (Shell) is one of global leading energy and petrochemical companies. Its foundation dated back to 19 Century but it fully formed after merger of Royal Dutch  and Shell Transport in 1907. Now, Shell, headquartered in The Hague, operates in more than 140 countries or areas and employs approximately 87,000 staffs. Shell businesses expand from upstream to downstream: it is engaged in exploration, production, refining, transportation and retailing of gas, oil, oil derivatives, electricity and chemicals; the company is also interested in global energy innovation such as renewable sources of energies. However, Royal Dutch Shell has been struggling to capture investor’s imagination after 2009 (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Although revenues and profits had recovered, Niger Delta and North Sea oil spilling almost destroyed Shell’s revival dream. The recent figures are still disappointing: Shell suffered more than 30 per cent drop in profits in recent successive quarters (2nd Quarter Unaudited Results 3rd Quarter Unaudited Results, 2013). We will write a custom essay sample on Royal Dutch Shell or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page What are the factors to Shell’s loss? Is that caused by Financial Crisis or European Debt Crisis? Or caused by Oil Spill? Or caused by deep business environmental changes? Identifying Challenges Analysis should start at the general to focus down, called outside-in analytical framework (Angwin et al, 2011). The interaction of an organisation with external environment is decomposed into macro-environment influences, meso-environment influences and micro-environment influences. Macro-environment analysis assesses the stability and complexity in energy industry. Meso-environment analysis focuses on competitive arena; more specifically, it reveals interaction and power of Shell with other main market components. Micro-environment analysis shows competition position in energy industry: it identifies and compares performances of global energy giants. However, the largest degree of influence is from focal company itself; namely, internal environment where decisions are made about corporate strategy and resource policy. Employing outside-in approach contributes to avoid myopia which seeing the real business world on focal firm’s standpoint and thus increases the accuracy of strategic analysis. Macro-environment Macro-environmental analysis is the first and necessary part of systematic strategic analysis. In today varied and complex business world, PESTEL is a common conceptual tool used in macro-environmental analysis. This framework identifies current and potential changes in a large macro-territory (Fahey Narayanan, 1986) and assesses the impact of changes on firm’s industry and itself (Ginter Duncan, 1990). P stands for political factors that determine governmental influence on economy or a certain industry. Political aspects have significant influence in oil and gas industry. It is because most countries regard oil and gas, main products in energy industry, as strategic materials. The energy independence is a preferential aim for the countries who intend to avoid economic blackmail and political suppression from other countries and organisations like OPEC (Talevski Lima, 2009). Thus the authorities strictly control foreign investments into oil and gas drilling and production and allow limited rights to transport and retail oil, gas and other petrochemical products (EIA, 2008), which limit access to proven reserves and potential markets. Besides, the political stability has impacts, especially in North Africa and Middle East. Instability, including political or economic terrorism, civil unrest, acts of war, piracy on high sea and governmental sanctions can discourage investments and disrupt safe operations and products transports (Talevski Lima, 2009). E stands for economic factors that determine economy’s performance with resonating long-term effects. Demand for oil and gas is determined by economic prosperity because most industries and transportation run on fuels (Talevski Lima, 2009). Under current unclear â€Å"economic slowdown†, the demand-and-supply relationship of fuels seems unpredictable. It results in fluctuating price of crude oil, natural gas, and petrochemical products with material impacts on oil and gas industry (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Specifically, in a low fuels price environment, corporates gain less revenue from upstream business because of shrinking margins between raw materials and products; while in a high fuels price environment, corporates suffers less entitlement to proved reserves and lower product demands, which reduces profitability of downstream business. S stands for social factors that influence social-cultural environment of market. Suffering the fears of global warming, people show increasing concerns about natural environment. The considerations shape preference for green energies rather than fossil fuels, especially in developed countries. Population in developed countries, primary consumers of hydrocarbons, consciously diminish needs for oil and gas but boost needs for renewable energies (Trifu, 2012). It entails heavy investments in research development in new energies. Besides, public concerns about corporate social responsibility push energy giants to protect all stakeholders’ profits, such as employees and neighbours at increasing expenditure on optimising manufacturing process, building infrastructure and training employees. T stands for technological factors related to innovations that may affect the operation or markets. Technology is key element in upstream business and downstream business: innovations in exploration and production (upstream) contribute to discover new hydrocarbon reserves or enhance recovery of oil and gas; while in the downstream, optimising reefing process of varying quality and developing marketing campaigns based on technological advance (like communication in social media) help corporates reduce operational costs and enhance margins (BP Annual Report, 2008). Thus corporates should be charged a considerable sum on research development. Additionally, technological improvement in substitutes and complementary products alter the demands for different sources of energies. Generally speaking, the dominance of hydrocarbon should be replaced if the increasing number of complementary products driven by green energies emerges and the costs on exploiting and manufacturing substitutes decrease. E stands for environmental factors that influence or are determined by the surroundings. Most energy companies have been involved in environmental pollution. Increasingly strict environmental restrictions require energy companies spend share of their profits in technological innovation and waste disposal to environmental restoration and remediation (BP Annual Report, 2008). Besides, an uneven geographical distribution of hydrocarbon and separability of production fields and markets expose oil and gas companies to safety issues and environmental issues in transportation (Talevski Lima, 2009), such as BP oil spilling in Gulf of Mexico. Transportation process requires special care at large human, material and capital inputs. Thus environmental issues are threats to profitability. L stands for legal factors that laws affect the business environment. Legal regulations subjected to energy companies includes imposition of exploitation obligations, regulations on field development and decommissioning, proposed fuel specifications, the provision of health-safety-security-and-environment protection, emission controls, climate change programs, the provision of disposal or releases of chemicals or petroleum substances, the clauses of antitrust and competition, upfront concession fees , special royalties and taxes (Talevski Lima, 2009; Trifu, 2012). More stringent legal restrictions might induce damage to corporate images, larger fees required in business activities or even loss of licence to operate in a certain area (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Meso-environment Analysis about meso-environment examines competitive structure. Porter’s Five Forces should be advised: It identifies five basic competitive forces which influence focal participants’ income statements and balance sheets through prices, costs and investments (Porter, 2008). Meso-environmental analysis tries to understand underpinnings of competition and causes of profitability in oil and gas industry. The threat of new entrants is insignificant. There are large capital investments tied to all vertical activities like exploration of new fields, setting-up production facilities, scientific research and accessing to distribution channel. Enormous fixed up-front investment creates barriers to potential entrants (Talevski Lima, 2009). Economies of scale/scope are another barrier to new participants. Higher unit costs in exploration and production and lower volume of business result in a small profit margin, which adversely affect returns of money in the start-up (Dess et al., 2004). The threat of substitutes seems not significant today but increasingly influential in following years. Oil and gas are still dominant in many sectors, especially in transportation and industry; and it is estimated to stay the dominance until 2030 (IEA, 2008). However, with the technological advances in drilling and processing new energies and rising concerns on planet, green energies like renewable energies and nuclear energies are predicted to slowly but surely enlarge market share in the future. The bargaining power of buyers is complex. Generally, the power of buyers is low because the prices of oil and gas are globally given (Talevski Lima, 2009). However, the power of large consumers, like the US, the EU, China and Japan, are indeed strong because their enormous volumes of demands can alter global demands. Recently, theses primary consumers are trying to switch from heavy dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energies. Thus the strong bargaining power entails business revolution in oil and gas industry. The bargaining power of suppliers depends on which type of suppliers they are. The conventional suppliers that provide supporting products/services seem disadvantaged because oil and gas industry has a wide range of small unconsolidated sub-suppliers from various sectors. While the suppliers of oil or gas field exert power: no one corporates can operate in a certain country without permission. These countries can determine the supply of materials. Thus their policy and regulation on oil and gas are quite important to energy companies. The intensity of rivalry is high. The slow industry growth and product homogeneity create small profits margins through technological or managerial innovation. Besides, the needs to replace drying fields exacerbate competition due to the fact that new reserves are more difficult to access. All of them force major and strong oligopolistic players overcome competitive constrains through aggressive activities like mergers, acquisitions and alliances (Weston et al. , 2001). Micro-environment Micro-environment analysis attempts to identify Shell’s competitive position through comparing competitors’ superior performances. Fiercer competition on differentiating products is a characteristic of oil and gas industry. BP intended to gain first-mover advantages. BP has engaged in renewables energies, especially in wind, solar and biofuels (Datamonitor, 2010). Until the end of 2009, BP has more than 500 MW of installed capacity through wind power; the whole solar value chain has been built; and more than $1 billion planned investments was into biofuels business operation. The Total S. A. refused to be inferior: the investments into renewable energies are also considerable (Datamonitor, 2010). Slow differentiation process might erode Shell’s competitive position. Increasing competition from government-run companies such as China National Petroleum Corporation and Sinopec creates threats to publicly held oil and gas companies, especially in seeking access to the fields (Shell Annual Report, 2012). These government-run entities have partial access to significant reserves and desirable projects. They are also sometimes motivated by political or other factors in making business decision which is abnormal in markets or harm to competitors. These partial competitive advantages supported by national governments should be achieved at independent participants’ loss. Internal Environment Internal-environmental analysis focuses on firm-specific factors. The frequent oil spilling disasters have troubled Shell for a long time. Recently, these problems become even worse. The oil spilling in Nigeria mainly caused by lack of maintenance on pipeline resulted in up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil spilling 75 miles off the coasts of Niger Delta (Vidal, 2011); the following oil leaking in North Sea caused by immature deep-water drilling technology and operator error resulted in more than 1,300 barrels of crude oil spilling (BBC news, 2011). However, Shell’s responses to extreme events seem unacceptable. Criticisms referred to late disclosure of information about leaking events, sluggish efforts to stop leakage, false claims on responsibility and reluctance on compensation (Macalister, 2013; Watkins, 2013). It makes Shell face not only considerable economic losses from business interruption, rehabilitative measures and fines on environmental pollution which caused losing leading company position (Datamonitor, 2010; MarketLine, 2013), but also a credibility problem and even corporate images damage (ICMR, 2010). Another threat is from globalisation outsourcing. Shell’s operation is on more than 70 countries with differing degrees of political, legal and fiscal stability. A wide range of political developments might affect operations, especially in the upstream, referring to land tenure, re-writing of leases, entitlement to produced hydrocarbons, production rates, and royalties (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Cross-border transaction also exposed Shell to risks from fluctuating foreign exchange rate. Changing foreign exchange rate increases transaction risks (caused by time delay between signing and settling contracts) and translational risks (caused by operating in foreign currencies but showing on balance sheets in home currency), which increase unpredictability in estimating costs and revenues (Sorensen and Kyle, 2008). Furthermore, Shell face competition from powerful local rivals when entering overseas market. Wining in the competition require large investments particularly when the rivalry happens in home country of government-run firms. Key Challenges The greatest challenge is from the increasing environmental concerns, leading to stringent environmental regulation and growing demands to green energies in future market. Hart pointed (1995) corporate competitive advantages should be rooted in capabilities in promoting environmentally-friendly economic activities, namely the natural-resource-based view of the firm. However, most core businesses of Shell, especially in upstream activities, still cause huge damages to ecosystem. This trend creates a puzzle: how to modify current environment-damaged portfolio to satisfy growing requirements to environmentally-friendly business model. In other words, it determines Shell’s future business development direction: from traditional fossil fuel company to environment-oriented energy giants-to sustain competitive advantages by pollution prevention, product stewardship and sustainable development (Hart, 1995). The second key challenge is from poor crisis management strategy. Current activities in value chain exposure Shell to safety disasters in drilling, production, refining, and transportation process. It seriously hurts social benefit, especially the safety of nearby residence. Growing concerns about corporate social responsibility set higher requirements to Shell to manage crisis. How to win customer’s trusts and recover the credibility depends on Shell’s improvements in social-responsible performance. It determines Shell’s future strategic direction: from high-level risk-facing but low-level risking-taking company to lower-risk and strong anti-risk company with organisational and policy synergies which extend beyond â€Å"principles† to the serious treatments by every staff to think about threats and adopt their behaviour to avoid potential crisis or to manage happened crisis (McConnell Drennan, 2006). The third key challenge is from globalisation business model in oil and gas industry. This model tightly ties demand to Shell’s products to global economic prosperity and depression. It obviously brings greater difficulty to determine outputs in a certain period in order to balance demands and supply. Besides, the regional instability in political development and economic situation especially in currency makes it tougher for Shell to audit revenuesto control operations. Furthermore, competition from powerful local rivals is big challenge for Shell entering overseas market. To gain competitive advantages in international context should combine firm-specific resource and capabilities with certain national environment (Grant, 2008). In other words, how to shorten political, economic and cultural distances in globalisation should be Shell’s future direction on optimising integration of global resources (Ghemawat, 2001). Strategic Plan How to deal with the three contextual key challenges should be a serious question in Shell’s development plan. The measures to manage challenges can be understood as to pursue or sustain competitive advantages. In current market, external stakeholders are trying to keep companies accountable for social issues and demonstrate potentially large financial risks for the companies with damages to society or environments. Fulfilling social responsibility has been becoming inescapable requirements to keep competitive advantages. In order to embed a social perspective into its core value proposition, Shell should change from the fragmented and defensive position to the integrated and proactive posture. In other words, the focus must move from the focuses on corporate image to an emphasis on humanity and substance (Porter Kramer, 2006). Shared values among society (people), economy (profits) and environment (planet) can be realised (Jamali, 2006). The primary task is the shift from an environmentally-damaged producer to an environmentally-friendly corporation, namely, to achieve environment benefits. The first step is pollution abatement. There are two suggested approaches. Pollution control is using pollution control equipment to trap, store, treat and dispose emission and effluents. Another approach is pollution prevention, refers to reduce, change and prevent emission and effluents by greater housekeeping, material substitution, recycling and process innovation (Cairncross, 1991, Frosch Gallopoulos, 1989; Willig, 1994). Pollution prevention seems more important than pollution control: it tries to prevent and contain pollution in continuous-improvement methods rather than the old model of â€Å"polluting then cleaning up† at expense of non-recoverable ecological damages and expensive end-of-pipe capital investments to control emissions (Rooney, 1993). A pollution-prevention strategy emphasis on establishing capabilities in production and operation: it can be achieved through extensive and initiative employee involvement (Cole, 1991; Lawler, 1986) and continues improvement in waste reduction. Thus it is necessary to invest into inventing or introducing environmentally-friendly or resource-conserving facilities and innovating technology used in value chain. For example, non-phenolic and resin-coating technology  increase hydraulic fracturing efficiency: It allows coated sand to be produced with less energy requirement and environmental damages compared to current phenolic resins in the manufacturing process (Drilling Contractor, 2013). Building awareness of environmental protection and forcing involvement of employees also should be suggested. The second step is to product stewardship. It refers to direct the selection of raw materials and manage product design with aims at minimising environmental harm of product system. Exiting environmentally hazardous business and developing potential products with lower life-cycle costs should be the requirements to reasonable product management (Hart, 1995). To Shell, creating new products with low life-cycle costs will be dominant product strategy. It requests Shell to minimise the use of non-renewable materials, to avoid use of toxic materials and maximise the use of renewable resources (Robert, 1995). Developing renewable energy is a good choice. Shell is advised to develop wind, solar, hydropower, tidal, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas electricity generation and anaerobic digestion. These green energies not only satisfy legal and public expectations on environmental protection but also solve the problem of fossil fuels crisis. The third step is sustainable development. To achieve sustainable development demands a great deal of inputs and long-term commitments to develop market (Hart, 1995). To Shell, that means to create market demand transition from fossil fuel to renewable source of energies, especially in the developing countries. For example, Shell can make documentaries about production in the fossil fuels field and the renewable energy filed. This comparison might switch audiences’ preference for energies. Shell also can persuade energy-intensive producers to adopt green source of energies. Although there is little evidence showing the relationship between these efforts and short-term profits, the engagement to sustainable development will improvement firms’ long-term performance, reflected by price earnings or market-to-book ratios (Hart, 1995). The second task is to manage crisis, specifically to avoid potential crisis and to minimise the damages. That can be understood a task in protecting social benefits, especially nearby residence around Shell economic activities. There are five phase to accomplish crisis management (Mitroff, 1988). The first phase is signal deletion. Long before the crisis happened, there are repeated and persistent trials of warning signals. It is necessary for Shell to build various appropriate warning systems to identify diverse explicit or implicit signals. For example, the growing equipment faulty rate may imply the increasing possibility of accident and needs for maintenance. The second phase is preparation or prevention, referring to establish appropriate prevention and preparation mechanism. Specifically, prevention and preparation mechanism works through identifying any sign of weakness and then responding appropriately whatever problems is discovered. In this phase, Shell is required to ensure everything stay fixed even it works well now. The third phase is containment or damage limitation. It is important for Shell to build damage-limitation mechanisms in place. Preventing all crises seems impossible in oil and gas industry. How to prevent the harm from engulfing other parts of the corporate should be discussed. After every disaster happens, Shell should release relevant information as soon as possible and also clearly claim corporate responsibility. Although it may cause higher expense of recovery, these measures protect credibility in public, which is important for long-term development. The fourth phase is recovery. If Shell is not anticipatory, the aftermath is requested. That means Shell should build short-term and long-term recovery plan. For instance, in Nigeria Delta, how to degrade toxic substance in soil, air and water, how to recover soil fertility and how to rebuild broken ecosystem, which is highly related to local people’s health need to be considered. The final phase is learning. Shell should reassess the crisis happened on the past to improve capabilities in predicting crisis and avoiding crisis. The third task is to manage the difficulties in globalisation. The challenges are mainly from political difference, cultural distance and economic instability. Thus it is a task to shrink various distances in globalisation to realise economic profits. Political difference and cultural distance create barriers to foreign companies. International alliance and joint venture with powerful local market participant should be a suitable entry mode for Shell in overseas markets (Grant, 2008). It not only free Shell from political restrictions directed against foreign companies but also access market knowledge and distribution capabilities. Another strategy to shrink political and cultural distance is decentralisation. That means giving overseas subsidiaries higher level of freedoms in decision-making. These holders of first-hand information can modify Shell’s activities and respond the diverse political and customers’ requirements quickly and accurately. That is the process of localisation. The effects of economic instability also can be minimised by economic tools. For example, financial forward contracts help Shell avoid financial risks, such as fluctuating foreign exchange rate to guarantee the best possible outcomes in a certain production cycle (Shapiro, ND.) Although it cannot balance demand and supply fundamentally, the tools or frameworks tries to decrease damages from external economic changes. Conclusion Royal Dutch Shell was a successful corporation but now is suffering poor performance. In this essay, the author analyses the macro-environment, meso-environment, micro-environment and internal environment in outside-in approach to identify three key challenges in the long-term survival. They are increasing concerns in environmental protection, poor crisis management strategy and various distances in globalisation. They also can be understood the threats from environment, society and economy. Thus corporate social responsibility is the synergy. Environmental profits can be achieved through ppollution abatement, product stewardship and sustainable development; sociall profits can be realised by crisis management, including signal deletion, preparation and prevention, damage limitation, recovery and learning; economic profits can be accomplished by shrinking political, cultural and economic distance through alliance joint venture, decentralised management and leverage by economic tools. Royal Dutch Shell free essay sample Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell) is one of global leading energy and petrochemical companies. Its foundation dated back to 19 Century but it fully formed after merger of Royal Dutch  and Shell Transport in 1907. Now, Shell, headquartered in The Hague, operates in more than 140 countries or areas and employs approximately 87,000 staffs. Shell businesses expand from upstream to downstream: it is engaged in exploration, production, refining, transportation and retailing of gas, oil, oil derivatives, electricity and chemicals; the company is also interested in global energy innovation such as renewable sources of energies. However, Royal Dutch Shell has been struggling to capture investor’s imagination after 2009 (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Although revenues and profits had recovered, Niger Delta and North Sea oil spilling almost destroyed Shell’s revival dream. The recent figures are still disappointing: Shell suffered more than 30 per cent drop in profits in recent successive quarters (2nd Quarter Unaudited Results 3rd Quarter Unaudited Results, 2013). We will write a custom essay sample on Royal Dutch Shell or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page What are the factors to Shell’s loss? Is that caused by Financial Crisis or European Debt Crisis? Or caused by Oil Spill? Or caused by deep business environmental changes? Identifying Challenges Analysis should start at the general to focus down, called outside-in analytical framework (Angwin et al, 2011). The interaction of an organisation with external environment is decomposed into macro-environment influences, meso-environment influences and micro-environment influences. Macro-environment analysis assesses the stability and complexity in energy industry. Meso-environment analysis focuses on competitive arena; more specifically, it reveals interaction and power of Shell with other main market components. Micro-environment analysis shows competition position in energy industry: it identifies and compares performances of global energy giants. However, the largest degree of influence is from focal company itself; namely, internal environment where decisions are made about corporate strategy and resource policy. Employing outside-in approach contributes to avoid myopia which seeing the real business world on focal firm’s standpoint and thus increases the accuracy of strategic analysis. Macro-environment Macro-environmental analysis is the first and necessary part of systematic strategic analysis. In today varied and complex business world, PESTEL is a common conceptual tool used in macro-environmental analysis. This framework identifies current and potential changes in a large macro-territory (Fahey Narayanan, 1986) and assesses the impact of changes on firm’s industry and itself (Ginter Duncan, 1990). P stands for political factors that determine governmental influence on economy or a certain industry. Political aspects have significant influence in oil and gas industry. It is because most countries regard oil and gas, main products in energy industry, as strategic materials. The energy independence is a preferential aim for the countries who intend to avoid economic blackmail and political suppression from other countries and organisations like OPEC (Talevski Lima, 2009). Thus the authorities strictly control foreign investments into oil and gas drilling and production and allow limited rights to transport and retail oil, gas and other petrochemical products (EIA, 2008), which limit access to proven reserves and potential markets. Besides, the political stability has impacts, especially in North Africa and Middle East. Instability, including political or economic terrorism, civil unrest, acts of war, piracy on high sea and governmental sanctions can discourage investments and disrupt safe operations and products transports (Talevski Lima, 2009). E stands for economic factors that determine economy’s performance with resonating long-term effects. Demand for oil and gas is determined by economic prosperity because most industries and transportation run on fuels (Talevski Lima, 2009). Under current unclear â€Å"economic slowdown†, the demand-and-supply relationship of fuels seems unpredictable. It results in fluctuating price of crude oil, natural gas, and petrochemical products with material impacts on oil and gas industry (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Specifically, in a low fuels price environment, corporates gain less revenue from upstream business because of shrinking margins between raw materials and products; while in a high fuels price environment, corporates suffers less entitlement to proved reserves and lower product demands, which reduces profitability of downstream business. S stands for social factors that influence social-cultural environment of market. Suffering the fears of global warming, people show increasing concerns about natural environment. The considerations shape preference for green energies rather than fossil fuels, especially in developed countries. Population in developed countries, primary consumers of hydrocarbons, consciously diminish needs for oil and gas but boost needs for renewable energies (Trifu, 2012). It entails heavy investments in research development in new energies. Besides, public concerns about corporate social responsibility push energy giants to protect all stakeholders’ profits, such as employees and neighbours at increasing expenditure on optimising manufacturing process, building infrastructure and training employees. T stands for technological factors related to innovations that may affect the operation or markets. Technology is key element in upstream business and downstream business: innovations in exploration and production (upstream) contribute to discover new hydrocarbon reserves or enhance recovery of oil and gas; while in the downstream, optimising reefing process of varying quality and developing marketing campaigns based on technological advance (like communication in social media) help corporates reduce operational costs and enhance margins (BP Annual Report, 2008). Thus corporates should be charged a considerable sum on research development. Additionally, technological improvement in substitutes and complementary products alter the demands for different sources of energies. Generally speaking, the dominance of hydrocarbon should be replaced if the increasing number of complementary products driven by green energies emerges and the costs on exploiting and manufacturing substitutes decrease. E stands for environmental factors that influence or are determined by the surroundings. Most energy companies have been involved in environmental pollution. Increasingly strict environmental restrictions require energy companies spend share of their profits in technological innovation and waste disposal to environmental restoration and remediation (BP Annual Report, 2008). Besides, an uneven geographical distribution of hydrocarbon and separability of production fields and markets expose oil and gas companies to safety issues and environmental issues in transportation (Talevski Lima, 2009), such as BP oil spilling in Gulf of Mexico. Transportation process requires special care at large human, material and capital inputs. Thus environmental issues are threats to profitability. L stands for legal factors that laws affect the business environment. Legal regulations subjected to energy companies includes imposition of exploitation obligations, regulations on field development and decommissioning, proposed fuel specifications, the provision of health-safety-security-and-environment protection, emission controls, climate change programs, the provision of disposal or releases of chemicals or petroleum substances, the clauses of antitrust and competition, upfront concession fees , special royalties and taxes (Talevski Lima, 2009; Trifu, 2012). More stringent legal restrictions might induce damage to corporate images, larger fees required in business activities or even loss of licence to operate in a certain area (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Meso-environment Analysis about meso-environment examines competitive structure. Porter’s Five Forces should be advised: It identifies five basic competitive forces which influence focal participants’ income statements and balance sheets through prices, costs and investments (Porter, 2008). Meso-environmental analysis tries to understand underpinnings of competition and causes of profitability in oil and gas industry. The threat of new entrants is insignificant. There are large capital investments tied to all vertical activities like exploration of new fields, setting-up production facilities, scientific research and accessing to distribution channel. Enormous fixed up-front investment creates barriers to potential entrants (Talevski Lima, 2009). Economies of scale/scope are another barrier to new participants. Higher unit costs in exploration and production and lower volume of business result in a small profit margin, which adversely affect returns of money in the start-up (Dess et al. The threat of substitutes seems not significant today but increasingly influential in following years. Oil and gas are still dominant in many sectors, especially in transportation and industry; and it is estimated to stay the dominance until 2030 (IEA, 2008). However, with the technological advances in drilling and processing new energies and rising concerns on planet, green energies like renewable energies and nuclear energies are predicted to slowly but surely enlarge market share in the future. The bargaining power of buyers is complex. Generally, the power of buyers is low because the prices of oil and gas are globally given (Talevski Lima, 2009). However, the power of large consumers, like the US, the EU, China and Japan, are indeed strong because their enormous volumes of demands can alter global demands. Recently, theses primary consumers are trying to switch from heavy dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energies. Thus the strong bargaining power entails business revolution in oil and gas industry. The bargaining power of suppliers depends on which type of suppliers they are. The conventional suppliers that provide supporting products/services seem disadvantaged because oil and gas industry has a wide range of small unconsolidated sub-suppliers from various sectors. While the suppliers of oil or gas field exert power: no one corporates can operate in a certain country without permission. These countries can determine the supply of materials. Thus their policy and regulation on oil and gas are quite important to energy companies. The intensity of rivalry is high. The slow industry growth and product homogeneity create small profits margins through technological or managerial innovation. Besides, the needs to replace drying fields exacerbate competition due to the fact that new reserves are more difficult to access. All of them force major and strong oligopolistic players overcome competitive constrains through aggressive activities like mergers, acquisitions and alliances (Weston et al. , 2001). Micro-environment Micro-environment analysis attempts to identify Shell’s competitive position through comparing competitors’ superior performances. Fiercer competition on differentiating products is a characteristic of oil and gas industry. BP intended to gain first-mover advantages. BP has engaged in renewables energies, especially in wind, solar and biofuels (Datamonitor, 2010). Until the end of 2009, BP has more than 500 MW of installed capacity through wind power; the whole solar value chain has been built; and more than $1 billion planned investments was into biofuels business operation. The Total S. A. refused to be inferior: the investments into renewable energies are also considerable (Datamonitor, 2010). Slow differentiation process might erode Shell’s competitive position. Increasing competition from government-run companies such as China National Petroleum Corporation and Sinopec creates threats to publicly held oil and gas companies, especially in seeking access to the fields (Shell Annual Report, 2012). These government-run entities have partial access to significant reserves and desirable projects. They are also sometimes motivated by political or other factors in making business decision which is abnormal in markets or harm to competitors. These partial competitive advantages supported by national governments should be achieved at independent participants’ loss. Internal Environment Internal-environmental analysis focuses on firm-specific factors. The frequent oil spilling disasters have troubled Shell for a long time. Recently, these problems become even worse. The oil spilling in Nigeria mainly caused by lack of maintenance on pipeline resulted in up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil spilling 75 miles off the coasts of Niger Delta (Vidal, 2011); the following oil leaking in North Sea caused by immature deep-water drilling technology and operator error resulted in more than 1,300 barrels of crude oil spilling (BBC news, 2011). However, Shell’s responses to extreme events seem unacceptable. Criticisms referred to late disclosure of information about leaking events, sluggish efforts to stop leakage, false claims on responsibility and reluctance on compensation (Macalister, 2013; Watkins, 2013). It makes Shell face not only considerable economic losses from business interruption, rehabilitative measures and fines on environmental pollution which caused losing leading company position (Datamonitor, 2010; MarketLine, 2013), but also a credibility problem and even corporate images damage (ICMR, 2010). Another threat is from globalisation outsourcing. Shell’s operation is on more than 70 countries with differing degrees of political, legal and fiscal stability. A wide range of political developments might affect operations, especially in the upstream, referring to land tenure, re-writing of leases, entitlement to produced hydrocarbons, production rates, and royalties (Shell Annual Report, 2012). Cross-border transaction also exposed Shell to risks from fluctuating foreign exchange rate. Changing foreign exchange rate increases transaction risks (caused by time delay between signing and settling contracts) and translational risks (caused by operating in foreign currencies but showing on balance sheets in home currency), which increase unpredictability in estimating costs and revenues (Sorensen and Kyle, 2008). Furthermore, Shell face competition from powerful local rivals when entering overseas market. Wining in the competition require large investments particularly when the rivalry happens in home country of government-run firms. Key Challenges The greatest challenge is from the increasing environmental concerns, leading to stringent environmental regulation and growing demands to green energies in future market. Hart pointed (1995) corporate competitive advantages should be rooted in capabilities in promoting environmentally-friendly economic activities, namely the natural-resource-based view of the firm. However, most core businesses of Shell, especially in upstream activities, still cause huge damages to ecosystem. This trend creates a puzzle: how to modify current environment-damaged portfolio to satisfy growing requirements to environmentally-friendly business model. In other words, it determines Shell’s future business development direction: from traditional fossil fuel company to environment-oriented energy giants-to sustain competitive advantages by pollution prevention, product stewardship and sustainable development (Hart, 1995). The second key challenge is from poor crisis management strategy. Current activities in value chain exposure Shell to safety disasters in drilling, production, refining, and transportation process. It seriously hurts social benefit, especially the safety of nearby residence. Growing concerns about corporate social responsibility set higher requirements to Shell to manage crisis. How to win customer’s trusts and recover the credibility depends on Shell’s improvements in social-responsible performance. It determines Shell’s future strategic direction: from high-level risk-facing but low-level risking-taking company to lower-risk and strong anti-risk company with organisational and policy synergies which extend beyond â€Å"principles† to the serious treatments by every staff to think about threats and adopt their behaviour to avoid potential crisis or to manage happened crisis (McConnell Drennan, 2006). The third key challenge is from globalisation business model in oil and gas industry. This model tightly ties demand to Shell’s products to global economic prosperity and depression. It obviously brings greater difficulty to determine outputs in a certain period in order to balance demands and supply. Besides, the regional instability in political development and economic situation especially in currency makes it tougher for Shell to audit revenuesto control operations. Furthermore, competition from powerful local rivals is big challenge for Shell entering overseas market. To gain competitive advantages in international context should combine firm-specific resource and capabilities with certain national environment (Grant, 2008). In other words, how to shorten political, economic and cultural distances in globalisation should be Shell’s future direction on optimising integration of global resources (Ghemawat, 2001). Strategic Plan How to deal with the three contextual key challenges should be a serious question in Shell’s development plan. The measures to manage challenges can be understood as to pursue or sustain competitive advantages. In current market, external stakeholders are trying to keep companies accountable for social issues and demonstrate potentially large financial risks for the companies with damages to society or environments. Fulfilling social responsibility has been becoming inescapable requirements to keep competitive advantages. In order to embed a social perspective into its core value proposition, Shell should change from the fragmented and defensive position to the integrated and proactive posture. In other words, the focus must move from the focuses on corporate image to an emphasis on humanity and substance (Porter Kramer, 2006). Shared values among society (people), economy (profits) and environment (planet) can be realised (Jamali, 2006). The primary task is the shift from an environmentally-damaged producer to an environmentally-friendly corporation, namely, to achieve environment benefits. The first step is pollution abatement. There are two suggested approaches. Pollution control is using pollution control equipment to trap, store, treat and dispose emission and effluents. Another approach is pollution prevention, refers to reduce, change and prevent emission and effluents by greater housekeeping, material substitution, recycling and process innovation (Cairncross, 1991, Frosch Gallopoulos, 1989; Willig, 1994). Pollution prevention seems more important than pollution control: it tries to prevent and contain pollution in continuous-improvement methods rather than the old model of â€Å"polluting then cleaning up† at expense of non-recoverable ecological damages and expensive end-of-pipe capital investments to control emissions (Rooney, 1993). A pollution-prevention strategy emphasis on establishing capabilities in production and operation: it can be achieved through extensive and initiative employee involvement (Cole, 1991; Lawler, 1986) and continues improvement in waste reduction. Thus it is necessary to invest into inventing or introducing environmentally-friendly or resource-conserving facilities and innovating technology used in value chain. For example, non-phenolic and resin-coating technology  increase hydraulic fracturing efficiency: It allows coated sand to be produced with less energy requirement and environmental damages compared to current phenolic resins in the manufacturing process (Drilling Contractor, 2013). Building awareness of environmental protection and forcing involvement of employees also should be suggested. The second step is to product stewardship. It refers to direct the selection of raw materials and manage product design with aims at minimising environmental harm of product system. Exiting environmentally hazardous business and developing potential products with lower life-cycle costs should be the requirements to reasonable product management (Hart, 1995). To Shell, creating new products with low life-cycle costs will be dominant product strategy. It requests Shell to minimise the use of non-renewable materials, to avoid use of toxic materials and maximise the use of renewable resources (Robert, 1995). Developing renewable energy is a good choice. Shell is advised to develop wind, solar, hydropower, tidal, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas electricity generation and anaerobic digestion. These green energies not only satisfy legal and public expectations on environmental protection but also solve the problem of fossil fuels crisis. The third step is sustainable development. To achieve sustainable development demands a great deal of inputs and long-term commitments to develop market (Hart, 1995). To Shell, that means to create market demand transition from fossil fuel to renewable source of energies, especially in the developing countries. For example, Shell can make documentaries about production in the fossil fuels field and the renewable energy filed. This comparison might switch audiences’ preference for energies. Shell also can persuade energy-intensive producers to adopt green source of energies. Although there is little evidence showing the relationship between these efforts and short-term profits, the engagement to sustainable development will improvement firms’ long-term performance, reflected by price earnings or market-to-book ratios (Hart, 1995). The second task is to manage crisis, specifically to avoid potential crisis and to minimise the damages. That can be understood a task in protecting social benefits, especially nearby residence around Shell economic activities. There are five phase to accomplish crisis management (Mitroff, 1988). The first phase is signal deletion. Long before the crisis happened, there are repeated and persistent trials of warning signals. It is necessary for Shell to build various appropriate warning systems to identify diverse explicit or implicit signals. For example, the growing equipment faulty rate may imply the increasing possibility of accident and needs for maintenance. The second phase is preparation or prevention, referring to establish appropriate prevention and preparation mechanism. Specifically, prevention and preparation mechanism works through identifying any sign of weakness and then responding appropriately whatever problems is discovered. In this phase, Shell is required to ensure everything stay fixed even it works well now. The third phase is containment or damage limitation. It is important for Shell to build damage-limitation mechanisms in place. Preventing all crises seems impossible in oil and gas industry. How to prevent the harm from engulfing other parts of the corporate should be discussed. After every disaster happens, Shell should release relevant information as soon as possible and also clearly claim corporate responsibility. Although it may cause higher expense of recovery, these measures protect credibility in public, which is important for long-term development. The fourth phase is recovery. If Shell is not anticipatory, the aftermath is requested. That means Shell should build short-term and long-term recovery plan. For instance, in Nigeria Delta, how to degrade toxic substance in soil, air and water, how to recover soil fertility and how to rebuild broken ecosystem, which is highly related to local people’s health need to be considered. The final phase is learning. Shell should reassess the crisis happened on the past to improve capabilities in predicting crisis and avoiding crisis. The third task is to manage the difficulties in globalisation. The challenges are mainly from political difference, cultural distance and economic instability. Thus it is a task to shrink various distances in globalisation to realise economic profits. Political difference and cultural distance create barriers to foreign companies. International alliance and joint venture with powerful local market participant should be a suitable entry mode for Shell in overseas markets (Grant, 2008). It not only free Shell from political restrictions directed against foreign companies but also access market knowledge and distribution capabilities. Another strategy to shrink political and cultural distance is decentralisation. That means giving overseas subsidiaries higher level of freedoms in decision-making. These holders of first-hand information can modify Shell’s activities and respond the diverse political and customers’ requirements quickly and accurately. That is the process of localisation. The effects of economic instability also can be minimised by economic tools. For example, financial forward contracts help Shell avoid financial risks, such as fluctuating foreign exchange rate to guarantee the best possible outcomes in a certain production cycle (Shapiro, ND. Although it cannot balance demand and supply fundamentally, the tools or frameworks tries to decrease damages from external economic changes. Conclusion Royal Dutch Shell was a successful corporation but now is suffering poor performance. In this essay, the author analyses the macro-environment, meso-environment, micro-environment and internal environment in outside-in approach to identify three key challenges in the long-term survival. They are increasing concerns in environmental protection, poor crisis management strategy and various distances in globalisation. They also can be understood the threats from environment, society and economy. Thus corporate social responsibility is the synergy. Environmental profits can be achieved through ppollution abatement, product stewardship and sustainable development; sociall profits can be realised by crisis management, including signal deletion, preparation and prevention, damage limitation, recovery and learning; economic profits can be accomplished by shrinking political, cultural and economic distance through alliance joint venture, decentralised management and leverage by economic tools.

Hubris in Antigone essays

Hubris in Antigone essays Sophocless Antigone deals with many aspects of good and evil. One of the most important points discussed in this tragedy is the idea of hubris. Hubris can be defined in many ways such as excessive pride, arrogance, and overstepping boundaries. Many people argue that both Creon, the ruler of Thebes, and Antigone, his niece, exhibit hubris. This text is very controversial in that it forces its readers to question its characters motives and decide whether their actions are justified. Topics such as what a kings duty to his country is and what a womans role in society is, is brought into focus. The story takes place right after the death of Polyneices and Eteocles, but there is some necessary background information you need to know first. Before the story took place, Oedipus was the ruler of Thebes. He had four children: Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polyneices. A prophecy drove Oedipus from his country, leaving his two sons to rule. Oedipus declared that the two boys would rule alternately, starting with Eteocles. The problem begins when Eteocles refuses to step down from the throne when his rule is up. Polyneices, who is married to the daughter of the king of Argos, leads the Argives and several other cities against Thebes, ultimately resulting in the death of the two brothers. Creon, their uncle, then took up the throne and proclaimed: Tto the citizens about Oedipus sons./For Eteocles, who died this citys champion,/ showing his valors supremacy everywhere,/ he shall be buried in his grave with every rite/ of sanctity given to heroes under earth./ However, his brother, Polyneices, a returned exile,/ who sought to burn with fire from top to bottom/ his native city, and the gods of his own people;/ who sought to taste the blood he shared with us,/ and lead the rest of us to slavery/ I here proclaim to the city that this man/ shall no one honor with a grave and no one shall m...

Determining Your Perfect Position Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Determining Your Perfect Position - Essay Example It is natural for every business student to aspire to be a successful businessperson at a reputable organization. These positions could be of an entrepreneur, the chief-executive office, the departmental heads - marketing, sales, production, and finance or even the president and chief supervisor. Everybody has a different perfect position in mind; a different dream; I aspire to be an entrepreneur and start up a business of designer personal computers. The reason that I believe that the position of an entrepreneur and then the CEO of the organization once it is in existence is perfect for me is due to my personality and passion put together. The enthusiasm that I hold for designer personal computers is extraordinary; I want to pass on this fervor to other people too by opening up my own venture. An entrepreneur is somebody who takes major risks; he employs all the money that he has towards his business plan in the hope of earning profit. However, this profit could very well be major losses as well; the entrepreneur might be left with no capital by the end of the project. However, I am a very adventurous person by nature - risk taking and gambling is a part of everyone's life; taking risks for something one really desires is a positive risk. Also, I possess a high energy level, self-confidence and an awareness of passing time. I tend to make the best use of time that I have along with a managed awareness of my surroundings. These a re all the qualities that an entrepreneur should possess ideally, and with these qualities and commitment, I believe I can reach new heights as an entrepreneur myself. Leadership: The second prerequisite of a running an organization successfully at a certain position is 'leadership'; a leader is somebody who manages the entire organization and its operations, controls all activities, monitors each act and most importantly, motivates other employees to work for the progression of the organization. Employees tend to slack off and become uninterested in their job; it is the task of this leader to exhibit his leadership skills and talk these employees into working hard and become motivated. One of the most important jobs of the leader, who mostly is the manager, is to plan out a mission and then guiding and directing it to success (Thompson, Strickland, Gamble; 2008). Leadership Styles: The way a person plans to lead his organization of his subordinates depends on basically two things; firstly, his nature and personality attributes and secondly, the circumstances at hand and the type of organization he is running. There are several types of leadership styles - authoritative, participative, delegative, autocratic, charismatic, democratic, people oriented, task oriented etc (Glanz, 2002). However, the three main categories are 'authoritative/autocratic', 'participative/democratic' and 'delegative/free reign'. A leader can only be successful if he knows which side of this leadership to apply in which situations. 'Participative/democratic' is a style that focuses more on team work and building great interpersonal relationships with one's colleagues. Such a leader does not believe in ordering or bossing around his/her subordinates; this also gives birth to a level of respect among the team members. This strengthens the ease and comfort of sharing ideas and innovation techniques and negates the idea of suppressing one's suggestion in fear

How does the concept of Citizenship contribute to our understanding of Essay

How does the concept of Citizenship contribute to our understanding of the experience of minority ethnic groups - Essay Example Legal British citizenship for the minorities has been changing concept recently with more regularities and demands. The citizenship requirement is not spread in an uniform way amongst the minorities; instead, the blacks seem to be having an upper hand here. "The rates of British Citizenship found across different groups contain a high degree of variance, with black Africans exhibiting the highest level of non-British citizenship in 1977," (Evans, 1999, p.105). Blacks who have migrated into Britain since the days of slavery and increased their numbers in recent decades, have become better naturalised citizens than other minorities. Complete naturalisation and acceptance of British way of life, while retaining some of their own traditional values, depends on many criteria. The main factor that should be considered here is the period of migration and the length of stay here. "These factors are the period of migration, the economic conditions of migration, the citizenship regime of the host state, and the ways in which the political cultures imported by immigrants from their original countries have combined with native political cultures," (Pennin... This means, an individual's mindset about Britain and its citizenship mainly depends upon the treatment he received from the British people after migrating here, the stereotyped models the individual has maintained in his mind and also the prejudiced or unprejudiced attitude he had developed over the years, either aided by the local population, or totally unaided. Victorians thought that the minorities were uncivilised people from far off colonies, and unfortunately they showed it in their attitude. This does not mean that there were no kind people in Victorian days. If the minorities had come into contact with well-balanced thinkers, there are instances of positive outlook where the person became happy under a helpful employer or a friend. The mass migration was from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and West Indies. The settlements were localised and some clusters emerged in London, Liverpool, Cardiff, in the early 1800s and in those days, they were all referred to as black communities. They lived a poor life, as any other immigrants of any country and tried hard to eke out a living. "A pattern of black minority ethnic settlement characterised by residential concentration, segregation and deprivation is now well-established in Britain.the day-to-day experience of most people living in Britain at that time was a white one," (Pacione, 2002, p.216). Eventually their living conditions, with their own hard work and government help, improved and along with it, improved the attitude of the British, who came to recognise the good qualities of their minorities. In any country, it is quite natural, to have wrong opinion, dislike, suspicion about the new people who look

Criminal Investigations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Criminal Investigations - Essay Example earance before judges and a preliminary hearing, and this is to observe if there is some probable cause to believe the said crime is committed by the defendant. Other procedures involve the case being submitted to the grand jury. After arraignment, there may be the occurrence of hearings. The other procedure is the settlement or rather the plea docket. In addition, there are the pre-trial motions not yet addressed, in which case it may include the motion to suppress the evidence. A criminal trial contains several phase. The first phase is the jury selection. This is where there is gathering of a pool of potential jurors and asked several questions. Second phase is the opening testament, in which case each side presents some overview of the case. Third phase is the witness testimony. This is the phase that each side calls for a witness to be asked some questions about the case. Fourth phase is the closing testimony, in which case the prosecution and the defense make short summarizing statements. Next phase is jury instruction, and this is where the judges address the jurors by explaining the crime the defendant was judged and the application of the legal standards. The last phase is the verdict. This is the defendant is found to be guilty or not (Scheb & Scheb,

Assessing The Paris Fashionable Concepts Cultural Studies Essay

Assessing The Paris Fashionable Concepts Cultural Studies Essay The concept of Paris fashion represents one of the most powerful and long-running place in modern history. But even a cursory examination of the way the term has been used draws attention to the complexity of the notion of the fashion capital, and to the complexity of the fashion process itself. The routine description of the city over the past 200 years as the capital world of fashion contribute to this understanding. ::::Downloads:eiffel-tower-1.jpg Figure 2.2 , Eifel Tower in Paris, Available at: http://www.eiffel-tower.us/Eiffel-Tower-Images/eiffel-tower-1.jpg Paris is the Fashion Capital of the World. Paris has long been an international hub of fashion design. Paris is home to many distinguished design houses, such as Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Chloe, Givenchy, Lanvin, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton. Paris is also a premier destination for shopping, with streets such as Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honre and the Champs-Elysees hosting boutiques from designers around the world. Besides fashion and leather goods, Paris is has a number of well-known jewelers, such as Cartier SA, Boucheron, Chaumet, and Van Cleef Arpels. They have their flagships at the famed Place Vendome. Twice a year, Paris is home to a fashion week, where the citys fashion houses present their collections. Designers from other countries also present their collections in Paris. Notable examples include Belgian designers Dries van Noten, Martin Margeila, and Ann Demeulemester; Dutch design duo Viktor Rolf; and Japanese deisgners Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and Junya Watanabe. Pinault-Printemps-Redoute and LVMH, the two major holding companies in contemporary fashion, are both headquartered in Paris. Paris has been interpreted as a world centre of fashion because of its distinctive metropolitan cultures of consumption, both in the narrow sense of shops and shopping, and in a broader sense of the practices associated with the wearing of fashionable dress in the spaces of the city. There has been something approaching a naturalization of Pariss relationship with fashion, often around the elevation of a certain construction of fashionable femininity to a symbol of Parisian superiority. [Fashions World Cities, David Gilbert, 2006] ::::Downloads:christian_dior_haute_couture_2009_01.jpg Figure 2.3 , Christian Dior Haute Couture fashion show 2009, Available at: http://iamfashioncrazy.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/christian_dior_haute_couture_2009_01.jpg Since the seventeenth century, fashion has been an important industry and cultural export of France, and modern haute couture originated in Paris in the 1860s. Today, Paris is considered one of the worlds fashion capitals, along with London, Milan, and New York City, and the city is home or headquarters to many of the premier fashion houses. The culture of Paris and of the French people has been shaped by geography, by profound historical events, and by foreign and internal forces and groups. Paris, has played an important part as a center of high culture and of decorative arts since the seventeenth century, first in Europe, and from the nineteenth century onwards, world wide. From the late nineteenth century, Paris has also played an important role in modern art, cinema, fashion and cuisine. Paris is today the melting pot of diverse cultures. However, it still retains its own unique charm or attraction when it comes to ethnicity, geography and the French language. The once isolated local customs arising out of regional differences have matured to become a cultural identity that is unique to the heterogeneity. The culture of Paris (or to say France), has been largely influenced by mandatory defense service, the Franco-Prussian feud and World War I and World War II. The two world wars were responsible for the flood of cultural influences and centralized market forces. Today, the people in Paris symbolize collective identity. The Parisian society is more inclined to believing in public-spiritedness, state socialistic spending, and in public initiatives. The Paris culture is characteristic of chauvinism, a term which is widely used all over the World (the countries of the West, esp. Europe and the Americas), integrated politics, universalism and the popular French grandeur. Although, now the traditional family structure has evolved from the joint family to nuclear. Most modern people in Paris prefer to relate to the term French as a nationality and their language and not a measure of ethnicity, specific to the city. There are many immigrants from Africa, Asia and other European countries who have made Paris or France their home with diverse ethnic ascendants, resulting in interracial relationships. According to Hofsteds Framework for Assessing Culture, the culture of Paris is moderately individualistic and high Power Distance Index. There is clearly a significant overlap between the cities routinely described as world fashion cities, like Paris, and those identified by Friedmann, Sassen and their followers as primary world cities or global cities. Given, in Friedmanns terminology, the embeddedness of a transnational capitalist class whose ideology is consumerist in such world cities, and given fashions inherent elitism and consumerism, it would be very surprising if this were not the case. [Fashions World Cities, David Gilbert, 2006] The acceptance of lebianism, homosexuality and gay marriages in Paris, speaks volumes for the broad-mindedness of the French. In fact, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoà «, makes no attempt to hide his gay identity. In Paris, the French movies, music and literature are vibrant and multicultural. The language follows a preordain official originality standard. French is spoken widely across the globe, inspite of the repression with regional and foreign languages in certain countries. It has become a part of the education forum and a popular option in many bilingual educational institutions. As far as religion goes, Paris is secular and dedicatedly adheres to the principle of freedom of religion, a political dictate that was enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789. A mix of Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews and atheists live in Paris and add quality to the essence of French character. So therefore, Paris is a multicultural society. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries these cities have developed intense concentrations of advanced producer services, typically in sectors such as banking, accountancy, advertising, insurance, commercial law and management consultancy. Sassen argues that financial deregulation and the development of new forms of telecommunications, media and information technology, far from dispersing economic activities as some predicted, has created an aggressive new logic for their concentration of these activities as some predicted, has created an aggressive new logic for their concentration of these activities in a few great cities. Sassen further argues that increasing economic and social polarization has marked global cities, particularly London and New York. Alongside the development of advanced producer services has been a parallel development of a low-paid service sector, often characterized by a casualized labour force with a high proportion of immigrants. [Fashions Worl d Cities, David Gilbert, 2006] London: ::::Downloads:Somerset House Strand.JPG Figure 3.1 , Somerset House in London, Available at: http://www.the-magician.co.uk/images/Somerset%20House%20Strand.JPG London as one of the worlds four fashion capitals, the London Fashion Week is one of the Big Four fashion weeks, which is organised by the British Fashion Council. The current venue for most of the events is Somerset House in central London, where a large marquee in the central courtyard hosts a series of catwalk shows by top designers and fashion houses, while an exhibition, housed within Somerset House itself, showcases over 150 designers. British designers whose collections have been showcased at the fashion week include Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, while British models who have featured at the event include Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Jade Jagger and Jodie Kidd. Fashion designer Mary Quant was at the heart of the Swinging London scene of the 1960s, and her work culminated in the creation of the miniskirt and hot pants. Mary Quant named the miniskirt that she designed after her favourite make of car, the Mini. The English fashion designer Charles Frede rick Worth is widely considered the father of Haute couture. According to an article in the Time, yet behind this confection of a city peopled by the famous and beautiful, all dressed in the latest cutting-edge fashions, was a sense that the new London was a key site in much broader changes taking place across the Western world: increasing consumer affluence, particularly among teenagers and young adults, changing intergenerational relationships, and new attitudes towards popular culture, leisure and the body. [Fashions World Cities, David Gilbert, 2006] ::::Downloads:London_cultural_icons.jpg Figure 3.2 , Cultural icons of London, Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/London_cultural_icons.jpg The London culture concerns the arts, music, museums, festivals and other entertainment in London, the capital city of the United Kingdom. The city is renowned for its theatre district, and its West End theatre district has given the name to West End theatre, the strand of mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in London. London also homes to notable cultural attractions such as the British Museum, the Tate Galleries, the National Gallery, the Notting Hill Carnival and The O2. An assortment of landmarks and objects are cultural icons associated with London, such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the tube map. According to visiting tourists, there are a few other British cultural icons that are strongly associated with London , including the red telephone box, the routemaster bus, the black taxi or more famously known as the London cab and the Union Flag. ::::Downloads:RoyalOperaHouse-25-02-09w.jpg Figure 3.3 , The Floral Hall of the Royal Opera House in London, Available at: http://www.strollon.co.uk/UploadedDocuments/RoyalOperaHouse-25-02-09w.jpg London has the famous, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia. There are also quite a few chamber orchestras, some of which specialise in period instrument performances, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The city is home to more than 300 nationalities, and the diversity of cultures has shaped the citys culture over time. In London, rank, status and inequalities between people are reasonably low. This obviously shows in a number of ways, such as legislation protecting ethnic minorities rights. This is observed in the office where the relationship between superiors and subordinates is relatively casual and incorporates little ceremony. London scores really high for Individualism. Therefore points to that fact that the British cultural values promote individuality. In London, the nuclear family is the more predominant form of basic social structure. In the business environment, the individual is more concerned with themselves rather than the team. The level of power distance (uncertainty avoidance) in London is quite low. This means that the British culture is relatively open to taking risks and dealing with change, which can be seen in the constant revision of laws and government structures. In the workplace, conflict or disagreement, even with superiors, is considered healthy. ::::Downloads:the_sex-pistols.jpg Figure 3.4 , The Sex Pistols, Available at: http://www.sexpistolsanniversary.co.uk/images/the_sex-pistols.jpg London is really famous for its rock scene, and was the starting point of some of the greatest 60s and 70s band such as Iron Maiden, The Clash, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, The Who, Pink Floyd, Queen and very popular 90s bands like Blur, Coldplay, Radiohead, and Oasis that are still very popular to this day. Most of the major bands tours pass through London as well, favourite venues being the Brixton Academy, the London Astoria, and the Hammersmith Apollo. In addition to generating of the bands mentioned above, London, in its capacity as the UKs cultural centre, has served as the base of a number of internationally important acts, including David Bowie, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, as well as being instrumental in the birth of dance music. All these artists mentioned above, in their days and till date influence fashion in London and all over the world. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨London has a thriving urban scene, mainly throughout the 21st century. Soul singers like Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Lemar have found themselves chart, and international success. RB singers such as Leona Lewis, Jay Sean, The Sugababes, Taio Cruz and Alexandra Burke are also extremely popular. London also has a strong rap scene, which includes rappers like Wiley, Tinchy Stryder and Dizee Rascal among others have helped contribute to London gaining the status of having the strongest rap scene outside of the USA. London has one of the biggest underground scenes in the world. Genres include Drum and bass, Uk garage, Dubstep, 2step and grime. Londons ethnic population is growing strongly and this is having a huge effect on the culture. Indian food is now a significant part of Londons cuisine. Young black Londoners play a predominant part in the British music industry. Besides Afro-Caribbean and Indian culture, Bangladeshi, Polish and Middle-Eastern influences are also present. In London, masculinity is somewhere in the middle. This may reflect the fact that British society and culture aims for equality between the sexes, yet a certain amount of gender bias still exists underneath the surface. The acceptance of lebianism, homosexuality and gay marriages in London, is cause of the all the stars who used to cross-dress for their performances, shows that people in London are broad-minded. There are many other culture related attractions in London, including the Avenue of Stars, a walkway similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with stars commemorating notable individuals or groups. Summary Table: Paris London Similarities Both Paris and London are the fashion capitals of their countries. The melting pot of diverse cultures is existent in both cities. Paris and London are multicultural societies. The acceptance of lesbianism, homosexuality and gay marriages in Paris and London, shows how broad-minded the people or society is. There is a freedom of religion. The rise of technology has led to London and Paris becoming more of open cultures. Differences Paris is the Fashion Capital of the World. Haute Couture started in Paris in the 1860s by Charles Worth. The people in Paris collective identity. The Parisian society is more inclined to believing in public-spiritedness, state socialistic spending, and in public initiatives. While London scores really high for Individualism. Paris has a high Power Distance (rank, status and inequalities between people) Index, while London is comparatively lower. Fashion culture in London was very influenced by the music scene, specially the rock scene, with the bands like the Sex Pistols in the 60s and 70s. While Paris didnt have too much influence of music on fashion. Conclusion: After extensive research and comparing the similarities and differences of both Paris and Londons modern day fashion scene, I realized that even though there are so many similarities on the surface between both cities but once you look at the details or to say under the surface you realize that each city is unique in its own way cause of their influences from cultural dimensions, societal values, history and technology, etc.

Power of Attorney :: essays research papers

POWER OF ATTORNEY   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Notice: The powers granted by this document are broad and sweeping. They are not defined in te Colorado Statutes, Sections 15-1-101 to 15-1-1202, inclusive, of the General Statutes, which expressly permits the use of any other or different form of power of attorney desired by the parties concerned.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Know All Men By These Presents, which are intended to constitute an IRREVOCABLE GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY pursuant to Colorado Statutes:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  That I_________________ do hereby appoint Piotr Bieniek my attorney- in-fact TO ACT:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First: In my name, place, and stead in any way which I myself could do, if I were personally present, which respect to the following matters as each of them is defined in the Colorado Statutes to the extent that I am permitted by law to act through an agent:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Only Selection I or Selection II should be completed NOT BOTH If both Selections are completed, this Power of Attorney IS NOT VALID Selection I   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  REQUIRED ARE BOTH THE SIGNATURE AND THE INITIALS   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  OF THE PRINCIPAL WITHIN THIS SELECTION I. BOTH   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  REQUIREMENTS CONSTITUTE A FULL GENERAL POWER OF   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ATTORNEY WITHOUT ANY LIMITATION OR RESTRICTION.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  X ( )   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SCRIBE ET SCRIBE DEBERE EQUIPARANTUR IN JURE Selection II   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Strike out and initial in the opposite box any one or more of the subdivisions as to which the principal does NOT desire to give the agent authority. Such elimination of any one or more of subdivision (A) to (K), inclusive, shall automatically constitute an elimination also of subdivision (L).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To strike out any subdivision the principal must draw a line through the text of that subdivision AND write his initials in the opposite box. (A)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  real estate transactions; ( ) (B)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  chattel and goods transactions; ( ) (C)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  bond, share, and commodity transactions; ( ) (D)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  banking transactions; ( ) (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  business operating transactions; ( ) (F)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  insurance transactions; ( ) (G)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  estate transactions; ( ) (H)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  claims and litigation; ( ) (I)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  personal relationships and affairs; ( ) (J)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  benefits from military service; ( ) (K)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  records, reports, and statements; ( ) (L)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  all other matters; ( ) (hand written by the principal, in the principal’s own handwriting) ( )   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Second: With full and unqualified authority to delegate any or all of the foregoing powers to any person or persons whom my attorney-in-fact shall select.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Third: Hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorney(s) or substitute(s) do cause to be done.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fourth: To induce any third party to act hereunder, I hereby agree that any third party receiving a duly executed copy or facsimile of this instrument may act hereunder, and that