Food Regulations Essay Example for Free

Food Regulations Essay 1.State the administrative agency which controls the regulation. Explain why this agency and your proposed regulation interest you (briefly). Will this proposed regulation affect you or the business in which you are working? If so, how? Submit a copy of the proposed regulation along with your responses to these five questions. The proposed regulation can be submitted as either a separate Word document (.doc) or Adobe file (.pdf). This means you will submit two attachments to the Week 2 Drop box: (a) a Word document with the questions and your answers and (b) a copy of the proposed regulation you used for this assignment. (10 points) 2.Describe the proposal/change. (10 points) 3.Write the public comment that you would submit to this proposal. If the proposed regulation deadline has already passed, write the comment you would have submitted. Explain briefly what you wish to accomplish with your comment. (10 points) 4.Provide the deadline by which the public comment must be made. (If the date has already passed, please provide when the deadline was). (5 points) 5. Once you have submitted your comment, what will you are legally entitled to do later in the promulgation process (if you should choose to do so)? (See the textbooks discussion of the Administrative Procedure Act.) If the proposal passes, identify and explain the five legal theories you could use in an attempt to have (any) administrative regulation declared invalid and overturned in court. Which of these challenges would be the best way to challenge the regulation you selected for this assignment if you wanted to have the regulation overturned and why? Answer all of these questions for #5 even if you are in favor of your proposed regulation. The response to question 5 should be a minimum of 2–3 paragraphs long. (15 points) 1-FDA publishes rules that establish or modify the way it regulates foods, drugs, biologics, cosmetics, radiation-emitting electronic products, and medical devices commodities close to the daily lives of all Americans. FDA rules have considerable impact on the nations health, industries and economy. My concern is that under the federal law, a claim that a food is intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease makes that food a drug, and is unlawful. However, federal law provides for FDA approval of a health claim, which is a statement that characterizes the relationship of any substance to a disease or health-related condition (e.g. a claim that calcium may reduce the risk of osteoporosis). Under the statutory standard for approval, the claim must be supported by significant scientific agreement. (www.iflr.msu.edu/iflr/courses/united_states_food_laws) 2. The adequacy of federal oversight of food safety recently became the subject of intense media and Congressional scrutiny. The issue came to national prominence when contaminated food caused the death and illness of hundreds of people. The episode served to heighten awareness of the fact that an increasing proportion of the food consumed domestically is imported, and much of it from countries that do not have well established food safety systems. It also began to focus attention on the fact that FDA’s funding has not kept up with the responsibilities that have been heaped upon it over the past several years, and that FDA will need additional legal authority to effectively address some problem areas; they have adequate funding and resources. FDA covered the overall food safety systems of the countries, as well as their food safety systems such as specific commodity areas; i.e. seafood, including molluscan shellfish, imported meat products, vegetables and dairy products (exclu ding Grade A pasteurized milk products). (www.fda.gov/Food/InternationalActivities/Imports/default.htm) 3. The controversy over trans-fat offers an example of how one kind of regulation at the federal level can beget other forms of regulation at the state level. In 2006, an FDA regulation went into effect that requires listing the amount of trans-fat present in a packaged food on the label of that food. FDA did not go so far as to ban the use of trans-fat, something that some consumer groups were advocating. However, shortly after the issuance of FDA’s rule, state and local jurisdictions started stepping into the breach. A number of localities have banned the use of trans-fat in restaurant foods, and some states, such as California, have begun to follow suit. Faced with a patchwork of local requirements and the potential for adverse publicity, some major restaurant chains have reformulated their products to eliminate the use of trans-fat, however, nations wide has not complied or just finds a loophole to go around the system in avoiding such regulations. Another issue is the increasing concern of the status of federal regulation of foods and other products that contain nanomaterial. Both proponents and skeptics of nanotechnology hold the view that industry has raced ahead of regulatory authorities in bringing nanotech products to market, thereby increasing the potential for consumer injury and environmental harm. Thus, there is at least some support for stronger regulatory oversight of nanotech products in general, and of nanotech foods, including food additives and dietary supplements in specific. Recently, FDA announced that it will hold a public hearing to seek input on various aspects of its approach to regulation of nanotechnology. FDA likely will follow up on that hearing with the issuance of guidance documents specific to the product categories that it oversees. (www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/146784/Healthcare+Food) 4. By law, anyone should participate in the rule-making process by commenting in writing on rules FDA proposes. FDA routinely allows the public input and carefully considers the comments when it draws up a final rule. Another way to influence the way FDA does business is to petition the agency to issue, change or cancel a regulation, or to take other action. FDA will act to implement a provision of the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 that requires FDA to establish a reportable food registry, and that requires any person who submits a registration for a food facility under the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 to also notify FDA of instances of reportable food. A reportable food is one for which there exists a reasonable probability that use of, or exposure to, the food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death, the same standard that currently applies to Class I recalls, so the practical effect of the new provision should make it mandatory for companies to notify FDA of a Class I recall situation. FDA Petitions require careful preparation by the submitter, they spends considerable time and staff resources processing petitions. Individuals sometimes submit petitions, but most come from regulated industry or consumer groups. For example, a drug company might request a change in labeling for one of its products; a food company might ask that its product be exempted from some provision of a regulation; or a consumer group might petition FDA to tighten regulation of a certain product. (RegistrarCorp.com/FDA-Food) 5. Health claims have been the subject of considerable controversy. After protracted litigation, federal courts ruled that FDA cannot impose an outright ban on claims that have some scientific support but fail to meet the statutory standard of significant scientific agreement. FDA’s strict application of the statutory standard was held to violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects against government infringement of speech that is not false or misleading. In response to those court decisions, FDA should develop a process for approval of qualified health claims; in order to attempt and describe the strength of the scientific evidence that supports a claim. Qualified health claims should be the subject of controversy in their own right. Some observers believe that qualified health claims are as likely to mislead as to inform consumers, and opposition to their use has grown to the point where Congressional representatives have asked FDA to stop approving them altogether. It remains to be seen how the controversy will be resolved, given that FDA’s current approach was essentially forced on it by the judiciary. (www.iflr.msu.edu/iflr/courses/united_states_food_laws) References: FDA gov Homepage – U.S Food and Drug Administration homepage; Retrieved form www.fda.gov January 19th, 2013 US FDA Food Regulations/FDA Beverage Regulations; Retrieved from www.registrarcorp.com/fda-food/index.jsp? January 20, 2013 Importing Food Products into the United States; Retrieved from www.fda.gov/Food/InternationalActivities/Imports/default.htm . January 20, 2013 United States – FDA Food Labeling Regulations; Retrieved from www.ladas.com/BULLETINS/1994/0694Bulletin/US_Food

How Firms Decide Between Risk Retention And Transfer Finance Essay

How Firms Decide Between Risk Retention And Transfer Finance Essay Generally, the purpose of risk management is value maximization for a for-profit organization. In other words, risk management aims to maximize value by minimizing the cost of risk. Total costs of pure risk include costs of control and costs of financing. This essay focuses on risk financing. There are two broad methods of risk financing: risk retention and risk transfer. Risk transfer contains insurance and other contractual risk transfers. At the beginning of this assay, I am going to introduce the concept of retention, insurance, and contractual risk transfers, and their advantages and disadvantages. Then I will discuss how a firm should decide between risk retention and risk transfer, if a captive insurer is not to be employed. Finally, I will discuss how a firm, having a captive insurer, should finance its pure risk losses. With retention, a business retains the obligation to pay for part or all of the losses. When coupled with a formal plan to fund losses for medium-to-large businesses, retention often is called self-insurance. (Harrington and Niehaus 1999 Page 12) Retention can be financed via a captive insurance company (an insurance company owned by a non-insurance company which is also its customer), a risk retention group, cash flows from ongoing activities, and general working capital (the excess of the firms liquid assets over its short-term liabilities). In addition, firms can also obtain funds by borrowing, loans, issuing new stock and selling other business asset, such as buildings and cars. Funds to pay retained losses should be large so that there is enough money to pay retained losses. In addition, the retained losses are unpredictable, and they may be large or small. However, there is an opportunity cost for a fund. The opportunity cost is the difference between the return on the fund and the firms normal rate of return. As a result of this, if funds are large, the opportunity costs will be large; if funds are small, they may fail to pay all losses. In addition, there may also be costs incurred in converting non-liquid assets into cash for settling losses. (Dr. David Ayling 2009) Risk transfer includes insurance and contractual risk transfers. Insurance is a form of risk management primarily. A firm could purchase insurance contacts to cover risk losses. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed and known small loss to prevent a large, possibly devastating loss. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured or policyholder is the person or entity buying the insurance. (Web 1) Firms can transfer some of risk losses to insurance company by insurance contracts. According to Dr. David Ayling (2009), the benefits of insurance include reduction of uncertainty, loss control advice, liquidity of company protected, long term planning mire feasible, and access to large risk combination services. On the other hands, insurance does not cover loss of goodwill, loss of market share, lost customers and suppliers, and so no. In addition, some r isks are not insurable, such as risk losses are too large, risks are not measurable, risks are not predictable, and so on. Firms can also use some contractual risk transfers to transfer risk to another party. For example, if a firm wants to build a house, and hire a construction company to build the house, it could perform some task routinely into contracts, such as if workers or pedestrians are injured by accidence when the house is building, the construction company pay for these losses; and if the house crashes after it is completed, the construction company will be responsible for it. Having introduced risk retention and risk transfer, the following will discuss how a firm should decide between risk retention and risk transfer, if a captive insurer is not to be employed. Both risk retention and risk transfer is important and primary methods for risk financing. How should a firm decide the methods of risk management? The severity and frequency probability of risk losses determine which method should be used to finance risk losses. According to Dr. David Ayling (2009), when the frequency probabilities of pure risks are low and their severities are high, then the method of risk transfer would be better to finance the risk losses, because the severities are high, which means the risk losses may be large. If using risk retention, they need large funds to finance the risk losses so that the opportunity costs of the funds will be large. As a result, the risks could be transferred to insurer or another party by buying insurance or making contracts. However, risk retention may be better, if the frequency probabilities of pure risks are low and their severities are low. Because they need only small funds to cover the risks as both frequency probabilities and s everities are low. In addition, the insurance may be expensive; commonly the price of the insurance is high than the opportunity cost of retention. Even more, the risk losses may not be covered by insurance. When the frequency probabilities of risk losses are high, both retention and insurance are not better methods, because the risk losses will continually happen. As a result, if the severities of the risk losses are high, we should avoid these risks. In the other words, we should abandon these businesses, because they are too dangerous; if the severities of the risk losses are low, we should control it by increasing precautions and limits on risk activity designed to reduce the frequency and severity of accidents. (Harrington and Niehaus 1999 Page 23) There is an important factor that may affect firms decision between retention and insurance. The factor is tax. When calculating its taxable income, a noninsurance company can only deduct losses that were paid during the year. In contrast, an insurer can deduct the discounted value of incurred losses, which equals losses paid during the year plus the change during the year in the discounted value of its liability for unpaid claims. This distinction essentially allows insurers to deduct losses earlier than noninsurance companies, which all else equal increases the present value of expected tax deductions if a loss exposure is insured. Although the tax break is granted to insurers, competition among insurers for business will cause most or even the entire tax break to be given to policyholders through lower premiums. (Harrington and Niehaus 1999 Page 218) In practice, many large companies have established captive insurance companies. These companies make payment to their captive insurers, which then pay losses to the large companies. It is an important method of financing losses for large firms, and can be viewed as a special type of retention and self-insurance. If a firm has a captive insurer, the firm should finance risk losses by buy insurance from its captive insurer. A firm could benefit a lot by using a captive insurer. To begin with, the parent company could reduce expected tax payments relative to retention. As I have discussed before, insurance has a tax advantage compared with retention. In addition, Dr. David Ayling (2009) mentioned that the parent company could access to the reinsurance markets through its captive. The parent first buys insurance through its captive, which then purchases reinsurance. Finally, Harrington and Niehaus (1999) said captive also can be used to reduce risk. The parents risk exposures will be poo led with other unrelated companies exposures, if its captive sells insurance or reinsurance to other unrelated companies. Consequently, a large firm will benefit from its captive insurer in reducing expected tax payments, accessing to the reinsurance markets, and reducing risk through the captives transaction. In conclusion, as retention and insurance have their own advantages and disadvantages, the frequency probabilities and severities of risks determine which methods of risk financing should be used. Insurance is a good risk financing method for a low frequency and high severity risk; in contrast, retention is a good risk financing method for a low frequency and low severity risk. For many large companies, using a captive insurer becomes an important method of financing losses. Captives could benefit their parent company from reducing expected tax payments, accessing to the reinsurance markets, and reducing risk through the captives transaction. However, according to Dr. David Ayling (2009), if risk losses could be transferred to someone other than an insurer at a cheaper cost, or can be prevented or reduced at a cost cheaper than insurance, insurance and retention are not the best methods of risk losses financing, because risk management aims to maximize value by minimizing the cost of risk. Bibliography and Reference Dr. David Ayling (2009) Corporate Risk Managements handout, Bangor University. Harrington, S. E, Niehaus, G. R, (1999) Risk Management and Insurance, Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Web 1: Wikipedia (2009) Insurance (Online) Wikimedia Foundations, Inc: USA. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance (Accessed 8/12/09)

I am Committed to Pursue Medicine as a Career :: Medicine College Admissions Essays

I am Committed to Pursue Medicine as a Career My palms began to sweat profusely as I sat in the admission's office chair looking down at the white space on the application form asking for my major. This was the moment of truth: I would finally have to reveal to the world that I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. At seventeen and with only limited exposure to the medical field, I believed doctors were people in lab coats with test tubes who gave orders and cared only about science and money, not humanity. Becoming a doctor was one of the furthest things from my mind. I peered at the "undecided" box and checked it sheepishly. That action seemed to announce such failure. All that I was certain of was that one-day I wanted to have a family. At 19, fate stepped in and I was fortunate to meet the right person to marry. We immediately started our family. Then reality hit. Two weeks after our son was born, my husband was "downsized" out of his position. The bills mounted, as we fell deeper in debt. To support us, my husband took a position that required us to move frequently. Every semester I found myself on a new campus, trying to acclimate, transferring as many courses as I could, starting over, determined to get a degree so I could help support my struggling family. Finally, six universities later, I graduated and found a job as an accountant. Slowly, we got on track and out of debt. Our hard work and perseverance had its rewards. Because of the number of moves we had made and my broad academic exposure, I had become very flexible and learned to absorb new concepts very quickly. These strengths combined with my hard work helped me get promoted rapidly. Inside of four years I was a top manager, making good money. However, I had become very aware that I still had not answered the question on my college application of what I wanted to do with my life. While I was good at what I did, at the end of the day, even a good day, I rarely felt like I had accomplished something worthwhile. Before I could begin to explore any of my alternatives further, tragedy struck. I had a miscarriage.

Warren Buffet :: Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffet Warren Buffet was born August 30, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. He lived much of his life in Nebraska and later moved to Washington D.C. At 11 he purchased his first stock which he ended up making a five-dollar profit on this investment. He got his bachelors degree from The University of Nebraska. For some time he attended Wharton’s School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. This institution is rated as one of the top five business schools in the nation. His Masters of Science in Economics was completed at Columbia University. Shortly after completing college Warren founded the Buffet partnership. This was all accomplished by the age of 25. Had someone invested $10000 with Warren back in 1956 it would worth an astounding $95 million today. Warren Buffet is worth over 27 billion dollars at the age of 69. Investing in other well-known companies made much of his money. He has major holdings of American Express, Coke, and Walt Disney just to name a few. He is also rumored to own as much as 20% of the world’s supply of silver. Today Warren Buffet is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Some of the other companies included under the Berkshire name are Geico Insurance, Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska, Borsheim’s, and Dairy Queen. Berkshire is based out of his hometown of Omaha Nebraska. There have been many books written about Warren’s investment strategies and his life in general. He has never written a book himself. I found a few books he helped co-author including one that was nothing but quotes and sayings he has come up with over the years.

Henrik Ibsen :: essays research papers

	Henrik Ibsen was born in the Stockman Building in Skien, Norway. He spent part of his childhood on Venstøp Farm after his father went bankrupt. In 1843, he was apprenticed to a chemist in Grimstad. That was when he began writing satire and elegant poems in the style of the time. He wrote his first play in 1849, a five-act tragedy in verse, Catiline, which was published in 1850 under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. The Warrior's Barrow was written and performed in 1850, as the first of Ibsen's plays to reach the stage. However, it was not published until much later. Ibsen lived in Christiania (now Oslo) from 1850 to 1851 to complete his upper secondary education. From 1851 to 1857, Ibsen was playwright in residence and director of the theatre in Bergen. 	While there, he wrote St. John’s Night (written in 1852), Lady Inger of Osteraad (written in 1854, published in 1857), The Feast at Solhaug (written in 1855, published in 1856), and Olaf Liljekrans (written in 1856). All these plays were inspired by folk songs, folklore or history, all of which are leitmotifs that run through Ibsen’s works. Ibsen became creative director of The Norwegian Theater in Christiania in 1858. The next year, he wrote the historical play The Vikings at Helgeland. The Pretenders was written in 1863. Beside Bjornstjerne Bjornson’s Sigurd Slembe, The Pretenders is considered the main work of historical fiction produced during this era. Henrik Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen (1836-1914) in 1858. Soon after, he wrote the poem "On the Heights"(1859) and the play Love’s Comedy (1863). The years in Christiania were difficult for Ibsen. He was given a means of escape when a group of his friends, headed by Bjornstjerne Bjor nson, collected enoughmoney for him to move to Italy in 1864. Shortly after moving, Ibsen began a major drama about Julian, but he did not complete the work until 1873, when it was published as Emperor and Galilean. The Epic Brand, a major epic-lyric poem, led to the lyric drama Brand (1866), Ibsen’s first real success as a writer. His next major work followed close on the heels of this success when he penned Peer Gynt in 1867. 	Ibsen moved to Dresden in 1868, then to Munich in 1875. In 1869, he wrote the comedy The League of Youth. The realistic style used to stage the drama Pillars of Society (1877) focused on various problems of the day.

Describe the Potential Effects of Discrimination

Applied Business Unit 8: Business Planning Task 6 Worksheet Task Six: Financial Planning YOU CANNOT START AND/OR COMPLETE THIS WITHOUT A FINAL SALES FORECAST AND A LIST OF ALL YOUR OPERATIONAL COSTS ————————————————- Lesson breakdown ————————————————- Lesson 1: †¢Introduction to Financial Planning and how do we create an integrated plan: Focus on cash flow forecast using operations plan ————————————————-Lesson 2+3: Cash flow analysis and develop aims and objectives; ————————————————- Introduce ‘ILP-time-off’ work to do  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- Lesson 4: Cash flow revisions, Problem spotting based on cash flow and develop aims and objectives ————————————————- Lesson 5: Profit and loss account and Financial Ratio Analysis and developing aims and objectives ————————————————- Lesson 6: Break Even analysis and then develop aims and objectives ————————————————-Lesson 7: Final Amendments to Financial Planning; Problem spotting based on P&L, ratio analysis, break-even and develop plan Task 6 Brief Overview * In this section, you are going to produce financial documents for yo ur business proposal. You will need to use the sales forecasts and operations plan that you produced earlier. This section is important as you are attracting investment and assessing the viability of your plan * Calculate, analyse and evaluate the following; Use these subheadings in your report * Size and duration of budget * Start-up costs Running costs * Cash flow forecast * Break even analysis * Financial ratios * Profit and loss * Analyse all your financial documents showing detailed consideration for the Aims and Objectives: * Are they achieved? * If not what are the possible problems this can cause your business? * Can you think of any solutions to help you to overcome these problems so that you could achieve your aims? SUBMISSION OF TASK 6 The following is to be submitted as a Word document Use the following headings for your submission of your Financial Plan 1st submission.Copy and paste these into your final document: Submit all work on moodle for deadline 3rd December 2010 (4:15PM) 1. Financial Planning (main heading) 2. Cash Flow Forecasting Table (MB4 students need to submit 2 (+? )CFF Tables) a. Cash Flow Forecasting analysis (of each CFF produced) 3. Profit and Loss statement and Financial Ratios Table (MB4 students need to submit 2 (+? )P&L and F/R Tables) b. Profit and Loss statement and Financial Ratios analysis (of each P&L and F/R produced) 4. Breakeven Table (MB4 students need to submit 2 (+? )Breakeven Tables) . Breakeven analysis (of each Breakeven produced) TASK 6 FINANCIAL PLANNING CONTENT/ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST CRITERIA CASH FLOW FORECASTING| 1. Start-up budget: | a) 12 monthly graph (Cut and paste information from your cash flow forecast for your first graph)| b) Analysis needs to consider:| I. You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | II. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III. Research used to underpin an d develop business idea| IV.Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | 2. Running costs: | a) 12 monthly graph (Cut and paste information from your cash flow forecast for your first graph)| b) Analysis needs to consider:| I. You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | II. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III.Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IV. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | 3. 12 monthly Cash Forecast: 1 : Your initial forecast used to help identify problems| a) Analysis needs to consider:| I. You must have an in-depth explanati on of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | II. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III.Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IV. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | 4. MB4 12 Monthly Cash Forecast: 2: A working example of your solutions to your identified problems in CFF1| a) Analysis needs to consider:| I. You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | II.Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III. Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IV. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to co nsider in light of this new data? | PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT| 5. Profit and Loss Account 1 : Your initial forecast used to help identify problems| a) Analysis needs to consider:| I. You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the ims and objectives of your business proposal. | II. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III. Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IV. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | 6. MB4 Profit and Loss Account 2: A worked example of your solutions to your identified problems in P&L1| b) Analysis needs to consider:| VI.You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | VII. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| VII I. Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IX. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| X. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | FINANCIAL RATIOS| 7. Financial Ratios: Gross and Net Profit for P&L account 1| a) Analysis needs to consider:|I. You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | II. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III. Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IV. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | 8. MB4 Financial Ratios: Gross and Net Profit for P&L account 2| a) Analysis needs to consider:| I.You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could a chieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | II. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III. Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IV. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | BREAKEVEN| 9. Breakeven table and calculation:1 : Your initial forecast used to help identify problems| a) Analysis needs to consider:| I.You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | II. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| III. Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IV. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| V. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | 10. MB4 Breakeven table and calculation:2: A working example of your solutions to your identified problems| b) Analysis needs to consider:|VI. You must have an in-depth explanation of how these could achieve the aims and objectives of your business proposal. | VII. Research used to underpin and develop aims and objectives/ownership/key personnel| VIII. Research used to underpin and develop business idea| IX. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also your aims and objectives:| X. What changes to your original idea/USP/aims do you have to consider in light of this new data? | TASK 6 ASSESSMENT GUIDE: HOW TO ACHIEVE THE BEST RESULTS? * You are assessed in Task 6 for BOTH AO2 and AO3 marks AO2 is marked out of 22 marks and all learners should be aiming for a minimum of MB4 which is 17/22 marks * AO3 is marked out of 14 and at this stage all learners should be aiming for a minimum of MB4 which is 11-14 marks. * We will award high marks for those learne rs who can: * Purposefully select data from a wide range of sources, * Analyse the problem and possible solutions * Develop their plan based upon research. * Give an in-depth explanation of how the marketing plan could achieve the aims and objectives of the business proposal. AO2 ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES MB1| MB2| MB3| MB4| 2 3 4 5| 6 7 8 9 10| 11 12 13 14 15 16| 17 18 19 20 21 22| A business plan which includes aspects of the marketing plan. A description of how this supports the aims and objectives of the business proposal. | A business plan which contains the marketingPlan. A basic explanation of how this contributes to achieving the aims and objectives of the business proposal. | A business plan which contains a developed marketing plan. An explanation of how this could achieve the aims and objectives of the business proposal. | A business plan which contains comprehensive marketing plan.An in-depth explanation of how this could achieve the aims and objectives of the business propo sal. | * Aspects of the components are produced * Superficial coverage of aims and objective| * The components are complete * Aims and objectives are broadly considered| * The components are complete and developed * Beginning to target particular aims and objectives, but lacks precision| * The components are complete, developed and address the key parts of the problem * Targeting particular aims and objectives with precision| AO3 ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES MB1| MB2| MB3| MB4| 2 3| 4 5 6| 7 8 9 10| 11 12 13 14| Collects some up-to-date data from a limited range of sources. Uses numerical and/or non-numerical techniqueson the collected data to provide a partial analysisof the requirements of:†¢ the marketing plan†¢ the operations plan†¢ the financial plan. Uses the results of the analysis to identify some relevant elements of the business plan. | Selects some up-to-date data from a limited range of sources. Uses numerical and/or non-numerical techniques on selected data to p rovide a partial analysis of therequirements of:†¢ the marketing plan†¢ the operations plan†¢ the financial plan.Uses the results of the analysis to outline a relevant business plan. | Selects relevant and up-to-date data from a range of sources. Uses appropriate numerical and/or non-numericaltechniques on selected data to provide a partial analysisof the requirements of:†¢ the marketing plan†¢ the operations plan†¢ the financial plan. Uses the results of the analysis to develop a relevant business plan, which considers the aims and objectives, form of ownership and key personnel required. Selects relevant and up-to-date data from a wide range of sources. Uses appropriate numerical and/or non-numericaltechniques on selected data to analyse the requirementsof:†¢ the marketing plan†¢ the operations plan†¢ the financial plan. Uses the results of the analysis to develop a consistentand integrated business plan, showing detailedconsideration o f the aims and objectives, form of ownership and key personnel required. | MB1| MB2| MB3| MB4| 1 2 3| 4 5 6| 7 8 9 10| 11 12 13 14|Collects data from a limited range of sourcesProcesses dataIdentifies some elements of the plans components| Selects data from a limited range of sourcesProcesses selected dataOutlines components of the plan| Purposefully selects dataAnalyses key parts of the problem or practical solutionsDevelops components of the plan| Purposeful selects data from a wide range of sourcesAnalyses key parts of the problem AND practical solutionsDevelops integrated components of the plan| Follow the below detailed overview of each task for advice and help on how to achieve MB4 for Task 6Task 6 MB4 Detailed Overview CASH FLOW FORECAST, ANALYSIS AND DEVELOPMENT Lesson 1: Task 1 1. Download cash flow forecast from moodle 2. Complete pre start up budget (SEE CASE STUDY!! ) 3. Complete pre start-up costs calculated from T5 4. Insert monthly sales figures from final sales forec ast 5. Insert monthly fixed costs calculated from T5 6. Insert monthly variable costs from T5 Lesson 2+3: Task 2 Analysis * All marks gained with this task is from your analysis of your financial data; not from your reports themselves. ————————————————-Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also how your aims and objectives can/can’t be achieved Learners can achieve MB4 in A02/A03 by following the Financial Planning Assessment Objectives which requires them to identify problem areas and developing practical solutions to consider alternative perspectives. What you will need to include will depend on your individual business proposal. You need to identify areas of weakness such as high fixed costs, start up costs? * Perhaps you need a cash injection by selling equity to help you pay for start up costs? It could be you source alternative suppli ers for your variable costs or project that you will pay 30 days later which is to improve your working capital. * What is happening to the figures in the net cash flow cells, are you losing money each week? * This is a cash flow negative situation. * Or are you cash flow positive? * How long before you are cash flow positive? * Why is this so long? Lesson 3+4: Task 3 MB4- Revised cash flow forecast * MB4- You need to produce a refined Cash Flow forecast based upon the analysis of the key issues identified in T6 task 2. This is to include the developments you have made. Label this Cash Flow Forecast 2. * You need to analyse CFF2: * Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also if your aims and objectives can be met- How/Why? PROFIT AND LOSS and FINANCIAL RATIOS Lesson 4: Task 1 1. Download Profit and loss template from moodle 2. Insert sales for year 1 from your final sales forecast 3. What is the total cost of these sales? How much were the total variable cos ts related to the output. These are costs such as ingredients, packaging or price of the club. Put this figure in Direct costs/cost of materials sold 4.Calculate A-B to = C which is the identification of Gross Profit 5. Insert all other costs for the year in the respective headings, adding headings where needed. 6. Add up all your total overheads and insert this figure in D 7. Calculate C-D to identify Net Profit or Loss Figure 8. Calculate your Gross Profit MB4- Task 1 b Revised PROFIT AND LOSS and FINANCIAL RATIOS You must now repeat this action again for the second cash flow forecast figures * You need to analyse P&L2 AND F/R2: * Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also if your aims and objectives can be met- How/Why?Task 2= Financial Ratios Overview Profitability ratios are a key source of information for both investors and business planners. They provide a clear image of the business both in terms of your costs and profit. A strong ratio can be t he difference between investment and failure. Task A 1. Use the figures in your first profit and loss account to calculate Gross Profit Ratio. ————————————————- Gross Profit margin: ————————————————- A measurement of how much profit the business has made on its buying and selling activities. ———————————————— How good a business is at trading. ————————————————- Gross Profit margin= Gross Profit/turnover (Sales Revenue) X 100 (%) ——————————————†”—- The higher the % the better, e. g. ————————————————- A GPM of 45% means that for every ? 1 of sales, the firm makes 45p in gross profit 2. Use the figures in your first profit and loss account to calculate Net Profit Ratio. ————————————————- Net Profit margin: ———————————————— It is a measure of how much overall profit the business has made after taking into account all relevant costs that have been incurred. ————————————————- Net profit margin= net profit/turnover (sales revenue) X 100 —————â₠¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- The higher the % the better, e. g. ————————————————- A NPM of 45% means that for every ? 1 of sales, the firm makes 45p in pure profit Task B MB4 Complete for 2nd profit and loss account if constructed CFF2 Task 3= Analysis You must now undertake a critical analysis of each profit and loss account with clear reference and commentary related to the key issues such as profit or loss, gross profit, overhead costs, GPM, NPM etc * Clearly relate back to the businesses achievement of its aims and objectives (explain HOW AND WHY THEY ARE ACHIEVED), developing or revising your aims where necessary in your business plan. * Make clear reference to the FIGURES from your profit or loss, gross profit, overhead costs etc * You must undertake a critical analysis of each financial ratio * Identify and pr oblems and/or solutions: Are you profitable? If so†¦ by how much? * Can you grow? * Which costs are too high? * How can you improve your profitability? * What are the possible knock-on effects of these solutions for your business> * Which costs could be reduced? If so what would the possible impact of this be on your business idea? * Which costs cannot be reduced further? Why? What problems does this bring up? * How does a cash injection help or hinder the financial ratios/P&L? BREAK EVEN Task 1 1. Download the Breakeven table from Moodle 2.Input into the table your Annual Revenue (TR), annual FC and VC (with total FC and VC), and total costs. 3. You must then divide the total variable costs by the number of units you are selling in a year ( units can be the bottles/ no of clubbers you expect/ etc in a year) 4. This will give you the variable cost /unit 5. You must now calculate the break even OUTPUT point using the formula: 6. MB4 Calculate Break Even 2 from your revise d financial documents 7. All marks gained with this task is from your analysis of your financial data; not from your reports themselves. Identify problems and solutions with your plan (develop it) and also if your aims and objectives can/cant be achieved * Do you break even? * If so at what output? * Work out from your sales forecast when you will reach this breakeven output level * What aims can be achieved? How? Why? * If you don’t breakeven; why not? * You need to identify areas of weakness such as high fixed costs, start up costs, raw materials, low selling price? * What aims cant be achieved? How? Why? * What could you do to solve this breakeven problem? (hint: see changing B/E variables section) 8.MB4 analyse the effect of changing variables (FC, VC and/or Price) on the break even figure. * Calculate the effect of changing variables (FC, VC and/or Price) on the break even figure: * Analyse these break even scenarios and link to your aims and objectives. * What is the ef fect on breakeven level? * What are the potential problems you have identified with your break even? * Are there any solutions you can recommend to the business? * Such as reducing selling price? * Increasing selling price? * Increase advertising to increase sales? Reducing fixed or variable costs further? etc

Christian Response/Decisions on life and living Essay

AO1- Explain the beliefs Christians hold about their responsibility for those at the beginning and end of their lives. The heart of Christian ethics is love, which has its source in God. Christianity is based on the principal of love,’ love thy neighbour as yourself’ is the greatest teaching and in this context means having concern/caring for others. Christians extend this teaching further when considering those at the beginning or end of their lives. Christians believe that an unborn baby or foetus is created in God’s own image, which is why they would regard every child and living person as precious, and whilst in the womb it is closest to perfection (completely innocent). Christians believe that all human life is sacred as it has eternal destiny and as an unborn child a potential life an unborn child/ foetus is treated with protection and respect, as a human should be. In general Christians feel it is their responsibility to take care of the body carrying an unborn baby and because traditional Christian teaching places the highest value on human life most Christians condemn the concept of abortion as it would involve destroying something so innocent and going against God’s will because God chose to give the life. Christian’s regard abortion in any sense as murder which goes against their moral teachings, the fifth commandment states ‘Thou shall not kill’. â€Å"If anyone does not take care of his relations especially members of his own family he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever† this is a quote from Timothy 1 in the new testament and this quote can have a lot of meaning for a Christian as a parent because it states that it should be their responsibility to care for all their family which would include a conceived child who should be given the chance to live and cared for else a Christian would really be a hypocrite to their beliefs. Christian’s also hold great responsibility as a parent of a newborn child. Christian’s believe it s their duty to baptise their child. The service of baptism washes away a child’s original sin and symbolises their membership to the church. As a parent a Christian is opening the door to the Christian faith (GOD) to which their child can later choose to become part of through their own will when they are older by being ‘confirmed’. It is a Christian’s duty to give their child this opportunity whether or not they choose to take it. As a child grows up it is also the parent’s responsibility to educate the child about the Christian faith, for example sending them to a Christian/catholic school and teaching them about Christianity at home? When considering Christian responsibility for those at the end of their lives the concept is very similar. Christians believe that only God gave life and only God can take it away. They believe killing an innocent person is unacceptable ‘thou shall not kill’ regardless of whether it is an embryo, foetus, child, adult, old person, or someone who is terminally ill and dying. Some Christians may feel that Euthanasia should be allowed as in some circumstances it would be more ‘loving to let someone die if letting them carry on living was causing them so much pain. Most Christians however do not agree because they say human life is sacred and only God has the authority to take it. Christian’s treat a terminally ill, unconscious adult with the same protection as a conscious adult. Christians are against euthanasia but would try to make the time before a person’s death as easy as possible by caring for them and knowing that they will die when God wants them to. The care that the old and terminally ill need can be provided by a hospice. Christian’s support the hospice movement. They are Christian based foundations similar to a hospital but are designed for people to go there to die. The relatives of patients are given care and support and the patients are made as comfortable and happy as possible and the emphasis is on controlling pain and allowing people to die with dignity. AO2 -Faced with the issues of abortion and euthanasia, explain the different ways Christians might respond. The different denominations of Christians and Christian individuals would react in different ways when faced with these issues. When looking at abortion it is fair to say that all Christians believe it is unacceptable and should be avoided. A roman catholic would believe that a deliberately procured abortion is a serious sin as it would be regarded as a murder no matter what time in the pregnancy it took place, as a roman Catholics belief is that God implants the soul at the moment of conception. In today’s society there is a lot of sexual crime such as rape and incest. If a woman were to become pregnancy as a result of this crime her actions may be different depending on what kind of Christian she was. A roman catholic would be strictly against abortion and believe that although the father committed and evil crime the unborn child should still be considered innocent and part of God and should not be killed because its father committed an evil sin. A true Roman Catholic would go ahead with the pregnancy but once the child was born may take other steps such as adoption if keeping the child was too distressing and she felt she could not love it. However looking at this situation from a Protestant perspective it would be acceptable for the woman to have an abortion as having the baby would remind her of the trauma of the sexual crime and the child may not be brought into the world into a loving family, as it should deserve. It is in this way that views differ, members of the Christian Churches accept that sometimes abortion may be the lesser of 2 evils like in the result of a sexual crime, if the child was sought to be handicapped, deformed or likely to die soon after birth and if the foetus is likely to endanger the life of the mother. There are also some extreme exceptions for Catholics. The principal of double effect in the Roman Catholic church if in some complex situations like if the mother was likely to die would allow an abortion to take place, and there are also some occasions where an operation needs to be carried out with a purpose to cure a life threatening disease which may kill an unborn child, the Roman Catholic church teaches that this is permissible and necessary. When faced with issues of euthanasia different most Christians react in similar ways. Some Christians think it is acceptable to help someone to die by stopping their medication, turning off a life support machine etc as long as they are not directly taking their life simply putting a stop to methods that are trying to preserve it. The Roman Catholic belief is that any action intended to cause death as a relief from suffering is,† a grave violation of the laws of God† (John Paul II). Catholics believe that no one should try to take someone’s life for them, as it is still a form of killing. But they do not believe that life has to be preserved at all costs and find turning off a life support machine acceptable if the person can no way be cured and is otherwise in a vegetative state. Christians also support the use of painkillers such as morphine, which hasten death provided their aim is to ease pain. If a Christian had a friend who was terminally ill and dying and asked them to help them to die quicker as they were suffering a Christian may agree to do so because they think it is more ‘loving’ than to let their friend experience immense suffering or they may stop their medication which is keeping them alive to help them die faster. AO3 – What Christians believe about life is up to them. They should not make others accept their position. Do you agree with the statement? A Christian has their own views and ideas about life. Everyone has the right of freedom and should therefore be able to believe their own things without having to be bothered about what others think. This could be argued by some people as not right because when it involves the taking of a life, it can never really be justified as right As a Christian however it is acceptable for them to give advice to others based on their believes whether or not the other person chooses to accept it. As a Christian one should not judge others for being different and this includes having different views and beliefs to themselves, â€Å"Judge not others lest you be judged†. I can relate this to a modern day situation by saying that if a Christian had a close friend (non Christian) who was considering an abortion who asked for their advice it would be fair for a Christian to share their advice and views with this friend but if they still chose to go ahead with the abortion as a Christian the person should still stand by their friend and support them regardless of whether they feel they are making the wrong decision. From another point of view Christians should make others accept their position because God commands them to share the good news with others and take the gospel to all the people’ therefore a Christian would not be fulfilling their duty as a Christian if they did not spread the word of God to others. Other people can choose not to be influenced by their ideas but as a Christian I Think they need to pass on their beliefs about God to other people. Overall I think that a Christian should tell other people when they are doing something which in society could be considered as very wrong i.e. Murder and a Christian also has the right to share there believes with others in hope that they may accept them. However it is the individual’s choice to believe what they want in the end and another person should force no one into accepting a certain position.