Cisco Stock Pitch Essay

Cisco Stock Pitch Essay Cisco Stock Pitch Essay ISBE Principle Investments Group Cisco Systems Investment Research Presentation Nan Lin Introduction: ï  ® Cisco is worldwide leader in datanetworking equipment and software ï  ® ï  ® Current Revenue: $39.5 billion Data-networking: linking of computing devices together with hardware and software, allowing data communications ï  ® Allows you to share files with friends and family Business Model: ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Routers (24% of total revenue) Switches (40% of total revenue) Advanced Technologies (29% of total revenue) Services (6%) Cisco’s Major Customers ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Large Enterprises, contributing to estimated 45-50% of firm’s total revenues Service Providers: customers that provide data, voice, or video communications, (25%) Commercial Customers: medium/small companies (25%) Routers ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Core Routers: communication within network Edge Routers: communication within various local networks Enterprise Routers: sold to corporate consumers through large volume agreements, of which Cisco has 60% market share Switches, Advanced Technologies, and Services ï  ® Switches ï  ® Advanced Technologies ï  ® ï  ® Used to build networks over areas such as college campuses, to metropolitan, cities ï  ® Home networking, Wireless, Security, Storage Networking, Optical Networking ï  ® Advanced Services, Focused Technical Support and Network Optimization Support Services Investment Thesis ï  ® Potential for Revenue Growth ï  ® Top Competitor in Network & Communications Industry Potential for Revenue Growth ï  ® When investigating its potential for revenue growth, we examine the following: ï  ® ï  ® Recent Macro trends Industry analysis Macro Trends ï  ® Growth from the YouTube Effect ï  ® ï  ® Carriers spend massive amounts to upgrade their networks, spending benefited Cisco- largest manufacturer of routers Internet growth up to year 2012 increase as much as 46% per year Macro Trends II ï  ® Convergence Trend: demand for more sophisticated technologies ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Companies makes products such as internet video cameras, media adapters Use of these products requires more routers and switchers- which Cisco provides Growing Advanced Technologies Macro Trend III: ï  ® Domestic vs International Growth: ï  ® ï  ® Cisco derives over half of sales within US and 21% from Europe Cisco has opportunities in Asia: ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® China: rapidly expanding economy~5% of revenue China censorship requires more demand for Cisco’s products Japan: large market~3.4% of revenue Industry Analysis: ï  ® Barriers to Entry: ï  ® High Research & Development Costs ï  ® ï  ® Cisco spends more on R & D than its competitors, allows firm to drive innovation of new products in technology industries Threats: ï  ® Firewall policies Competitive Analysis ï  ® One of the highest gross operating margin due to size and scale ï  ® ï  ® Allows Cisco to pay off fixed payments such as interest in debt. One of the lowest operating costs of its competitors ï  ® Cisco maintains cost levels around 35% of total sales while other companies costs up to half of their total revenues Competitive Analysis II ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Cisco leads the market in routers, accounting for approximately 60% of sales Cisco generates about 42% of revenue from switches and leads the industry with about 70% market share Cisco’s huge size allows contracts with multiple suppliers. Cisco’s Top Competitors: Revenu COGS e (M) Cisco Gross R&D Margin expend % iture (M) $34.81 $14.0 B Juniper $3.6 B $1.2 Networ ks 65.8% $5 65.7% $.7 Alatel- 32.85% 2.80 16.9 3.10 Important Business Metrics CSCO ALU JNPR Industr y Market 132.14 7.68 B 13.11 B 257.38 Cap B M Revenu 34.81 B 16.9 m 3.30B 165.93 e lbs. M Gross 65.8% 65.7% 32.85% 41.7% Margin EBITDA 8.73 B N/A 666.60 15.08M M Important SEC Filing Info ï  ® Balance Sheet: ï  ® Cisco has strong cash balance of $34.08 B ï  ® Cisco has significant cash to develop its growth through M & A. ï  ® ï  ® In the past, Cisco bought Tandberg, ScanSafe Inc to maintain high growth rates. On January 7, 2010, Cisco announces plan to acquire

Challenges to The Walt Disney Company

Challenges to The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company Strategic Issues First Strategic Issue Walt Disney has experienced various strategic issues, and their strategic approaches have led to success. Its strategic management has identified the fact that their competitors could take advantage of the strategic weaknesses and pull the company behind in terms of market position. Although the issues are limited in such a successful company, they deserve maximum attention, as it is possible for them to act as threats towards the future welfare of the entire business. From a quick SWOT analysis, Disney’s strengths are diversity and the surplus cash it attains from its business operations. Its weaknesses include the two strategic issues it is recently facing, its opportunities are expansion possibilities, and its threats include stiff competition. One of these strategic issues that Walt Disney has been facing is the loss of a good number of subscribers in the ESPN. Recently, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network of Disney is holding fewer consumers as compared to the past years when the company began. The major reason leading to this shift of customers to other internet programs that offer similar services is the fact that watching sports with Disney has turned out to be more expensive as compared to watching the same sports in other internet platforms. Its historical market position, which was high at that time, had been attained through appealing to customers regarding prices. When it is specifically about sports, there are different types of customers. Both adults and youths across the globe have high interests in sports. However, the youths appear to have more time to invest in the sports as compared to the time adults invest. Therefore, the larger portion of customers consists of young people, who in most cases are jobless or flexible in terms their jobs. It is a fact that with their flexibility regarding careers, the youth does not earn a lot of money, meaning the y will always take advantage of companies that deliver services at the least cost possible. When Disney was affordable, it appealed to the two categories of customers successfully by ensuring that it is the most affordable platform in the world. However, when the internet-based competitors found a way of broadcasting sports at lower prices and others free, Disney did not pay attention to the matching of these standards. For this reason, it lost the youths mostly to other companies. Losing its portion of youths to the competitors is a great issue, which, were it not for other strengths that exist in the business, would have caused the downfall of Disney as an international company. Second Strategic Issue The second strategic challenge that Disney is facing in the presence of its competitors is vitality in the market. Disney is dealing with entertainment, which is all about the preferences and tastes of customers. This dealing is capable of easily leading to its downfall if the c ompany’s management does not focus on the strategic approaches of satisfying the customers’ thirst in terms of what they have a passion for but does not exist in the market. In case the product exists already, it is the duty of the company to modify it and make it more interesting to the customers without altering the likes but scraping the dislikes. With this sensitivity, Disney has faced criticism every time it has a new release in the market as much as it faces motivating response. Bearing in mind that the two types of responses are from customers that the company takes as a duty to please, making changes to attract a larger portion of motivating customers than critics has been an all-time operational goal that may or may never be achieved. It becomes worse when during its evaluation, Disney realizes a loss of positive claims having turned to critics. This is always a clear message from the public that the company has made an unpleasant release and if they take it f or a trend, their market position will be at stake. This is how hard it is for Disney to maintain a good market position having concentrated on the customers’ taste and preferences alone. Other factors such as the cost of services make the situation worse than it already is. These two strategic issues only need to be attended to with the right approach in order to make the company’s future bright (Rukstad & Collis, 2009). Alternative Causes of Action Reduced Quality To address the above strategic issues and realize the best course of action, it is important that attention is afforded to the nature of the issues. This can be achieved through a value chain analysis that helps to indicate the company’s operational strategy and goals. The loss of Entertainment Sports Program Network subscribers must have been brought about by a faulty strategy in the organization’s way of setting its standards. To solve this, the company can buy the cheaper systems ado pted by competitors. When other internet service providers decided to engage in innovative ways of lowering their prices, the company did not embrace this idea, as it looked out for maintenance of quality. As a matter of fact, the internet services providers decided to adopt new and cheaper facilities that enhanced this reduction of prices to reach out to the customers whom in their opinion, watching sports had become expensive. While doing this, the first and most essential side effect they were likely to experience is the reduction of quality. Reduced Prices The company can as well alter their operations in a way to slightly reduce their prices and maintain quality at the same time. As much these services were to be availed to customers at a reduced cost, they were also to be displayed at lower qualities as compared to those displayed by Disney. In this case, the market of the ESPN was split into two. There is the lower quality of services available for those that prioritize the amount of money spent on entertainment, and the other sector of the market generates high quality of services for people who do not mind spending a fortune for the sake of quality. With this division, it means that Disney is not ready to compromise its quality of output in order to lower prices and accommodate more customers. This is how it ended up with a limited number of customers as compared to its competitors providing services through various internet platforms. Reducing prices with maintained quality will help to maintain the current customers and to bring back those that it lost to competitors. Stable Products Thirdly, the fact that Disney deals with mainly entertaining products is the main cause of the fact that it is faced with a strategic issue of dealing with customers’ tastes and preferences. In its market, Disney has a chance of securing its competitive advantage through dealing with motivational and educative films more than the entertaining movies. An educative product is easier to deal with in the sense that it will have nothing to do with the judgment of the customers, and the success will all depend on the effort of the company towards gathering as much knowledge in its products as possible. This way, it is possible to predict the responses of customers to its new releases. Additionally, these types of products will maintain the types of customers that the company is appealing to, bearing in mind that the youths would embrace guidance and the adults too will help respond positively to pieces of advice offered concerning their business and social lives. Just to make the point clear, it is for a fact that Disney has invested partly in these sectors, but the entertainment has taken a better part of its products. This has not only subjected it to the risk of customers’ responses based on their personal tastes and interests but also on the parental force against time wastage. Their cartoon products, for instance, are found to be excessively attractive to the children to the extent that they fail to attend to other demands such as academic works. This creates a force between the cartoon products and parents as they push the children to balance all aspects of life. On the contrary, parents also utilize the products in making promises and rewarding children whenever they want them to engage in or maintain good conduct. An example is a case where the children are motivated to work harder and perform better in class in order to be allowed to watch cartoon during their holidays. All it needs to do is buy facilities that will accommodate this type of production. This would make their output stable, predictable and more profiting. All the above alternatives can be implemented in Disney to stimulate its line of business (Rukstad & Collis, 2009). Recommendations Evaluation The alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of th eir services is a possible approach for the ESPN issue. This will allow them to avail the same quality of services to customers at an affordable price. This means that they will be appealing to both the customers that value quality more than cost and those that are out there negotiating for lower prices. In this situation, they will have attained competition perfection in the sense that competitors that offer services at lower prices as Disney does will not be providing as high quality as that of Disney. On this note, Disney can be boosted by other secondary factors such as making sure that there is a constant flow of game displays throughout the season. This means that they will be displaying sports events even when the companies with the poor quality of facilities will be facing breakdowns for one reason or another. Disney will be the home for customers who are not ready for interrupted sessions while watching matches. However, if Disney decides to follow suit as its competitors a nd produce low-quality products, it will be faced with the con of losing customers who value quality. These qualities of attraction will not only help Disney to retain its current customers but also bring back the youth it has lost as potential customers. This way, the current position of the company in the market will be maintained, and the opportunity to expand will have been utilized to make Disney’s future more promising. As its only con, Disney will experience an added cost of operating. This is why, on a personal level, I would recommend the alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of their services as an approach for the ESPN issue. If the cartoons and other entertainment films do not appear to be interesting to customers as the company expects it, there will be a decline of the income, as the customers will not purchase the product. The worst con of it is the fact that previews that are displayed before the release of the product may lead to customers shying away from the product early enough. The advantageous purpose of these previews is to help the company predict the performance of the product in the market before it is released. The response of customers may help to detect the problem awaiting the release of a new product, but it will not help in offering a solution for the problem. Therefore, although the company will avoid tampering with its good historic reputation, it will not have evaded losses as the product has already been produced, making this alternative not good enough. This is an indication that there is not short cut towards evading this instability other than engaging in more products that will promote positional security in the market. Hence, to curb the second strategic issue, I would recommend that Disney takes advantage of its stability in the market to seize the opportunity of expansion through dealing with the products that it has not dealt with before. Feasibility On the other hand, if Disney decides to embrace the cheap facilities like competitors have one to tamper with quality only for the sake of prices, they will end up losing customers that value quality, which is the major con of this alternative. Secondly, they will have performed below their operational standards of consistently maintaining the high quality of its products. The only advantage of this alternative is the fact that it will earn back its lost customers who value cheap products. The fact that the disadvantages exceed the advantages, in this case, makes this alternative not feasible. The alternative of displaying previews does not help to find solutions for the instability of products. This means that the act will not have delivered the major expectation, thus, making it not feasible. Implementation Disney should make plans to reduce the cost of running and lower the prices of their high-quality goods. This will help the company to reach out to the customers who do not watch Disney sports because of the high prices. Secondly, it should begin to take steps towards embracing other types of products in the market in order to attain stability. Since one of the strengths of Disney Company is that it always has a substantial flow of capital, this means it has the capability to indulge in the line of other products as heftily as it has done with entertainment. Therefore, all that Disney’s management requires is to make decisions based on the expansion strategies that concentrate on this mission as an operational goal. Offering other genres of films and movies will allow the company to attain stability in terms of its market position. Attracting the entire market with motivational and educative products is easier than the entertainment form of attraction. References Rukstad, M. G. & Collis, D. (2009). The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King . Brighton: Harvard Business School.

Inresume and cover letter, find a job opening that looks interesting, Case Study

Inresume and cover letter, find a job opening that looks interesting, and then write a resume and cover letter for that job. Start by read the following in ProQuest - Case Study Example In this case, I find it fun and fulfilling to integrate new systems while working with my team members, which is challenging although the benefits enhance seamless and productive flow of work in an organization. In addition, I have managed to acquire management skills that enhance me to engage in a proactive management style, which provides me with essential communication skills to enhance teamwork. I am assiduous in staying up-to-date and maintaining a grasp on accounting information and knowledge. Hence, I undertake courses that enhance my ability in using the essential technology that are crucial in accounting. Therefore, I am proficient in Oracle, Hyperion, Ms. Excel, and SAP accounting programs. Moreover, I am a qualified accountant and registered with the ICA. I will pass this expertise to your company and ensure that your company benefited from the skills and knowledge that I have gained over time, which will ensure a positive outcome. I am look forward to this new challenge offered by your company. You can call me on [Your Number] or write to me on [email address] and I will be glad to discuss any other issue. I have gained the ability to carry out successful planning, implementation, maintenance, and management of financial tools and processes, which includes the processes of efficient training and integration of the systems in an

Reasons for Investing in Malaysia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reasons for Investing in Malaysia - Essay Example It has long coastlines on both peninsulas. 63.6% of the population is between the ages of 15-64 years. The currency is the ringgit whose value fluctuates seasonally at between 3.3 and 3.8 to the US dollar. Malaysia is a highly stable country. It takes on a Westminster democratic structure of governance with Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin as the ceremonial monarch and head of State. The Prime Minister Mohammed Najib bin Abdul Razak is the current prime minister and head of government. The premier rises to power by virtue of leading the largest party in the lower House of Representatives. In the bicameral representation structure, there is an upper house consisting of 70 Dewan Negara (Senators) and (Dewan Rakyat) the lower house with 222 elected representatives. This structure has ensured stability and continuity. Before British rulers united it, Malaysia consisted of several autonomous states. The British joined them into the Federation of Malaya later to be known as Malaysia. After independence in 1963, there was a brief period of armed conflicts, which came to an end after the renegade state of Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since then, the country has been very stable. The majority of the population is made up of Malays with significant portions of Chinese and Indians. Malay is the official language while Islam is the official religion. However, Islamic law is only applied to the Muslims in matters concerning family and religious issues such as divorce, custody, and inheritance only. (Zainal et al 1994) Another obvious advantage is that the level of bureaucracy in Malaysia, especially when establishing a new business, is low and user-friendly. It takes about two or three licenses to invest depending on the nature of the intended business. Malaysia is classified as a medium developing country.  

We Must Ban Therapeutic Human Cloning Essay -- Argumentative Persuasiv

  Ã‚   The Senate is considering a proposal to outlaw human cloning. Two alternative proposals would ban only "reproductive cloning," which would mean explicitly legalizing human cloning but not the implantation of a clone embryo into a womb. Pro-cloners are willing for the most part to outlaw reproductive cloning because it isn't safe, but they oppose a ban on cloning for research and experimentation--known as "therapeutic cloning"--arguing that such a cloning license is necessary to the development of future medical treatments for human ailments. This opposition to a ban on human therapeutic cloning is misinformed.    The case against cloning, including therapeutic cloning, has mainly been argued on grounds of morality. Opponents have warned that creating embryos through cloning for the purpose of research (with the full intention of destroying them later) is a breathtakingly radical enterprise. For the first time in history, human lives will be created for the explicit purpose of exploitation. Such considerations have led activist Jeremy Rifkin to opine that the cloning debate is to the 21st century what the slavery debate was to the 19th.    Unfortunately, we live in a time of widespread and extreme non-judgmentalism, an era when many Americans simply do not respond to moral arguments in public policy debates. For these folk, what counts is not right versus wrong, but whether it will or won't work--in a word, utility.    Does this mean that the public policy amoralists among us must end up by default on the pro-cloning side? Not at all. There is increasing evidence that therapies based on cloned embryo cells would be so difficult and expensive to develop and so utterly impractical to bring to the bedside,... ...ork on embryos? The Red Cross representative could not have been clearer: "We really need to focus our resources, our attention, on those areas where we could most likely provide, in the shortest period of time, some therapies for our patients."    To pour money into human cloning embryonic stem cell research is to risk drilling one dry hole after another. The moral policy thus also turns out to be the pragmatic one. The United States Senate should vote to ban all human cloning now.    WORKS CITED: Civin, Curt I. "stem Cell Selection." http://www.stemcellselection.com/transwithselection/overview.htm Prentice, David. "The Truth About Stem Cells. http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory022601a.shtml Odorico and Kaufman. Embryonic Stem Cell Research - a Reality Check. http://www.stemcellresearch.org/info/quotes3.htm

Napoleon and Snowball (Animal Farm) Essay

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegorical novel that reflects events such as the Bolshevik revolution, the economic reform by Trotsky the Russian famine in 1921 and during the Stalin era before the Second World War. The pigs represent the communist leadership, and the rest of the animals on the farm symbolize the different parts of Russian society and how the communist takeover of Russia affected them. Two main characters, Snowball and Napoleon (who symbolize Trotsky and Stalin), engages in a political struggle, as both of them wanted to have the power to lead all of the animals. Although Napoleon wins the struggle in the end, Snowball’s political strategy is better than the corrupted leadership of Napoleon. Snowball cares more about the living condition of the animals. Compared to Napoleon, Snowball knows the meaning of â€Å"Animalism†, which is animals are equal and it should lead the animals to a better life. Snowball is interested in reading all kinds of books to enrich his scope of knowledge to make the animals work easier. For example, he declares the windmill idea from a book of the Jones. Also Snowball is very brave; he has studied the book of Julian Caesar and successfully led through the Battle of the Cowshed while Napoleon was hiding himself in the barn. Snowball has an intelligent and friendly character. Unlike Napoleon, Snowball never forces someone to agree with his ideas. Instead, he is good at explaining how his ideas work and persuades all the animals to believe and trust his ideas. Unlike Napoleon, Snowball does not need Squealer’s help, he can do the explaining part all by himself. Napoleon has his own ways to control other animals such as the dogs and Squealer but Snowball has different way which is the committees. Snowball seems to work better within the political system. Napoleon goes around it. Napoleon, for instance, he understands the role of force in political control and uses his attack dogs to expel Snowball from the farm. Napoleon seems to have a powerful, self-centered desire for control, while Snowball seems to think of himself as a genius who should be the one to guide the farm toward success. Snowball is the only one who knows the real meaning of â€Å"Animalism†, and he is putting out true effort to make the living standard of the animals better than before, and insists everyone is equal. After the expel of Mr. Jones, the Animal Farm is supposed to be democracy, all of the animals should decide how to do things together, any one animal to rise to greater power than any other would violate that ideal, and make Animal Farm indistinguishable from a human farm. On the other hand the only thing that Napoleon thinks about is how to gain more power and personal benefit from the farm. Snowball always comes up with some long-term plans and on the other hand Napoleon can only come up with some short-term plans. In conclusion, Snowball’s political strategy is better then the corrupted leadership of Napoleon.

The Symbolic Significance of Methuselah as It Reflects the...

Methuselah is a parrot character in The Poisonwood Bible written by Barbara Kingsolver. The novel is set in the late 20th century in a village of The Congo call Kilanga. Methuselah is a parrot who is left by brother Fowls for the Price family. He has been denied freedom for very long and has been kept in a cage. Later when Nathan Price sets him free, he has no idea what to do with his independence. So he keeps flying near the Price house and depends on the Price girls for food. When Congo’s independence is announced, Methuselah gets killed and eaten by a cat. The imprisonment and freedom of Methuselah can symbolize the current and the future conditions of the Price family as well as the colonization and independence of The Congo.†¦show more content†¦The Belgians had colonized The Congo for its natural resources like many other western powers at the time that â€Å"aimed for no more than have dominion on every creature that moved upon this earth† (10) as it is confessed by Orleanna at the beginning of the novel. In a very similar way, Methuselah was kept in a cage by the humans against its will only because it was a weaker creature. Just like The Congo, Methuselah is not allowed the freedom of speech as every time he says something, Nathan Price gets mad and inquires â€Å"which one of [the daughters] taught [it] to say that word† (76). In a similar way, The Congo is denied the freedom of speech and is not considered as a sovereign state. The effects of the colonization of The Congo can still be seen as the country could not cope up with it even after half a century. The country remains poor and divided as it is not used to work on its own and enjoy the freedom of living. The same happens with Methuselah after Nathan tells him that â€Å"(he is) free to go† (94) and grants him freedom. Methuselah had forgotten what freedom feels like and â€Å"it goes and then it comes back because its wings aren’t any count† ( 133). Because of this Methuselah cannot survive on its own and later he gets killed and eaten by a cat. Comparing Methuselah with hope Adah declares that she had found hope â€Å"fallen already† (185) and she adds that â€Å"a piece of it [was there] beside their latrine, one red plume† (185). In an act