Market Model Patterns of Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Market Model Patterns of Change - Essay Example This paper aptly examines the patterns of change in the Wal-Mart market model. Wal-Mart is a perfect example of a business operating in an oligopolistic market structure. This is because they have low prices in the market enabling them compete healthily with other businesses dealing in similar products/services. Secondly, Wal-Mart operates with fewer sellers in the market giving them mutual interdependence over the other firms in the business. The long term effect of Wal-Mart operating an oligopoly will result to rise of economies of scale.This is because they will take advantage of having been in the markets to put barriers to other business wishing to join the business. Secondly, Operating under oligopoly market structure, Wal-Mart may collude to form a monopoly form of market structure, therefore, dictating their terms in the market. As a short term effect, Wal-Mart will be forced to renew their strategies of working because they will be facing different competitors in the market (Roberts & Berg, 2012). Secondly, Wal-Mart will enjoy controlling its market share for short period of time, but because the market is free for other to join, they will soon lose their popularity in the market as new firm producing same products will be cropping up to share the market it enjoyed. An example is that today, Wal-Mart may holds a substantial share in the market by its products but the case will be different in a year or two because there will be other new companies providing same products and at even better quality. There are various factors affecting the degree of competiveness of Wal-Mart. They involve both internal, external and delegations and functions of the management. The productive measures affecting Wal-Mart competitiveness is their capability in retailing. The business has various stores situated in various strategic places. These stores seek their profits by retailing their products through high volumes and using low mark-ups to give them a competitive advan tage over other business dealing in the same line of products. Secondly, Wal-Mart achieves their competitiveness owing to their standardized pallets, tight delivery schedules and computerized tracking. This has given them an edge over many businesses dealing in the same line since they are not in a position to raise enough capital to ensure efficiency in the systems. They are also able to use their technology as a source of marketing, therefore, minimize on their revenue spending. Thirdly, Wal-Mart prices play a significant role in influencing their activities and encouraging their competitiveness to other businesses. This is because it is an economy of scale, therefore, they purchase raw materials at a much cheaper price compared to other businesses that are not yet economies of scale. They also distribute their stock to a large numbers of stalls located strategically hence minimizing cost related to transport and other related activities. Being an economy of scale, Wal-Mart is off ering prices for its products that cannot rejected by the customers and in the process enjoys a large customer base for their products/services (Dunne, 2011). An accurate price determination of Wal-Mart’s competitors will significantly influence pricing decisions in Wal-Mart. The two chief competitors of Wal-Mart include

Children and Play Essay Example for Free

Children and Play Essay In my experience I have witnessed many children challenging themselves to take risks, for example when my target child was playing outside he challenged himself to climb higher on the climbing frame, which he achieved and then after I explained to him how this activity provides risks for him and other children, also I explained to him that there is nothing wrong with taking risks and that they help you learn how to do certain things. Another time when one of the children at my setting was challenging them self was when they were learning how to ride a bike, I saw the child getting frustrated and angry with them self because they kept stumbling and nearly falling off, I then stopped the child and told him how learning to ride a bike is a challenge and a risk for them and explained that it is fun but it comes with a few risks e. g. possibly falling off and injuring themselves. After I told him this he was more careful on the bike and after some encouragement he felt more comfortable when challenging himself and taking risks in the near future. Children benefit from play activities that challenge them in many ways, one way is that it provides them with a learning curve to try new things even if they can’t do them at first, for example climbing high ropes. Everyday life always involves some kind of risk and children need to learn how to cope with this. They need to understand that the world can be a dangerous place and that care needs to be taken when negotiating their way around it. Inevitably the most powerful learning comes from not understanding or misjudging the degree of risk. Similarly the toddler who ignores the warning, for example if the child says â€Å"don’t climb too high, you might fall†, and experiences this then they are not likely to make the same mistake again. Being told about possible dangers is not enough, children need to see or experience the consequences of not taking care. When I observe young children, I have seen that from an early age, they are motivated to take risks; they want to learn to walk, climb, ride a bike and are not put off by the tumbles they experience as they are developing coordination and control. In my setting children find their own physical challenges and, in doing so learn about their own strengths and limitations. Children who are sheltered from risk and challenge when young will not be able to make judgements about their own capabilities and will not be well equipped to resist peer pressure in their later years.

Australia And War :: essays research papers

Name: Frank Trimboli Teacher: Ms Meyers Date: 23/3/98 Should Australia involve itself in wars which do not directly affect its security? Australia has involved itself in four wars where it has suffered substantial life loss and casualty. Those wars included World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War and Vietnam. Did Australia have to involve itself in these wars? Did the lives of these young Australians have to be taken? There is a high degree of complexity in this question. Should Australia, as a mature nation, be taking part in moral issues around the world even though they are not happening on our doorstep? Do we ignore the deaths in Bosnia, the starving millions in Biafra and Ethiopia, the worldwide environmental issues raised by Greenpeace? What is the purpose of developing alliances, both economic and military, with other countries? At stake, in all of these issues, is our desire for a better world to live in. In World War 1 (WW1), 1914-1918, Australian troops became involved in order to give support to the "Mother Country". Great Britain only became involved after Germany did not respect the neutrality of Belgium. In the first world war, Australian soldiers participated in some of the bloodiest and most enduring battles known to man, and soon developed a courageous name for themselves. Of the 330 000 Aussie soldiers who took part in WW1, there were 211 500 casualties and over 60 000 deaths, a casualty rate much higher than that of several other participants. The Australian participation in WW2 was similar to that of WW1 in many ways. After the British declared war on Germany on September 3rd 1939, an Australian declaration of war was automatic. Aussie troops were soon sent to different parts of the world to help the British and other allied countries. It was not until late 1941 that they were recalled in order to defend the homefront. Darwin had been suddenly attacked by Japanese planes and small enemy submarines had snuck into Sydney Harbour. Darwin was repeatedly bombed by Japanese planes until July 1941, when along with American troops, the Aussies managed to drive them out of the Solomon Islands and northeastern New Guinea and eliminate a strong Japanese base at Rabaul. Without General MacArthur's troops, the enemy may very well have invaded Australia. This illustrates the importance of alliances. Over 926 000 Australians fought in WW2, three times as many as in WW1. Of those 33 000 died, only half as many as in WW1.

Chanda’s Secret- Stigma

Sang 1 Sang To Meeraal Shafaat Interpreting Texts 20th December 2012 Final draft AIDS- The stigma of life Since the invention of medicine, never have human beings needed to face as a big challenge as the present: The AIDS epidemic! When people have HIV virus and it continues to develop seriously, the HIV virus badly damages their bodies’ immune systems, which leads them to the risk for opportunistic infections, meaning they easily get sickness without any protection. In this period, their disease will turn into AIDS, which has taken countless lives of people and left the pain for many families in society.Surrounding this incurable disease, there are plenty of intractable problems. Especially the perceptions about AIDS of community and even the patients are not enough to rescue the patient from improper judgments of society. To bear resentment against society for having boycotted the patients, Allan Stratton wrote Chanda’s Secrets. Through this novel, he shows us the rea l lives of AIDS patients, the loss, the loneliness and their tragic fates while facing death in the contemporary society. Not only Africa but also all over the world there is a lot of prejudice and misunderstanding in society about AIDS and the people who get this disease.AIDS is the most horrible disease that everyone fears whether they suffer from it or not. Despite the reason leading to their diseases, they are shunned and despised by community. As Stratton describes Jonah, â€Å"Jonah liked to party† and after Sara was born â€Å"he just stayed at the shebeen getting drunk on shake-shake. † (21) At that time, he usually goes out with Mary and probably that is the reason Sang 2 why he gets AIDS. Until the disease is evidently shown on his body, â€Å"He’s a skeleton. The flesh has been sucked out from under his skin.The skin’s dried so tight to his skull that the bridge of his nose has ripped through. † (106) he is outcast and his sister- Ruth i s the first one to detect his symptoms of disease. She left him because she has to protect herself and her family from being infected. Everyone keeps at a distance from him. He is immediately kicked out of that society and seen as a disgusting creature. This time, he really needs someone to stay with him and protect him from being alienated and folks’ disdain. Occasionally, he sees Mary, the one he used to be close with when he was healthy, in the crowd.He is so happy and he believes that only she can save him this moment- when everyone stays away from him, looks him as an alien, a monster. However, life is not as expected, â€Å"Mary tries to keep behind the Sibandas, but they grab her by the elbows and push her into the front. † (107) Mary is also really scared of his illness so that she pretend not to know him; she callously abandons his honor to protect her identity and prevents from being implicated. Jonah just likes other AIDS patients are seen as a tumor of soci ety that must be eliminated or at least they are isolated from the community.Despite being tired of the disease attacking their health every day, infected persons have to overcome it in loneliness and unhappiness. Infected persons may be rejected even from the people closest to them. They may lose their jobs, their homes or important relationships as a result of people’s negative attitudes about AIDS. Because of the stigma attached to AIDS, people may find it difficult to tell others about their disease. Stratton shows Jonah’s emotions when he asks Mary for help; Mary warns him not to come towards her â€Å"But Jonah does not listen.He staggers forward,† (108) because he really wants someone cares about him. Until Mary throws the stones through Jonah’s face, he puts off catching her. During this time, he is in shock and panic; he cannot believe his sight because the last one he could trust is also leaving him. His Sang 3 desire to escape from this hell is broken. How poor he is now when seeing people turning away without mercy, perhaps he feels mortified and solitary, this place is a proper hell for Jonah and other infected persons.Instead of encouraging AIDS patients, people disdain, avoid meeting them and put contempt into them. These patients not only have to fight against the disease that is taking their lives day by day, but they also have to fight back the community’s prejudices of their unwanted diseases. Victims of AIDS have to face the death without anyone standing by such as Jonah after being abandoned, he just receives an excuse from Mary, â€Å"Sorry, old friend. † (108) Actually, no one can understand the death in the coldness, loneliness, and shame they are suffering.Because of having a disease that people fear and see them as stigmas that need to be prevented from their lives, they are shunned by relatives and all people around them. They feel empty. They are humiliated. There is only a world that is ind icative of their own to cope with illness; they crave the voice, laughter and someone’s care more than ever, but it is just their dreams. The patients know that living with a serious, stigmatized and potentially life-threatening illness can be extremely stressful and difficult, they also scare that society will alienate their family.To avoid the bad reputation of the family being involved infected patients, whether voluntary or forced, most of them have to leave their family. Jonah’s death is probably caused by his pessimistic thoughts about life, no one even look at him and his life means nothing. As a result, not until the disease kills him, his survival ends in the bottom of an abandoned well. In contrast, Chanda’s mother does not die in loneliness but at first, she chooses to leave her children because she wants to protect them. She is smart enough to realize her illness â€Å"Mama’s headaches. Her weariness. Her joints.The way she’s gotten so thin. † (109) so that she pretends to believe in superior that her house has devil and she has to come back Tiro to solve it. Her Sang 4 intention is to die in Tiro and will not come back. The folks will not know about her death and that is the last thing she can do to avoid damaging her children’s lives because of her. She does not want her children live the rest of life with scary and hiding. She makes her children believe that she stays in Tiro or if they know she dies by hearing anyone says, they will not be hurt as much as directly seeing their mother dies.It is true that not every infected person is bad; there are those who have their own problems need to be solved but the reality does not allow them. Hence, the patients’ families will be underestimated. However, the most pitiful victims are still the children. The children may be infected or not, but if they instantly have any of their relatives gets AIDS, they have to endure the fierce wave of public opi nion. The early deep hurt and the loss in life makes children have no fun and opportunities in studying. AIDS brings bad reputations, and then it breaks up many families by carrying away the patients’ lives.As a result, these shocks cause a huge impact on the change of children, which leads to their mental problems or their lives. Stratton also mentions Esther’s parents die because of AIDS. Then no one can take care all of her siblings, they are separated to other relatives’ home (75, 76). Due to being sad and miss her siblings, Esther says â€Å"Well, things are going to change. I have a plan. This time next year we’ll all be together. † (80) This is also the turning point of her life, the way she chooses to earn money in order to bring her siblings back, make her become infected.It can be said that the environment also has an impact on children’s growing up; they easily step into the path of sin. That is why Chanda’s mother decides to sacrifice herself dying in the dark instead of making her children’s lives become dark. Only Jonah is enough, she does not want her children sustain the bad reputation anymore. Stigma and discrimination will kill AIDS patients before the disease kills them. In such a rigorous society, patients are more likely prone in complex, lose their faith and live without Sang 5 responsibility for community.By verbal gestures, people’s contempt can severely affect the psychology of patients and their families. The folks deprive the right to live and social integration of the patients. AIDS takes happiness away, breaks up many hearts. Why don’t people help infected persons get through adversity? If they continue to discriminate with AIDS patients, it will be hard to decrease the number of infected persons. Through Chanda’s Secrets, Stratton wants to show the hardships, consequences and implications of AIDS, which can be decreased or increased, still bases on the to tal awareness.

Children and food Essay

Being a first time mom can be scary, and worrying about your baby getting the right nutrients and developing â€Å"on time† is something many mothers worry about. When to start your baby trying out solids, is something that can vary from child to child however there are some clues that you can take from you babies actions to know when they are ready. A child watching the food being opened in anticipation to eat it is a clue that shows that they are interested in trying new things since there attention is gaged at the new food. Also reaching for a spoon shows readiness for feeding. Playing with food or a spoon, and also irritation when feeding too slow are indicators that your baby is ready to move on and try solid foods. Children typically start to exhibit these types of behaviors at around four to six months. Starting your child out eating a tablespoon or two of semisoft food on a spoon once or twice a day is a good way to begin, only start with small portions in the beginning then work up. Food offered from a spoon stimulates muscle development and also new experience in sensation, taste, and texture. When you are ready to start you child eating solid foods you want to make sure of a few things before you begin. First you want to make sure your infant is not overly tired or hungry, this could cause your baby to not corporate or be interested in trying new things. You want to use a small spoon and allow the infant to open their mouth and extend his/her tongue. Next you want to place the spoon on the tongue and avoid scraping the spoon on the infant’s gums. Scraping the food on your babies tongue does not teach them how to properly eat. Make sure to pace yourself to allow your infant to swallow. Mothers want to make sure that they are not feeding their child too quickly, first meals may be 5-6 spoonful’s over 10 minutes. The first food you should be spoon-feeding your child is iron fortified baby cereal. You will then want to move on to pureed vegetables and fruits. Most people recommend starting out feeding your infant pureed vegetables because fruit is sweet so normally if you start with fruit your baby will not like those peas or green beans because they will want the sweet pears or bananas. This is not for all babies however. Only try one new food at a time and offer for 2-3 days with 1 week in between introducing something new. You want to wait a week incase your baby has an allergy to that food, that way you can identify it and talk to your doctor. There are many unsafe food choices for infants starting out eating solids. Popcorn, peanuts, raisins, whole grapes, stringy meats, gum/gummy candy, jellybeans, hot dogs, and hard/raw fruits or vegetables; should be avoided. This time of trying new foods is an experience for both you and your baby. There is no need to rush your baby into eating solids, when they are ready they will act like it. Something’s to watch out for when feeding your child is to not force them to eat it. Place the spoon on their tongue and let them take the spoon in without you doing it for them. If your infant continues to spit the food out over and over again or don’t open their mouth then do not force it, they just might not be ready, put the spoon and baby food away and try again in a day or two.

Free Essays on Integration Of Web And TV

Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1.0 INTRODUCTION 5 2.0 TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 5 3.0 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS 12 4.0 TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. 5.0 TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION 15 6.0 TECHNOLOGY PROJECTIONS 18 APPENDIX A - SUBJECT INDEX 22 BIBLIOGRAPHY 24 Executive Summary Purpose Methods Results Conclusions Evaluation – how feasible is the iTV, potential usage (all the possible applications), impact on business organizations. 1.0 INTRODUCTION The integration of web and television technologies is a complex issue - not necessarily for technical reasons but more so, because its evolution hinges greatly on a plethora of contributing technologies, companies, governments, and standards bodies on a global scale. For the purposes of this business report, we refer to the integration of web and television technologies as the evolution of Interactive Television (iTV). By definition, iTV attempts to bring the interactivity and personalisation of the web to the world of broadcast news and entertainment in television (Radha et al: 1998, p1). 2.0 STATUS OF ITV IN AUSTRALIA As with the rest of the world, Australia too is in the verge of developing interactive television (iTV). Australia’s major developers and providers of iTV are iTV|world, ICE Interactive (ICE) and Cable and Wireless Optus (CWO). iTV|world as of currently leads in developing and providing integrated technical and creative services, tools and products for the deployment of iTV (itvworld.com/press/press260401.html). As of October last year, Australia’s five main networks, ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten had agreed to adopt the European interactive platform, MHP (Multi Home Platform) which is based on Sun’s Java API (Application Program Interface) as the standard for iTV (http://australia.internet.com/r/article/jsp/sid/10059). Results from CWO reveal that main applications of iTV in Australia would be games, trivia and spo... Free Essays on Integration Of Web And TV Free Essays on Integration Of Web And TV Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1.0 INTRODUCTION 5 2.0 TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 5 3.0 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS 12 4.0 TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. 5.0 TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION 15 6.0 TECHNOLOGY PROJECTIONS 18 APPENDIX A - SUBJECT INDEX 22 BIBLIOGRAPHY 24 Executive Summary Purpose Methods Results Conclusions Evaluation – how feasible is the iTV, potential usage (all the possible applications), impact on business organizations. 1.0 INTRODUCTION The integration of web and television technologies is a complex issue - not necessarily for technical reasons but more so, because its evolution hinges greatly on a plethora of contributing technologies, companies, governments, and standards bodies on a global scale. For the purposes of this business report, we refer to the integration of web and television technologies as the evolution of Interactive Television (iTV). By definition, iTV attempts to bring the interactivity and personalisation of the web to the world of broadcast news and entertainment in television (Radha et al: 1998, p1). 2.0 STATUS OF ITV IN AUSTRALIA As with the rest of the world, Australia too is in the verge of developing interactive television (iTV). Australia’s major developers and providers of iTV are iTV|world, ICE Interactive (ICE) and Cable and Wireless Optus (CWO). iTV|world as of currently leads in developing and providing integrated technical and creative services, tools and products for the deployment of iTV (itvworld.com/press/press260401.html). As of October last year, Australia’s five main networks, ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten had agreed to adopt the European interactive platform, MHP (Multi Home Platform) which is based on Sun’s Java API (Application Program Interface) as the standard for iTV (http://australia.internet.com/r/article/jsp/sid/10059). Results from CWO reveal that main applications of iTV in Australia would be games, trivia and spo...

What Makes a Marine Ecosystem

What Makes a Marine Ecosystem An ecosystem is the collection of living and non-living things in an area, and their relationship to each other. It is how animals, plants and the environment interact together and thrive. Studying ecosystems is known as ecology. A marine ecosystem is one that occurs in or near salt water and is the kind that is studied in marine biology. (Freshwater ecosystems, on the other hand, are comprised of freshwater environments such as those in rivers or lakes. Marine biologists study those types of ecosystems as well.) Because the ocean covers 71 percent of the Earth, marine ecosystems make up a large part of our planet. They vary, but all play a valuable role in the planets health, as well as the health of humans. About Marine Ecosystems Ecosystems can vary in size, but all have parts that interact with and are dependent upon each other. Upsetting one component of an ecosystem may affect other parts. If youve ever heard of the phrase ecosystem approach, it is a type of natural resource management involving making decisions regarding the whole ecosystem, rather than various parts. This philosophy realizes that everything in an ecosystem is interconnected. This is why environmentalists and marine biologists must consider entire ecosystems even though they may focus on one creature or plant in it. Everything is tied together. Protecting Marine Ecosystems Another vital reason to study ecosystems is to protect them. Humans can have significant negative impacts on our environment that can wind up destroying ecosystems and harming human health. The  HERMIONE project, a program that monitors ecosystems, notes that certain fishing practices can harm cold-water coral reefs, for example. That is a problem because the reefs support a variety of living systems including providing a home for young fish. The reefs could also be sources of potential medicines to fight cancer, which is another reason to protect them. Human impacts are ruining the reefs, which are a vital ecosystem for humans and the environment as a whole. Knowing how they function, and how to support them prior to and after components are destroyed, is imperative to assist these ecosystems. In seagrass meadows and kelp forests, for example, robust biological diversity is key to the ecosystems. In one experiment, scientists reduced the number of seaweed species. That caused the total algal biomass to decrease, which lowered the amount of food.  When scientists decreased the species that graze on microalgae that grew on seagrass, the species ate less from areas that had fewer microalgae. As a result of that, the seagrass in those areas grew slower. It affected the entire ecosystem. Experiments like this help us learn how reducing biodiversity can be extremely harmful to sensitive ecosystems. Types of Marine Ecosystems Sandy BeachesRocky ShoresSalt MarshesCoral ReefsMangrovesDeep SeaHydrothermal Vents

Using the Spanish Verb Poner

Using the Spanish Verb Poner The Spanish verb poner is one of those verbs that can be difficult to translate. It has a wide variety of meanings - just as does the English verb put, which is perhaps the verbs most common translation into English. Originally, poner conveyed the idea of placing something somewhere. However, its meaning has expanded over the centuries to include abstract concepts such as the placement of ideas or concepts or bringing about various kinds of changes. It is often used in the reflexive form (ponerse). Keep in mind that poner is conjugated highly irregularly. Irregularities occur in both the stem and the endings. Key Takeaways: Poner Poner  is an irregular verb that most commonly means to put. Poner has multiple definitions. It generally conveys the idea of changing a location or status of something or someone, either literally or figuratively.Poner  can be used reflexively, such as when it means to get dressed. Meanings of Poner Following are some of the meanings of poner, along with sample sentences, that can be ascribed to poner. This list is not complete. Note that many of the English translations could have been made using put; in practice, you often can do the same. Alternative verbs have been used to convey the idea that poner has many meanings. Placing Objects or Arranging Siempre pone las llaves en el escritorio. (He always puts the keys on the desk.)Todos los dà ­as sale de su casa a las 8:30 de la maà ±ana y pone el telà ©fono celular en la consola de su auto. (Every day she leaves her house at 8:30 a.m. and places her cell phone on the console of her car.)Puso la mesa para la maà ±ana siguiente. (He set the table for the next morning.) Putting on Clothing Se pondr la camisa que ms le guste en ese momento. (He will put on the shirt he likes most at the time.)Al llegar a la piscina me puse las gafas. (When I arrived at the swimming pool I put on my goggles.) Investing or Contributing Money Si ponemos 1000 pesos, en un aà ±o recibimos 1030. (If we invest 1,000 pesos, in a year we will receive 1,030.)Puso tres dà ³lares en el juego de La Rueda de la Fortuna en el casino. She gambled $3 on the Wheel of Fortune game at the casino. Effecting Change Puso el coche en revà ©s. (He put the car in reverse.)Las elecciones pusieron fin a la revolucià ³n. (The elections put an end to the revolution.)La lesià ³n del hombro me ponà ­a en un aprieto. (My shoulder injury put me in a bind.)Si hay algo que la ponà ­a de mal humor era el verano, el calor. (If there is something that put her in a bad mood, it was the summer, the heat.)Pusieron la casa en venta cuando se mudaron a Los ngeles. (They put the house up for sale when they moved to Los Angeles.) Becoming Se puso muy triste. (He became very sad.)Akira se puso azul por momentos y casi devuelve lo que habà ­a comido en una semana. (Akira turned blue for a short time and almost threw up what she had eaten during the week.) Designating Sà ­, es verdad que le pusieron Pablo Pingà ¼ino. (Yes, its true they called him Pablo Pingà ¼ino.)El Departamento de Justicia puso dos millones de dà ³lares como precio por la cabeza de Benjamà ­n. (The Justice Department set $2 million as the price for Benjamins capture.) Showing or Displaying  ¿Quà © ponen esta noche en la tele? (What is on TV tonight? Literally, what are they showing on TV tonight?) ¿Tienes una gran foto?  ¡Ponla en tu sitio web! (Do you have a great photo? Show it on your website!) Phrases Using Poner In addition to having a wide variety of meanings on its own,  poner  is part of various phrases and idioms whose meanings arent always obvious. Here are some of the common ones: Poner bien a alguien  (to have a high opinion of someone)  -   Como era el ms inteligente de los tres, me ponà ­an bien.  (Because I was the smartest of the three, they thought highly of me.)Poner en claro  (to make clear)  -   Con su permiso, pondrà © en claro el concepto de inflacià ³n.  (With your permission Ill make the concept of inflation clear.)Poner en marcha  (to start)  - Luego, puse el coche en marcha.  (Later, I started the car.)Poner en juego  (to put in danger)  -   La guerra pone en juego el futuro de la ONU.  (The war puts the future of the U.N. in danger.)Poner en riesgo  (to put at risk)  -   El mal tiempo puso en riesgo el helicà ³ptero en el que viajaba el presidente.  (The bad weather put the helicopter that the president traveled in at risk.)Poner huevo  (to lay an egg)  -   Tengo dos canarias hembra que no ponen huevos.  (I have two female canaries that dont lay eggs.)Poner pegas  (to object)  -   Nunca p onà ­a pegas a nada. Todo lo parecà ­a bien.  (I never objected to anything. Everything seemed fine.) Poner por encima  (to prefer)  -   Ponà ­an el negocio por encima de todo.  (They made business their highest priority.)Ponerse colorado  or  ponerse rojo  (to be embarrassed or ashamed, to blush, to turn red)  -   Era muy tà ­mido. Si alguien me decà ­a algo me ponà ­a rojo y sudaba.  I was very shy. (If someone told me something I would blush and sweat.)Ponerse de pie  (to stand up)  -   Se puso de pie y golpeà ³ el escritorio con el puà ±o.  (He stood up and pounded the desk with his fist.)Ponerse de rodillas  (to kneel, to fall to ones knees)  -   El jardinero se puso de rodillas, implorando el perdà ³n de su imprudencia.  (The gardener fell to his knees, begging forgiveness for his carelessness.)

Contemporary Retail Marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Contemporary Retail Marketing - Research Paper Example The market will be segmented based on varied demographic factors and occupation of people residing in Whitechapel London, UK. In addition, the target customers will be the young group of people including both businesspersons and employed people. The rationale behind targeting these customers is that the services of corporate banking such as providing loans and financial services are highly demanded by this people group. Moreover, these sorts of target customers in the region prevail in a higher proportion as compared to others, which in turn will create better profitability position for the company in future.It is quite indispensable for Lloyds bank to adopt a sound strategy in order to attain the above-discussed objectives. This strategy will mainly include identifying the requirements as well as the demands of corporate banking services amid the young people residing at Whitechapel. Moreover, the strategy will also entail include appraising the services that are provided by the com petitors of the bank to the customers. In addition, the offerings of the company will be positioned in the target markets through making advertisements in newspaper and media. It is worth mentioning that the aspect of marketing mix will be organized through creating an effective distribution channel for the product or services that will be available to the customers in any situation. In relation to price, discounts may be provided on loans and new terms of payment will be introduced (Sharma, 2009, p. 122).

Applied research methods for Business and management Essay

Applied research methods for Business and management - Essay Example The 2006 record high of global acquisitions indicates the rampancy of Mergers and Acquisitions in the recent past (Saigol and Politti, 2007). The value of worldwide acquisitions stood at more than 4 trillion US dollars in this year. Out of the 4 trillion US dollars, 1.3 trillion US dollars worth of acquisitions were cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions (Saigol and Politti, 2007). The consistency of the trend spread to the first fiscal quarter of 2007 when acquisitions were valued at 1.13 trillion US dollars; making this fiscal quarter the busiest in the history of acquisitions (Henry, 2002). The value of completed acquisitions in the past two decades exceeds that of completed deals in the prior 30 years (Child et al., 2001). However, this recent upsurge comes along with the fact that about 80 percent of acquisition deals are unsuccessful (KPMG, 1999). Most empirical studies suggest that the reason for the immense failure in acquisitions is majorly the acquirers’ poor anticipation of the most probable challenges in the post-acquisition stages (Shimizu et al., 2004). The high failure rates coupled with the simultaneous high rampancy of acquisition transactions makes the concept of Mergers and Acquisitions an unexplained paradox (Arika, 2004). Academic and economic research efforts indicate that despite the failure of most acquisitions to achieve the objectives set in the pre-acquisition stage, Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions continue being popular and remain the main strategy multinational corporations use to invest directly in foreign countries (Rottig and Reus, 2005). The concurrent successes and failures of Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions beg for a well-targeted research study to examine the main causal factors for the high failure rates (Larsson and Risberg, 1998). Additionally, while numerous research hours have been devoted to the study of Cross-border

Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations Essay

Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations - Essay Example that a country does in this regard is directly proportional to the results that it expects in the long run, through the different healthcare insurance programs, medication regimes and so on and so forth. These measures testify the attention paid towards the basic human life which is a very significant step within any state, country or society for that matter. In essence, any set of values and beliefs make up a culture. On the same pretext, an organizational culture is a set of values, morals, beliefs, traditions and norms which come from the industry specific regimes as well as that from the society under which it exists in the first place. Thus it would not be wrong here to suggest that the organizational cultures are dependent on the society’s undertakings and the industrial influences at the same time. What is most important is how the two shape up the organizational culture at the very end and take the organization one step ahead in its different processes, activities and undertakings. In this context, cultural and structural changes within healthcare organizations are usually manifested in with a lot of resentment and threats as the workers do not seem to come to terms with the amendments. In the case of the healthcare strategic management, structural changes are indeed the order of the day from time to time so that innovatio n could be given room – which indeed would enhance the healthcare standards prevalent in the said healthcare facility and thus benefit the whole society. The significant aspect lies on the basis of the healthcare organizations understanding that the changing cultures bring about an imperative basis within its regimes to exist in the most basic sense. One must understand that the healthcare organization cannot exist in seclusion and it has to remain in constant touch with the society in which it exists and the industry under which it finds competitors for its own selves and the strategic alliances, mergers and unities that form as a

Finding Books (Search Assignment) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Finding Books (Search Assignment) - Essay Example The capability to manage combat stress is a fundamental feature of excellent mental health in soldiers. Consequently, the difference between performance in training and performance under anxiety is imperative, and each service member ought to be exposed to combat instruction under stress. One of the most ordinary mental disorders is Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and according to this article it is apparent that the disorder was formerly not understood. This article specifies that PTSD might lead to mental breakdown in service members, and as combat progresses, the mental disorder is becoming increasingly predominant. This article also specifies that the causes of Post traumatic stress disorder include physical fatigue, exposure to traumatic images as well as the horror experienced in the battle field. The scope of the disorder is prevalent, and may be treated by administering regimes of relaxation and rest (Peter, 2005). By employing the CRAAP evaluation system, it is apparent that this article is contemporary. This is because it was published in 2005, and the links are efficient, and the old sources are also pertinent. The information is applicable to the topic, because it grants the causes, history of the condition, as well as ways of treating PTSD. This article is also reliable, because it is published in an encyclopedia that involves with the military and the consequences of ill health on the military. The precision and the rationale of the information presented in the article are also verified, since the anticipated audience includes students and the public. In conducting this research, I was able to understand how psychiatric disorders occasionally develop as service men and women get exposed to complicated combat zones. I was also able to comprehend how PTSD affects not only the individual sufferer, but also their families. In conducting this research, I was able to

Asthma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Asthma - Essay Example Industrialization has not only influenced lifestyles, environmental changes but also predisposed alteration in genes as individuals are now exposed to numerous environmental agents encompassing tobacco, smoke, pollen etc (Gilmour et al., 2006). These factors contributed to the augmented frequency of asthma. According to Umetsu and Dekruyff (2006), numerous research studies reveal that avid T-helper 2 (Th2)- driven responses results in asthma proliferation. CD4+ T cells making Th2 cytokines play an imperative role in lungs of asthma patients. The chief reason is interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 augments the level of (immunoglobulin E) IgE whereas IL-4, IL-9 and IL-10 augment mast cell proliferation, IL-5 enhances eosinophil accretion while IL-9 and IL-13 directly cause mucus hyper-secretion and airway hyperactivity (Umetsu and Dekruyff, 2006). These studies highlight the fact that allergy and asthma are compound genetic attributes, however in the proliferation of asthma numerous environmental factors encompassing allergens and pollutants play an imperative role. These act as stimulating factors and trigger genes to influence the propagation of asthma. It is evident that every individual is exposed to the allergens and other triggering agents but the condition of asthma is observed only in some sensitive individuals, underlining the importance of interaction between environmental and genetic factors in the development of asthma condition. Other preventive mechanism involves immunological factors that play the necessary role in preventing allergic and asthma condition needs further exploration (Umetsu and Dekruyff, 2006). Signs & Symptoms Coughing, wheezing, congestion or tightness in chest and difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath. Etiology According to Yeatts et al., (2006), reports are available displaying numer ous windows of exposure present the onset of asthma condition. These conditions may be witnessed right from the fetal stage in utero condition, which is directly influenced by the timing of T-cell memory programming as well as genetic predispositions to such conditions especially in case of atopic parents because of underdeveloped immune system of the fetus. Maternal smoking (includes nicotine and carbon monoxide which diminishes blood cytokine levels, stiffens the uteroplacental circulation and augments the discharge of catecholamines, a direct implication on fetal breathing movements), consumption of alcohol during pregnancy drastically influence the development of asthma, followed by the condition of obstetric complications and elective cesarean section. Asthma during childhood is attributed in 80% of the cases to genetic susceptibility where males show 2-4 times greater frequency as compared to the females. In adults asthma is attributed to the environmental conditions, lifestyl e, smoking habit and occupational hazard. As the age progresses exposure to environmental conditions and also occupational hazard increases which may augment the chances of asthma proliferation (Yeatts et al., 2006). According to Khetsuriani et al, (2008), there is a relationship between human rhinovirus (HRV) and asthma. Molecular characterization methodology was adopted in the study to examine HRVs in asthma cases.

Finding Books (Search Assignment) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Finding Books (Search Assignment) - Essay Example The capability to manage combat stress is a fundamental feature of excellent mental health in soldiers. Consequently, the difference between performance in training and performance under anxiety is imperative, and each service member ought to be exposed to combat instruction under stress. One of the most ordinary mental disorders is Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and according to this article it is apparent that the disorder was formerly not understood. This article specifies that PTSD might lead to mental breakdown in service members, and as combat progresses, the mental disorder is becoming increasingly predominant. This article also specifies that the causes of Post traumatic stress disorder include physical fatigue, exposure to traumatic images as well as the horror experienced in the battle field. The scope of the disorder is prevalent, and may be treated by administering regimes of relaxation and rest (Peter, 2005). By employing the CRAAP evaluation system, it is apparent that this article is contemporary. This is because it was published in 2005, and the links are efficient, and the old sources are also pertinent. The information is applicable to the topic, because it grants the causes, history of the condition, as well as ways of treating PTSD. This article is also reliable, because it is published in an encyclopedia that involves with the military and the consequences of ill health on the military. The precision and the rationale of the information presented in the article are also verified, since the anticipated audience includes students and the public. In conducting this research, I was able to understand how psychiatric disorders occasionally develop as service men and women get exposed to complicated combat zones. I was also able to comprehend how PTSD affects not only the individual sufferer, but also their families. In conducting this research, I was able to

Alcohol Problems in Hospitality Industry Research Paper

Alcohol Problems in Hospitality Industry - Research Paper Example So the government always put more emphasize on this industry. â€Å"Hospitality industry is a major employer. The industry includes service sector work like tourism and food service. It suffers from more economic fluctuations compared to its peer industries† (Hospitality Industry par. 1). A Business Problem: For the sustaining and success of every establishment the most important thing is the identification of its problems and solving it. In this context, the clear identification of the problem is the bigger issue. â€Å"If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution." ~ Albert Einstein† (Problem Definition par. 1). Through the words of Albert Einstein, we can make sure that, the solution is always depends upon the definition of problem. How better the defining of a problem determine the quality of the out coming solution. The existing gap between the desired state and the actua l state is called problem and when it happens to a business it is called problem. Problem analysis and solving the problem all are the preceding of the defining of the problem. To get the right solution which can make the business successful, the problem defining should be very clear. Here the problem is defined as the ‘Alcohol Problems in Hospitality Industry’ â€Å"Service professionals and those that work in the hospitality industry could be at risk for developing unhealthy drinking practices, and it is important to be aware of the dangers† (Warning – Hospitality Workers May Be at Risk for Alcohol Abuse par. 1). The main damages that have been recognized in the pressure of alcohol consumption have leaded the hospitality industry to witness a numerous problems. The restaurants and bars that serve drinks to human are equally involved in disaster and are lawfully in charge for damage. It is complained frequently about the alcohol consumption of employees w orking in the hospitality industry. This problem has been identified as result of finding out the reasons behind why people hesitate to bring their family to some places. In support to this a study of students is consulted. The following report contains the data from two surveys in two different sectors of service, which we can use for understand the case. In the initial survey from three different colleges 84 students were interviewed employees working in hotel service in concerning their alcohol practice by using the testing device called Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). The second study was focused on service employees working in restaurants in a particular area. Exactly One hundred and five samples had been taken and the respondents answered the AUDIT questionnaire in the survey very properly. The comparison of the results of two studies showed that the hotel and restaurant associated persons scored considerably higher on the survey by AUDIT than the respondent s from other service sectors. The first survey which conducted by 84 students from three different colleges show that the effective survey can bring out the things and the second survey showed that restaurant workers scored considerably higher than people in other areas of the service industry. â€Å"A new analysis of government data finds that 15 percent of employees in the hospitality industry suffer from serious alcohol-related problems† (Hospitality Industry Worst for Alcohol-Related Problems par. 1). The steps to solve the business problem are as following: Take the time to

Ethics on Surrogate Mothers Essay Example for Free

Ethics on Surrogate Mothers Essay Sometimes couples who cannot conceive a baby by themselves choose to use a surrogate mother, where another woman carries their child. One way of surrogacy is when a woman whos unable to carry a baby to term, but is otherwise fertile, has her embryos transplanted to the surrogate mother. The eggs might be fertilized by the biological father or by artificial insemination if the male has fertility issues. In other cases, a surrogate mother is in fact the biological mother of the child as her very own eggs are used to create the embryo. In certain states, such as Arkansas and Delaware, surrogacy is illegal. Even in states where surrogacy is allowed, it can be quite a complicated process for the non-biological mother to be named as the parent, particularly in cases when the surrogate is the biological mother. The surrogate must sign away her maternal rights so the intended mother can adopt the child. If the sperm of the adoptive mothers husband was used to fertilize the egg, the biological father is named on the childs birth certificate. Many states require a legal contract be drafted between the couple and the surrogate and her spouse or partner detailing all arrangements concerning the pregnancy and birth. The parties involved with a surrogacy contract should seek the advice of legal counsel to be sure that pertinent issues are addressed and that the contract is in compliance with state and local laws involving surrogacy and adoption. Sometimes a surrogate mother changes her mind and refuses to give up her child. However, in states where surrogacy is allowed, the biological mother usually doesnt win custody or visitation rights. Typically, the surrogate and the parents sign an agreement to avoid this from happening. Nonetheless, there’s always the possibility that the surrogate mother might win her case. Many surrogacy agreements state what the surrogate can and cannot do while pregnant. But ultimately, the parents should trust the surrogate mom to do whats in the best interests of the baby. Issues may develop whenever a surrogate breaches the agreement by smoking, abusing drugs or consuming} alcohol while pregnant. As with any pregnancy theres always the possibility for medical or obstetrical troubles, which may hurt the baby or the surrogate mother. For starters, theres the chance of transmission of contagious disease to the surrogate when another womans eggs are transplanted into the surrogate. Because of this, both biological parents should be prescreened. In case a surrogate develops problems in the beginning that put her life at an increased risk, she may want to end the pregnancy. Another issue that may arise is if health practitioners discover learn that the fetus has possible birth defects and other health concerns. In that situation, the parents may choose they cannot continue with the surrogacy. This generates all sorts of legal issues, especially when the sperm is from a donor or eggs other than the surrogates were used for pregnancy. The problem then becomes who gets to determine whether to proceed with the pregnancy. Even though some people see surrogacy as baby-selling and look down on a female who is a surrogate, in recent years surrogacy has become more of a recognized practice. However the ethical issue remains concerning whether a female whos being paid for her surrogacy is exploiting infertile couples and entering the agreement for money. Others begin to see the infertile couple as exploiting the surrogates body and taking advantage of a female who needs money. Another issue, a couple that would adopt a child would be rigorously screened and be assessed to their suitability. This would not be the case with surrogacy. Some people who would be restricted from adopting could avoid this process by using a surrogate. One of the key issues is with regards to surrogacy is it is impossible to determine the risks involved in the surrogacy process. A surrogate needs to be informed of the potential risks to her health and the possible psychological trauma she can suffer. There should a moral requirement for all parties involved to consider the welfare of the child born into any agreement. However, surrogacy raises the debate of people’s â€Å"right† to have children. If we refuse the option of surrogacy, are we discriminating against the infertile? The first recorded case of surrogacy in the United States was in 1976. Noel Keane, a lawyer, arranged the first surrogacy agreement between a surrogate mother and the intended parents. This mother was not compensated financially. Afterwards, Keane went on to create the Infertility Center, which arranged hundreds of surrogacy agreements every year . However despite the numerous ethical issues at stake, statistics show that there has been an increase in the numbers of women who become surrogates. From 2004-2008 the number of infants born to gestational surrogates had doubled. The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology reported from 738 infants born to over 1,400 from surrogate births. However, the amount of surrogacies annually is likely to be more, as many fertility centers dont report to SART. Additionally, there are couples who enter private agreements with a surrogate where agencies arent involved. References Pacific Connection Fertility Services: Surrogacy Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Ethical Problems Surrounding Surrogate Motherhood Dr Rebecca Gibbs, North East Essex PCT, Surrogacy, January 2008. http://www.northeastessexpct.nhs.uk/public_29_01_2008/surrogacy-policy.pdf

Indias Construction Equipment Industry Analysis

Indias Construction Equipment Industry Analysis Abstract This research was an attempt to assess the current status of Indian construction equipment industry and the underlying opportunities and challenges. However, the aspects and objectives that were dealt in the research are; the current structure, status, competition, financing opportunities and challenges of Indian construction equipment industry. The research was conducted wholly based on secondary data. Following are the key findings of the research. Indian construction industry has entered into a new phase, where prospect of the industry appears extraordinary bright. Indian construction equipment industry is passing through a phase of hurried renovation, where the shifting is taking place from low volume concentrated use of equipment structure to high volume explicit one. Apart from these, the current and future trend also shows that the key segments of construction equipment that will have potential market prospects are excavators, loaders, dozers, dumpers and cranes. The growth of Indian construction equipment industry is the outcome of the fast liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy and the construction sector. The real competition in Indian construction equipment industry has been created by foreign players such as Volvo, Komatsu and many others. These companies are leaving no stone unturned to exploit the opportunities in Indian industry. The industry is at the critical juncture (particularly for domestic players) and therefore companies need to equip with safety measures in relation to post WTO market setting. Introduction (Chapter 1) 1.1 Indian Construction Equipment Industry Background Historical Trends Construction and mining equipment cover a variety of machinery such as hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, bull dozers, dump trucks, tippers, graders, pavers, asphalt drum / wet mix plants, breakers, vibratory compactors, cranes, fork lifts, dozers, off-highway dumpers (20T to 170T), drills, scrapers, motor graders, rope shovels etc. They perform a variety of functions like preparation of ground, excavation, haulage of material, dumping/laying in specified manner, material handling, road construction etc. These equipment are required for both construction and mining activity. With a wide production capacity base, India is perhaps the only developing country, which is totally self-reliant in such highly sophisticated equipment. India has only a few, mainly medium and large companies in the organized sector who manufacture these. The technology barriers are high, especially with respect to mining equipment and therefore the role of SME’s is restricted to manufacture of components and some sub-assemblies. Prior to the 1960s, domestic requirements of mining and construction equipment were entirely met by imports. Domestic production began in 1964 with the setting up of Bharat Earthmovers Ltd. (BEML), a public sector unit of the Ministry of Defence, at Kolar in South India to manufacture dozers, dumpers, graders, scrapers, etc. for defense requirements under licence from LeTorneau Westinghouse, USA and Komatsu, Japan. In the private sector, the Hindustan Motors’ Earthmoving Equipment Division, was established in 1969 at Tiruvallur, near Chennai with technical collaboration from Terex, UK for manufacture of wheel loaders, dozers dumpers. This factory has since been taken over by Caterpillar for their Indian operations. The machines manufactured by Caterpillar in the Tiruvallur factory are marketed by TIL and GMMCO. In 1974, LT started manufacturing hydraulic excavators under license from Poclain, France. In 1980 and 1981, two more units, Telcon and Escorts JCB commenced manufacture of hydraulic excavators (under license from Hitachi, Japan) and backhoe loaders (under license from JCB, UK) respectively. Escorts JCB has been taken over by JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. U.K. in 2003 and is now called JCB India Ltd. Volvo and Terex Vectra is the most recent entrants in the Indian market. Volvo has set up their manufacturing unit in Bangalore. At present they are only manufacturing tippers and the other equipment are imported from their parent company and marketed in India. Terex Corporation USA and Vectra Ltd. U.K. have formed a joint venture, which has started manufacturing construction equipment like backhoe loaders and skid steer loaders from May ’04 at Greater Noida with an investment of USD 12 million. Other equipment in the Terex range are being sold through their agents in India. Most of the technology leaders like Case, Caterpillar, Hitachi, Ingersoll-Rand, JCB, John Deere, Joy Mining Machinery, Komatsu, Lieberr, Poclain, Terex, Volvo are present in India as joint venture companies, or have set up their own manufacturing facilities, or marketing companies. The industry has made substantial investments in the recent past for setting up manufacturing bases, despite small volumes and uneconomic scales of production compared to global standards. 1.2 Aims and Objective and of The Study This research was aimed to assess the current status of Indian construction equipment industry and the underlying opportunities and challenges. The research was conducted on the foundation of following objectives To assess the current structure, status and direction of the Indian construction equipment industry. To assess the competition in Indian construction equipment industry To assess the financing of Indian construction equipment industry To assess the opportunities and challenges of Indian construction equipment industry To develop strategies for competitors (domestic players) in Indian construction equipment industry. To assess the technology, managerial, operational, of the Indian construction equipment industry. Literature Review Chapter 2 2.1 Introduction Construction equipment is machinery used to build and demolish bridges, buildings and other structures. These machines usually save labor, time and money. One of them can do more work in an hour than a hundred of workers using hand tools could do in a day. The chief kinds of building machines include earthmoving machineries hoisting, material handling machines and pumping machines. Other construction machinery used are for preparing the land and materials for construction. Demolishing machines are used to demolish structures and buildings. The Indian construction equipment industry today faces stiff competition, great opportunities and challenges, but India has a total command over all these things as according to confederation of the Indian industry report, 2005 as for engineering and capital goods base. The Indian engineering manufacturing sector has been growing at the rate of about 5.9% in the nineties. India today produces a variety of machinery whose range is quiet wide and deep. Rapidly increasing construction sector has been the indication of good times for companies manufacturing construction equipments. This project discusses the Construction Equipment industry in India. The structure of Construction Equipment industry in India has been well and truly detailed and mentioning all the requisite facts and figures. Also mentioned are all the factors influencing the Construction Equipment industry in India. A special mention of the suppliers list is made as suppliers are the inseparable part of the Construction Equipment industry in India. The important suppliers are JCB, Atlas, BEML, Caterpillar, Ditchwitch, Komatsu , Ashok Leyland, Escorts, Greaves Cotton, Ingersoll Rand, TETRA, Volvo, Besides all these Indian Equipment Financing companies such as Business Financing, SREI, HDFC , GE Capital, Indian Financial Services have also received requisite expression in this project. Also discussed at the end is about Construction Equipment industry in India facing problems, challenges and opportunities and its future. What India need is better infrastructure in order to progress. The government has also embarked upon massive road and pavement construction projects such GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL connecting / interlinking all four metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai. Kolkatta and Chennai The government decision to throw open the construction of roads, bridges, ports and airports to private sector and to allow 100% FII / FDI (Foreign Investments) in real estate projects like (EMAAR) has provided a boost to the industry thereby generating demand for construction machineries. Housing and infrastructure projects are expected to grow about 20% per annum for the next 15 years. 2.2 Current Status of The Industry Ramping up quality and quantity The Construction equipment industries are the biggest beneficiaries of the construction boom. Although the past few years have seen increased levels of mechanization and improved quality, Indian construction equipment and materials are still below international standards. The current status of the construction equipment industry is discussed below. The size of the construction equipment market current stands at between $2.5 billion and $3 billion and it is growing at an average rate of about 30 per cent year on year. It is expected that the industry will expand to $12-13 billion by 2015, including $2-3 billion of exports. This implies annual compounded growth rates in excess of 50 per cent between 2008 and 2015. The largest share of that growth will come from the domestic market driven on the demand side by increased infrastructure spending and on the supply side by the industry’s drive to increase mechanization and equipment penetration. The rest of the growth will come from the exports of components, services and equipment. The key infrastructure sectors that are expected to drive demand are roads, urban and residential construction and mining. Amongst the three modes of procuring equipment in India –that is, buying, leasing or renting – leasing is the most popular. While renting is suitable for projects of shorter duration, buying involves huge upfront payments. Constructions and mining equipment is manufactured by a few medium and large companies in the organised sector. The role of small and medium enterprises is restricted only to manufacturing of components and some sub-assemblies. Domestic production began in 1964 with the setting up of Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), which is engaged in the manufacturing of dozers, dumpers, graders, scrapers, etc., for defence requirements. Some of the key players manufacturing equipment for the Indian market are LT, Telcon, Escorts, JCB India Limited, Ingersoll Rand, Greaves, Caterpiller, Komatsu, Joy Mining Machinery, Case, John Deere, Lieberr, Poclain, Volvo and Terex Vectra. These companies are present either through joint ventures, or have set up their own manu facturing facilities or have a marketing presence. BEML supplies equipment to nearly half the total market. Companies such as BEML and Caterpillar are leaders in dumpers and dozers while Larsen Toubro – Komatsu and Telcon lead in excavators and JCB India in backhoe loaders. In the last few years there has been some restructuring through acquisitions and joint ventures, which in turn, has reflected the interest of international majors in the domestic market. Many international players have also appointed selling agents for importing and selling equipment in India. Despite the growth, there are some inherent problems faced by the construction equipment industry. In India, the demand for construction equipment is more than the supply. Hence, most leading manufacturers have invested in India for manufacturing to meet this gap. The industry is trying to induct international levels of technology as demand and the scale of operations increases. However, the levels of mechanisation continue to be low compared to the international market. This is primarily because the Indian market cannot absorb the cost of latest technology. Since most the construction equipment is hydraulically operated, the Indian construction equipment industry has to predominantly depend on imports, primarily from European countries. The fluctuations of foreign exchange rates and the non-availability of adequate quantities of equipment are other constraints. Construction equipment manufacturers also struggle to cope with the low availability of trained manpower, not only for producing equipment but also for operation and maintenance. Manufacturers are doing their best to train not only their own employees but also customer’s operators and services technicians. Indirect taxes on construction equipment are quite high. These range between 21 and 38 per cent, based on interstate differences, compared to 20 per cent in France and Germany and between 12 and 17 per cent in Indonesia. The government could reduce this tax burden by eventually replacing all indirect taxes such as excise, sales tax, octroi and entry tax with a single tax. It is true construction companies have ramped up significant capacities in terms of equipment over the past few years. However, due to rapid growth, there is still a mismatch of supply and demand in terms of construction equipment. Delays in deliveries of equipment result in delayed mobilization and completion of projects. Further, prices of construction equipment have steadily increased over the past few years, partly due to the high demand, and partly due to increase in input costs. Domestic equipment has a 10-15 per cent higher downturn than imported machines. There is also a lack of skilled manpower to operate and maintain machines as the industry is largely dependent on unskilled labour. Another major issue that has becomes apparent is the financing of construction equipment. The concept of renting equipment has been mooted but the rental market in India is not very well developed. At present, there are very few players and tax issues also play a major role in this industry. The very first equipment bank in India –Quipo- has been fairly successful. However, with more world leaders expected to enter the renting domain and various models being worked out by rental companies, the situation is expected to improve in the future. In the future, one can expect major global manufacturers to enter the equipment arena by producing India-specific products while addressing factors such as quality, cost to customer and delivery. It is also essential to make available the easy hiring of equipment through a ready stock of good quality equipment. The last few years have witnessed a phase of restructuring in the industry through acquisitions and joint ventures. This also reflects the active interest of international majors in the domestic market. Many international players have also appointed selling agents for importing and selling complete equipment in India. The construction and mining equipment industry is dominated by a few large manufacturers in each product segment. BEML supplies to nearly half the total market. BEML and Caterpillar lead in dumpers and dozers while LT-Komatsu and Telcon lead in excavators and JCB India in backhoe loaders. 2.3 Structure of The Industry 71% of the sector comprises of public limited companies including PSU’s and 29% private limited, or joint ventures including closely held private limited companies.75% of the companies manufacturing in India were involved in the entire range of activities like design and engineering, manufacturing, erection, servicing and commissioning. There are only a few companies who act as selling agents for international players. There are others who manufacture and also import complete equipment or in SKD condition from their principals abroad and market them. Since each piece of the equipment in this product category has substantial value, a number of companies have a turnover of over 100 crores and the larger ones have a turnover above Rs.1000 crores. The technology barriers have made the industry less fragmented in the mining machinery sector whereas it is fragmented in the road construction equipment and the material-handling segments. The international trend in the earthmoving and mining segment is one of consolidation. This trend is also beginning to be seen in India. Some international companies are looking at the prospects of enhancing their market presence based on higher investment in mining and infrastructure and also using their Indian operations to meet demand in South and South East Asia. The industry’s expectations of the likely future evolution in this sector is represented here in graphical form. Most of the current players expect that new players will enter the Indian market. There is great need for improving infrastructure as it has been accentuated by the rapid growth in economy. Of late many development authorities, State government and even companies have started investing in infrastructure development projects. Though the volume of construction equipment in India is far too small compared to countries like china and also by global standards, India does produce a variety of construction equipments such as the earthmoving machinery used to excavate, land and level earth and rock, tractors, trailers, wagons, crawler tractors, bulldozers, scrapers, shovels, draglines, heisting and material handling machinery such as cranes and derricks, material lifts, pumping machines, demolition machinery and machinery used to prepare land and materials for construction. Today, there is much emphasis on infrastructure development. The government spends very little on infrastructure with the result India sells very little of any category of construction equipment. It is shocking to learn that china sells 10,000 excavators energy year but in India, we sell only about 1500. In terms of volume, the construction equipment industry is worth Rs. 4,000 crore. Whether it is roads, bridges, ports, airports, urban infrastructure, or power plants- civil construction has a very important role to play. The use of modern tools enables productive work. The rapidly increasing construction sector has been the forerunner of good times for companies manufacturing construction machineries and equipment. There has been a flow of demand for transit concrete mixers, bar- bending and cutting machines, excavators and backhoes and earth rammers on account of the substantial increase in real estate and construction activities. New and expanding housing and infrastructure construction ventures have generated a considerable demand for construction machinery manufacturing and servicing together with erection, commissioning and maintenance. More and more multinational companies are now entering the Indian market on their own strength, whereas previously the trend was to forge joint venture associations with Indian companies. Also, a major portion of the annual budget has been invested by the Central government in infrastructure, irrigation and mining projects across the country. Due to all these factors these has been a substantial increase in the utilization of construction machinery. The boom in the requirement of construction machinery has brought us several large orders from west Asian and African countries. Thus the exporters of construction machineries too have a boom period. Most of them have made huge profits due to the threefold increase. The demand for construction equipments has also risen because of major Indian construction works working on overseas projects. 2.4 Technology The construction equipment sector has a wide range of products The technology leaders in the construction equipment sector are: Komatsu,Caterpillar, Hitachi, Terex, Volvo, Case, Ingersoll-Rand, HAMM, Bomag, John Deere, JCB, Poclain, Bitelli, Kobelco, Hyundai and Daewoo. Except for the last 3, all the other companies are present in India either as joint ventures, or have set up their own manufacturing facilities, or marketing companies. In the mining sector, the leaders are: Wrigten, Atlas Copco, Liebherr, Joy Mining Machinery, Hitachi, Komatsu, Terex, Ranson Rappier, Bucyrus Erie and DBT. Out of these companies, DBT does not have any technology transfer and neither is it manufacturing in India. Joy Mining Machinery has a small operation in India to manufacture spares and provide sales support. However, these are the two leaders in continuous mining and long wall equipment in the world. In the construction equipment sector, the level of technology prevalent internationally can be made available in India through joint ventures. However, the equipment currently being manufactured in India is not of the same size. For example for a 15 Cu.M. hydraulic shovel, the manufacturers do not feel the need to bring in the technology due to low volumes and uncertain demand though the companies have the manufacturing facilities and design capabilities to manufacture the same in India. Some of the other reasons for not manufacturing the latest equipment are: The Indian market cannot absorb the cost of the latest technology If manufactured in India for export markets, most of the components will have to be imported Equipment adhering to the latest emission norms cannot be used since the quality of fuel required for them is yet to be made available here. At the same time, off highway construction and mining equipment do not need stringent emission norms in India. The construction equipment sector in India has evolved over the years and is at present in an intermediate stage of development. The industry is trying to bring in international levels of technology as demand and the scale of operation increases. The users are now not looking at only the initial cost of the equipment, but focusing on total costing, or cost per ton of usage. It is anticipated that 5 years hence, the need for more and more mechanization and enhancement of scale may lead to change in the level of technology in use. Advances in technology have allowed an increase in haul truck and rope shovel size. For example haul trucks are now being manufactured upto 400 tons capacity. Here the increased machine size has provided an opportunity for increased production. 2.5 Management Effieciency The industry is quite mature in terms of marketing abilities as compared to the other sectors of the capital goods industry. Majority of the companies have strategic planning programmes in place and have well chalked out business strategies at all levels. In order to enhance their market share, companies need to improve quality and service followed by reduction in costs, increase in product range and finally adopt more aggressive marketing strategies. The competitive edge lies in satisfying customers by delivering higher quality products at lower prices. Strategic alliances are already in place among 60% of the companies surveyed. These are primarily focused on developing and combining competencies with the help of other organizations in terms of marketing, after sales service etc. Only 45% of the companies are interested in growth through mergers and acquisitions. The level of quality consciousness is on an average higher than the other sectors probably ecause the companies are larger and many of them are associated with international companies either for manufacturing or marketing their products. Another reason for higher quality consciousness is that more companies in this sector are well versed with the soft technologies being used worldwide for enhancing competitiveness and quality. Approximately 90% of the companies covered under the study have either implemented, or are implementing soft technologies like six sigma, lean manufacturing etc. 100% of the companies manufacturing in India are ISO certified. It was noticed that the percentage of scrap due to errors in manufacturing is between 2% 5% and the percentage of labour hours spent on reworking was 4%. All the manufacturing companies train their workers on quality concepts. However the percentage of workers who received company sponsored training on quality concepts in the past two years varied from 20% to 100% in some companies. The average number of hours per person of training provided was approximately 16 hours per person varying from 6 hours to 35 hours per person per annum. Most of the companies were quite responsive to customer complaints and the average number of days taken to respond varied from  ½ a day to 5 days in some companies. More than 70% of the companies have undergone business process reengineering for higher customer satisfaction. It has been observed that the majority of the companies in this sector are between medium and high users of computerization. This level of computerization is also comparatively high compared to the other sectors of the capital goods industry. Yet the percentage of IT expenditure to sales in the last one year i.e. 2004-05 was a meagre 0.5% of the total sales i.e. Rs.32 crores was invested by the industry towards computerization either for ERP / SCM / CRM. ERP or enterprise resource planning is an industry term for the broad set of activities supported by multi product application software that helps a manufacturer to manage the important functions of its business including product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interaction with suppliers, providing customer service and tracking orders. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of the entire value added chain, from the supplier to manufacturer right through to the retailer and the final customer.SCM has the primary goal of reducing inventory, increasing the transaction speed by exchanging data in real time and increasing sales by implementing customer requirements more efficiently. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customers, whether it be sales or service related. CRM is an information industry term for methodologies, software and usually internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. Companies need to be in constant touch with their customers over the electronic media. The percentage of companies using ERP solutions is high with quite a significant number also using CRM for better customer relationship management. However, all the players need to be better integrated with both their suppliers and customers to strive to be the market leader. After-sales service is an important aspect of a company’s successful business strategy because all customers would like higher productivity and utilization from their machines in order to be cost competitive. Hence this is an area no company can afford to ignore or accord a lower priority to. All the companies surveyed whether manufacturing, or trading, offered after-sales service to their customer and it was also noted that 70% of them have entered into this field in the last ten years. Equipment manufactured by the industry is mostly mobile and hence subjected to higher wear and tear and consequently maintenance requirements are higher. Users rate machines with lower downtime higher. Hence, training of maintenance personnel both of manufacturers as well as users’ is a very important aspect of managing customer relationships. This is also evident from the fact that all the companies spent on training and the majority of them (60%) spent more than Rs.1 lakh per month. O nly 40% of the companies spent less than Rs.10 lakh per annum on employee training. The average response time for responding to customer calls is 24 to 48 hours and in premium service contracts it varied between 12 to 36 hours. 91% of the maintenance calls were completed within the specified time frame. From the user feedback, it emerged that the deliveries of most of the companies were delayed. Hence many customers preferred to import second hand machines. Scheduling is therefore required to be strictly followed by all the companies for manufacturing, and approximately 90% of them use one, or the other software to enhance efficiency in manufacturing. Yet the percentage of companies where the shipments are before/within the due date is very low at only 50%. A clear distinction was noticed in terms of reasons for late delivery. Companies predominantly manufacturing construction equipment have attributed more than 70% of their late deliveries to delay in customer clearance. The reason for late deliveries is attributed mainly to the growth in domestic demand, which was not foreseen earlier by the companies. Delays were therefore mainly attributed to capacity constraints. A fall out of delayed delivery has been higher imports both for new machines, as well as second hand machines. This issue can be tackled by enhancing capacity of both the manufacturers and their sub-suppliers, tighter monitoring and scheduling and by greater usage of ERP / SCM. Benchmarking With International Companies Some broad indications in terms of benchmarking of the industry on the basis of financial parameters have been done against a few global players. The companies against which Indian companies have been benchmarked are Caterpillar, Komatsu and Volvo. They are the leaders in their respective fields. 2.6 Operational Efficiency Financial Parameters The CII survey results showed that there has been a good growth rate in terms of sales due to the higher investments by the user sectors. Though exports have also risen, the percentage of exports to sales is low due to lack of competitive advantage of machines built with indigenous technology. Wherever machines are built under technology transfer, companies face restrictions on the export market territory from the technology provider. The power consumed to sales has shown a decline because all companies are now conscious about energy conservation and use various methods like automatic switching of systems and higher efficiency / low consumption electrical appliances etc. Value added for an industry is the difference between the value of the output and the value of the input namely raw materials bought outs. In other words we can attribute this difference to the value added to the product by the company. The value addition has risen over the years because more manufacturing has taken place in 2003-04 in place of trading as compared to the earlier years. It has again shown a fall due to the rising raw material prices in 2004-05. Inventory on an average was found to be 26 percent of net sales. Average Turnover of Inventory for 2004-05 was found to be 4. The international benchmark is between 5 7. The number of days sales outstanding is on an average within 90 days, which is at par with the engineering industry. This is also in keeping with international trends. Cost of wages to sales was found to be 11.8 percent in 2004-05. The range varied from a low of 3 percent to a high of 28 percent. For Caterpillar Inc. the ratio was 19.8 percent. The employee productivity is fairly low as compared to international companies. Sales per employee on an average for the industry was found to be Rs.35 lakhs but for the manufacturing companies it was found to be Rs.32.5 lakhs. This is the reason why though the cost of wages per employee is very low at Rs.4 lakhs, the lower productivity of the employee offsets the advantage. The value added per employee was only Rs.11 lakhs. The global standards for employee productivity i.e. sales per employee is in the range of Rs.160-175 lakhs. Profitability The industry in India witnessed a tremendous jump in profitability in 2004-05 over 2003-04. The return on capital employed is 24 percent and has increased by 85 percent over 2003-04. The PBIT has increased Indias Construction Equipment Industry Analysis Indias Construction Equipment Industry Analysis Abstract This research was an attempt to assess the current status of Indian construction equipment industry and the underlying opportunities and challenges. However, the aspects and objectives that were dealt in the research are; the current structure, status, competition, financing opportunities and challenges of Indian construction equipment industry. The research was conducted wholly based on secondary data. Following are the key findings of the research. Indian construction industry has entered into a new phase, where prospect of the industry appears extraordinary bright. Indian construction equipment industry is passing through a phase of hurried renovation, where the shifting is taking place from low volume concentrated use of equipment structure to high volume explicit one. Apart from these, the current and future trend also shows that the key segments of construction equipment that will have potential market prospects are excavators, loaders, dozers, dumpers and cranes. The growth of Indian construction equipment industry is the outcome of the fast liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy and the construction sector. The real competition in Indian construction equipment industry has been created by foreign players such as Volvo, Komatsu and many others. These companies are leaving no stone unturned to exploit the opportunities in Indian industry. The industry is at the critical juncture (particularly for domestic players) and therefore companies need to equip with safety measures in relation to post WTO market setting. Introduction (Chapter 1) 1.1 Indian Construction Equipment Industry Background Historical Trends Construction and mining equipment cover a variety of machinery such as hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, bull dozers, dump trucks, tippers, graders, pavers, asphalt drum / wet mix plants, breakers, vibratory compactors, cranes, fork lifts, dozers, off-highway dumpers (20T to 170T), drills, scrapers, motor graders, rope shovels etc. They perform a variety of functions like preparation of ground, excavation, haulage of material, dumping/laying in specified manner, material handling, road construction etc. These equipment are required for both construction and mining activity. With a wide production capacity base, India is perhaps the only developing country, which is totally self-reliant in such highly sophisticated equipment. India has only a few, mainly medium and large companies in the organized sector who manufacture these. The technology barriers are high, especially with respect to mining equipment and therefore the role of SME’s is restricted to manufacture of components and some sub-assemblies. Prior to the 1960s, domestic requirements of mining and construction equipment were entirely met by imports. Domestic production began in 1964 with the setting up of Bharat Earthmovers Ltd. (BEML), a public sector unit of the Ministry of Defence, at Kolar in South India to manufacture dozers, dumpers, graders, scrapers, etc. for defense requirements under licence from LeTorneau Westinghouse, USA and Komatsu, Japan. In the private sector, the Hindustan Motors’ Earthmoving Equipment Division, was established in 1969 at Tiruvallur, near Chennai with technical collaboration from Terex, UK for manufacture of wheel loaders, dozers dumpers. This factory has since been taken over by Caterpillar for their Indian operations. The machines manufactured by Caterpillar in the Tiruvallur factory are marketed by TIL and GMMCO. In 1974, LT started manufacturing hydraulic excavators under license from Poclain, France. In 1980 and 1981, two more units, Telcon and Escorts JCB commenced manufacture of hydraulic excavators (under license from Hitachi, Japan) and backhoe loaders (under license from JCB, UK) respectively. Escorts JCB has been taken over by JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. U.K. in 2003 and is now called JCB India Ltd. Volvo and Terex Vectra is the most recent entrants in the Indian market. Volvo has set up their manufacturing unit in Bangalore. At present they are only manufacturing tippers and the other equipment are imported from their parent company and marketed in India. Terex Corporation USA and Vectra Ltd. U.K. have formed a joint venture, which has started manufacturing construction equipment like backhoe loaders and skid steer loaders from May ’04 at Greater Noida with an investment of USD 12 million. Other equipment in the Terex range are being sold through their agents in India. Most of the technology leaders like Case, Caterpillar, Hitachi, Ingersoll-Rand, JCB, John Deere, Joy Mining Machinery, Komatsu, Lieberr, Poclain, Terex, Volvo are present in India as joint venture companies, or have set up their own manufacturing facilities, or marketing companies. The industry has made substantial investments in the recent past for setting up manufacturing bases, despite small volumes and uneconomic scales of production compared to global standards. 1.2 Aims and Objective and of The Study This research was aimed to assess the current status of Indian construction equipment industry and the underlying opportunities and challenges. The research was conducted on the foundation of following objectives To assess the current structure, status and direction of the Indian construction equipment industry. To assess the competition in Indian construction equipment industry To assess the financing of Indian construction equipment industry To assess the opportunities and challenges of Indian construction equipment industry To develop strategies for competitors (domestic players) in Indian construction equipment industry. To assess the technology, managerial, operational, of the Indian construction equipment industry. Literature Review Chapter 2 2.1 Introduction Construction equipment is machinery used to build and demolish bridges, buildings and other structures. These machines usually save labor, time and money. One of them can do more work in an hour than a hundred of workers using hand tools could do in a day. The chief kinds of building machines include earthmoving machineries hoisting, material handling machines and pumping machines. Other construction machinery used are for preparing the land and materials for construction. Demolishing machines are used to demolish structures and buildings. The Indian construction equipment industry today faces stiff competition, great opportunities and challenges, but India has a total command over all these things as according to confederation of the Indian industry report, 2005 as for engineering and capital goods base. The Indian engineering manufacturing sector has been growing at the rate of about 5.9% in the nineties. India today produces a variety of machinery whose range is quiet wide and deep. Rapidly increasing construction sector has been the indication of good times for companies manufacturing construction equipments. This project discusses the Construction Equipment industry in India. The structure of Construction Equipment industry in India has been well and truly detailed and mentioning all the requisite facts and figures. Also mentioned are all the factors influencing the Construction Equipment industry in India. A special mention of the suppliers list is made as suppliers are the inseparable part of the Construction Equipment industry in India. The important suppliers are JCB, Atlas, BEML, Caterpillar, Ditchwitch, Komatsu , Ashok Leyland, Escorts, Greaves Cotton, Ingersoll Rand, TETRA, Volvo, Besides all these Indian Equipment Financing companies such as Business Financing, SREI, HDFC , GE Capital, Indian Financial Services have also received requisite expression in this project. Also discussed at the end is about Construction Equipment industry in India facing problems, challenges and opportunities and its future. What India need is better infrastructure in order to progress. The government has also embarked upon massive road and pavement construction projects such GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL connecting / interlinking all four metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai. Kolkatta and Chennai The government decision to throw open the construction of roads, bridges, ports and airports to private sector and to allow 100% FII / FDI (Foreign Investments) in real estate projects like (EMAAR) has provided a boost to the industry thereby generating demand for construction machineries. Housing and infrastructure projects are expected to grow about 20% per annum for the next 15 years. 2.2 Current Status of The Industry Ramping up quality and quantity The Construction equipment industries are the biggest beneficiaries of the construction boom. Although the past few years have seen increased levels of mechanization and improved quality, Indian construction equipment and materials are still below international standards. The current status of the construction equipment industry is discussed below. The size of the construction equipment market current stands at between $2.5 billion and $3 billion and it is growing at an average rate of about 30 per cent year on year. It is expected that the industry will expand to $12-13 billion by 2015, including $2-3 billion of exports. This implies annual compounded growth rates in excess of 50 per cent between 2008 and 2015. The largest share of that growth will come from the domestic market driven on the demand side by increased infrastructure spending and on the supply side by the industry’s drive to increase mechanization and equipment penetration. The rest of the growth will come from the exports of components, services and equipment. The key infrastructure sectors that are expected to drive demand are roads, urban and residential construction and mining. Amongst the three modes of procuring equipment in India –that is, buying, leasing or renting – leasing is the most popular. While renting is suitable for projects of shorter duration, buying involves huge upfront payments. Constructions and mining equipment is manufactured by a few medium and large companies in the organised sector. The role of small and medium enterprises is restricted only to manufacturing of components and some sub-assemblies. Domestic production began in 1964 with the setting up of Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), which is engaged in the manufacturing of dozers, dumpers, graders, scrapers, etc., for defence requirements. Some of the key players manufacturing equipment for the Indian market are LT, Telcon, Escorts, JCB India Limited, Ingersoll Rand, Greaves, Caterpiller, Komatsu, Joy Mining Machinery, Case, John Deere, Lieberr, Poclain, Volvo and Terex Vectra. These companies are present either through joint ventures, or have set up their own manu facturing facilities or have a marketing presence. BEML supplies equipment to nearly half the total market. Companies such as BEML and Caterpillar are leaders in dumpers and dozers while Larsen Toubro – Komatsu and Telcon lead in excavators and JCB India in backhoe loaders. In the last few years there has been some restructuring through acquisitions and joint ventures, which in turn, has reflected the interest of international majors in the domestic market. Many international players have also appointed selling agents for importing and selling equipment in India. Despite the growth, there are some inherent problems faced by the construction equipment industry. In India, the demand for construction equipment is more than the supply. Hence, most leading manufacturers have invested in India for manufacturing to meet this gap. The industry is trying to induct international levels of technology as demand and the scale of operations increases. However, the levels of mechanisation continue to be low compared to the international market. This is primarily because the Indian market cannot absorb the cost of latest technology. Since most the construction equipment is hydraulically operated, the Indian construction equipment industry has to predominantly depend on imports, primarily from European countries. The fluctuations of foreign exchange rates and the non-availability of adequate quantities of equipment are other constraints. Construction equipment manufacturers also struggle to cope with the low availability of trained manpower, not only for producing equipment but also for operation and maintenance. Manufacturers are doing their best to train not only their own employees but also customer’s operators and services technicians. Indirect taxes on construction equipment are quite high. These range between 21 and 38 per cent, based on interstate differences, compared to 20 per cent in France and Germany and between 12 and 17 per cent in Indonesia. The government could reduce this tax burden by eventually replacing all indirect taxes such as excise, sales tax, octroi and entry tax with a single tax. It is true construction companies have ramped up significant capacities in terms of equipment over the past few years. However, due to rapid growth, there is still a mismatch of supply and demand in terms of construction equipment. Delays in deliveries of equipment result in delayed mobilization and completion of projects. Further, prices of construction equipment have steadily increased over the past few years, partly due to the high demand, and partly due to increase in input costs. Domestic equipment has a 10-15 per cent higher downturn than imported machines. There is also a lack of skilled manpower to operate and maintain machines as the industry is largely dependent on unskilled labour. Another major issue that has becomes apparent is the financing of construction equipment. The concept of renting equipment has been mooted but the rental market in India is not very well developed. At present, there are very few players and tax issues also play a major role in this industry. The very first equipment bank in India –Quipo- has been fairly successful. However, with more world leaders expected to enter the renting domain and various models being worked out by rental companies, the situation is expected to improve in the future. In the future, one can expect major global manufacturers to enter the equipment arena by producing India-specific products while addressing factors such as quality, cost to customer and delivery. It is also essential to make available the easy hiring of equipment through a ready stock of good quality equipment. The last few years have witnessed a phase of restructuring in the industry through acquisitions and joint ventures. This also reflects the active interest of international majors in the domestic market. Many international players have also appointed selling agents for importing and selling complete equipment in India. The construction and mining equipment industry is dominated by a few large manufacturers in each product segment. BEML supplies to nearly half the total market. BEML and Caterpillar lead in dumpers and dozers while LT-Komatsu and Telcon lead in excavators and JCB India in backhoe loaders. 2.3 Structure of The Industry 71% of the sector comprises of public limited companies including PSU’s and 29% private limited, or joint ventures including closely held private limited companies.75% of the companies manufacturing in India were involved in the entire range of activities like design and engineering, manufacturing, erection, servicing and commissioning. There are only a few companies who act as selling agents for international players. There are others who manufacture and also import complete equipment or in SKD condition from their principals abroad and market them. Since each piece of the equipment in this product category has substantial value, a number of companies have a turnover of over 100 crores and the larger ones have a turnover above Rs.1000 crores. The technology barriers have made the industry less fragmented in the mining machinery sector whereas it is fragmented in the road construction equipment and the material-handling segments. The international trend in the earthmoving and mining segment is one of consolidation. This trend is also beginning to be seen in India. Some international companies are looking at the prospects of enhancing their market presence based on higher investment in mining and infrastructure and also using their Indian operations to meet demand in South and South East Asia. The industry’s expectations of the likely future evolution in this sector is represented here in graphical form. Most of the current players expect that new players will enter the Indian market. There is great need for improving infrastructure as it has been accentuated by the rapid growth in economy. Of late many development authorities, State government and even companies have started investing in infrastructure development projects. Though the volume of construction equipment in India is far too small compared to countries like china and also by global standards, India does produce a variety of construction equipments such as the earthmoving machinery used to excavate, land and level earth and rock, tractors, trailers, wagons, crawler tractors, bulldozers, scrapers, shovels, draglines, heisting and material handling machinery such as cranes and derricks, material lifts, pumping machines, demolition machinery and machinery used to prepare land and materials for construction. Today, there is much emphasis on infrastructure development. The government spends very little on infrastructure with the result India sells very little of any category of construction equipment. It is shocking to learn that china sells 10,000 excavators energy year but in India, we sell only about 1500. In terms of volume, the construction equipment industry is worth Rs. 4,000 crore. Whether it is roads, bridges, ports, airports, urban infrastructure, or power plants- civil construction has a very important role to play. The use of modern tools enables productive work. The rapidly increasing construction sector has been the forerunner of good times for companies manufacturing construction machineries and equipment. There has been a flow of demand for transit concrete mixers, bar- bending and cutting machines, excavators and backhoes and earth rammers on account of the substantial increase in real estate and construction activities. New and expanding housing and infrastructure construction ventures have generated a considerable demand for construction machinery manufacturing and servicing together with erection, commissioning and maintenance. More and more multinational companies are now entering the Indian market on their own strength, whereas previously the trend was to forge joint venture associations with Indian companies. Also, a major portion of the annual budget has been invested by the Central government in infrastructure, irrigation and mining projects across the country. Due to all these factors these has been a substantial increase in the utilization of construction machinery. The boom in the requirement of construction machinery has brought us several large orders from west Asian and African countries. Thus the exporters of construction machineries too have a boom period. Most of them have made huge profits due to the threefold increase. The demand for construction equipments has also risen because of major Indian construction works working on overseas projects. 2.4 Technology The construction equipment sector has a wide range of products The technology leaders in the construction equipment sector are: Komatsu,Caterpillar, Hitachi, Terex, Volvo, Case, Ingersoll-Rand, HAMM, Bomag, John Deere, JCB, Poclain, Bitelli, Kobelco, Hyundai and Daewoo. Except for the last 3, all the other companies are present in India either as joint ventures, or have set up their own manufacturing facilities, or marketing companies. In the mining sector, the leaders are: Wrigten, Atlas Copco, Liebherr, Joy Mining Machinery, Hitachi, Komatsu, Terex, Ranson Rappier, Bucyrus Erie and DBT. Out of these companies, DBT does not have any technology transfer and neither is it manufacturing in India. Joy Mining Machinery has a small operation in India to manufacture spares and provide sales support. However, these are the two leaders in continuous mining and long wall equipment in the world. In the construction equipment sector, the level of technology prevalent internationally can be made available in India through joint ventures. However, the equipment currently being manufactured in India is not of the same size. For example for a 15 Cu.M. hydraulic shovel, the manufacturers do not feel the need to bring in the technology due to low volumes and uncertain demand though the companies have the manufacturing facilities and design capabilities to manufacture the same in India. Some of the other reasons for not manufacturing the latest equipment are: The Indian market cannot absorb the cost of the latest technology If manufactured in India for export markets, most of the components will have to be imported Equipment adhering to the latest emission norms cannot be used since the quality of fuel required for them is yet to be made available here. At the same time, off highway construction and mining equipment do not need stringent emission norms in India. The construction equipment sector in India has evolved over the years and is at present in an intermediate stage of development. The industry is trying to bring in international levels of technology as demand and the scale of operation increases. The users are now not looking at only the initial cost of the equipment, but focusing on total costing, or cost per ton of usage. It is anticipated that 5 years hence, the need for more and more mechanization and enhancement of scale may lead to change in the level of technology in use. Advances in technology have allowed an increase in haul truck and rope shovel size. For example haul trucks are now being manufactured upto 400 tons capacity. Here the increased machine size has provided an opportunity for increased production. 2.5 Management Effieciency The industry is quite mature in terms of marketing abilities as compared to the other sectors of the capital goods industry. Majority of the companies have strategic planning programmes in place and have well chalked out business strategies at all levels. In order to enhance their market share, companies need to improve quality and service followed by reduction in costs, increase in product range and finally adopt more aggressive marketing strategies. The competitive edge lies in satisfying customers by delivering higher quality products at lower prices. Strategic alliances are already in place among 60% of the companies surveyed. These are primarily focused on developing and combining competencies with the help of other organizations in terms of marketing, after sales service etc. Only 45% of the companies are interested in growth through mergers and acquisitions. The level of quality consciousness is on an average higher than the other sectors probably ecause the companies are larger and many of them are associated with international companies either for manufacturing or marketing their products. Another reason for higher quality consciousness is that more companies in this sector are well versed with the soft technologies being used worldwide for enhancing competitiveness and quality. Approximately 90% of the companies covered under the study have either implemented, or are implementing soft technologies like six sigma, lean manufacturing etc. 100% of the companies manufacturing in India are ISO certified. It was noticed that the percentage of scrap due to errors in manufacturing is between 2% 5% and the percentage of labour hours spent on reworking was 4%. All the manufacturing companies train their workers on quality concepts. However the percentage of workers who received company sponsored training on quality concepts in the past two years varied from 20% to 100% in some companies. The average number of hours per person of training provided was approximately 16 hours per person varying from 6 hours to 35 hours per person per annum. Most of the companies were quite responsive to customer complaints and the average number of days taken to respond varied from  ½ a day to 5 days in some companies. More than 70% of the companies have undergone business process reengineering for higher customer satisfaction. It has been observed that the majority of the companies in this sector are between medium and high users of computerization. This level of computerization is also comparatively high compared to the other sectors of the capital goods industry. Yet the percentage of IT expenditure to sales in the last one year i.e. 2004-05 was a meagre 0.5% of the total sales i.e. Rs.32 crores was invested by the industry towards computerization either for ERP / SCM / CRM. ERP or enterprise resource planning is an industry term for the broad set of activities supported by multi product application software that helps a manufacturer to manage the important functions of its business including product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interaction with suppliers, providing customer service and tracking orders. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of the entire value added chain, from the supplier to manufacturer right through to the retailer and the final customer.SCM has the primary goal of reducing inventory, increasing the transaction speed by exchanging data in real time and increasing sales by implementing customer requirements more efficiently. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customers, whether it be sales or service related. CRM is an information industry term for methodologies, software and usually internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. Companies need to be in constant touch with their customers over the electronic media. The percentage of companies using ERP solutions is high with quite a significant number also using CRM for better customer relationship management. However, all the players need to be better integrated with both their suppliers and customers to strive to be the market leader. After-sales service is an important aspect of a company’s successful business strategy because all customers would like higher productivity and utilization from their machines in order to be cost competitive. Hence this is an area no company can afford to ignore or accord a lower priority to. All the companies surveyed whether manufacturing, or trading, offered after-sales service to their customer and it was also noted that 70% of them have entered into this field in the last ten years. Equipment manufactured by the industry is mostly mobile and hence subjected to higher wear and tear and consequently maintenance requirements are higher. Users rate machines with lower downtime higher. Hence, training of maintenance personnel both of manufacturers as well as users’ is a very important aspect of managing customer relationships. This is also evident from the fact that all the companies spent on training and the majority of them (60%) spent more than Rs.1 lakh per month. O nly 40% of the companies spent less than Rs.10 lakh per annum on employee training. The average response time for responding to customer calls is 24 to 48 hours and in premium service contracts it varied between 12 to 36 hours. 91% of the maintenance calls were completed within the specified time frame. From the user feedback, it emerged that the deliveries of most of the companies were delayed. Hence many customers preferred to import second hand machines. Scheduling is therefore required to be strictly followed by all the companies for manufacturing, and approximately 90% of them use one, or the other software to enhance efficiency in manufacturing. Yet the percentage of companies where the shipments are before/within the due date is very low at only 50%. A clear distinction was noticed in terms of reasons for late delivery. Companies predominantly manufacturing construction equipment have attributed more than 70% of their late deliveries to delay in customer clearance. The reason for late deliveries is attributed mainly to the growth in domestic demand, which was not foreseen earlier by the companies. Delays were therefore mainly attributed to capacity constraints. A fall out of delayed delivery has been higher imports both for new machines, as well as second hand machines. This issue can be tackled by enhancing capacity of both the manufacturers and their sub-suppliers, tighter monitoring and scheduling and by greater usage of ERP / SCM. Benchmarking With International Companies Some broad indications in terms of benchmarking of the industry on the basis of financial parameters have been done against a few global players. The companies against which Indian companies have been benchmarked are Caterpillar, Komatsu and Volvo. They are the leaders in their respective fields. 2.6 Operational Efficiency Financial Parameters The CII survey results showed that there has been a good growth rate in terms of sales due to the higher investments by the user sectors. Though exports have also risen, the percentage of exports to sales is low due to lack of competitive advantage of machines built with indigenous technology. Wherever machines are built under technology transfer, companies face restrictions on the export market territory from the technology provider. The power consumed to sales has shown a decline because all companies are now conscious about energy conservation and use various methods like automatic switching of systems and higher efficiency / low consumption electrical appliances etc. Value added for an industry is the difference between the value of the output and the value of the input namely raw materials bought outs. In other words we can attribute this difference to the value added to the product by the company. The value addition has risen over the years because more manufacturing has taken place in 2003-04 in place of trading as compared to the earlier years. It has again shown a fall due to the rising raw material prices in 2004-05. Inventory on an average was found to be 26 percent of net sales. Average Turnover of Inventory for 2004-05 was found to be 4. The international benchmark is between 5 7. The number of days sales outstanding is on an average within 90 days, which is at par with the engineering industry. This is also in keeping with international trends. Cost of wages to sales was found to be 11.8 percent in 2004-05. The range varied from a low of 3 percent to a high of 28 percent. For Caterpillar Inc. the ratio was 19.8 percent. The employee productivity is fairly low as compared to international companies. Sales per employee on an average for the industry was found to be Rs.35 lakhs but for the manufacturing companies it was found to be Rs.32.5 lakhs. This is the reason why though the cost of wages per employee is very low at Rs.4 lakhs, the lower productivity of the employee offsets the advantage. The value added per employee was only Rs.11 lakhs. The global standards for employee productivity i.e. sales per employee is in the range of Rs.160-175 lakhs. Profitability The industry in India witnessed a tremendous jump in profitability in 2004-05 over 2003-04. The return on capital employed is 24 percent and has increased by 85 percent over 2003-04. The PBIT has increased