The Challenge Of Population Growth In Africa Economics Essay

The Challenge Of Population Growth In Africa Economics Essay It is generally agreed that the challenge of population growth is one of the most serious obstacles to development faced by LDCs in the 21st century. In the long process of human history, the relationship between the production of material goods and human reproduction is always interdependent. Therefore, a certain economy is the foundation of the existence and development of human beings; meanwhile, the reproduction of human beings is the condition for the development of economy. The historical experience has proved that the population growth has to keep relative balance with the development level of economy; otherwise, the human society will be punished by nature certainly. It is undeniable that the fertility of Africa is always out of control since the independence of African countries. In 1970s and 1980s, the average fertility rate of Africa reached 6.8 and 6.7; however, it was still high was around 5.4 in 2004 [1]. Besides the high fertility rate, the size of African population has never stopped increasing. In 1960, the African population was 282 million, which was 9.3 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ of the world population; however, in 2005, the African population had reached 906 million, which was 14.0 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ of the whole population in the world [2], in the 45 years, the African population increased trebly. Since Africa has the highest population growth rate and the second largest population in the world, the population burden will put more pressure on the development of economy though Africa is always suffering from poverty. To get through difficult situations, the African countries have to recognize the negative effects of rapid population growth on the developme nt of economy. First, the poor capital accumulation is the bottleneck of development in Africa. The development of economy requires solid foundation, and the material capital is the motive force of the development. The classical economist, Adam Smith emphasized that the accumulation of capital was the precondition of specialization [3]. For African least developed countries, they have abundant resource and labor, and the capital input can determine the level of economic development. Either of low capital output ratio and poor capital accumulation will hinder the development. According to the demographers estimation, an 1 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ increase on the population will lead the country to pay 3 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ to 4 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ of gross national income on the investment of additional population [4]. If more national income invests on the population growth, which means the investment on production will be limited strongly. As the rapid increase on the population in Africa, the structure of population is very you thful and the youth dependency ratio is always highest in the world [5]. Every year, African governments have to take a certain share of new output value to invest on the latest additional population, but Africa is also the region comprising many poorest countries. In 2000, the World Bank made public a name list of fifty nine poorest counties in the world, and thirty eight of them were in Africa [6]. Therefore, substantial fund have been ate by the large population, which leads to low saving ratio and large financial gap. The second negative effect of the large population on LDCs refers to the low quality of the population. In fact, the quality of population can determine the quality of labor directly, and human capital is always regarded as the key of the economic development. Theodore Schultz, the winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, believed that a health and highly educated population was playing an important role in a countrys development [7]. However, the high rise of African population really hinders the improvement of human capital. On one hand, the investment from governments on education has fall much behind the rapid population growth in Africa, which leads to extremely heavy pressure on the education, such as the shortage of educational expenditures and teachers, low school enrollment ratio, high illiteracy rate. In 2001, the UNESCO reported that Africa was the poorest continent in education where the literacy rate was less than 60 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ [8]. On the other hand, sin ce the mid of 1970s, the African population growth rate was always going beyond the agricultural productivity rate, the self-sufficiency rate of grain and the per capita food expenditure kept decreasing. According to the Malthusian Population Trap, the universal tendency for the population of a country will grow at a geometric rate, however, the food supplies can expand only at a arithmetic tae [9]. Therefore, the food supplies can never satisfy the demand by rapid population growth in Africa. In fact, the African malnutrition population increased from 94 million in 1970s to 210 million in 1990s [10], and now the per capita food expenditure for African population reaches only 85 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ of the standard set by United Nations [11]. Since the African economy really depends on the agriculture and the export of primary products, the physical labor is still needed in the most regions. So, we have to doubt such large unhealthy and uneducated population could make contributions to the ec onomic development in 21st century. Third, the LDCs have to face the high unemployment rate which is brought by rapid population growth. Todaro points that an excess of job seekers over job opportunities in the LDC economy is the one of the major negative consequences of population growth [12]. In fact, it is normal that every country has a certain amount of people are in unemployment, but once the proportion of unemployment is excess, the economic development will be hindered and the whole society will become instable. Since the independence of Africa, every year the population within working age is becoming larger, and the labor force growth rate has excessed the economy growth rate, the economic sectors cannot create enough job opportunities to fulfill needs. In 1990s, there were average 10 million African people seeking job per year, however, the economic sectors could only absorb half of the additional labor force [13]. Even though the largest economy in Africa, the unemployment rate of South Africa was 41.8 ¼Ã¢ € ¦ in 2002 [14]. We can imagine how terribly high the unemployment rate of other more backward African countries is. Therefore, substantial labor force cannot be made full use of in Africa which really hinders the enlargement of production scale and optimization of industrial structure, in return, the economic backwardness will increase the unemployment rate. Eventually, it is hard for the LDCs to get rid of the vicious circle which combines high employment rate and poor economy. In fact, the population growth is a neutral phenomenon, in the 3/4 time of 20th century, the development of economy was accompanied by the population growth. However, the rapid population growth can slow down the economy growth and hinder the improvement of living standard, especially for LDCs whose foundation of economy is quite weak. If LDCs really want to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, they should recognize the importance of education and health to control the rapid population growth immediately.

Athletes are Overpaid

Athletes are indeed overpaid. According to the â€Å"May 2007 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates†, chief executives, managers, legislators, public relations persons, farmers, ranchers, educators, real estate brokers, hospital managers, and other â€Å"management occupations† only earn approximately â€Å"$40.60 per hour† (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.).The same is also true for agents of artists and athletes, logisticians, financial analysts, and other â€Å"business and financial operations occupations† who only receives about â€Å"26.87 per hour† (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.).Similarly, software engineers, systems analyst, computer programmers, and other workers who belong to the category, â€Å"computer and mathematical science occupations† only get â€Å"$33.21 per hour† (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.).Even landscape architects and civil engineers just get â€Å"$31.14 hourly † (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.). In addition to that, food scientists, economists, psychologists are only paid â€Å"$26.59† (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.). Substance abuse counselors and mental health counselors get even much lower since they are only paid â€Å"$17.87 hourly† (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.).This means that people who have the aforementioned occupations earn only about $40,000 – $90,000 annually (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.). Meanwhile, athletes earn millions; in fact, â€Å"an average NBA player†, for instance earns â€Å"$2.2 million† (CBS Interactive Inc., 1997, n.p.).Farmers for instance play a large role in feeding people, hospital managers contribute largely in saving lives, financial analysts help a lot in making the economy flourish, engineers and architectures build shelters which is one of man’s basic need as well, mental health counselors/psychologists he lp people keep their sanity, while logisticians ensure the security of the country and yet these employees are only receive about $40,000 – $90,000 annually (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.).Considering that athletes are paid for punching someone, running, shooting/kicking a ball, etc or for entertainment’s sake only and taking into consideration that they are not even playing a role in saving people’s lives or their job does not even require too much intelligence or thinking (unlike other people for instance educators, doctors, etc) yet these athletes receive extremely high salaries, then this only means that indeed, â€Å"athletes are overpaid† (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, n.p.).ReferencesCBS Interactive Inc. (1997). Blacks Top Salary List of NBA Players.Retrieved November 24, 2008 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n3_v93/ai_20097766U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2007). Wage by Area and Occupation. Retrieved Novem ber 24, 2008 from   http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm  

The Culper Ring Americans First Spies

The Research Approach And Design Adopted By Murakami

There has been growing concern amongst researchers in the English as a Second Language (EAL) field, that teachers are not trained adequately enough to teach students, particularly in rural areas. Murakami (2008) undertook research that addressed the second language (L2) educational issue of EAL teacher training as well as its significance to the field of EAL teaching. In her article, she reveals the findings of research she conducted in a rural area of England that was experiencing an increasing number of students who speak English as their L2. She highlights the application of a specific approach to her research, that being an action research, and provides a detailed description and justification of this approach, as well as the steps undertaken during her research. This essay will critically review the research approach and design adopted by Murakami (2008). Murakami (2008) is successful at highlighting the literature on the subject of teacher training, pointing to several studies, including the qualitative study of Beck and Kosnick (2002), which confirms the importance of pre-service teacher education, and the study of Mora (2000) with respect to the need of adequate preparation of teachers involved in language minority education in the US. These studies mirror Murakami (2008)’s claims that EAL teacher training needs to be reviewed and improved, particularly in rural areas. It is clear that she has thoroughly investigated the topic of EAL teacher training, as is evidentShow MoreRelatedWeather Modification : Analysis Of Cloud Seeding2244 Words   |  9 Pagesa scientific approach of altering or manipulating weather deliberately. Baum (2014) asserts that the possibility of using weather modifications have increased significantly. He cites the example of United States, where severe drought had primarily been responsible for reducing the supply of wheat, corn and soybean and escalating prices of these crops. The prescribed article reviews the cloud seeding technique for modifying weather conditions and to induce rain. The article has adopted qualitativeRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesFoundations of Organization Structure 479 v vi BRIEF CONTENTS 4 The Organization System 16 Organizational Culture 511 17 Human Resource Policies and Practices 543 18 Organizational Change and Stress Management 577 Appendix A Research in Organizational Behavior Comprehensive Cases Indexes Glindex 637 663 616 623 Contents Preface xxii 1 1 Introduction What Is Organizational Behavior? 3 The Importance of Interpersonal Skills 4 What Managers Do 5 Management

Questions On Real Science And Fake Science - 927 Words

a.It gives you answers on how the world works providing you with the necessary knowledge to solve global conflicts like cancer and pollution, to name a few, in hopes that curious minds find a solution. b.When you understand the difference between real science and fake science it can prevent you from making wrong choices. Every time a commercial streams on tv about the latest medical advancement that is hardly even heard of, you will know it is most likely a scam. c.Science can make you more qualified in your career whether it is science related or not. A clear example of this is being a politician who was to make decisions on issues involving global warming or fracking that are a threat to our planet. With the necessary knowledge on these topics they could make a wise decision that would help solve or minimize the problem. 2. Write a brief definition of science (from memory!) Science to me is when you question the environment in which you live in and your surroundings leading to a thirst for answers. It is trial and error until you make a discovery knowing that you have opened a new door so that others can study and understand it better. 3. What is a key driving force of science? A key driving force of science is openness to change and the uncertainty that nothing is one hundred percent correct. This allows scientists to reevaluate if any data doesn’t match with the current understandings of that topic. Subsequently, our knowledge on the natural worldShow MoreRelatedThe Existence Of Witches By William Shakespeare1329 Words   |  6 Pagesof humanity. It is safe to assume that people created witches in order to explain some phenomena that existed in ancient times. 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Fedex Free Essays

SWOT ANALYSIS ON FedEx Corporation  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  November 30th, 2010 FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. [1] The name â€Å"FedEx† is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company’s original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000. FedEx Corporation is a Delaware corporation, incorporated October 2, 1997. We will write a custom essay sample on Fedex or any similar topic only for you Order Now [2] FDX Corporation was founded in January 1998 with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. by Federal Express. With the purchase of Caliber, FedEx started offering other services besides express shipping. Caliber subsidiaries included RPS, a small-package ground service; Roberts Express, an expedited shipping provider; Viking Freight, a regional, less than truckload freight carrier serving the Western United States; Caribbean Transportation Services, a provider of airfreight forwarding between the United States and the Caribbean; and Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology, providers of logistics and technology solutions. FDX Corporation was founded to oversee all of the operations of those companies and its original air division, Federal Express. Strengths Superior product performance vs competitors. Better product life and durability. Spare manufacturing capacity. Have customer lists. Direct delivery capability. Product innovations ongoing. Can serve from existing sites. Products have required accreditations. Management is committed and confident Weaknesses Limited budget. No pilot or trial done yet. Don’t have a detailed plan yet. Delivery-staff need training. Customer service staff needs training. Processes and systems, etc. Management cover insufficient. Opportunities Local competitors have poor products. Profit margins will be good. Could extend continentally Challenge competitors. Support core business economies. Threats Market demand very seasonal. Start up small competing against big companies (FedEx) Possible negative publicity. Vulnerable to reactive attack by major competitors. Fedex SWOT ————————————————- Top of Form Fedex SWOT Stengths When the FedEx Corporation began in 1973 who knew that they would eventually get to the point where they now? They own nearly 50% of the market share in ground shipping in the United States. Companies that are on the right track when it comes to planning in the right market are usually a household name, and this seems to be the case with FedEx. FedEx increased revenues just about every year that they have been in business. With a sales track like that and when it comes to shipping and overnight deliveries, it’s no wonder that they are truly better than their competitors. One of the major strengths that FedEx has going for the company is their slogan and message that they want to get across to consumers. The People-Service-Profit attitude and motto indicates that they place their customers as first priority. This instantly gains trust with consumers. Oppositely, FedEx’s competitors may not keep this business model in mind and may lack when it comes to customer service. FedEx was essentially the first company to develop such an idea as express delivery. Today, they are unmatched by even the United States Postal Service in terms of being able to carry out their operations on time as well as customer service. Since FedEx is generally credited with owning the idea of express delivery services, they are generally held to a higher standard and turned to more often than other companies. * Customer Service Customer First * First company in overnight mail * Centralize Hubs * Great Brand Name Fedex SWOT Weaknesses From a customer’s point of view, the rising prices of FedEx services are a major downside. Even though the FedEx Corporation thinks that their customer’s are getting a superb value, it is ultimately the consumers who hold this same opinion for FedEx’s business model to sustain. In addition, FedEx could lose revenues and annual sales if prices keep climbing and customers start seeing other brands that have more potential. * Rising Fuel Prices * World expansion is weak compare to competitors Expensive compare to other services * Many companies cannot incorporate thier software * Email is fastest and free Fedex SWOT Opportunities The internet should be used as a huge advantage to FedEx. The online shipping market has grown rapidly within the last 5 years alone and will only continue to soar! FedEx needs to offer more options to consumers who want to conduct all their shipping needs online. Fedex should consider contracting with other online companies that use shipping services to gain brand recognition and trust! * Expand online services * Offer larger variety of shipping services Increase technical services for hardware and software installs * Increase number of World Wide Hubs * Market with other on line companies Fedex SWOT Threats The m ajor threats to the FedEx business model are the other major competitors within their market segment. For example, BAX Global and DHL are two services that also experienced continued growth in these years. Since those companies have the same majority of services that FedEx does, it would be easy for FedEx competitors to use a competitive advantage such as a proprietary product or service that has more potential than FedEx services. Fuel prices * External competition * World wide government politics * Natural resources costs Fedex Swot Conclusion As you can see from this free Fedex Swot, the FedEx Corporation is doing well and, despite the economic slowdown, keeps turning a profit. This is because FedEx is based on a sound business model. Customers always need packages and belongings shipped in any economy, and the company has done an excellent job so far at dominating the market share! Read more:  http://www. quality-assurance-solutions. com/Fedex-Swot. html#ixzz27wc3lukQ How to cite Fedex, Essay examples Fedex Free Essays FedEx Corporation Operating Segments and Companies Basically, FedEx is divided into four segments and 11 operating companies. The segments consist of FedEx Express Segment, FedEx Ground Segment, FedEx Freight Segment, and FedEx Freight Segment. The 4 segments and 11 operating companies are as shown chart below: FedEx Services Segment FedEx Freight Segment FedEx Ground Segment FedEx Express Segment FedEx Services FedEx Freight FedEx Ground FedEx Express FedEx Global Supply Chain Services FedEx Customer Information Services FedEx Office Caribbean Transportation Services FedEx Trade Network FedEx SmartPost FedEx Custom Critical SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is the most renowned tool for audit and analysis of the overall strategic position of the business and its environment. We will write a custom essay sample on Fedex or any similar topic only for you Order Now Its key purpose is to identify the strategies that will create a firm specific business model that will best align an organization’s resources and capabilities to the requirements of the environment in which the firm operates. The major SWOT considerations in FedEx’s attempt to continue its growth and dominance are the following: Strengths * Strong brand name * Superior service performance * Advanced technology innovations * Impressive infrastructure of equipments * Focus on customers satisfaction * Clear leader in domestic express delivery market * Unmatched reputation or on-time delivery * Lots of planes, well-located hubs, great routes/landing rights * Ranked as one of the best companies to work for many years in a row * Great R;amp;D, quite innovative * Extensive capital expenditures * FedEx SWOT Clear leader in domestic express delivery market * Large scale operations| Weaknesses * High prices relative to competitors * Not as strong internationally * Costly innovation technology * Less capable in ground service * Weak and slow returns * Drivers and other workers are trying to unionize * Lag UPS in the ground delivery market * Very exposed to economic conditions and fuel prices| Opportunities * Untapped market * Economy is beginning to recover, especially in Asia (China specifically) * Increase in demand of logistics * Alliance with USPS * The cost of infrastructure of express delivery companies are a barrier of entry to new comers * FedEx leadership in global express delivery – As long as the nature of our socioeconomic environment exists, there will always be a need for express delivery * E-commerce is creating an increased need for express delivery * Globalization offers opportunities for expansion * Currently offer services to 220+ countries and barring government intervention, can expand in them as it sees fit * Continued globalization of the world marketplace means more contract are available and at higher volumes as well * Expansion of online retailing creates an increased need for on-time, hassle-free shipping * Focus on taking away international market share from DHL and domestic ground delivery from UPS| Threats * Increasing in transportation costs (fuel c harge) * Economic down in US * Substitution (UPS,PosLaju,GDex,DHL) * Online competitive advantage of rivals * Maintaining the infrastructure of an express delivery company is an exit barrier because of high fixed costs * Capitol is acquired through the volume of sales, so the high fixed costs can hurt when times are slow * Due to the nature of the industry, it is nearly impossible to become the clear industry leader * The nature of the industry shows very low returns on invested capitol * The E-tailing industry demands lower shipping rates and charges to pull customers from the retailing industries * Economic downturn has cut down on volume overall * Many consumers and businesses are switching to slower delivery options to save money * UPS is attempting to take away market share in the express delivery arena * E-mail may take away from overnight document delivery market| We have found 20 lists of SWOT under each component; however, there are only important issues that influenced Fed Ex growth are picked after analysis the case. 1. Strengths FedEx has a strong brand image which gives it significant strengths among the competitors and the company was named the Fortune’s sixth best admired company all over the world. They offer superior overnight delivery performances which are divided into four segments and 11 operating companies, and the segments that offers are FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight and FedEx Service. From performance view, FedEx confirms that roughly 99 percent of its deliveries are delivered to doorstep on time. This gives a significant competitive advantage with differentiating their services with other competitors who do not offer their customers of these services. FedEx has a strong and impressive infrastructure of equipment and processes. Through the first and second agreement with U. S. Postal Service, FedEx able delivery services through air transportation and have option to drop box in every U. S. post office. These agreements have created the Postal Service’s Global Express Guaranteed service which offers date certain international delivery to over 190 countries. Besides that, FedEx also well knows with its great Ramp;D and innovative of delivery service. For instance, FedEx provides the innovation of new residential delivery service which is FedEx ® Home Delivery in key U. S. cities and a pioneer in applying advanced information technology to meet customer needs. In additional, advanced technology has hit their aims to focus on customer satisfactions. FedEx has a huge advantage with regards to reaching untapped places and the acquisitions of major companies have created a more organized and a more able delivery system. 2. Weaknesses There are few weaknesses in FedEx that hindering it from growing stronger in domestically and internationally. FedEx services are priced using a zone system which means that the distance of package must travel to reach its final destination determines the price is higher relative to competitors. This significant weakness exists as FedEx is still recovering from the debt of purchasing Flying Tiger Line airfreight service. Besides that, they are less capable in ground service compared to UPS. Other than that, FedEx has involved costly technology innovations. For instance, in order to determine the status of their packages at all possible locations along the delivery route in real time. Customers can track packages in three ways by accessing the FedEx Web site on the Internet and click on the features of FedEx Ship Manager at fedex. com, or FedEx WorldTM Shipping Software. Other than that, Drivers and other workers are trying to unionize under a four year agreement ratified in 2007. This caused FedEx to deal with the bill which they opposed fiercely and bring the bill into law. Indirectly, this incident leads to increase service costs by 30 percent that need to bear by the customers and inconsistency of operating throughout the organization. 3. Opportunities FedEx have a lot of potential in expansion due to the company’s fame around the world. The untapped market has given FedEx a great opportunity to penetrate into large global market. Untapped market happened when political changes in foreign market. Next, the cost of infrastructure of express delivery of FedEx is a barrier of entry to new comers. New comers need to bear with a large amount of cost to build their infrastructure such as airfreight for delivery service. Nowadays, E-commerce and online shopping expansion is creating an increased need for express delivery. The expansion leads to the demand of hassle-free and on time delivery to volume up. Economic is recovering especially in Asia is also one of the opportunity for FedEx. Despite the problems in Europe, the Asian economy was growing rapidly and manufactured product exports were accelerating at the same time. This has increased the demand on express delivery and FedEx introduced AsiaOne network which gave effectiveness and efficiency in delivery. 4. Threats One of the threats that faced by FedEx was increasing transportation cost which involves high fuel charge. The increasing fuel prices are likely to have a direct impact on the company’s profit margins by causing a raise in the operating expenses of FedEx. This is an unavoidable threat as FedEx has a high reliance on fuel compared to UPS in express deliveries. There are few competitors in express delivery services domestically and internationally such as UPS, DHL, PosLaju and GDex. This has given customers a substitution choice to substitute FedEx express delivery services. Hence, FedEx has to make a differentiation between the competitors in order to win the market to avoid customers from switching to other delivery option. In year 1992, economic turnover in United State gave affect in the amount of package delivers per day. By end of 1992, FedEx experienced total loss of $133 billion and negative earnings per share of $2. 11. Many customers were switching to slow delivery options to save money. Advanced technology of email may take away from overnight document delivery market which also a threat that is beyond FedEx control. The ways that FedEx uses their SWOT analysis in helping them to create a competitive advantage will be explained in the part of Strategies to Put FedEx Ahead of The Game. How to cite Fedex, Papers

Secrecy in Business-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignementhelp

Question: Critically analyze and discuss reasons why the chosen firm may prefer to conduct strategic planning in secret and keep its strategies hidden from all but the highest-level executives. Answer: The essay discusses the reasons why many companies conduct their strategic planning secret from all but the executives of their firms. In this world of increasing competition and litigation, privacy on the part of a company is a mandatory issue. Failure for securing and protecting confidential information of the organisation may lead to danger for the health of the company (Smither, Houston and McIntire 2016). In the evil hands, the confidential information may be misused to commit any illegal activities such as fraud and discrimination. Many countries have laws for protecting the organizational secrecy and confidentiality of certain information in the workplace. Revelation of any sensitive issue associated with an employee led to loss of loyalty and confidence which eventually led to lagging in productivity. Olympic group is a group of companies operating in Egypt. It mainly operates in the fields of domestic appliances. It also trades on IT fields and real estates. The companys 98% products are of their own manufacture (Electroluxgroup.com 2017). The key international suppliers, partners and licensors of the company are Electrolux, Philips and Merloni internationals. The company maintains high secrecy regarding its business policy. The reasons are: Reasons New technology- the reason for ascendency of the companys trade secret is that the technology has made the access and misappropriation easier. Previously the companies used to store the information physically (Siponen, Mahmood and Pahnila 2014). They used to hide the blueprints of their new products in a locked room. Now in this digital world the companies store blueprints in the digital files on the computer networks. They encrypt the file and keep it password protected but for a disgruntled worker it is easy for him to download, e-mail or post on internet (Leonardi, Huysman and Steinfield 2013). He can also save the file his mobile and leaves office undetected. Therefore, it can be said that digital world does not provide benefit to the trade secrets. Changing work culture with the growth the company, the prosperity increases. In this process, many current as well as former employees get fired for misappropriation of the trade secret of the company. Now this changing work environment employees no longer are loyal to one company. They leave one organization whenever they get better opportunities. They value for entrepreneurism and mobility (McGrath 2013). These employees carry their previous employers trade secrets at the time of leaving the company. The research reveals that layoffs, automations, outsourcing, shortening contracts have given rise to the employee disloyalty. This increasing mobility of the workers is one of the most important reason why the companies keep secrecy about their future plans. The perception of secrecy is different in different age groups. The IP law bases on the idea of information ownership. The law associated with trade secrets bases on ownership of confidential information (Wade 2013). The recent file sharing culture has decreases the value of secrecy in any aspect. The changing social norms for protection important information as well as privacy can be the reason of increasing trade secret misappropriation. Increasing value of business secretes- as the international al companies shift to service and knowledge based economy, the competitiveness of the firms has started to depend on their intangible assets. The trade information has become intellectual properties of the companies. The importance on maintaining secrecy about the trade has resulted in growing laws to criminalize the trade secret misappropriation (Luftman et al. 2012). The current knowledge based economy is quite different from the previous one where the physical assets like natural resources, capital goods were protected. The value of trade secret in recent time has replaced these physical assets. Data leaks can cost a company more than $2 trillion. Laws- with the increased threat of data misappropriation, the body for trade secrets act has been strengthened. According to the researchers, the growing awareness about the trade secret law and its adoption has indirectly manipulated the misappropriation of business privacy (Smither, Houston and McIntire 2016). The incidents in USA discloses the fact that more the companies protect their valuable information as their trade secrets, more they are vulnerable to the theft. It is evident that the growth of secret litigations may have created an optimistic feedback loop. More organizations relying for protecting their information, the plaintiffs are bringing more cases of information theft in the court (Lu et al. 2014). Flexible scopes- one of the chief reasons of increased trade secret litigation is flexibility of trade secrets. Any secret information derives economic value for its privacy therefore material falling associated with secret theft is increasing. These secrets are mainly laboratory formulas, methods, source codes, prototypes budgets, pre-release prices, business plans, contract terms market analysis, engineering specification and recipes. The definition of the trade secret in so dynamic that it can be applied on the companys knowledge, training and experience. According to Smither, Houston and McIntire (2016), trade secrets have been gaining importance due to the continuous changes in technology.It is outstripping existing laws to encourage and secured invention as well as innovation. International threats- Misappropriation of the trade secrets has a very dangerous aspect. According to Cummings and Worley (2014), the misappropriation of trade secrets will be empowering foreign powers. The companies that work internationally, employ workers from various countries. For tapping the supply chains, they need to rely on the foreign capital markets or employ foreign manufacturers. As a company ventures the foreign markets, take their own trade secrets with them therefore, these secrets become more vulnerable for misappropriation by the foreign parties. Major issues regarding the misappropriation is that the hackers can copy data of the trade secrets from any company in the world. They no longer need to abscond physically and harm the organizational growth. The most important aspect of trade secrets misappropriation acts is that they cannot be enforced properly (Zuiderwijk et al 2012). In different countries, jurisdiction varies and laws are different therefore, though the major countries have laws to protect trade secrets, there are difficulties to enforce them efficiently. Mechanisms The methods used by Olympic group of Companies for continually surviving in a competitive market are- Identifying and prioritizing: The firm knows the process of protecting confidential data. The start categorising the types of information according to its value as well as its confidentiality. The company prioritizes data according to its value (Wade 2013). They begin with the customer information and employee record as they are the easiest information for securing. These data need only few and specific systems for updating this information. The structured information like personal identification, account numbers, social security data and financial transaction are then protected. The contracts, customer correspondences and financial releases are important and rolled out in a departmental basis. Determination of access, usage and distribution policies of the company: The company assesses the current workflows and identifies the major departments that involve private information (FORCE and INITIATIVE 2013). It determines the risk of data leakage. Based on the assessments the company crafts its distribution policies quickly. Through these policies, the authority can govern the people who are accessing data, receiving and using which type of contents and when. The company can also supervise the enforcement actions for contravention of these policies. The companys distribution policies emerge for their customer information, intellectual property, executive communications and employee records. After defining the distribution policies, implementation of monitoring the actions and enforcements are essential steps. Implementation, observing and enforcement of systems: Olympic group of companies monitors and enforces the policies. The companys adherence of policies is crucial for the protection of the trade secrets. These are the companys confidential assets. Control points are established for monitoring the information usage and trafficking, verifying the compliances associated with its distribution policies and executing enforcement action against violation of these policies (Pearson, S., 2013). The companys monitoring systems accurately identifies the threats and bar them from passing the control points. As the company deals with immense amount of information which are digital, its monitoring system has strong powerful identification capabilities for avoiding false alarms and preventing unauthorized traffic. The organization uses various software products to monitor the electronic communication channels to secure sensitive information. Reviewing progress periodically: For the maximum effectiveness Olympic group regularly reviews their systems, trainings and policies. They use the visibility offered by the monitoring systems for improving the employees trainings, expand deployment as well as eliminate vulnerabilities systematically (McGrath 2013). The company reviews the system extensively to analyse the suspicious activities and system failures. They also utilize their external audits for checking the vulnerabilities. The company has employed the security system to review the arising incident reports and extend coverage beyond initial implementation. It protects all types of information by system benchmarking regularly. It also helps the company in extending security to the various communication channels like web posts, messaging, e-mail including security to additional departments (Siponen, Mahmood and Pahnila 2014). Therefore, it can be concluded that protection of the confidential trade assets of a company is a long journey rather than a single day event. It requires systematic procedure of identifying sensitive data, understanding current business methods, designing proper access, utilization and distribution policies finally monitoring the external and internal communication. Olympic Group of Companies have employed all these methods successfully in their business to face the competitive environment. References: Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014.Organization development and change. Cengage learning. Electroluxgroup.com (2017).Electrolux acquires Olympic Group. [online] Electroluxgroup.com. 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