Organisational processes in the Walt Disney Company

Organisational processes in the Walt Disney Company According to De Wit and Meyer (2010) Organisational processes refer to the arrangements, procedures and routines used to control and coordinate the various people and units within the organisation. This can be both formalized processes that span the entire organisation, or more informal organisational processes. The first category can be processes such as business planning and control procedures, final budgeting and reporting. Other control and coordination processes are more limited in scope, such as new product development meetings, yearly sales conferences, weekly quality circles, web based expert panels and quarterly meetings with the board of directors. Informal organisational processes are more about personal networking and influencing decision-making through factors such as informal negotiation. The case of Walt Disney: Control and coordination mechanisms: Corporate governance guidelines: One of the internally control mechanisms in the Walt Disney Company is the supervision done by the board of directors. According to the Walt Disney Company web site, the responsibility of the board of directors is to supervise and direct the management of the company in the interest and the benefit of the companys stakeholders. The board act directly through committees and have the following duties: Overseeing the conduct of the companys business to evaluate whether the business being properly managed Reviewing/approving the companys major financial objectives, plans and actions Reviewing/approving major changes in, and determination of other major issues respecting the appropriate auditing and accounting principles and practices to be used in the preparation of the financial statements Assessing the major risk factors Regularly evaluate the performance and approving the compensation to the CEO. And with the advice of the CEO, evaluate the performance of principal senior executives Planning for succession with respect to the position of CEO and monitor management succession planning for other executives Delegate the authority and responsibility for managing the business in relation to guidelines (Disney Web page). The corporate administration of the company: Another control and coordination mechanism is The Walt Disney Company corporate team, who support services to the business units and affiliates of the Walt Disney Company. The individual responsibilities in this group can be strategic, tactical, diverse and specialized. It can span the whole organisation or focus more on the corporate division. This team work collectively to analyze potential opportunities, assess results and recommend future direction. The corporate planning and control group of the administration is divided into five units: Corporate controllership: This unit is responsible for overseeing the financial statements of the company and also other finance reporting and control functions. Tasks included for this group is developing presentations to senior management and the Audit committee of the board of directors concerning the financial performance of the company, as well as update of significant accounting standards. In addition to this, they work closely with investor relations and corporate communications departments with respect to financial communication. Management audit: The Partners with financial, operational and IT executives to understand their internal control environment, risk and risk mitigation activities. They develop and execute a plan to address key risks and also promote an overall risk and control awareness in the company. Enterprise Finance Processes: Is responsible for optimizing the companys finance and accounting operations. This is done through process improvement, finance system sustainability controls and data governance. As a result, they partner with controllership, planning and financial system support teams to maintain the ongoing efficiency of the financial systems and reliability of data. They also support the finance processes, reporting and system improvements for the company. Operations Planning: The focus and responsibility is on company-wide operating, long-range and capital planning, quarterly and annual earnings and cash flow forecasting. Furthermore all major capital projects and monitoring and assessment of all segment/business unit operating performance. Moreover they are evaluating the financial impact on key business decisions and alternatives, and projects aimed at improving the financial performance of the company. They also make proposals to the board of directors concerning these matters. Accounting Shared Services: Their mission is to provide exceptional service, low cost processing and value added information/consulting for enterprise vide accounting and HR functions. The group work with all the business units to consolidate and optimize transaction oriented processes. Corporate synergy and special projects: This unit under corporate administration of the company develops plans and strategies to foster collaboration across all business units. This department work with identifying, communicating and supporting the annual company-wide marketing and synergy initiatives and partners with the different divisions in order to drive those priorities into their business. Corporate Strategy business Planning and Technology: Work with business units to optimize their strategies at the segment level. One can also say that the end result of an organisational process is an organisation. In other words a whole consisting of unified parts acting in harmony to execute tasks to achieve the goals both effectively and efficiently (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/The-Organizational-Process.topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8875.html). It can be said to be the process of the product life cycle. In The Walt Disney Company and its Media and Broadcasting segment, the company has established a culture were innovation is encouraged. As stated, Since our brand is innovative, entertaining and inviting, we create a similar learning environment that encourages employees to learn and develop in engaging and developing ways (http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/learning.html). As a result of this, the company offer a variety of training programs and learning opportunities. In addition to this the company recognize and reward their employees both individually and in teams (http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/rewards_and_recognition.html). This can also be said to be part of the organisational processes of the company.

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

Critically evaluate to what extent the ‘somatic-marker hypothesis’ explains how decisions are made in the face of an uncertain outcome. In mind of Kim Sterelny’s (2007) statement that ‘Human Life is one long decision tree’, it is not surprising that there has been a vast amount of research into the process of how we evaluate the desirability of alternative choices and select a particular option.One area of research, of particular interest here, is Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH) (1991) which uses the neuroeconomic approach through its integration of the fields of psychology, neuroscience and economics to invoke an understanding of how one makes a decision (Damasio, Tranel & Damasio, 1998). This Theory supports the RAF hypothesis that significant risky outcomes elicit emotional reactions (Stanfey, Loewenstein, McClue & Cohen, 2006,).The SMH proposes that stochastic decision making is the result of emotion-based biasing signals in the b ody- in particular from the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (VMPFC) (Bechara, Damasio, Tranel & Damasio, 2005). This concept will be discussed in further detail (with reference to it’s origin and experimental support), followed by a critical analysis of the extent to which the SMH successfully explains what it contends to.Since the SMH focuses solely on the role of emotion in decision making, the Rationale Planning Model (1995) will also be examined in comparison to the SMH for it’s explanation of decision making as a purely logical and rational process. The Rational Planning Model by Banfield (1995) proposes that the decision maker consciously undergoes five steps when coming to a decision and so approaches the choice in a very rational manner. Subsequently, an evaluation of the two theories for stochastic decision making will follow to discern how well they account for stochastic decision making.The SMH stemmed from attempts to explain why a patient (E. V. R. ), with an ablation of the VMPFC, often engaged in behaviors that were detrimental to his wellbeing (Damasio, 1996). Emotion was originally believed to be a disruptive force in decision making, but since the VMPFC is in charge of emotional function, it was now speculated to be essential for the ability to make a decision. Further investigation into this phenomenon through neuropsychological examination, found that those patients with damage to their VMPFC evinced a generally flat affect and an inability to respond to emotional situations (Bolla et al. 003). Thus, Damasio extracted that the decision making deficits experienced by these patients was a result of this altered psychophysiological response (Damasio, 1996). His SMH contends that when presented with a decision, the normal brain will use the VMPFC to react emotionally to the situation and generate ‘somatic markers’ in order to come to a decision. A somatic marker is best defined as the brains construction of a physiolog ical change that it apprehends for the selection of a particular strategy. It supposedly guides attention towards the more advantageous option (Dalgleish, 2004).This enables the organism to react quicker to external stimuli as it no longer needs to wait for the activity to emerge in the periphery before it can elicit a reaction (Dalgleish, 2004). Furthermore, the VMPFC is thought to support association learning between complex situations and the somatic changes usually experienced during a particular situation (Jameson, Hinson, & Whitney, 2004). Put simply, once a previous situation that elicited similar somatic markers is identified, the VMPFC can use past experiences to rapidly evaluate possible behavior responses.So when the VMPFC suffers impairment, the somatic marker system can no longer be activated, resulting in an absence of physiological feedback and an inability to predict long term punishments and rewards. This occurrence has been termed ‘Myopia for the futureâ€⠄¢, where a decision may only be formulated by the use of a logical cost-benefit analysis (Dalgleish, 2004). However, if one was presented with an uncertain situation, the result would be marked impairment. The SMH substantiates its argument through the experimental paradigm: the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) (Bechara et al, 1997, cited in Dunn, Dalgleish & Lawrence, 2006).The task measures decision making in patients with VMPFC brain lesions and compares it to those people with a normally functioning VMPFC. The experiment involves selecting a card from a choice of four decks- each of which attributes different levels of reward and punishment in the form of winning or losing pretend money. Two of the decks provide a low reward and a low level of punishment and were labeled the advantageous decks. The remaining two decks provide a high reward and a high level of punishment and were named the disadvantageous decks. Control articipants initially sampled both decks equally but shifted their choice to the advantageous decks after experiencing the high punishment from the disadvantageous one. Conversely, the subjects with damage to their VMPFC were seemingly insensitive to the negative consequences of the disadvantageous decks and would continually choose from these decks on account of their high reward (Dunn et al. 2006). The study concludes that the reason the patients failed to comprehend the advantageous decks as the more profitable option, was due to their inability to generate the somatic markers necessary for such a realization (Dunn et al. 006). Furthermore, Bechara et al. (2005) combined the gambling task with the measurement of skin-conductance response (SCR). It was found that control subjects elicited larger anticipatory SCRs before picking from the disadvantageous decks as oppose to the advantageous decks. The absence of anticipatory SCRs in the VMPFC lesion group confirmed the failure for the VMPFC to activate negative, physiological marking signals based o n previous punishment history which ultimately made them insensitive to the possibility of future punishment from the deck (Schmitt, Brinkley & Newman, 1999).Hence, a positive correlation between successful IGT performance and a healthy participants’ ability to develop somatic marker signals was reported. The extensive validation of the IGT, strengthens the evidence for the role of emotion in decision making. For example, patients with various kinds of frontal lobe damage and patients with lesions to the lateral temporal or occipital cortex have also been tested in the IGT (Best, Williams & Coccaro, 2002). Of these patients, only the ones with damage to their VMPFC appear to be impaired on the task (Bechara, Damasio & Damasio, 2000).Furthermore, Overman (2004) has conducted a study outside of the Iowa laboratory and has replicated Damasio’s findings with the extension of gender differences. Overman’s results showed that adolescent men chose from the decks on the basis of long-term outcome only. Moreover, the predictive validity of the IGT and therefore SMH, has demonstrated an association between the response of OCD patients to pharmacotherapy and performance on the IGT (Cavedini, Bassi, Zozi & Bellodi, 2004).This depicts the behavioral form of the IGT to be a very sensitive measure of decision making as its results are highly applicable to real world decision making (e. g. those with OCD). Although the study does much to support the SMH argument, it has also received a lot of criticism which will be subsequently addressed. It has been contested that the work from the Iowa laboratory provides only superficial support for the SMH, since closer analysis can reveal issues that potentially undermine its argument for decision making in the face of an uncertain outcome.For example, Maia & McClelland (2004) contend that the IGT can be performed through access to conscious, explicit knowledge since the task allows a lengthy time to deliberate over each decision- especially since the outcomes are presented in explicit numerical form. Thus, they refute the claim that task acquisition necessarily requires the generation of non conscious ‘somatic marker’ signals which effectively weakens the extent to which the SMH accurately explains decision making in terms of emotion- for it may not be the result of an implicit neural mechanism (Maia & McClelland, 2004. Another criticism of the IGT (and therefore the SMH) is that the patients with VMPFC damage could have been quite apathetic to the study’s demands and expectations. Barrash, Tranel & Anderson (2000) report that patients with lesions to their VMPFC often experience symptoms of apathy and are actually capable of improving their emotional response to affective images if instructed to look carefully. Therefore, if the patients are in fact competent of generating anticipatory SCRs and successfully completing the task, it can be postulated that enhancing their en gagement levels would raise their results to match the control groups.In terms of the implications this would have for the SMH, it would serve as evidence that emotion does not play that great a role in decision making since they can still obtain the same results with impaired emotional ability. Furthermore, Fellows and Farah (2005) have suggested that the syndrome of apathy may deserve more attention in understanding impaired decision making. Similarly, another symptom of VMPFC damage, which can adversely affect performance in the IGT, is impaired reversal learning (Rolls, Hornak, Wade & McGrath, 1994).The IGT is centred on a response reversal in which involves a shift in preference from the two initially rewarding decks to the other two decks due to subsequent punishment (Rolls et al. 1994). Both Fellows & Farah (2005) and Rolls et al (1994), corroborate that lesions to the VMPFC allow normal acquisition but impaired reversal on simple reversal learning tasks. Therefore, the impai red reversal learning, rather than the inability to generate somatic markers, may well account for why patients find it so difficult to perform correctly in the IGT.Fellows & Farah (2005) devised a study to test this notion by removing the response reversal. It was found that by eliminating the rewards of the two disadvantageous decks in the opening trials, the performance of the VMPFC impaired patients was the same as that of the control volunteers. This research suggests that the IGT may not have been testing the role of emotion in decision making but instead, how capable the subjects were in their response reversal.Therefore, the extent to which the SMH explains how decisions are made is further limited since the evidence that emotions play a direct role is very weak. Additionally, the SMH is arguably only applicable to certain decision making and cannot account for those decisions that need rationality and a thoughtful, conscious planning process. Banfield’s Rational Plan ning Model (1959) (RPM), on the other hand, may serve as a good explanation for decision making in such a situation.Banfield states that a rational decision is made when the decision maker lists all the opportunities for action, recognises all the consequences and selects the action based on the preferred consequence. Additionally, Banfield defines a ‘plan’ as a decision with regard to a course of action, involving a similar process as any rational choice. The RPM consists of four main stages: the analysis of the situation, the end reduction and elaboration (formulating an image of the future had an option been picked), the design of courses of action, and the comparative evaluation of consequences (Banfield, 1995).Banfield’s RPM is the most widely subscribed planning theory to date and although it has experienced criticism, it has been hailed very useful in explaining how we make important decisions. According to Stiftel (2000), important decisions are ones whic h demand explicit conscious planning such as buying a house or taking a new job. These decisions are arguably unlikely to be a result of the emotional hunches or gut instincts that Damasio discusses since they almost always involved a mental list of pros and cons before arriving at a decision.However, this theory fails to explain why some people make irrational and illogical decisions in the face of an uncertain outcome. For example, criminals do not logically plan or weigh up the consequences of an action before undertaking, which highlights that there are multiple explanations for how people make decisions. Banfield recognises that people are generally very opportunistic in their daily decision making as rather than materialising a course of action, people will improvise and meet each crisis as it arises.For instance, large industries rarely look forward more than five to ten years and government planning is even less effective (Stiftel). Since Banfield himself appreciates that th e majority of decisions are the unintended outcome of a ‘social process rather than the conscious product of deliberation and calculation’, there is clearly a cause to investigate the role of social processes in decision making (Banfield, 1995 pp. 13). In conclusion, the extent to which the Somatic Marker Hypothesis explains decision making in the face of an uncertain outcome is limited.As it has been demonstrated, Damasio’s SMH attempts to pin decision making down to emotional biasing signals alone and has received various criticisms for its empirical support. For example, it attempts to validate its theory by testing VMPFC patients who may already be too cognitively impaired to perform the task (Barrash et al, 2000). Additionally, the extent to which the IGT measures an implicit response has also been questioned on the grounds that the task allows a great deal of time for deliberation (Maia & McClelland).Thus, Banfield’s Rational Planning Model was exami ned as an alternative explanation for decision making. The RPM does a lot to discredit the SMH and is essentially a valuable explanation of how we make decisions since it highlights that the majority of important decisions force the individual into a conscious process of planning and analysing. However, like the SMH, the RPM alone cannot explain decision making for there are individuals (criminals) who defy deliberation. This highlights that decisions are most likely the cause of an interplay of factors, depending on both the situation and person.To summarise, the SMH does little to explain the tricky phenomenon of decision making in the face of an uncertain outcome- but it would be too deterministic to deem this process down to just one theory alone. Referencing: Banfield, E. C. (1959), â€Å"Ends and means in planning†, International Social Science Journal, Vol. 11, pp. 361-8. Barrash, J. , Tranel, D. , Anderson, S. W. , (2000). Acquired personality distrubances associated with bilateral damage to the ventromedial prefrontal region. Developmental Neuropsychology 18 (3), 355–381. Bechara, A. , Damasio, H. , Damasio, A. R. , (2000).Emotion, decision making and the orbitofrontal cortex. Cerebral Cortex 10, 295–307 Bechara, A. , Damasio, H. , Tranel, D. , Damasio, A. R. , (2005). The Iowa Gambling Task and the somatic marker hypothesis: some questions and answers. Trends in Cogntive Sciences 9 (4), 159–162. Best, M. , Williams, J. M. , Coccaro, E. F. , (2002). Evidence for a dysfunctional prefrontal circuit in patients with an impulsive aggressive disorder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 99 (12), 8448–8453. Bolla, K. I. , Eldreth, D. A. , London, E. D. , Kiehl, K. A. , Mouratidis, M. , Contoreggi, C. , et al. (2003). Orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in abstinent cocaine abusers performing a decision-making task. Neuroimage 19 (3), 1085–1094. Cavedini, P. , Bassi, T. , Zorzi, C. , Bellodi, L. , (2004). The advantages of choosing antiobsessive therapy according to decision-making functioning. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 24 (6), 628–631. Dalgleish, T. , 2004. The emotional brain. Nature Neuroscience Reviews 5 (7), 583–589. Jameson, T. L. , Hinson, J. M. , Whitney, P. , 2004. Components of working memory and somatic markers in decision making. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 11 (3), 515–520.Damasio, A. R. , 1996. The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (series B) 351 (1346), 1413–1420. Damasio, A. R. , Tranel, D. , Damasio, H. C. (1998) Somatic markers and the guidance of behaviour. In Jekins, M. J. , Oatley, K & Stein, L. M. (Eds. ), Human Emotion: a reader (pp 122- 125). Oxford: Blackwell. Dunn, D. B. , Dalgleish, T. , Lawrence, A. D. (2006). The Somatic Marker Hypothesis: A critical evaluation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 30. , 23 9–271. Fellows, L. K. , Farah, M. J. 2005a. Different underlying impairments in decision-making following ventromedial and dorsolateral frontal lobe damage in humans. Cerebral Cortex 15 (1), 58–63. Jameson, T. L. , Hinson, J. M. , & Whitney, P. (2004). Components of working memory and somatic markers in decision making. Psychological Bulletin & Review, 11, 515–520 Maia, T. V. , McClelland, J. L. , 2004. A reexamination of the evidence for the somatic marker hypothesis: what participants really know in the Iowa gambling task. Proceedings of the National Academy for Science USA 101 (45), 16075–16080. Overman, W. H. , 2004.Sex differences in early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood on cognitive tasks that rely on orbital prefrontal cortex. Brain and Cognition 55 (1), 134–147. Rolls, E. T. , Hornak, J. , Wade, D. , McGrath, J. , 1994. Emotion-related learning in patients with social and emotional changes associated with frontal lobe damage. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 57 (12), 1518–1524. Schmitt, W. A. , Brinkley, A. C. , Newman, P. J. (1999). Testing Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis With Psychopathic Individuals: Risk takers or Risk Averse. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 108 (3), 538-543.Sanfey, A. G. , Loewenstein, G. , McClure, S. M. , & Cohen, J. D. (2006). Neuroeconomics: cross-currents in research on decision-making. Trends in Cognitive Science, 10, 108-116. Sterelny, K. (2007). Cognitive Load and Human Decision, or, Three Ways of Rolling the Rock Up Hill. In Carruthers, P. , Laurence, S. , & Stich, S. (Eds. ), The Innate Mind: Volume 2: Culture and Cognition (PP. 148-152). Oxford Scholarship Online. Stiftel, B (2000). â€Å"Plannin theory. II. The national AICP examination preparation course guidebook. Ed Roshi Pajaseyed. Am. Inst. Cert. Planners: Washington DC. Pp. 4-16

The Benefits of a Gluten-Free Diet - 2019 Words

The Benefits of a Gluten-Free Diet The word gluten comes from the Latin word glutin, meaning glue (Merriam-Webster). Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat and most other cereal grains, it gives dough and other produces their cohesiveness. It is very important to society, because without it, traditional baking would not be possible. The chainlike gluten molecules form an elastic network that traps gas and makes the dough expand (Keis). In other words, it is what makes brownies and other baked goods rise. Gluten related diseases are rapidly increasing. According to Tanda Cook, about ten thousand years ago, people in the East started cultivating grains to eat. They have been a part of the human diet for thousands of years in some places of the world, but it has only been part of the North American, Asian, African, and part of Europe’s diet for a relatively short period of time. In these places where grains were not consumed, people hunted and fished for protein, and got vitamins from fruits and vegetables. As the World started to develop more, farm techniques were improved, giving way to a more controlled way of agriculture. Through exploration and expansion, these techniques spread worldwide. Mediterranean countries such as Spain, France, and Portugal imported these grains and farming technology to the New World through the Columbian Exchange. Although gluten bearing foods were introduced worldwide, Joannie Ham says it was not until the industrial revolution when theseShow More RelatedBenefits Of A Gluten Free Diet809 Words   |  4 Pagestry to promote better health with unique diets. The increasingly popular gluten-free diet is just one of them. This diet, originally a way to treat the immune disease Celiac disease, has become one of the most popular (and controversial) diets on the market. 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Microsoft Corporation Example For Free - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 1952 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Tags: Microsoft Essay Did you like this example? Microsoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products, including operating systems and applications for servers, personal computers, consumer applications and intelligent devices; server applications for distributed computing environments; information worker productivity applications; business solutions applications; high-performance computing applications; software development tools; Internet software and technologies and video games. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. The company also provides consulting, product and solution support services, and training and certifications for computer system integrators and developers. Microsoft also designs and commercializes hardware including the Xbox 360 video game console, t he Zune digital music and entertainment device, and peripherals. Other online offerings are: Bing, Windows Live, Office Live, MSN, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Exchange Hosted Services, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and adCenter platform. Present in more than 100 countries, Microsoft Corporation employed as of June 30, 2009, approximately 93,000 people on a full-time basis, 56,000 in the United States and 37,000 internationally. Microsoft Corporation business is divided into five operating segments: Client, Server and Tools, Online Services Business, Microsoft Business Division, and Entertainment and Devices Division. In this study, the Microsoft Corporation annual reports ended respectively June 30, 2008 and June 30, 2009 are used to compute financial ratios in order to assess the financial position and performance of the company. Those reports, the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes they contain were prepared in accordance with accountin g principles generally accepted in the United States of America and are expressed in US Dollar ($). The audit of independent registered public accounting firm was conducted in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), and an unqualified opinion on the Companys internal control over financial reporting was expressed for both reports. The following figures contain the selected data from the annual reports 2008 2009 that were used for ratios calculation, and the different ratios that have been computed together with some industry averages taken from Reuters and Infinancials websites and the ratios formulae used. A study of the profitability, liquidity, efficiency, investment and capital structure ratios is then presented. Finally, using a recent share price of Apple inc., the price earnings ratios of the two companies are computed and compared. Profitability A 3.39% decrease in sales and a 4.58% increase in cost o f revenues led to a small decrease of the gross margin of Microsoft corp. from 2008 to 2009. As stated in 2009 10K report, the revenues of Microsoft decreased in this period across all segments due to the global PC market decline and the bad economic environment. During this period, the revenues from Windows operating systems and from the Entertainment and Devices Division all decreased. Although server and server application revenue increased, the overall profitability of the company declined a little. A reported decrease of general and administrative and sales and marketing expenses, mixed with an increase in headcount-related expenses, cost of revenue, and employee severance charges led to a stable operating expenses. But the decrease in revenues led to a lower operating margin in 2009 in comparison with 2008. The gap is bigger when comparing the return on sales between 2009 2008. This is explained by the 21.36% decrease in Microsoft net income. Indeed, the company r eported a $125 million loss in net investment (compared to $346 million gain in 2008), a $558 million loss on derivatives (compared to $226 million gain in 2008) and a $509 million loss on foreign currency re-measurements compared to $226 million gain in 2008. Microsoft began in July 2008 presenting gains and losses resulting from foreign currency re-measurements as a component of other income (expense) rather than as a component of sales and marketing expense. The return on assets ratio further decreases due to higher assets in 2009 and the increase in liabilities sets the difference between the return on capital employed ratios to around 10 points lower in 2009 than in 2008. An overall decrease in the profitability ratios of Microsoft corp. is noticed in 2009 compared to 2008 due to several conditions, the most important being the PC market decline, the global economic environment and an increase in expenses like headcount-related expenses. Microsoft expects however fo r the upcoming years, a revival of the economic market, higher income with the new operating system (Windows7) release and a decrease in overall expenses thanks to the implemented resource management program in January 2009 to reduce discretionary operating expenses, employee headcount, and capital expenditures. Microsoft announced, as part of this program, the downsizing of its human resources by the elimination of up to 5,000 positions by June 30, 2010. And when comparing the profitability ratios with the industry averages, Microsoft seems to remain and to continue to be a very profitable company. Liquidity Efficiency The current ratio and the acid test ratio are higher in 2009 than in 2008. This is explained by the fact that Microsoft is having higher assets and lower liabilities. Furthermore, Microsoft seems to better handle the payable and receivable accounts. Indeed, the credit control ratio (DSO) and the credit taken ratio (DPO) both decreased, and DSO is maintai ned to be much lower than the DPO. Inventory turnover or DIO is equal to 25.20 days in 2009 in comparison to 32.78 days in 2008, which means a faster moving stock and a less tied up capital. Those better liquidity results are mainly due to the Client operating segment of Microsoft corp., where the changes in the mix of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Windows premium edition operating systems, and the lower cost of netbook PCs, which are sold with a lower cost version of Windows, helped in increasing the rate of inventories turnover. And in comparing with industry averages, we can notice that Microsoft holds good liquidity conditions. Capital structure In September and November 2008, Microsoft corp. board of directors authorized short-term and long-term debt financings. This represented in 2009 a $2.0 billion short-term and a $3.75 billion long-term debts that are intended to be used for general corporate purposes, including funding for working capital, capital e xpenditures, repurchases of capital stock, and acquisitions. This led to a leverage ratio of 14.53% in 2009 versus 0% in 2008. The decrease in equity in 2009 however compensated these new debts, and the total debt to equity ratio decreased from 100.61% in 2008 to 96.90% in 2009. Although the total debt to equity is slightly higher than industry average, the leverage ratio is greatly lower then the industry average and the company pays no interest. Investment With a lower income and a higher equity, the return on equity ratio falls from 52.48% in 2008 to 38.42% in 2009. This is explained by the significant increase in the assets due to short term investments. Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments represent $31.4 billion at June 30, 2009, compared with $23.7 billion as of June 30, 2008. Microsoft reports the investments to consist primarily of fixed-income securities, diversified among industries and individual issuers. However, the return on equity r atio of Microsoft remains well higher than the industry average. A higher dividend per share and a lower share price (taken at June 30, 2008 and June 30, 2009) led to a higher dividend yield ratio. To compensate the decrease in net income that led to a decline in the earnings per share, Microsoft corp. board of directors approved two shares repurchase programs during the first quarter of fiscal year 2007 to buy back up to $40.0 billion of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft repurchased 318 million shares during the twelve months ended June 30, 2009. Finally the earnings per share moved from 1.9 in 2008 to 1.63 in 2009. Taking the share price at June 30, 2008 2009, the price earning ratio of Microsoft increases from 13.71 to 14.59. Even if it remains lower than the industry average, it means that the market confidence in the future of Microsoft corp. business is higher in 2009 than in 2008. The price earning ratios, when computed using share price as by January 17, 2010, a re 16.28 for 2008 and 18.95 for 2009, which means that investors are more confident in Microsofts ability to generate profit than in 2009 and are expecting a better growth of Microsoft during 2010. The 2009 price earning ratio becomes higher than the industry average (17.4), which means that Microsoft is now considered as a worth-investing company. This is probably explained by the apparent world economic situation recovery, and the release of the new Windows7 operating system. Apple inc. A comparison can be made between Microsoft corp. and Apple inc. using their relative price/earning ratios. In order to do the comparison, the annual financial report of Apple inc. is used. The earning per share (EPS) for 2009 is reported to be 6.39. The share price as by January 17, 2010 for Apple inc. is $205.93 (taken from Reuters website). This leads to a price earning ratio of 32.23. The price/earning ratio of Microsoft corp. taking the share price at the same date is 18.95 . It is clear that the price earning ratio of Apple inc. is well higher that the ratio of Microsoft corp., which means that investors predict Apple to have greater growth in the futures in comparison to Microsoft. Indeed, even though Apple generated $36.537 billion revenue and $5.704 billion net income in 2009 (taken from Apple inc. 2009 annual report), which is lower than the $58.437 billion revenue and $14.569 billion net income generated by Microsoft in 2009; net sales during 2009 increased $4.1 billion or 12% compared to 2008, whereas Microsoft corp. reported a 3.39% decrease in sales from 2008 to 2009. This growth in sales and net income of Apple inc. is explained by the fact that the iPhone revenue and net sales of related products and services increased of $4.9 billion or 266% compared to 2008. iPhone handset unit sales also grew by 78% during 2009 compared to 2008. The net sales of other music-related products and services also grew by $696 million or 21% during 2009 compared to 2008. Those 2 major products of Apple inc. are expected to grow further during the coming year and are contributing to the recognized good financial health of Apple inc. It is however important to mention that, even though Apple inc. 2009 annual report has been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and are expressed in US Dollar ($) like for Microsoft corp., the reported financial data correspond to a closing accounting date as by September 26, 2009, whereas Microsoft corp. closing accounting date is June 30, 2009. This difference might bias the earnings per share reported ratios and thus the price earning ratios. It is also important to notice that although the high share price of Apple inc. in comparison to its earnings and in comparison to Microsoft corp., a prospective investor has to take into account the fact that Apple inc. did not declare nor pay any cash dividends in either 2009 or 2008 , and that Apple anticipates that for the foreseeable future it will retain any earnings for use in the operation of its business; whereas Microsoft corp. paid $4.468 billion in 2009 and $4.015 billion in 2008 to its shareholders. Last, we can notice that Microsoft corp. and Apple inc. are supposed to be in the same industry as both are developing software and hardware products. However, Microsoft corp.s main revenues are generated by the software segment (Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Office suite of productivity software), whereas the most profitable products of Apple inc. are hardware related (Desktops, portables, iPod and iPhone). Conclusion In this report, the financial data of Microsoft Corporation for fiscal years 2008 2009 have been studied. Relevant financial ratios have been computed in order to compare the companys health over the two years. The profitability of the company fell a little from 2008 to 2009. However, it remains highly profita ble in comparison to industry peers. Microsoft corp. presents a better liquidity and is more efficient in 2009 than in 2008, and remains over the industry averages. Debts issued in late 2008 deteriorated the company leverage, but an increase in companys equity limited its effects. The investment ratios grew from 2008 to 2009 and are higher than industry averages. The comparison with a competitor, namely Apple inc. seems to prove that the latter is expected to have a higher growth in the future; however, Microsoft Corporation seems to still represent a good investment opportunity. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Microsoft Corporation Example For Free" essay for you Create order