Mergers, Acquisitions, and International Strategies Research Paper

Mergers, Acquisitions, and International Strategies - Research Paper Example The second company is selected on the merit that it is a public corporation with no history of mergers and acquisition and it operates solely within the United States market; the company that was selected under this merit is the Buffalo Wild Wings. The researcher paper will evaluate the strategy that led to the mergers and acquisitions undertaken by McDonald’s Corporation and it will stipulate whether the mergers and acquisitions were wise choices. In addition, the research paper will evaluate McDonald Corporation’s international business-level strategy and corporate-level strategy and then provide recommendations for improvements. Secondly, the research paper will identify one company that would be a profitable candidate for Buffalo Wild Wings to merge with or acquire. Lastly, the paper will propose one business-level strategy and one corporate-level strategy that can be effective and profitable for Buffalo Wild Wings. McDonald’s Corporation According to Warwick (2013), McDonald Corporation is the largest publicly traded hamburger fast food restaurant chain in the world, which serves averagely 60 million customers in over 115 countries across the world on a daily basis. The McDonald brothers originally started the company in 1940 but it was fully acquired by Ray Kroc who joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955, and this marked the first experience of the company with mergers and acquisitions. Among the companies that the McDonald Corporation has acquired or merged within its years of operations, including the Piles Cafe, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Donatos Pizza but it has sold off the two latter subsidiaries (Warwick, 2013). The McDonald’s restaurants offer a wide menu to their customers, which consist of French fries, hamburgers, chicken, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, breakfast items, desserts, milkshakes, fruits, smoothies, wraps, salads, and fish. Presently, the company boasts of total assets worth over $32 billion and tot al revenue of over $27 billion and a net income of over $ 5 billion in the past financial year. Buffalo Wild Wings Warwick (2013) wrote that Scott Lowery and James Disbrow opened up the first Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in 1982 at Columbus, Ohio. As of 2013, the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain, which trades at the NASDAQ, had established its operations in approximately 910 locations mostly in North America and currently, there are ongoing talks about the expansion of the restaurant chain. The menu of Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants mainly consists of Buffalo wings and sauces. In the last financial year, the company generated $748 million in revenues from across its entire business operations. Strategy for McDonald’s mergers and acquisitions According to Warwick (2013), McDonald’s boosts of more than 34,000 locations worldwide and this has been facilitated by the franchising strategy that has so far enabled the corporation to have representation in many countries a nd further enabling it to become among the most popular brands in the world. Besides the franchising strategy, McDonald’s has been able to have a wide market presence because of acquisitions and mergers with other restaurant chains. Concerning this Warwick (2013) stated that McDonald’s undertook various mergers and acquisitions deals during the 1990’s which enabled it to significantly increase its market share, revenue level, and the net income.

Participant-Observer Exercise Essay Example for Free

Participant-Observer Exercise Essay First of all, I am grateful to all class members and our instructor for the experience that I was able to acquire during this course. This is a good example of experiential learning – here we all had opportunities to transform our theoretical knowledge into real life experience. It really proved effective. I may also note that the last group engagement exercise did not disprove my previous hypotheses: with time and the experience of joint work we all got more confident about the tasks, and with the raise of confidence our productivity increased. I think we all got to know each other better and it increased the level of confidence. My hypothesis for this week is: â€Å"Group work gets real meaning and becomes more productive when group members bring in their personal insights and personal experiences instead of confining themselves to theorizing and relying on common sense. † At first, we knew each other too little to be open and share our personal experience. With time, we got to know each other better and gradually became more relaxed about sharing our thoughts. I think it had a positive impact on our performance. It helped to provide more examples of the concepts we presented. Our task was to discuss experiential learning and how it assists in exercising leadership and understanding group dynamics. We focused on several chosen principles in our presentation, and each of us was able to vitalize theory by referring to specific examples. This level of openness was quite impossible during the first exercise. Personal insights helped us all better understand theory and make a more interesting presentation. In fact, this experience once again proves Principle 9 that we discussed in our presentation: â€Å"The more supportive, accepting, and caring the social environment, the freer a person is to experiment with new behaviors, attitudes, and action theories† (Johnson Johnson, 2009, p. 51). Since all were open and ready to introduce a personal insight, we felt the environment to be rather supportive and accepting. As a result, we felt more confident and could communicate our thoughts freely. It provided greater value to our group work and helped to fulfill our task more successfully. References Johnson, D. W. , Johnson, F. P. (2009). Joining together: Group theory and group skills. 10th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn Bacon.

Three Types of Happiness Essay -- Happiness Essays

â€Å"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.† -- Denis Waitley Many people believe that happiness is simply a state of well being; to me, happiness is much more complex. Absolute happiness is anything that brings feelings of pure bliss to an individual’s life. One can gain happiness from simple pleasures of life, such as receiving a kiss from a three-year old, to advanced pleasures, such as a happy marriage or a successful career. Dr. Seligman, a well known psychologist and proponent of positive psychology, identified three types of happiness: pleasant life, engaged life, and meaningful life. Although Dr. Seligman states that the ultimate forms of happiness are â€Å"meaningful life† and â€Å"engaged life†, I believe that â€Å"pleasant life† happiness is just as important. One type of happiness is known as â€Å"engaged life†. â€Å"Engaged life† happiness involves exploring and harnessing one’s strengths and talents to the benefit of himself and society. I experience â€Å"engaged life† happiness when I play my piano. As soon as touch the smooth, ivory keys, I feel an intense surge of joy, and all my surroundings seem to be just a blur; the music soon takes over me, and I am lost in a world of Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. When I am at my piano, all my cares and doubts seem to disappear, and my life seems, at that solitary moment in time, to make perfect sense. Music is my life and my soul. Another type of happiness is â€Å"meaningful life†. â€Å"Meaningful life† happiness, according to Seligman, is the most genuine form of happiness. It is the epitome of life; the point where one feels completely and utterly satisfied... ...† and â€Å"meaningful life† happiness are truer forms of happiness as compared to â€Å"pleasant life† happiness, I stand firm in my belief that the simplistic pleasures one obtains from â€Å"pleasant life† happiness are just as powerful as the joys one obtains from â€Å"engaged life† and â€Å"meaningful life† happiness. My blackberry picking outing enabled me to not only obtain bucketfuls of delectable blackberries but also to spend precious moments of the day with my family, and that, in itself, makes me truly happy. Works Cited Stockley, Derek. â€Å"Positive Psychology and the Three Types of Happiness.† High Performance Newsletter. 3 November 2006. Web. 29 June 2010. Denis Waitley Quote. Wisdom Quotes. â€Å"Happiness Quotes.† Wisdom Quotes. 29 June 2010.

Jawhar Gram Samridhi Yojna

Its name then got changed to Jawhar Gram Samridhi Yojna . lt was started on 1 April 1999. The main aim of this programme was development of rural infrastructure. Belief that good rural infrastructure would give rise to many opportunities which poor rural people could benefit and improve their condition. Infrastructure like roads to connect the village to different area, which made the village more accessible and also other social, educational(schools) and Infrastructure Ilke hospitals. Its secondary objective was to give out sustained wage employment.This was only given to BPL (below the poverty ine)famllnder was to be spent for Individual beneficiary schemes for SCS and ST's and 3% for establishment of barrier free infrastructure for the disabled people. The village panchayats were one of the main governing body of this programme. There it did not feel like an outsider was controlling it, the village panchayats were a part of the people and understood their needs. ThOOO 1841. 80 cro re was used and they had a target of 8. 57 lakh works, 5. 07 lakh works were completed during 1999-2000.Employment Assurance Scheme(EAS) This scheme was started on 1 October 1993. It was first started in 1772 backward areas In 257 districts. The revamped public distribution system was in operation here. It was later expanded to all the 5448 rural blocks of the country. The employment assurance scheme was later renamed red In 1999-2000 to the single wage employment programme. The maln objective was to create wage employment opportunities through manual work for the people inrea living below 13/12/2012 7:31 PM http://en. wikipedia. rg/wiki/poverty_alleviation_programmes_in_lndia the poverty line in the time of acute shortage of wage employment. The other objective is creation of durable community and social and economic for sustained employment and development of the poor. This scheme is available all the poor andy people living below the poverty line who cannot help themselves. preto SC and STs and also to parents of children those who have Just been saved from child labour and from hazardous working conditions who are bellow the poverty line. Also only 2 adults of the family are given wage employment.This programme is carried out and implemented through Zilla parishads and in those states where Zilla parishads are not there, it is implemented through DRDA's. The Zilla parishads finalize all the works in their Jurisdiction which is approved by the MP's(members of parliament)The zliia arisahds are allowed to spend 15% of the funds for the maintenance of the assets formed and created under this scheme. During 1999 and 2000 they had an target of 4091. 63 mandays, 2566. 39 lakh mandays were created and the total allocation of funds during that year was 2431. 46 crore and the amount that was used was Rs 1998. 6 crore. National Old Age Pension Scheme(NOAPS) As the name suggest this scheme provided pension to old people who were above the age of 65 who could not fend for them selves and did not have any means of substinence. The pension that was given was Rs 200 a month. This pension is given y the central government. The Job of implementation of this scheme in states and union territories is given to panchayats and municipalities. The states contribution may vary depending on the state. National Family Benefit Scheme(NFBS) This scheme was started in August 1995 by GO'. This scheme is sponsored by the state government.It was transferred to the state sector scheme after 2002-03. It is under the community and rural department. This scheme provides a sum of 10000Rs to a person of a family who become the head of the family after the death of its primary breadwinner. A breadwinner is a person who is above 18 who earns the ost for the family and the family survives on his/her earnings. It is for families below the poverty line. National Maternity Benefit Scheme This scheme provides a sum of 500 Rs to a pregnant mother for the first two live births. Th e women have to be older than 19 years of age.It is given normally 12-8 weeks DeTore tne Dlrtn ana In case 0T tne aeatn 0T tne cn110 tne women can stlll avall it. The NSAP is implemented by states and union territories with the help of panchayats and municipalities. During 1999-2000 the total allocation of funds for this scheme was 767. 05 crores and the amount used was Rs 596. 99 crores. ANNAPURNA This scheme was started by the government in 1999-2000 to provide food to senior citizens who cannot take care of themselves and are not under the targeted public distribution system(TPDS), and who have no one to take care of them in their village.

Introduction to Organic Chemistry Essay

Amines are compounds composed of nitrogen atoms bearing alkyl or aromatic compounds. Amines undergo interesting reactions, one of which is with the reaction with nitrous acid producing an azo dye. In this study, the experiment focused on synthesizing an observing the physical properties of Sudan-1. Sudan-1 is of the most common dyes found in waxes, oils and in some food ingredients specifically curry and chilli powder. Furthermore, this study aimed to understand the mechanism behind the synthesis of 1-phenylazo-2-naphtol. To be able to synthesize Sudan-1, preparation of phenyldiazonium chloride solution and ÃŽ ²- naphthol solution were done. Ingrain dyeing was also done in this experiment. The synthesis of Sudan-1 has a two-step reaction – diazotization and coupling reactions. Diazotization is the formation of diazonium salt, meanwhile, the coupling reaction took place when an activated aromatic compound, ÃŽ ²-naphtol was reacted with the diazonium salt, benzene diazonium chloride, to form the azo compound known as the 1-phenylazo-2-naphthol. As a result, an orange-red precipitate was formed after series of reaction. Hence, all the said objectives in this experiment were achieved. Amines are compounds that are composed of a nitrogen atom bearing alkyl or aromatic groups. They are basic and nucleophilic because of their lone pair. They occur both in plants and animals. Amines produces some of the most interesting effects and of the common reaction of aminewith nitrous acid producing a dye[4]. Alizarin, for example is a red dye extracted from madder root used by Egyptians and Persians. However, in this experiment, it aimed to produce a dye commonly known as Sudan-1. Sudan-1 is a lysochrome with the chemical formula 1-phenylazo-2-naphthol. It is a powdered substance with an orange-red color. This azo dye is most commonly found in waxes, oils, and also in some food coloring ingredients – curry powder and chili powder. However, the presence of Sudan-1 in most foods now is currently being banned because it has been classified to be carcinogenic. This experiment focused on synthesizing of 1-phenylazo-2-naphthol which is a two-step reaction. The first reaction is the reaction of aniline with nitrous acid, which is called diazotization and second, the reaction of diazonium salt and beta-naphtol to form azo dye which is the coupling reaction. Figure 1 Diazotization Reaction of Aniline to Produce a Diazonium Salt Figure 1 Diazotization Reaction of Aniline to Produce a Diazonium Salt In diazotization reaction, there is a formation of diazonium salts. This reaction is made possible when a primary aromatic amine is treated with nitrous acid. Then in coupling reaction, the electrophilic substitution reaction of a diazonium salt with an activated aromatic ring formed a azo compound specifically an azo dye.[3] The main objective of this study was to be able to synthesize Sudan-1. Also, it aimed to characterize the azo dye with its most distinguishing physical properties. Furthermore, this experiment also aimed to understand the mechanism behind the synthesis of Sudan-1. Figure 2 Coupling Reaction of Benzene Diazonium Chloride with ÃŽ ² -Naphthol Figure 2 Coupling Reaction of Benzene Diazonium Chloride with ÃŽ ² -Naphthol Aniline was reacted NaNO2 crystals under acidic condition using HCl in a cold temperature. The solution was done in a very cold temperature because the phenyldiazonium intermediate easily decomposes back to its aniline counterpart at a slightly high temperature; hence the temperature of the solution was maintained in an ice bath below 5Â °C. Rock salt may also be added to the ice bath to maintain the temperature. However, in this experiment, no rock salts were added instead constant monitoring of the temperature was done. ÃŽ ²-naphthol solution was used as a coupling reagent in synthesizing Sudan-1. In preparing ÃŽ ²-naphthol solution, ÃŽ ²-naphthol was dissolved in 5% of aqueous NaOH and was also cooled in an ice bath below 5Â °C, this was to avoid the decomposition of the compounds. The main reaction that occurred in the preparation of phenyldiazonium chloride solution was diazotization reaction. Diazotization is the reaction between a primary aromatic amine and nitrous acid at cold temperatures to diazonium salt compound.[2] Figure 1 below is the reaction exhibited by the phenyldiazonium chloride solution. As this experiment aimed to synthesize Sudan-1, two steps are done. The first step would be the reaction of a primary aromatic amine to produce a diazonium salt as seen in Figure 1. The second step, then, is the reaction of the diazonium salt with a strongly activated aromatic syste,l known as coupling reactions. Azo coupling is the reaction between a diazonium compound and aniline, phenol or other aromatic compound which produces an azo compound.[5] In this experiment ÃŽ ²-naphthol couples with the diazonium salt. Figure 2 below shows the coupling reaction of the benzene diazonium chloride with ÃŽ ²-naphthol and having the product of Sudan-1. Furthermore, figure 3 below is the summary of reactions of the synthesis of Sudan-1 in this experiment. Figure 3 Summary of Reactions in Synthesizing Sudan-1 Figure 3 Summary of Reactions in Synthesizing Sudan-1 In this experiment, a filter paper was used to undergo ingrain dyeing. Ingrain dyeing is an irreversible chemical reaction of the diazonium salt solution and the activating aromatic solution. An orange-red filter paper was produced after such procedure. The presence of orange-red color in filter indicates the presence of the azo dye (see appendix for the orange-red filter paper produced). The Sudan dye is synthesized right in the spaces between the filter paper such that they are permanently trapped inside the fiber spaces of the filter paper.[2] After mixing the phenyldiazonium chloride solution with the ÃŽ ²-naphthol solution, an orange-red paste-like solution was formed. Furthermore, the mixed solution was also reacted at a temperature not exceeding 4ËšC for 1-5 minutes. Afterwards, the mixture was also filtered was washed with several portions of water to filter the product, Sudan-1. Recrystallization was also done when the filtrate was steamed bath after dissolving it with 95% hot ethanol. AS a result, orange-red crystals were formed which is the Sudan-1 product. The crystal appeared to be orange-red in color due to the N=N bond present in Sudan-1. The N=N is responsible for the absorption of light thus reflecting a color which is orange-red. The structure of Sudan-1 is shown in Figure 4 below showing the N=N bond of the compound. The N=N is known as the chromophores which are responsible for the color. The –OH group attached in the structure is also responsible for enhancing the orange-red color. The –OH functional group is known as the auxochrome, which modifies the ability of the chromophore to absorb the light.[1] Figure 4 Structure of Sudan-1 Azo-compounds, compounds with general formula Ar-N+=N-Ar-, are coupling products from the reaction of diazonium salts with amines. The general reaction pattern for Sudan synthesis first undergoes diazotization reaction and then coupling reaction with highly activated aromatic compounds. In this experiment, the diazotization reaction of aniline with NaNO2 and HCl yielded a diazonium salt, benzene diazonium chloride. Furthermore, the diazonium salt then underwent coupling reactions with an activated aromatic ring which is ÃŽ ²-naphthol. The coupling reaction yielded an azo compound which is most commonly known as the Sudan-1 with an IUPAC name of 1-phenylazo-2-naphthol. As a result of the reactions in this experiment, an orange-red color of solution was produced. This experiment aimed to understand the reactions that underwent to synthesize Sudan-1; as a result, figure 3 was the summary of reactions. As a physical result, orange-red colored crystals were produced representing the azo compound, Sudan-1. However, some minor errors will not be ignored in this experiment. Some errors like human errors might have affected the results in yielding a pure azo compound. One human error, would be the measuring of the reagents used to yield the said product. Also, the misreading of some measurements may have also affected the results of this experiment. Also, some impurities in the chemicals used will also not be ignore, since this impurities may have led to a not so visible side reactions in the said experiment. After being said and done, all the said objectives in this experiment were met.

Global Population essays

Global Population essays One of the biggest problems with the world today is our rapidly growing global population. With the current population being at over 6 billion, every second five people are born and two people die which means the population grows by 3 people per second. I predict that if we do not do something about this problem soon, the Earth is going to reach its maximum capacity and we will slowly run out of resources, which could cause wide-spread famine and eventually lead to the population dropping down to a normal level again, or perhaps there may be a natural disaster such as a worldwide earthquake that would leave only a select 1000 people living. We need to act now to prevent a disaster such as this happening. I believe that if we teach sex education properly in all of our schools, and the people of the world are able to accuire birth control easily when they need it we can stop this expeditiously growing problem. Our survival depends on population control and also better management of our precious natural resources. Because we are very limited in the amount, natural resources need to be managed accordingly. We should plan a new way to manage the planets natural resources. As our population grows, most of our problems will only worsen. These problems include air and water pollution, not enough fresh water, too many overcrowded schools, quality of life may become worse, taxes increase, crimes increase, people with out jobs or homes, soil pollution. The chance of having one natural disaster take down all of the population but a select few is extremely slim, but possible. Earth has a unique way of working, and if there are too many people on the planet, mother nature may take control. We need to find other methods of controlling the population so that we do not have to suffer through death or the death of loved ones. We can stop this problem, but it wont just happen, people have to do s...

Newly liberated people Essays

Newly liberated people Essays Newly liberated people Essay Newly liberated people Essay What small prospects for success would face a society which openly announced its intention of imposing a second imperial tutelage on a newly liberated people?   -Mass Communications and American Empire  In many respects, the second Bush administrations efforts at information control are too heavy-handed for the late Herbert Schillers subtle model of mind mold. From Lynne Cheneys American Council of Trustees and Alumni to John Poindexters Total Information Awareness, 43 makes no bones about a hyper-patriotic process of inculcation in the service of a powerful ruling class. What is unusual, as a feature article this month in the Connecticut Law Tribune avows, is the extent to which President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft are the chief cheer-leaders in this movement, equating legitimate dissent with supporting terrorism.While Schiller is no longer here to parse current events, he might be surprised at the extent to which the notion of a veritable carpet-bombing of the public consciousness informs todays critical literature. Indications of a political economy at work in the newsroom abound, from outspoken Tom Guttings dismissal from the Texas Sun within two weeks of 9/11 to Exxon Mobils withdrawal of support for PBS announced last month2. And Schiller could easily explain the FCCs new quest to regulate the Internet backbone (so that we can limit any service disruption in these troubled times) or The Rendon Groups no-bid contract with the Pentagon (to help the Joint Chiefs achieve their policy objectives). Even the five networks agreement to censor videotapes of Osama bin Laden reminded observers that, For some time, communications and space satellites have been providing intelligence that is of great tactical value in what is now euphemistically called counter-insurgency.3 Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude, Egyptian journalist Mohammed Heikal told The Guardian, in October 2001. When I hear Bush talking about al Qaeda as if it were Nazi Germany or the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al Qaeda has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organization and sophistication. Here at home, where police and the military trained their electronic eyes on protesters at Ws inauguration, Schillers predicate marriage of economics and electronics goes largely ungoverned.5 Video surveillance and facial recognition are easy to sell to a public more paranoid than ever before about terrorists, murderers, rapists, child molesters, cop killers, robbers, and prison escapees in our midst. What could be less objectionable than catching terrorists?6 Schiller would appreciate the forthcoming bailout in the name of homeland security of the telecoms industry, which by 1966, he wrote, had morphed from being an essential support to our international activities to being an instrument of foreign policy. In the meantime, Lewis Lapham believes, foreign policy has become a cash cow for our politicians friends in the defense industry-with predictable results. The attack was an attack on American foreign policy, he said a year after 9/11, which for the last 30 years, had allied itself, both at home and abroad, with despotism and the weapons trade, a policy conducted by and for a relatively small cadre of selfish interests. Quoting George Ball, who extolled MNCs as the engines that give thrust to American expansionism, Schiller cynically agreed that the power structure found few things more hopeful for the future than the growing determination of American business to regard national boundaries as no longer fixing the horizons of their corporate activity.9 Juergen Habermas made this now-common knowledge his point of departure two months after 9/11. Instead of a globalization that consists of a market without boundaries, he told an audience of German publishers and booksellers awarding him a peace prize, many of us hope for a return of the political in another form. Not in the original form of a global security state, tied to the spheres of the police, intelligence services and now even the military, but instead as a worldwide, civilizing power of formation. Today, the language of the market penetrates every pore and forces every interpersonal relation into the schema of individual preference. The social bond, however, is based on mutual recognition and cannot be reduced to the concepts of contract, rational choice and the maximization of utility.  Finally, we find echoes of Schillers ideological quandary in contemporary efforts to understand our national dilemma The cultural puzzle that remains is why Congress and Americas citizens, given the opportunity to dissent, instead consented to Bushs new doctrine of pre-emptive war to be undertaken by the president entirely at his discretion.For fellow theorist J. Michael Sproule, the popular quiescence is no mystery. Any explicit statements that the Administration makes against dissent, he writes, are relatively minor elements in the panoply of a cultural propaganda of war and crisis. Propaganda in an open-information system works best when people are induced to acquiesce without immediate pressure. The key element in the Bush Administrations public-opinion campaign RE the Iraq war is Bushs having assumed a general mantle of a War President, extending an immediate, yet diffuse, crisis of terrorism to a wide-ranging program of confronting selected unfriendlies. From this fundamental position, the Administration has made it difficult for opponents to establish a basis for an effective challenge. The vagueness of the crisis, combined with its having been framed as a War, induces avoidance on the part of the public and self-censorship on the part of opinion leaders. And everything feeds into what de Tocqueville observed as a cultural trait of Americans to praise the abstract idea of free speech but to shrink from articulating opinions that they believe may not be universally shared.