HIH Scandal free essay sample

HIH was originally found in 1968 by Ray Williams, then was acquired by British company CE Health PLC in 1971, and renamed as HIH in 1995. Before its collapse, HIH was the second largest insurance company in Australia, and covered several insurance segments, including workers compensation, public and private liability, property, industrial and commercial insurance. It also expanded globally into the US and UK markets. On March 15, 2001, HIH insurance was placed into provisional liquidation. The liquidator estimated that the total loss of HIH are up to $A5. 3 billion as the results of over-optimistic valuations of assets and extensive under-estimation of liability, which represented as the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history. Event leading to failure 1993-1994 CE Health Commences operated in UK and entered workers compensation underwriting market in California, USA. 1995- 1997 HIH expanded their business rapidly through several merge and acquisition, including CIC insurance, Utilities Insurance. It became to the Australias largest underwriter of bancassurance business after acquiring Colonial Mutual General Insurance at January 8, 1997. We will write a custom essay sample on HIH Scandal or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 1998 HIH blacklisted stockbroking analyst who disputed it assessment of the company at Sep. 2008 In January, HIH won a $A300 million takeover bid for FAI Insurance; later HIH admitted it paid more than it expected for FAI, which is estimated to be only worth $A100 million In March, HIH posts a 39 per cent fall in 1998 net profit at $37. 6 million, blaming damage claims. In July, a routine external audit by Arthur Andersen fails to raise the alarm. The regulators and others accept the companys declaration with $939 million in asset. Two months later, HIH sells part of its domestic personal lines business to German Insurance giant Allianz for about $A 500 million. A day after the deal, HIH shares tumble to an all-time low after lower-than -expected profit results announcement and criticism of the Allianz deal. 2000 December, Ray Williams resigns as managing director with a $A5 million severance agreement. Rodney Adler, former FAI chief, is called for resignation. February, HIHs December financial statement overdue at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). The Australian Securities Investments Commission ( ASIC) concerns that company might no longer be solvent 2001 March 15, 2001 HIH is forced into provisional liquidation by ASIC with losses of $800 million. ASIC launches its biggest ever investigation, seizing HIH documents. The liquidator revises deficiency between $A 3. 6 billion and $A 5. 3 billion, which becomes called Australias largest corporate collapse 2005 April 14, 2005 Former HIH director Rodney Adler was sentenced for four and half year jail for four criminal charges, which included: Two counts of disseminating information knowing it was false One counts of obtaining money by false or misleading statement One count of being intentionally dishonest and failing to discharge his duties as a director in good faith and in the best interest of the company. HIH insurance is now in run-off, which may take over 10 year to complete. Shareholders may lose their entire capital. The Falling of HIH Insurance According to an American report, the HIH insurance company’s failures are attributed to rapid expansion business strategy, unsupervised delegation of authority, underpricing, reserve problems, false reports, reckless management, fraud, greed and self-dealing. Many of HIHs business difficulties can be primarily due to its aggressive expanded business strategies. Over a decade, HIH created more than 200 subsidiaries, and the business covers almost all insurance business segments, domestically and globally. It either entered the insurance market  that is already overcrowded and competitive by offering lower insurance premium (California, US), or chose a sector that it did not fully understand which lead to business issues and legal risks (London, UK). On the other hand, the due diligence failure exacerbated the situation. HIH acquire some troubled insurance business with too high price during its rapid growth period in 1990s. The most controversial acquisition is that pays $A 3 00 million to buy FAI from Rodney Adler, who later became a member of HIHs board of director. FAI was revealed only to be worth $A 100 millions later. HIH also has many fundamental problems, such as underpricing and reserve problem. It offers insurance with very low price, but failure to set aside enough capital to cover it future liability. According to press reports, HIHs actuarial adviser had warned HIHs risk management concern a year before company collapse. However, instead of adding extra capital, HIH chose to buy reinsurance to lay off its risk. It was proved as wrong decision on June 2000 since all reinsurance cover was run out. Further more, the HIHs failure is not only attributed to the business strategy and fundamental problem, but also includes additional issues in conjunction with risk reporting, corporate governance, fraud, external auditing and regulation. Along with companys collapse, it was found that three of HIHs board members in 2000 are previously employed by Arthur Andersen, who is the external auditor of HIH. It has raised huge issues for the reliance of the information provided by company and their auditors. ERM Lesson Learned from HIH failure It is not surprising to hear of insurance companies failure in entering new market, in overpaying in mergers and acquisitions, in mispricing and in being undercapitalized, but it may be rarely found in such a large scandal of HIH. It is a typical case of lack of ERM practice, which leads HIH primarily exposure on systematic risk and operational risk. If possible, we believer two key component of ERM practice can largely help company to reduce those risk exposure, corporate governance and line management. From the ERM perspective, setting corporate governance can ensure senior  management establishing appropriate organizational process and executing risk management across the company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act also provides both specific requirement and severe penalties for noncompliance with newly established governance and disclosure standards. If there is corporate governance setting up for HIH, it will reduce the potential operational risk, such as unsupervised delegation of author ity, reckless management, fraud, greed and self-dealing. Add paragraph on strong compliance and internal audit. ERM suggests setting up line management aligning business strategy with corporate risk policy, measuring capital required to execute business strategies such as when pursuing new business and growth opportunities or in acquisitions. Specifically in HIH case, if line management is set up to evaluate risk acceptance criteria when considering new product and market opportunities, and to develop formal transaction and business review processes during due diligence, it will allow company to better understanding those risk at initial stage, and further reduce underpricing risk and due diligence risk.

Changing Business Environment for Model of Airtel- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theChanging Business Environment for Model of Bharti Airtel. Answer: Compare Bharti Airtels Approach to Internationalization with that of European MNEs. It is a fact that in order to achieve profit-making opportunities, organizations desire to go international and they adopt several different ways and tactics which they think will provide them competitive advantage. In the foreign markets, the organizations intend to increase the sale of their production and services and therefore, they sell their products and services at very lower cost. The same strategy is used by the Bharti Airtel in its business operation. It expands its business through low-cost models and targets the other emerging countries for more sale of its services (Aggarwal, 2013). The uniqueness of Bharti Airtel lies in the fact that it has entered into the emerging new markets. The very first advantage that it receives is that it can get benefit for the capabilities and resources of those emerging countries that always seek for getting an opportunity for expanding their services. Hence, in most of they get merged along with the leading organizations such as Bharti Air tel (Damodaran, 2013). Curwen and Whalley (2014), have stated that Airtel shares its stake with the other industries in the field of telecommunication like they did with the Warburg pictures in order to ensure better industrial growth. Such a diverse collaboration is indeed an unique approach which is not followed by the other European MNEs. Along with that, the model of Bharti Airtel is regarded as a unique model for the telecom as it is an effective model for every emerging market like China and India. In many countries apart from these, Airtel has emerged as a dominant player because of its innovative and unique method of business as well as strong brand. Most of the companies belonging from the same industries, focus on getting a hold of the Indian markets, while on the other hand, Airtel is continuously thriving to put more concentration on the international markets. The management team of Airtel has realized that the extensive experience of the company that it has gathered fro m the Indian markets, with its distinctive business model will help to grab the opportunity that is provided by the other developing markets. This has resulted in Airtel, claiming the Zain Groups telecom business in more than ten different countries of Africa (White, 2013). This has given the company a good start in the African continent as well. However there are several other factors that Airtel fouces on and these factors also contribute to the uniqueness of the Airtel. These factors are mentioned below: Bharti Airtel is dedicated towards understanding the importance for strategic partnership and innovation of the business model. The management team of the company always appreciated the tailoring strategy as this helps them in getting fit to a particular business atmosphere. Moshi (2017) has mentioned that the team of RD in the organization quickly understood and implemented the cross-country differences in the demographic and cultural market conditions. The company has always invested in figuring out the methods through which their business could be successful in the international markets. One of the most unique models of Airtel that makes it different from the other European MNEs is that of its minute factory model, which they have used in Bangladesh after gaining the Warid Telecom (Satanarayana, Sambasiva Krishnamurthy, 2017). Furthermore, its international corporate level strategies are also unique to that of the MNEs. They are mentioned below: Local responsiveness- The management of the organization completely depends on the consumer demand and delivers them solutions according to their needs and requirements. They address the local responsiveness with an utmost importance and this is helping the company to grow further within its industries. Cost responsiveness- The domestic or local pricing model of Airtel differs from one country to another along with state to state. It also relies on the consumers demands and the demographical segment. Promoting and creating a value through diversification- The management team of airtel continuously tries to find a value through diversification by moving around the businesses which are both corporately connected and at the same time, are operationally connected as well. The two most notable strategies of Bharti Airtel in its business model is the reduction in the cost and the high share of the important resources (Cappelli et al., 2015). What are the implications of the rise of emerging economy MNEs such as Bharti Airtel for globalisation? - The primary motive of a brand for attaining competitive advantage and profit-making opportunities are two of the factors that affect the brand recognition in order to develop all over the world. These motives could be achieved by changing the global environment. In this context, Zhu, Sarkis Lai (2013) have been stated that such an expansion of a business could easily take place through encouraging the development of the organizational performance and minimizing the trade barriers. There are several organizations such as the manufacturing or retail companies that is going hand in hand with the trend and has been adopted the modern technology of computerization in order to reach their customers around the world, notwithstanding the fact that they do not have any outlet or any kind of physical store present in that country. With the same, organization such as the Bharti Airtel always looks forward towards the present of opportunities in order to access the resources from other nation s around the globe. They search for an opportunity so that those resources could be obtained through acquiring the other companies in the same field of the developing or emerging nations. Deshmukh, Deshmukh and Thampi (2013) have stated that companies such as Bharti Airtel also reduce their cost with an intention that more number of people from the new nation could use their products. Along with that, the stability in the relation of the international organization and the development of technologies that made it so easy to trade in the international market and incensement has also driven the internationalism of Bharti Airtel. References Aggarwal, R. (2013). Adjusting to BRICs in glass houses: replacing obsolete institutions and business models.Thunderbird International Business Review,55(1), 37-54. Cappelli, P., Singh, H., Singh, J., Useem, M. (2015). Indian business leadership: Broad mission and creative value.The Leadership Quarterly,26(1), 7-12. Damodaran, S. (2013). New strategies of industrial organization: outsourcing and consolidation in the mobile telecom sector in India. Deshmukh, S. P., Deshmukh, P., Thampi, G. T. (2013). Transformation from E-commerce to M-commerce in Indian Context.International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI),10(4), 55. Moshi, G. C., Mwakatumbula, H. J. (2017). Effects of political stability and sector regulations on investments in African mobile markets.Telecommunications Policy,41(7-8), 651-661. Satyanarayana, D., Rao, K. S., Naidu, S. K. (2017). The impact of Reliance Jio on Indian mobile industry-A case study on mergers and acquisitions of ideaVodafone and AirtelTelenor.IJAR,3(3), 209-212. White, L. (2013). Emerging powers in Africa: Is Brazil any different?.South African Journal of International Affairs,20(1), 117-136. Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J., Lai, K. H. (2013). Institutional-based antecedents and performance outcomes of internal and external green supply chain management practices.Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management,19(2), 106-117.

A Bet Against Internet Gambling Essays - Gambling, Online Gambling

A Bet Against Internet Gambling 07 February 2001 A Bet against Internet Gambling I love gambling. Who doesnt? The minute you walk into a casino you are overwhelmed by exciting noises, flashing lights and people having a good time. There is so much excitement it isnt hard to become addicted, especially after your first big win. The rush you get from winning is something that is hard to parallel. Trust me I know. I almost became addicted. I realized the trouble I was heading for before it was too late. I was a lucky one. Many people arent as lucky. It is especially easy for people who live very close to a casino to get addicted because it is so easily accessible. Now imagine if everyone who had a computer had 600+ casinos right in their own living room. It is like everyone having access to crack cocaine all the time. Not quite as addictive, but you get the idea. That is why I am for Internet gambling prohibition. Some people might say that prohibition isnt fair, that there are people who can handle the responsibility. Why should everyone suffer because some people cant handle it? I would tell them that in making a decision like whether or not Internet gambling prohibition should be enforced the benefits should outweigh the risks. In this case they definitely do. Internet gambling is easy to get hooked on. There are advertisements for casinos at almost all of the major search engines and home pages (ex: yahoo, metacrawler, excite etc.). Many of these advertisements claim that they have free gambling or give away free money. For example one casino will give you $125.00 for a $50.00 deposit. Do you think they would really give you that money if they werent confident that you would get hooked and spend it all there or if they thought that they wouldnt get it all back? Once they have lured you to their websites it is easy for them to get your money. It seems a lot easier to spend virtual casino tokens purchased with a credit card than it is to spend your actual hard earned cash at a real casino. Another obvious problem with having online casinos is that children have easy access to them. There is no way to check ID. Anyone with a credit card number can play. Parents of children who gamble online are legally responsible for the debt that their children accumulate. It is especially easy if the parents have already been to that particular casino and set up an account. All the child would need is a password and many computer operating systems have the option of saving passwords and filling them in for the user. Young people are especially vulnerable to Internet gambling. In virtually all studies of the rates of gambling problems at various ages, high school and college-aged individuals show the highest problem rates, said an advisory on Internet gambling and addiction issued by the American Psychiatric Association (Gugliotta 1). Some people believe that online casinos are good for the local economy because they provide jobs and tax revenue for a community. This may be true but the community isnt local. Most online casinos are located overseas to avoid taxes and US regulations. Another reason for prohibition is that there is no way to regulate online overseas casinos. Real casinos in the United States are strictly monitored for fairness and must pay out certain a certain percentage. A large percentage of online casinos are not physically located in the U.S. (de Bendern 1). Even if their government monitored these casinos would we want another country dictating what is fair for our gamblers? Online casinos arent the only way of gambling online. There are also cyber bookies for sports betting and so-called free lotteries. National sports leagues are against online betting for two good reasons. When people are putting money down on games, it does enhance the possibility of actual corruption, says David Remes, an attorney for the NFL. It also sends a terrible message to young people and children about what these competitions are about. The free lotteries arent quite as harmful as the other forms of online gambling but they definitely arent free. They dont cost

Jimmie Lee Jackson essays

Jimmie Lee Jackson essays In 1951 a movement in the south which was an attempt to help civil rights and led to a serious of non-violent events. These events then later were disasters in black history and caused hundreds of African Americans to suffer. My story starts along that time line in which I had the devastation to watch my best friend fall to the people, the White community. I am a white male and I am proud of who I am and who I came to be. Jimmie Lee Jackson was born in 1938 the same year I was. We grew up as neighbors and I had known him very well all my life. An innocent young man who always wanted to look out for others black or white. His salary was also struck at $700.00 a year, and could not attend school with me for he was denied. The movement of civil rights was led by a man named Martin Luther King Jr. His non-violent approach towards helping blacks was hoped to gain a goal of what we know now as the salad bowl theory. Jackson was the youngest deacon at his church. As far as I know he was farming and logging for work. The movement began with marches and forceful action by the members of the Klan and police. American began to realize the pain of the black community. Around 9:30 pm of February 18, more then 200 marches began walking. The marchers were then asked to stop the revolt and leave. The lights in the street went out and caused total chaos. The troopers were beating men left and right, sometimes hitting the woman even. Jimmie and his family went inside a caf for cover, but his dad was hit with a club and Jimmie tried to take him to the hospital but they couldnt get out. A trooper then struck his mother of the head and Jimmie retaliated by hitting the trooper. The other troopers began beating him senseless repeatedly. A man pulled out his gun and murdered my best friend. All Jimmie was doing was marching for his ...

Songs of Innocence and Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Songs of Innocence and Experience - Essay Example producing the twenty seven plates of his poems Songs of Innocence and Experience dated 1789, the artist-poet developed the laborious method of etching both poem and design in relief on a copper plate. This initiated his now famous series of Illuminated Books (Blake: 11). William Blake’s volume of poetry titled Songs of Innocence and Experience reflects his belief that innocence and experience were two diverging states of the human soul, and that true innocence was impossible without experience. Some of the Songs of Innocence which mostly pertain to children, have an equivalent in the contrasting Songs of Experience (IntArch, 2008). The poems with illustrations are a unique feature of Blake’s works from 1788, including the Songs of Innocence and Experience. The illustrations help readers to understand the poems, while exhibiting the works in their original forms. The designs intensify and raise the meaning of the written word to greater heights. The poet felt impelled to produce his poems in this form partly because of his â€Å"cast of mind, whereby the life of the imagination was more real to him than the material world† (Blake: 11). His lyrical poems were valuable on their own, but he did not wish that they should be read in plain written form. For words and symbols to re-inforce each other, Blake identified ideas which could be translated into visual images. The poet Blake used his work to express his principles regarding various aspects of human life, speaking out from within his mind and heart. Rising above the ordinary world of common experience, the poems formed an embodiment of the imaginative vision of the poet. His poems reflect the fact that he was an independent and rebellious thinker, who intensely disliked pretension and falsity in others (Blake: 11). The Songs of Innocence were products of a mind in a state of chaste goodness, the poems showed an imagination that was unspoiled by worldliness. William Blake’s increasing awareness of the

Is China going to be the next major city caused the Global warming Essay

Is China going to be the next major city caused the Global warming - Essay Example China’s economic development has been inevitably dependent on the consumption of coal for energy. Energy consumption and economic development, and in turn environmental issues in China have been interrelated. Coal is the main source of energy and burning of coal leads to emission of green house gases. This is what has lead to the negative effects of China’s economic development on global warming. China has surpassed USA as the world’s leading emitter of green house gases (Landsberg, 2011). Globally, there has been a constant increase in the demand for energy. So is the case with China. As the population of China has been increasing so is its demand for energy. Also the economic growth is fuelled by this increase in the demand for energy. Economic growth is driven by industrialization and this leads to higher energy consumption. In china, the industrialization process is relatively young and is expected to grow. This means that the already high energy intensity in China will still increase. Therefore, as the economic growth curve goes upwards so does the energy demand and in turn energy consumption. As mentioned above, China with its huge population consumes enormous energy. This enormous energy consumption is the primary reason behind China’s negative impact on global warming. ... is the emission green house gases). According to Zhang Zhongxiang, China’s GDP will go down by 2% if there is a decrease of 10-20% in the green house gases emission. Also there will be a 1.29% increase in the emission of the green house gases when there is a 51% increase in the per capita income (Yu, 2008). This establishes the theory that China’s economic development has lead to an enormous increase in the emission of green house gases and in turn leading to global warming. Energy demand elasticity is an important factor in analyzing the relation between energy consumption or demand and the economic development. Energy demand elasticity is the ratio of energy demand growth to GDP growth. From 1978 to 2000, China’s energy demand elasticity was less than .5. But from 2001 to 2006 it rose to 1.5. This shows how the rapid economic development is associated with higher energy consumption. Another important evidence of the relationship between China’s economic development and global warming is the fact that the green house gas emissions had gone up 18 times in 1989 when compared to the 1952 emissions and the 2010 emissions is more than double the emissions in 1996. China’s economic development has been pointing upward since the reforms in 1970. Hence, there is a clear connection between economic development and global warming (gas emissions) (Hackett, 1998). Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency’s 2006 report found out that China was now the major contributor to the global greenhouse gas emissions. It has now overtaken USA and is the world’s leading emitter of green house gases with a margin of 8%. 2007 saw a 2.6% growth in the global emissions and China was responsible for

The Application of Cognitive Learning Theory in Learning How to Read Essay

The Application of Cognitive Learning Theory in Learning How to Read and Use Maps - Essay Example The objective of the essay is to examine the potentials of one of the learning theories aforementioned, the cognitive learning theory, in identifying and explaining the components and mechanisms of learning a particular task. For this essay, learning how to read and use a map will be explored by applying the cognitivist approach. Primarily, the essay will provide a brief overview of the task of learning how to read and use a map and its importance in the discipline of geography. Afterward, the types of knowledge required to acquire or learn the particular skill will be discussed, and then the cognitive learning theory, as it applies to the learning task of reading and using a map, will be examined. Specifically, Piaget’s and the neo-Vygotskian’s theories will be employed in explaining the chosen learning task. And lastly, the essay will conclude the discussion by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the cognitive learning theory, relative to other learning theori es, in explaining the task of learning how to read and use a map. The discipline of geography explores the relationship between human beings and the earth and particularly takes into account the environment, location, and space. In studying locations and geographical subjects, geographers illustrate and identify the mechanisms and structures they observe in their physical environment. Hence study of spatial structures and the acquisition of locational knowledge shape distinguishing and core components of the field, with various kinds of maps being an essential tool in this practice (Palmer & Birch, 2004).