Family business's - Hinduja group Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Family business's - Hinduja group - Essay Example ntrepreneurial endeavors as they all seek to exploit wealth opportunities in order to create wealth for the financial welfare of the founding families. People who went on to build their own family empires founded various large international companies like Ford, BMW as well as Wal-Mart among others. This implies that family businesses play an important role in economic development through their contributions to the business world while at same time creating investment environments that are secure, safe and open (FernaÃŒ ndez PeÃŒ rez and Colli, 2014, p. 63). A variety of approaches exist through which academics can assess the relative successes of family businesses including through considering family governance, the performance of the business, its philanthropy, social responsibility as well as corporate governance. Family governance is comprised of agreements that inform the connection between the business and the families while at the same time emphasizing on the aspects that will ensure the family business grow from generation to generation (Poutziouris, Smyrnios and Goel, 2013, p. 133). Family governance also entails distribution of power in the company among the different members of the family. In general, family governance is a management technique which that covers more than one generation and is intended to make sure that the history of the family, its wealth as well as values extend past the archetypal two generations. According to the Harvard Business School, family governance is comprised of three aspects including periodic meetings of the members and a representative group of members that is tasked with planning, the creation of policies and consolidation of business-family bonds and communication (Miller and Le Breton-Miller, 2005, p. 292). The third aspect is family constitution t hat provides policies and guidelines to regulate the relationship between the members with the business. These aspects make sure that there is clarity in regards to the

Richer Sounds Essay Example for Free

Richer Sounds Essay The main business objectives for the company are to increase sales and market share, increase profits, new product developments and employee career development. Sainsburys has these business objectives to help meet its overall objective which is stated in the companys mission statement. They also want to increase profits by reducing expenditure. SAINSBURYS MAIN ACTIVITIES Sainsburys consists of both secondary and tertiary sectors, which means that they manufacture their own goods and they also sell products and provide services through the internet which makes them a tertiary sector as well. Due to the fact that Sainsburys manufactured their own goods; most of the money goes back to them and isnt really shared out between with the manufactures. Sainsbury have a bakery and fish section in all their stores, they also produce their own bread and pastry. Due to Sainsbury doing very well in the marketing industry they also started selling stationary and electrical goods, which will boost up their sales. Sainsbury offer a club card, which means people who shop at Sainsbury get points for shopping there, these points can later be exchanged for cash or vouchers. By offering a club card Sainsbury are able to attract more customers and by attracting more customers they will increase in sales, which then will lead to an increase in profits and shares. COMPARISON Both of the businesses have similar aims, which is that they want to give excellent service to their customers. The main difference between the two businesses is that Richer Sounds isnt as well known as Sainsburys is which gives Sainsburys a great advantage over them. This means that Sainsburys will have more customer awareness than Richer Sounds. Both of the businesses have different objectives. Sainsburys wants to increase sales by reducing expenditure, this means that Sainsburys already knows how they going to achieve their objective. Richer Sounds want to expand their company, they want to open 4 to 6 stores in the current year, they want to develop their audiovisual cinema range and they want to keep their customer service level above 90%, they do this by asking customers to fill in questionnaires at the till. The two objectives show that Sainsburys are concerned more about their profits than customers and Richer Sounds are concerned about their customers more than their profits. Both businesses also range in different activities, whereas Richer Sounds sell hi-fis and home cinema systems etc, Sainsbury sell mainly food products but they also sell non-food related goods as well such as stationary and electrical goods, giving them another great advantage over Richer Sounds. Both business sell goods from stores, online and orders can be made over the phone as well. RICHER SOUNDS OWNERSHIP LOCATION Richer Sounds are a Public limited company. They are a limited company so that if they come across any financial problems their owner and founder Julian Richer wouldnt be responsible for any debts. Even though Richer Sounds are a plc they are unlisted from the stock exchange, this is because they dont want to lose any control of the company to shareholders, and Richer Sounds want to have full control over their company. Also if they do become listed in the stock exchange they will have to have certain requirements such as File full accounts, Have a minimum issued share capital of i 50,000 etc. They will have to abide by all the legal requirements under the various Companies Acts and the Finance Act, which means the directors, will have to take up certain legal duties, such as to make sure that proper accounting records are kept. Being a unlisted public limited company is suited to them because they are a large company and by being unlisted they will have one less thing to worry about, which is shareholders, because they wont have any. The business is located mainly in the UK, they have a couple of stores outside the UK as well and their main warehouse is in Lancashire. Richer Sounds first store was in central London at the London bridge walk. When choosing locations Richer Sounds consider two main points which are; to make sure that there are a lot of customers nearby who would actually be interested in purchasing from them, and to keep it as far as possible from another Richer Sound store, so that they dont end up sharing customers instead of attracting new ones. Their stores are essential for customers because customers wont have to look every where for their stores since their often on the corner of a road, which makes it really visible to see, and their mainly nearby a parking, so that customers wont have to worry about finding parking space on the road. Richer Sounds consists of only the tertiary sector which means that they only sell products; they dont manufacture the products themselves or make it from the raw materials. Richer Sounds could make more money if they actually manufactured their own products like Sainsburys does, this way they wont have to pay the main manufacturer a bit of the profit for selling the goods.

Differentiate Between Investment Speculation And Gambling Finance Essay

Differentiate Between Investment Speculation And Gambling Finance Essay Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time.[1] In contrast putting money into something with an expectation of gain without thorough analysis, without security of principal, and without security of return is gambling. Putting money into something with an expectation of gain with thorough analysis, without security of principal, and without security of return is speculation This is the ups and downs of the market. When the market experiences big swings up and down, especially down, this can make a lot of folks sick. The sicker it makes you feel the more you should look at your portfolio and adjust it so you can handle the wild swings of the market. This could mean that you invest a higher percentage of your portfolio in bonds, which are a less risky type of investment. Inflation Risk The cost of living goes up. If you invest in something that returns 2% and inflation goes up 4% then youve lost 2% of the value in your investment. My parents and parents-in-law thought they would be able to live their retirement years with $100,000.00. Back then, 1930s thru 1940s, $100,000.00 made people feel they were rich forever. Opportunity Risk Opportunity Risk is when you decide to invest in one type of investment, youre also deciding not to invest in others. So if you commit money to a certain investment and it goes down in value, youre stuck in that investment and are not able to participate in another investment that might be more attractive. This is especially apparent when you purchase your own bonds for instance. You could be stuck in a 10-year bond and you want to get out because of high interest rates. You would then be forced to sell for a loss. Its much better to invest in bond funds because the fund manager has the ability to invest in many different types of bonds. Reinvestment Risk Reinvestment Risk has to do with timed investments like CDs and bonds that you purchase yourself. A mutual fund manager has the ability to diversify a portfolio of these types of investments by selecting from a larger basket of different types of CDs and bonds to reduce the risk. Concentration Risk Diversification, Diversification, Diversification. Dont concentrate your investment dollars in one type of investment. Read my article here on Diversification. Interest Rate Risk When the Fed messes around with the interest rates moving them up and down, the markets react. The value of bonds go up when interest rates go down. The value of bonds go down when interest rates go up. Keeping a well diversified portfolio will reduce the affects the Feds have on your portfolio. Credit Risk The Credit Crunch is what weve been in lately. The financial sector has taken a hit. The financial sector includes lenders like Countrywide Bank. On another note, Im watching that sector with everyone else because it just might be getting ripe to pick. Since I write about options at this site thats how Id play it if something comes up that looks interesting. Marketability Risk Having the ability to sell you investment(s). This pertains to a low interest in stocks, bonds or CDs that you may personally own. By low interest I mean not enough buyers. This is reduced immensely if you invest in a mutual fund. Currency Translation Risk The value of the dollar goes up and down in the international market depending on what country. This is one reason why its good to just have 10% of your portfolio in the international market. Timing Risk The market goes down and you feel uncomfortable about it so you sell one of your investments that you shouldnt sell bad timing. Difference between Investment , Speculation : The main difference between speculating and investing is the amount of of risk undertaken in the trade. Typically, high-risk trades that are almost akin to gambling fall under the umbrella of speculation, whereas lower-risk investments based on fundamentals and analysis fall into the category of investing. Investors seek to generate a satisfactory return on their capital by taking on an average or below-average amount of risk. On the other hand, speculators are seeking to make abnormally high returns from bets that can go one way or the other. It should be noted that speculation is not exactly like gambling because speculators do try to make an educated decision on the direction of the trade, but the risk inherent in the trade tends to be significantly above average. The term investment is used to suggest a commitment that is relatively free from certain risk of loss.It is restricted to situations promising dependable income , relatively stable value, a modest rate of return and a relatively little chance for spectacular capital appreciation. People who seek high income yields or large capital gains are therefore said to forsake investment for speculation. Speculation differs from investment with respect to the limit of the investor i.e the period for which a person is investing and the risk-return characteristics of the investment.An investor is always interested in a good and consistent rate of return for a long period of time. However , a speculator is less interested in earning very large returns , higher than the normal rate of return , in a short time. The word speculate comes from the latin word, speculate meaning to see ahead . Speculation is a reasoned anticipation of future conditions. A speculator tries to perceive investment values ahead of the general public. It attempts to organize the relevant knowledge as a support for judgements. Infact , everything we do in this world is a speculation. One must have the courage to make decisions when the conditions are unfavorable such as panic , despair or optimism. Most successful speculators operate on a single principle of buying in underpriced markets and selling out in overpriced markets. Thus speculation is a deliberate assumption of risks in ventures , which offer the hope of commensurate gains. These expected gains might be much larger than an investment would offer.The speculation are more interested in price gains than in income. Difference between Investment and Gambling: According to most dictionaries , gambling is an art of risk taking without the knowledge of the exact nature of risk. Many people speculate heavily on the strength of tips or gossip and plunge into situation , which they do not understand. This is gambling even though the commitment is of reasonable speculative quantity. Gambling is based on tips , rumours and it is an unplanned and non-scientific act. A gambler risks more than he/she can afford. It is considered to involve the shortest time period and highest risk. Typical examples of gambling are betting on horse riding , game of cards , lottery etc.Holding shares for the duration of a stock exchange fortnightly account might be termed as speculation . but to bet on the course of the stock market over the same period with a book maker is considered to be a gambling. Difference between Gambling and Speculation Gambling and Speculation are popular among those who want to make easy money. One cannot deny that money has been ruling the world today. People always thrive to profit, and the easier it is to earn money, the better. With that mindset comes the popularity of gambling and speculation. But what might we overlook is the fact that even if these two seems to have the same goal, there is difference between gambling and speculation. Gambling If you want cash within a snap, maybe gambling can help you with that. When one say gambling, it would usually connote casinos, lotteries and slot machines. And every time you gamble, there are only two things you can expect, it is either you win, or you lose. This has been popular because you only have to spend a small amount of money for stakes that are very high. For example, in lottery, the jackpot would amount to millions of dollars, but you can bet for just a couple of bucks. Speculation If one wants to increase his chances to profit one might try to speculate. Speculation is just like investment, you initially put in a capital expecting a profit in return. This is also defined as the act of placing funds on a financial vehicle with the intention of getting satisfactory returns over an amount of time. The stock market is a widely known rendezvous for speculators. The main points of difference are as follows: Gambling and speculation are vehicles to profit easily. The probability to succeed in either gambling or speculation is undetermined. The success of a speculator would be because of his skills and knowledge while the success of a gambler would be due to his luck. Gambling can be done without thinking while speculation needs in depth study. 5. Speculation needs a lot more hard work compared to gambling Q2 : What are Financial Markets with examples? What is the difference between Money Market and Capital Market? Explain in detail one money market instrument and one capital market instrument. Ans :A financial market is a market in which people and entities can trade financial securities, commodities, and other fungible items of value at low transaction costs and at prices that reflect supply and demand. Securities include stocks and bonds, and commodities include precious metals or agricultural goods. Structure of Financial Market FINANCIAL MARKET MONEY MARKET CAPITAL MARKET DERIVATIVES MARKET EQUITY MARKET LONG TERM DEBT MARKET FUTURES MARKET OPTIONS MARKET GOVT DEBT MARKET CORPORATE DEBT MARKET SECONDARY MARKET PRIMARY MARKET Types of financial markets: Within the financial sector, the term financial markets is often used to refer just to the markets that are used to raise finance: for long term finance, the Capital markets; for short term finance, the Money markets. Hence we can say that basically there are two types of markets: Capital Market Money Market Capital markets which consist of: Stock markets : which provide financing through the issuance of shares or common stock, and enable the subsequent trading thereof. Bond markets : which provide financing through the issuance of bonds, and enable the subsequent trading thereof. Commodity markets, which facilitate the trading of commodities. Capital markets are markets that trade equity (stocks) and debt (bonds) instruments having maturities more than a year. Due to their longer maturity , these instruments experience wider price fluctuations , higher credit and interest rate risks than the money market instruments. In contrast to money markets, capital markets are used for long term investments. They provide an alternative to investment in real assets such as real estate or gold. Money markets, which provide short term debt financing and investment. Money market consists of: Certificate of deposit Treasury Bills Commercial Papers etc The need for money market arises because of the immediate cash needs of individuals , corporation and govt do not necessarily coincide with their receipts of cash. The money market enables large sum of money to be transferred quickly and at a low cots from one economic unit ( business , govt , bank etc.) to another economic unit for relatively shorter period. Difference between Money Market and Capital Market: Money market is distinguished from capital market on the basis of the maturity period, credit instruments and the institutions: Maturity Period: The money market deals in the lending and borrowing of short-term finance (i.e., for one year or less), while the capital market deals in the lending and borrowing of long-term finance (i.e., for more than one year). Credit Instruments: The main credit instruments of the money market are call money, collateral loans, acceptances, bills of exchange. On the other hand, the main instruments used in the capital market are stocks, shares, debentures, bonds, securities of the government. Nature of Credit Instruments: The credit instruments dealt with in the capital market are more heterogeneous than those in money market. Some homogeneity of credit instruments is needed for the operation of financial markets. Too much diversity creates problems for the investors. Institutions: Important institutions operating in the money market are central banks, commercial banks, acceptance houses, nonbank financial institutions, bill brokers, etc. Important institutions of the capital market are stock exchanges, commercial banks and nonbank institutions, such as insurance companies, mortgage banks, building societies, etc. Purpose of Loan: The money market meets the short-term credit needs of business; it provides working capital to the industrialists. The capital market, on the other hand, caters the long-term credit needs of the industrialists and provides fixed capital to buy land, machinery, etc. Risk: The degree of risk is small in the money market. The risk is much greater in capital market. The maturity of one year or less gives little time for a default to occur, so the risk is minimised. Risk varies both in degree and nature throughout the capital market. Basic Role: The basic role of money market is that of liquidity adjustment. The basic role of capital market is that of putting capital to work, preferably to long-term, secure and productive employment. Relation with Central Bank: The money market is closely and directly linked with central bank of the country. The capital market feels central banks influence, but mainly indirectly and through the money market. Market Regulation: In the money market, commercial banks are closely regulated. In the capital market, the institutions are not much regulated. Explanation of Treasury Bills (Money market instrument): Treasury Bills (T-Bills): Treasury Bills, one of the safest money market instruments, are short term borrowing instruments of the Central Government of the Country issued through the Central Bank (RBI in India). They are zero risk instruments, and hence the returns are not so attractive. It is available both in primary market as well as secondary market. It is a promise to pay a said sum after a specified period. T-bills are short-term securities that mature in one year or less from their issue date. They are issued with three-month, six-month and one-year maturity periods. The Central Government issues T- Bills at a price less than their face value (par value). They are issued with a promise to pay full face value on maturity. So, when the T-Bills mature, the government pays the holder its face value. The difference between the purchase price and the maturity value is the interest income earned by the purchaser of the instrument. T-Bills are issued through a bidding process at auctions. The bid can be prepared either competitively or non-competitively. In the second type of bidding, return required is not specified and the one determined at the auction is received on maturity. Whereas, in case of competitive bidding, the return required on maturity is specified in the bid. In case the return specified is too high then the T-Bill might not be issued to the bidder. At present, the Government of India issues three types of treasury bills through auctions, namely, 91-day, 182-day and 364-day. There are no treasury bills issued by State Governments. Treasury bills are available for a minimum amount of Rs.25K and in its multiples. While 91-day T-bills are auctioned every week on Wednesdays, 182-day and 364- day T-bills are auctioned every alternate week on Wednesdays. The Reserve Bank of India issues a quarterly calendar of T-bill auctions which is available at the Banks website. It also announces the exact dates of auction, the amount to be auctioned and payment dates by issuing press releases prior to every auction. Payment by allottees at the auction is required to be made by debit to their/ custodians current account. T-bills auctions are held on the Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) and the members electronically submit their bids on the system. NDS is an electronic platform for facilitating dealing in Government Securities and Money Market Inst ruments. RBI issues these instruments to absorb liquidity from the market by contracting the money supply. In banking terms, this is called Reverse Repurchase (Reverse Repo). On the other hand, when RBI purchases back these instruments at a specified date mentioned at the time of transaction, liquidity is infused in the market. This is called Repo (Repurchase) transaction Debentures ( A Capital Market Instrument): A debenture is a document which either creates a debt or acknowledges it. Debenture issued by a company is in the form of a certificate acknowledging indebtedness. The debentures are issued under the Companys Common Seal. Debentures are one of a series issued to a number of lenders. The date of repayment is specified in the debentures. Debentures are issued against a charge on the assets of the Company. Debentures holders have no right to vote at the meetings of the companies. Kinds of Debentures: (a)Bearer Debentures: They are registered and are payable to the bearer. They are negotiable instruments and are transferable by delivery. (b) Registered Debentures: They are payable to the registered holder whose name appears both on the debentures and in the Register of Debenture Holders maintained by the company. Registered Debentures can be transferred but have to be registered again. Registered Debentures are not negotiable instruments. A registered debenture contains a commitment to pay the principal sum and interest. It also has a description of the charge and a statement that it is Issued subject to the conditions endorsed therein. (c) Secured Debentures: Debentures which create a change on the assets of the company which may be fixed or floating are known as secured Debentures. The term bonds and debentures(secured) are used interchangeably in common parlance. In USA, BOND is a long term contract which is secured, whereas a debentures is an unsecured one. (d) Unsecured or Naked Debentures: Debentures which are issued without any charge on assets are insecured or naked debentures. The holders are like unsecured creditors and may see the company for the recovery of debt. (e) Redeemable Debentures: Normally debentures are issued on the condition that they shall be redeemed after a certain period. They can however, be reissued after redemption. (f) Perpetual Debentures: When debentures are irredeemable they are called perpetual. Perpetual Debentures cannot be issued in India at present. (g) Convertible Debentures: If an option is given to convert debentures into equity shares at the stated rate of exchange after a specified period, they are called convertible debentures. Convertible Debentures have become very popular in India. On conversion the holders cease to be lenders and become owners. Q3: What is the difference between Real Assets and Financial Assets? Explain in detail three non- marketable securities: Ans: Investment instruments or assets or securities are broadly classified into two categories : Financial assets and Real Assets. Real assets determine the wealth of an economy , whereas financial assets are merely claims to income generated by real assets . They are represented by paper and can also be termed as paper assets. Real Assets: A real asset is a tangible asset like gold, oil, and real estate.It has intrinsic value due to its utility. Its value is derived by virtue of what it represents.Real Assets have low correlations to traditional stocks and bonds. Because commodities have low correlations to stocks and bonds, they can be a good choice to lower your overall portfolio risk while enhancing your potential for better long-term risk-adjusted returns. A real asset is a tangible asset like gold, oil, and real estate.It has intrinsic value due to its utility. Its value is derived by virtue of what it represents.The types of real assets are as follows: Gold Oil Goodwill Trade Marks Patents Copyrights etc. Why invest in Real Assets? Real Assets have low correlations to traditional stocks and bonds. Because commodities have low correlations to stocks and bonds, they can be a good choice to lower your overall portfolio risk while enhancing your potential for better long-term risk-adjusted returns. What are financial assets Financial assets include Cash, and those assets that can be converted to cash in a reasonably short period of time one year at most, but less time in many cases. We will study the following financial assets: Cash Cash Equivalents Short Term Investments Accounts Receivable Cash and Cash Equivalents Cash is just as the word suggests. It includes cash money including paper and coins, checks and money orders to be deposited, money deposited in bank accounts that can be accessed quickly. The term liquid refers to Cash, and the ease or difficulty of converting an asset into Cash.   Cash Equivalents are highly liquid short term investments that can be turned into Cash very quickly. These include US Treasury bills, money market accounts and high grade commercial paper. When corporations need to borrow money for a very short time, they often sell commercial paper. These come due within a few months at most, and pay a higher interest rate than other investments.   Short Term Investments Short Term Investments include stocks and bonds that the company intends to hold only for a short time, and then sell and convert back to Cash. We consider it a good practice to convert unneeded cash to an investment account, where it can earn interest, dividends or show capital gains. These are shown on the balance sheet at their current market value, even if that is higher than the price paid for the investments. This is one of the few times we increase a balance sheet item above its historic cost. Accounts Receivable Companies often sell to their customers on credit. The amount the customers owe is called Accounts Receivable (AR). We would record AR at the same time the sale is made, deducting any cash paid at the time of purchase, etc. When customers pay, we subtract the payment from their accounts receivable balance.   Most companies use an Accounts Receivable Subsidiary Ledger, which is similar to the General Ledger. The subsidiary ledger contains detailed information about each customers account purchases, payments, returns, adjustments, etc. Most companies send statements at the of each month, listing the monthly transactions and ending balance due from each customer.   Difference between Real Assets and Financial Assets: With the advancement of economy , the relative importance of financial assets tends to increase . Even though the real assets differ greatly from financial assets , two forma are complementary and not competitive. The difference between real assets and financial assets can be summarised as follows: Real Assets determine the wealth of a society or economy whereas financial assets do not represent societys wealth. Real Assets contribute directly to the productive capacity of the economy while the contribution of financial assets to the productive capacity is indirect because they facilitate the transfer of funds to enterprises with attractive investment opportunities. Real assets produce goods and services whereas financial assets define the allocation of income or wealth among investors. Real assets appear only on the asset side of the balance sheet , while financial assets appear on both sides of balance sheet. Investing in real assets carries more risks than investing in paper assets. Non- Marketable Securities: Some financial assets are said to be non-marketable because they are neither transferable nor negotiable . The investors actually own these assets and cannot buy and sell them in the secondary market. Types of non-marketable securities are as follows: Bank Deposits: The most popular non-marketable assets held by an investor include deposits with the banks and their saving schemes. There are various types of deposits with banks such as current accounts, saving accounts and fixed deposits . Deposits on current account do not earn any interest whereas bank deposits earn intereest.The interest rate on these deposits vary depending upon the maturity period. Since saving accounts are deposited at regular interval, they have a fixed rate of interest.However , fixed deposits are recurring deposits with varying maturity period.Hence, the rates also vary. Features: They are best known type of investments that offers a high degree of safety on both the principal and the return on that principal. Bank deposits are highly liquid and can be encashed anytime. Loans can be raised against bank deposits. Non-Negotiable Certificate Of Deposit: Commercial banks and other financial institution offer a variety of savings certificates known as certificate of deposits (CDs). These instruments are available for various maturities. As the maturity increases , the rate of interest offered also increases. However large deposits may command higher rates , holding maturity constant . The credit risk associated with large CDs depend directly on the credit worthiness of the financial institution that issue them. Since large CDs are not insured , a CD holder may lose principal if the financial institution fails. Money Market Deposit Account: Financial Institutions offer Money Market Deposit Accounts with no interest rate ceilings.The Money Market Deposit Accounts require a minimum deposit to open. They pay competitive money market rates of interest and are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) if the issued bank is insured. Withdrawals can be made , as many times as desired , in person or through automated teller machines (ATMs). There are no limitations on the number of deposits.

The Unlikely Heros of Antony and Cleopatra Essay -- Antony Cleopatra E

The Unlikely Heros of Antony and Cleopatra    In Shakespeares Antony and Cleopatra the two eponymous heroes, and lovers frequently contend with each other in a battle of words and wills. It is from these conflicts, that the reader learns most about each characters true nature. From the start of the play Antony is portrayed as a ruler who has lost his desire for dominance, a ruler who has lost his rigid loyalty to his empire, but instead has found his lover - Cleopatra. From the outset we have many reasons to dislike this influenced hero, yet as we find ourselves captivated in a play of conflicts, loyalty and war, he eventually wins our admiration.    Antony is a character that has lost many of the fine qualities he once possessed. Love strips Antony of the things he has previously valued: power, ambition, honour, integrity as a soldier and leader. Throughout the play Antonys diminish is clearly shown by his actions, as Cleopatra gradually influences him.    Primarily Antonys new disloyalty to his country and the triumvirate is a reason we di...

Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia” Essay

Though there is no mention of race or slavery in Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"Ligeia,† the story is suffused with the symbolic interaction of light and dark, white and black, pallor and pigment. In a situation so fully charged with the symbolics of race, and in a story written in antebellum America by an author raised in Virginia, the lack of any mention of slavery is enough to indicate that this story, despite its studied silence on the matter, has something to tell us about the psychology of racialism in the United States. In the conflict between Ligeia and Rowena—though it takes place almost out of sight, at the edge of the real and of vision—Poe sets up Ligeia as the dark lady and Rowena as the fair one. The reader might expect this to play out as either an abolitionist or racist affirmation of equality or racial supremacy. The situation is complicated, however, by the presence and perceptions of the narrator, who is outside of the highly charged color scheme. Poe positions the reader as an observer of racialist dynamics, rather than as a racialized participant, to allow the reader a view of how a passive, dominant white class depends on, and is crippled by its dependency on, a black underclass that stands for everything it lacks and fears. The dichotomy of black and white emerges relatively late in the story, only after Ligeia has died and the narrator has taken Rowena as his new wife, but the coloring of Ligeia is present from the start. Among her other sublime attributes, the narrator writes that â€Å"She came and departed as a shadow† (111). However, she is also very pale. She has a â€Å"lofty and pale forehead –it was faultless† and â€Å"skin rivalling the purest ivory† (111). Her whiteness, though, is framed by â€Å"the raven-black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-curling tresses† (111). Her eyes, the windows of the soul, are also â€Å"the most brilliant of black, and, far over them, hung jetty lashes of great length. The brows, slightly irregular in outline, had the same tint† (111). While her skin is very white, every other feature of Ligeia is exceedingly black. In her shadowiness, Poe depicts her very being as dark. Ligeia’s white skin might be attributed to Poe’s desire as an artist to keep this story from being overtly racialized or didactic or scandalous. His presentation of intense blackness as the frame of intense whiteness, however, is actually a better representation of race in America than a simple schematization of white versus black. Over against the â€Å"one drop† rule that determined a person to be â€Å"black† if they had any black ancestors, the reader determines Ligeia to be â€Å"white† based on one attribute against many dark ones. In fact, Ligeia’s blackness is more than skin (or hair) deep. She is a mystery even to her lover, the narrator, who associates her with the religious mysteries of ancient civilizations. Like the African slaves brought to America, she has a connection to a cultural past that is lost to the narrator and which can only play on his fancy. Her family, which he does not know the paternal name of, â€Å"is of a remotely ancient date. † Musing on his ignorance of his beloved’s family name—which must seem a little unusual to any reader—he wonders why this is: â€Å"was it a test of my strength of affection, that I should institute no inquiries upon this point? or was it rather a caprice of my own –a wildly romantic offering on the shrine of the most passionate devotion? † (111). The proposed solutions ironically obscure the possibility of repression, that he does not know because he does not want to know, that he is afraid to know. The narrator can only imagine that he does not know her name because he loves her so much. The narrator’s conspicuous forgetting begins to trace the mechanism by which Americans repress blackness, and the dependence of whiteness on a black contrast, for the sake of keeping whiteness unquestioned as a positive attribute. Part of the narrator’s madness, though, is that he continues to fixate on the blackness in Ligeia as the symbol of depth and plenitude. Through this obsession with blackness in what is supposed to be a white face, Poe uses â€Å"Ligeia† to pose an inquiry into American racialism that escapes from traditional dualisms of good versus bad into an examination of the psychological mechanisms that make such a debate possible. At the same time that the depth of Ligeia’s learning provides a viable historical representation of the white slave-holder’s ignorance of African cultures, it also comes to assume sublime proportions that simultaneously remove that knowledge from history. Using the fetishization of Orienal cultures as a model, the narrator transports Ligeia’s difference into a realm beyond the earthly. The same mechanism was applied to blackness in America: when whites could not fathom the difference between European cultures and African cultures, they wound up believing that blacks and blackness were unfathomable. This set the stage for blackness to be aligned with other things white European culture did not understand—with animals, for example, or sexual appetite. The narrator’s visible obsession with Ligeia’s blackness as a symbol for his inability to comprehend her exposes the way in which American culture could both deify African culture as more authentic and denigrate it as more base. For the narrator, of course, this dissonance takes the form of his love for Ligeia. He cites Bacon on beauty: â€Å"’There is no exquisite beauty,’ says Bacon, Lord Verulam, speaking truly of all the forms and genera of beauty, ‘without some strangeness in the proportion’† (). The narrator agrees that there is something strange about Ligeia but he cannot find it. Each individual part, it seems, is perfectly wrought. The strangeness, though, is as Bacon would have it: in the proportion of all these perfections to each other. Metaphorically, the perfection of the white and black face is the perfection of a racially segregated society viewed from within the heavily repressed white perspective. The concepts used all make sense by themselves: that Africans have different cultures, blackness and whiteness are beautiful in their own ways, some things are beyond human understanding—but the particular way they are connected in a slave-holding society has more than a little â€Å"strangeness in the proportion. † Poe’s presentation of the narrator’s consciousness directs the reader to precisely this perspective, focusing not any individual part but on the framing of the whole, because it is here that the psychological dependence of whiteness on misappropriated conceptions of Africanism functions. The narrator’s repression of blackness into a transcendental white worldview—in which blackness only exists at the fringes to serve whiteness and make it more beautiful, both literally and metaphorically—results logically in the death of Ligeia and her replacement by a very white English girl of known parentage but not much depth of soul. The Lady Rowena is â€Å"fair-haired and blue-eyed,† a perfect Aryan, in contrast to Ligeia’s dark hair and eyes, and her family, like the economic system of chattel slavery, is enthralled to a â€Å"thirst of gold. † When the narrator describes their wedding his memory catches more on the blackness of their surroundings than on the European whiteness of his bride. â€Å"I have said that I minutely remember the details of the chamber—yet I am sadly forgetful on topics of deep moment,† like Ligeia’s parentage or the wedding itself (). The details he remembers include a â€Å"bridal couch—of an Indian model, and low, and sculptured of solid ebony†¦a gigantic sarcophagus of black granite†¦[and a tapestry with] patterns of the most jetty black† (111). The blackness that he has banished from the person of his bride he has recreated in their surroundings. The composition of black and white is by now recognizable to the reader: the alabaster centerpiece that was Ligeia’s face is now the person of Rowena, and the black hair and eyes of Ligeia are the room and its contents. The tableau that was beautiful when contained within the frame of Ligeia’s face becomes, when extrapolated onto the greater scale of the mansion or estate, somber and terrifying. Blackness looms everywhere in the bridal room. By being marginalized, blackness also comes to surround whiteness and threaten it. The climax of the story comes from just such an incursion of blackness into the white center. Ligeia seemingly poisons Rowena from beyond the grave and uses her body as a medium for return. From the narrator’s earlier adulation of Ligeia, it seems that he might be happy with this turn of events, but he has enough of his wits about him to be terrified that a ghost has returned to life. His terror also has a deeper cause. The displacement of blackness that has guided the story’s logic thus far means that the narrator is at last implicated in authorizing a racial economy. In the black room (with black curtains) Ligeia has supplated Rowena—and now Ligeia really is a dark figure, bearing with her the real abyss of death—the only place for whiteness to flee is into the face and person of the narrator. Throughout the story, however, the narrator has been fully invested in a white moderate-centrist repression of race, as seen in his convenient forgettings and fetishizations of Ligeia. Furthermore, the version of blackness that he has set up is dangerous to whiteness; blackness holds such an anxious sway over his mind that he sees it everywhere, and now it everywhere threatens to engulf him. The anxiety that invigorates the finale differs from the immediate horror of â€Å"Ligeia,† the transgression of the natural order through the return of the dead, in that here the horror is not within the story as an object of narration but surrounding the story as the ground on which it stands. For the reader, the immediate shock is Ligeia’s reanimation, but at the subconscious level this is enacted through reader response as the experience of the text stepping beyond its boundaries and into the real, the objective correlative of a corpse stepping beyond the boundary of death back into life. The doubling of conscious and unconscious horror in the story’s climax gives it affective power in that the reader is now fully identified with the narrator: as the text reaches its unholy apotheosis in moving beyond itself, the next target in the spread of the imaginary blackness is the reader. This movement might provoke a strong reaction formation—the condemnation of the work as unliterary or obscene—or, in a more tolerant reading, a shudder. All of the above explication of how darkness forms an invasive dialectical presence in â€Å"Ligeia† allows us to expand an interpretation of the work from the formal interplay of light and dark to the real, instantiated, and historical discourse of domination and slavery. On this ground, the message of â€Å"Ligeia† about slavery is as tangled as the rendering of color. Ligeia, the dark lady, seems to dominate the narrator from the beginning of the tale, and in her return via the corpus of Rowena she exerts power not only over another person—one marked as fair, as white—she demonstrates her mastery over life and death itself. Ligeia’s empowerment seems paradoxically at odds with aligning this story with the historical circumstances of slavery: black African slaves were legally considered chattel, moveable property, and had all the same rights that cattle or the like would have, that is, virtually none. If we remember, though, that as a tale of the grotesque—an imaginative exaggeration that partakes of the inversions and reinvestments of the subconscious—â€Å" Ligeia† does not disclose its truths at the level of literal or represented but in the language of (bad) dreams. What correlates the play of power in â€Å"Ligeia† with the logic of slavery is that the very idea of total domination—or rather, since we are dealing in inversions, the total subjugation of the narrator—can operate so freely in the story. The historical domination of the white slave owning class is represented here in its inverted form as the grotesquely hyperbolic empowerment of blackness through occultation. Ligeia’s transcendent power does not correspond to the real configuration of social forces in 1830s America, which was already being marked by ambivalence toward the national sin, but to the idealized racial superiority that white ideology purported to itself—though it could not, ever, live up to its own fantasy of itself either in terms of exacting submission or conversion of the â€Å"heathens†Ã¢â‚¬â€and to the equally idealized mystery of blackness empowered through an assumed (and constructed by apathy) opacity. The form of domination operating in the story is evidenced largely by the formal construction of the narrator’s discourse. Instead of pronouncing at the outset his obsession with Ligeia, the narrator demonstrates his relationship of submission/domination by overwhelming the reader with intricate, over-detailed descriptions of Ligeia. The narrator is dominated by his own telling, by discourse itself, and the telling is fully possessed by the body and soul of Ligeia. Rather than willfully presenting her domination over the narrator, and thus exposing herself to revolt or to a failure to live up to the role of â€Å"master,† Ligeia’s domination is represented through the narrator’s willed submission. His total submission—undemanded, uncoerced, almost unasked for—attributes to Ligeia a total form of power that the master cannot arrogate to himself but which exists exclusively in the mind of the imagined slave. The countercurrent of this is that the story is told by the slave though discourse is supposed to be the exclusive domain of the master. Yet the thrall is narrator is truly what the master class of a slave-owning society requires to receive the adulation is craves, and is in keeping with the logic of slavery. The slave class exists to labor on behalf of the master class; the final step in establishing an absolute and horrific slavery is for the labor of discourse to become the burden of the slave. Poe’s story works through a mounting intensity of the motifs of white and black, starting small and growing to a climax in which blackness appears everywhere. Through this progression, Poe’s story shows that even though a white perspective gets to tell the story of â€Å"Ligeia† and of U. S. history, it is not safe from a backlash. To the contrary, in trying to secure itself absolutely from blackness, the whiteness of the American mythology has invented a racialized other that it cannot escape. The black fear that haunts the narrator and the American reader assumes the massive proportions of the problem of racial chattel slavery itself. Beyond the scale of the actual ambivalences of the play between owner and slave is the nightmarish dimension of absolutes that the ideology of such a society demands. The model for this absolutism is, of course, the dichotomy between life and death: a clear transition that is irreversible. The horror of the American mind, which must reconcile an absolute division between master and slave with a contingent division between classes that are actually interpenetrating, is brought into the light of representation in Poe’s horrific tale of the risen dead.

Leadership-Development Programs Essay

1.0 Background At the senior executive staff meeting of August 1, 2012, the director of operations suggested that Cliffside Holding Company of Massapequa (CHCM) establish a leadership-development program to prepare junior financial executives for future advancement into executive positions. Specifically, the proposal was to send 20 employees off-site each year for a three-week program offered by the Aspen Leadership Institute of Colorado at a cost of $5,000.00 USD per student. The total cost to CHCM would be $100,000.00 per year plus approximately the same amount for lost time on the job. 2.0 Discussion CHCM has been in business for over 50 years. Our average growth rate is 12% per annum. None of our twelve senior executives has attended a leadership development seminar and yet our company has been prosperous. This calls into question whether a leadership development program is even necessary. Moreover, since our leadership has been successful and effective without  such programs it appears that leaders are born, not made. In fact, I surveyed your senior staff and all but one agreed with this notion. To quote the famous economist Dr. Irwin Corey, each of us is â€Å"born into this world accompanied by a rich, psychical disposition, which furnishes him ready-made all his motivations of conduct†¦He can show a demand for nothing that is not prompted by this galaxy of instincts.† The online reference site Wikipedia defines leadership as â€Å"the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others.† There exists an entire school of leadership theory which holds that leaders have certain traits in common. Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. – all possessed such leadership traits as ambition, self-confidence, and intelligence. These cannot be learned; they are innate. Two well-respected research studies that support the notion that personality traits can predict leadership were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and in the Leadership Quarterly. In my own experience, I’ve also noted that a tall physical stature is possessed by leaders. Certainly no one can increase his or her height–it is determined by genetics. Note the heights of some of the greatest leaders in United States history in the table, below. Source: http://www.laughtergeneology.com , http://www.imdb.com and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1682433/bio In fact, all members of your senior staff are over six feet tall with one exception: Ms. Florence Forsythe, the person advocating leadership development training. Moreover, I am suspect as to her intentions. Is it possible that she may covet my position as the human resources VP? Or is she motivated by the liberal notion that all citizens of a free nation have the right to pursue education and can achieve anything they desire? I suspect she is motivated by both personal gain and bleeding-heart liberal intentions. Once we start sending some people for leadership training, we will start getting numerous requests for expensive training that we simply can’t afford. Regardless, if we spend our money on leadership development, we will not have enough to spend on recruitment. And, from the discussion above, it would be more logical to select and recruit those with leadership traits than to try and develop those who are not. Moreover, if we spend money sending the wrong people to leadership training, the whole program will be a waste of money. There are plenty of people who are already leaders; we don’t need to â€Å"train† those who are not. 3.0 Conclusion and Recommendation I speak for truth and common sense. CHCM should not invest in the proposed initiative to send its junior executives for annual leadership training. Leadership development programs are wasteful because the money is not well-spent. The advocate of this idea, Ms. Forsythe, is not really concerned about developing leaders for Cliffside Holding Co. Instead, Ms. Forsythe has a personal agenda to discredit me personally and push the theories of the Aspen Institute. As VP of Human Resources, I don’t think  those theories are appropriate for the culture of CHCM.