Financial strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial strategies - Essay Example or events during this financial year and is poised to hold much more in future due to the tremendous encouragement and support it has been receiving for its events, both large and small. AoC Management Services conference and events team focus on arranging conferences and meets of all shapes and hues, right from small workshops for 10 delegates to major residential events for up to 1500 delegates. It is seen that 50% of these events are run on an annual basis, such as the AoCs Annual Meets and the AoC Human Resources Conference. The team also organizes a variety of national events based on current issues faced by the educational institutions in this sector. There are events that range between one to three days, and regularly include entertainment, gala dinners, awards ceremonies and special activities for delegates. On the other hand; Informa Plc has nearly 49% of their business from event management programs while the rest of the business is from training and general management consultancy services. Background of both companies: For Informa Plc, Revenues for the first half year 2009 was  £636.3m, which is 1.4% higher than the corresponding period in 2008. Similarly, adjusted profits were higher at 4.6% reaching  £146m. It is believed that the relative strengthening of US $ and Euro â‚ ¬ has been the major reasons for the improved performance during the first half of the year 2009. Its real effect, however, has been in terms of contributing dramatically or staging recoveries, to a certain extent. Thus the losses caused by strengthening of Pound Sterling during earlier periods were balanced. However, it is seen that its operating profits have declined in the year under reference, coming down from  £77.7m in the first half of 2008 to just  £61.1m during the corresponding period in the year 2009, showing a fall of  £16.6M. There are several factors which could explain this decline in profits, including  £10.8m of business restructuring costs and yet another  £ 50m

W.L. Gore and Associates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

W.L. Gore and Associates - Essay Example The term, "employee" is not used at Gore, but associate. There are no bosses, directors or secretaries, but small teams where people know each others strengths and weaknesses. This can be a difficult situation to adjust to for new hires from traditional companies. When Diane Davidson was hired due to her fifteen years of experience a sales executive she did not know what to do without a boss dictating her actions. She was informed that her team was her boss because she would not want to let them down. Everyone is the boss and no one. (Deutschman, 2004). The philosophy is to nurture talents like Davidson's by allowing the natural abilities of people to emerge in an environment that encourages new ideas. The new hire is assigned a sponsor who is a mentor, not a supervisor. Leadership should develop naturally relative to each new project and leaders need to also be followers as necessary. This associate culture can take up to six months to learn and that is expected. The new hire might feel strange not contributing when the rest of the team is, but getting to know the other members is vital to this strategy. The representative of Gore's human resources team states that the power behind the associate culture is to encourage people to believe in their potential and in their contributions to the team effort (Moore, 2006). W.L.Gore manufactures a wide range of products that include the w... The company does not supervise the development of new inventions, but does encourage employees to spend 10% of their time on new, innovative ides-not variations on products already on the market. Self-motivation is a prime factor at Gore and the wide range of products requires the input of intelligent, creative people who must be able to work independently and with a group (Moore, 2006). As unusual as the Gore corporate structure is, the turnover rate is very low. The Sunday Times listed Gore as in the top 100 best companies for employment (McCall, 2004). Of the associates surveyed 92% said they believed that they made a valuable contribution to the company's success and 93% stated that they would miss working for Gore if they left (Doke, 2006). An important aspect of the associate culture is that it removes the cut throat type of competition generated in traditional hierarchy corporations. There one person's success often means the failure of another employee. This philosophy attracts the talent that Gore desires as it employs over 58,000 people in the United States, Britain, Scotland and Germany. The turn over rate is only 6% world wide with over 40% of associates being with Gore over five years (Dow, 2004). W.L. Gore and Associates states that they encourage hands-on innovation, involving those closest to a project in on the decision making (Gore 2006). Freedom and cooperation produce good results. Gore is willing to take risks when other companies will not leading to new and successful products like the Elixir guitar strings coated with thin plastic of protect the strings from the dirt and oil on human hands. The associate who first thought of the idea was engineer Dave Myers who designed plastic heart implants. He believed that a