Statistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Statistics - Essay Example That may make them more satisfied with their "work" in the short run, but their performance certainly didnt improve. Each and every organization is faced with people challenges. How do you get public moving in the right direction? Start where they are. The first step is to provide feedback to employees from their current point of view. That is where Inscape Publishing comes in. For nearly 30 years Inscape guides have been first choice for research-based self-assessments. Theyve helped over 30 million people worldwide progress performance, increase job satisfaction and value differences (Hines, 1990). All analysis are conducting by using SPSS for Windows (SPSS, 13.0) were utilized to conduct statistical analyses. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the employment background and the job satisfaction variables. Now we apply the hypothesis on overall job satisfaction level and ANOVA for intrinsic and extrinsic satisfactions. Since the computed value of z falls within the rejection region, so we reject the null hypothesis (at ï  ¡ = 0.05). So there is sufficient evidence that the average overall job satisfaction is not equals to 4.5 The significance value of the F test in the ANOVA table is 0.000 and 0.002 for intrinsic and extrinsic cases respectively. Thus, we must reject the hypothesis that average satisfaction assessment scores are equal across both intrinsic and extrinsic groups. Now that we know the groups differ in some way, we need to learn more about the structure of the differences. Taking overall job satisfaction as a factor - Obviously when a job is routine, these elements would be routine. What is routine is ordinary, and what is ordinary cannot be perfect. In order to have a perfect job, one has to break through these formal walls that are built to enclose a so-called professional world. Employee expectations of certain standards for working conditions at the beginning of employment may be

Planning for Emergencies and Disasters Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Planning for Emergencies and Disasters - Essay Example There are many protocols which the emergency services use in dealing with an emergency, which usually start with planning before an emergency occurs. The planning phase starts at preparedness, where the group decide on how they will respond to a given incident or set of circumstances. Following an emergency, the groups then move to a response phase, where they execute their plans, and may end up improvising some areas of their response. Groups may then be involved in recovery following the incident, where they assist in the clear up from the incident, or help the people involved overcome their mental trauma. The final phase in the circle is mitigation which involves taking steps to ensure that no re-occurrence is possible, or putting additional plans in place to ensure less damage is done. This should feed back in to the preparedness stage, with updated plans in place to deal with future emergencies, thus completing the circle. In the event of a major incident, such as civil unrest or a major disaster, many governments maintain the right to declare a state of emergency, which gives them extensive powers over the daily lives of their citizens. If this happens, the safety of the people always comes as the first priority of the state. They should ensure the flow of the people from where the disaster has struck and to ensure that proper safekeeping and provisions were given to the inconvenienced parties. In cases wherein difficult decisions are to be made, the state should always follow one rule.

Poverty and Social Justice

Poverty and Social Justice Abstract This paper looks into the issue of poverty and social justice. The paper shows the contribution of poverty to social injustice. This is done by examining a social organization which fights poverty. This paper examines the City Team Ministry one of the many organizations which is helping to reduce poverty. The beneficiaries of the organization are interviewed to shed light on the issues of poverty. The questions used in guiding the interview are appended. SECTION I City Team Ministries was started by Lester and Pauline Meyers in 1957. It began as a feeding program. Four years later it expanded to include women in its feeding program and still later in 1069 merged with another ministry to bring on board homeless and troubled youths. In 1983 it changed its name San Jose Rescue Mission to City Team. In 1987 the churches in Philadelphia invited the City team to start national expansion to the East Coast. This was to serve the greater Delaware valley. The City Team Ministry records that this was the period that the full long term recovery program for men was started. Further the website claims there were continued increase in the number of the children and women who suffered from abuse, addiction, crisis pregnancy, abandonment and homelessness. To bring on board the women and children the city team ministry launched three programs three programs: heritage home and house of grace in San Jose and well baby program Philadelphia. The programs caused a l ot of changes in the lives of the women ands children (City Team 2010). The City Team International was launched in 1997 in an effort to broaden the City Team. In 2007 the name was changed to New Generations International. The New Generations International is specifically concern with training, equipping and coaching national leaders in 38 countries. This division cares people through the provision of compassionate services such food, clean water, education and medical services (City Team, 2010). The City Team Ministry has a disaster response team which started in 1989. The first beneficiaries of this team were the victims of the Loma earthquake. Afterwards the team has responded to and sheltered the victims of the Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in 2004. Since 2005 the response team has developed a four phase framework specializing in the long term recovery of communities affected by the major disasters (City Team, 2010). The mission statement of the ministry is, In obedience to Christ, passionately transforming individuals, their families and communities throughout the world (City Team Ministry para. 4). The programs which are offered by the organization are as follows: rescue missions, mens recovery programs, youth outreach, family programs and church advancement. These programs will be explained in a detailed way in the course of the paper (City Team, 2010). Section II I carried out an interview on clients served by the City Team Ministry. The interview was carried out after obtaining permission from the ministry authorities. Six classes of people were interviewed one from each program offered by the City Team Ministry. The fist person interviewed was a beneficiary of the rescue mission. This program is designed to offer a hot meal and a safe nights sleep. The program offers temporary emergency care to the homeless. A young man who had just been released from prison was one of those beneficiaries of this program who was interviewed. He has an Islamic background and was headed to the streets after being released but bounced into the agents of the ministry who enrolled him in the program. For the sake of this paper he will be called 1A. The second person to be interviewed (2B) was a black man an addict of drugs. He was a beneficiary of the men recovery program. He was not homeless but had been driven to the streets after being left by his wife who was the bread winner. The man in desperation turned to abuse of drugs. The program agents enrolled him in the program and slowly he was making some progress in recovering from drug use. The third interview was carried out on a group of street kids. These kids had an arrangement with the City Team Ministry whereby they met every Saturday and Wednesday. In the meetings they hold bible discussions and are groomed to become better citizens. These kids operate under the youth outreach program. Some of the have already being taken off the streets and are attending schools. The kids are of various backgrounds. The fourth interview was carried out on a family which is a beneficiary of the family program. This program offers basic needs like clothes to the families which can not afford the basic needs and view them as luxuries. The last person interviewed was a lady around the age of thirty who had been abused and was pregnant. She was taken in under the womens programs where she was taken care of through her pregnancy.   Section III This section presents the results of the interviews carried out above. The interviews were guided by the questions appended in the appendix. The interviews focused on how the clients have experienced social injustice as a result of poverty. Through the interview it was also possible to assess how the macro conditions of the society may have impacted upon the poverty experienced by the clients. Person 1A: Education The first interview carried out on person 1A who had just been released from the prison having been charged with mugging. He was a sharp young man aged 27 years who answered the questions succinctly though he was well educated having just attended the elementary level education. He could not continue with studies because he could no longer depend on his family which actually needed his help for sustenance. He therefore pulled out of school to help his  Ã‚   family meet the basic needs of life. Education which is a basic had turned out to be a luxury for him. This is one incident which clearly shows how poverty can easily cut short and change basic needs like education into a luxury irrespective of whether one is willing to continue studies or not. Some macro condition of the society can equally contribute to making the access of these basic services a challenge (Kirst-Ashman, 2008). According to the National Academic Press (2001), The U.S. system of education finance is characterized by large disparities in funding and opportunities (National Academic Press para 1). This disparity makes attaining education in some region to be expensive. Expensive education coupled with poverty makes education almost unattainable. The property tax is basically used to sponsor the education at the district level. This means that a poor district will equally be unable to fund its schools leading to disparity in education among the districts. Another macro environment factor which may contribute to insufficiency education and therefore poverty is the attitude of some communities. Education is not taken seriously by some people especially in regions which have large numbers of poor inhabitants (National Academic Press, 2001). Person 1B: Medical Care The second person to be interviewed is labeled person 1B. This man was a victim of depression which led him to drug abuse. He had part ways with his wife who used to provide for the family and could not take care of himself therefore resorting to the streets. He looked as a man who was well built before. Before joining the men recovery program with the City Team Ministry he could not afford medical care being unemployed. He was sick on several occasions as he narrated but could not afford medical care. From the interview, the main reason he gave for not getting something casual job to work on was his ailing status. He also made claims that he could not secure a job in his status of health. The interview with person 1B brings into limelight the issue of the access to health insurance. Health insurance is only accessible by those who are employed. Once ones job is no more and being not in position to submit the required periodical premiums the coverage is frozen and attaining medical care becomes hard. With the exception of such programs as Medicare and Medicaid it becomes extremely hard for the poor people to access medical care facilities (Cellini, McKernan Ratcliffe, 2008).   Street Youths: This was the third interview which carried out. Some street kids who are beneficiaries of the youth outreach program volunteered to give information about their lives and the program they were enrolled in. The program offers a combination of youth activities and mentorship to youth especially those who are affected by the street ways of life such as drugs. From the interview carried out it was found out that the youths mostly lacked a source of direction and mentorship. Most of the youths interviewed under this interview group were willing to work on any casual job. A close cross examination showed that they lacked the presentation skills which would be quite necessary if they were to win the confidence of those they would work for. Under this interview some macro conditions came into play (Kirst-Ashman, 2008). The first which was quite noticeable was the community. Some employers are likely to avoid employing individuals from some communities because of stereotypes which might be associated with them. For instance not all employers will be willing the street youths work for fears that they may steal from the workplace and cause some kind of conflict. The youths were mentored on presentation skills through the program offered by City Team Ministry. Family The fourth interview was carried out on a family which is a beneficiary of the family programs. This program is designed to help poor families have an access to basic necessities. This is done in form of giving the families quality second hand appliances, clothes and furniture. This has gone a long way to raise the standard of living of the families in the family programs. The family which were interviewed were able to live a comfortable life and invest money businesses which they could have spend buying the basic home necessities. Having a comfortable home environment is a basic for a family to concentrate on developing itself. This is quite significant especially for the parents who wish to see their children having a smooth life. From the family interview it was realized that children in a comfortable family set up are less likely to fall sick and have a potential of performing better in the schools. This interview implicated that comfort at homes is a necessity which is vital in helping families fight poverty in by creating peace of mind. This helps the family members to maximally concentrate in their duties.    Abused Lady The last interview was on a lady who was an orphan staying with uncle. The uncle sexually abused her for some times after which she decided to run away after learning about the women programs at the City Team Ministry. During the interview the lady appeared tormented by the acts of her uncle. She could not report the uncle to the police because she dependent on him for the payment of her college fee. When she could not bear it any more she run way terminating her studies and later realized that she was pregnant. The interview brought to surface the social injustice which silently takes place without anybody being aware of them. In this case poverty created a forum which an elderly person advantage of and exploited a young person. Poverty could not allow the lady to report the person for fear that she could lose her college sponsorship. Section IV This section will look at the issues of poverty at large. According to Anup Shah (2009) the poverty is caused by both individuals and governments. He examines this in a global perspective. He starts by analyzing the causes at individual levels. Being lazy and making poor decisions are the two reasons he gives which contribute to poverty. This is true but the he fails to talk about the victims of circumstances who find being born in poor families where despite any wise decisions made it takes a lot time to escape poverty. This happens to most of the children born in the ghettos of America. They start life with no basic education and nothing as a heritance. With no education and no money wise decision almost become a vague idea though not in most cases. Street musicians have been known to rise from dust but it should be noted that this may not happen to everybody born in the street (Anup Shah 2009). Anup Shah (2009) also brings in the issue of the corruption and unwise government policies. Corruption is predominantly responsible for poverty in the third world countries. In the U.S. government decision may make some region poor. For instance the federal government should come in to aid those districts which are in a position to support their own schools (Anup 2009). NCLB Act is one way the federal government is doing that but there should be more efforts to ensure that all the school age going kids are included especially in   the poor regions. The government should adapt a friendly way of drug war techniques. Instead of just hundreds of youths to prisons they should find a way keeping these youths busy (Cellini McKernan Ratcliffe, 2008). Conclusion Poverty and social injustice are two issues which seem to go hand in hand. Poverty creates a gate for many social injustices to be committed. This is so because poverty seems to handcuff the power of the people involved from shouting and demanding for their rights. Despite the many non governmental organizations which are fighting poverty across America, t he government has a responsibility in changing some of its policies which seem to foster poverty. References Anup, S. (2009). Causes of Poverty. Retrieved on February 4, 2010 from: http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty Cellini, S, McKernan, S. Ratcliffe C. (2008). The Dynamics of Poverty in the United States: A review of data, methods, and findings. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 27(3), 577-605. City Team. (2010). City Team Ministry. Retrieved on 4th February, 2010 from: http://www.cityteam.org/about/programs/ Kirst-Ashman, K. (2008). Human Behavior, Communities, Organizations Groups in the Macro Social Environment: An Empowerment Approach (2nd Ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Thomson. Kissane, R. (2008). Teaching and Learning Guide for: Assessing Welfare Reform, Over a Decade Later, Sociology Compass 2(3), 1115-1126. National Academic Press. (2001). Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance. Retrieved on February 4, 2010 from: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6166page=1 Appendix (interview questions) 1st interview (to person 1A) Do you view education as basic need? Given a sponsorship can you go back to school? How do you think would you be if your family had enough money? What could you have avoided if you had enough money? 2nd interview (to person 2B) Give us your story? How has the men recovery program helped you? What do you think has kept you in poverty 3rd interview (to the street youths) What are doing to get out of your current situation? How have you benefitted from the youth outreach program? 4th interview (family) How is the family program helping you to fight poverty? 5th interview (abused lady) Why did you give in to be abused?

Impact of Fiscal Policy on the Pharmaceuticals Industry Essay --

Fiscal policy, Gross Domestic Product, Economics and Classical view of Economics and their overall impact on the likes of a company like Wyeth, a Pharmaceutical Company, and building upon such a correlation is what this article is all about. Fiscal Policy is the other half of the two-legged approach of the government to maintain stability within an economy while trying to maintain the sanctity of things and trying to achieve the targets outlined. The other part is the monetary policy. Fiscal policy is all about the earnings and expenditures of the government. The sources of revenue are the various forms of taxes whereas the expenses are the ones regarding the public utilities, defense etc. Gross Domestic Product is the total worth of all the goods and services produced within any given economy and the idea is to produce as much as possible. It beneficially impacted by the positive net exports and that has a good effect on the Exchequer of the country. GDP is in so many ways a true measure of the overall living standard of the economy. Mind you the GDP does not include the remittanc...

The Dog Who Wanted To Die Plot Graph Attachment

The average neighborhood. Exposition: The Clashes, two crazy people and their revolting dog are introduced as moving into the neighborhood of David Parker. David Parker has just lost his father and the Clashes are creating quite a riot in the neighborhood, and their dog Monty, is the dirty dog that just seems to mope around. Rising Action: The Clashes take very bad care of Monty, feeding him potato peels and craps that make him ill.He is also covered in infectious scabs and other bits of filth. David notices that Monty, the dog, has attempted many suicide attempts due to his depressing life with the Clashes. David is going through his own troubles as his father has moved away. His grades are dropping, he is always in a sour mood, and is easily aggravated. His mother worries very much about him. Eventually, though, the Clashes moved away, leaving their dog behind. David decides to take him into his own home one day, as Monty avoids yet another suicide attempt. Climax:Burglaries are oc curring the neighborhood where David lives, and Monty, during a burglary at Davit's own home, saves Davit's life. Falling Action: After this life-changing event, David comes to love and take care of Monty like never before. Month's condition changes wonderfully; he is not the only one. David starts to take responsibility for his own life. He gets a job and takes care of his dog, his grades go up, and he is in a generally better mood.

The Global Cement Industry and Cemex’s Penetration Strategy Into International Markets

The Global Cement Industry and Cemex’s Penetration Strategy into International Markets My report argues that demand and capacity creation in developing economies is a major driver in the global cement industry, which given the nature of the product (high transportation costs arising from its bulk) is prone to major company expansion by mergers and acquisitions. Cemex’s expansion strategy focuses on merger and acquisition (M&A), mainly exploiting its expertise of operating in difficult institutional environments and taking advantage of opportunities arising from difficulties in developing market economies.The company successfully adapts best practice and technologies from its acquisitions throughout the wider company. My report begins with definitions, presents an overview of the global cement industry (section two) key players in the industry (section three) and M&A trends (section four). I then analyse Cemex’s entry strategies by exploring in turn the regions in to which it has expanded (section five) drawing conclusions on its penetration strategy. 1Introduction and definitionsCement is a binding substance, which sets and hardens independently binding other materials together. It is intended for use in building or construction material and can withstand varying environmental conditions. About 75% of cement production is used in ready-mixed concrete to be utilized in construction. The remaining 25%, Portland Cement Association (2009) shows, is used for paving roads or extracting oil. As Selim and Salem (2010) indicate basic raw materials for cement production are iron, aluminium, silicon and calcium.Normally cement is divided as Portland cement, Portland cement blends and non-Portland hydraulic cements. Portland cement, which can be roughly divided into White Portland and Gray Portland, is the most commonly used type as it is the basic ingredient of concrete (Cemex, 2013a, PCA, 2013). There are two different processes used in the manufactur e of cement – dry process and wet process. In the wet process, the raw materials, after properly proportioned, are ground with water, thoroughly mixed and fed into the kiln in the form of a â€Å"slurry† (containing enough water to make it fluid).In the dry process, raw materials are ground, mixed, and fed to the kiln in a dry state instead. In other respects, the two processes are essentially alike (PCA, 2013). However, the dry process was considered to be more sufficient than the wet one since it consumes less energy. On the other hand, the dry process requires more investment in equipment and plants. Cement manufactures in developing countries have widely adopted the wet process but the transformation to the dry process is underway on a large scale. 2An overview of the global cement industryThis section discusses the nature of the global cement industry, including the market size and market potential, the nature of cement products, market supply and demand and relat ed environmental issues, to provide a broad view to understand the nature of competition. The following are the main characteristics of the global cement industry. Huge market – especially emerging markets Cement is the primary and indispensable material in infrastructure construction for every country. Although it only accounts for around 6–13% in construction costs (Chandramouli, 2012), there are few substitutes for it (Wesley, 2009).Hence there is a potential huge global market with strong contracts between developed and developing countries. While the developed countries mostly have steady and limited demand for cement, the developing world is a more promising market, as a result of large-scale constructions: the demand of cement is positively correlated with a nation’s economic development. World demand for cement is growing by 4. 7% per annum reaching 6% growth in 2012, with total consumption of 3. 78 million tons (CW Group, 2012).Consumption in developing countries drives this growth in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East regions; China is the strongest driver. In contract, consumption in Europe has been stalled and the growth rate of consumption in the US is a steady 2%. Therefore, developing countries are the main drivers of the growth in cement demand – a trajectory likely to continue. Cost is dominated by oil price and transportation Due to the specificity of cement products, in the cement industry, oil price and transportation cost are dominant factors affecting cost.The cement industry is energy intensive and thus fuel costs is the most critical part in cement manufacturing, constituting 35% of total cost of production (Das, 2011). Therefore, the fluctuation of fuel price, especially oil price, has impacts greatly on production cost. During the first quarter of 2012, the oil price had kept rising and was 12% up by the end of 2011. At that time, the cement industry increased prices to cover hig her fuel cost. In June 2012, Caribbean Cement Company Limited increased the price of bagged cement by 9. %, and the company claimed that its ex-factory was still among the lowest in five other regional markets. Cement is, clearly, a type of high weight-to-price ratio product and it is usually purchased in bulk. As a consequence, transportation expenditure is relatively high and restricts the spatial reach of markets. It is more feasible to produce cement domestically or to import cement products from neighbouring countries to reduce the transportation fee. Hence, the scale of international cement trade is small (5%-7%) when compared with total cement production worldwide (Selim and Salem, 2010).The demand of cement can be unpredictable Since cement production is largely dependent on infrastructure constructions, as Wesley (2009) argues, national construction polices and projects drives demand: sales volume is more sensitive to construction levels than to price. Over the long-term pe rspective, changes in social factors such as population and economic growth also affect cement consumption. The residential day-to-day demand for cement can be uncertain; it may be disrupted by unexpected situations such as bad weather (Wesley, 2009). Constantly related with environmental issuesAlthough cement is locally produced in most cases, the impact of cement production is global, especially its environmental aspects; as Selim and Salem (2010) argues. The mass production with high-energy consumption brings pollution, producing 5% of the world’s total emission of greenhouse gases Loreti (2008) and Uwasu et al. (2012) estimate This pollution is produced mainly in developing countries, which are the main production locations of cement. China alone, being the world’s leader in carbon dioxide emission and cement production, has 15% of its emission contributed by cement the World Resources Institute (2008) suggests.The environmental issue becomes extremely urgent and p ushes major global players to set up stricter emission standards on the cement industry. 3Top players and in global cement industry The table below shows the largest 20 cement producers in the world. It can be seen that top global players in this industry are either from Western Europe or from emerging markets, especially China. Rank| Company/Group| Country| Capacity (Mt/yr)| No. of plants| 1| Lafarge| France| 225| 166| 2| Holcim| Switzerland| 217| 149| 3| CNBM| China| 200| 69| 4| Anhui Conch| China| 180| 34| 5| Heidelberg Cement| Germany| 118| 71| | Jidong| China| 100| 100| 7| Cemex| Mexico| 96| 61| 8| China Resources| China| 89| 16| 9| Sinoma| China| 87| 24| 10| Shanshui| China| 84| 13| 11| Italcementi| Italy| 74| 55| 12| Taiwan Cement| Taiwan| 70| -| 13| Votorantim*| Brazil| 57| 37| 14| CRH**| Ireland| 56| 11| 15| UltraTech| India| 53| 12| 16| Huaxin| China| 52| 51| 17| Buzzi| Italy| 45| 39| 18| Eurocement| Russia| 40| 16| 19| Tianrui| China| 35| 11| 20| Jaypee***| India| 34| 16| Table 1 Global cement companies 1-20 ranked by capacity Source: Global Cement Magazine, 2012 * Includes 15Mt/yr of capacity from Cimpor shares. * Cement capacity calculated from clinker capacity assuming clinker factor of 95%. ***As in April 2012. Table 2 indicates top cement producing countries – again, fast-developing countries are the main force driving cement production. Rank| Country| Capacity (Mt)| 1| China| 2000| 2| India| 210| 3| USA (inc. Puerto Rico)| 68. 4| 4| Turkey| 64| 5| Brazil| 62. 6| 6| Russia| 52| 7| Iran| 52| 8| Vietnam| 50| 9| Japan| 47| 10| Korea, Republic of| 46| 11| Egypt| 45| 12| Saudi Arabia | 44| 13| Thailand| 36| 14| Italy| 35| 15| Mexico| 35| 16| Germany| 33| 17| Pakistan| 30| 18| Indonesia| 22| 19| Spain| 20. 7| Other countries (rounded)| 480| | World total (rounded)| 3400| Table 2: Top global cement producing countries by installed capacity (2011, estimated) Source: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2012 From the tables above, it can be concluded that China is the leader in both cement production and consumption due to its large scale infrastructure construction and fast development, representing more than half of the world’s total consumption. India follows China as the second largest consumer while also having large producing capacity. The United States is the largest cement consumer in the developed world. Major M&A trends As the Economist (1999) illustrates, larger players in the cement sector frequently undertake mergers and acquisitions (M&A) domestically and globally, to increase market share and benefit from economies of scale. The Economist goes on to argue that this high level of M&A activity is driven by the nature of the cement industry since cement production is localised and transportation costs are high; thus global producers need to purchase local companies to enter new markets, especially when a domestic market is saturated or in downturn.Since the 1970s, the cement industry in the developed world has bee n saturated and there is little space for market expansion. Developing countries have consequently become the target market for expanding new capacity and seizing market share a trend clear since the 1990s. The industry is therefore becoming more of a monopoly with oligarchic key players taking the important decisions, making M&A decisions, guided of course by changing economic and market conditions. In the 1990s, global cement giants saw great opportunities for M&A and competed to purchase market share in rapidly developing markets at good prices.For example, the Mexican Peso crisis (1994) resulted in a currency flight to US dollars and Peso devaluation, a situation Cemex turned to their advantage, Wesley (2009) argues, by purchasing Latin American cement companies at undervalued prices. Similarly, after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Asian cement industry fell into a downturn. Global cement giants took advantage and purchased leading cement companies in the Philippines, T hailand and Indonesia as bargains.At that time, six global giants purchased seventeen of the nineteen Philippine cement companies leaving Lafarge, Holcim and Cemex controlling 88% of the nation’s cement capacity. When the regional economy recovered, Cembusiness (2006) suggests, the price of cement rose again quickly and these multinational giants benefited from huge profits in Southeast Asia. 5Cemex’s entry strategy into international markets Cemex is currently the world’s third largest cement producer headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico.Although Cemex founded 107 years ago, it had been a domestic player for its first 80 years and did not start its global expansion until the 1990s. Its M&A progress has been remarkable: it now operates profitably in 50 countries in the world with 44000 employees and annual sales of US$15. 14 billion (Cemex, 2013a). In general, as Hill (2008) points out, a firm’s entry modes into foreign markets include exporting, contracts (licensing or franchising), foreign direct investment (joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary, including M&A) and strategic alliances.As discussed above, global cement giants, including Cemex, mainly enter foreign markets through M&A. Specifically, as a global player from an emerging market, Cemex needs to build its own competitive advantage during its internationalisation processes to cope with its disadvantageous competitive position vis-a-vis companies from developed countries. In short, Cemex is diversifying its market position through internationalisation (Liu, 2013). As Cemex’s expansion history extends spatially, I now turn to discuss its entry strategies into the global market by regions, which are shown in table 3. Cement production capacity (Million metric tons/year)| Cement plants controlled| Sales (millions of US dollars)| Mexico| 29. 3| 15| 3,474| United States| 17. 1| 13| 2,521| Northern Europe| 11. 9| 7| 4,729| Mediterranean| 18. 8| 12| 1,719| South, Central America and the Caribbean| 12. 8| 11| 1,745| Asia| 5. 7| 3| 505| Others| -| -| 445| Total| 95. 6| 61| 15,139| Table 3: Global review of Cemex’s operations As of December 31, 2011 Source: Cemex Annual Report 2011 Europe Europe was Cemex’s first step in global expansion.In July 1992, as Wesley (2009) reports, Cemex acquired two of the largest cement companies – Valenciana and Sanson – in Spain, with Valenciana becoming its regional hub holding company for all of Cemex’s future international acquisitions. However, significant movement into Spain, Europe did not become the main destination of Cemex as this region had limited potential for growth. More importantly, European players such as the French Lafarge and German Heidelberg controlled the European region.These European giants had advantages of scale, market share and advanced technology. What Cemex needed was not only the action of acquiring: it needed the advantages of the post-merger integratio n to catch up and improve. After purchasing Valenciana and Sanson, Cemex integrated its two Spanish subsidiaries by merging and streamlining the organisations and improved its technological and operational implementation. Cemex’s other substantial step in Europe was the purchase in 2005 of RMC, the world’s largest producer of ready-mixed concrete based in the UK.With this acquisition Cemex doubled its size, adding 20 mainly European markets (Cemex, 2013a) and managed to extend its product mix, becoming top producers of not only cement but also concrete and other construction aggregate (China Cement Net, 2005). Latin America Cemex made a series of acquisitions in Latin America, benefiting from the close psychic distance and geographic proximity to Mexico. Furthermore, in the 1990s, Latin America was an underdeveloped market with a high growth trajectory.Although at that time, Latin American countries were in a turbulent political and institutional condition with poor in frastructure and limited market information, Cemex viewed these conditions as advantages Fleury and Fleury (2011) argue, exploiting its experience in dealing with chaotic market environments in its home country and captured the opportune moment of the Peso crisis in 1994. Cemex moved into Latin America, including Central America and the Caribbean, by acquisitions in Venezuela (1994), Panama (1994), Dominican republic (1995), Colombia (1996), Costa Rica (1999), Nicaragua (2001), and Puerto Rican (2002) (see Cemex, 2013a).Latin America has been an important destination for Cemex, especially in the decade since the Peso crisis. During this decade foreign cement giants divided up the Latin American market due to the collapse of local producers and Cemex gained the dominant position. After acquiring those companies, Lessard and Reavis (2009) suggest, Cemex also upgraded its administration, production and technologies in this region, exploiting learning from the company’s operation s in Mexico and Spain. Although Cemex has a noteworthy presence in Latin American countries, its production capacity in South,Central America and the Caribbean accounts for only 13. 4% of its total sales in 2011, less than its capacity in the United States, Northern Europe and Mediterranean respectively and less than half of its domestic capacity (Cemex, 2011). However, there has been a rapid increase in South America and the Caribbean since mid-2000s, as a result of higher levels of public expenditure on infrastructure, industrial and commercial development and housing construction (United Nations ECLAC, 2007).Hence Cemex controls its closest emerging market area, with the exception of Brazil. The USA The United States, unlike other developed countries, remains a major consumer and producer of cement products; however, few its cement producers are American-owned. In the 1970s, Wesley (2009) points out, when Cemex was a domestic firm, most US cement producers were already taken over by European companies. Cemex’s significant incursion into US market was the purchase of American producer Southdown in 2000.Southdown was one of the largest American cement producers and it was state-owned. Cemex’s purchase followed a 20-year joint venture with Southdown called Sunbelt in 1986: following disagreements on management fees and the price of imported cement, the partnership dissolved and Southdown supported anti-dumping measures against Mexican producers (Wesley, 2009). By late 1990s, Southdown was making profits from its upgraded plants and lower costs whilst unsatisfactorily performing on the stock market, enabling Cemex to buy Southdown for $2. billion in November 2000 (Cemex, 2000), becoming North America’s largest cement producer, obtaining Sothdown’s advanced production capacity and markets and circumventing anti-dumping duties. Another Cemex step into North America (Black, 2007) was the purchase of the Rinker Corporation, an Australia- based concrete maker that had about 80% of its sales in the US, notably increasing its share of the U. S. concrete market. Asia Cemex turned its attention into Asia after 1997, seeing the potential in Asian growth and M&A opportunities following the financial crisis in southeast Asia (Wesley, 2009).In the next few years, Cemex made acquisitions in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India. Following rapid economic development and large-scale construction in Asia, by 2011 Cemex only managed to have the capacity of 5. 7 million metric tons in this region, representing only 6% of Cemex global capacity. Cemex failed to gain significant market share in China and India, the two largest Asian cement markets: the company continues to pay attention to the burgeoning Chinese and Indian markets (China Cement Net, 2005), however, institutional restrictions inhibit its growth.Indeed, the cement industry in China has excess capacity following slowdown in construction growth: many cement plan ts having been built during the boom. Currently Cemex does not have specific expansion plan of for China although it expresses a lot of interest (China Cement Net, 2006). In India, Cemex is more positive and in negotiations to acquire several Indian producers. Middle East and Africa (MENA) In 1999, Cemex acquired Assiut Cement Company, the largest cement producer in Egypt, started operating in Africa and increased its capacity following acquisitions (Wesley, 2009).Cemex also has operations in Israel and United Arab Emirates. The total presence in Middle East and Africa is limited since the African cement market is underdeveloped and as Digital Cement (2010) point out, the MENA cement markets are locally controlled. In summary, Cemex’s expansion into the global market is not only the strategic choice about competing and bidding for acquisitions, but also the integration process that ensued, as an opportunity to drive change, and as a result, continuously evolve as a corporatio n (Lessard and Reavis, 2009). 6ConclusionsCemex’s penetration strategy is shaped by the nature of the product and structure of the industry. Since cement is bulky and costly to transport global-global entry strategies are unavailable to it. The industry structure reflects the product in a wide array of regional-scale producers. Like other major players in the industry (such as Lafarge, Holcim and Heidelber) has sought to penetrate international markets by M&A rather than direct investment, strategic alliances or licensing. Another characteristic of the global cement industry is that developing economies are the drivers of demand.Often these markets remain difficult to enter being overly regulated, protected or subject to corruption and political interference. Cemex uses its origins in a developing market as an advantage: the company has expertise in overcoming these barriers, knowledge it has successfully exploited in numerous markets. Additionally, Cemex has taken advantage of other adverse trading conditions in its target markets (Asian financial crisis, Peso crisis) to conclude M&A deals when target company prices are depressed. Bibliography 1. Black, T. , 2007.Cemex Wins Control of Rinker With $14. 2 Billion Offer (Update3). [online] Available at: . 2. Chandramouli, R. , 2012. Cement contributes to less than 10% of construction cost. The Times of India. [online] Available at: . 3. Cembusiness, 2006. 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