Saturday, June 27, 2020

Swimming in the Community Cesspool - Literature Essay Samples

Irvine Welsh’s novel Trainspotting uses the combination of grotesque imagery within a narrative lacking clear progression to portray the nihilistic lifestyle of a heroin addict. Welsh creates distinct voices through the main characters in his novel, who all share the longing for a sense of brotherhood and community. The characters share a bond through their heroin addiction, and the reader gets pulled into this brotherhood through the use of first-person narration and other structural elements to create sympathy. John Hodge and Danny Boyle’s adaptation of Trainspotting uses mise-en-scà ¨ne, tone, and various cinematic techniques to allow the viewers to sympathize with the characters and engulf themselves in the lifestyle of heroin addiction. The screenplay helps the viewer share a part in the dilemmas the characters in the film face. The adaptation enables the viewer to connect with the characters and share in their sense of community. The stylistic techniques Hodge an d Boyle use in the film such as coloration, camera angles, and supernatural elements each play a part to convey the tone of the grotesque romanticism of these heroin addicts’ lives. The audience thus experiences the hyperbolic nature of a heroin addict’s perceived life within the realm of the realistic. The structure and language Welsh uses in his novel helps represent the themes of community and identity significant to the characters. Though the narrative tends to blur the lines between events, the four main characters Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, and Begbie all portray a distinct voice. Each of their identities remains noticeable through the haze of the narrative Welsh creates. One of the tools Welsh uses to create the differentiation between these main characters and the other characters in the novel is their nicknames. Most of the other characters, especially the females, have common names like Alison, Hazel, Kelly, Dianne, and Laura. Nicknames give the characters a bond. They allow the reader to understand their relationship as a brotherhood. The reader also gets a sense of the characters’ voices through verbal repetitions used by the characters. For example, Spud tends to say â€Å"ken† and â€Å"likesay† repeatedly. Sick Boy constantly refers to himself in the third person, and Begbie frequently uses the word â€Å"fuck† in any shape or form he can think of. Each of these elements gives the characters a sense of identity and individualization within a narrative that blurs together a haze of situations. Welsh also uses first-person narration to implement the sense of the individual within the reader. This allows the reader to understand each character’s internal emotional state. Throughout the book, the reader hears the thoughts and emotions lying within the characters’ minds. Renton explains his addiction to heroin when he says, â€Å"Ma problem is, whenever ah sense the possibility, or realise the actuality ay attaining something that ah thought ah wanted, be it girlfriend, flat job, education, money and so on, it jist seems so dull n sterile† (Welsh 90). Without the heroin, his life seems boring. Spud reiterates this when he says, â€Å"Life can be borin without skag† (122). In a way, the reader feels a sense of sympathy toward these characters and can understand their mindset. Welsh enables the reader to delve into the character’s minds in order to lose the judgment a person usually displays when thinking about heroin addicts. These humorous, likable characters facilitate the reader’s sympathy toward their situations. At the novel’s beginning, the characters seem to blend together. The reader becomes unaware of which character is speaking. However, as the novel progresses, the main characters’ voices become more evident. As the reader understands each individual character’s unique voice, the reader also becomes aware of the c haracters’ powerful sense of community. This brotherhood, the bond that friends have in this novel, is unbreakable. Renton explains this strong connection when he describes his relationship with Begbie: â€Å"He really is a cunt ay the first order. Nae doubt about that. The big problem is, he’s a mate n aw. Whit kin ye dae?† (84). The bond these friends have seems out of their control. The bored, lonely characters portrayed in this novel all lead a miserable life. They need each other because, â€Å"Alone was stressful† (77). Renton, Begbie, Spud, and Sick Boy make up â€Å"a quartet of fucked-up people thegither† (84). They need their community to establish their own identity. Their nihilistic lives have no meaning without each other. To further display this sense of community, Renton and other characters constantly use the â€Å"royal we† in their language. When Renton is talking to Tommy he thinks to himself, â€Å"Ah struggle to show co ncern through my self-centered smack apathy. The outside world means fuck all tae us† (87). The use of â€Å"us† instead of â€Å"me† sheds light on how these characters perceive themselves. Even though Renton says he has a â€Å"self-centered apathy,† his language shows otherwise. The universality of the â€Å"royal we† connects people together. Subconsciously, Renton perceives himself as a part of a broader community, his band of â€Å"skag† brothers. Spud gives the reader a deeper insight when he says, â€Å"Funny scene, likesay, how aw the psychos seem tae ken each other, ken what ah means, likes?† (120). When people have something in common, it almost always enables them to become closer and feel connected. In addition to the sense of community apparent in Welsh’s novel, he creates a narrative lacking of a clear progression. This circular narrative enlightens the reader into the mindset of these apathetic characters. Renton explains his nihilistic mindset when he says, â€Å"Still, failure, success, what is it? Whae gies a fuck. We aw live, then we die, in quite a short space ay time n aw. Thats it; end ay fuckin story† (208). These characters live only in the present tense. The lack of progression is evident even by the section titles in the book. The novel starts off with â€Å"Kicking,† then â€Å"Relapsing,† and then â€Å"Kicking Again.† Within the first three sections, the characters end up in the same place where they begin. This narrative does not show the progression of the characters or events; rather it shows the mindset of characters in different situations. Just as Renton always goes back to using one more hit of heroin, his character moves in a circular motion throughout the story. The scenarios and characters constantly change without explanation. The events that take place in the narrative do not link with one another. The juxtaposition of certain scenes and lines contradict in tone. For example, the description of Sick Boy before and after Alison’s hit is immensely different. Before her hit, â€Å"Sick Boy’s face looks ugly, leering and reptilian,† then as the heroin enters her body, â€Å"Sick boy’s eyes are now innocent and full ay wonder† (9). Additionally, Renton explains at that moment that both Sick Boy and Alison â€Å"look strangely beautiful and pure in the flickering candlelight,† but then Alison disrupts this idyllic tone with her vulgar language, â€Å"That beats any meat injection that beats any fuckin cock in the world† (9). This mixture of the romantic fantasy with the vulgar and grotesque appears constantly throughout the novel. Welsh uses this exaggerated grotesque imagery to create a lifestyle resembling heroin use. He creates a romanticized image of the feelings present in the characters during their high. When Renton inserts his opium suppositories he receives from M ike Forrester, they immediately give him the runs. He makes his way to the closest bathroom, and while on the toilet Renton explains, â€Å"Ah empty ma guts, feeling as if everything; bowel, stomach, intestines, spleen, liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and fucking brains are aw falling through ma arsehole intae the bowl† (25). This immense exaggeration of his feelings on the toilet, while repulsive to the reader, sheds light on the intense feelings eminent in Renton. When his suppositories fall into the toilet bowl, Renton must pick them out with his own hands. As he grabs one he says, â€Å"Ah gag once, but get ma white nugget ay gold† (26). While this scenario leaves the reader with a sense of disgust, Renton romanticizes his opium suppository as a nugget of gold. This shows the hyperbolic effect heroin has on Renton. Welsh repeatedly implements scenes full of gross bodily fluids. He emphasizes bodily orifices constantly throughout his novel. He mixes this repulsive imag ery with humor during the scene where Davie wakes up in his own fecal mess. He gathers it up in the sheets, but as Gail’s mother tries to take them from him, â€Å"The sheets flew open and a pungent shower of skitter shite, thin alcohol sick, and vile pish splashed out across the floor† (94). This pervasive humor repulses the reader, yet gives insight to the lives of these vile characters. During Renton’s house arrest, the reader understands the hyperbolic effect heroin has on him. While Renton withdraws from heroin use, his hallucinations are extreme with a postmodern structure. Renton’s feelings are displayed through random assortments of words. There is no real structure during his hallucinations. During one point in his withdrawal Welsh stops using spaces between words, and at another point he lengthens his words when he writes, â€Å"Is this sssllllleeeeeeeppppp† (196). This enables the reader to understand the extent to which Renton is suffer ing. The reader also gets a sense of the exaggeration heroin induces in a person. He starts seeing Wee Dawn crawling on the ceiling. His serious situations are exaggerated negatively during his withdrawal. In order to fully adapt the essence of this novel into a feature film, the theme of community and the grotesque romantic imagery must be eminent. John Hodge and Danny Boyle both try to incorporate this theme of community into their adaptation of Trainspotting. They keep the essence of Welsh’s structure and language alive in their film through the voice-over narration and by cutting down the characters. Throughout the film’s screenplay, Renton consistently narrates to the audience using his voice-over: â€Å"I’m moving on, going straight and choosing life. I’m looking forward to it already. I’m going to be just like you: the job, the family, the fucking big television† (Hodge 78). Using a voice-over always breaks the reality of watching a m ovie. In real life, we do not get to hear what people are thinking. Thoughts are usually displayed through actions and facial expressions. In this film, however, Renton speaks directly to the viewer. This intimacy between Renton and the audience bears resemblance to the intimacy between the reader and the characters in Welsh’s novel. The viewers sympathize with Renton because of their ability to understand his thoughts and emotions.Hodge decides to cut down all the superfluous characters from the novel. This, in turn, creates a more tight-knit group of people in the film. The characters are now easy to follow and easy to recognize. He uses a unique tool to distinguish and label each character at the beginning of the film. Hodge writes in his scene description, â€Å"As each performs a characteristic bit of play, the play freezes and their name is visible, printed or written on some item of clothing† (2). Instead of the verbal distinctions between the characters that We lsh uses, Hodge uses this labeling tool to enable the viewer to easily recognize the characters. This exemplifies the importance of community in Renton’s life. His life revolves around two things, his friends and heroin. The exaggeration of heroin displayed in the book is evident through the supernatural elements Hodge adds to the screenplay. He takes the fantastical elements in the novel and pushes them one step further into the supernatural realm. When Renton reaches into the toilet in the beginning of the film and dives into a deep underwater world beyond the toilet to retrieve his opium suppositories, the scene description reads, â€Å"Renton, dressed as before, swims through murky depths until he reaches the bottom, where he picks up the suppositories, which glow like luminous pearls, before heading up towards the surface again† (8). The comparison of the suppositories to â€Å"nuggets of gold† in the novel inspires Hodge to recreate this scene with fantast ical elements. He views the suppositories as â€Å"luminous pearls† instead of what they truly are in reality: fecal-stained pills. This romanticism of heroin through Renton’s eyes comes directly from the tone Welsh presents in his novel. The exaggeration ever-present throughout the novel gets visualized in the film. Another scene in the film that is inspired by the novel’s exaggerated style is when Renton overdoses at Mother Superior’s apartment and sinks into the deep red floor. â€Å"He hands Renton the syringe. Renton injects, then lies back on the dirty, red, carpeted floor. He lies completely still. His pupils shrink. His breathing becomes slow, shallow and intermittent. He sinks into the floor until he is lying in a coffin-shaped and coffin-sized pit, lined by the red carpet. Swanney stands over him† (45). The color red consistently becomes an indication of heroin’s effect on a person in the film. Mother Superior’s apartment is painted red, and whenever someone is shooting up heroin, the intense color of red can be seen. This vibrant color conjures up images of blood, violence, and passion. These supernatural additions contribute to the overall tone of the movie. This movie shows us the lifestyle of a heroin addict, and many of the key incidents in a heroin addict’s life are in fact unrealistic. Heroin takes one into a different world. This movie shows this complete escape from the real world into a fantastic, supernatural world full of hallucinations, dead babies crawling on the ceiling, and an underwater sewage abyss. In conclusion, Trainspotting creates a world full of characters with a need to escape reality. With a first-person look into their lives, the reader understands and sympathizes with Renton, Spud, Begbie, and Sick Boy. The novel portrays themes of brotherhood and community and creates characters that depend on one another and need a sense of friendship in their lives. The loneliness and boredom cause their addiction, and through that they share an everlasting bond. The film takes the novel’s essence and visualizes it with cinematic techniques in order to gain insight into the life of a heroin addict and to create sympathy for them within the reader. There is no right or wrong within Renton, Spud, Begbie, or Sick Boy; there is only living, a clearly existential lifestyle. The tone of the film borrows from the novel to give the reader a sense of detachment from reality and a chance to escape into the characters’ lives, just like Renton and the others use heroin to escape from their dull reality.Lifes boring and futile. We start oaf wi high hopes, then we bottle it. We realize that were aw gaunnae die, withoot really findin oot the big answers. We develop aw they long-winded ideas which jist interpret the reality ay oor lives in different weys, withoot really extending oor body ay worthwhile knowledge, about the big things, the real things. Basically , we live a short, disappointing life; and then we die (Welsh 89).The characters’ solution to this disappointing reality is to escape it through the use of heroin and other drugs. Renton explains it clearly at the beginning of the film after his â€Å"choose life† speech: â€Å"I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when youve got heroin?† (Hodge 3). Irvine Welsh and John Hodge neither glorify nor debase heroin use. They simply illustrate it for a reader to understand. Although Renton says at the end of film that he chooses life instead of heroin, one cannot be so sure. If his life continues the way the narrative progresses in the novel and film, he will most likely be back to taking one last hit, â€Å"one fucking hit to get us over this long, hard day† (Hodge 44).

Thursday, May 21, 2020

William Shakespeare s Twelfth Night - 1130 Words

The creativity entangled in the plays written by Shakespeare is quite unique. The passion that he pours out through each of the characters in his plays is particularly fascinating. Specifically, the love that is elucidated through the characters in Twelfth Night is passionate, but unfortunately it is not always accepted by the desired character. Viola relays Orsino’s love for Olivia with devotion and warmth but sadly, the love is still refused by Olivia (1.5.244-245). Shakespeare writes about love with such importance and ecstasy, loves presence in Shakespeare s works, highlighted in Twelfth Night is comparable to fertile tears, thunder and fire. Love is variable, it is able to be soft like â€Å"fertile tears†, or undisciplined like thunder and fire. The metaphor is introduced as Olivia asks Viola how exactly Orsino loves her. Viola responds saying, â€Å"With adorations, fertile tears,/With groans that thunder love, with signs of fire† (1.5.244-245). This expla nation, obviously not up to standards for Olivia, displays the intensity of the affection that Orsino holds for Olivia. Though short, Viola’s description of how Orsino loves Olivia is detailed and to the point. The explanation begins by â€Å"with adorations†, though only two words, the word â€Å"adorations† is heavy in meaning. Adorations, as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it, â€Å"with deep love and respect†, is potentially the most important part of Viola’s explanation. It is heavy in meaning simply because you can like someoneShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night2005 Words   |  9 Pagesrole that gender plays in Shakespeare’s work. Focus on Twelfth Night or King Lear—or discuss both plays together. Do you see these patterns repeated? Or do you see them being challenged and somehow undermined (implicitly or explicitly) in the plots and language of the play s)?† wants to know if Shakespeare wanted t o break the pattern of women being passive objects to men in the literature. In the story Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare all of the roles are played by men. In the fifteenth centuryRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night1967 Words   |  8 Pages William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Twelfth Night† or â€Å"What You Will† was written around 1601-1602 with the primary performance being in February 1602. It is known to be a high point of Shakespearian comedy as it is one of Shakespeare’s finest works. Twelfth night was written to commemorate the close of the Christmas season being possibly one of the first ever holiday specials, kind of like the Middle Ages version of â€Å"Love Actually†. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated duringRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night Essay2147 Words   |  9 Pagesaffection for another person,† love takes on many forms throughout life and literature (Merriam-Webs ter). Through its passionate drama and witty repartee, Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, explores the intricate, and often complicated, realm of interpersonal love. By tracing the intertwining storylines of four unique characters, Shakespeare communicates the futility of self-love, the desperation of hopeless love, and the immeasurable virtue of selfless love. An after-effect of human’s sinfulRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night947 Words   |  4 PagesLove affection Recently, I’ve been reading an intriguing play, Twelfth Night, which was written by William Shakespeare. What interests me in this play most is the fact that there are a lot of love interests. Duke Orsino is greatly attracted to a gentlewoman called Olivia. However, despite his attempts to court her, she rejects his approaches as she claims to be in a period of mourning for her dead brother which has been going on for seven years. Olivia forms a tight friendship with Viola, a womanRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night1436 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Shakespeare is perhaps one of the most famous writers of English literature. His writings and plays have touched the lives of many people. At some point in our lives, whether we are aware of it or not, we have all come across a poem, play or perhaps even an old adage that was written by William Shakespeare that has captured our attention. I still remember the very first time I read Romeo and Juliet in high school. The st ory was one of the most memorable pieces of literature that I recallRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night1502 Words   |  7 PagesThe very ï ¬ rst word following the dramatis personae in the text of William Shakespeare s comedy, Twelfth Night, or What You Will, is Music. The first thing that playgoers hear at the beginning is music. This music is being played for a duke, a powerful lord residing over the setting of all the characters. He is surrounded by other lords and his attendant, Curio. The duke, Orsino, cannot help but comment: If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of itRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night1155 Words   |  5 Pagesmany aspects. Sometimes they may try to force people to act upon certain rules that define their place in society. They often try to meet expectations that society has made for them based on gender and social status. 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This is extremely emotionally tolling both on the nurses and the patients and lying seems like a kinder option. A situation such as this one would be deception to gain something but is helping the person being lied to. In William Shakespeare s Twelfth Night, one main characters, Viola, wakes up on the shores of Illyria after a shipwreck in which her brother has presumably died. She formulates a plan to work for the Duke, Orsino who is hopelessly in love with the sought-after Olivia. ThisRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night1106 Words   |  5 Pagescharacters. Before movies, people learned about love in literature. Even in the old literature, love was a common theme. In Shakespeare’s play â€Å"Twelfth Nightâ⠂¬ , different types of love between the characters are investigated. Each of the characters’ relationships play a role in the development of the story. The first and main type of love in â€Å"Twelfth Night is true love. The story’s plot is driven by the complicated love triangle between Orsino, Viola, and Olivia. However, Viola’s love is the only true

Monday, May 18, 2020

Comparison Between Protective Antibody Response And Guinea...

Comparison of protective Antibody response in guinea pigs immunized with Wild type (Wt) BoHV-1 and ΔgE BoHV-1 mutant virus vaccine L.R.ANANTHAKRISHNA1*, MOHINI SAINI2, PRAVEEN K GUPTA3 and RIZWANA TABASSUM4 1Asst.Professor, 2, 3 Principal Scientist, 3Research Associate 1Department of Veterinary Physiology and Biochemistry; Karnataka Veterinary, Animal Fisheries Sciences University; Veterinary College, Vinobanagar, Shimoga- 577 204, India, 2Division of Biochemistry, 3 4Division of Veterinary Biotechnology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India *1Email: drananthalr639@gmail.com contact: 9535205024 ABSTRACT Vaccination has been one of the most important interventions in disease prevention, control and eradication. The impact of vaccination largely depends on type of immune response and the extent of protective antibodies that would neutralize the infectious pathogen in subsequent exposure. BoHV-1 causes several clinical conditions in cattle including rhinotracheitis, vaginitis, balanoposthitis, abortion, conjunctivitis, and enteritis which impact a severe economic loss to dairy industry. When the ΔgE BoHV-1 mutant virus was intended to be used as vaccine one of the major immunological parameters such as virus neutralizing antibodies to protect animals against infected virus and/or immunized virus. To determine the suitability of a vaccine, in this study we performed in vitro test method to compare the level of

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The Immigration And Naturalization Service - 1169 Words

Thousands of illegal immigrants smuggle themselves across the United States border each day. The Immigration and Naturalization Service, or the INS, concluded that the United States is currently a place to call home for a population of approximately twelve million illegal immigrants (Hayes 16). An American who has never been to Mexico, for example, may wonder why these people risk their lives to live in the United States. With the jobs, education, welfare, and unemployment compensation the American government has to offer, the United States appears as a lifeboat for these poor and uneducated immigrants (Hayes 16). The American dream is what all citizens of the United States strive to achieve. Everyone wants to get an education, a†¦show more content†¦Employers are able to make money because production is fast and cheap for them. The Pew Hispanic Center concluded in 2001 classified an estimated 5.3 million workers in the U.S. as unauthorized workers in the labor force. These jobs include 700,000 restaurant workers, 250,000 household workers, and 620,000 construction workers (Murphy). This is a whole lot of cheap labor, and without it the U.S. would suffer. If 620,000 construction workers were gone, home improvement projects across the nation would quickly be hard to find. With a large number of these immigrants also earning wages working on farms, Americans would find much of their produce rotting in fields due to the lack of workers (Murphy 2). The positive effect of these immigrants on the nation’s labor force is well supported by Americans; however, the opinion of those rejecting these workers is accepted and taken into account as well. The main argument of Americans rejecting the idea of immigration is supported by the rising unemployment rate in America. There are hundreds of American natives who are unemployed. Harvard sociologist, Christopher Jencks, states, â€Å" The reason that Americans will not take jobs washing dishes, cleaning hotel rooms, mowing lawns, and picking fruit is because immigrant labor has driven the wages down† (Taylor). Not only are the wages being driven down, but the working conditions as well. Without immigrants working it will open opportunities for low skilled

College Graduation Speech Outline - 1497 Words

I. INTRODUCTION A. How many years have you been in school? How many of you ever thought that once I enter college that I will have a lot of freedom? Have you ever considered how much your life will change once you enter college? B. Many of you upcoming freshman probably think that college is the same school except you have more freedom, especially now that you are consider as an adult but your whole life changes completely from how you behave in front of people, or whom you talk to, but most importantly you become more responsible now since are now an adult. C. As upcoming freshman, many of you are probably not aware of what we do in college, so it is important for me to explain to you what we do in college, as well as the†¦show more content†¦c. This shift in the increase in responsibility is a huge contrast to high school teacher being responsible for keeping student responsible for their own assignment. 2. A student transition a. 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Koito Case Free Essays

string(37) " a higher dividend can be justified\." Koito-Pickens-Toyota Case Question 1 The Japanese corporate governance system differs vastly from the US system. Discuss corporate governance issues that may arise under the Japanese keiretsu. The corporate governance system in Japan is widely different from the US one insofar as it mostly involves a unique business model called â€Å"Keiretsu†. We will write a custom essay sample on Koito Case or any similar topic only for you Order Now A Keiretsu is a form of corporate structure that groups a set of companies with interlocking board of directors and common business interests. Thus, due to its particular structure, some governance problem may arise under this Japanese Keiretsu: ) Issues from the perspectives of financiers Because the business is considered almost like an extended family, the financing may become political and the Japanese Keiretsu will almost always give favor to members of their Keiretsu. This could lead the financiers, for instance, to finance a company member of their Keiratsu they wouldn’t have finance otherwise. As far as the potential financiers are concerned, the main issue is the difficulty to enter and invest in the Keiretsu. Getting financial information about the Keiretsu firms could be complicated insofar as the financial and accounting statements are not disclosed. Thus, such discretion could lead to an ambiguity or a lack of understanding from an outside perspective. Actually, the keiretsu are just trying to protect themselves from what they fear the most that is to say the yakuza and the greenmailing. b) Issues from the perspectives owners As mentioned above, the keiretsu are suspicious towards the â€Å"outside† and this behavior may make foreign owners face some difficulties. Because the keiretsu system is much more in favor of inside shareholders than the outside ones, the former may find some difficulties to make the most of their shareholder rights. And this can maybe explain why the outside shareholders are often a minority in comparison with the shareholders of the keiretsu. Moreover, even if one of the outside owners becomes the biggest one, as T. Boone Pickens did, he may not be able to use his rights as he hoped. c) Issues from the perspectives suppliers One of the main issues for external suppliers is to the relationship between OEMs and suppliers that often leads to dumping on the prices and enables the outside supplier to compete with such cheap prices. As far as the integrated suppliers are concerned, the exclusive partnership with the keiretsu they belong enables them to do business with another leading firm and to gain market shares. d) Issues from the perspectives employees On the one hand and in case of horizontal integration, the very structure of a Keiretsu can lead into a confusion in management. The management transfers are so frequent that employees do not understand for which company they really work for is. One the other, the strong stability that comes out from this system could lead to a lack of action and performance from employees. Question 2 What were T. Boone Pickens’ motives when he bought the share? In the eyes of many, Mr. Pickens was only acting as a front man for Mr. Watanabe, a well-known green mailer in order to pave a way to gain power and control over the corporation. Mr. Pickens denies all these accusations of greenmailing by claiming that he bought the share to carry out a â€Å"test case† in order to evaluate the accessibility of the market. In others words, his initiative has the only aim of checking whether the United States could make, in the future, profitable investments in Japan depending of the degree of welcome of the market. Moreover, it is not implausible to think that one motive of T. Boone Pickens was the quest of profit. It should be borne in mind T. Boone Pickens targeted Koito as an undervalued investment opportunity in so far as he anticipated a Koito stock rise due to the tight link between Toyota and Koito. The good performances of Koito stock combined with the rise of the net income and sales reinforce this idea due to the fact that the shareholder’s average annual return has impressively increased. So the pursuit of rise of the dividends could have motivated him to buy the share. As the largest shareholder of Koito Manufacturing, is he entitled to representation on the board, does Japanese law allow for that? If not what in the law could he use to get an equivalent result? With 26. 4% of stock, T. Boone Pickens should have been entitled to representation on the board of Koito insofar as the Japanese law gives him rights due to the fact that he owns more than 10% of stock. But not so in the Japanese Keiretsu point of view. He was overwhelmingly denied board access in a 1989 annual meeting. †¦It is not a custom in Japan just to say, ‘I’ve become a major shareholder so I should become director. ’†, said Takao Matsuura, president Koito Manufacturing Ltd. There are reasons to wager that his seat on the board was compromised by the fact that the company considers him as a greenmailer. Knowing that T. Boone Pickens was planning to increase his stake to 30%, he could obtain board representation by acquiring 4% more than what he expected . In fact, the Japanese law states that those with at least 34% ownership could propose special shareholder resolutions. An alternative would be to establish a new relationship between Mr. Pickens and all the members of the keiretsu based on loyalty and transparency. They would not suspect him of greenmail anymore. We can suppose that T. Boone Pickens has chosen this way insofar as he supported the adoption of a proposal prohibiting Koito from paying greenmail. Question 3 Besides board representation, T. Boone Pickens demanded higher dividend payouts. Were his demands justified? Provide quantitative evidence to back your answer. Besides board representation, T. Boone Pickens asked for higher dividend payout saying that â€Å"Boone Co’s philosophy was to put stockholder interests first† (page 7) and in this very case, his demand for a higher dividend can be justified. You read "Koito Case" in category "Papers" Indeed, when we look at the dividend payout ratio for the period 1982 – 1985 (Table 1), it decreases meanwhile the retained earnings was increasing (Table 2). Moreover, at the same period, the proportion of cash was also increasing. In others words, the retained earnings were not invested enough and stay as cash. Then in 1986, we noticed that the payout ratio increased up to 39% and at the same time the retained earnings and the cash goes strongly down. Finally, almost the same phenomenon is observed between 1988 and 1990. In other words, the payout ratio is not positively correlated to the retained earnings which are not invested and stay as cash. Table 1 Table 2 Is there anything in the Japanese commercial code that would allow Pickens to try to get more dividends? If yes, why doesn’t he use this? If not, based on your experience as an international investment banker, what changes would you recommend him to propose? In order to increase dividends, T. Boone Pickens had several solutions. Indeed, many researches on the conflicts of interest between majority and minority shareholders show that dividend  payout  is negatively related to ownership concentration and support the assumption that large shareholders do not appear to use dividend policy to remove excess  cash. In other words,  firms with concentrated ownership are less likely to increase dividends when profitability increases and more likely to omit dividends when investment opportunities improve. So, T. Boone Pickens could decrease the ownership concentration of Koito. There are also some more aggressive solutions to get more dividends. T. Boone Pickens could increase his shares ownership in order to increase his decision power in the General Assembly insofar as â€Å"a owner of 34% or more of the outstanding stock could propose special shareholder resolutions†. Question 4 Pickens accused Toyota of limiting profits earned by Koito Manufacturing. Explain how the mechanism works? This mechanism is related to the very structure of keiretsu insofar as Toyota, like most Japanese OEM, owns equity positions in its suppliers. In 1986 almost half of Koito’s output was bought by Toyota and at the same time, Toyota has built a dominant position over Koito by having a 19%-part of Koito’s ownership. Therefore, Toyota was not just one of Koito’s customers but also one of its owners. Through its powerful influence and thanks to the close and informal relationship between Toyota and its suppliers, the car manufacturer had been able to negotiate supply contracts, lower prices and then limited profits earned by Koito. Is this a self-dealing transaction? According to Steven L. Emanuel (â€Å"Corporations†, 2009), a self-dealing transaction occurs when three following conditions are met : (1) A key player (officer, director or controlling shareholder) and the corporation are on opposite sides of a transaction, (2) The key player has helped influence the corporation’s decision to enter the transaction (3) The key player’s personal financial interests are at least potentially in conflict with the financial interests of the corporation. In the case of Koito, 3 members out of 23 are Toyota’s executives. Even if these 3 members are no longer Toyota’s executives, the Japanese notion of loyalty and the business relations between Toyota and Koito (Toyota buy 48% of Koito’s output) could imply that these three chairmen could act in favor of Toyota or at least try to satisfy the two companies. And in this way, the supplier was treated unfairly and conflicts of interests might have occurred. If Pickens gets access to financial information, how can he set out to prove his accusations? If you were an investment banker, what accounts or data would you tell him to scrutinize. If Pickens gets access to financial information, he could analyze the Income Statement and compare the evolution of the growth of sales and the growth of gross profit over these past years. Generally, sales and gross profit evolve in the same direction unless there is a below cost-selling. However, here we noticed for example that in 1986, as sales had grown by almost 10,2%, gross profit had grown by 7% and that in 1990, when the sales had grown by 10. 85%, gross profit had only grown up by 2. 8%. Such comparisons could be setting off alarm bells and could point out the fact that Toyota is limiting profits earned by Koito Manufacturing. On the other hand and if he can, he could also compare directly the price of goods sold to Toyota with the price of the same goods sold to minor customers such as Hino Motors. A high difference between the two prices combined with the fact that three directors of Koito are retired Toyota executives, would prove these â€Å"self dealing transactions†. Would you suggest to change the charter of the organization of Koito? As investment banker, I would suggest him to analyze thoroughly the income statements and the supply contracts between Toyota and Koito in details to reinforce his accusations. As far as the charter of the organization of Koito is concerned, I would suggest to add a clause which enables a person somehow related to a strong customer or a strong supplier to be appointed as director to Koito’s board of directors. Question 5 Toyota has threatened to cut all ties with Koito Manufacturing if Pickens take over the company. How would this affect Pickens investments? If you were a minority shareholder in Koito Manufacturing, whose side would you take? Calculate the value of your shares with or without Toyota. Because Toyota is the second largest shareholder in Koito and is its principal customer, representing 48% of the total sales (Exhibit 2), we may think that cutting ties with Koito Manufacturing will lead to huge losses, at least in the first year. Let’s then calculate the value of a share with and without Toyota. In order to use the Discounted Cash Flow methodology, here are the assumptions we made : * The value of the firm is equal to the value of the discounted cash flows for the next four years plus it’s terminal value. The same growth is expected for the coming four years (this growth was calculated as the mean of the previous years growth) * Because the lack of information concerning the cost of equity we used today Koito’s beta (1. 38), a risk free rate of 3% and a Rm of 10% (return on SP) in order to calculate an approximative WACC. Our calculations provide us with a WACC of almost 8%. With Toyota : Without Toyota : If I were a minority shareholder I would probably take Pickens’ side because he puts shareholder interests first. However, I would be careful and make sure that making stockholders’ interest first instead of company’s one will not damage the entity’s wealth. Based on your assessment of the case, are large shareholders an effective solution to corporate gouvernance problem? Based on the analysis of this case, it appears that being a large shareholder is not necessarily an effective solution to the corporate governance problem. Indeed, even if T. Boone Pickens is the largest shareholder, he actually has no influence on â€Å"management issues† including those which concern the amount of dividends paid. How to cite Koito Case, Papers

Feasibility Business Plan

Question: Discuss about the feasibility business plan. Answer: Introduction: The Incubation and Innovation concept which is initially derived from the constant need of students to develop their own unique individual concepts at affordable rates and at the same time being under the supervision of competent teachers and advisors who will provide appropriate guidance to the students. This particular concept was established in order to cater to various students who are equipped to come up with unique technological concepts but are not able to gain access to the required facilities and equipment regardless of their tuition fees. The location of this facility will enable the students to access various equipments which are quintessential for their development. The benefits of this facility will include:- Flexible working schedules for both instructors and students. Fostering and promoting of individual student talents. Fostering and development of unique ideas. The principle of this business plan is to present the institution with an outlined proposal of this venture so as to gain their funding as well as support. It is our belief that this plan will be established by the 3rd trimester of 2016 and be fully operational by the beginning of the year 2017. Structure and Service Details: The Incubation and Innovation Center will be under the current structure and ownership of this institution and the management rights will be leased to a detached entity. This facility will be situated at the old institution hall which fell vacant after the construction of a new hall. All the equipment which will be in the incubation and innovation center will be owned by the institution however, they will be provided as part of the leasing rights aforementioned. The expected services will include:- Maintenance services for various electronic devices. Inventing novel technology. Improving and streamlining of previous technology. S.W.O.T Analysis Strengths: Location. Expanding of tech. savvy market. Readily available manpower. Responses: Focus on external promotion and outsourcing. Weakness: Inadequate expansion due to facility. Invest in expansion of facility. Opportunities: Increase innovativeness. Promotion of institution due to technology sensitization. Offering guidance to tech. illiterate individuals. Threats: Decline of student numbers. Competition from major tech. firms. Retain current market. Base competition on price. Marketing Plan Suffice to mention that the core customers will be students as well as the general community within and without the institution in question. This will be the foremost focus group. The marketing mix will mainly focus mainly on three particular areas, viz, a viz, type of innovation, its efficiency, necessity, as well as its price. The main focus of the marketing approach will be price; this is estimated to occupy at least 70% of the marketing budget. Four Ps: Product The most generally understood shape of innovation tends to improve or introduce a service or product. The incubation and innovation centre will strive to provide a change in what is usually offered to various end users by engineering novel devices and improving on its quality, capability, and efficiency. An example of our product may be seen by a students innovativeness of creating a baby rocker. First and foremost, this is an errand which is particularly shunned off or ignored by many people. However, if a student creates or invents a baby rocker which is child-friendly, then a parent, particularly a mother, will have extra time to rest while the baby is being rocked by this particular innovation. Price Initially, we should ask ourselves what the process of delivering assorted products is. We must think about preparing or rather gathering tools and paraphernalia which are relevant to making electronic devices. We should then think about the labor which goes into making the finished products. Lastly, the detail which is put into the aforementioned product should be taken into consideration. After considering the above, we can then factor in the price which can be tagged on the finished device or product. To begin with, this product should appeal to the younger generation who are majorly, the student of this institution. Secondly, we must also consider the community populace and as such determine the specific price tag for the products. Promotion Unlike in the case of marketing mix, this stage is usually referred to as position phase in innovation. Promotion is related to our individual perception of a given product. It is thus a psychological category like one of the processes in this institution that affects the aforesaid aspect of innovation. We can therefore promote our product such that it appeals to the younger generation together with the general community. It is of paramount importance to consider the community as they will be drawn to the incubation and innovation centre due to novel innovations, thus expanding the wider market. Promotion and position is considered to be a significant phase in todays global marketplace. It is literally everything. Place The location of this institution is quite strategic. This simply means that the incubation and innovation center will provide the local people with the necessary novel innovations which will boost New Zealanders tech. market and position it on the global market. Market Segment: Demographic There are two types of demographics which the incubation and innovation centre will target. One will be the younger generation specifically from age 16 years to 28 years, and the other will be the rather older generation from age 29 years to 45 years. Market Share A market share is regarded as the percentage of a given market which is accounted for by a particular entity. The latter is said to be a vital indicator of market competitiveness. This means that the incubation and innovation centre will be in the advantageous position of gauging how well it is doing against its major tech. competitors. By capturing the share from competitors or growing with the market, the incubation and innovation centre will be able to gauge and forecast its perceived targets and expectations. The latter will also be able to closely monitor signs of change in the ever competitive landscape, its tactical actions as well as its frequent drives. Implementation Plan: In the initial six months, the incubation and innovation centre will be able to gain the necessary manpower which is required to firstly instruct the students and guide them, with regards to their individual projects. The latter will also be in the advantageous position of sourcing the readily available market within and without the institution by the use of word of mouth. The next six months will be about evaluating and following up on the projects progress. The incubation and innovation centre will hire professionals who will be in charge of assessing the performance of the business, pointing out mistakes or areas of improvement. Financial Plan Assets: Value Transistors 12000 Integrated Circuits 7000 Soldering Irons x30 9600 Rubber gloves x30 2700 Safety goggles x30 12524 Fire extinguishers x10 45656 Workstations x30 87454 Computers x30 360000 Safety helmets x30 1200 Total: 538,134 Pain Firstly, it is important to note that innovation and enterprise is no stranger to pain. Suffice to mention that each given stage of innovation tends to have a challenge; this is what is referred to as a pain point. By being able to appropriately identify a pain point in the development and promotion process of innovation, one is placed at an advantage because they will be able to mitigate the pain points. With regards to innovation and enterprise, pain refers to specific pain points which tend to influence the latter. For instance, in the aforementioned feasibility business plan, pain is inclined to arise from the designing process of a potential innovation, the prototyping process, the implementation process, and not to mention, the delivery process of the desired innovations which will be showcased in the Incubation and Innovation Center.