International Business Climate Essay Example for Free

International Business Climate Essay 1.0 Introduction Business climate refers to the economic environment in general which depicts how businesses and business activities are supported by the government as well as the lending institutions. Business climate is also a reflection of the attitude of the labor unions toward inflation rates, taxation rates, employers and other issues which affect business activities   in a given region or country. Switzerland ranks the most attractive country in terms of having the most conducive international business climate which has attracted tremendous investments and highly skilled labor from all over the globe. The country enjoys a safe and stable working environment and most small and medium enterprises are located in the Greater Geneva Berne area (GGBa) which has an excellent international business track record (ggba-switzerland.ch, n.d). Switzerland experienced one of the weakest economies in the Western Europe in the 1990s during which the annual GDP growth averaged 0% between the years 1991 and 1997. A gradual economic growth was witnessed in the beginning of late 1997 and it reached a peak in 2000 with a GDP of 3%. Between 2001 and 2003, the economic growth slowed down but began to grow at 2.5% per annum since the year 2004 until the latest global economic crises which have had a great impact on its economic growth (state.gov, 2010). Being at the heart of Europe, Switzerland is a hub for the crucial communication systems which are indispensable in the industrial Europe. Therefore, the expansive modern and reliable infrastructure encompassing the country facilitates an extremely high number of international and local business activities. The good international business climate of the country has been influenced by several factors which entails economic, cultural, legal, and political issues. It is therefore the obj ective of this paper to discuss these issues with reference to Switzerland as a country. 2.0 Economic Climate Trade is the backbone of Switzerland’s prospering economy which has made its per capita income be among the highest globally. International climate highly favors the export markets upon which the country depends for generating enormous income while at the same time facilitating the imports of raw materials which are essential for the expansion of the range of goods and services available in the economy. Economic climate is also made better by the liberal trade and investment policies which has attracted many investors in addition to the well defined commercial law and well developed legal system. Switzerland is a member of several international economic organizations including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and The World Bank (state.gov, 2010). Important sectors of the economy include tourism, engineering, banking and insurance which have a heavy influence in the economic policies of the country. The existing trading companies enjoy unique expertise from Far East, Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe. The highly developed tourism industry gives the country’s market the   opportunity to trade in services and equipment related to tourism. The export industry provides the economy with about half of the country’s corporate earnings with the largest trading partner being the European Union. The trade and economic barriers between Switzerland and the EU are minimal hence facilitating more business activities. The U.S   is a major export destination of products from Switzerland and also a major source of imports of raw materials for the country. U.S is the second-largest importer of Swiss goods after Germany and also is the largest foreign investor in Switzerland (state.gov, 2010). 3.0 Legal Climate The business regulatory system in Switzerland is highly transparent and regulations affecting the activities of both local and international investors are applied with no discrimination. Previously, cartels were common in the economy whereby companies in various industrial and service sectors through industrial and trade associations organized themselves into vertical and horizontal cartels. The new law governing the formation of cartels ensures that such cartels do no harm to the society and the economy. The adoption of this law which includes the authority to stop anti-competitive behavior without prior warning has facilitated an extra GDP growth of 0.5-0.8% per annum following the reduction of harmful cartels (Dimireva, 2010). The legal system governing international and local business activities has propagated an efficient capital markets and   portfolio investment. One of the largest markets for foreign borrowers is the Swiss franc dominated foreign bond market and generally there are no restrictions on the sale or purchase of   foreign equities and currencies. Forward transactions between Swiss nationals and foreigners can be carried out at the prevailing market rates. The liberal market of Switzerland is protected from being misused as a platform for criminal activity and money laundering by regulations which serve to adjust particular aspects of portfolio investment. A good example is the signing of OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in 1997 which started operating in 2000 (Dimireva, 2010). The effective legal and policy framework of Switzerland has excelled in combating corruption which if unchecked can adversely impact the international business climate. Following implementatation of laws deterring corruption, for instance the U.S firms which have invested in Switzerland have not issued any complaints about cases of corruption. There are highl y effective investigative and enforcement mechanisms which deals with any domestic corruption and this has attracted more international investors who have developed confidence in the Swiss economy. 4.0 Political Climate The Swiss political system is highly stable and effective since both the county and state government bodies possess high levels opf control. The system has been structured in such a way that all the rural and urban areas of the country have access to government officials for requests or essential information. A referendum which requires a popular one million signatures is enough to give people the power to demand certain changes concerning business practice, the established law or the environment. One of the main contributors to the country’s political stability is the stability existing within different institutions.The Swiss National Bank for instance is a highly steadfast finanacial institution which has strengthened and stabilised the Swiss Franc. Political stability is further stabilised by the fact that Switzerland   is a representative democracy in which the major governing body is the Federal Council made up of seven persons. The government is considered to be trustw orthy and honest by the populace (mkeever.com, n.d). 5.0 Cultural Climate International business climate in Switzerland is greatly influenced by the etiquette and cultural expectations in the Swiss professional environment. In order to develop productive working relationships and successful business strategies, it is a preriquisite to understand and respect the various aspects of Swiss culture. The country offers Communicaid’s Doing Business cultural awareness courses to enhance the creation of fruitful business relationships between foreign business professionals and the Swiss clients partners and colleagues (Guliyev, 2007). Such courses are essential in ensuring competitive advantage which offers foreign business people with the ideal opportunity to comfortably do business in the country. In addition, there are a wide range of cultural and leisure activioties which has further facilitated the progress of the country in doing intyernational business. The ideal cultural climate has prompted a large number of   sports lovers, business travellers an d nature enthusiasist to visit the country all year round which has elevated international business relations a notch higher. 6.0 Conclusion The creation of an enabling international business climate is a collective task of various institutions and aspects of the society. These aspects must comprehensively address cultural, political, economic, and legal situations of the particular country which is willing to create a conducive business environment. Switzerland is a good example of a country in the heart of Europe which has embarked in creating such an environment which consequently has attracted huge investments. The creation of   an excellent international business climate may not be as challenging as sustaining it and therefore firm political, legal, cultural and economic strategies are indispensable in achieving it.

Creativity, the Subconcious, and Daydreaming :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Creativity, the Subconcious, and Daydreaming When an artist of any sort is inspired they have what can very closely be compared with a spiritual feeling. Some have said that this state in which, the imagination flows so freely is that of a conscious dream. In this short essay I will explore the ideas behind creativity and this dreamlike state of inspiration. In order to do so we must first decide what creativity is and then how it is affected. Creativity ¡Ã‚ ¦ is it merely the expression of ones ideas, or must it be something that none has ever thought of before? My answer to this question is that neither idea is a proper definition for creativity. To be creative is the ability of the individual to express themselves in a passionate manner that is unique. The expression must be unique in the fact that the way in which it is expressed demonstrates the emotions and feelings of the creator. Also there are other forms of creativity such as inventing in which although the idea itself may not be completely new, or unrelated to something else, but that this idea is a composite of the information, which one has obtained throughout their life. This idea in order to be creative cannot be just a regurgitation of the ideas, but rather it must be an individual perspective. Creativity can be found in every day life in the simplest things, as in the way in which a person observes a flower that they are passing. However, what causes a c reative genius is the way in which they express their unique perspective. Creative Geniuses when asked about their feelings of inspiration have often said that they feel that their spiritualized feeling is similar to that of a dream. Could the dream-like state which artists experience during inspiration be similar to that of daydreaming? Absolutely, Day dreaming is when one ¡Ã‚ ¯s mind drifts from the task that it has been set to do. In this state we are still conscious unlike in sleeping dreams, but our mind is able to, so to speak drift into the depths of itself. There have been studies done that say that daydreaming is connected with intelligence and creativity. This is partially because sometimes our brain needs time to process information and although this is generally done during our REM sleep cycle sometimes it can carry over to our wakeful states.

How Did Manifest Destiny Manifest Itself?

How did Manifest Destiny manifest itself? Manifest Destiny manifested itself in several ways during the period 1840-1896. Almost every major crisis or notable event was somehow related to manifest destiny. To understand the meaning of Manifest Destiny, we need to go back to its origins. The term Manifest Destiny was first used by John O? Sullivan in July-August 1845, in the Democratic review; â€Å"our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions† O? Sullivan said this while asking Congress for the annexation of Texas.The annexation followed quickly after but O? Sullivan? s use of sentence was barely noticed. Later in 1845, O? Sullivan reused the phrase but this time it created an extremely influential political idea. The general idea of Sullivan? s phrase was that God gave the United States of America territory so that the American people could travel westwards and settle on land that was right fully theirs. We can notice that Manifest Destiny is a racial doctrine and it put forward the white supremacy. Some people say, that the idea served as a justification for the expropriation of Native American lands.This theory cost the death of many Whites, Blacks and Native Americans. O? Sullivan created the perfect excuse for politicians like Polk, to push forward their plans of expansion in the West. James Polk was the 11th President of the United States and was in charge during both of the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War. He is one of the only presidents that competed his agenda while he was in his office. He was the last president before the outbreak of the Civil War. He is mostly remembered for his foreign policy success. The only reason Polk was not criticized a lot about the war was that he put forward Manifest Destiny.He stated that he was fighting for the Americans so that they could move westwards into new land. While the Mexican war was going on, Polk managed to increase the size of Texas, gain new territories of California, Nevada and Utah. This war of two years resulted in the treaty of Guadeloupe. According to different Sources, the treaty of Guadeloupe gave the USA an area of land from 900,000 square miles. Because of all this new and unpopulated land, the American government was keen on populating these areas to get for example more export availabilities. This caused a lot of Americans to move west because it was a new opportunity for them.From 1940 to 1962, four new laws were put through which encouraged people to move westwards. The Religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons was another cause why the western borders were shaped by Manifest Destiny. The Mormons claimed that people from Jerusalem were helped by god to get to the western hemisphere 600 years before Jesus Christ was born. According to Smith, the western land was rightfully the property of the Mormons and therefore rese mbles with the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Smith died before being able to bring his people west.The LDS were persecuted so much because of their beliefs in Ohio and Illinois, that when Brigham Young took over, he started going westwards. The plan was to escape was to create a religious state in Utah. On the way to the West, they were attacked by both Native Americans and other Whites (mostly Mormons). When they arrived, Young founded Salt Lake City and became governor of Utah. It was in Utah, where the Mormons fought bitterly against other religious movements because of their previous hounding. The Oregon Boundary Dispute was another incident that was the cause of manifest destiny.It had been a problem since 1818 when the USA and Britain claimed that the Oregon territory was their own. To avoid war, the two countries occupied the territory and waited for a permanent solution instead. In 1844, there was another presidential election and Polk was a candidate. He promised them that he would fight for the boundary to be put at 54 40-north latitude. At the same time, war tensions were at an all time height because both countries wanted land and were ready to fight for it so therefore the Treaty of Washington was signed. It gave the USA and Britain, equal amounts of new land.Westward travel was made easier because railroads were built around America. It was the country with the most developed railroads and they were built quickly around the country. In the end, America had over 30,000 miles of railroads. Following the railroads, a Transcontinental Railroad was built between 1863 and 1869. Americans didn? t want to cross salt flats and deserts so they wanted to be able to assert their right of manifest destiny. The railroads meant that Americans could now go around America until the Rockies in the far west. Before people didn? go into the west but the railroads made it easy to get there and people found resources in the ground which gave them money and the opportu nity of a new way of living. A lot of people from the east who fought in the Civil War moved to the west because they saw a new opportunity of prosperity. This also helped the transcontinental railroad. Like a lot of other events, which were related to manifest destiny, minorities were abused. It was the Irish and the Chinese, which spent the most time on the railroads but in the end, it was the whites, which benefited the most from the economical growth.Behind this national triumph, the Native Americans and the Chinese immigrants were completely socially excluded. Another aspect of manifest destiny is the American reaction when gold was discovered in California. It was found at the Sutter? s mill by James Marshall in 1848. The gold rush lasted from 1848 to 1855 and it was a huge boom for California. Manifest Destiny developed in a completely different idea during that period. The WASP? s were actively looking for gold and they tried to prevent the minorities from finding any expens ive resources. The Whites also benefited from the treaty of Govt.While the whites found minerals, the water of the Native Americans was poisoned and not clean so therefore they suffered from disease and sometimes-even death. Native Americans also died of smallpox and other rear diseases At the start of Manifest Destiny, less then 20,000 people lived in California. By 1855, there were over 300,000 gold seekers. Because of this massive increase, anti-foreigner laws were passed. Racist ideas were passed on in generations and the tax for immigrants got increased so that they would move out of America. Manifest Destiny was again used as an excuse for white supremacy.Sometimes, the government just took land and said that God told them to. After a few years, California became its own state when all the Native Americans were gone. People, which were pro- slavery, argued that manifest destiny allowed them to bring their slaves into the new land. In their point of view, they helped the slaves because they gave them food and a few supplies but in fact the slaves were treated badly and it wasn? t right to do it. Before the Mexican war, there had been 15 pro-slavery states and 15 anti-slavery states. In 1850, the Missouri Compromise took place. The compromise included: The admission of California as a free state * The Texas dept. would be taken to the federal government * A better Fugitive Slave Act (FSA) * The continuation of slavery but the abolition of slavery in Washington DC In the Kansas-Nebraska problem, manifest destiny manifested itself in several ways. Because Kansas was on the border between the South and the North, there was a big problem for the government whether to allow slavery or not. There was a public outcry when Douglas, who was the runner up for the presidency as a democrat, repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise.Obviously, the north didn? t want any more slave states. To oppose the idea of Kansas, the northerners shipped people to Kansas while the sout h send people over the border into the state. Eventually a fight broke up and there were murders. In the end, unfortunately for Douglas, the problem he had caused was the end of Manifest Destiny. So instead of getting stronger and unifying the democrats, Douglas had split the party into two. When the conflict came to an end, when the west had been populated, the land taken and the American Indians killed, manifest destiny was just not what it had been before.There was no more land to capture but unfortunately that didn? t mean the end of Manifest Destiny. According to Turner? s theory, the frontier drew and promoted some types of people which wouldn? t have risen as high without the frontier. It could almost be called the survival of the fittest. The ones that adapted best got the most out of their own situation. Jameson on the other hand claimed, that the frontier held back the revolutionaries so when the frontier was gone, the people ceased to be revolutionary. To oppose this theo ry, Turner argues because of this, these men and women flourished.The difference between the two men was that Jameson looks at the frontier as a very active agent, which formed the people while Turner states that the frontier attracted people which were looking for a new opportunity. Manifest Destiny had a lot of serious consequences for Native Americans, since the expansion into the West by the Americans meant the occupation and annexation of Native American land. This land was sometimes even used to expand slavery. The Americans only recognized parts of the Indian territory and this was supported by the Washington Administration which was signed by Henry Knox who was the Secretary of War.As a conclusion, manifest destiny manifested itself during almost every major event in the period 1840-1896. It was the reason of every conflict, in the minds of every pioneer and behind every political move towards the expansion of the United States of America. It had three main components but mo st saw the doctrine as a literal thought. Many said that it was a White man? s yoke to bear. A minority saw in it a sense of a mission. They saw a historical need that America needed to expand to be able to rule the whole continent. Yet for all these rather positive aims, Manifest Destiny had its dark side.The negative thing about Manifest Destiny is that apparently it gave the whites the right to burn, kill and raze anything that came in their way of expanding into the west. No one thought about what they were doing to the Native Americans until after they were dead. I think, the Americans used manifest destiny as a rallying cry, which said: â€Å"We are superior, we are better than you. † In other words, America manifested itself to satisfy the hunger for land that the American people had at the time. It served as a way to greaten the United States of America and please its people.

The Chernobyl And Piper Alpha Case Studies - 1470 Words

Peyman Alizadeh Professor M. Gaboury LAWS 1038-41 Date November 25, 2016 Compare and Contrast the Chernobyl and Piper Alpha Case Studies Introduction: Chernobyl and Piper Alpha Case studies are two of the engineering failures that has happened in the world. The world worst civilian disaster happened when the Chernobyl nuclear power explode in soviet plant located in Ukraine. Soviet nuclear plant was one of the most advanced facilities that included four reactors. The Chernobyl accident happened on 26 April 1986 when the technician wanted to test the backup cooling system for the reactor number four without following the safety procedure. Due to explosion in reactor number four, eight tons of radioactive debris spread into the atmosphere that caused 115000 people to evacuate from 30 kilometers around the area. As a result of this explosion, thirty-one of the plant personnel and the initial fire workers who involved in extinguishing the fire were died shortly from acute radiation sickness. The main issue causes Chernobyl disaster is complex since some people blame the Chernobyl tragedy on the power plant operator, the other blame on the design of the reactor itself (UNSCEAR, 2008). Piper Alpha platform explosion and massive fire happened on July 6th, 1988 and located on the North Sea offshore. This disaster was also one of the most significant disaster in human history and the history of the North Sea. In this incident 167 people killed and most of the properties wereShow MoreRelatedExplain The Term Safety Culture 1481 Words   |  6 PagesResource Management related policies and practices could successfully maximize the human resource contribution, this may incur a significant cost for employees. The deleterious effect of ‘human resource maximizing policies’ was all too apparent in the case studies of airline cabin crews and call centre workers, in which various policies and practices were intimately linked to work intensification and work related illness and injuries. Based on these findings, it could be argued that employee health is aRead More Human Error Essay2183 Words   |  9 Pagescatastrophes puts human error in the spotlight. Some ex amples of human error catastrophes include: the Tenerife runway collision in 1977, Three Mile Island in 1979, the Bhopal methyl isocyanate tragedy in 1984, the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters of 1986, and the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion in 1988. While these catastrophes put human error concerns in the spotlight, the human error impact on manufacturing operations can be just as detrimental. All of the catastrophes that were describedRead MoreNebosh Idip Unit a (Qa)3756 Words   |  16 Pages NEBOSH INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMA IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY UNIT IA – International management of health and safety January 2011 Question 1 (a) Giving reasons in EACH case, identify FIVE persons` who could be interviewed to provide information for an investigation into a workplace accident. (5) (b) Outline the issues to consider when preparing the accident investigation interviews for workers from within the organisation. (5) SECTION A * The injured personRead MoreSafety Culture vs Safety Climate5255 Words   |  22 Pagescan be traced back to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 in which a â€Å"poor safety culture† was identified as a factor contributing to the accident by both the International Atomic Energy Agency and the OECD Nuclear Agency. The Chernobyl disaster was the worst accident with regard to nuclear power generation. The recognition of the importance of safety culture based from this experience and to prevent future accidents has led to a plethora of studies attempting to define and assess safety culture