Under Armor Financial Analysis Essay Example

Under Armor Financial Analysis Essay Example Under Armor Financial Analysis Essay Under Armor Financial Analysis Essay Under Armor Financial Analysis Name: Course: Date: Under Armor Financial Analysis Performance measurement The measurement of performance refers to the various dissimilar statistical measures to assess how efficient a company uses its resources to make revenues. Ordinary examples of parameters used to measure performance include operating income, net asset value and earning before interest. It is significant to point out that no single performance measure should be considered independently. Instead, to reach at a realistic position of the performance a company, an analysis must use different combination of measures. The analysis will assess the cash flow from all business activities in 2011 and the balance sheets for 2011 and 2010. Financial performance Assessing the financial performance of Under Armour will require a prejudiced measure of how well the company uses the assets amassed from its main form of business, and come up with revenues. The term â€Å"financial performance† is also utilized as a universal evaluation of a company’s overall financial wellbeing over a period, and can be applied to evaluate similar companies that operate on the same industry. Without measuring, there is no way that we can realize the trend that the company is taking. The best way to do this evaluation is using financial ratios that are the relationships between two or more financial elements. Through the ratios, a manager can easily determine the level of performance for their company. Company background Under Armour is a group of expansive sports, accessories and clothing stores situated in America. The company deals in the supply of a broad variety of sportswear and informal attire with the focus being on technical sportswear that can serve the needs of career athletes. The Under Armour was established in 1996 when it started selling footwear. The international headquarters of the company are situated in Maryland while the European head office is in Amsterdam. Other subsidiary offices are sited in Guangzhou, Denver, Toronto and Hong Kong. Some of the products developed by Under Amour include AllseasonGear, ColdGear, and StreetGear. The Under Amour products are traded worldwide and are used by sportspeople in different sports from young people to professional players. Measuring the financial performance of Under Amour Company will involve assessing the revenues, financial records and other statistics (Douglas, 2012). Summary Report Under Armor Company implements an accounting cycle that incorporates several activity series that start with a transaction and conclude with closing the books of account. Primarily, this cycle includes several major steps. The cycle begins at the stage of identifying or recognizing a transaction or an event. This step is followed by the preparation of the source document for the transaction such as an invoice or purchase order. Consequently, an analysis and classification of the transaction is carried out. This part serves to quantify the transaction in terms of money value, that is, cents or dollars. Additionally, identification of the account to be credited or debited also occurs at the third stage of the cycle. The cycle then proceeds on to the fourth step, and this involves recording the transaction in an appropriate journal entry such as cash receipt, sales journal, purchase journal and others. These kinds of entries and executed in a chronological sense. The journal entries are hence posted to ledger accounts. It is prudent to understand that the Under Armor employs the steps highlighted above through the whole accounting period since the occurrence of the transactions happen in period batches. The rest of the cycle steps explained below are performed when the accounting period concludes. These steps include the preparation of the trial to certify the equality between the debits and credits. At this part of the cycle, no adjustment of the accounts takes place. If any discrepancy between the accounts is identified, action is taken to sight the posting errors, math errors or recording errors. Finally, the company’s accounting cycle ends with the preparation of the balance sheet and the profit and loss account. Business efficiencies created by solid accounting have to be valued with a view of establishing whether a business, or in this case the company, is enjoying optimum profitability. Since the company is operating in an environment with volatile economic factors, variable costs with frequent fluctuations pose dramatic negative effects on the company’ s product margin. Efficient business performance is dependent on the accuracy of product profitability and cost analysis of raw materials. Recommendations to the company include focusing on the female market whose sales only earn the company about 25% its entire revenue (Reuters, 2012). The company should look to put more focus on this market and maximize its profitability. The company should also look to expand its global sales. More than 90% of the company’s sales come from distribution channels within North America (Reuters, 2012). Companies such as Nike and Adidas have established their market channels throughout the globe. The company should also look to venture into soccer deals as fashion giants like Puma and Nike have. Making this move would allow the company to strengthen its brand. For example, Nike in comparison to Under Armor is very much ahead in terms of operating activities, assets, and income revenue. For example, statistics in 2011 stated that Under Armor raked in over 900,000 million dollars in assets compared to Nike’s 15,000 billion. Net income was 90,000 million and approximately 3 billion dollars for both Armor and Nike respectively. If Under Armor Company is to compete with giants like Nike Company, then they have to shift their focus on capitalizing on their opportunities while mitigating their weaknesses at the same time mitigating their weaknesses. The company should look to anticipate and react to changing preferences of consumers. Additionally, it would be a good idea if the company employs critical sale events. This would function well in boosting customer loyalty. Furthermore, an outline of the company’s financial performance exhibited success and the trend are expected to continue if careful implementation is exercised (Reuter s, 2012). This is true judging by the company’s 27.8 percent growth in revenue from 2010 to 2011. In the same period, the company’s gross revenue grew.

Odyssey The Relationship between the monstrous and the human

Odyssey The Relationship between the monstrous and the human Introduction When looking at the relationship between the monstrous and the human in Odyssey, it can be seen that monsters represent, in many instances, the darker side of humanity.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on â€Å"Odyssey†: The Relationship between the monstrous and the human specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The Cyclops When looking at the instance where Odysseus encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, it is often the case that people see a giant monster that is out to eat visitors. However, as it can be seen through the dialogue between Polyphemus and Odysseus, Polyphemus does have the capacity for reason and understanding yet continues to perform his actions anyway despite alternatives being present (i.e. he eats humans despite the fact that sheep are present). In this particular instance, Polyphemus and his one eye represent people who look at things through only one perspective. The end result is that the y neglect to see the end result of such actions and in turn this results in adverse consequences towards them (i.e. in this case Polyphemus had his eye gouged with a sharp stick). Calypso While the sea nymph may seem to be good in the sense that she took very good care of Odysseus on her island, in reality she actually symbolizes the aspect of complacency that exists within us all. Through the dialogue in the story we can see that while she has made Odysseus comfortable, he is not truly progressing in life despite his desire to do so. Such an aspect is present in us all wherein we become lured by the comfort of complacency that we find ourselves unable to move forward when we should have done so. Circe What Circe represents is harder to ascertain since she both turned the men into swine yet took good care of them afterwards. However, upon reading more of the dialogue it can be seen that Circe represents fear of moving forward which often results in loneliness and heartache later in life. In the story it is revealed that the reason that Circe turned the men into swine was due to bad experiences she had with men in the past.Advertising Looking for essay on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Since she never moved forward from such a feeling she became stuck in the past and, as a result, became incredibly lonely. This is a behavior that we all experience all too often wherein we become so focused on what has happened to us that we become too afraid to move forward and experience new things. This can eat away at a person leaving them lonely and friendless with no one to talk to but the walls of their home. The Lotus Eaters The Lotus eaters in the story are very familiar since they represent the addictions that burden us in life. This can by anything such as junk food, television, sex, drugs or anything that causes to obsess over something so completely that we discard everything else to focus on such an addiction. This can often result in men or women turning in to monsters in order to get their â€Å"fix† and, as such, is an appropriate representation of the darker side of humanity that lurks within us all that is waiting to come out and drag us down just as addiction has entrapped the Lotus eaters in the story. Conclusion After examining the various characters that was encountered by Odysseus on his journey, it can be stated that when looking at the relationship between the monstrous and the human in Odyssey, monsters represent, in many instances, the darker side of humanity.

Dave the Potter - Enslaved African-American Ceramic Artist

Dave the Potter - Enslaved African-American Ceramic Artist David Drake [1800-1874] was an influential African-American ceramic artist, born into slavery under the pottery-making families of Edgefield, South Carolina. Also known as Dave the Potter, Dave Pottery, Dave the Slave or Dave of the Hive, he is known to have had several different owners during his lifetime, including Harvey Drake, Reuben Drake, Jasper Gibbs, and Lewis Miles. All of these men were in some way related to the ceramic entrepreneurs and slave holders, brothers Reverend John Landrum and Dr. Abner Landrum. In 1815, the Landrums established the Edgefield pottery-making district in west-central South Carolina, and by the mid-19th century, the district had grown to include 12 very large, innovative and influential ceramic stoneware factories. There, the Landrums and their families blended English, European, African, Native American and Chinese ceramic styles, forms and techniques to make durable, non-toxic alternatives to lead-based stonewares. It was in this environment that Dave became an important potter, or turner, eventually working in several of these factories. What We Know About Dave Not much is known about Dave; much of what we do know, scholars derived from census records and news stories. Born in 1800, Dave probably began working in the potteries in his late teens, learning his trade from the European-American potters. The earliest pottery vessels which bear attributes of Daves later pots date to the 1820s and were made in the Pottersville workshop. He apparently worked for Abner Landrums newspaper The Edgefield Hive (sometimes listed as The Columbia Hive), where some scholars believe he learned to read and write. Others believe it is more likely he learned from his owner Reuben Drake. Daves literacy had to have occurred before 1837, when it became illegal in South Carolina to teach slaves to read and write. Dave was owned for a time by Lewis Miles, Abners son-in-law, and he produced at least 100 pots for Miles between July 1834 and January 1864. Dave may well have produced many more, but only about 100 signed pots have survived from that period. He lived through the Civil War, and after the Emancipation, continued to work for the pottery, as David Drake, his new surname taken from one of his past masters. While that doesnt seem like very much information, Dave was one of 76 known enslaved African or African Americans who worked in the Edgefield District. We know far more about Dave the Potter than we do for the others who worked in the ceramic workshops of the Landrums, because he signed and dated some of his ceramics, sometimes incising poetry, proverbs and dedications into the clay surfaces. Writing and Pottery Potters typically use makers marks to identify the potter, the pottery, the prospective owner, or manufacturing details: Dave added quatrains from the bible or his own eccentric poetry. One of the earliest of the poems attributed to Dave is from 1836, a large jar made for the Pottersville foundry, on which he wrote horses, mules and hogs / all our cows is in the bogs / there they shall ever stay / till the buzzards take them away. Burrison (2012) has interpreted this poem to refer to Daves owners selling of several of his co-workers to Louisiana. Chaney (2011) has connected decorative and symbolic markings on slave-produced forms of colonoware to some marks made by Dave. Whether Daves poetry was intended as subversive, humorous or insightful is open to question: probably all three. See Koverman 2005 for a compiled list of all Daves known poems. Style and Form Dave specialized in large storage jars with horizontal slab handles, used for large-scale plantation food preservation, and his pots are among the largest made during the period. In Edgefield, only Dave and Thomas Chandler made pots with such a large capacity. Some hold up to 40 gallons: and they were in high demand. Daves pots, like those of most of the Edgefield potters, were alkaline stonewares, but Daves had a rich streaky brown and green glaze, idiosyncratic to the potter. His inscriptions are the only ones known from American potters at the time, at Edgefield or away from it. Interpretations A considerable amount of scholarship on Daves inscriptions has been amassed over the past couple of decades. Chaney (2011) discusses the politically mute but commercially hypervisible status of Daves writings, and focuses his attention on the poetic inscriptions, the somewhat subversive elements in Daves writing. DeGrofts 1988 article describes the protest contexts of Daves inscriptions; and Burrison (2012) discusses the topics of Daves poetry, as part of a broader discussion of the Edgefield potteries. Perhaps the most focused research into Daves ceramics is by Koverman (2005, 2007, 2009), who, as part of her extensive work on Edgefield pottery works has cataloged and photographed well over 100 vessels marked by Dave or attributed to him. Kovermans nuanced discussion includes Daves artistic influences and training. Sources Burrison JA. 2012. South Carolinas Edgefield district: An early international crossroads of clay. American Studies Journal 56. Chaney MA. 2011. The Concatenate Poetics of Slavery and the Articulate Material of Dave the Potter. African American Review 44(4):607-618. De Groft A. 1998. Eloquent Vessels/Poetics of Power: The Heroic Stoneware of Dave the Potter. Winterthur Portfolio 33(4):249-260. Koverman JB. 2005. The Ceramic Works of David Drake, aka, Dave the Potter or Dave the Slave of Edgefield, South Carolina. American Ceramic Circle Journal 13:83. Koverman JB. 2007. Communities of Heritage: Southern contributions. In: Potter C, editor. Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects: Random House. p 120-140. Koverman JB. 2009. Clay Connections: A Thousand-Mile Journey from South Carolina to Texas. American Material Culture and the Texas Experience: The David B Warren Symposium. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts. p 118-145.

Energy Resource Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Energy Resource Plan - Essay Example This fact makes public discourse on the subject all the more important. As a rule, renewable energy sources have many advantages over non-renewable ones. For example, a very widely used energy resources is petroleum. Given the scarcity of this resource, not only is it economically unviable in the long term, but highly malefic to environmental health. The carbon monoxide emissions from automobiles that run on refined petroleum pose serious health consequents to life on earth. On the other hand, tapping energy inherent in natural phenomena is a more prudent way of energy consumption. For example, hydro-electric power generation, wind-mill based energy creation, energy derived from bio-mass, etc. are not only less harsh on the environment, but are sustainable in the long term too. There are many ways in which each of us can help conserve energy. A simple example would be car-pooling and using public transportation for most commuting purposes. This would cut down on the amount of energy consumed by the community. Secondly, significant reduction in energy consumption could be achieved by adopting scientific approaches to building houses, especially in regard to heating and cooling systems. Also, all energy run appliances in the house like the air-conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, etc., can all be made more energy efficient by applying a few basic conservation principles. In light of growing concerns regarding depletion of energy resources and their negative impact on environment and health, the government’s role has become a very important one. Unless strict regulations are imposed on industries and other commercial enterprises, this trend cannot be stopped let alone reversed. Governments can set up dedicated agencies to study industry trends so that regulations can be imposed at an early stage. Government can fund independent/industry research units to come

Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Business Ethics - Essay Example The manager in charge of the project, John Fisher was accused of paying somebody to buy the frozen drinks worth 10000 dollars to help in convincing the Burger king to become a pioneer in frozen Coke promotion that would take place nationally the following year (Lovell, 2012). From this case study, several stakeholders are involved in the malpractice. There is the Burger king franchise that was the organ to help in the testing as a business partner. From their point of view, they felt cheated and moved to court to seek compensation for the loss and expenses incurred. They also were angered that a partnering company used their reputed business name in a malpractice in business. The other stakeholder was the customer that was taking the frozen coke. The customer in this scenario was neither aware of the malpractice nor harmed by the malpractice. The customer however was betrayed by the fact that the biggest beverage company could afford to generate false results to promote a new brand. Though the research was not done to evaluate the drop in the customer loyalty of Coca-Cola then, this angered the customer and made the customer question the trust of other famous products of Coca-Cola (Laufer and Coombs, 2006). The other main stakeholder was Coca-Cola itself. Given the reputation of the company, it was hard for the company to explain the malpractice as well as the firing of employees who attempted to blow the whistle on the company. From the employees’ perspective, the question of ethics in this scenario is whether to quit or to blow the whistle. For the employee, Matthew Whitley, who blew the whistle the dilemma was in either choosing his job or his integrity. In the end when he chose his integrity, he and other employees lost their job. The management of the company had a decision to either preserve their name and fire the then manager, John Fisher or retain the manager and deny the claims of malpractice. In

Ray's Cleaning Services Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Ray's Cleaning Services - Research Paper Example This is a major planning strategy that will ensure the company meets its objectives. In our efforts to ensure all the employees have the necessary academic qualifications and skills, Ray’s Cleaning Services will undertake personal profile, discussion with former employers and job observation as the major evaluation techniques. Another notable strategy that Ray’s Cleaning Services will emulate is financial planning. This will entail initiating a competitive payment plan that will improve the performance of our employees. In its recruitment program, Ray’s Cleaning Services will undertake internal as well as external hiring. Additionally, the business is considering cultural diversity of its workers as a way of enhancing positive relationship among the employees. An online account is another strategy that the company will employ to ensure constant communication with the applicants. Major employment documents that will be retained by the company include Form W-4, For m 1-9 and Specific employee’s records. To ensure that our business complies with government regulations, Ray’s Cleaning Services will emulate key laws that include business license, letter of registration, collective labor laws, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Environment rules and individual labor laws. It its efforts to improve the performance of workforce, Ray’s Cleaning Services will offer a number of benefits that includes annual training programs, life insurance cover, accidents cover, part-time courses in local universities, annual bonus, gifts and promotion among others. The challenges facing local and international companies has called for effective planning including hiring qualified and skilled manpower in order to ensure continuity in the production process. One of the major causes of increased rate of turnover is reduced level of motivation due to low salaries and lack of appropriate benefit plan. Additionally,

A Conversation Analysis from the film Babel Essay

A Conversation Analysis from the film Babel - Essay Example A film has a series of short stories that do not have conclusive endings. It is important to note that a convenient plot holds the shots in different places together. The intriguing plot of the movie depicts a series of much-unconnected stories of different persons and societies all over the world. In this film, communication and lack of it form the basis for my research on conversation analysis. In the movie, an American female tourist is mysteriously shot and wounded while on tour in the desert of Morocco. The two tourists, Richard and Susan argue bitterly following lose of their beloved son. Ironically, the shooter remains a puzzle and sets the impetus for a series of short stories that in the end make the plot of the whole film. This touches on the aspects of how different world languages, different societies, and cultures vary. In the film, different languages are spoken by different characters altogether. While her husband is trying to save her in the middle of a desert, their nanny in Mexico takes the couple’s children to a wedding. In another part of the movie, a 16 year-old adolescent girl, who also happens to be deaf looks for somebody to break her virginity. She does this in her quest to be understood the way she wants. The unending communication barriers brought about by different linguistic backgrounds is a theme of great relevance to conversation analysis.... Sacks et al defines turn taking as one party talking at a time. There is a minimization of gaps and silences too that enhance the feature of turn taking. He continues to argue that there is formulated system that makes these two techniques possible. In this case, one party speaks independently at a time hence minimizing the gaps and silences. Sacks et al. continues to state that a turn-construction unit (TCU) is the basic unit of a turn. (Brown, 2007, p. 224) argues that oral language and discourse is marked by exchanges. In this case, few sentences spoken by one participant are followed and built upon by sentences spoken by another. Whenever turn-constructional unit unfolds, a possible completion point is achieved. The possible completion point is considered as the transition point for any speaker. The waiter utilizes turn-constructional unit in the conversation below. 01 A waiter brings a plate and some cutlery 02 Waiter: (In broken English)) ^You want to order? --- Sentential TCU In line 02 above, the waiter in the restaurant initializes the conversation by asking a question. The arrow and the question mark indicate this. These two symbols tell us that in order for the conversation to move to the next level, an appropriate response must be given. In spite of talking probably in broken English, both Richard and Susan are able to get the conversation going by appropriately answering to his initial question. The sentential TCU provides the transition point for the next prudent conversation. 03. (0.9) 04 Richard: A:: yah’ll have thee um::chicken Co::usco::us (0.1)>and a 05Cokedoesn’t have fat in it