Tuesday, January 28, 2020
The Role of Forensic Accountants Essay Example for Free
The Role of Forensic Accountants Essay PROBLEM STATEMENT In recent times, the world has witnessed the failure of large corporate organizations which has been attributed to large scale fraud by Directors in connivance with auditors. There is the case of Enro in the U.S, Parmalat in Italy and many cases in the U.K such as Polly Peek, Maxwell communications and BCCI. This development brought about in its wake the lack of public confidence in audit reports and auditing. By this many stakeholders seek redress in the court of law. In the court of law, the service of an expert witness is required in order to ascertain the true state of affair of the troubled enterprise. PURPOSE OF STUDY To examine a forensic Accountant as an expert witness in litigation and to effectively determine his role in judicial process BACKGROUND STUDY Forensic accounting is hardly a new field, but in recent years, banks, insurance companies and even police agencies have increased the use of these experts. A nationwide study conducted by Kessler International (a forensic accounting and investigative firm) showed that 39% of organizations have considered the need for a forensic accountant. The study intends to find out how the knowledge of forensic accounting can reduce corporate fraud, mismanagement and seeking redress in the court of law. INTRODUCTION What is forensic Accounting? Forensic accounting is the practice of utilizing accounting, auditing and investigative skill to assist in legal matter and the application of specialized body of knowledge to the evidence of economic transaction and reporting suitable for the purpose of establishing accountability or valuation of administrative proceeding. In wide sense, it can be said as the integrity of accounting, auditing and investigative skill to abstain a particular result. Journal of college Teaching and Learning (2007). Vol 4, Number 9; states Forensic accounting as accounting analysis that can uncover possible fraud that is suitable for presentation in court. Such analysis will form the basis for discussion, debate and dispute resolution In my view, forensic accounting is that aspect of accounting that provides an accounting analysis that is suitable to the organization in resolving disputes that arises in the organization. Forensic accountants utilize accounting, auditing and investigative skills while conducting an investigation. These accountants are trained to look into the dispute in a number of ways. They often retain to analyze, interpret, summarize and present a complex manner which is understandable and probably supported. Also, they are often involved in various activities such as investigating and analyzing financial evidence, developing computerized application, exhibiting documents and presenting the evidence obtained. This new and ground – breaking accounting has two main areas which are: a. Litigation support and investigation b. Dispute resolution. Role of Forensic Accountants in Judicial Process A Forensic accountant is involved in the collection of document, investigating, analyzing and development of computerized application to assist in the analysis and presentation of financial evidence, communicating their findings in the form of reports, exhibits, including testifying in court as expert witness and preparing visual aids to support trial evidence. Thus, the role a forensic accountant can be said to include the following: a. Giving preliminary advice as an initial appraisal of the pleading and evidence available at the start of proceedings b. Identifying the key documents which should be made available as evidence, this is important when the forensic accountant is acting for the defense and lawyers are preparing lists of document to tender in court. c. Preparing a detailed balanced report on quantum of evidence, writing in a language readily understood by a non-accountant and dealing with all issue, irrespective of whether or not they are favourable to the client d. Briefing legal counsels on the financial and accounting aspects of the case during pre-trial preparation e. Initiate measure for introduction of environment accounting to highlight the damage done to the environment by the possible recoupment of such damages or replenishment of lost properties through environmental management continually. CONCLUSION The expert witness testimony of the forensic accountant has forced businesses to restructure, and millions of naira, dollars to be paid in damages; people have on occasions even gone to jail. The practical and in-depth analysis that a forensic accountant brings to a case helps to uncover underlying problems in business. Forensic accountants are currently in great demand, with the public quest for honesty, fairness and transparency in reporting increasing exponentially. Whatever the reasoning may be more and more forensic accountants are being called upon to use their investigative skills to seek out irregularities in their companies’ financial statements. References 1. Aderibigbe, P. (2000): The Role of forensic chartered Accountant in Nigeria. July, 2000. 2. Crumbley H. (2003): Forensic and Investigative Accounting; CCH Publishing 3. Financial Restatements, General Accounting Office Report, 2002 4. Kessler International study; (2002) Forensic accountants needed as economy worsens. Press release 5. Oremade, T. (1988): Auditing and Investigations, Lagos; West Africa Books Publishers Limited.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Managing Life Cycles Influences in an Organization :: essays research papers
Managing Life Cycles Influences in an Organization For everything in life there is a season, and the same holds true for business. There is a life cycle that successful businesses inevitably pass through. They endure the perils up start-up, often on a shoestring; they grow to greater size and stability, permitting the owners to think about building wealth for themselves and their employees; and they progress to a point where owners have to think about valuing and succession or sale of the business (Forbes p9). Your intelligence gathering--what you need to know and when you need to know it--will vary depending on the cyclical speed of the industry life cycles. When you recognize cyclical trends you will be able to determine effective intelligence strategies. If you work in a relatively new industry you will want to identify potential (new or would-be) surprise competitors. Near the end of the growth stage, you will need intelligence that will help hold market share during the market's eventual decline ( Inside R & D, p NA). Start Up Stage The start up stage is the most trying stage. A newly formed company is still testing out the waters. Expenditure is high and usually greater then the revenue due to start up costs and other start up fees. This is the time where you need to have strong management personnel that will stick with the company during the not so lean times. They have to have clear defined goals that they can pass on to their department.                                    Each stage also demands different talents and perspectives, and new leaders usually have to be brought in as businesses progress. The visionary who is well suited to leading a new business through its early experimental stages is often poorly equipped to guide the venture through the expansion and integration stages, when sales and organizational skills become more important than bold thinking and creativity (Garvin, 2004).                                   The manager?s job is three-fold. They need to: 1) decide what needs to be done and how it is to be accomplished; 2) continually react to market conditions, 3) make sure his and his employees' efforts support that continually changing vision. Without a strong leader at the helm, the vision of the firm will be quickly outdated and the firm will be overrun by increased costs and declining sales (Osheroff p21). The goal of management is to see that rules are followed, budgets are met, and metrics are achieved.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Netflix
Nettling Is an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media In the united States, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, united Kingdom and Ireland and a flat rate DVD-by. Mail in the United States. Nettling currently has over 20 million members streaming globally, making in it the world's leading internet subscription service for streaming movies and TV programmed. For a monthly fee subscribers are able to watch an unlimited amount of films and TV episodes.The devices available for streaming Is constantly expanding, currently the list consists of 700 devices ranging from game consoles to smart phones. Historically, this industry was focused on stand-alone brick and motor rental stores. Nettling then offered a disruptive service where by DVD's were available through the mall. Because technology has continued to develop the service also had to develop, and digital rentals has become the focus of Nettling, this is done by streaming content directly to consumer's television th rough broadband connected set-top boxes, game consoles, and computers. 2. Company Profile 2. 1 .History of Nettling In 1997 In Scoots Valley, California Reed Hastings and fellow software executive Marc Randolph service, which offered unlimited rentals for a monthly subscription. A personalized film recommendation system that was developed, it's based on the Nettling members' ratings and reviews and accurately predicts choices for all Nettling members was launched in 2000. Nettling initiated an initial public offering (PIP) in May 2002, selling 5,500,000 shares at $15. 00 per share, at this stage the total number of Nettling members was 600,000. By September 2002 Nettling were mailing 190,000 discs per day to its 670,000 members.In 2006 Inflexed ends the year with 6. 3 million members, up 51% from 2005. Then in 2007 Nettling introduces streaming, which lows members to instantly watch television shows and films on their personal computers. In 2008 Nettling partnered with consumer elec tronics companies to stream on the Oxbow 360, Blue- ray disc players, TV set-tops and the Apple Macintosh computer. Then in 2009 it partnered with more consumer electronics companies to stream on the ASS, internet-connected TV's. BY 2010 Nettling is available on over 700 devices including the Apple pod, phone and the Nintendo WI and ends the year with 20 million members, up 63% from 2009.Nettling was launched in Canada in 2010, and then it was launched throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and n 2012 Nettling was launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland. [1] Currently Nettling, Inc. Is the largest online movie rental company on the plant. Its headquarters are based in Los Gatos California. With its mission â€Å"our appeal and success are built providing the most expansive selection of DVD's; an easy way to choose movies; and fast, free delivery' Nettling continues to progress and make new goals. The number of full time employees is over 2, 180. [3] In the year 2010 net inco me of IIS$160 million and $982 million in assets. 4] 2. 2. Consumers Nettling customers can be broken up into two groups the needy consumers and the nonviolence consumers. Needy consumers are those that have a very specific need, be it a tile or genre, they finical and want a rich viewing experience. They must likely want to sit in comfort and watch the film on television screen with surround-sound audio. This means they are more likely to avail of a hardcopy. These consumers tend to be committed to video entertainment; they have no problem waiting for a few days for the film to arrive, as long as their expectations are met.Convenience consumers, which are becoming more and more common, are the opposite they. They will watch a film or TV show where and when they want. What is important to them is fast and easy access, portability and transferability. These consumers are more willing to watch participate in online rental. Convenience consumers tend to be the younger generation who li ves are becoming more and more internet based, where as the needy consumers then to be of an older generation. 2. 3. Business Strategy Nettling employs differentiation for its business strategy.The company tries to take advantage of uniqueness for a broad market. The original business strategy for Nettling was in the DVD rental market, the company's purpose was to offer the already existing product of the rentable movie n a new format. They did this by allowing customers to select the title online and they would receive them by mail and charging a monthly subscription fee instead of paying per title. More recently Nettling has moved into the online streaming of movies through computers, game consoles and handheld devices.This has become the focus of the company, their core strategy is to grow its streaming subscription business within the United States and globally. Among the large and expanding base of devices streaming from Nettling are the Microsoft Oxbow 360, Nintendo WI and Son y ASS console, an array of Blue-ray disc players, Internet- unconnected TV's, home theatre systems, digital video recorders and Internet video players, Apple phone, pad and pod touch, Android devices, as well as Apple TV and Google. Not the DVD rental because they don't have the capability to manually distribute discs. 3. Streaming Service 3. 1 .Drivers for the Change to Streaming Many factors contributed to the shifting of focus at Nettling for DVD rentals to directly streaming movies and TV shows directly through the internet, some of the main drivers were; V 28 day delay distribution agreements: The entertainment studios' made an agreement with Nettling, to protect their DVD revenues. The agreement stated that Nettling and other companies would have to make new releases unavailable for 28 days after they were released on DVD. New releases were Nineteen's most valuable content for its DVD rental business, but it had to agree to keep its distribution deals with the studios.This lef t Nettling fighting with pay-cable networks for content and licensing deals. This forced Nettling to focus on the online streaming market. As result of this deal Nettling built a streaming service with discounted back catalogue content. [5] V Popularity of online movie viewing: In 2010 more members used the streaming service then the DVD rental service. [4] V Reliance on Postal Service: Nettling uses the united States Postal Service (USPS) to deliver its entire DVD, and is thus at the mercy of the postal service.Nettling rely too heavily on profitability and service. V Licensing deals: Nettling made experimental licensing deals with studios and pay- cable networks in 2007. At this stage a no business model for streaming had been made. This deals obtained at prices that would be unrealistic now. 3. 2. Internet Video Steaming Service These drivers, and some other factors, lead to Nettling investing in their streaming service to improve the quality and speed of the stream. Some devices can stream Nettling content at IPPP resolution.Nineteen's strategy with their streaming service has been to made partnerships with companies to allow Nettling to stream their content. While also keeping up to date with advances in by develop their service so that customers can stream through game consoles, pods and smart phones. The first partnership for their streaming service was with Stars Entertainment in 2008. This deal as to during over 2,500 new movies and TV shows to Nettling Watch Instantly feature. Since then Nettling have made deals with Paramount, Eliminate, MGM, Trademarks Animation, open Road Films, Epic, Relativity Media and Film District. Earlier.These are type of consumer who want general entertainment in a relaxed atmosphere and are not too fussy about the form of electronic entertainment. They tend to be young more internet-savvy user. These types of customers can be lost to illegally streaming of programs or Just other forms of entertainment such as video games, music or social networking. 4. Market Analysis 4. 1 . Competition The market industry for the video entertainment is very competitive and can be subjected to rapid change. Many consumers maintain relationships with more than one video entertainment providers and can easily shift form one provider to another. . 2. Principle Competitors Some of the many competitors to Nettling are: Multinational video programming distributors with free TV Everywhere and video- on- demand content including cable providers, such as Time Warner and Compass in America and the likes of RET in Ireland, telecommunication providers such as AT&T and Verizon in America and PUC in Ireland. Internet movie and TV content providers, such as Apple's tunes, Amazon. Com, Hull. Com and Google's Youth. DVD rental outlets and kiosk services, such as Extra-Violin and Blockbusters. 4. 3.Porter's Five Force Analysis Force Effect on Industry Treat of Potential Entrants Unfavorable Supplier Power Unfavorable Buyer power Favo rable Substitute products Favorable Industry rivalry Favorable Summary of Porter's Five Force analysis. Treat of Potential Entrants: The economy of scale for an enterprise to enter the online streaming segment of the video entertainment industry is high. The reason for this is the distribution is controlled by the multi- service operators, like PUC, and the costs of their infrastructure and overhead (occasionally underground) cables are high.In the online streaming segment of the video entertainment industry there is little or no product differentiation. The device through which the consumer is streaming limits the specifications of the stream, I. E. The resolution, audio quality, encoding and special features. Brand identity is an issue for Nettling. As the name Nettling is most commonly associated with DVD rental by mail. On September 18th into two separate businesses. This would see the streaming side remain as Nettling and the DVD bad reaction for the public. 14] The capital req uirements for the online streaming segment of the video entertainment industry is again depend on the multi-service operators. Supplier Power Supplier power is an unfavorable aspect in the video streaming industry. There is prefect product differentiation at supplier level. Video rental is a pull-trough product and trend toward broad differentiation requires full access to all suppliers. Switching costs of suppliers and firms in this industry are low. This is because they maintain ownership over the end-product.If a supplier were to terminate a contract with Nettling it will lower their distribution and lower the sales of the supplier. Presence of substitute inputs is an unfavorable aspect in this industry. Inputs are the content so there is no substituting. Supplier concentration is another unfavorable aspect in this industry. Very few studios make up the majority of the popular titles and the industry revenue. Importance of volume to supplier is a natural aspect of the industry. I t depends on the relationship between the largest company in the industry and suppliers for product to reach consumers.Threat of forward integration by firms in the industry is a favorable aspect of this industry. As suppliers do not have access to the content it would take a large investment to get in to this Buyer power Bargaining leverage is a neutral aspect of this industry. Switching costs are neutral, Nettling operate at a fixed monthly subscription rate, while other companies opt for a pay per title method. There is no product differentiation, which is unfavorable, and no concentration in consumer segments, which is favorable. There no backward integration, which is favorable. Price sensitivity is a favorable aspect of the industry.There is little cost involved from the buyer; some consumers are likely to stream from free channels. Due to the recession people's entertainment budget is shrinking and consumers are more prone to price sensitivity. Substitute products This is a f avorable the convenience consumers are many to substitute stream a movies with video games, listening to music or reading books. The most popular substitute for the in the past has been video games, but with the introduction of streaming through games consoles has reduced that. The price performance of substitutes is favorable, as the price performance of
Saturday, January 4, 2020
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