MPGM - Revision Aug 2015

As you all may be aware I am reading for my MBA with Heriot Watt University – Edinburgh Business School. One of the modules which is offered to students is “ Managing People in Global Markets” Having not been successful in my first attempt at the exam, I am re-examining my approach to the subject. Thus far I am trying to:

1.         “Learn off” some of the concepts in the chapters,
2.          Apply my experience to the concept,
3.          Cite from the various researchers whose work was used in the module,
4.          Practice make up exam questions

All of the above is to ensure that the depth of my answer is sufficient to obtain a pass the next time around and I am to enjoy the process.

So here goes my attempt at # 1,2,3, 4: Chapter 10 International Joint Ventures – “starter”:

“International joint ventures (IJV)s and local joint ventures (JV’s) are one form of direct investment strategy (DIS) according to Monir  Tayeb, http://home.clara.net/mon1/MonirTayeb/ with the other type or form being foreign subsidiaries. The purpose of establishing an IJV or JV, apart from the profit motive, may be to:

• expand product, 
• customer or 
• geographic reach. 

The selection of a partner is dependent on the “vision” of the strategic plan of the company which may be for a three to five year horizon at the time of entering an IJV. (Of course within some industries and companies, the  IJV may be one of the initiatives  being explored and the application of the 3-5 year horizon may be to assess the medium term results and its impact on other strategies.)

In keeping with this concept, in an IJV,  each party may offer one or more of the following:

i.            A specific skill such as  expertise and  or  knowledge of a process

ii.           Technology

iii.         A resource or 

iv.          A product

For ease of control and for legal reasons, in many instances the legal form of an IJV may be that of a limited liability company. This form allows for  limits to be set on the exposure of each party to losses and for risks to be managed within the IJV. Also the formation of a company establishes the country in which the IJV will be operating from and by whose laws the company will be bound. This concept will have important consequences on the company and individuals especially for tax purposes in light of withholding tax being liable on types of transactions as compared to the application of corporation or income tax on the company. This may be an area of interest for the Organisation of Economic Co operation and Development  (OECD) as countries are signing on to the Organisation and each one brings a history of law, treaties and case law which may have great implications for the country.

Prior to the establishment of the company (IJV) a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) may have been drafted which covers major items  of discussion  and agreed terms or clauses. Given that IJVs may be established between companies which operate in or originate in different cultures and languages the MOU process  may be lengthy and may need to allow for discussion and approval, perhaps at the level of the Board of Directors. This process may be required for each clause and for the supporting concept embodied in the MOU. Also given that companies may operate in different time zones, the process of obtaining feedback and approval may take longer than if the parties to the negotiation are located in the same time zone. In the age of the internet, emails may be used to fast track this process. However that is another process which may require amendment to the law and company’s documents prior to it occurring so that the  process and authorisations may be valid and acceptable to the shareholder, investors, and other stakeholders of the company.

There is still more to come so keep reading and thank you...

© Jennifer N Bailey - Symbol obtained from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol

Becoming Web Savier

Over the years I have learnt many things over the Internet such as:

• The joy of You Tube and the many spaces to which music can be shared
• The many ways an article can be shared on Facebook
• The ease of setting up email accounts

For this learning to occur, I had to set aside time and work consistently at activities. So much so that I set aside at least three hours a night one week to learn to use Facebook. Over time I learnt how to:

• Upload albums
• Add friends, or follow places and people of interest, get notifications
• Post articles and or links to articles
• Develop a public self which dealt with disclosure of interests and likes
• Perform a bit of research and development into:
• The UN and Millenium Goals, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/reports.shtml, 
• UNESCO Heritage Sites  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
• These areas would alllow for continuous access to information on:
• Geographical locations where funding was taking place, 
• Projects which were  being funded and the duration of the projects
• Expectations and the communication of updates to the public

However until recently there were things which I longed to do, such as express my creative side in the form of creation of posters, quotes and sayings and including copyright images which I had taken over the years.
Learning this skill  and so much more became a reality when I was  exposed  to a website which provided free  access to design, layouts and much more, titled "Canva" See the following link to the site  https://www.canva.com/.

Best of all there are:

1. Job positions. These positions highlight the company's culture such as "Every day we help users get the most out of Canva. Our goal is to bring a bit of happiness to everyone’s day by being positive, upbeat and most importantly, helpful. Our satisfaction rate hovers around 95%, and we pride ourselves on getting back to people quickly." 
2. Geographic locations. The geographic locations provide details on either the geograhical areas where work is available or from where the positions will be filled. These are listed as either Manila or Sydney.
3. The positioning of the company in the markets which they are servicing. This area is outlined in the position for the "Content Marketing Specialist. As part of a world-class content marketing strategy, Canva recently launched its Design School: a design blog, workshop series and teacher resource hub designed to increase the world’s visual literacy. Right now, Design School is one of the fastest growing design publications on the web."

For more information on the postings see the  link  https://about.canva.com/careers/#current-jobs . I will leave you to explore the site and its offerings as I am still learning the how to's.  Enjoy!!!!

Different Approaches to Events

Over the last few days, I have been monitoring the weather through various  Facebook posts and access to websites such as the National Hurricane Center http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/and Mora Trinidad Weather https://www.facebook.com/weathernetworktt for various reasons:
1)  There were changes in the color of the water of the Gulf of Paria. The changes were striking in their color variations. Usually the water reflects shades of light green or deep blue or there are some wide streaks of brown when rain falls and water from the nearby river flows into the sea. Over the last few days the water was extremely dark and  there were waves on the surface of the water.
2) The clouds have been  thick, with deep colors which blocked most of the light from coming down to the ground. Thus the earth did not dry up as it usually would after a period of rainfall.
3) There has been a fair amount of rain over the last week into this week. Rain falling consistently  and fairly heavily during the day, with a few stops in between. So much so, that you had to schedule your arrival and departure to take advantage of the stops in the rain which were few and far between.
4) With August being vacation time, almost everyone schedules a trip either by boat or air to Tobago or  to some other destination. Thus monitoring the weather if only to nag someone is a good past time over this period.
 Overall the above conditions would be accepted as normal. After all we are in the rainy season and it is expected that there would be a change in the weather over this period. Most of us would long for rain, so that we are cooler or  we want to plan and change the way we do things over the upcoming period.
Reading about the upcoming weather system;  trying to look into the cloud cover  on the maps to ascertain the density of the clouds; the spread of the cloud cover over the lines of longitude and latitude, the projections  of the path  of the system over 12 hours or 24 hours based on the wind speed allowed me to keep calm.
Reading online via the newspapers that the various islands which were in the projected path were publishing  updates on the system  even though the system had not reached the Caribbean and as of last night that  a Hunter aircraft  from the NOAA would be arriving in  Barbados I was calmer.
After all we were dealing with uncertainties, with estimates of the dates when the storm could become a Hurricane and the category in which it was rated  was based on the strength of and changes in the moisture in the air, with projections based on probabilities of events of the future.
This morning when I woke up to discover that there are two new systems in the  existence, I can start worrying. Worrying about those who sleep out doors for whatever reason.  Wondering how have they been dealing with rain soaked pavements and grassy areas, with cardboard boxes that may have gotten soaked through and needed to be discarded, with the possibility of rain and wind continuing to beat down or blow in on them over the next few days. We have few shelters for those who do not have permanent homes and there are even fewer persons  who will be outside to give them something to drink or eat. With the advent of a hurricane, things will be so much worse for them.

Questioning things

In my quest to develop skills that allow for growth either of myself or of some unknown person, every so often:

• I research a topic or a word or 
• Write on this blog or 
• Read something that is inspirational or 
• Look at an upload that is features cooking or
• Search for a job and post about the opening or 
• Listen to music. 

This morning in a bid to create a positive mood, I did most of the above. Then I decided to search for two words,  Sela and Sarai. Each word had different meanings or brought out different concepts for me either because of a long association with the word or the context in which the word was put forth at this time. 

With Sela(h) being the newer word which I was considering, I would now associate it with Bob Marley and the Wailers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O32fk57k6Z0&spfreload=10 who embodied music. Praise, when I was too young to know or understand the concept of praise and worship or charismatic in the sense of a movement within the Catholic church. These days I am more a fan of Junior Gong Marley who puts me in a dancing mood with Affairs of the Heart (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FHc3w8A_jA) or his classic Welcome to Jamrock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlCmQcRPtRg) with my resorting to Old Bob only when I am in a case of a day with more hours to go. 

As it happens, Selah referrs to a pause in a musical composition and is found in the bible. However I will leave you to discover the possible meanings of the word, since most of the Bible was written in another language which has evolved over time and has been exposed to many thoughts and minds. http://www.gotquestions.org/selah.html.

Sarah (right) and Abraham hosting three angels (a Children's Bible illustration)

Sarai, according to old faithful Wiki, refers to the original name for Sarah  and  in Hebrew indicates a woman of high rank and is translated as "princess" or "noblewoman". The name Sarah is also associated with Ishmael and Isaac of the Bible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah

Rethinking Things

It all started when I went on vacation and I decided to become a breakfast person, in that I would make breakfast of some sort and create a ritual of having cooked items for breakfast. Now I know that is the norm in many parts of the world, where rice with a fried egg or oats with scrambled or easy over eggs form the basis of breakfast, however I was a three drinks person for breakfast.  The drinks  were  orange juice from a can, a liquid meal replacement from a pack and at least two glasses of water.  That combination at 8:00 a.m was my good to go  breakfast and I would be satisfied until 10:00 a.m. In rethinking my breakfast habit, I knew that whatever I made would  have to be easy to prepare, something that could be used in different ways and something that I could stick with. As luck would have it, I decided to search the internet for inspiration and lo and behold I came across recipes for pancakes.
I knew pancakes were easy to make, having seen others produce them weekly, however mine had to come out consistently good and be enticing enough to  have persons willing to eat them daily for a period and I had to commit to having them ready at a certain time every day. This was not an easy feat when your wake up time and mood varies with the weather in that if rain is falling, you would stay in bed for as long as possible and we were entering the rainy season so there might be many of those days in the period to come...
I decided on a Martha Stewart recipe for pancakes since I was a secret Martha Stewart fan, having looked at her many endeavours which looked effortless!  Over time  and with a few adjustments to the Martha  Stewart recipe to take account of dietary preferences, the accompanying topping and  the number of persons partaking of the meal  I have: doubled the recipe, while reducing the amount of sugar and the salt, made a change to the type of milk from an evaporated milk to an omega milk so that  there would be  other health benefits and added a flavouring ingredient, such as cinnamon almost always to the mixture.
With respect to timing and preparation, I have prepared the mixture from the night before and stored it in the fridge so that I would have an early start at any time in the day, made it on the spot for breakfast, sometimes for dinner as well and right now it has stood up to  being eaten  quite frequently for close to three months with breaks for other meals like bowls of lentil peas and pumpkin or split peas soup.
Maybe it is the cessation of the mangoes on the tree hanging over our yard or the absence of silk figs from the trees that I am open to rethinking my obsession with pancakes at this time.  Of course since I discovered a  savings plan (Golden Harvest) with a local credit union, I may be inclined to stay with the pancakes or shift my consumption to more peas and beans, after all low carb is in!!!
See the links below for the pancake recipe and for the link to some of the  Credit Unions which exist in our country.
http://www.marthastewart.com/338185/basic-pancakes
http://www.tntisland.com/creditunions.html

Update on the Budget Statement of 2015 for Trinidad and Tobago

The budget statement  for 2015 which was read in Parliament on September 8, 2014 was approved by the House of  Representatives, the Senate and  "assented to"  in January 2015. While there was the expectation that the Statement would become law, mainly due to the focus on savings and tax compliance which were proposed, we were all happy that the approvals did materialise. Some of the reasons are as follows:

1. The Tax amnesty allowed for  persons who earned income and who are reaching towards pensionable age, to file returns and bring their tax matters up to date. 
2. There were increases in personal allowances for persons who have attained the age of 60 from $60,000 to $72,000. This translates into a benefit of $12,000 per annum per individual. For a couple, the savings of $24,000 may be quite useful as they now have  a tax savings of  $6,000 available to spend... Here is the extract from  the Budget Statement and the link to the document..:"the personal allowances for individuals aged 60 and over will be increased from $60,000 to $72,000 for the calculation of individual taxes;" http://finance.gov.tt/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Budget-Statement-2015.pdf
3. There were increases in allowances relating to contributions to pensions and other tax incentive plans from $30,000 to $50,000 per annum. This translates into $5,000 in tax savings ( 20000*25%). For persons who may have opted to receive pensions early in life such as age 55, 60 or 65, they can open  tax incentive plans which will allow them to defer taxes which arise on their taxable income including their pensions, and draw from these plans at 70. The deferral in tax and the returns will be of benefit to persons in this age group as some of the returns on  these plans are becoming more attractive than they were four to five years ago... Thus the possible income for some of these persons at the age of 70 has become quite favourable. Of course they still need to work, earn an income on a competitive basis as most of them may not  be in a large pensionable income bracket....... So in the  event that you do not believe me, here is an extract from the budget statement and the link to the document: " Registered Annuities I propose effective January 1, 2015, to increase from $30,000 to $50,000 the limit for contributions to registered annuities. This will impact 15,000 citizens at a cost of $75.0 million." http://finance.gov.tt/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Budget-Statement-2015.pdf
4. Here is the link to the Act of Parliament. Given that my knowledge and application of Acts of Parliament is fairly limited, I usually search for a key phrase to quickly access the relevant section. This is mainly because this Act is one of the oldest pieces of legislation and to amend it, the  Bill  which is to being proposed, states the changes which are to be made to the relevant section of the existing Act.. For example the above changes will be made to "PART XVIII INCOME TAX",  with the key phrases being thirty and fifty... ( referring to thousands and the changes in the allowances.  See the link to the ACT of Parliament, which is also available online.  http://www.ttparliament.org/legislations/a2015-02.pdf

In conclusion, I am excited about these changes as when I combine the concepts embodied in my Certificate in Financial Planning Class, such as the Time Value of Money, I will be inclined to contribute to my plans early in the year to allow for an increase in return, and it is unlikely that these allowances will be reversed in the forseeable future. While I may experience difficulty in saving $50,000 and placing it in one area which I will not have access to for some time, I can be consoled in saving some more in another area which I can draw from to invest in my pension plans even earlier next year.

Christmas 2014

This year has been a challenging one in several ways... There has been the emotional periods as this was a year of dealing with illnesses and aging,  rethinking the feasibility of studying two programmes as well as working full time.
So Christmas came in a piece meal way for me. There was the searching for sales paired with  assessing the usefulness of  the items being sold. I was quite lucky in that one of our supermarket chains was undergoing a rebranding exercise which led to several 'Madness sales" which catered to different tastes and needs, so that I was able to purchase "fruit cakes" which lasted until Christmas and beyond, due them having generous soakngs of rum ( after the purchase of course). This saved me a lot of time and effort and brought me to a state of anticipation, that Christmas was doable this year.
Closer to Christmas  Eve, one of our baking companies kept up their delivery of lemon flavoured cakes which topped the taste of a sponge cake which in ordinary times would have held its own in terms of price and taste. http://www.bermudezgroupltd.com/brands
This same supermarket chain catered to smaller families in terms of smaller turkeys, ducks  as well as other items which could have been used for gift giving, so I became even more entused about Christmas as time passed.
There was the usual Christmas preparation which involved lots of physical activity and rethinking of  my assessment of little used skills. Will I become a house painter in the future, so that I can develop excellent house painting skills? Will I ever learn to make "traditional tasting pastelles"? Will I lose my taste for corn cakes and corn pies or my desire to make them? http://www.wendyrahamut.com/articles/pastelles
http://www.trinirotishop.com/trinidad-christmas-pastelles-mixed.html

http://ttltt.com/architecture/holy_rosary_church.php

This was also a time for good news as one of our churches was re-opened in time for Mass on Christmas day! This was one of the churches that I grew into as an adult so I am looking forward to seeing it open to the public again. Of course I may not visit until February as I am still growing! See the link to the article which expresses so much about this church that it made my day.

http://catholicnewstt.com/local/rosary-reopens/?utm_content=bufferd6ed6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer