Financial Analysis - Sara Lee Corp Essay - 4134 Words

Sara Lee Corp Sara Lee operates as a global manufacturer and marketer of brand-name packaged foods and household products. Their products are distributed in grocery stores, drug stores, and food-service outlets. In February 2005, the firm embarked on mission to centralize and streamline its organization. Several less profitable business segments and brands were divested. Although Sara Lee owns well-known brands such as Sara Lee, Hillshire Farms, and Jimmy Dean, its products are segmented, making it difficult to achieve pricing power. Sara Lee is also feeling the pressure of rising commodity costs and changes in consumer trends. Many industry analysts are skeptical as to whether the restructuring initiative and strategy shift will†¦show more content†¦D. Changes in inventory, there is a sharp decline from ’06 to ’07 on the balance sheet due to divested businesses. The change in cash flows in ‘07 supports building inventory in order to support changing industry tre nds. Cash from Investing Activities: E. Capital Expenditures: large cash expenditures also show investment in the business and support the growth strategy. F. Investments? If I was auditing SLE I would require disclosure of this amount. There is nothing on the income statement that explains this cash gain. (The Income Statement is attached for review in Appendix A). G. Other Cash flows from investing activities – shows shrinkage in business. This amount also requires further explanation and is not found on the income statement. H. Long Term Investments: from Balance Sheet, no long-term investing also shows a business in the declining stage of the life cycle. I. Total Cash Flows from Investing: even with the significant amount of capital expenditures, the positive inflow states a decline in business investment which is not good news for the future; this is surprising based on the new strategy focus. Cash from Financing Activities: J. 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Explorers of the Renaissance Free Essays

Bartholomew Dais, the explorer for Portugal, planned to head an expedition in search of a sea route to India. Though, at the end of his voyage he only became the first sail to the tip of Africa. This, landing has only created a new name for the Cabot ads Galahs and the cape Cabot ads Torments for his country. We will write a custom essay sample on Explorers of the Renaissance or any similar topic only for you Order Now Dais had a voyage that inspired explorers to try a faster or better route to travel, which lead to the discoveries of newer lands;also, this voyage helped encourage inventors and scientists to invent effective techniques and new technology that could help future expeditions. Magellan studied very famous explorers for many years in Portugal. He planed to find a route to the Spice Islands by sailing west and around the world. Ferdinand Magellan, an explorer of Spain, has amazed us with his courage by venturing through the chaotic and the untouched world. Through his voyage Magellan provided the first positive proof that the world was round, thus opening trade routes to explorers all over the world. Ferdinand Magellan is recognized as the first person to circumnavigate the world. His discovery of this route had the effects in many ways; for example, the religion of Christianity has also traveled along his Journeys, and also his geographical finding has made the current map more accurate then it originally was. Jacques Carrier sailed in the name of France. Carrier searched to find a Northwest Passage to India and the Spice Islands and also looking for new places to trade. In the end Carrier was the first to sail up the SST. Lawrence River and Canada. Canada was claimed as a piece of France; furthermore, this opened up for trade with the natives. How to cite Explorers of the Renaissance, Papers

Cyber Security 1990s Business Organisation

Question: Describe about the Cyber Security for 1990s Business Organisation. Answer: Introduction From the mid-1990s business organisation had embraced the internet (Rhodes-Ousley 2013). With the growth of e-commerce and business the question of security also arose. A classical case is the story of Egghead software company which dealt with software. Once the data of the company was stolen it could do nothing except to be sold to Amazon.com. With the growth of the internet, network security also evolved. E-business houses required that they give the required information to the customers as well as they also wanted the information about their own functioning at the same time. E-commerce industry requires that they share information about the products, they carry information about the customer and at the same time they conduct business by working with various financial institutions for the financial transactions. The customer visiting the website of a e-commerce industry requires the security of the information that he will provide while doing the business. All this requires a high level of cyber security from the e-commerce industry. Cyber security in e-business carries out four important functions: (1) it provides the e-business organisation an amount of security, (2) it enables the organisation to run the various application safely, (3) it provides a form of data security to the organisation and (4) it safeguards the technology assets of the business organisation (Whitman and Mattord 2011). According to the internet security threat report by Symantec at the close of 2015, there was a loss of 191 million data identities (Symantec.com 2016). According to Symantec the threat to a financial institution has increased to four times in a year in 2015. Literature Review By e-commerce, one does not only mention the selling and buying of products and services online, it also means the transactions between two agents of the market. These transactions are mostly monetary in nature. This attribute requires a security system as money is involved here. Here comes the cyber security. It protects both the buyers and sellers who are using the internet as the place of transaction. It protects their information from getting into wrong hands (Gupta 2016). Estonia, one of the developed nations faced cyber attack in the year 2007, which shows the need for a cyber security plan for every state. The plans for cyber security have to be updated regularly, as the hackers also updating themselves. If the consumers and sellers are not comfortable in e-commerce, it would increase the cost of a transaction, hampering the efficiency level and the output of the country. Since this attack, state-wise policy recommendations were made to secure the transactions that are taking place online. Leaking of the security can lead to a fall in a country's GDP (Czosseck, Ottis and Talihrm 2013). With the help of cloud computing, computing as a personal commodity is replaced by computing as a public utility. The exclusiveness in nature is what makes the e-commerce special among all the marketplaces. The need for cyber security is not only from the side of the customers but also from the seller's side. A loss of security can halt the actions in e-commerce, which will result in deterioration in terms of the economy of scale, market's flexibility, convenience, and other. This has the potential to change the structure of a market (Rabai et al. 2013). A lack of cyber security results in the development of false credentials. It can create an unsecured market. This kind of market never survives in the long run. Without the needed trust, the market will break. Computer and network security are must, as these can cause false information generation, which leads the economy in the wrong way. This can create loopholes in the market. False bank websites, false bankers, false buyers are the example of a lack of the cyber security of a state. Credit card fraud, false shopping sites, false billing and payments are result of this (Sudia 2013). Using the elements of co-creation, the authorities can point out the "nudges" in cyber security. Identifying these nudges will guide to the development of the best behavioural discipline. Insecure behavior in the wireless networks is the reason the e-commerce is not moving as smoothly as it could be. This is the reason of market inefficiency. This also causes the society a cost, decreasing the social welfare. This is also another form of negative externality. It shrinks the possibility of the market expansion (Coventry et al. 2014). A holistic cyber security system has to be adopted by the government of a state. This will let the authorities protect the citizens as well as the country's fund for the people. The cyber security strategies are taken by the government will ensure a regular update and relief from any chaos in the economy. The government has to ensure the top quality of cyber security as only it can ensure market stability. Cyber security is more like a public good than a private good, hence the government has to take the initiatives (Atoum, Otoom and Abu 2014). Many international; relations depends on cyber security. These relationships were mostly in the area of the countries' economy. These days, human rights, security agendas are also incorporated currently. Cyber security capacity building is taken as a project, which will help the government maintain international relationships. Cyber security works as a stabilizer in the political and social development. Rich industrialized countries show the potential dimensions in technology and other areas. The cyber security organization should have a computer emergency response team, In the case of any unusual behaviour the response team will take over all the present and future transactions (Klimburg and Zylberberg 2015). The agents of an economy are widely benefited by e-commerce. The openness of the internet is benefitting for some with good intentions, and the market as well. But this openness has lead to misuse of personal information. Many countries have now policy measures to protect the economic agents operating in the market. The approach of cyber security varies from country to country. The developed nations have a tighter security system than the countries Nigeria and other backward countries which are yet to enact any such measurements (Adelola, Dawson and Batmaz 2015). The History of e-commerce is not that old. It is younger than most of the existing market structures. This keeps an open end to the possibilities in which the policy measurements have to be taken by the government of a country. Thus, ensuring cyber security is not an easy task. Failure of taking proper measurements will lead to many adverse effects on the economy. There are a lot of start ups, who bank on the e-commerce falls due to breach of internet security. It costs people their jobs, leading to unemployment. It is the state authoritys responsibility to provide them a proper guard from the criminals who otherwise have the potential to bankrupt the entrepreneurs (Bayuk et al. 2012). The significant growth in e-commerce is followed by an increase in the rate of cyber attacks. The attackers primary choice of weapon is malware. This situation urges the state authorities to innovate new techniques to stop the attackers. Without proper measures from the government the online transactions will break the chain, resulting in a devastating situation. The recently developed malwares can put an economy back to the initial stages, as most of the government and bank transactions are now done through online activities. Leakage of this information will hurt the countrys economy. The countries linked to the former country through trade and other medium will also face the negative effects of the massacre. Hence, cyber security is an essential concept in the case of e-commerce (Jang-Jaccard and Nepal 2014). Research Methodology To address the present research on cyber security and e-commerce a survey questionnaire would be developed (Flick 2015). The survey questionnaire would be mailed to IT and cyber security experts who have experience of e-business. The survey questionnaire would test how the threat of cyber security has increased over the years. The research question would focus on the methods of cyber crimes that can occur with e-business. The research also focuses on the steps being taken by e-business organisations to provide cyber security. The challenges being faced by the e-business organisation would also be identified. The relation between cyber security and e-commerce would be established. The research would also try to seek the tools being used by e-business organisations in providing cyber security. Gantt chart Week 1 Week 6 Week 10 Week 13 Week 14 Introduction Literature review Data collection Data analysis Conclusion Figure 1: Gantt chart of the research (Source: created by author) Research Process The present research is based on the fact that the e-commerce industry is dependent on cyber security. The B2B and B2C are dependent on the web and the security being provided by the web. The present research aims to find the various challenges faced by the business organisation doing e-business. The data would be collected from IT experts who have adequate experience of cyber security to e-business organisation. The analysis of the data would represent the challenges being faced by cyber security agencies in providing security to e-business organisations. The analysis of the data would also provide insight into how the cyber security threat perception has increased and how the e-business houses are gearing up to the challenge of cyber security. Data collection The process of sampling is one of the most important processes of a research. For the purpose of the present research quantitative research methods would be used (Floyd 2013). The sample size would consist of 200 IT and cyber security experts who have an adequate experience of providing security to e-commerce would be selected. The experts would be mailed a survey questionnaire. The present research focuses on cyber security in e-commerce thus only people having adequate knowledge and background of the subject can form the respondents to the present survey. Data analysis Microsoft excel would be used to analyse the data (Winston 2014). The data would be mapped for the security vulnerability of the e-commerce house. The mapping would provide an answer to the different types of methods in which the cyber security of a e-business organisation can be breached. This would provide for what the e-business organisations thinks about cyber crime. The data analysis would provide an answer into what the business organisation thinks is important in cyber crime. The data analysis would provide an answer into the most common methods by which a cyber crime is conducted and the profile of a cyber criminal. It would also provide an answer into the mind of a cyber criminal. Whether the cyber criminal is a single entity or multiple persons working together. The analysis of the data would provide an answer to the various tools that are being used by e-commerce industry. This would also provide an answer to the efficiency of the tools used for cyber security. The analysi s of the survey would provide an answer to the reasons behind cyber security breach. Finally the analysis would provide an insight into whether cyber breach takes place on any particular days or it can happen on any given day throughout the year. Expected Research Outcome The present research would show how the threat perception to e-business has increased from 1990 when internet and thus e-commerce was born. It would also show the vulnerabilities to e-business. Cyber security poses of the greatest dangers to e-business. The dangers are not just to the business organisations but also to the customers of the e-business organisations. The outcome of the research would show how business organisations are coping with threat of cyber security. The present research would also show how e-business organisations have increased the cyber security of their websites and thus have been able to provide a sense of CSR to the customer. The present research would provide an insight into the financial implication of cyber security on e-business. It would provide a peak into the various tools being used by business houses to enable cyber security. The research would also provide information into how business houses conduct e-business. Conclusion The present research would show that with the growth of e-commerce the threat perception has also grown. It would show the threats being faced by the e-commerce industry. It would also show how e-business organisation have understood the requirements of providing cyber security in the changed domain and have upped the level of security. The present research would show how cyber security and e-commerce have had a symbiotic relationship. The present research would also show the probable impact of cyber insecurity to e-commerce. The present would provide an idea into the steps that have been taken by the e-commerce industry to secure themselves. References Adelola, T., Dawson, R. and Batmaz, F., 2015. Privacy and data protection in e-commerce in developing nations: evaluation of different data protection approaches. Atoum, I., Otoom, A. and Abu Ali, A., 2014. A holistic cyber security implementation framework. Information Management Computer Security, 22(3), pp.251-264. Bayuk, J.L., Healey, J., Rohmeyer, P., Sachs, M.H., Schmidt, J. and Weiss, J., 2012. Cyber security policy guidebook. John Wiley Sons. Coventry, L., Briggs, P., Jeske, D. and van Moorsel, A., 2014, June. Scene: A structured means for creating and evaluating behavioral nudges in a cyber security environment. In International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability (pp. 229-239). Springer International Publishing. Czosseck, C., Ottis, R. and Talihrm, A.M., 2013. Estonia after the 2007 cyber attacks: Legal, strategic and organisational changes in cyber security. Case Studies in Information Warfare and Security: For Researchers, Teachers and Students, 72. Flick, U. (2015). Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner's Guide to Doing a Research Project. 2nd Ed. Sage Publication Fowler Jr, Floyd J. (2013). Survey research methods: 5th Ed. Sage publications. Gupta, B. ed., 2016. Handbook of Research on Modern Cryptographic Solutions for Computer and Cyber Security. IGI Global. Jang-Jaccard, J. and Nepal, S., 2014. A survey of emerging threats in cybersecurity. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 80(5), pp.973-993. Klimburg, A. and Zylberberg, H., 2015. Cyber Security Capacity Building: Developing Access. Rabai, L.B.A., Jouini, M., Aissa, A.B. and Mili, A., 2013. A cybersecurity model in cloud computing environments. Journal of King Saud University-Computer and Information Sciences, 25(1), pp.63-75. Rhodes-Ousley, M. (2013). Information security. Emeryville, 2nd Ed Calif.: McGraw-Hill/Osborne. Sudia, F.W., 2013. False Banking, Credit Card, and Ecommerce System. U.S. Patent Application 13/747,368. Symantec.com. (2016). Internet Security Threat Report 2016 | Symantec. [online] Available at: https://www.symantec.com/security-center/threat-report [Accessed 6 Oct. 2016]. Whitman, M.E. and Mattord, H.J. (2011). Principles of information security. 4th Ed. Cengage Learning Winston, W. (2014). Microsoft Excel 2013 Data Analysis and Business Modeling: Data Analysis and Business Modeling. Pearson Education.