Olivia Lum President and CEO of Hyflux Ltd Essay Example

Olivia Lum President and CEO of Hyflux Ltd Essay Example Olivia Lum President and CEO of Hyflux Ltd Paper Olivia Lum President and CEO of Hyflux Ltd Paper Ms Olivia Lum is the founder of Hyflux a leading water treatment company listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange. Where the names of Sim Wong Hoo of Creative Technology and Ron Sim of Osim were often heard, Olivia Lum is Singapores very own true-blue female entrepreneur. To her belt of titles are the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2003, Singapores Most Creative Entrepreneur 2003 and Her Worlds Woman of the Year 2002. The Making Of An Entrepreneur Olivia was born in Perak, Malaysia, in the neighbourhood of Kampar. She is an orphan and was brought up by a kind elderly lady whom she called grandma. It was in this poverty-stricken village that she subtly learnt values from Grandma, values which would later helped shaped her as an entrepreneur. Grandma had an unwavering faith in Olivias abilities to compete and win. At every sports day of Olivias, grandma would bring along with her a big box. When asked why, grandma explained that it was meant to be filled up with the prizes that Olivia would win that day. Once, Olivia was bullied and when she came home scratched and bruised, grandma taught her a lesson of survival. She told Olivia that if she could put her mind to beat the bully, she could do it. Olivia confronted the bully again and did exactly what grandma believed she could. In another instance, Olivia was in an art competition where she had only colour pencils. Disheartened by the other children who had colour paintboxes, brushes and other art materials, Olivia almost wanted to give up. However, grandma assured Olivia by telling her she had the talent. Olivia, inspired and spurred on by grandmas confidence and faith in her, won the second prize. 1 From a tender age, Olivia was inculcated with self-confidence, determination and perseverance characteristics innate of an entrepreneur which served to become her bedrock of success. 2 Living amid poverty, Olivia realized that year after year, there were no improvements to the life of the people in the village. The thought of living in constant poverty propelled Olivias desire to achieve higher things in life and improve her standard of living. When Olivia was older, on the advice of her headmaster, Olivia came to Singapore to study. She supported herself through college and university by taking on a host of odd jobs like selling insurance and working in the retail and FB industries. It was through taking all these jobs that Olivia discovered her gift for sales.3 Deep down, Olivia was convinced of her personal potential and with her passion for business, she knew she could succeed in the business world. After Olivia graduated from the National University of Singapore with an honours degree in Chemistry, she was employed by Glaxo, a multinational company. While working as a chemist in charge of environmental treatment in Glaxo, she realized that if more and more small firms cannot afford to treat and discharge waste in a proper manner into the water bodies, in time, there would not be anymore fresh water for consumption. Olivia identified the need to purify water in an affordable manner. With her years of experience with water treatment systems and membrane technology, and more importantly, her strong conviction that she could be a successful entrepreneur, Olivia made a bold move to quit her stable job at Glaxo and founded Hyflux with $20,000. A Growing Hyflux As of any other startup phase, Olivia did not have an easy time selling her products. Because Singapore companies required proof of track record of her product which Olivia did not have, she went to Johore Bahru to sell her products instead. At Johore Bahru, Olivia would work from as early as 5am to promote her products and would refuse to rest until her targets were met. With her hard work and perseverance, the company finally began to take off. While many startups failed because of a lack of focus, Olivia has kept a clear direction for Hyflux. It continued to research on developing cutting-edge membrane technology and strived to become a leading water-treatment company. Also, what had distinguished Hyflux from other water treatment industry in Asia was its ability to provide integrated solutions for customers. Hyflux was able to customize membrane structures to suit individual customers requirements.4 Turnkey was a term coined to in Hyflux for total project management of its filtration system. In this way, Hyflux offered the convenience and cost-efficiencies of a one-stop solution provider.5 Hyfluxs success was recognized by been awarded the Worlds 200 Best Small Companies for 2002 by the Forbes Magazine and winning the Enterprise Award at the Singapore Business Awards 2004. Indeed, a clear focus for Hyflux has been one of pillar of success for Hyflux. Future Challenges As the company is making waves and entering the bigger league of the industry, Olivias entrepreneur spirit continues to propel the company forward. To quote Olivia, theres all that space, all that potential, why not fly higher, if you dont keep on improving, people will overtake you. 6 Olivias sense of survival nurtured since childhood is still part of her modus operandi as an entrepreneur. Hopefully, she will continue to bring Hyflux greater heights and help the world to conserve on its increasingly scare resource.

Cost-Effective vs. Cost-Efficient

Cost-Effective vs. Cost-Efficient Cost-Effective vs. Cost-Efficient Cost-Effective vs. Cost-Efficient By Maeve Maddox A reader has asked about the use of these two terms: I was wondering if you would care to comment on the difference between cost-efficient and cost-effective. In both, Oxford and Webster (the free online versions), cost-effective is properly defined while the cost-efficient page points to that of cost-effective. It looks like cost-efficient is a tolerated synonym of a lesser status. As always, my starting place is The Oxford English Dictionary. There I find a reference to cost-effective in the entry for cost: cost-effective adj. designating or pertaining to a project, etc., that is effective in terms of its cost. The first OED citation given for cost-effective is dated 1967. I find no entry for cost-efficient. Merriam-Webster Unabridged provides entries for both terms: cost-effective adjective:  economical in terms of tangible benefits produced by money spent. cost-efficient adjective: cost-effective. M-W gives 1970 as the â€Å"first known use of cost-efficient.† I conclude that there is no difference of meaning between cost-effective and cost-efficient. Is one term of â€Å"lower status† than the other? The most that can be said is that one is more common than the other. The OED and M-W date the terms from 1967 and 1970, but the Ngram Viewer shows that cost-effective was present in printed sources as early as 1836. Both terms are documented in works printed in 1887. Cost-effective shows a bump on the graph in the 1940s, but then both terms remain more or less even until the 1960s, when cost-effective soars ahead. A Google search also shows a preference for cost-effective: â€Å"cost-effective†: about 83,600,000 results â€Å"cost-efficient†: about 7,840,000 results   My advice is to use the more common term: cost-effective. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Signs and Symbols You Should Know15 Types of DocumentsWords Often Misspelled Because of Double Letters

Using examples taken from at least two emerging markets critically Essay

Using examples taken from at least two emerging markets critically analyse the view that the only successful entry strategy into emerging markets for European a - Essay Example local collaborators, the company can create good relationships with different organisations which are located in other parts of the world or even within the same geographic region. In the age of globalisation, a Company can have a head office in London while the production work is carried out in a factory near Beijing and the research and development of the product itself is conducted in Oslo. Companies have moved out of the nationalist image which was the mainstay of their identity of the past (Martin, 1999). Of course, it is still possible to say that BMW is a German company and Toyota is a Japanese company or GE is an American firm, but the nature of the multinational enterprise means that companies may be based in one country while the problems and issues they face could be of a global nature. To counter these problems, companies simply need to have relationships with local collaborators if they wish to enter emerging markets. These relationships will bring an easy understanding and efficient information transfer as well as create an open exchange for ideas between various cultures followed in other countries (Levy and Powell, 1998). Expansion itself is a useful pursuit for a company and there are several reasons why a company may wish to expand its business to global levels. However, the evidence provided in research materials as well as the practical examples of expanding companies show us that expansion without local collaboration might be a futile effort. To fully understand and critically appraise the question we must first understand why a policy of expansion is necessary and why collaborators are important for an expanding company. The first part of the question is rather easy to answer but the second part comes with two primary markets that are analysed for entry. The two markets selected for this are Hungary and China. These were selected because they both represent very different cases for analysis and are quite representative of the surrounding

Biometrics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Biometrics - Research Paper Example Biometrics recognition is, therefore, the automatic recognition of users based on behavioral and physiological characteristics. Biometrics seeks to establish a users identity based on who she is rather what she possesses like an ID card or what she remembers like passwords. Biometrics gained popularity when body measurements were used by Alphonse Bertillon to identify criminals in the 19th century. It prompted law enforcer to take criminals fingerprints and store them in a database. The stored fingerprints could then be compared with fingerprints lifted from crime scenes. Biometrics are extensively used to identify criminals but has also gained use in employee clearance for sensitive jobs, determining fatherhood, forensics, identification of prisoners. Performance – refers to the achievable recognition speed and accuracy, the resources to be used in achieving the desired recognition accuracy and speed and the environmental and operational factors that affect the accuracy and speed. Different body parts are being used as a form of biometric recognition. Biometrics ranges from DNA matching, chemical biometric, visual biometric, eyes biometrics ( iris recognition, retina recognition ), finger geometry recognition, Hand geometry recognition, signature recognition and behavioral biometrics (typing recognition), vein recognition and gait. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) matching is the process used in the identification of persons by their DNA profiles. DNA profiles are hidden sets of numbers that reflect an individuals DNA composition, which can also be used as a persons identifier. DNA profiling is different from a full genome sequencing that is used in parental testing and criminal investigation. Even though 99.9% of human DNA sequences are similar in every person, unless they are identical (monozygotic) twins. DNA matching uses repetitive sequences that are highly variable, known as variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs), particularly

Santa Ana Winds Essay Example for Free

Santa Ana Winds Essay Weather can affect people’s behavior, positively and negatively. When the weather is nice and hot, it affects people positively by encouraging them to enjoy the outdoors, however, when the weather is bad, like when a hurricane hits this effects people negatively by worrying. Similarly, in the essay â€Å"Santa Ana Winds†, by Joan Dideon, the winds are so abrasive and obstructive that it engenders people to actually commit suicide. This occurs in Los Angeles. Even though Dideon provides a scientific explanation for the soft winds, she characterise hem as evil by showing their effects on people and on the environment. Dideon characterizes and demonstrates the winds as evil. She explains that the winds have an effect on people, making them act unusual. â€Å"Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew† Dideon is describing how the winds would permit people to actually commit suicide. The winds would create such a violent disturbance that townsmen would not even want to deal with such a thing, they would just kill themselves. The horrifying winds would also create paranoia in people. â€Å"Her husband roamed the place with a machete† This man thought there were trespassers and rattlesnakes roaming his yard. His obvious beliefs were due to scare. Dideon not only demonstrates the wind having an effect on people, but also the environment. Having a harsh effect on the hills and Route 66. A hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sandstorms out along route 66, drying the hills† Here, Dideon is explaining how the winds create sandstorms along route 66 and the hills are drying up. This not only affects the hills and highways, but in the long run will effect global warming, and drying out farms and hills will eventually create a drought. This leads to many other effects on the environment. The Santa Ana W inds effect the environment in more than one way. â€Å"For a few days now, we will see smoke back in the canyons†. Dideon is signifying wildfires occurring on the canyons. With this wildfire, not only will this wildfire burn down tree’s, but will also spread around disease. The Santa Ana Winds have many effects on the environment and people, when it is a nice, hot and a sunny day, people become encouraged to get out and spend time with their family. However, when a hurricane blows in, it creates many disturbing things, such as paranoia, droughts and wildfires. It is important to be alert and recognize the warning signs of dreadful things yet to come. Otherwise, anyone can get trapped in the middle of a storm.

The Self in Beloved, Secrets and Lies, and One Flew Over The Cuckoos N

Self in Beloved, Secrets and Lies, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest One's personality resides directly within ones self. The self ultimately determines the characteristics of an individual. The self is composed of many different qualities that make one unique. Everyone has "self." However, there are varying degrees of sense of self. Many people enjoy a strong sense of self while others do not. The question though, is what truly characterizes a strong sense of self from a weak one? In Riverside Webster's II dictionary it defines the word "self" as "the essential being of one person as distinct from any other. A particular aspect of a person" (Webster's 614). While factually this definition is correct, I believe the true definition of self is considerably more complex. In returning back to my question about the different senses of self, the unique qualities that compose the self must first be analyzed. Personality is one of the most significant components of self. I believe if one has a weak sense of self-sense then they are easily swayed by others opinions. Decisions are difficult to make on they're own and they need the constant companionship of others to make them feel complete. Conversely, I believe that an individual, who is very confident and independent, exhibits a strong sense of self. These types of individuals are not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. An emotionally and socially strong person assesses a situation and does not take the easy way out. They strive to achieve what is best and do what is morally necessary to achieve their goals.&nbs... ...its such a disillusioned image of self and she cannot resist from stealing the spotlight, even on Roxanne birthday. Cynthia reverts to these low level because her of weak sense of self. Overall, I believe that one's personality is a direct reflection of one's self. Self defines and determines the unique characteristics portrayed in an individual. The are many different levels of "self" that people portray. An individual who is very passive and allows others to take advantage of them demonstrates a weak sense of self, much like Sethe and Cynthia. On the other hand, McMurphy proves to be an excellent representation of a man with a strong self-awareness. He forbids other people, such as nurse Rachet from controlling him. McMurphy shows the true definition of a strong sense of self.

Groupe Ariel Sa Case Analysis Essay

This case discusses Cross-Border valuation of projects. This kind of analysis is common for companies that are operating in many countries. Groupe Ariel is one such company that is considering investing in a project in its own subsidiary in Mexico. The company manufactures and sells printers, copiers and other document production equipment in many countries. As far as, expansion into new markets is concerned, company is very slow in taking initiatives as compared to its competitors owing to the recent recession. But the management of the company believes that better durability and lower after-sales service costs of their products enable the company to build customer loyalty. The company is now considering replacing the manual equipment used for recycling in Mexico by new equipment that requires less material and labour costs. But, the uncertainty linked with certain macroeconomic factors like exchange rate, inflation and interest rate has made the valuation of the project very comple x. Compute the NPV of Ariel-Mexico’s recycling equipment by counting incremental peso cash flows at a peso interest rate. How should this NPV be translated into Euros? Assume expected future inflation for France is 3% per year. For the purpose of calculating NPV in Pesos, incremental cash flows of the project for the next 10 years should be calculated first. The initial outflow of cash flow at time â€Å"0† is the cost of new equipment. This cost is 3500,000 Pesos. The cash value of 175,000 Pesos obtained by selling the manual equipment should be subtracted from this amount to come up with the net out flow. As far as, the inflows of cash for next 10 years are concerned, they can be calculated by taking the difference of the cost of operating both manual and new equipments. The tax savings owing to the depreciation of the new equipment can be calculated by multiplying the corporate tax rate of 35% with the amount of depreciation each year. These amounts of tax savings should be added to the incremental cost savings for each year to come up with the total cash inflows. The present value of all thes e cash inflows and outflows can be calculated by discounting them at 12.19%. This rate is calculated by assuming that the purchasing power parity holds in this scenario. The company can do the feasibility analysis by looking at both from the subsidiary’s and parent’s perspective by assuming that the purchasing power  parity holds. Hence, this rate can be regarded as opportunity cost of investment because it is the second best alternative for the company for investment purposes. So, the NPV can be calculated by taking the sum of present values of all the cash flows. This NPV comes out to be 3,703,176 Pesos. This NPV value can be converted into Euros by dividing the NPV value by the spot exchange rate. The spot exchange rate is 15.99 MXN/EURO. Hence, by dividing 3,703,176 by 15.99, NPV value in terms of Euro comes out to be 231,593 Euros. Compute the NPV in â‚ ¬s by translating future peso cash flows into â‚ ¬s at expected future spot rates. Note Ariel’s â‚ ¬ hurdle rate for this asset class was 8%. Annual inflation rates are expected to be 7% in Mexico and 3% in France. NPV calculated for this scenario comes out to be 231,507 Euros. The first thing required for calculating NPV in Euro is the forward premium. It is calculated by adding 1 to the inflation rates of France and Mexico respectively, and then by taking their ratio. This ratio comes out to be 1.0388. This ratio is then multiplied by current exchange rate of 15.99 MXN/EURO for every year. This exercise gives the prediction of exchange rates for next 10 years. The cash flows in pesos are then converted into Euros by dividing them by the relevant exchange rate. Once the cash flows are obtained in Euros, their present values can be calculated by using the hurdle rate of 8% as the discount rate. NPV can then be obtained by taking the sum of presen t values of all the cash flows. Compare the two sets of calculations and the corresponding NPVs. How and why do they differ? Which approach should Arno Martin use? Relate your answer to the textbook’s treatment of parity disequilibria in capital budgeting. NPV calculated for the first question is higher than that calculated for the second question. The difference (231593-231507) is 86 Euros. This difference explains that the project has more value for investors in Mexico. The value addition of this project is more to the subsidiary of the company in Mexico as compared to the parent company in France. Hence, the company should hedge the foreign exchange risk to reduce exposure to the currency risk. Hedging provides the company with higher expected value and lower risk. Suppose Mexican inflation is projected at 3% instead of 7% per year. Assume French inflation remains at 3%. How does this affect the NPV calculations? If, the inflation rate for both the countries remains the same i.e. 3%, then in that case, the forward premium comes out to be 1. Hence effectively, the exchange rate remains the  same for next 10 years i.e. 15.99 MXN/EURO. By dividing the cash flows in Pesos by this exchange rate for every year, cash flows in Euros are obtained calculated for this scenario. These cash flows are then discounted at the hurdle rate of 8% used for assets in France by the company. The present value of these cash flows is then added to come up with the NPV. This value comes out to be 332,459 Euros. Hence, the value of NPV has increased by decreasing the inflation rate of France in the analysis. Since, the inflation rate is the same in both countries, exchange rate also remains the same and the values of cash flows in Euro terms come out higher for every year. Suppose Ariel expects a significant real depreciation of the peso against the Euro. How should Martin incorporate this expectation into his NPV analysis? For simplicity, assume inflation is expected to be 3% in each country. What is its effect on NPV under each of the approaches in questions 1 and 2? This expectation of a real depreciation of Peso against Euro is essentially an exchange risk. Real depreciation of Peso against Euro means a greater exchange rate. Hence, this aspect can be incorporated in our analysis by increasing the exchange rate for every year that reflects the real depreciation in value of Peso. This change will not have any effect on the NPV calculated in Pesos. However, since the cash flows for NPV calculation in Euros are obtained by dividing the cash flows in pesos with the exchange rate, their value in Euros will be lower. Therefore, NPV of these cash inflows and outflows should be less. Firms can face violations of the parity conditions in addition to the parity violation in Question 5. What might these violations be, and what might be their consequences? Besides real depreciation in the exchange rate, there are many other ways in which parity conditions can be violated. Any sort of risk that is unique and effects businesses more in one country than another leads to the violation of parity conditions. Risks like political risk and exchange risk may lead to the violation of law of one price. These risks emerge from changes in government policies related to tariffs, quotas, trade agreements and inflation. These violations make the valuation of international projects more complex. The local perspective of a project in a country may be lead to very different conclusions as compared to an international. So, a project may prove to be very profitable for a local investor, but the same project may not be as attractive for an international investor. Similarly, some  projects appear good for an international investor while a local investor may incur losses by investing in the same project. Are there any real options embedded in Ariel’s decision? What is a real option, anyway? Yes, there is a real option embedded in Ariel’s decision. This real option refers to the option of replacing the manual equipment by the new equipment to increase the profitability. Real options are similar to the options of financial markets as far as the option of investing, or abandoning is concerned. Real options essentially mean having the real and tangible option of accepting or leaving a project if circumstances change. NPV analysis ignores this option and hence it is normally regarded as a more conservative capital budgeting technique. Just as, a call premium or put premium is the price of having the option, initial investment is the cost of real option. When an option is in the money, it means that the option holder can earn that amount by exercising the option. Similarly, in case of real options, a positive NPV refers to the value addition if the project is accepted. Should Group Ariel approve the equipment to purchase? A positive NPV of a project means that the project will give a return higher than the hurdle rate and the dollar value of NPV is the value addition to the company. The NPV in all the scenarios has a significant positive value. Hence, the company should approve the equipment purchase because the project adds value to the company. As far as, exchange risk is concerned, it can be minimized by the parent company through hedging. If the firm does not choose to hedge, then the discount rate should be adjusted upwards to reflect higher risk.