Marketing Week 4 Discussion Questions & Summary Essay

Marketing Week 4 Discussion Questions & Summary - Essay Example However, hailing from a highly disciplined family and community where such practices are strictly shunned and their negation had become a part of my belief; I decided not to copy the report. My colleague on the other hand did not hesitate to do so because this was a part of her belief system. I have been enlightened on the concepts of education and lifelong learning. I have realized the significance of a graduate degree and the learning that accompanies it. Today, people respect my view more than ever before. As a well-informed person my opinions are sought after. DQ2: Please describe where you have experienced a professional team conflict Explain what happened and its resolution I prefer you share a situation where you did not like the outcome of the decision, what would you have done differently We were a group of three people for our report. It required a lot of work and effort. We had distributed the work accordingly. However, one member of our group was just not cooperating. He(A) did not even bother to sit down and talk with us about the report. We were so bogged down by the work that we could not run after him. Therefore; we let him be and completed the work ourselves. So much so that he did not even accompany us when we had to conduct interviews of industry personnel. We were really angry at him but had no time to deal with him. At last, the report was ready. However, we did not put his name on the report. We felt that it was only fair since he had done no work. Because of this A failed the course! I feel that this situation could have been handled differently. We could have taken out time to force A to do some work for the report. As a team this was the least we could have done. What we did was a violation of team spirit. We should have counseled him, and tried to ma ke him work by giving him logical reasons. It would have made things different! DQ3: Describe the changes you have gone through while enrolled at the University of Phoenix While at the University of Phoenix I have matured. I have begun to see the world in a totally different light. Before, my views and ideas were skewed. I used to have a one-track mind and would often jump to conclusions. Now, I have become enlightened. University of Phoenix has helped me develop as an individual. It has made me look at things with an open mind. To look at all perspectives and to be confident and positive about things. It has taught me to respect others for what they and accept them with their faults and drawbacks. It has made me understand that what is important is what I have given to the society and not what the society has given to me. Earlier, I used to see a university degree as a means of better financial achievement. It has taught me the value of education beyond a means of earning money. It has molded me into a confident and inquisitive young woman who is not scared of challenges. From someone who would barely ever question and was used to taking things at fac e value. It has helped in my overall development. It has harnessed my potential and made me reach new heights. It has impelled me aspire and dream! SUMMARY paragraph based on answering the above questions and the class topics and courses completed for BS in marketing. At University of Pheonix I have learnt the concepts of

Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme Case - Essay Example The fraud caused investors to lose billions of dollars, and gave rise to a crisis of confidence in the capital markets. In reality, Madoff’s funds had no investment strategy to provide â€Å"hedges† against the usual forms of risk. For over a decade, there had not even been any trading of stock. In Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the early investors were bought off with the money from the later investors; additionally, the payouts to the early investors were used as proof of profitability, to thereby convince later investors that the returns were legitimate. The bankruptcy trustee is implementing remedial measures including a â€Å"clawback† action for the later investors to recover the profits of the early investors. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme Case, examine the reasons for the fraud to take place over several years, identify the warning red flags missed by the investors, and the preventive and reco very measures to be adopted in Ponzi cases, besides other related aspects. Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi Investment Scheme The investment operation of Bernard Madoff was exposed in December 2008 as an extensive Ponzi scheme. The term is derived from Charles Ponzi who organized such a scam in 1919, and it denotes a fraudulent investment arrangement in which investors give cash and property to the main individual in the arrangement. While misappropriating some or all of the funds, the investment operator reports to the investors that the funds made profits. These professed amounts, and those actually paid to earlier investors are funds received from later investors. The fraud is revealed usually when a large number of investors wish to withdraw their investments at the same time, particularly when there is insufficient in-flow of money from new investors. Thus, Bernard Madoff duped investors of an estimated amount of more than $50 billion, by the time the fraudulent scheme was uncover ed (Mannino, 2010). Madoff’s alleged Ponzi had a reach across the globe of more than $50 billion. The sustained durability of the fraud for nearly two decades is considered to be due to Jewish money managers, severe regulatory shortcomings including ineptitude, and probable conflicts of interest by Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other regulators and auditors. Madoff appears to have taken actions that reveal him as an equal opportunity thief, who unashamedly misappropriated funds from close relatives and charities in his scheme (Vinod, 2009). One of the main reasons for Madoff’s attracting a wide following was that he â€Å"delivered consistently high returns with very low volatility over a long period† (Bernard & Boyle, 2009, p.3). His technique to obtain these low risk returns was to use a split-strike conversion strategy. This requires taking a long position in equities together with a short call, and a l ong put on equity index to lower the volatility of the position. It was eventually revealed that these returns were false. The Madoff case raises obvious questions on why it was not discovered earlier, and the reasons for investors and regulators to miss the various red flags. The need for risk management and regulation through improved capital requirements for operational risk, is evident from the implications of