Advantages And Disadvantages Of Accounting Standards Accounting Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Accounting Standards Accounting Essay Introduction: In accounting, for every basis, identification and measurement of the elements of financial statement and the impact of the circumstances and financial status and work results should be defined in a form of standards. These standards are like the rules for accounting in any country. That is why they denote what should be mentioned in any companys accounts. Moreover, they guarantee that certain cases, approaches and requirements are taken into account normally. In addition, they help people who are interested in investment to make decisions by ensuring that they get appropriate information needed. This is the idea behind accounting standards. When we talk about accounting standards, the main thing that comes under them is the accounting report. According to the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), accounting reports are documents filled out by brokers that give details and facts about a new clients financial circumstances and investment objectives. The report may be updated if there are material changes in a client financial position. Based on the report, a client may or may not be deemed eligible for certain types of risky investments such as commodity trading or highly leveraged limited partnership deals. The second main thing is the framework. According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board in the US, the conceptual framework is the system of fundamentals and objectives that make consistent standards by knowing that the accounting report does not mean the rules but the guidelines. Actually, rules are set in the accounting standards which we can formulate from the framework. But when we face an interpretation conflict, it takes some requirements over the framework. International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), http://www.iasb.org Accounting Standards, Advantages and Disadvantages: Having said that accounting standards are the provider of the rules, conditions and consistency, they may hold some pros and cons while they are being implemented and taken in any company. Efficiency and effectiveness can be gotten through consistency if different organizations apply them than other organizations in their financial transactions. If we ask ourselves about the main reason behind bookkeeping practices, the answer would be that companies with different forms and a wide range of data to be maintained are better than those that have the same data categorized less in the same shape and will face a very big problem in trying to do business together. Hence, the justice and court have standard operations and businesses in fact, should denote all of its operations and transactions. According to Elliot (2009) companies should organize their operations with standard clients, competitors, customers, and suppliers. If we want to issue clear standards of financial accounting, we hav e to take into account the direction of the economy to establish joint stock companies with large capital. Its necessary to expand the vision of accounting standards according to communication and delivery of accounting information to lead to the need for that information to let them assess the performance of businesses to make good decisions with regards to their investment. Accounting standards are a very significant practice as it leads to effective corporate governance programs. They also provide a useful mechanism to rebuild the corporate values. Schipper, K. (2003). Principles-Based Accounting Standards. Accounting Horizons, 17(1), 61-72 The Need for Accounting Standards: The need for accounting standards has been a very important aspect to ensure that comparability, accuracy and transparency are needed for the integration of European financial markets, which is according to the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). We need accounting standards to develop the measures of performance in any form of life, whether it is in financial reporting, returns and funds, or even playing a game. Actually, high quality financial reporting is connected with efficient capital markets so as to lead for investment to be well done. If we want the economy to function efficiently, we should have accounting standards because they help us reach our destiny. With accounting standards and good financial reporting, customers can get a clear image about business activities and financial conditions. To make it very clear, I will just mention a small example created by me that will really denote and clarify the real need for accounting standards in any business ent erprise. With known and organized accounting standards, when the amount of the net income of Fathiya Company and Abeer Company is 2 million Omani Rials, we are sure that we can make a meaningful comparison. According to Schipper (2003) says that without standards, we cannot get the core aspect of assurance, for instance, whether Fathiya Company is considering the orders of the future as current sales or releasing a big amount of its expenses. Financial Accounting Standards Board, http://www.fasb.org Business without Accounting Standards: It was clear that accounting standards are very important to any business. Businesses can do whatever they want to reach certain goals without the need for accounting standards, but not as well as businesses that take accounting standards into account. Without accounting standards, businesses cannot guarantee that they will consider their future list of objectives or will leave some expenses. Furthermore, businesses cannot organize operations with their customers, suppliers and even competitors without applying at least some accounting standards. Moreover, if businesses do not apply accounting standards, they definitely will not be able to structure their business well and will lead to the corporate values to be missed. Elliot, B. and Elliot, E. Financial Accounting and Reporting 13th edition, 2009 Chapters 5 and7 Accounting Standards in Oman and abroad: Oman has prepared the financial statements in accordance with International Accounting standards (IAS), the interpretations which are prepared by the Standing Interpretation Committee of the IASC and the requirements of the Commercial Companies Law of the Sultanate of Oman and the requirements set out in the rules for disclosure issued by the Capital Market Authority of the Sultanate of Oman, the disclosure is inadequate and is a negative phenomenon to a country which wishes to be strengthened further a good economy. Accounting standards in Oman may be somehow related to the accounting standards outside Oman, because, in some extent, they all come under the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), http://www.iasb.org Recommendations and Conclusion: As an accounting student, I recommend all companies in Oman to have a set of accounting standards and reports in order to build a reliable business that can rank them in the top of the list of good companies. To conclude, we should think of accounting standards as the key of success for different business enterprises. In addition, if companies apply accounting standards well, other companies will look up to them to do business strategies as well as they do.

Hispanics in the Vietnam War :: Vietnam War Essays

Precise figures are not available for Hispanic participation in Vietnam. †¢ Prior to the full-scale escalation of the Vietnam War, Special Forces Advisor, Sergeant First Class Isaac Camacho's fire base was overrun by Viet Cong in November 1963. After an intense firefight, Camacho was taken prisoner. He is most likely the first Hispanic POW of the Vietnam era. Remarkably, Camacho escaped his captors after 20 months and made his way to freedom. He was awarded the Silver and Bronze Stars in September 1965 and later promoted to Captain, U.S. Army. †¢ Lieutenant Commander Everett Alvarez, Jr. (then Lieutenant JG) was the first American pilot taken as a prisoner of war and remained a prisoner longer than anyone else, eight and a half years. †¢ On April 30, 1975, Master Sergeant Juan J. Valdez climbed aboard the last U.S. helicopter to depart the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The U.S. presence in Vietnam, which spanned 18 years, ended. Valdez' presence gave credence to the Hispanic theme of participation in America's wars: "First in...last to leave." The Post-Vietnam Era †¢ Approximately 80,000 Hispanics served in the Vietnam theater of operations and 13 won the Medal of Honor, 6 of them Marines. This is not unusual. Hispanics have received the highest honors to date in the U.S. Navy. As of 1990, six ships and three active submarines have been named for Hispanics, including the nuclear- powered 688 class fast attack submarine, USS San Juan, named after the capital city of Puerto Rico.

Scientific Method Essay

The scientific method has four steps 1. Observation and description of a phenomenon. The observations are made visually or with the aid of scientific equipment. 2. Formulation of a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon in the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation. 3. Test the hypothesis by analyzing the results of observations or by predicting and observing the existence of new phenomena that follow from the hypothesis. If experiments do not confirm the hypothesis, the hypothesis must be rejected or modified (Go back to Step 2). 4. Establish a theory based on repeated verification of the results. The subject of a scientific experiment has to be observable and reproducible. Observations may be made with the unaided eye, a microscope, a telescope, a voltmeter, or any other apparatus suitable for detecting the desired phenomenon. The invention of the telescope in 1608 made it possible for Galileo to discover the moons of Jupiter two years later. Other scientists confirmed Galileo’s observations and the course of astronomy was changed. However, some observations that were not able to withstand tests of objectivity were the canals of Mars reported by astronomer Percival Lowell. Lowell claimed to be able to see a network of canals in Mars that he attributed to intelligent life in that planet. Bigger telescopes and satellite missions to Mars failed to confirm the existence of canals. This was a case where the observations could not be independently verified or reproduced, and the hypothesis about intelligent life was unjustified by the observations. To Lowell’s credit, he predicted the existence of the planet Pluto in 1905 based on perturbations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. This was a good example of deductive logic. The application of the theory of gravitation to the known planets predicted that they should be in a different position from where they were. If the law of gravitation was not wrong, then something else had to account for the variation. Pluto was discovered 25 years later. Limitations of the Scientific Method Science has some well-known limitations. Science works by studying problems in isolation. This is very effective at getting good, approximate solutions. Problems outside these artificial boundaries are generally not addressed. The consistent, formal systems of symbols and mathematics used in science cannot prove all statements, and furthermore, they cannot prove all TRUE statements. Kurt Godel showed this in 1931. The limitations of formal logical systems make it necessary for scientists to discard their old systems of thought and introduce new ones occasionally. Newton’s gravitational model works fairly well for everyday physical descriptions, but it is not able to account for many important observations. For this reason, it has been replaced by Einstein’s general theory of relativity for most celestial phenomena. Instead of talking about gravity, we now are supposed to talk about the curvature of the four-dimensional time-space continuum. Scientific observations are also subject to physical limits that may prevent us from finding the ultimate truth. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that it is impossible to determine simultaneously the position and momentum of an elementary particle. So, if we know the location of a particle we cannot determine its velocity, and if we know its velocity we cannot determine its location. Jacob Bronowski wrote that nature is not a gigantic formalizable system because to formalize it we would have to make some assumptions that cut some of its parts from consideration, and having done that, we cannot have a system that embraces the whole of nature. The application of the scientific method is limited to independently observable, measurable events that can be reproduced. The scientific method is also applicable to random events that have statistical distributions. In atomic chemistry, for example, it is impossible to predict when one specific atom will decay and emit radiation, but it is possible to devise theories and formulas to predict when half of the atoms of a large sample will decay. Irreproducible results cannot be studied by the scientific method. There was one day when many car owners reported that the alarm systems of their cars were set off at about the same time without any apparent cause. Automotive engineers were not able to discover the reason because the problem could not be reproduced. They hypothesized that it could have been radio interference from a passing airplane, but they could not prove it one way or another. Mental conceptual experiences cannot be studied by the scientific method either. At this time there is no instrumentation that enables someone to monitor what anybody else conceives in their mind, although it is possible to determine which part of the brain is active during any given task. It is not possible to define experiments to determine objectively which works of art are â€Å"great†, or whether Picasso was better than Matisse. So-called miracles are also beyond the scientific method. A person has tumors and faces certain death, and then, the tumors start shrinking and the person becomes healthy. What brought about the remission? A change in diet? A change in mental attitude? It is impossible to go back in time to monitor all variables that could have caused the cure, and it would be unethical to plant new tumors into the person to try to reproduce the results for a more careful study. Critical Thinking The scientific method relies on critical thinking, which is the process of questioning common beliefs and explanations to distinguish those beliefs that are reasonable and logical from those which lack adequate evidence or rational foundation. Arguments consists of one or more premises and one conclusion. A premise is a statement that is offered in support of a claim being made. Premises and claims can be either true or false. In deductive arguments the premises provide complete support for the conclusion. If the premises provide the required degree of support for the conclusion then the argument is valid, and if all its premises are true, then the conclusion must be true. In inductive arguments the premises provide some degree of support for the conclusion. When the premises of inductive arguments are true, their conclusion is likely to be true. Arguments that have one or more false premises are unsound. Fallacies Arguments are subject to a variety of fallacies. A fallacy is an error in reasoning in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. A deductive fallacy is a deductive argument where the premises are all true but reach a false conclusion. An inductive fallacy consist of arguments where the premises do not provide enough support for the conclusion. In such cases, even if the premises are true, the conclusion is not likely to be true. Common fallacies are categorized by their type, such as Ad Hominem (personal attack), and appeals to authority, belief, fear, ridicule, tradition, etc. An example of an Ad Hominem fallacy would be to say â€Å"You do not understand this because you are American (or Chinese, etc. â€Å". The national origin of a person (the premise) has nothing to do with the conclusion that a person can understand something or not, therefore the argument is flawed. Appeals to ridicule are of the form: â€Å"You would be stupid to believe that the earth goes around the sun†. Sometimes, a naive or false justification may be added in appeals to ridicule, such as â€Å"we can plainly see the sun go around the earth every day†. Appeals to authority are of the form â€Å"The president of the United States said this, therefore it must be true†. The fact that a famous person, great person, or authority figure said something is not a valid basis for something being true. Truth is independent of who said it. Types of Evidence Evidence is something that provides proof concerning a matter in question. Direct or Experimental evidence. The scientific methods relies on direct evidence, i. e. , evidence that can be directly observed and tested. Scientific experiments are designed to be repeated by other scientists and to demonstrate unequivocably the point that they are trying to prove by controlling all the factors that could influence the results. A scientist conducts an experiment by varying a single factor and observing the results. When appropriate, â€Å"double blind† experiments are conducted to avoid the possibility of bias. If it is necessary to determine the effectiveness of a drug, an independent scientist will prepare the drug and an inert substance (a placebo), identifying them as A and B. A second scientist selects two groups of patients with similar characteristics (age, sex, etc. ), and not knowing which is the real drug, administers substance A to one group of patients and substance B to the second group of patients. By not knowing whether A or B is the real drug, the second scientist focuses on the results of the experiment and can make objective evaluations. At the end of the experiment, the second scientist should be able to tell whether the group receiving substance A showed improvements over those receiving substance B. If no effect can be shown, the drug being tested is ineffective. Neither the second scientist nor the patients can cheat by favoring one substance over another, because they do not know which is the real drug. Anecdotal, Correlational, or Circumstantial Evidence. Where there is smoke, there is fire† is a popular saying. When two things occur together frequently, it is possible to assume that there is a direct or causative relationship between them, but it is also possible that there are other factors. For example, if you get sick every time that you eat fish and drink milk, you could assume that you are allergic to fish. However, you may be allergic to milk, or only to the combination of fish with milk. Correlational evidence is good for developing hypotheses that can then be tested with the proper experiments, e. g. drink milk only, eat fish only, eat fish and milk together. There is nothing wrong with using representative cases to illustrate an inductive conclusion drawn from a fair sample. The problem arises when a single case or a few selected cases are used to draw a conclusion which would not be supported by a properly conducted study. Argumentative Evidence consists of evaluating facts that are known and formulating a hypothesis about what the facts imply. Argumentative evidence is notoriously unreliable because anybody can postulate a hypothesis about anything. This was illustrated above with the example about the â€Å"channels† of Mars implying intelligent life. The statement â€Å"I heard a noise in the attic, it must be a ghost† also falls in this category. Testimonial Evidence. A famous football player appears on television and says that Drug-XYZ provides relief from pain and works better than anything else. You know that the football player gets paid for making the commercial. How much can you trust this evidence? Not very much. Testimonials are often biased in favor of a particular point of view. In court proceedings, something actually experienced by a witness (eyewitness information) has greater weight than what someone told a witness (hearsay information). Nevertheless, experiments have repeatedly demonstrated that eyewitness accounts are highly unreliable when compared with films of the events. The statement â€Å"I saw a ghost last night. † is an example of testimonial evidence that probably cannot be verified and should not be trusted. On the other hand, the statement â€Å"I saw a car crash yesterday. can be objectively verified to determine whether it is true or false by checking for debris from the accident, hospital records, and other physical evidence. Make full use of your senses. Making use of your senses is the subjective part of the Methodology. This is the stage where your special sensory skills can be put to use. If you have extraordinary hearing, use it. If you have a photographic memory make sure that it gets used for most of your problem solving. N obody else has your specific impressions of your environment. Your point of view and your observations are unique. Part of using your senses may involve using instrumentation or interaction with others. Lucky charms, divining rods, and other magical devices that do not have reproducible and verifiable functionality do not count as â€Å"instrumentation†. If you don’t have perfect eyesight and you need to see something clearly, use your glasses. Make observations from several points of view to get good depth perception and to confirm impressions. Take photographs if you need to remember something in great detail. Use a tape recorder or a notepad to record your observations for later review. Make sure that your senses are at their best by avoiding intoxicants that affect your perceptions. â€Å"Interaction with others† may involve using another being (not necessarily human) to make the observations for you. For example, a blind person may use a seeing-eye dog to get around, a truck driver may use directions from someone else when backing up into a tight spot, a hunter may use a dog’s sense of smell for tracking game, or a miner may use a canary to warn him of pockets of unbreathable odorless gases. Whenever you trust someone else’s perception more than your own you may find that the conclusions that you reach are unsatisfactory. How many hunters have been led astray by dogs that followed a rabbit’s trail rather than the fox’s? And how many truck drivers have crashed while backing up because they misinterpreted their helper’s signals? Reliance on your own senses is the only way to avoid such problems, but you don’t always have this choice. The application of logic may be necessary to determine which perceptions you can trust. Let us say that you are not under the influence of any drugs and you see an apparition of a dead person, what should you do? How do you distinguish hallucinations from real perceptions? How do you know if your senses fool you or if your observations are real? One time-honored test is to pinch yourself to make sure that you are not dreaming. If you should tell someone else about your experience and they don’t observe the same things, does this mean that you are crazy or that something is wrong with you? Or does this prove that you have more refined perception that enables you to see things that others do not see? What would it be like to live in a world where only you have color vision and everyone else is colorblind? The difference between real perceptions and hallucinations is that you can repeat and reproduce results from real perceptions but not from hallucinations. In a world where you are the only person with color vision, you would eventually be able to prove to everyone else by objective means that colors, or at least different frequencies of light, do exist.

Research Paper on Structures of the Technology Sector and its Changes

Research Paper on Structures of the Technology Sector and its Changes Technology, by any measure, is the most competitive and fast moving industry, and businesses have to develop new structural strategies to maintain their competitive sustainability. The survival of business in the industry is dependent, in part, to innovation and new product development, and as well, structural reinvention and strategies. Actions and strategic decisions of top management executives are essential in the determination of the future of many organizations and in enabling these organizations to avoid becoming obsolete. Traditionally, business organizations in the IT industry have used integration to enhance their developmental and operational activities. For instance, IBM has managed to stand the test of time by becoming successful for extended periods despite the challenges associated with the fast-moving technological field (The Economist, June 11 2011). The success of IBM can be attributed to the fact that IBM’s strategic and operational activities revolved aroun d developing products based on ideas rather than basing the development on the development of a specific technological product. Concentrating on an idea made it easy for IBM to adapt to different industry situations such as shifts in technological platforms. Currently, majority of technology giants are adopting similar strategies of focusing on particular ideas as opposed to focusing on a particular technological product (The Economist, June 11 2011). The growth challenges facing HP, the world’s biggest PC maker, can be attributed to the fact that it concentrated majority of its operational activities in the manufacture of particular technology-PCs. A shift in diversification of strategy could enable HP to expand its idea portfolio and hence, sustain the changing operational factors in the technology industry (The Economist, August 27, 2011). Other firms in the IT industry that have learnt the strategy of capitalizing on ideas include Apple Inc., Amazon, and Facebook. Innovation and iconic leadership have enabled Apple Inc. to innovate new ideas and develop new products that not only satisfy the needs of the market but also products that are packaged in an elegant an appealing manner to sustain the competitive environment in the industry. Sadly, the Apple’s founder might be gone but his legacy still lives on. The current management will keep on innovating new ideas to enhance the competitive edge of products develope d by the Company. Similarly, Facebook and Amazon are other technological players that continue to utilize ideas in the advancement of their operational activities. Interestingly, firms such as Microsoft, Oracle, Google, and Dell have managed to survive in the industry despite using traditional technologies and single products (The Economist, June 11 2011). Even though there is a hidden secret behind the continued survival, these firms must restructure and reinvent their strategies in order to strengthen their competitive edges. Business Integration This process entails putting the focus in the improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of strategic processes of running business organizations. Although the process might seem complex, major activities in business organizations are concerned with the improvement quality, provision of timely information, and rapid implementation of business strategies. The vital thing is the identification of an enterprise integration strategy that encompass different types of technologies. Integration strategies have an effect of enabling firms to enhance their business abilities and deliver success in projects (Barkley, 2006). Reducing costs in the end and maximizing profits should form the basis for the majority of business enterprises. An examination of the technological industry reveals that the majority of organizations in the industry have focused on strategic changed for different strategic reasons. Firms are adopting a mixture of vertical integration and horizontal integration strategies to enhance their competitive advantages and as well, increase growth levels (Jones, and Hill, 2009). Overall, diversification and integration have increased value for most business organizations. Many an organization have operated using basis strategies that have evolved over time. Equally important have been the effects of the management structures of such organizations and the actions of management have had an impact of adjusting internal strategies. The most difficult part among such organizations is the management of strategic shifts during business integration (Helmy, 2006). The type of adopted integration strategy should be formulated to address new problems, challenges, and opportunities that are currently facing the or ganization in question. As such, the formation and initial structure of many firms in the Technology industry have had an effect of influencing the strategic structures of firms. For instance, vertical integration was adopted due to the need to provide solutions to challenges and news of the new markets (Badinger, and Egger, 2008). As the market continued to diversify, there was the need to combine new strategies and as such, organizations made structural changes cater for other emerging organizational responsibilities. This channeled the need for the adoption of horizontal integrations among organizations. Horizontal Integration This form of business integration entails the expansion of business located in the same value or supply chain (Gaughan, 2010). Examples of vertical integration include a situation whereby an automobile manufacturer purchases a SUV vehicle manufacturer, a TV station that owns a radio, and newspaper company, and Oil Company purchasing refineries. Growth in such a situation is obtained through external and internal expansion activities. For instance, mergers and acquisitions between firms that offer similar services and products e.g. the merger between HP and Compaq is a good real life example of Horizontal Integration. The acquisition of You Tube by Google Inc. is another example of Horizontal Integration. Advantages of Horizontal Integration Firms with horizontal structures are associated enjoy certain advantages when compared to those with vertical structures. First, Horizontally integrated firms have focused resources such that technological, managerial, functional, and financial resources are channeled into the enhancement of competitive advantage in one particular area (Grossman, and Hart, 2006). Focusing on a particular resource or area enables such firms to add value to their products. Second, horizontally merged firms have the ability to increase their profit generating capabilities. For instance, lowering the cost structure can enable a horizontally integrated firm to increase the economies of scale and minimize the duplication of resources between the two companies (Grossman, and Hart, 2006). Additionally, the merged firm is capable of enhancing product differentiation through strategies such as cross-selling, offering total solutions to customers, and product bundling. Third, horizontally integrated firm is cap able of reducing rivalry among industries through the elimination of excessive capacity within the industry and the implementation of tacit price coordination among rivals. Last, these firms are capable of increasing their market power when compared to the power of buyers and suppliers. It also helps in gaining greater market control. Other benefits related to Horizontal Integration include increased economies of scale given that the merged firm or the parent company would register more sales from the sale of increased volume of the same commodity. This is possible because merged or acquired firms would benefit from the already developed distribution and marketing channels in different geographic locations. Cost reduction is also possible through horizontal integration. Another advantage that results from Horizontal Integration is the expansion of operational scope that can be achieved when resources are shared equally in the production of different products. The economies of scope are known as resource synergies. Horizontal Integration leads to increased market power of the organization thereby enabling it to control downstream distribution channels. Firms located in different locations can operate their activities from different locations. Other benefits associated with horizontal integration strategies include expansion of market share and attracting more customers through the sale of the developed brand. It also leads to strengthened negotiation power because the company will obtain more advantage when compared to other leading suppliers. Challenges of horizontal Integration Other than the increased competitive power of acquired or merged organizations, the concentration of firms in the market results to other challenges and products. First, responsibilities and workloads would increase significantly due to the increased size of the organization. Merging different cultures has an effect of altering the organizational culture, and managers have the tendency to overestimate or underestimate the problems resulting from merged or acquired operations. As such, it can result to a horizontal monopoly and monopolies are not good for the market. Anti-trust issues are some of the factors that under the operations of horizontally integrated firms because of the reduced competition or the creation of a monopoly. Other than the factors arising from these legal issues, it is often unlikely for horizontally integrated businesses to realize the projected economic gains. Horizontal integration can be blamed for the many challenges that exist in the IT industry, particularly among computer firms. For instance, many firms in the computing industry adopted horizontal strategies thinking that there were many synergies between hardware and software. This believe was driven by the notion that the synergies between these two sets of products would enable such organizations to realize economic scopes. Even though horizontal integration holds huge benefits, the potential benefits do not occur spontaneously and, thus, the corporate management of horizontally integrated organizations must formulate strategies (Grossman, and Hart, 2006). Vertical Integration Firms in the IT industry adopted the Vertical Integration strategy due to the need for managing the expanded stream of downstream buyers and upstream suppliers. Examples are supermarkets and food manufacturers that are involved in different stages of production. Oil refineries and petrol stations are also other good examples. This strategy has an effect on enhancing the unit position of an industry in relation to differentiation, cost reduction, corporate strategies, and addressing strategic issues. Forward integration and backward integration are two forms of vertical integration. A third form of Vertical Integration (Balanced integration) exists when an IT company becomes responsible for setting up subsidiaries to supply in puts and at the same time market their own products. IT firms adopts forward integration in order to obtain ownership and more control in downstream distribution activities of retailers and distributors. This includes a situation whereby the organization’ s distributors are expensive or unable to satisfy the distribution needs of an organization, when the competitive advantage in the industry is determined by firms practicing the forward integration strategy, and as well, when the industry grows at an increasing rate. The forward integration strategy enables such firms to diversify its capabilities in case the market becomes volatile. Other factors that make it ideal to adopt forward integration includes possession of capital and human resources, high but stable production, and high profit margins for retailers (Jones, and Hill, 2009). Similarly, the need to gain increased control and ownership of the upstream suppliers calls for the adoption of the backward integration strategy. This entails the process where the IT company owns some of the subsidiaries responsible for the production of particular inputs. This is common in situations where unreliability among suppliers exist, the suppliers are very expensive, and as well, in situations whereby suppliers are unable to satisfy the needs of the organization. The increased global competition results to the need to minimize the number of suppliers, meet the demand for the need for high service delivery, and improve the quality of products distributed. Ideal situations for the backward integration strategy includes the capability of the organization in terms of human resources and capital in managing the firms’ supply of raw materials, the competitive situation of the industry, and high profit margins for suppliers. This explains why Dell opted to supply personal ized products directly to consumers. Advantages The major benefits associated with vertical integration are most concerned with control and cost minimization. The aspect of controlling costs is dependent on the prevailing costs of transactions between firms in the market and is often compared to the internal costs of administration within a single firm. In lieu of asset control, firms are capable of influencing entry barriers and obtain control of key-value adding aspects. Advantages obtained by firms that adopt vertical integration include the following. First, vertical integration leads to lower transaction costs. Reduction in costs comes because of inter transactions between subordinate companies that are managed using a central communication and management system. Second, vertical integration leads to high certainty of quality because of the central system of quality control and hence production of standardized products. Third, vertical integration enables firms to obtain monopoly of the market given that they control producti on and distribution activities. Other benefits of vertical integration include the ability of firms to capture downstream and upstream profits, increasing the entry barriers to potential competitors, and facilitating investment activities in highly specialized but profitable assets that downstream or upstream players might be unwilling to invest. Disadvantages Firms that adopt Vertical Integration structure are also associated faced with a number of challenges. The first drawback involves the need to balance the capacity of the organization to deliver balanced upstream and downstream operations. Second, vertical integration can lead to inefficiencies that result from higher costs and lack of competition among suppliers. The cost structures are generally increasing and therefore, suppliers owned by the company can develop higher cost structures than those from independent suppliers. Vertical integration can undermine the process of creating new competitions because it has an effect of compromising the already existing competencies. Third, given the changing nature of technology, vertical integration may make a firm to be locked in inefficient or old technologies. Vertical Integrations have been known to prevent firms from adopting new technological innovations that are critical in strengthening the business model. Last, vertical integration increases bureaucratic costs and other management costs such as costs associated with finding solutions to transaction difficulties. Conclusion By any means, structural implementation and strategic design play critical roles in determining the success of many an organization. Organizations have to implement strategies that suits the demands of the market and as well, those that are compatible with the business model. changes have to be made to align the organization to its business model and restructure the organization to meet the competitive pressures (Gaughan, 2010). Structures are also critical in organizing employees and in making critical decisions that cover many aspects of the organizations. The management leadership in many organizations have to decide on the right organizational structure to adopt in the realization of company goals and objectives. The organizational structures can either be based on centralized, decentralized, focused purpose, or future perspectives depending on the long-term goals and objectives (Helmy, 2006). An examination of the IT sector reveals that the industry is one of the most competitive and fast moving industries. Organizations within this industry are forced to develop new structural strategies to maintain their competitive sustainability. The survival of business in the industry is dependent, in part, to innovation and new product development, and as well, structural reinvention and strategies. Like in most organizations, actions and strategic decisions of top management executives are critical in determination of the future sustainability of many organizations. As such, managers must choose the best integration strategies to enable them remain competitive. Another critical thing in the technology industry is the ability of organizations to develop products from ideas as compared to developing products based on particular technologies. The success of IBM can be attributed to the fact that IBM’s strategic and operational activities revolved around developing products bas ed on ideas rather than basing the development on the development of a specific technological product. Concentrating on an idea made it easy for IBM to adapt to different industry situations such as shifts in technological platforms. Similarly, the dwindling performance at HP can be attributed to adoption of the wrong integration strategy. Admittedly, technological products have specific life cycles and therefore, firms have to be innovative in order to keep on addition new products into their product portfolios. For this reason, business integration becomes an integral factor when deciding the type of structural changes. Managers and management executives have to examine the structures of their organizations critically before deciding adopt Horizontal or Vertical Integration or a combination of both (Badinger, and Egger, 2008). Each structure has its own benefits and setbacks and it is upon managers to conduct a thorough analysis of the situation before adopting the right integrati on strategy. Bibliography Badinger, H. and Egger, P. 2008. â€Å"Horizontal versus Vertical Interdependence in Multinational Activity,† CESifo Working paper No. 2327, Category 9: Industrial Organization, June. Barkley, B. 2006. Integrated Project Management. McGraw-Hill Gaughan, P. A. 2010. Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings. John Wiley and Sons Grossman, S. and Hart, O. 2006. ‘The costs and benefits of ownership: a theory of vertical and lateral integration’. Journal Of Political Economy, 4. Helmy H. B., 2006. Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription. Jones, G. and Hill, C. 2009. Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. Cengage Learning The Economist, August 2011. ‘HP’s Grand Vision: Aping IBM. The Economist. August 27th 2011 The Economist, June 2011. ‘IBM’s centenary: The Test of Time’ The Economist. June 11th 2011