Gravity Payments
In April 2015, Dan Price, the 30-year-old chief executive officer (CEO), and founder of Gravity Payments, announced an increase in every employeeâs wage to US$70,000. Every employee, including the lowest-paid clerk and newly hired staff, would receive a minimum annual salary of $70,000 over the next three years. The announcement stunned the employees and triggered a wave of high-fiving and clapping. With this decision, one young entrepreneur in Seattle, Washington, became an instant hero when he issued a direct and adventurous challenge to the long-standing problem of U.S. income inequality. However, at the same time, he was experiencing unexpected challenges from different people only a few months after his bold move.
Income inequality has been racing in the wrong direction. I want to fight for the idea that if someone is intelligent, hard-working and does a good job, then they are entitled to live a middle-class lifestyle.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Gravity Payments was a private credit card processing and financial services company. It was founded in February 2004 by brothers, Dan and Lucas Price.
Gravity Payments provided a variety of processing and financial services, including credit card processing, POS (point of Sales) systems, mobile payments, working capital financing, and gift and loyalty cards. The companyâs customers were mostly small and medium-sized businesses. By 2009, the company became the largest credit card processor in the state of Washington, serving more than 15 percent of small businesses in the Seattle area. The companyâs success was mainly due to its low-cost strategy and word of mouth publicity. The company charged less than half of the industry-average processing rate.
Gravity Payments had had a philanthropic mandate since its beginning, and launched the âGravity Givesâ program in March, 2008. Through this program, 2 percent of the companyâs revenue had been donated to charities, including World Vision, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Northwest Harvest. Price believed strongly in fighting poverty on both a global and locale scale.
THE DECISION
It was the right thing to do. I want everybody that Iâm partnered with at Gravity to really live the fullest, best life they can⊠I think thatâs the [income level] where you can start to check off those lifeâs goal boxes â saving for college, buying a home, some of the basics, starting a family. I want everyone to have those basic opportunities.
Announcement of the $70,000 Minimum Salary
In April 2015, Price set a new minimum salary of $70,000 for all of his 120 employees at Gravity Payments. The idea struck him when one of his friends shared her worries about trying to pay her bills and student loans on an annual income of $40,000. Some of Priceâs own employees earned that amount or less.
Price decided upon the amount of $70,000 based upon a 2010 study conducted at Princeton University by economist, Angus Deaton and psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Laureate. According to the study, those who made less that $75,000 were likely to experience emotional pain and job dissatisfaction. However, even if people made more than $75,000, they did not feel any greater level of happiness. Simply put, the study suggested that emotional well-being increased with economic compensation, but only up to the amount of about $75,000. The study concluded that âlow income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with such misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone. We conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated with both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being.â
Before Price initiated the salary increase, the average salary at Gravity Payments was about $48,000, with the lowest salary at around $34,000. Due to Priceâs decision, about 30 employees had their paycheques nearly double overnight, and others also received raises to reach the $70,000 level. Ryan Pirkle, the spokesman for Gravity Payments, mentioned that this new minimum wage policy would increase the salary of about 70 employees. The ground-breaking move was met with applause and shouts of joy by many employees. Kevin, a customer operations associate, said in an interview with the media, âI was there at the meeting⊠honestly, I could not believe what I heard, and I think thatâs what a lot of people felt. I kind of felt that we needed to get that repeated.â Phillip Akhavan, a staff member in the merchant relations team, who earned an annual salary of $43,000, also said, âMy jaw just dropped⊠This is going to make a difference to everyone around me.â Jaime June, in the marking department, said, âDan is just an incredible man in general. He has a really amazing moral compass.â
The new salary would change employeesâ lives. Maria Harley, vice-president of operations said, âIâve heard things from, âI can finally afford to move out of my parentâs home,â [to] âI can finally afford to have a baby,â we have some people that are parents and really want a good education for their children and feel like they can finally afford that.â
Huge publicity from all major national media had generated clear public-relations benefits for the company. After Gravity Payments became a front-page media story, it received more than 5,000 resumes in just one day. Before the announcement, Gravity Payments added 200 clients per month on average. In June 2015, the number grew to 350.
The Downside of the $70,000 Minimum Salary Plan
Thereâs no perfect way to do this and no way to handle complex workplace issues that doesnât have any downsides or trade-offs. I came up with the best solution I could⊠I know the decision to pay everyone a living wage is controversial.
The implementation of this wage increase was not easy. In order to pay for the increases in employeesâ salaries, Price cut his own remuneration from $1 million to $70,000. Also, about 75 to 80 percent of the companyâs $2.2 million profits had to be uses.
Many questions were raised. Was this a social experiment? Was it a public relations stunt? Or was Price just a nice guy? In addition, not everyone was pleased with his move. Other local business owners and some entrepreneurial CEOs in the same, close-knit, entrepreneurial network complained that his decision made them look stingy. Steve Duffield, CEO of DACO Corp., who had met Price through the Entrepreneursâ Organization in the Seattle area, said, âI worry how thatâs going to impact other businesses. We canât afford to do that. For most businesses, employees are the biggest expense and they need to manage those costs in order to survive.â
Some customers were against the âsocialistâ gesture and stopped their business with Gravity Payments. Others customers withdrew their business due to an anticipation of a fee increase, in spite of the repeated assurances from the company that this would not happen.
Complaints even came from Priceâs own employees. While 30 or so employees would see their pay nearly double overnight, and about 70 employees also go raises, the remaining 50 were already paid more than $70,000. In fact, according to the New York Times, the companyâs two best employees left the company because of Priceâs decision. For example, Maisey McMaster, who joined Gravity Payments five years earlier and had worked long hours that left little time for her family, was one of them. She said, âHe gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didnât get much of a bump.â McMaster talked to Price after contemplating a fairer proposal. From her view, a fairer proposal was offering small raises with the opportunity to gain a future increase with more experience. âHe treated me as if I was being selfish and only thinking about myself,â she said. âThat really hurt me. I was talking about not only me, but about everyone in my position.â
Grant Moral, a web developer whose salary increased from $41,000 to $50,000 (due to the first stage of pay increase), also expressed concerns, even though he would receive a substantial pay increase from this plan. He opted to leave the company. âI had a lot of mixed emotions. Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me. It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.â He added, âI was kind of uncomfortable and didnât like having my wage advertised so publicly and so blatantly. It changed perspectives and expectations of you, whether itâs the amount you tip on a cup of coffee that day or family and friends now calling you for a loan.â From McMaster and Moranâs points of view, it was not fair to double the paycheque of someone with the lowest skills, while the longest-serving and highest-skilled employees received a small or no salary increase.
Furthermore, even employees who were exhilarated by the raises had new concerns and indicated they were facing a lot of pressure. âAm I doing my job well enough to deserve this? I didnât earn it,â said Stephanie Brooks, 23, who joined the company as an administrative assistant two months before the decision.
Questions
In: Operations Management
The Global Value Chain for Diamonds
A simple way to view the major stages of the diamond value chain is exploration, mining, rough diamonds, polished diamonds, and customer jewelry. It is normally 18 to 36 months from the time a diamond is mined until it reaches a retail store. Rare or large stones often reduce this processing time by one-half. The supply chain is global since no one country or company performs all the work required to bring a diamond to its final resting place â customer jewelry. About one-half of rough diamonds are used in industrial applications such as oil and gas drilling equipment and metal cutting tools. The major stages of the global value chain for diamonds can be defined in numerous ways but usually consists of the following stages.
Exploration
A diamond is a unique pyramidal structure of carbon atoms. Billions of years ago heat and pressure deep inside the earth created natural diamonds. The ancient Greek word for diamond means âunbreakable.â Historically, much of the diamond industry involves African countries and sometimes the exploitation of native people. Russia and Africa account for 70 percent of the worldâs diamond reserves.
Major corporations that focus on diamond mining, production, and sales include DeBeers, with about 37% market share. DeBeers is a Kimberley, South Africa based corporation with mines and facilities in South Africa, Tanzania, Botswana, and Namibia. ALROSA is a Russian state-owned corporation with about 30% market share, and with mines and facilities in Russia and Angola. Rio Tinto is an Australian corporation that mines diamonds, iron, copper, uranium, aluminum, gold, and coal, with about a 5% global market share in diamonds. Its mines and facilities are in Australia, Zimbabwe, Africa, and Canada. Other firms such as Aber, BHP Billiton, and Leviev compete in the diamond industry.
Mining
The two major ways to mine rough diamonds are an open-pit method, where rock and soil at the surface are excavated; and underground mining. First-level sorting is done at this stage, to separate gem-quality stones from obvious industrial grade stones.
The controversies begin at this stage of the diamond value chain. The 2006 movie Blood Diamond, for example, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Hounsou, highlighted militant groups and corrupt governments trying to get their share of âblood diamondâ revenues to fund revolutions and wars. Conflict-free diamonds are supposed to be free of other injustices such as child labor, smuggling, worker exploitation, and sexual violence. And, of course, ethical supply chains try to prevent all of the previous cited issues, plus worker accidents, environmental pollution, deceitful grading of diamonds, deforestation, poverty, low wages, and so on.
Sorting and Grading
The basic criteria for grading diamonds include size (carats), color, shape, and quality. At this stage second-level sorting and grading begins at separate locations from the mines. About 20-25 percent of rough diamonds are used in the retail value chain while the rest are used for industrial proposes. Human eyes, hands, and expertise assess the quality and value of most diamonds. Advanced machines do some of the sorting and grading process for smaller stones. But sorting and grading diamonds is not an exact science even with current industry regulations and quality standards.
Cutting and Polishing Centers
The Four Câs â Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat weight â are used to further classify diamonds at a production facility, located in cities like Dubai, New York, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, London, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, and Mumbai.
Normally, by the end of this stage one-half to two-thirds of the rough diamond is waste. For example, a ten-carat rough diamond might result in a three- to five-carat diamond that can be set in customer jewelry. Much of the waste is used in industrial diamond applications or by the cutters themselves for cutting and polishing.
During the Great Recession smaller diamond cutters and polishers went out of business while larger firms gained market share. Cutting and polishing costs-per-carat range from about $100 in Antwerp, New York, and Tel Aviv; to $10 to $50 in India, China, and Thailand. Diamond defects and errors can take many forms in this industry: impurities, optical flaws, mixed colors, crystal flaws, cutting mistakes, and non-ethical diamonds. The cutter must decide how best to cut the rough diamond to remove defects, keep the most carat weight possible, and make the diamond as perfect as possible.
The quality of a rough diamond can be enhanced or hindered by the way the rough diamond is cut and polished. High-quality rough diamonds of over 20 carats almost always go to the worldâs best cutters and polishers.
Trading Centers
A current industry trend is the consolidation of cutting and polishing with trading centers into a âdiamond hubâ in cities like New York, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, Dubai, and Mumbai. Major producers like DeBeers sell most of their diamonds based on long-term contracts to a select group of buyers and sellers. Long-term contracts provide price and demand stability, predictable buyers and sellers, and large sales volumes. Trading centers and producers are sometimes accused of forming price-controlled cartels by holding back diamond stocks (reserves) to maintain retail prices. Another way to limit supply in the global diamond market is for major producers to sell diamonds only to their âsite holders.â A site holder can be a company or individual who can only buy direct from major producers. If all reserves of diamonds were released, supply would greatly exceed demand, and diamond prices would plummet.
However, new sales channels are emerging that take advantage of Internet capabilities such as on line auctions and virtual sales platforms. Sales take many forms such as face-to-face negotiations, take-it-or-leave it on line offers at fixed prices, live on line auctions with multiple bidding rounds, and time limited on line auctions. In addition, physical diamond auctions take place at Sothebyâs and Christieâs.
Jewelry Manufacturing
Manufacturing transforms cut, polished, and graded diamonds into customer jewelry. Often a custom setting for the stones includes pouring hot metal into a ring or jewelry mold; and/or metal machine fabrication, milling, and polishing. Standard diamond ring production exhibits both job and flow shop characteristics while custom jewelry is a job shop. Diamond defects can be hidden by the clever design of customer jewelry. Here the jewelry artist or customer designs how the finished diamond will be displayed
. Over $50 billion in value is added at the jewelry manufacturing and retail store stages.
Retailing
In the diamond value chain, Tiffany & Company and Cartier are two examples of luxury goods retailers that enjoy high margins. The price per carat (value) of a typical diamond usually increases eight to ten times from mining to retail store as each stage of the value chain adds its profit margin. After the original sale, most diamonds donât wear out so they are resold (recycled) many times within the value chain. The âdiamond is foreverâ slogan also applies to generating repeat sale profits.
To further complicate customer- and trading-center buying decisions, diamond buyers must cope with whether the diamond is synthetic. In one audit by the International Gemological Institute with a sample of 1,000 stones over one-half were found to be synthetic diamonds. Moreover, the synthetic diamonds had human-engineered flaws to make them appear as natural stones. Only expert gemologists with special equipment can tell the difference between a natural and synthetic stone.
From the viewpoint of natural diamond producers, synthetic diamond pollution is an ever-increasing industry problem. A four-carat synthetic diamond might sell for a few hundred dollars. In addition, synthetic diamond producers argue their diamonds are brighter and clearer than natural stones, and the only true ethical diamonds.
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS)
A multitude of industry-related associations, governments, and corporations have adopted quality and sustainability standards, trade regulations and laws, and certification programs to ensure no conflict or blood diamonds enter their value chain. But diamond traceability along the value chain is very poor. Few diamond producers or retailers actually investigate the route their diamonds take along the supply chain. Diamond smugglers and corrupt governments often certify diamonds without complete investigations while worker exploitation and environmental pollution continues.
In 2003 in Kimberly, South Africa the KPCS was designed to certify rough diamond shipments as âconflict-freeâ and prevent conflict diamonds from entering the value chain. This initiative has been somewhat successful but fake KPCS certification documents have been found throughout the value chain. A recent initiative is to etch a serial number on each non-conflict diamond with a laser that is not visible to the human eye. The KPCS process is criticized for focusing on front-room customer perceptions, not back-room supply chain practices.
In: Operations Management
**Only need the bold answered
In Java, implement the Athlete, Swimmer, Runner, and AthleteRoster classes below. Each class must be in separate file. Draw an UML diagram with the inheritance relationship of the classes.
1. The Athlete class
a. All class variables of the Athlete class must be private.
b.is a class with a single constructor: Athlete(String lName, String fName, int birthYear, int birthMonth, int birthDay, char gender). All arguments of the constructor should be stored as class variables. There should only be getter methods for first and last name variables. There should be no getters or setters for birthYear, birthMonth, birthDay.
c. Getter and setter methods for the gender of the athlete. The method setGender accepts a character and store it as a class variable. Characters 'm', 'M' denotes male, 'f' or 'F' denotes male or female. Any other char will be treated as undeclared. The method getGender return either the word "male" or "female" or âundeclaredâ.
The method computeAge() takes no arguments and returns the athletes computed age (as of today's date) as a string of the form "X years, Y months and Z days". Hint: Use the LocalDate and Period classes.
i. e.g. "21 years, 2 months and 3 days". ii. e.g. "21 years and 3 days".
iii. e.g. "21 years and 2 months". iv. e.g. "21 years".
v. e.g. "2 months and 3 days".
The method public long daysSinceBirth() takes no arguments and returns a long which is the number of days since the athleteâs date of birth to the current day. Hint: Use the LocalDate and ChronoUnit classes.
The toString method returns a string comprised of the results ofgetFname, getLName and computeAge. E.g.
i. âBunny Bugs is 19 years and 1 day oldâ
The equals method returns true if the name and date of birth of this athlete and the compared other athlete are the same, otherwise return false.
2. The Swimmer class
a. All class variables of the Swimmer class must be private.
inherits from the Athlete class and has a single constructor,
Swimmer(String lName, String fName, int birthYear, int birthMonth, int birthDay, char gender, String team). There should be a class variable for team. There should be a getter method for team.
The Swimmer class stores swim events for the swimmer. There should be a class variable for events. A swimmer participates in one or more of these events. The addEvent method is oveloadedand either adds a single event for the swimmer public boolean addEvent(String singleEvent) or adds a group of events for the swimmer public boolean addEvent(ArrayList multiEvents). Each event is of type String. Duplicate events are not stored and return false if duplicate found.
There should be a getter method that returns the class variable events.
The overridden toString method returns a string comprised of the concatenation of the parentâs toString return plus " and is a swimmer for team: XXXXX in the following events: YYYYY; ZZZZZZ." E.g.
i. âMissy Franklin is 24 years and 4 months old and is a swimmer for team: Colorado Stars. She participates in the following events: [100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 50m backstroke]â
3. The Runner class
a. All class variables of the Runner class must be
private.
inherits from the Athlete class and has a single constructor,
Runner(String lName, String fName, int birthYear, int birthMonth, int birthDay, char gender, String country). There should be a class variable for country. There should be a getter method for country.
The Runner class stores race events for the runner.
There should be a class variable for events. Each event is a
Distance. The list of valid events is given below:
M100, M200, M400, M3000, M5000, M10000. A runner participates inone
or more of these events. The addEvent method is oveloadedand either
adds a single event for the runner public boolean addEvent(String
singleEvent) or adds a group of events for the runner public
boolean addEvent(ArrayList multiEvents). Each event is of type
String. Duplicate events are not stored and return false if
duplicate found.
There should be a getter method that returns the class variable events.
The toString method returns a String in the form: " AAA BBBB is XX years, YY months and ZZ days. He is a citizen of CCCCCCC and is a DDDDDDDD who participates in these events: [MJ00, MK00, ML00]â. If she does not participate in M3000 or M5000 or M10000 then she is a sprinter. If she does not participate in M100 or M200 or M400 then she is a long-distance runner. Otherwise she is a super athlete. E.g.
i. âBunny Bugs is 19 years and 1 day old. His is a citizen of USA and is a long-distance runner who participates in these events: [M10000]â
4. The AthleteRoster class
a. All class variables of the AthleteRoster class must be
private.
Does not inherits from the Athlete class. The AthleteRoster class has a single constructor, AthleteRoster(String semster, int year). There should be class variables for semester and year. There should be getter methods for semester and year.
The AthleteRoster class has only one method for adding Athlete to the roster, by using the boolean addAthlete(Athlete a)method. The method returns true if the athlete was added successfully, it returns false if the athlete object already exists in the roster and therefore was not added.
Your AthleteRoster class will have only one class level data structure, an ArrayList, for storing athlete objects.
The String allAthletesOrderedByLastName() method returns a string object with of all the names of the athletes (Swimmers, Runners, etc.) in ascending order of last names(a-z).
The String allAthletesOrderedByAge() method returns a string object with of all the names of the athletes (Swimmers, Runners, etc.) in descending order of age(100-0).
The String allRunnersOrderedByNumberOfEvents() method returns a string object with of all the names of the Runners only in ascending order of number of events they participate in (0-100).
Here is the driver:
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
public class AthleteDriver {
public static void main(String args[]) {
//Check Athlete Class
Athlete a1 = new
Athlete("Daffy","Duck", 2000, 9, 7,'j'); System.out.println("Gender
is "+a1.getGender());//undeclared
a1.setGender('F');
System.out.println("Gender is
"+a1.getGender());//female
a1.setGender('m');
System.out.println("Gender is
"+a1.getGender());//male
System.out.println("ComputeAge
method says "+a1.computeAge());
System.out.println("First name is :
"+a1.getFname()); //Daffy
System.out.println("DaysSinceBirth
method says "+a1.daysSinceBirth()+" days");
System.out.println("Last name is : "+a1.getLname()); //Duck
System.out.println("Output of our
toString correct?: \n"+a1);
System.out.println("=======================================\n");
//Check Runner Class
Runner r5 = new
Runner("Bugs","Bunny", 2000, 9, 8, 'm',"USA");
System.out.println("Did we add
M10000 successfully?: "+r5.addEvent("M10000")); //true
System.out.println("Did we
unsucessfully try to add M10000 again?: "+r5.addEvent("m10000"));
//false
ArrayList<String> temp = new
ArrayList<String>(Arrays.asList("M100", "M3000"));
System.out.println("Did we successfully add mutiple
events?: "+r5.addEvent(temp));//true
System.out.println("Did we
unsucessfully try to add mutiple events?:
"+r5.addEvent(temp));//false
System.out.println("How many events
does Bugs participate in?: "+r5.getEvents().size());//3
System.out.println("Gender is
"+r5.getGender());//male
System.out.println("Output of our
toString correct?: \n"+r5);
System.out.println("=======================================\n");
//Check Swimmer Class
Swimmer s1 = new
Swimmer("Franklin", "Missy", 1995, 5, 10, 'F', "Colorado
Stars");
System.out.println("Did we add 100m
backstoke successfully?: "+s1.addEvent("100m backstoke"));
//true
System.out.println("Did we
unsucessfully try to add 100m backstoke again?: "
+s1.addEvent("100M Backstoke")); //false
temp = new
ArrayList<String>(Arrays.asList( "200m backstoke","200m
freestyle"));
System.out.println("Did we
successfully add mutiple events?: "+s1.addEvent(temp));//true
System.out.println("Did we
unsucessfully try to add mutiple events?:
"+s1.addEvent(temp));//false
System.out.println("How many events
does s1 participate in?: "+s1.getEvents().size());//4
System.out.println("Gender is "+s1.getGender());//female
System.out.println("Output of our
toString correct?: \n"+s1);
System.out.println("=======================================\n");
//Check AthleteRoster
Swimmer s2 = new Swimmer("Ruele",
"Naomi", 1997, 1, 13, 'F',"Florida International
University");
//
s2.addEvent(newArrayList<String>(Arrays.asList("100m
backstoke","50m backstoke","100m freestyle")));
// Runner r1 = new Runner("Bolt",
"Usain", 1986, 8, 21, 'M',"Jamaica");
// r1.addEvent("M100");
r1.addEvent("M200");
// Runner r2 = new Runner("Griffith",
"Florence", 1959, 12, 21, 'F',"United States of America");
r2.addEvent("M100"); r2.addEvent("M200");
// r2.addEvent("M400");
r2.addEvent("M10000"); r2.addEvent("M3000");
// r2.addEvent("M5000");
// AthleteRoster ar = new
AthleteRoster("Fall",2019);
// ar.addAthlete(a1);
// ar.addAthlete(s1);
// ar.addAthlete(r1);
// ar.addAthlete(r2);
// ar.addAthlete(s2);
// ar.addAthlete(r5);
//
System.out.println(ar.allRunnersOrderedByNumberOfEvents());
System.out.println("=======================================\n");
//
System.out.println(ar.allAthletesOrderedByAge());
System.out.println("=======================================\n");
//
System.out.println(ar.allAthletesOrderedByLastName());
System.out.println("=======================================\n");
}
}
Complete the code before the due date. Submission of the completed eclipse project is via github link posted on the class page. Add your UML drawing to the github repo. ________________________________________________________________________ Example output:
__________Example from AthleteDriver shown below
Gender is undeclared Gender is female Gender is male ComputeAge method says 19 years and 4 days First name is : Duck
DaysSinceBirth method says 6943 days Last name is : Daffy
Output of our toString correct?:
Duck Daffy is 19 years and 4 days old
=======================================
Did we add M10000 successfully?: true
Did we unsuccessfully try to add M10000 again?: false
Did we successfully add multiple events?: true
Did we unsuccessfully try to add multiple events?: false
How many events does Bugs participate in?: 3
Gender is male
Output of our toString correct?:
Bunny Bugs is 19 years and 3 days old. His is a citizen of USA and
is a super athlete who participates in these events: [M10000, M100,
M3000] =======================================
In: Computer Science
MGMT 440-03: INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
[Assignment to Replace the Group Project]
Case: Subwayâs Franchising Challenges in China
Subway, the sandwich and salad fast-food chain, operates the largest number of restaurants worldwideâmore than 44,000 stores in 110 countries. Subway generates more than $19 billion in annual revenues and has more than 25 million Facebook fans.
The franchising chain opened its first international restaurant in Bahrain in 1984. Since then, Subway (www.subway.com) has expanded worldwide and generates about one-fifth of its annual revenues internationally. The firm expects foreign markets to contribute much of its future growth.
Subway is one of the most successful fast-food chains in China. Fish and tuna salad sandwiches are the top sellers. By 2006, Subway had opened about 40 stores in China. The franchise had its share of initial setbacks. Subwayâs master franchisee in Beijing, Jim Bryant, lost money to a scheming partner and had to teach the franchising concept to a country that had never heard of it. Until recently, there was no word in Chinese for franchise.
Cultural problems are still an ongoing challenge. After Bryant opened his first Subway shop, customers stood outside and watched for a few days. When they finally tried to buy a sandwich, many were confused so Bryant printed signs explaining how to order. Some didnât believe the tuna salad was made from fish because they could not see the head or tail. Others didnât like the idea of touching their food, so they would gradually peel off the paper wrapping and eat the sandwich like a banana. To make matters worse, few customers liked sandwiches. Subway has had to create menu items that suit local tastes, such as Roasted Duck Sub.
Subwayâor Sai Bei Wei (Mandarin for âtastes better than Âothersâ)âhas forged ahead. Bryant has recruited numerous committed franchisees that he monitors closely to maintain quality. He recruited local entrepreneurs, trained them to become franchisees, and served as liaison between them and Subway headquarters. For this work, he received half of their $10,000 initial fee and one-third of their 8 percent royalty fees. Today, there are about 500 Subway stores in China.
Other multinational franchisors still face significant challenges in China, particularly in dealing with the ambiguous legal environment, finding appropriate partners, and identifying the most suitable marketing, financing, and logistics strategies. Famous brands such as A&W, Dunkinâ Donuts, and Rainforest Cafe have all experienced these issues.
Why China for Franchising?
Franchising is an advanced form of licensing. On the surface, franchising in China is attractive because of its huge market, long-term growth potential, and dramatic rise in disposable income among its rapidly expanding urban population. Fast-food sales in China are around $150 billion per year. Chinaâs urban population, the target market for casual dining has expanded rapidly, a trend expected to continue. Increasingly hectic lifestyles have led to an increase in meals the Chinese eat outside the home. Surveys reveal that Chinese consumers are interested in sampling non-Chinese foods.
Market researchers have identified several major benefits to franchising in China.
Challenges of Franchising in China
Chinaâs market also poses many challenges for franchisors.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of launching franchises in China is finding the right partners. It is paradoxical that entrepreneurs with the capital to start a restaurant often lack the franchising business experience or entrepreneurial drive, whereas entrepreneurs with sufficient drive and expertise often lack the start-up capital. Subwayâs franchise fee of $10,000 is equivalent to two yearsâ salary for the average Chinese. The banking system in China is still developing. Capital sources for small businesses are limited. Entrepreneurs often borrow funds from family members and friends to launch business ventures. Fortunately, Chinese banks are increasingly open to franchising. The Bank of China established a comprehensive credit line of $12 million for Kodak franchisees.
Availability and financing of suitable real estate are major considerations as well, particularly for initial showcase stores where location is critical. According to established Chinese law, local and foreign investors are allowed to develop, use, and administer real estate. But in many cases, the Chinese government owns real estate that is not available for individuals to purchase. Private property laws are underdeveloped, and franchisees occasionally risk eviction. Fortunately, a growing number of malls and shopping centers are good locations for franchised restaurants.
The Chinese authorities maintain restrictions on the repatriation of profits to the home country. Strict rules discourage repatriation of the initial investment, making this capital illiquid. To avoid this problem, firms make initial capital investments in stages to minimize the risk of not being able to withdraw overinvested funds. Fortunately, China is gradually relaxing its restrictions, and franchisors have been reinvesting their profits back into China to continue to fund the growth of their operations. Reinvesting profits also provides a natural hedge against exchange rate fluctuations.
Learning from the Success of Others
Experience has shown that new entrants to China often benefit from establishing a presence in Hong Kong and then moving inland to the southern provinces. Before it was absorbed by mainland China, Hong Kong was one of the worldâs leading capitalist economies. It is an excellent pro-business location to gain experience for doing business in China. In other cases, franchisors have launched stores in smaller Chinese cities, gaining experience there before expanding into more costly, competitive urban environments such as Beijing and Shanghai.
Franchisors typically must adapt offerings to suit local tastes. Appropriate suppliers and business infrastructure are often lacking. Franchisors spend much money to develop supplier and distribution networks. They also may need to build logistical infrastructure to move inputs from suppliers to individual stores. McDonaldâs has replicated its supply chain, bringing its key suppliers, such as potato supplier Simplot, to China. There is no one best approach in China. For instance, TGI Fridayâs imports roughly three-quarters of its food supplies, which helps maintain quality, but heavy importing is expensive and exposes profitability to exchange rate fluctuations.
Assignment Questions:
1. Subway brings to China various intellectual property in the form of trademarks, patents, and an entire business system.
1.1. What are the specific threats to Subwayâs intellectual Âproperty in China? (20 points)
1.2. What can Subway do to protect its intellectual Âproperty in China? (20 points)
2. Franchising has both advantages and disadvantages.
2.1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of franchising in China from Jim Bryantâs perspective? (25 points)
2.2. What can Bryant do to overcome the disadvantages? (25 points)
4. Grammar, spelling, and organization (10 points).
Grading Criteria:
1. Clarity and specificity of arguments. You should clearly answer whether Rob Parson should be promoted or not.
2. Soundness of arguments presented.
3. Quality of writing.
4. Grammar and spelling.
NOTE #2: DUE DATE: APRIL 17, 2020.
In: Operations Management
this there any way to shorten the line of code. Right now it about 300 line of code is there anyway to shorten it to 200 or so line of code?
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Desktop;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.net.URL;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JColorChooser;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JRadioButton;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.KeyStroke;
//MyMenuFrame will use Jframe with actionlistener
class MyMenuFrame extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
//creating the main menu items
JMenu menuEdit = new JMenu("Edit");
JMenu menuPrint = new JMenu("Print");
JMenu mnFile = new JMenu("File");
JMenu menuHelp = new JMenu("Help");
//creating the submenu items here because we are gonna use these
across the code
JRadioButton subMenuItem1 = new JRadioButton("Times New
Roman");
JRadioButton subMenuItem2 = new JRadioButton("Arial");
JRadioButton subMenuItem3 = new JRadioButton("Serif");
JCheckBox subMenuItem4 = new JCheckBox("Bold");
JCheckBox subMenuItem5 = new JCheckBox("Italic");
//provide scrollable view of a component
JScrollPane scrollPane;
//creating notePadArea for notepad to input the text
JTextArea notePadArea;
public MyMenuFrame() {
//setting the border layout for JFrame
this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
// create menu bar named menuBar
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
this.setJMenuBar(menuBar);//adding the menubar to JFrame
// create File menu
mnFile.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);//Alt+F
menuBar.add(mnFile);//adding the menufile
// create Open menu item
JMenuItem mntmOpen = new JMenuItem("Open");//creating the Open menu
mntmOpen.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_O);//Alt+O command
mntmOpen.setActionCommand("open");//when the command equals to 'open' then the corresponding action will be performed
mntmOpen.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('O', KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK));//respond when user clicks Ctrl+O
mntmOpen.addActionListener(this);//adding actionLister to the Menu Option Open
// create Save menu item
JMenuItem mntmSave = new JMenuItem("Save");//creating the Save menu
mntmSave.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_S);//Alt+S command
mntmSave.setActionCommand("save");//when the command equals to 'save' then the corresponding action will be performed
mntmSave.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('S', KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK));//respond when user clicks Ctrl+S
mntmSave.addActionListener(this);//adding actionLister to the Menu Option Save
// create Exit menu item
JMenuItem mntmExit = new JMenuItem("Exit");//creating the Exit menu
mntmExit.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_X);//Alt+X command
mntmExit.setActionCommand("exit");//when the command equals to 'exit' then the corresponding action will be performed
mntmExit.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('X', KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK));//respond when user clicks Ctrl+X
mntmExit.addActionListener(this);//adding actionLister to the Menu Option Exit
// add open, save and exit menu to menu-bar
mnFile.add(mntmOpen);
mnFile.addSeparator();//adding separator between open and save
mnFile.add(mntmSave);
mnFile.addSeparator();//adding separator between save and exit
mnFile.add(mntmExit);
// create Edit menu
menuEdit.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_E);//creating shortcut menu when user press Alt+E
menuBar.add(menuEdit);//adding the Edit to the menubar
JMenu submenu1 = new JMenu("Color");//creating the new menu
which comes under Edit
submenu1.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_C);//creating shortcut menu when
user press Alt+C
JMenuItem menuItem0 = new JMenuItem("Change Color");//creating
submenu item called change color
menuItem0.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('C',
KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK));//it responds when user click
Ctrl+C
menuItem0.setActionCommand("color");//setting the command used to
call the correcponding action when user click this
menuItem0.addActionListener(this);//adding actionlistener
submenu1.add(menuItem0);//adding this menu item to submenu
menuEdit.add(submenu1);//adding this submenu to editmenu
menuEdit.addSeparator();//creating separator between Color and
Font
ActionListener sm1 = new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
subMenuItem1.setSelected(true);
subMenuItem2.setSelected(false);
subMenuItem3.setSelected(false);
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Times New Roman", Font.PLAIN,
20));
}
};
ActionListener sm2 = new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
subMenuItem2.setSelected(true);
subMenuItem1.setSelected(false);
subMenuItem3.setSelected(false);
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 20));
}
};
ActionListener sm3 = new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
subMenuItem3.setSelected(true);
subMenuItem2.setSelected(false);
subMenuItem1.setSelected(false);
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 20));
}
};
JMenu submenu = new JMenu("Font");//creating the new menu which
comes under Edit
submenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);//creating shortcut menu when
user press Alt+F
subMenuItem1.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_T);//creating shortcut menu
when user press Alt+T for Times New Roman
subMenuItem1.setActionCommand("times_new_roman");//setting the
command used to call the correcponding action when user click
this
subMenuItem1.addActionListener(sm1);//adding actionlistener
submenu.add(subMenuItem1);//adding to the submenu
subMenuItem2.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_A);//creating shortcut key
Alt+A
subMenuItem2.setActionCommand("arial");//respond when the command
equals to arial
subMenuItem2.addActionListener(sm2);//adding action listener
submenu.add(subMenuItem2);//adding it to the submenu
subMenuItem3.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_S);
subMenuItem3.setActionCommand("serif");
subMenuItem3.addActionListener(sm3);
submenu.add(subMenuItem3);
submenu.addSeparator();
subMenuItem4.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_B);
subMenuItem4.setActionCommand("bold");
subMenuItem4.addActionListener(this);
submenu.add(subMenuItem4);
subMenuItem5.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_I);
subMenuItem5.setActionCommand("italic");
subMenuItem5.addActionListener(this);
submenu.add(subMenuItem5);
menuEdit.add(submenu);
// create Print menu
menuPrint.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_P);
menuBar.add(menuPrint);
JMenuItem menuItemPrint = new JMenuItem("Send To Printer");
menuItemPrint.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('P', KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK));
menuItemPrint.setActionCommand("print");
menuItemPrint.addActionListener(this);
menuPrint.add(menuItemPrint);
// create Help menu
menuHelp.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_H);
menuBar.add(menuHelp);
JMenuItem menuItemHelp = new JMenuItem("About");
menuItemHelp.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('A', KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK));
menuItemHelp.setActionCommand("about");
menuItemHelp.addActionListener(this);
JMenuItem menuItemVisitHomePage = new JMenuItem("Visit Home Page");
menuItemVisitHomePage.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('V', KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK));
menuItemVisitHomePage.setActionCommand("visithomepage");
menuItemVisitHomePage.addActionListener(this);
menuHelp.add(menuItemHelp);
menuHelp.addSeparator();
menuHelp.add(menuItemVisitHomePage);
notePadArea = new JTextArea();
// set no word wrap
notePadArea.setWrapStyleWord(false);
// create scrollable pane
scrollPane = new JScrollPane(notePadArea, JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS , JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
this.add(scrollPane,BorderLayout.CENTER);
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if(e.getActionCommand().equals("exit")) {
System.exit(0);
}else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("open")) {
JFileChooser file = new JFileChooser();
String fileName = "";//initial filename was empty
// show open file dialog
if (file.showOpenDialog(this) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
fileName = file.getSelectedFile().getAbsolutePath();
} else {
return;
}
try(BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));) {
// load file content into text area
StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer();//creating a string buffer for reading data from file
String lines = "";//for reading the lines from the selecting file
while((lines = bufferedReader.readLine() ) != null) {//it'll read untill the file ends
stringBuffer.append(lines).append("\n");//for every line read insert new line in stringBuffer
}
bufferedReader.close();//after reading of file done, the bufferedReader will be close
notePadArea.setText(stringBuffer.toString());//converting the read text to string and inserting this text into textArea
} catch (Exception error1) {//if any exception occures
System.out.println(error1.toString());//convert the expection into string and print it
}
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("save")) {//if the user click the save command then the file will gonna saved
JFileChooser file = new JFileChooser();//creating the file
chooser
String fileName = "";//initial file name is empty
// show open file dialog
if (file.showSaveDialog(this) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {//if the user select file and clicks OK button
fileName = file.getSelectedFile().getAbsolutePath();
} else {//other wise will be closed
return;
}
try(BufferedWriter bufferedWriter = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(fileName));) {
// write editor's content to selected file.
bufferedWriter.write(notePadArea.getText());//get the text
entered in textarea
bufferedWriter.flush();//clear the writer
} catch(Exception ex1) {}
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("color")) {
Color select_color = JColorChooser.showDialog(this, "Select a
color", Color.RED);
notePadArea.setForeground(select_color);
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("times_new_roman"))
{
if(subMenuItem1.isSelected())
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Times New Roman", Font.PLAIN,
20));
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("arial")) {
if(subMenuItem2.isSelected())
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 20));
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("serif")) {
if(subMenuItem3.isSelected())
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 20));
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("bold")) {
if(subMenuItem4.isSelected()){
if(subMenuItem5.isSelected()){
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD+Font.ITALIC,
20));
}else{
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 20));
}
}else{
if(!subMenuItem5.isSelected())
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 20));
}
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("italic")) {
if(subMenuItem5.isSelected()){
if(subMenuItem4.isSelected()){
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD+Font.ITALIC,
20));
}else{
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.ITALIC, 20));
}
}else{
if(!subMenuItem4.isSelected())
notePadArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 20));
}
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("print")) {
int output = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog(this, "Do you want to
print the File","Confirmation", JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION);
if(output==0){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "The file is successfully
printed","Confirmation", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
}
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("changecolor")){
System.out.println("Color clicked");
}
else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("about")) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "This software is developed in 2019\nVersion is 1.0","About", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
} else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("visithomepage")) {
openWebpage("http://www.microsoft.com");
}
}
private void openWebpage (String urlString) {
try {
Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new URL(urlString).toURI());
}
catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
import javax.swing.JFrame;
public class MyMenuFrameTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyMenuFrame frame = new MyMenuFrame();
frame.setTitle("MyNotepad");
//for the title of the box
frame.setSize(600, 400);
//for the size of the box
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
In: Computer Science
Question: Summarize the below case study by stating what happened, where it happened, who was involved, and the significance of the event in 300-400 words.
Case Study: Alan Cohen still remembers the
first time he heard the word â Apacheâ as an adult, and it wasnâ t
while watching a cowboys-and-Indians movie. It was the 1990s, the
dot-com market was booming, and he was a senior manager for IBM,
helping to oversee its emerging e-commerce business. â1 had a whole
team with me and a budget of about $8 million, â Cohen recalled.
âWe were competing head-to-head with Microsoft, Netscape, Oracle,
Sun-all the big boys. And we were playing this very big-stakes game
for e-commerce. IBM had a huge sales force selling all this
e-commerce software. One day I asked the development director who
worked for me, â Say, Jeff, walk me through the development process
for this e-commerce systems. What is the underlying Web server?â
And he says to me, Itâ s built on top of Apache.â The first thing I
think of is John Wayne. âWhat is Apache?â I ask. And he says it is
a shareware program for Web server technology. He said it was
produced for free by a bunch of geeks just working online in some
kind of open-source chat room. I was floored. I said, â How do you
buy it?â And he says, Tou download it off a Web site for free.â And
I said, âWell, who supports it if something goes wrong?â And he
says, â I donâ t know~it just works! â And that was my first
exposure to Apache . . .
"Now you have to remember, back then Microsoft, IBM, Oracle,
Netscape were all trying to build commercial Web servers. These
were huge companies. And suddenly my development guy is telling me
that heâ s getting ours off the Internet for free! Itâs like you
had all these big corporate executives plotting strategies, and
then suddenly the guys in the mail room are in charge. I kept
asking, âWho runs Apache? I mean,
who are these guys?â â
Yes, the geeks in the mail room are deciding what software they
will be using and what you will be using too. Itâ s called the
open-source movement, and it involves thousands of people around
the world coming together online to collaborate in writing
everything from their own software to their own operating systems
to their own dictionary to their own recipe for cola-building
always from the bottom up rather than accepting formats or content
imposed by corporate hierarchies from the top down.
The word âopen-sourceâ comes from the notion that companies or ad
hoc groups would make available online the source code-the
underlying programming instructions that make a piece of software
work-and then let anyone who has something to contribute improve it
and let millions of others just download it for their own use for
free. While commercial software is copyrighted and sold, and
companies guard the source code as they would their crown jewels so
they can charge money to anyone who wants to use it and thereby
generate income to develop new versions, opensource software is
shared, constantly improved by its users, and made available for
free to anyone. In return, every user who comes up with an
improvement-a patch that makes this software sing or dance
better-is encouraged to make that patch available to every other
user for free.
Not being a computer geek, I had never focused much on the
open-source movement, but when I did, I discovered it was an
amazing universe of its own, with communities of online,
come-as-you-are volunteers who share their insights with one
another and then offer it to the public for nothing. They do it
because they want something the market does nâ t offer them; they
do it for the psychic buzz that comes from creating a collective
product that can beat something produced by giants like Microsoft
or IBM, and-even more important-to earn the respect of their
intellectual peers. Indeed, these guys and gals are one of the most
interesting and controversial new forms of collaboration that have
been facilitated by the flat world and are flattening it even
more.
In order to explain how this form of collaboration works, why it is
a flattener and why, by the way, it has stirred so many
controversies and will be stirring even more in the future, I am
going to focus on just two basic varieties of open-sourcing: the
intellectual commons movement and the free software movement.
The intellectual commons form of open-sourcing has its roots in the
academic and scientific communities, where for a long time
self-organized collaborative communities of scientists have come
together through private networks and later the Internet to pool
their brainpower or share insights around a particular science or
math problem. The Apache Web server had its roots in this form of
open-sourcing. When I asked a friend of mine, Mike Arguello, an IT
systems architect, to explain to me why people share knowledge or
work in this way, he said, "IT people tend to be very bright people
and they want everybody to know just how brilliant they are. " Marc
Andreessen, who invented the first Web browser, agreed: "
Open-source is nothing more than peer-reviewed science. Sometimes
people contribute to these things because they make science, and
they discover things, and the reward is reputation. Sometimes you
can build a business out of it, sometimes they just want to
increase the store of knowledge in the world. And the peer review
part is critical~and open-source is peer review. Every bug or
security hole or deviation from standards is reviewed. I found this
intellectual commons form of open-sourcing fascinating, so I went
exploring to find out who were those guys and girls in the mail
room. Eventually, I found my way to one of their pioneers, Brian
Behlendorf. If Apache-the open-source Web server community-were an
Indian tribe, Behlendorf would be the tribal elder. I caught up
with him one day in his glass-and-steel office near the San
Francisco airport, where he is now founder and chief technology
officer of CollabNet, a start-up focused on creating software for
companies that want to use an open-source approach to innovation. I
started with two simple questions: Where did you come from? and:
How did you manage to pull together an open-source community of
online geeks that could go toe-to-toe with IBM?
"My parents met at IBM in Southern California, and I grew up in a
town just north of Pasadena, La Canada, " Behlendorf recalled. "The
public school was very competitive academically, because a lot of
the kidsâ parents worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was
run by Caltech there. So from a very early age I was around a lot
of science in a place where it was okay to be kind of geeky. We
always had computers around the house. We used to use punch cards
from the original IBM mainframes for making shopping lists. In
grade school, I started doing some basic programming, and by high
school I was pretty into computers. . . I graduated in 1991, but in
1989, in the early days of the Internet, a friend gave me a copy of
a program he had downloaded onto a floppy disk, called â Fractint.
â It was not pirated, but was freeware, produced by a group of
programmers, and was a program for drawing fractals. [Fractals are
beautiful images produced at the intersection of art and math. ]
When the program started up, the screen would show this scrolling
list of e-mail addresses for all the scientists and mathematicians
who contributed to it. I noticed that the source code was included
with the program. This was my first exposure to the concept of
open-source. Here was this program that you just downloaded for
free, and they even gave you the source code with it, and it was
done by a community of people. It started to paint a different
picture of programming in my mind. I started to think that there
were some interesting social dynamics to the way certain kinds of
software were written or could be written-as opposed to the kind of
image I had of the professional software developer in the back
office tending to the mainframe, feeding info in and taking it out
for the business. That seemed to me to be just one step above
accounting and not very exciting. "
After graduating in 1991, Behlendorf went to Berkeley to study
physics, but he quickly became frustrated by the disconnect between
the abstractions he was learning in the classroom and the
excitement that was starting to emerge on the Internet.
"When you entered college back then, every student was given an
e-mail address, and I started using it to talk to students and
explore discussion boards that were starting to appear around
music, " said Behlendorf. "In 1992, 1 started my own Internet
mailing list focused on the local electronic music scene in the Bay
Area. People could just post onto the discussion board, and it
started to grow, and we started to discuss different music events
and DJs. Then we said, âHey, why donâ t we invite our own DJs and
throw our own events?â It became a collective thing. Someone would
say, â I have some records, â and someone else would say, â I have
a sound system, â and someone else would say, â I know the beach
and if we showed up at midnight we could have a party.â By 1993,
the Internet was still just mailing lists and e-mail and FTP sites
[file transfer protocol repositories where you could store things].
So I started collecting an archive of electronic music and was
interested in how we could put this online and make it available to
a larger audience. That was when I heard about Mosaic [the Web
browser developed by Marc Andreessen. ] So I got a job at the
computer lab in the Berkeley business school, and I spent my spare
time researching Mosaic and other Web technologies. That led me to
a discussion board with a lot of the people who were writing the
first generation of Web browsers and Web servers. "
(A Web server is a software program that enables anyone to use his
or her home or office computer to host a Web site on the World Wide
Web. Amazon. com, for instance, has long run its Web site on Apache
software.
When your Web browser goes to www.amazon.com, the very first piece
of software it talks to is Apache. The browser asks Apache for the
Amazon Web page and Apache sends back to the browser the content of
the Amazon Web page. Surfing the Web is really your Web browser
interacting with different Web servers. )
"I found myself sitting in on this forum watching Tim Berners-Lee
and Marc Andreessen debating how all these things should work, "
recalled Behlendorf. '"It was pretty exciting, and it seemed
radically inclusive. I didnât need a Ph. D. or any special
credentials, and I started to see some parallels between my music
group and these scientists, who had a common interest in building
the first Web software. I followed that [discussion] for a while
and then I told a friend of mine about it. He was one of the first
employees at Wired magazine, and he said Wired would be interested
in having me set up a Web site for them. So I joined there at $10
an hour, setting up their e-mail and their first Web site-HotWired
... It was one of the first ad-supported online magazines. "
HotWired decided it wanted to start by having a registration system
that required passwords-a controversial concept at that time. "In
those days, noted Andrew Leonard, who wrote a history of Apache for
Salon,com in 1997, "most Webmasters depended on a Web server
program developed at the University of Illinoisâ s National Center
for Supercomputing Applications (also the birthplace of the
groundbreaking Mosaic Web browser). But the NCSA Web server couldnâ
t handle password authentication on the scale that HotWired needed.
Luckily, the NCSA server was in the public domain, which meant that
the source code was free to all comers. So Behlendorf exercised the
hacker prerogative: He wrote some new code, a â patchâ to the NCSA
Web server, that took care of the problem. " Leonard commented, "He
wasnâ t the only clever programmer rummaging through the NCSA code
that winter. All across the exploding Web, other Webmasters were
finding it necessary to take matters into their own keyboards. The
original code had been left to gather virtual dust when its primary
programmer, University of Illinois student Rob McCool, had been
scooped up (along with Marc Andreessen and Lynx author Eric Bina)
by a little-known company in Silicon Valley named Netscape.
Meanwhile, the Web refused to stop growing-and kept creating new
problems for Web servers to cope with. " So patches of one kind or
another proliferated like Band-Aids on bandwidth, plugging one hole
here and breaching another gap there.
Meanwhile, all these patches were slowly, in an ad hoc open-source
manner, building a new modern Web server. But everyone had his or
her own version, trading patches here and there, because the NCSA
lab couldnâ t keep up with it all.
"I was just this near-dropout, explained Behlendorf. "I was having
a lot of fun building this Web site for Wired and learning more
than I was learning at Berkeley. So a discussion started in our
little working group that the NCSA people were not answering our
e-mails. We were sending in patches for the system and they werenât
responding. And we said, â If NCSA would not respond to our
patches, whatâ s going to happen in the future?â We were happy to
continue improving this thing, yet we were worried when we were not
getting any feedback and seeing our patches integrated. So I
started to contact the other people I knew trading patches. . .
Most of them were on the standards working groups [the Internet
Engineering Task Force] that were setting the first standards for
the interconnectivity between machines and applications on the
Internet. . . And we said, âWhy donâ t we take our future into our
own hands and release our own [Web server] version that
incorporated all our patches?â "We looked up the copyright for the
NCSA code, and it basically just said give us credit at Illinois
for what we invented if you improve it-and donâ t blame us if it
breaks, " recalled Behlendorf. "So we started building our own
version from all our patches. None of us had time to be a full-time
Web server developer, but we thought if we could combine our time
and do it in a public way, we could create something better than we
could buy off the shelf-and nothing was available then, anyway.
This was all before Netscape had shipped its first commercial Web
server. That was the beginning of the Apache project. "
By February 1999, they had completely rewritten the original NCSA
program and formalized their cooperation under the name "Apache.
"
"I picked the name because I wanted it to have a positive
connotation of being assertive, " said Behlendorf. "The Apache
tribe was the last tribe to surrender to the oncoming U. S.
government, and at the time we worried that the big companies would
come in and â civilizeâ the landscape that the early Internet
engineers built. So âApacheâ made sense to me as a good code name,
and others said it also would make a good pun"-as in the APAtCHy
server, because they were patching all these fixes together.
So in many ways, Bellendorf and his open-source colleagues-most of
whom he had never met but knew only by e-mail through their
open-source chat room-had created a virtual, online, bottom-up
software factory, which no one owned and no one supervised. "We had
a software project, but the coordination and direction were an
emergent behavior based on whoever showed up and wanted to write
code, " he said.
But how does it actually work? I asked Behlendorf. You canâ t just
have a bunch of people, unmonitored, throwing code together, can
you?
"Most software development involves a source code repository and is
managed by tools such as the Concurrent Versions System, " he
explained. "So there is a CVS server out there, and I have a CVS
program on my computer. It allows me to connect to the server and
pull down a copy of the code, so I can start working with it and
making modifications. If I think my patch is something I want to
share with others, I run a program called Patch, which allows me to
create a new file, a compact collection of all the changes. That is
called a patch file, and I can give that file to someone else, and
they can apply it to their copy of the code to see what impact that
patch has. If I have the right privileges to the server [which is
restricted to a tightly controlled oversight board], I can then
take my patch and commit it to the repository and it will become
part of the source code. The CVS server keeps track of everything
and who sent in what. . . So you might have â read accessâ to the
repository but not 'commit accessâ to change things. When someone
makes a commit to the repository, that patch file gets e-mailed out
to all the other developers, and so you get this peer review system
after the fact, and if there is something wrong, you fix the bug."
So how does this community decide who are trusted members?
âFor Apache, said Behlendorf, "we started with eight people who
really trusted each other, and as new people showed up at the
discussion forum and offered patch files posted to the discussion
form, we would gain trust in others, and that eight grew to over
one thousand. We were the first open-source project to get
attention from the business community and get the backing from
IBM."
Because of Apacheâ s proficiency at allowing a single-server
machine to host thousands of different virtual Web sites-music,
data, text, pornography-it began to have "a commanding share of the
Internet Service Provider market," noted Salonâ s Leonard. IBM was
trying to sell its own proprietary Web server, called GO, but it
gained only a tiny sliver of the market. Apache proved to be both a
better technology and free. So IBM eventually decided that if it
could not beat Apache, it should join Apache. You have to stop here
and imagine this. The worldâ s biggest computer company decided
that its engineers could not best the work of an ad hoc open-source
collection of geeks, so they threw out their own technology and
decided to go with the geeks! IBM ^initiated contact with me, as I
had a somewhat public speaker role for Apache, said Behlendorf. IBM
said, âWe would like to figure out how we can use [Apache] and not
get flamed by the Internet community, [how we can] make it
sustainable and not just be ripping people off but contributing to
the process. . . â IBM was saying that this new model for software
development was trustworthy and valuable, so letâ s invest in it
and get rid of the one that we are trying to make on our own, which
isnât as good.
John Swainson was the senior IBM executive who led the team that
approached Apache (heâ s now chairman of Computer Associates). He
picked up the story: There was a whole debate going on at the time
about open-source, but it was all over the place. We decided we
could deal with the Apache guys because they answered our
questions. We could hold a meaningful conversation with these guys,
and we were able to create the [nonprofit] Apache Software
Foundation and work out all the issues. "
At IBMâ s expense, its lawyers worked with the Apache group to
create a legal framework around it so that there would be no
copyright or liability problems for companies, like IBM, that
wanted to build applications on top of Apache and charge money for
them. IBM saw the value in having a standard vanilla Web server
architecture-which allowed heterogeneous computer systems and
devices to talk to each other, displaying e-mail and Web pages in a
standard format-that was constantly being improved for free by an
open-source community. The Apache collaborators did not set out to
make free software. They set out to solve a common problem-feb
serving-and found that collaborating for free in this open-source
manner was the best way to assemble the best brains for the job
they needed done.
"When we started working with Apache, there was an apache, org Web
site but no formal legal structure, and businesses and informal
structures donâ t coexist well, " said Swainson. "You need to be
able to vet the code, sign an agreement, and deal with liability
issues. [Today] anybody can download the Apache code. The only
obligation is that they acknowledge that it came from the site, and
if they make any changes that they share them back. " There is an
Apache development process that manages the traffic, and you earn
your way into that process, added Swainson. It is something like a
pure meritocracy. When IBM started using Apache, it became part of
the community and started making contributions.
Indeed, the one thing the Apache people demanded in return for
their collaboration with IBM was that IBM assign its best engineers
to join the Apache open-source group and contribute, like everyone
else, for free. "The Apache people were not interested in payment
of cash," said Swainson. "They wanted contribution to the base. Our
engineers came to us and said, â These guys who do Apache are good
and they are insisting that we contribute good people. â At first
they rejected some of what we contributed.
They said it wasnât up to their standards! The compensation that
the community expected was our best contribution. "
On June 22, 1998, IBM announced plans to incorporate Apache into
its own new Web server product, named WebSphere. The way the Apache
collaborative community organized itself, whatever you took out of
Apacheâ s code and improved on, you had to give back to the whole
community. But you were also free to go out and build a patented
commercial product on top of the Apache code, as IBM did, provided
that you included a copyright citation to Apache in your own
patent. In other words, this intellectual commons approach to
open-sourcing encouraged people to build commercial products on top
of it. While it wanted the foundation to be free and open to all,
it recognized that it would remain strong and fresh if both
commercial and noncommercial engineers had an incentive to
participate.
Today Apache is one of the most successful open-source tools,
powering about two-thirds of the Web sites in the world. And
because Apache can be downloaded for free anywhere in the world,
people from Russia to South Africa to Vietnam use it to create Web
sites. Those individuals who need or want added capabilities for
their Web servers can buy products like WebSphere, which attach
right on top of Apache. At the time, selling a product built on top
of an open-source program was a risky move on IBMâ s part. To its
credit, IBM was confident in its ability to keep producing
differentiated software applications on top of the Apache vanilla.
This model has since been widely adopted, after everyone saw how it
propelled IBMâ s Web server business to commercial leadership in
that category of software, generating huge amounts of
revenue.
As I will repeat often in this book: There is no future in vanilla
for most companies in a flat world. A lot of vanilla making in
software and other areas is going to shift to open-source
communities. For most companies, the commercial future belongs to
those who know how to make the richest chocolate sauce, the
sweetest, lightest whipped cream, and the juiciest cherries to sit
on top, or how to put them all together into a sundae. Jack
Messman, chairman of the Novell software company, which has now
become a big distributor of Linux, the open-source operating
system, atop which Novell attaches gizmos to make it sing and dance
just for your company, put it best: "Commercial software companies
have to start operating further up the [software] stack to
differentiate themselves. The open source community is basically
focusing on infrastructure* (Financial Times, June 14, 2004).
The IBM deal was a real watershed. Big Blue was saying that it
believed in the open-source model and that with the Apache Web
server, this open-source community of engineers had created
something that was not just useful and valuable but "best in its
class. " Thatâ s why the open-source movement has become a powerful
flattener, the effects of which we are just beginning to see. "It
is incredibly empowering of individuals, " Brian Behlendorf said.
"It doesnâ t matter where you come from or where you are-someone in
India and South America can be just as effective using this
software or contributing to it as someone in Silicon Valley. " The
old model is winner take all: I wrote it, I own it-the standard
software license model. "The only way to compete against that, "
concluded Behlendorf, "is to all become winners. "
Behlendorf, for his part, is betting his career that more and more
people and companies will want to take advantage of the new
flat-world platform to do open-source innovation. In 2004, he
started a new company called CollabNet to promote the use of
open-sourcing as a tool to drive software innovation within
companies. "Our premise is that software is not gold, it is
lettuce-it is a perishable good, " explained Behlendorf. "If the
software is not in a place where it is getting improved over time,
it will rot. " What the open-source community has been doing, said
Behlendorf, is globally coordinated distributed software
development, where it is constantly freshening the lettuce so that
it never goes rotten. Behlendorfs premise is that the open-source
community developed a better method for creating and constantly
updating software. CollabNet is a company created to bring the best
open-source techniques to a closed community, i. e. , a commercial
software company.
"CollabNet is an arms dealer to the forces flattening the world, "
said Behlendorf. "Our role in this world is to build the tools and
infrastructure so that an individual-in India, China, or
wherever-as a consultant, an employee, or just someone sitting at
home can collaborate. We are giving them the toolkit for
decentralized collaborative development. We are enabling bottom-up
development, and not just in cyberspace... We have large
corporations who are now interested in creating a bottom-up
environment for writing software. The old top-down, silo software
model is broken. That system said, â I develop something and then I
throw it over the wall to you. You find the bugs and then throw it
back. I patch it and then sell a new version. â There is constant
frustration with getting software that is buggy-maybe it will get
fixed or maybe not. So we said, âWouldnât it be interesting if we
could take the open-source benefits of speed of innovation and
higher-quality software, and that feeling of partnership with all
these stakeholders, and turn that into a business model for
corporations to be more collaborative both within and without?â
"
I like the way Irving fladawsky-Berger, IBMâ s Cuban-born vice
president for technical strategy and innovation, summed
open-sourcing up: "This emerging era is characterized by the
collaborative innovation of many people working in gifted
communities, just as innovation in the industrial era was
characterized by individual genius. "
The striking thing about the intellectual commons form of
open-sourcing is how quickly it has morphed into other spheres and
spawned other self-organizing collaborative communities, which are
flattening hierarchies in their areas. I see this most vividly in
the news profession, where bloggers, one-person online
commentators, who often link to one another depending on their
ideology, have created a kind of open-source newsroom. I now read
bloggers (the term comes from the word "Weblog") as part of my
daily information-gathering routine. In an article about how a tiny
group of relatively obscure news bloggers were able to blow the
whistle that exposed the bogus documents used by CBS Newsâ s Dan
Rather in his infamous report about President George W. Bushâ s Air
National Guard service, Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post wrote
(September 20, 2004), "It was like throwing a match on
kerosene-soaked wood. The ensuing blaze ripped through the media
establishment as previously obscure bloggers managed to put the
network of Murrow and Cronkite firmly on the defensive. The secret,
says Charles Johnson, is âopen-source intelligence gathering.â
Meaning: âWeâve got a huge pool of highly motivated people who go
out there and use tools to find stuff. Weâve got an army of citizen
journalists out there. â "That army is often armed with nothing
more than a tape recorder, a camera-enabled cell phone, and a Web
site, but in a flat world it can collectively get its voice heard
as far and wide as CBS or The New York Times. These bloggers have
created their own online commons, with no barriers to entry. That
open commons often has many rumors and wild allegations swirling in
it. Because no one is in charge, standards of practice vary wildly,
and some of it is downright irresponsible. But because no one is in
charge, information flows with total freedom. And when this
community is on to something real, like the Rather episode, it can
create as much energy, buzz, and hard news as any network or major
newspaper.
Another intellectual commons collaboration that I used regularly in
writing this book is Wikipedia, the user-contributed online
encyclopedia, also known as "the peopleâs encyclopedia. " The word
"wikis" is taken from the Hawaiian word for "quick. "Wikis are Web
sites that allow users to directly edit any Web page on their own
from their home computer. In a May 5, 2004, essay on YaleGlobal
online, Andrew Lih, an assistant professor at the Journalism and
Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong, explained how
Wikipedia works and why it is such a breakthrough.
"The Wikipedia project was started by Jimmy Wales, head of Internet
startup Bomis.com, after his original project for a volunteer, but
strictly controlled, free encyclopedia ran out of money and
resources after two years, " wrote Lih. '"Editors with PhD degrees
were at the helm of the project then, but it produced only a few
hundred articles. Not wanting the content to languish, Wales placed
the pages on a wiki Website in January 2001 and invited any
Internet visitors to edit or add to the collection. The site became
a runaway success in the first year and gained a loyal following,
generating over 20,000 articles and spawning over a dozen language
translations. After two years, it had 100, 000 articles, and in
April 2004, it exceeded 250, 000 articles in English and 600, 000
articles in 50 other languages. And according to Website rankings
at Alexa. com, it has become more popular than traditional online
encyclopedias such as Britannica. com. "
How, you might ask, does one produce a credible, balanced
encyclopedia by way of an ad hoc open-source, open-editing
movement? After all, every article in the Wikipedia has an "Edit
this page" button, allowing anyone who surfs along to add or delete
content on that page.
It starts with the fact, Lih explained, that "because wikis provide
the ability to track the status of articles, review individual
changes, and discuss issues, they function as social software. Wiki
Websites also track and store every modification made to an
article, so no operation is ever permanently destructive. Wikipedia
works by consensus, with users adding and modifying content while
trying to reach common ground along the way.
"However, the technology is not enough on its own, " wrote Lih.
"Wales created an editorial policy of maintaining a neutral point
of view (NP0V) as the guiding principle. . . According to
Wikipediaâ s guidelines, The neutral point of view attempts to
present ideas and facts in such a fashion that both supporters and
opponents can agree . . . â As a result, articles on contentious
issues such as globalization have benefited from the cooperative
and global nature of Wikipedia. Over the last two years, the entry
has had more than 90 edits by contributors from the Netherlands,
Belgium, Sweden, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, United States,
Malaysia, Japan and China. It provides a manifold view of issues
from the World Trade Organization and multinational corporations to
the anti-globalization movement and threats to cultural diversity.
At the same time malicious contributors are kept in check because
vandalism is easily undone. Users dedicated to fixing vandalism
watch the list of recent changes, fixing problems within minutes,
if not seconds. A defaced article can quickly be returned to an
acceptable version with just one click of a button. This crucial
asymmetry tips the balance in favor of productive and cooperative
members of the wiki community, allowing quality content to prevail.
" A Newsweek piece on Wikipedia (November 1, 2004) quoted Angela
Beesley, a volunteer contributor from Essex, England, and
self-confessed Wikipedia addict who monitors the accuracy of more
than one thousand entries: "A collaborative encyclopedia sounds
like a crazy idea, but it naturally controls itself. "
Meanwhile, Jimmy Wales is just getting started. He told Newsweek
that he is expanding into Wiktionary, a dictionary and thesaurus;
Wikibooks, textbooks and manuals; and Wikiquote, a book of
quotations. He said he has one simple goal: to give "every single
person free access to the sum of all human knowledge."
Walesâ s ethic that everyone should have free access to all human
knowledge is undoubtedly heartfelt, but it also brings us to the
controversial side of open-source: If everyone contributes his or
her intellectual capital for free, where will the resources for new
innovation come from? And wonâ t we end up in endless legal
wrangles over which part of any innovation was made by the
community for free, and meant to stay that way, and which part was
added on by some company for profit and has to be paid for so that
the company can make money to drive further innovation? These
questions are all triggered by the other increasingly popular form
of self-organized collaboration-the free software movement.
According to the open knowledge. org Web site, "The free/open
source software movement began in the âhackerâ culture of U. S.
computer science laboratories (Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon,
and MIT) in the I960â s and 1970â s. The community of programmers
was small, and close-knit. Code passed back and forth between the
members of the community-if you made an improvement you were
expected to submit your code to the community of developers. To
withhold code was considered gauche-after all, you benefited from
the work of your friends, you should return the favor. "
The free software movement, however, was and remains inspired by
the ethical ideal that software should be free and available to
all, and it relies on open-source collaboration to help produce the
best software possible to be distributed for free.
This a bit different from the approach of the intellectual commons
folks, like Apache.
They saw open-sourcing as a technically superior means of creating
software and other innovations, and while Apache was made available
to all for free, it had no problem with commercial software being
built on top of it. The Apache group allowed anyone who created a
derivative work to own it himself, provided he acknowledge the
Apache contribution.
The primary goal of the free software movement, however, is to get
as many people as possible writing, improving, and distributing
software for free, out of a conviction that this will empower
everyone and free individuals from the grip of global corporations.
Generally speaking, the free software movement structures its
licenses so that if your commercial software draws directly from
their free software copyright, they want your software to be free
too.
In 1984, according to Wikipedia, an MIT researcher and one of these
ex-hackers, Richard Stallman, launched the "free software movement"
along with an effort to build a free operating system called GNU.
To promote free software, and to ensure that its code would always
be freely modifiable and available to all, Stallman founded the
Free Software Foundation and something called the GNU General
Public License (GPL). The GPL specified that users of the source
code could copy, change, or upgrade the code, provided that they
made their changes available under the same license as the original
code. In 1991, a student at the University of Helsinki named Linus
Torvalds, building off of Stallmanâ s initiative, posted his Linux
operating system to compete with the Microsoft Windows operating
system and invited other engineers and geeks online to try to
improve it - for free. Since Torvaldsâ s initial post, programmers
all over the world have manipulated, added to, expanded, patched,
and improved the GNU/Linux operating system, whose license says
anyone can download the source code and improve upon it but then
must make the upgraded version freely available to everybody else.
Torvalds insists that Linux must always be free. Companies that
sell software improvements that enhance Linux or adapt it to
certain functions have to be very careful not to touch its
copyright in their commercial products.
Much like Microsoft Windows, Linux offers a family of operating
systems that can be adapted to run on the smallest desktop
computers, laptops, PalmPilots, and even wristwatches, all the way
up to the largest supercomputers and mainframes. So a kid in India
with a cheap PC can learn the inner workings of the same operating
system that is running in some of the largest data centers of
corporate America. Linux has an army of developers across the globe
working to make it better. As I was working on this segment of the
book, I went to a picnic one afternoon at the Virginia country home
of Pamela and Malcolm Baldwin, whom my wife came to know through
her membership on the board of World Learning, an educational NGO.
I mentioned in the course of lunch that I was thinking of going to
Mali to see just how flat the world looked from its outermost
edge-the town of Timbuktu. The Baldwinsâ son Peter happened to be
working in Mali as part of something called the GeekCorps, which
helps to bring technology to developing countries. A few days after
the lunch, I received an e-mail from Pamela telling me that she had
consulted with Peter about accompanying me to Timbuktu, and then
she added the following, which told me everything I needed to know
and saved me the whole trip: ââPeter says that his project is
creating wireless networks via satellite, making antennas out of
plastic soda bottles and mesh from window screens! Apparently
everyone in Mali uses Linux. . . â
ââEveryone in Mali uses Linux. â That is no doubt a bit of an
exaggeration, but itâs a phrase that youâd hear only in a flat
world. The free software movement has become a serious challenge to
Microsoft and some other big global software players. As Fortune
magazine reported on February 23, 2004, ââThe availability of this
basic, powerful software, which works on Intelâ s ubiquitous
microprocessors, coincided with the explosive growth of the
Internet. Linux soon began to gain a global following among
programmers and business users . . . The revolution goes far beyond
little Linux . . . Just about any kind of software [now] can be
found in open-source form. The SourceForge. net website, a meeting
place for programmers, lists an astounding 86, 000 programs in
progress. Most are minor projects by and for geeks, but hundreds
pack real value ... If you hate shelling out $350 for Microsoft
Office or $600 for Adobe Photoshop, OpenOffice. org and the Gimp
are surprisingly high-quality free alternatives. â Big companies
like Google, E*Trade, and Amazon, by combining Intel-based
commodity server components and the Linux operating system, have
been able dramatically to cut their technology spending-and get
more control over their software.
Why would so many people be ready to write software that would be
given away for free?
Partly it is out of the pure scientific challenge, which should
never be underestimated. Partly it is because they all hate
Microsoft for the way it has so dominated the market and, in the
view of many techies, bullied everyone else. Partly it is because
they believe that open-source software can be kept more fresh and
bugfree than any commercial software, because of the way it is
constantly updated by an army of unpaid programmers. And partly it
is because some big tech companies are paying engineers to work on
Linux and other software, hoping it will cut into Microsoftâ s
market share and make it a weaker competitor all around. There are
a lot of motives at work here, and not all of them altruistic. When
you put them all together, though, they make for a very powerful
movement that will continue to present a major challenge to the
whole commercial software model of buying a program and then
downloading its fixes and buying its updates.
Until now, the Linux operating system was the best-known success
among open-source free software projects challenging Microsoft. But
Linux is largely used by big corporate data centers, not
individuals. However, in November 2004, the Mozilla Foundation, a
nonprofit group supporting open-source software, released Firefox,
a free Web browser that New York Times technology writer Randall
Stross (December 19, 2004) described as very fast and filled with
features that Microsoftâ s Internet Explorer lacks. Firefox 1.0,
which is easily installed, was released on November 9. âJust over a
month later, " Stross reported, âthe foundation celebrated a
remarkable milestone: 10 million downloads.â Donations from
Firefoxâ s appreciative fans paid for a two-page advertisement in
The New York Times. âWith Firefox, " Stross added, âopen-source
software moves from back-office obscurity to your home, and to your
parentsâ, too. (Your children in college are already using it.) It
is polished, as easy to use as Internet Explorer and, most
compelling, much better defended against viruses, worms and snoops.
Microsoft has always viewed Internet Explorerâ s tight integration
with Windows to be an attractive feature. That, however, was before
security became the unmet need of the day. Firefox sits lightly on
top of Windows, in a separation from the underlying operating
system that the Mozilla Foundationâs president, Mitchell Baker,
calls a ânatural defense.â For the first time, Internet Explorer
has been losing market share. According to a worldwide survey
conducted in late November by OneStat. com, a company in Amsterdam
that analyzes the Web, Internet Explorerâ s share dropped to less
than 89 percent, 5 percentage points less than in May. Firefox now
has almost 5 percent of the market, and it is growing. "
It will come as no surprise that Microsoft officials are not
believers in the viability or virtues of the free software form of
open-source. Of all the issues I dealt with in this book, none
evoked more passion from proponents and opponents than open-source.
After spending time with the open-source community, I wanted to
hear what Microsoft had to say, since this is going to be an
important debate that will determine just how much of a flattener
open-source becomes.
Microsoftâ s first point is, How do you push innovation forward if
everyone is working for free and giving away their work? Yes, says
Microsoft, it all sounds nice and chummy that we all just get
together online and write free software by the people and for the
people. But if innovators are not going to be rewarded for their
innovations, the incentive for path-breaking innovation will dry up
and so will the money for the really deep R & D that is
required to drive progress in this increasingly complex field. The
fact that Microsoft created the standard PC operating system that
won out in the marketplace, it argues, produced the bankroll that
allowed Microsoft to spend billions of dollars on R & D to
develop Microsoft Office, a whole suite of applications that it can
now sell for a little over $100.
Microsoft would admit that there are number of aspects of the
open-source movement that are intriguing, particularly around the
scale, community collaboration, and communication aspects, " said
Craig Mundie, the Microsoft chief technology officer. "But we
fundamentally believe in a commercial software industry, and some
variants of the open-source model attack the economic model that
allows companies to build businesses in software. The virtuous
cycle of innovation, reward, reinvestment, and more innovation is
what has driven all big breakthroughs in our industry. The software
business as we have known it is a scale economic business. You
spend a ton of money up front to develop a software product, and
then the marginal cost of producing each one is very small, but if
you sell a lot of them, you make back your investment and then plow
profits back into developing the next generation. But when you
insist that you cannot charge for software, you can only give it
away, you take the software business away from being a scale
economic business. "
Added Bill Gates, âYou need capitalism [to drive innovation. ] To
have [a movement] that says innovation does not deserve an economic
reward is contrary to where the world is going. When I talk to the
Chinese, they dream of starting a company. They are not thinking, â
I will be a barber during the day and do free software at night. â
. . . When you have a security crisis in your [software] system,
you donâ t want to say, âWhere is the guy at the barbershop ?â
"
As we move into this flat world, and you have this massive
Web-enabled global workforce, with all these collaborative tools,
there will be no project too small for some members of this
workforce to take on, or copy, or modify-for free. Someone out
there will be trying to produce the free versions of every kind of
software or drug or music. "So how will products retain their
value?ââ asked Mundie. "And if companies cannot derive fair value
from their products, will innovation move forward in this area, or
others, at the speed that it could or should?â Can we always count
on a self-organizing open-source movement to come together to drive
things forward for free?
It seems to me that we are too early in the history of the
flattening of the world to answer these questions. But they will
need answers, and not just for Microsoft. So far-and maybe this is
part of the long-term answer-Microsoft has been able to count on
the fact that the only thing more expensive than commercial
software is free software. Few big companies can simply download
Linux off the Web and expect it to work for all their tasks. A lot
of design and systems engineering needs to go around it and on top
of it to tailor it to a companyâ s specific needs, especially for
sophisticated, large-scale, mission-critical operations. So when
you add up all the costs of adapting the Linux operating system to
the needs of your company and its specific hardware platform and
applications, Microsoft argues, it can end up costing as much as or
more than Windows. The second issue Microsoft raises about this
whole open-source movement has to do with how we keep track of who
owns which piece of any innovation in a flat world, where some is
generated for free and others build on it for profit. Will Chinese
programmers really respect the rules of the Free Software
Foundation? Who will govern all this?
ââOnce you start to socialize the global population on the idea
that software or any other innovation is supposed to be free, a lot
of people will not distinguish between free software, free
pharmaceuticals, free music, or free patents on car designs, â
argued Mundie. There is some truth to this. I work for a newspaper,
that is where my paycheck comes from. But I believe that all online
newspapers should be free, and on principle I refuse to pay for an
online subscription to The Wall Street Journal. I have not read the
paper copy of The New York Times regularly for two years. I read it
only online. But what if my daughtersâ generation, which is being
raised to think that newspapers are something to be accessed online
for free, grows up and refuses to pay for the paper editions? Hmmm.
I loved Amazon. com until it started providing a global platform
that wasnâ t selling only my new books but also used versions. And
I am still not sure how I feel about Amazon offering sections of
this book to be browsed online for free Mundie noted that a major
American auto company recently discovered that some Chinese firms
were using new digital-scanning technology to scan an entire car
and churn out computer-aided design models of every part within a
very short period of time. They can then feed those designs to
industrial robots and in short order produce a perfect copy of a GM
car - without having to spend any money on R & D. American
automakers never thought they had anything to worry about from
wholesale cloning of their cars, but in the flat world, given the
technologies that are out there, that is no longer the case.
My bottom line is this: Open-source is an important flattener
because it makes available for free many tools, from software to
encyclopedias, that millions of people around the world would have
had to buy in order to use, and because open-source network
associations-with their open borders and come-one-come-all
approach-can challenge hierarchical structures with a horizontal
model of innovation that is clearly working in a growing number of
areas. Apache and Linux have each helped to drive down costs of
computing and Internet usage in ways that are profoundly
flattening. This movement is not going away. Indeed, it may just be
getting started - with a huge, growing appetite that could apply to
many industries. As The Economist mused (June 10, 2004), ââsome
zealots even argue that the open-source approach represents a new,
post-capitalist model of production.â
That may prove true. But if it does, then we have some huge global
governance issues to sort out over who owns what and how
individuals and companies will profit from their creations.
In: Psychology
C++ Data Structures:
Use Huffman coding to encode text in given file
(Pride_and_Prejudice.txt).
TO_DO:
Define a struct for Huffman tree node. This struct contains links to left/right child nodes, a character, and its frequency.Define a function for file reading operation. This function should take in a filename (string type) as parameter and return a proper data structure object that contains characters and their frequencies that will be used to generate Huffman tree nodes.The construction of Huffman tree requires taking two nodes with smallest frequencies. Select a proper data structure to support this operation. Note this data structure object could be different to the object from step 2.
Design a function that takes in the root of Huffman coding tree, prints, and returns the encoding scheme in a data structure object.Design a function that takes in the encoding scheme and filename (string type), output encoded content (bit-string) to a file named pride.huff
Pride_and_Prejudice.txt:
Chapter 1
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single
man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on
his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in
the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the
rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. âMy dear
Mr. Bennet,â said his lady to him one day, âhave you heard that
Netherfield Park is let at last?â Mr. Bennet replied that he had
not. âBut it is,â returned she; âfor Mrs. Long has just been here,
and she told me all about it.â Mr. Bennet made no answer. âDo you
not want to know who has taken it?â cried his wife impatiently.
âYou want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.â This
was invitation enough. âWhy, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says
that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the
north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four
to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed
with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before
Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the
end of next week.â âWhat is his name?â âBingley.â âIs he married or
single?â âOh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large
fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our
girls!â âHow so? How can it affect them?â âMy dear Mr. Bennet,â
replied his wife, âhow can you be so tiresome! You must know that I
am thinking of his marrying one of them.â âIs that his design in
settling here?â âDesign! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is
very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and
therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.â âI see no
occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them
by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are
as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley may like you the best of
the party.â âMy dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share
of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now.
When a woman has five grown-up daughters, she ought to give over
thinking of her own beauty.â âIn such cases, a woman has not often
much beauty to think of.â âBut, my dear, you must indeed go and see
Mr. Bingley when he comes into the neighbourhood.â âIt is more than
I engage for, I assure you.â âBut consider your daughters. Only
think what an establishment it would be for one of them. Sir
William and Lady Lucas are determined to go, merely on that
account, for in general, you know, they visit no newcomers. Indeed
you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him if you
do not.â âYou are over-scrupulous, surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley
will be very glad to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to
assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he
chooses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for my
little Lizzy.â âI desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a
bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not half so
handsome as Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia. But you are
always giving her the preference.â âThey have none of them much to
recommend them,â replied he; âthey are all silly and ignorant like
other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her
sisters.â âMr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such
a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my
poor nerves.â âYou mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for
your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them
with consideration these last twenty years at least.â âAh, you do
not know what I suffer.â âBut I hope you will get over it, and live
to see many young men of four thousand a year come into the
neighbourhood.â âIt will be no use to us, if twenty such should
come, since you will not visit them.â âDepend upon it, my dear,
that when there are twenty, I will visit them all.â Mr. Bennet was
so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and
caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been
insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind
was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean
understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she
was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her
life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and
news. Chapter 2 Mr. Bennet was among the earliest of those who
waited on Mr. Bingley. He had always intended to visit him, though
to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go; and
till the evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of
it. It was then disclosed in the following manner. Observing his
second daughter employed in trimming a hat, he suddenly addressed
her with: âI hope Mr. Bingley will like it, Lizzy.â âWe are not in
a way to know what Mr. Bingley likes,â said her mother resentfully,
âsince we are not to visit.â âBut you forget, mamma,â said
Elizabeth, âthat we shall meet him at the assemblies, and that Mrs.
Long promised to introduce him.â âI do not believe Mrs. Long will
do any such thing. She has two nieces of her own. She is a selfish,
hypocritical woman, and I have no opinion of her.â âNo more have
I,â said Mr. Bennet; âand I am glad to find that you do not depend
on her serving you.â Mrs. Bennet deigned not to make any reply,
but, unable to contain herself, began scolding one of her
daughters. âDonât keep coughing so, Kitty, for Heavenâs sake! Have
a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.â âKitty
has no discretion in her coughs,â said her father; âshe times them
ill.â âI do not cough for my own amusement,â replied Kitty
fretfully. âWhen is your next ball to be, Lizzy?â âTo-morrow
fortnight.â âAye, so it is,â cried her mother, âand Mrs. Long does
not come back till the day before; so it will be impossible for her
to introduce him, for she will not know him herself.â âThen, my
dear, you may have the advantage of your friend, and introduce Mr.
Bingley to her.â âImpossible, Mr. Bennet, impossible, when I am not
acquainted with him myself; how can you be so teasing?â âI honour
your circumspection. A fortnightâs acquaintance is certainly very
little. One cannot know what a man really is by the end of a
fortnight. But if we do not venture somebody else will; and after
all, Mrs. Long and her nieces must stand their chance; and,
therefore, as she will think it an act of kindness, if you decline
the office, I will take it on myself.â The girls stared at their
father. Mrs. Bennet said only, âNonsense, nonsense!â âWhat can be
the meaning of that emphatic exclamation?â cried he. âDo you
consider the forms of introduction, and the stress that is laid on
them, as nonsense? I cannot quite agree with you there. What say
you, Mary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and
read great books and make extracts.â Mary wished to say something
sensible, but knew not how. âWhile Mary is adjusting her ideas,â he
continued, âlet us return to Mr. Bingley.â âI am sick of Mr.
Bingley,â cried his wife. âI am sorry to hear that; but why did not
you tell me that before? If I had known as much this morning I
certainly would not have called on him. It is very unlucky; but as
I have actually paid the visit, we cannot escape the acquaintance
now.â The astonishment of the ladies was just what he wished; that
of Mrs. Bennet perhaps surpassing the rest; though, when the first
tumult of joy was over, she began to declare that it was what she
had expected all the while. âHow good it was in you, my dear Mr.
Bennet! But I knew I should persuade you at last. I was sure you
loved your girls too well to neglect such an acquaintance. Well,
how pleased I am! and it is such a good joke, too, that you should
have gone this morning and never said a word about it till now.â
âNow, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose,â said Mr. Bennet;
and, as he spoke, he left the room, fatigued with the raptures of
his wife. âWhat an excellent father you have, girls!â said she,
when the door was shut. âI do not know how you will ever make him
amends for his kindness; or me, either, for that matter. At our
time of life it is not so pleasant, I can tell you, to be making
new acquaintances every day; but for your sakes, we would do
anything. Lydia, my love, though you are the youngest, I dare say
Mr. Bingley will dance with you at the next ball.â âOh!â said Lydia
stoutly, âI am not afraid; for though I am the youngest, Iâm the
tallest.â The rest of the evening was spent in conjecturing how
soon he would return Mr. Bennetâs visit, and determining when they
should ask him to dinner. Chapter 3 Not all that Mrs. Bennet,
however, with the assistance of her five daughters, could ask on
the subject, was sufficient to draw from her husband any
satisfactory description of Mr. Bingley. They attacked him in
various waysâwith barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and
distant surmises; but he eluded the skill of them all, and they
were at last obliged to accept the second-hand intelligence of
their neighbour, Lady Lucas. Her report was highly favourable. Sir
William had been delighted with him. He was quite young,
wonderfully handsome, extremely agreeable, and, to crown the whole,
he meant to be at the next assembly with a large party. Nothing
could be more delightful! To be fond of dancing was a certain step
towards falling in love; and very lively hopes of Mr. Bingleyâs
heart were entertained. âIf I can but see one of my daughters
happily settled at Netherfield,â said Mrs. Bennet to her husband,
âand all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing to
wish for.â In a few days Mr. Bingley returned Mr. Bennetâs visit,
and sat about ten minutes with him in his library. He had
entertained hopes of being admitted to a sight of the young ladies,
of whose beauty he had heard much; but he saw only the father. The
ladies were somewhat more fortunate, for they had the advantage of
ascertaining from an upper window that he wore a blue coat, and
rode a black horse. An invitation to dinner was soon afterwards
dispatched; and already had Mrs. Bennet planned the courses that
were to do credit to her housekeeping, when an answer arrived which
deferred it all. Mr. Bingley was obliged to be in town the
following day, and, consequently, unable to accept the honour of
their invitation, etc. Mrs. Bennet was quite disconcerted. She
could not imagine what business he could have in town so soon after
his arrival in Hertfordshire; and she began to fear that he might
be always flying about from one place to another, and never settled
at Netherfield as he ought to be. Lady Lucas quieted her fears a
little by starting the idea of his being gone to London only to get
a large party for the ball; and a report soon followed that Mr.
Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to
the assembly. The girls grieved over such a number of ladies, but
were comforted the day before the ball by hearing, that instead of
twelve he brought only six with him from Londonâhis five sisters
and a cousin. And when the party entered the assembly room it
consisted of only five altogetherâMr. Bingley, his two sisters, the
husband of the eldest, and another young man. Mr. Bingley was
good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and
easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air
of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked
the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of
the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien,
and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes
after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The
gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies
declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked
at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his
manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for
he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company, and above
being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could
then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable
countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend. Mr.
Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal
people in the room; he was lively and unreserved, danced every
dance, was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of
giving one himself at Netherfield. Such amiable qualities must
speak for themselves. What a contrast between him and his friend!
Mr. Darcy danced only once with Mrs. Hurst and once with Miss
Bingley, declined being introduced to any other lady, and spent the
rest of the evening in walking about the room, speaking
occasionally to one of his own party. His character was decided. He
was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody
hoped that he would never come there again. Amongst the most
violent against him was Mrs. Bennet, whose dislike of his general
behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his having
slighted one of her daughters. Elizabeth Bennet had been obliged,
by the scarcity of gentlemen, to sit down for two dances; and
during part of that time, Mr. Darcy had been standing near enough
for her to hear a conversation between him and Mr. Bingley, who
came from the dance for a few minutes, to press his friend to join
it. âCome, Darcy,â said he, âI must have you dance. I hate to see
you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much
better dance.â âI certainly shall not. You know how I detest it,
unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. At such an
assembly as this it would be insupportable. Your sisters are
engaged, and there is not another woman in the room whom it would
not be a punishment to me to stand up with.â âI would not be so
fastidious as you are,â cried Mr. Bingley, âfor a kingdom! Upon my
honour, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as I
have this evening; and there are several of them you see uncommonly
pretty.â âYou are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,â
said Mr. Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet. âOh! She is the
most beautiful creature I ever beheld! But there is one of her
sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I
dare say very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce
you.â âWhich do you mean?â and turning round he looked for a moment
at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly
said: âShe is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am
in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are
slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and
enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.â Mr.
Bingley followed his advice. Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth
remained with no very cordial feelings toward him. She told the
story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a
lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything
ridiculous. The evening altogether passed off pleasantly to the
whole family. Mrs. Bennet had seen her eldest daughter much admired
by the Netherfield party. Mr. Bingley had danced with her twice,
and she had been distinguished by his sisters. Jane was as much
gratified by this as her mother could be, though in a quieter way.
Elizabeth felt Janeâs pleasure. Mary had heard herself mentioned to
Miss Bingley as the most accomplished girl in the neighbourhood;
and Catherine and Lydia had been fortunate enough never to be
without partners, which was all that they had yet learnt to care
for at a ball. They returned, therefore, in good spirits to
Longbourn, the village where they lived, and of which they were the
principal inhabitants. They found Mr. Bennet still up. With a book
he was regardless of time; and on the present occasion he had a
good deal of curiosity as to the event of an evening which had
raised such splendid expectations. He had rather hoped that his
wifeâs views on the stranger would be disappointed; but he soon
found out that he had a different story to hear. âOh, my dear Mr.
Bennet,â as she entered the room, âwe have had a most delightful
evening, a most excellent ball. I wish you had been there. Jane was
so admired, nothing could be like it. Everybody said how well she
looked; and Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, and danced
with her twice! Only think of that, my dear; he actually danced
with her twice! and she was the only creature in the room that he
asked a second time. First of all, he asked Miss Lucas. I was so
vexed to see him stand up with her! But, however, he did not admire
her at all; indeed, nobody can, you know; and he seemed quite
struck with Jane as she was going down the dance. So he inquired
who she was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next.
Then the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth
with Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane again, and the two
sixth with Lizzy, and the Boulangerââ âIf he had had any compassion
for me,â cried her husband impatiently, âhe would not have danced
half so much! For Godâs sake, say no more of his partners. Oh that
he had sprained his ankle in the first dance!â âOh! my dear, I am
quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome! And his
sisters are charming women. I never in my life saw anything more
elegant than their dresses. I dare say the lace upon Mrs. Hurstâs
gownââ Here she was interrupted again. Mr. Bennet protested against
any description of finery. She was therefore obliged to seek
another branch of the subject, and related, with much bitterness of
spirit and some exaggeration, the shocking rudeness of Mr. Darcy.
âBut I can assure you,â she added, âthat Lizzy does not lose much
by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid
man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited that there
was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying
himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish
you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your
set-downs. I quite detest the man.â
In: Computer Science
Stock Valuation Assignment (Fall 2017 Data)
The purpose of this analysis is to find an intrinsic value for Microsoft (MSFT) using the both the Constant Dividend Discount Model (DDM) and the Non-constant DDM. You will need to (1) estimate Beta in order to calculate the required return for MSFT; (2) estimate dividend growth rate; and (3) estimate future dividends.
Submit your Excel spreadsheet with all data and formulas so that your answers can be replicated. You may answer the questions on the spreadsheet. HOWEVER, WRAP YOUR TEXT!!! I do NOT want to see text running across 40 columns. Remember, Excel is not a word processor. Do a simple draft print to see if your output is in readable form. Follow instructions as written. NEATNESS AND ORGANIZATION MATTERS!
You are analyzing Microsoft to find an intrinsic value for Microsoft (MSFT) using the both the Constant Dividend Discount Model (DDM) and the Non-constant DDM. I have provided you with an Excel spreadsheet of monthly prices (121 months) from Sept 1, 2007 to Sept 1, 2017). These prices have already been adjusted for dividends. List dates and prices out on your spreadsheet in order to calculate monthly returns.
Using the prices provided, calculate the monthly returns for each of the stocks, where r = (Pt/Pt-1) â 1; which is the same as [(Pt-Pt-1)/ Pt-1] as I covered in the Lecture Video. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DATA IS LISTED FROM SEPT 2007 TO SEPT 2017! SO BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR RETURN FORMULA! There are 121 months to calculate 120 monthly returns. You may post monthly returns as decimals to 6 places or percentages to 4 places. For example, average return for MSFT can be written as .009999 or .9999%.
(10 points)
At the bottom of the column for each stock calculate the Average Monthly Return (use AVERAGE() function) and the Standard Deviation [use STDEV.P()] population function NOT STDEV() sample function).
As a check, you should find your average returns to be: MSFT = 1.2310% and SPY = .6861%.
(5 points)
Calculate and Interpret the Correlation Coefficient (r1,2) between Microsoft (MSFT) and S&P 500 Index (SPY). (use CORREL() function). (5 points)
We can estimate the Beta for MSFT over the 120-month period by running a Regression of SPY returns on the x-axis (independent variable) and MSFT returns on the y-axis (dependent variable). The Beta is the SLOPE of the regression. To find Beta use the SLOPE function in Excel. Be careful use RETURNS NOT prices!
How does your estimate compare to the FinanceYahoo.com beta and the Value Line beta? What does Beta represent? (10 points)
Now, letâs check the stability of Beta. You may again use the SLOPE function in Excel, where SPY is independent & MSFT is dependent variable.
Estimate Beta over the first 60 monthly returns (5 years): October 1, 2007 to September 1, 2012.
Estimate Beta over the second 60 monthly returns (5 years): October 1, 2012 to September 1, 2017.
What is the beta for each period? Is there a substantial difference between the two Betas?
(5 points)
Given the information below, use the CAPM to estimate the required rate of return for MSFT. Round to 2 decimals, e.g., x.xx%, 1.23%
Return on the market portfolio (SPY) RSPY = 9.25% (based on 25 years of historical data); the risk free rate is Rf = 3.0% (based on L-T inflation rate of 2.0% & real return of 1.0%); USE MSFT beta estimate: b = 0.97
(10 points)
Based on past trends and ValueLine estimate, letâs assume MSFT will pay a dividend of $1.64 in 2018. Therefore, letâs assume that D1 = $1.64, because it will not be fully paid until the end of Year 2018. Letâs also assume that MSFT will grow its future dividends at a L-T constant rate of g = 6%. Assuming a required rate of return found in (7) above, estimate the current value of MSFT using the Constant Growth DDM. Assume that D1 = $1.64
(10 points)
Now, using the Value Line sheet, estimate the average growth rate of dividends for MSFT over the last 10 years, from 2007-2017? Round your growth estimate to 4 decimal places. [Hint: The Growth rate (g) can be calculated as CPT i on your calculator or in Excel as a TVM problem.
(5 points)
Two-stage Non-constant DDM: Now letâs assume that for the next four years MSFT will grow its dividends at the growth rate you estimated in (9) above. Assuming D1 = $1.64, what are the dividends for: D2 ; D3 ; D4; and D5 if they grow at the rate estimated in (9)? You may round each dividend estimate to the nearest penny.
(10 points)
Now, letâs assume that the dividend growth reverts back to a L-T sustainable growth rate = 6% after Year 5 to infinity. Estimate is D6 and P5.
(5 points)
Use the Non-constant growth DDM from the Stock Video Lecture (at 17:20) to estimate the current value of MSFT using the dividend information you found in (10) & (11) above; assume a L-T sustainable growth rate of g = 6% after Year 5; and the required rate of return found in (7). [HINT: You already have all the data, not much work left hereâŠ.find the sum of the PV of the cash flows.]
(10 points)
Which of the two models do you think is more reasonable (Constant DDM or Non-constant DDM)? WHY?
(5 points)
What is the current market price of MSFT? Based on your analysis, would you recommend buying this stock at the current market price? Explain why or why not?
(10 points)
| MSFT Stock Valuation - Fall 2017 | ||
| September 1, 2007 to September 1, 2017 | ||
| Microsoft | S&P 500 Index | |
| Date | MSFT | SPY |
| 9/1/2007 | 23.005114 | 123.184921 |
| 10/1/2007 | 28.744678 | 125.448433 |
| 11/1/2007 | 26.238007 | 120.589432 |
| 12/1/2007 | 27.891703 | 118.602097 |
| 1/1/2008 | 25.541286 | 112.022667 |
| 2/1/2008 | 21.310514 | 109.127731 |
| 3/1/2008 | 22.321413 | 107.619057 |
| 4/1/2008 | 22.431522 | 113.306641 |
| 5/1/2008 | 22.274223 | 115.019432 |
| 6/1/2008 | 21.716801 | 104.881966 |
| 7/1/2008 | 20.303745 | 104.45945 |
| 8/1/2008 | 21.543118 | 106.073692 |
| 9/1/2008 | 21.153511 | 95.53141 |
| 10/1/2008 | 17.697933 | 80.212509 |
| 11/1/2008 | 16.025621 | 74.629189 |
| 12/1/2008 | 15.511801 | 74.753479 |
| 1/1/2009 | 13.644643 | 69.172134 |
| 2/1/2009 | 12.886605 | 61.739662 |
| 3/1/2009 | 14.758518 | 66.407921 |
| 4/1/2009 | 16.276951 | 73.527817 |
| 5/1/2009 | 16.783087 | 77.82576 |
| 6/1/2009 | 19.21818 | 77.337944 |
| 7/1/2009 | 19.01605 | 83.577255 |
| 8/1/2009 | 19.929657 | 86.664581 |
| 9/1/2009 | 20.911688 | 89.312035 |
| 10/1/2009 | 22.545919 | 88.012207 |
| 11/1/2009 | 23.911846 | 93.434395 |
| 12/1/2009 | 24.89135 | 94.709175 |
| 1/1/2010 | 23.013071 | 91.75856 |
| 2/1/2010 | 23.413229 | 94.620926 |
| 3/1/2010 | 24.031397 | 99.969772 |
| 4/1/2010 | 25.056971 | 101.934349 |
| 5/1/2010 | 21.167976 | 93.835182 |
| 6/1/2010 | 18.964071 | 88.558739 |
| 7/1/2010 | 21.271736 | 95.057457 |
| 8/1/2010 | 19.343184 | 90.781731 |
| 9/1/2010 | 20.291504 | 98.384964 |
| 10/1/2010 | 22.097773 | 102.690292 |
| 11/1/2010 | 20.929499 | 102.690292 |
| 12/1/2010 | 23.267279 | 108.982224 |
| 1/1/2011 | 23.117222 | 112.108025 |
| 2/1/2011 | 22.158522 | 116.00238 |
| 3/1/2011 | 21.291574 | 115.514496 |
| 4/1/2011 | 21.736027 | 119.37632 |
| 5/1/2011 | 20.972919 | 118.037544 |
| 6/1/2011 | 21.946026 | 115.473801 |
| 7/1/2011 | 23.127737 | 113.724846 |
| 8/1/2011 | 22.452477 | 107.472748 |
| 9/1/2011 | 21.141701 | 99.497154 |
| 10/1/2011 | 22.619667 | 110.927917 |
| 11/1/2011 | 21.727795 | 110.477135 |
| 12/1/2011 | 22.21661 | 110.927917 |
| 1/1/2012 | 25.271822 | 116.808311 |
| 2/1/2012 | 27.163143 | 121.878418 |
| 3/1/2012 | 27.789909 | 125.249596 |
| 4/1/2012 | 27.583172 | 124.958702 |
| 5/1/2012 | 25.1453 | 117.454208 |
| 6/1/2012 | 26.524225 | 121.590622 |
| 7/1/2012 | 25.553089 | 123.666451 |
| 8/1/2012 | 26.723654 | 126.764626 |
| 9/1/2012 | 25.975487 | 129.288025 |
| 10/1/2012 | 24.910635 | 127.612816 |
| 11/1/2012 | 23.234793 | 128.335098 |
| 12/1/2012 | 23.504921 | 128.569839 |
| 1/1/2013 | 24.156122 | 136.109879 |
| 2/1/2013 | 24.464123 | 137.846497 |
| 3/1/2013 | 25.385376 | 142.447144 |
| 4/1/2013 | 29.369312 | 145.82959 |
| 5/1/2013 | 30.966436 | 149.272614 |
| 6/1/2013 | 30.861908 | 146.505402 |
| 7/1/2013 | 28.44943 | 154.891617 |
| 8/1/2013 | 29.843309 | 150.246063 |
| 9/1/2013 | 29.94562 | 154.248947 |
| 10/1/2013 | 31.862221 | 162.17836 |
| 11/1/2013 | 34.309704 | 166.984924 |
| 12/1/2013 | 33.917126 | 170.389221 |
| 1/1/2014 | 34.30698 | 165.276016 |
| 2/1/2014 | 34.733093 | 172.79866 |
| 3/1/2014 | 37.441544 | 173.466476 |
| 4/1/2014 | 36.902618 | 175.442932 |
| 5/1/2014 | 37.39587 | 179.514313 |
| 6/1/2014 | 38.358791 | 182.346588 |
| 7/1/2014 | 39.701805 | 180.758041 |
| 8/1/2014 | 41.789921 | 187.891373 |
| 9/1/2014 | 42.911755 | 184.437057 |
| 10/1/2014 | 43.457882 | 189.66333 |
| 11/1/2014 | 44.253918 | 194.873749 |
| 12/1/2014 | 43.266247 | 193.312485 |
| 1/1/2015 | 37.63092 | 188.620041 |
| 2/1/2015 | 40.844452 | 199.221344 |
| 3/1/2015 | 38.142635 | 195.221054 |
| 4/1/2015 | 45.628563 | 198.020798 |
| 5/1/2015 | 43.958771 | 200.566574 |
| 6/1/2015 | 41.685722 | 195.579468 |
| 7/1/2015 | 44.093388 | 200.883865 |
| 8/1/2015 | 41.090885 | 190.107056 |
| 9/1/2015 | 42.065155 | 182.881134 |
| 10/1/2015 | 50.029591 | 200.431534 |
| 11/1/2015 | 51.654785 | 200.23967 |
| 12/1/2015 | 53.084164 | 195.614822 |
| 1/1/2016 | 52.711006 | 186.981628 |
| 2/1/2016 | 48.682812 | 186.827194 |
| 3/1/2016 | 53.224377 | 198.371201 |
| 4/1/2016 | 48.059025 | 200.180191 |
| 5/1/2016 | 51.075367 | 203.585556 |
| 6/1/2016 | 49.656723 | 203.236313 |
| 7/1/2016 | 55.003773 | 211.744019 |
| 8/1/2016 | 55.760704 | 211.997604 |
| 9/1/2016 | 56.244946 | 210.944336 |
| 10/1/2016 | 58.510365 | 208.334351 |
| 11/1/2016 | 58.842373 | 216.009033 |
| 12/1/2016 | 61.088055 | 219.096573 |
| 1/1/2017 | 63.555569 | 224.331726 |
| 2/1/2017 | 62.896912 | 233.146057 |
| 3/1/2017 | 65.137604 | 232.426315 |
| 4/1/2017 | 67.709076 | 235.754608 |
| 5/1/2017 | 69.073936 | 239.081802 |
| 6/1/2017 | 68.564697 | 239.438278 |
| 7/1/2017 | 72.314713 | 245.551392 |
| 8/1/2017 | 74.373741 | 246.267838 |
| 9/1/2017 | 73.870003 | 249.113724 |
In: Finance
What incentives do local and national governments have to attract manufacturers? What incentives can a government provide?
In the beginning, at least, âI think we were all definitely rooting for the U.S.,â said Rich Juchniewicz, a product developer at Thorley, which markets its baby line under the 4moms brand.For years, the U.S. has ceded more and more of its manufacturing to lower-cost corners of the global economy. No one expects the U.S. to again make most of the electronic gadgets, tools, toys, furniture, lighting and other household products that tally more than $500 billion a year in imports.But some companies contend the U.S. has renewed its attraction. Wages are stable, for example, while Chinaâs have soared. The U.S. energy boom has reduced natural gas prices and kept a lid on electricity costs. Plus, more companies want to protect designs from overseas copycats, keep closer tabs on quality control and avoid potential disruption in supply chains that span oceans.AdvertisementAs Chinaâs cost advantages shrink, the U.S. has the potential, with investments in automation, to retrieve a share of such imported household products as TVs, vacuum cleaners and toasters, said Hal Sirkin, a Chicago-based senior partner at Boston Consulting Group. U.S. firms will do it ânot to be patriotic,â he said, âbut because they can make money.âAny shift, no matter how small, may well depend on the experience of such companies as Thorley, which plans to begin selling its new infant car seat later this year.A dozen Thorley managers began their quest with a tour of prospective U.S. factories in four states to find a manufacturerâa mission undertaken by other pioneering companies. KâNex Brands LP, a family owned toy maker in Hatfield, Pa., several years ago returnedmost production of its plastic building toys to the U.S. from China, for example. Unlike Thorley, KâNex already had a U.S. manufacturing plant, making it easier to bring work home.But KâNex struggled to find a U.S. maker for Lincoln Logs, the toy it produces in China under license from Hasbro Inc. Michael Araten, chief executive of KâNex, found that some U.S. wood factories were geared only for furniture and other large products; others couldnât shape the small wooden toy at high volumes.
PrideSports LLC, a maker of golf tees, contacted KâNex in 2013 after seeing an article in The Wall Street Journal mentioning the search. PrideSports said its factory in Burnham, Maine, had equipment for golf tees that could also make toy logs. The made-in-U.S. Lincoln Logs will hit the market this year.Capital Brands LLC of Los Angeles, maker of the Nutribullet and Magic Bullet blenders, is considering moving production to the U.S. from China. But Colin Sapire, chief executive, said his Chinese partners have engineering skills and a work ethic that could be hard to match in the U.S. He said the company has sold more than 20 million of the Chinese-made blenders in the past two years.Even so, Mr. Sapire said, his company would continue to search for opportunities to make products in the U.S.More U.S. companies would shift production from abroad if they analyzed the costs of overseas production to include such things as the shuttling of executives abroad and holding large inventories as a hedge against supply disruptions, said Harry Moser, founder of the Reshoring Initiative, an industry-funded nonprofit that promotes U.S. manufacturing.Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School, is less optimistic. âChina has really captured the whole electronic supply chain,â he said, and that is unlikely to return to the U.S.Instead of trying to make established products in the U.S., Mr. Shih said, âweâre going to have to focus on next-generation technologiesâ in, for example, advanced pharmaceuticals.Some of the hurdles are practical. The U.S. needs to rebuild its supplier base, as well as invest in more efficient manufacturing equipment. The average age of industrial equipment in the U.S. has passed 10 years old, the highest since 1938, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley & Co. economists.Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has beefed up efforts to buy more U.S.-made goods but finding U.S.-made electrical devices is difficult. The retailer sells electric fans produced by Lasko Products Inc., a family-owned company based in West Chester, Pa. But Lasko, like other U.S.-based manufacturers, can no longer find domestic suppliers of small electric motors.Billions of these motors are made abroad every year, said Alex Chausovsky of IHS Technology, a research firm. They require manual labor, one reason the industry shifted to Asia decades ago. Even if wages in Asia climb, he said, production isnât likely to move back to the U.S.
âItâs not the labor-cost advantage. Itâs the economies of scale,â said Mr. Chausovsky. âWeâre talking about absolutely enormous quantities.âA few big companies have returned some production to the U.S., including Whirlpool Corp. , hand mixers; Caterpillar Inc., excavators; and Ford Motor Co. , medium-duty commercial trucks.But many U.S.-based designers of consumer products over the past two decades have grown comfortable contracting with overseas manufacturers. Some doubt they can get the same expertise, efficiency and flexibility in the U.S.The 10-year-old Thorley company, which has annual sales of about $50 million, had little experience with U.S. manufacturing, except for its infant bathtub, which is molded in Erie, Pa. Its automatically folding stroller, motorized baby swing and playpen are made in China.
In its early days, Thorley relied partly on Chinese partners to figure out how to make the gadgets it designed. The company has about 165 U.S. employees in such areas as engineering, design and marketing.One of Thorleyâs main manufacturers in China is Jetta Co., which makes more than 100 products for foreign firms, including robotic toys, vacuum cleaners and American Girl dolls. At Jettaâs factory complex in Guangzhouâs Nansha district, halls are piled high with parts-filled plastic boxes headed for dozens of production lines. On a recent day, a train of carts loaded with 4moms boxes rumbled toward a warehouse. Women on a production line assembled the 250 or so parts making up the 4moms mamaRoo infant seat.âYou come up with a good idea, we can make it happen,â said C.S. Wong, Jettaâs director of engineering.But labor costs are rising as much as 20% a year. Jetta workers in Nansha typically earn around 3,300 yuan, about $537, a month. Those with more specialized skills earn more. The median wage of assembly workers in the U.S. is about $2,600 a month, according to government data.Jetta and Kin Yat Industrial Ltd., which also makes Thorleyâs 4moms products, are adding automation to cut labor costs. At Kin Yatâs plant in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, a woman in a green cap and a green-and-orange blouse drops bolts into a housing, then holds it up to a round machine that tightens seven at once. âThis used to take five people by hand,â said Vincent W.C. Fung, executive director of Kin Yat. âNow itâs taking just one.â
ENLARGERob Daley, chief executive of Thorley Industries, a Pittsburgh-based company that designs and makes the 4moms baby line, plans to launch a new baby car seat with electronic controls this year. China, where most of the company's products are manufactured, has âthis unbelievable ecosystem that supports manufacturing that's hard to duplicate,â he said. JEFF SWENSEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALThough Chinese factories are known for flexibility, Jetta and Kin Yat officials said it was getting harder to ramp up production to meet spikes in demand. Workers are harder to find. âYears ago, we could hire 5,000 to 6,000 workers within a month, just put out the word,â said Jetta CEO Kenneth Wong. âBut thatâs all changed.âJetta still varies its workforce considerably. The Nansha factory swings from around 4,500 workers to 8,500 at peak times.Most of Jetta and Kin Yatâs suppliers are within an hourâs drive. In China, âthereâs just this unbelievable ecosystem that supports manufacturing thatâs really hard to replicate,â said Thorleyâs chief executive, Rob Daley.Mr. Daley assigned David Yanov, his chief operating officer, to scout potential U.S. manufacturers for the new baby seat. Mr. Yanov, who joined Thorley in 2012, had spent two
decades at a company that made medical devices, a job that involved overseeing factories in China and the Philippines.Unlike China, the U.S. doesnât have large numbers of so-called contract manufacturers that specialize in producing finished consumer goods. Mr. Yanov and his colleagues set up visits to potential partners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky. Three companies bid on the project. Thorley also got bids from manufacturers in China.Once shipping and other expenses were calculated, Thorley discovered it would cost about the same to make the baby seats in the U.S. as in China. The decision became, Mr. Juchniewicz, the product developer, said: âWho do we want to work with?âMr. Daley, the CEO, thought it would be easier to monitor production and maintain quality control with a local factory. âYou burn a lot of time,â he said, in trips to China.ENLARGEThe front desk of Thorley Industries in Pittsburgh displays some of the high-tech infant seats sold under the company's 4moms brand. JEFF SWENSEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALOn the other hand, Mr. Yanov said, his company knew what to expect from Thorleyâs Chinese partners, who expertly managed frequent changes in design and specifications for new products. âOur model is, âOops, we just thought of something else weâd like to add,â â he said. Thorley executives worried that a U.S. firm might take weeks to respond to such changes. âThe clock speed is faster in China,â Mr. Yanov said. Because of the 13-hour time difference, he said, he can email a Chinese factory at the end of his workday and get an answer overnight. âItâs a quasi-24-hour day,â he said.The new car seat requires electronics parts from Asia, as well as imported fabric. Mr. Yanov knew his Chinese partners were good at integrating the electronics with other parts, but, he said, he wasnât sure what to expect from a U.S. factory.âWho points the finger at whom if the electronics donât work?â Mr. Yanov said. Mr. Daley, the CEO, said U.S. assembly of electronic parts from overseas âwas just going to be that much more complicated to manage.âAfter reviewing the Chinese and U.S. bids, Thorley decision makers began debate in the afternoon and finished around 8 p.m. They would make the car seats in China.âI think the Chinese were trying a little harderâ to get the business, Mr. Juchniewicz said
In: Economics
(MSRP) Model: 2016 Ferrari 488 Spider
Price :$276,450
Part III: $$ Your Financing Options $$
In this section, you will have to go online to determine the interest rate incurred when you finance a car.
Letâs say you are unable to put a down payment on a car and you had to finance the full amount. Take the MSRP of your car from part 1).
Go to https://calculator.me/vehicle/
Type the Vehicle price (which total the loan amount), the interest rate and the loan terms (number of years). Set other values to zero.
(12 points) Use the Calculator to determine your monthly payment if you were to get 10% interest by filling the table below. the loan was 60 months (5years), 48 months (4 years), 36 months (3 years), 24 months (2 years) and 12 months ( 1 year).
|
Loan Term/ monthly payment |
Monthly payment (for 10% interest rate) |
Total interest paid after the term of the loan for 10% interest |
Monthly payment for 6% interest rate |
Total interest paid after the term of the loan for 6% interest |
|
60 months/$5,036.00 |
||||
|
48 months/$6,174.24 |
||||
|
36 months/$8,073.33 |
||||
|
24 months/$11,874.54 |
||||
|
12 months/$23,284.24 |
(3 points) How does the monthly payment change as a function of the loan term?
(3 points) How does the total interest paid change as a function of the loan term?
(3 points) Does it pay off to have a lower interest rate? Why, Give an example using numbers from the table and calculate the actual savings in interest for a loan term of your choice.
Part IV: Modeling Using Excel
Suppose you decide to buy a new car for $ 30000. Suppose that you have no money for a down payment and that you decide to finance the whole amount. The dealer offers several financing option through a local bank. He offers you the option of financing the car over 12 months, 24 month, 36 months, 48 months and 60 months.
Unfortunately, the interest rate was pretty high and equal to 10%. The table below shows the total interest paid after the term of loan if you were to finance it.
|
Total Interest Paid after the term of the loan |
0 |
$ 1649.72 |
$3224.35 |
$4848.56 |
$6522.12 |
8244.68 |
|
Term of the loan |
0 |
12 months |
24 months |
36 months |
48 months |
60 Months |
(a) (3 points) Graph the total interest paid as a function of the term of the loan in Excel.
(b) (3 points) Find the linear function that best fits the total interest paid as a function of the term of the loan.
(c) (3 points)FROM THIS FUNCTION, calculate how much you have paid in interest 30 month after you had purchased the car assuming you financed it?
Part V: Reflection
(10 points) Your friend John is planning to finance a car. He is unsure about his budget, but thinks he can afford a $15, 000 car. He has only $2,000 to put down and he earns about $1500 a month after taxes. John contacts you for advice. What advice would you give him? (Please write a 200 to 300-word letter to John, advising him on how much he should spend on a car, what interest rate he should try to get and how much he can afford in monthly payments). REFER TO THE TABLE AND CLASS DISCUSSIONS and to the rubric below.
Make sure you answer the following in your paragraph:
Make sure you write a coherent paragraph.
Mention the amount John needs to finance.
Decide how much John can afford a month to pay towards his car monthly payment.
Give John several examples: choose two different interest rates and for each interest rate you choose give the monthly payment for two different loan terms ( 3 years versus 5 years etc..). Donât forget to use the calculator we used in class.
Bare in mind what you learned from the tables in your conclusion, for e.g. the longer the loan term the more interest youâll end up paying the bank.
More importantly consider John to be your real friend and do not hesitate in elaborating your response and express your opinion!
Reading: How to Finance a Car and Get a Car Loan
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/How-to-Finance-a-Car/(accessed March 18 2012) By Jamie Page Deaton
Let's be honest: most people aren't thinking about buying a new car now. The Great Recession has put new cars out of most people's minds. But, if you really need a new car, you can get some great discounts and incentives. With the credit market still tight, the problem most people have is getting the financing to take advantage of the deals available.
Car financing is tricky even when the credit market is good. Now that the credit market is tight, it's back to basics for buyers and lenders. Check out the car financing basics covered below to make sure you get the best car loan for your next vehicle.
The Basics of Car Loans
Getting a car loan simply means borrowing money to pay for it. Borrowing money probably isn't new to you -- everyone's bummed $10 from friends. When you borrow from a lender, the amount you borrow is called the loan principle. Though the basic idea behind borrowing money for a car is the same, when it comes time to pay the loan back, things get a little complicated.
Unless your friends don't like you much, they're not going to charge you interest on money you borrow. But professional lenders will. A bank isn't your friend and doesn't lend money out of the goodness of its heart. It needs a financial incentive. That's what interest provides for the lender: a financial incentive to lend money.
When you take out a loan for a car, it'll come with an interest rate -- a certain percentage of a loan that you must pay back in addition to the original loan amount. So, if you borrow $20,000 for a car at a 5 percent interest rate, you're going to end up paying the bank $21,000 over the life of the loan -- that's the principle, plus the interest.
The Car Loan Term
The life of the loan, or loan term, simply refers to the amount of time you have to pay the lender back. If you sign up for a five-year term, in five years you'll pay the money back and will own the car free and clear. What the loan term doesn't mean is that five years from now you'll have to come up with all of the money. The vast majority of auto loans are repaid in monthly installments. You send the lender a set amount each month and slowly pay off the loan.
Most people think that when you finance a car, the finance company lends you the money and the car is yours. That's a simple way of looking at it. In reality, however, the lender is buying the car and letting you use it. The lender technically owns the car, though you agree to be responsible for it. In fact, you won't have the title to the car until you make your last loan payment. Miss loan payments and the lender repossess the car. Each payment you make buys you a little more of the car, but you don't fully own it until the loan is paid off.
Now that you know the basics, you're probably wondering how people can screw up financing a car. Believe it or not, there are plenty of ways.
Your Credit Score
All interest rates are not created equal. Some people get charged more interest, and some get charged less. Obviously, you want to get charged less. The interest rate lenders charge is based largely on your credit score -- a number that's assigned to you based on how much other debt you have and how good you've been about paying bills on time. Lenders use the score to assess how likely you are to pay them back. If your score is low, they'll think you're not likely to repay the auto loan and charge you more money to cover that risk.
Young people often have lower credit scores than older people, even if they've been good about staying out of debt and paying their bills. That's because young people don't have long credit histories, which makes it difficult for lenders to tell how much of a risk they are. As a result, people without long credit histories can be charged higher interest rates too.
You should know what your credit score is and do your best to make sure it's high. For a small fee, you can get it through Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. If your score is not as high as you'd like, paying off old bills (like credit card debt) and paying all bills on time (the full balance, not just the minimum due) for six to nine months should bring your score up and interest rate down.
Apply, Apply, Apply
You wouldn't just apply to one job or one college, so you shouldn't apply to just one lender for a car loan. Contact your bank, local credit unions and other lenders to find out what they're offering. You'll have to fill out loan applications, which will ask for your employment history, income, expenses and debts. Do not be tempted to exaggerate your income or misstate your expenses. Everything you fill out on a loan application will be verified and lying will get you into serious trouble. The lender will pull your credit history and credit score and make you a loan offer based on that information.
Take some time to go over all the offers. Don't just look at the interest rates -- avoid offers that charge you a lot of fees. Also, watch out for loans that have a prepayment penalty; that's a charge that you'll owe if you pay the loan off early. Paying the loan off early may not be something you'll be able to do, but if your long-lost Aunt Maybel dies and leaves you a fortune, paying it off could save you a lot of money -- and you don't want to pay extra to do it.
In: Accounting