Midterm Exam Business Valuation and Stock Valuation Essay Example for Free

Midterm Exam Business Valuation and Stock Valuation Essay It is generally more expensive to form a proprietorship than a corporation because, with a proprietorship, extensive legal documents are required. (b) Corporations face fewer regulations than sole proprietorships. (c) One disadvantage of operating a business as a sole proprietorship is that the firm is subject to double taxation, at both the firm level and the owner level. (d) One advantage of forming a corporation is that equity investors are usually exposed to less liability than in a regular partnership. If a regular partnership goes bankrupt, each partner is exposed to liabilities only up to the amount of his or her investment in the business. (2) (TCO G) A security analyst obtained the following information from Prestopino Products’ financial statements: Retained earnings at the end of 2009 were $700,000, but retained earnings at the end of 2010 had declined to $320,000. †¢ The company does not pay dividends. †¢ The company’s depreciation expense is its only non-cash expense; it has no amortization charges. †¢ The company has no non-cash revenues. The company’s net cash flow (NCF) for 2010 was $150,000. On the basis of this information, which of the following statements is CORRECT? (Points : 10) (a) Prestopino had negative net income in 2010. ( b ) Prestopino’s depreciation expense in 2010 was less than $150,000. (c) Prestopino had positive net income in 2010, but its income was less than its 2009 income. (d) Prestopino’s NCF in 2010 must be higher than its NCF in 2009. (e) Prestopino’s cash on the balance sheet at the end of 2010 must be lower than the cash it had on the balance sheet at the end of 2009. Which of the following is most likely to occur? (Points : 10) (a) The required rate of return for an average stock will increase by an amount equal to the increase in the market risk premium. (b) The required rate of return will decline for stocks whose betas are less than 1. 0. (c) The required rate of return on the market, rM, will not change as a result of these changes. (d) The required rate of return for each individual stock in the market will increase by an amount equal to the increase in the market risk premium. (e) The required rate of return on a riskless bond will decline.

Being an Effective Leader: Literature Review

Being an Effective Leader: Literature Review Introduction How to be an effective leader? Leadership is not management or instruction. Leadership is the ability to inspire or influence others towards the leaders goal and a real leader have followers. If someone has followers, then he or she is a successful leader. Besides that, must be a real leader. A successful leader must make his or her followers believe that they are a team or family, not only the relationship between leader and subordinates only. If they have confidence in you and be your followers that is the successful beginning of the goal. However, an effective leader is someone who establishes a clear vision. Furthermore, leader should also be able to educate his subordinates since they have the ability to work independently. Next, for businesspeople, one of the important things have to worry about is to inspire people or influence others towards the leaders goal. Now, here are some methods to make tasks easier and how to be an effective leader such as positive attitude, self-asse ssment and be fully prepared.    Bee Kai Ying, 1507526 First: An effective leader must have positive attitude Firstly, positive attitude is important for a leader. A great leader is able to control their emotion well. They would not bring negative emotion to work. This is because they know these emotions can affect others especially people in leadership position. For example, when facing a problem that are not expected, from ability to stay clam can bring confidence to team members and prevent other team members feeling confuse. Moreover, a good leader will seek advice from team member without caring their position. Besides that, a positive thinker will not be jealous others ability and are willing to learn from them. Positive thinkers team can improve a lot. For example, a positive thinking team will treat a difficult situation as a chance to show their ability while a negative thinking team will not because they are worry for failure. Even when positive thinker fail in the challenges but they can quickly overcome failure and accept the challenges again. They will not stop because of the fa ilure but will improve because of learning the failure and never give up. At last, positive thinking not only affected the leader themselves but will also affected the team members and encourage the team toward their personal or team goals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Wong Chung Hing ,1507484 Second: Effective leaders own self-assessment Self-assessment is the process for leaders to evaluate their performances, behaviours and have better understanding on their strengths and weaknesses. As a result of owning self-assessment skill, they are able to work on their limitations and improve their abilities including confidence, communication skill and team-building skill as an effective leader. Moreover, leaders are able to hire the subordinates or team-mates who complement him on his insignificance. There are some tools and techniques have been prepared for self-assessment and one of the most famous tool is Leadership Steps Assessment (LSA) (James G. Clawson, 1999). By using LSA, one can learn on clarifying one selfs centre, whats possible and what others can contribute, supporting others, being relentless as well as celebrating progress. In addition, leader should always know the perception of people on him. He may request the people to comment on his best and worst qualities and eventually improve the best qualities whil e getting rid of the worst qualities. Last but not least, leader who own self-assessment will learn from their mistakes once they realize their errors. They will face the mistakes and take the responsibility to overcome them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Chong Yee Lee 150784 Third: be an effective leader must have fully preparation To become an effective leader one must prepare yourself to lead well before you do anything. First, make a list of everything you need to do. Opportunities are often the beginning of the great cause when you are ready to welcome the opportunity, better than have a chance and you are not prepared yourself. When leaders fail it is due to lack of preparation. Next, the leader never stopped being accountable to yourself and others. You cant expect subordinates to perform better if they are not prepared to successfully deliver what you expect from them. Because the things you express to subordinates and what their receive of the ideas is different. Being prepared for the unexpected is your accountable. For example, when the leader demands more from subordinates, enforcement of pressure rises so does the pressure guides subordinates rightly done their own position job. At the same times, improve the performance of the standards for the leader you will notice that preparation become a major measure of success. A leader needs to brush up yourself, such as invest in your own skill sets and capabilities to improve your solution to problem-solving. The preparation does not guarantee success, but the lack of preparation can certainly happen your tendency to failure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lee Chi San, 1508085 Conclusion Last but not least, a great leader is a person who must have positive attitude, self-assessment, and be fully prepared. First, an effective leader should be able to fully prepared. When a leader has fully prepared before doing anything, it will help to decrease the rate of failure of the goal. For example, a leader should prepare or provide a vision for where the company is heading in such a way that people can buy into that vision. Secondly, leader must have own self-assessment. For example, leader will learn from their mistakes towards the goals. It will win the heart of the people you are leading and the possibilities are endless. Thirdly, leader also should have positive attitudes. Effective leaders inspire you and influence others all their thoughts, words and actions are charged. They look inside and bring the best of you to the surface.For example, a leader must be a positive thinker, good example and good mirror in front of people, because it can inspire people towards the go al. In short, a successful leader can lead all subordinates together to achieve the goal and let all subordinates voluntarily follow from the start to the end. This is what an effective leader must have.   Ã‚  Ã‚   1507526, Bee Kai Ying Why Do Countries Trade With One Another? Why Do Countries Trade With One Another? There are several reasons why countries trade with one another. Trade among nations is taken as a sign of good intent and a means of maintaining non-hostile diplomatic relations. Trade is used to empower allied nations by providing them with valued resources such as oil, grain, or bullets, as well as crippling and weakening rivals by imposing economic sanctions on goods services such as: military armaments, food, or medicine. Bans such as these are used to punish nations or motivate a change in their political and economic behavior. A course of action that the United States of America has pursued several times when suspect of nations endoursing terrorism. Moreover, trade unifies neighbouring countries with shared economic ideals by creating a common currency and trade laws that bolster each partys economic power. The establishment of the euro for example in 2002 united 12 countries and is now used in 22 countries, currently overpowering the US dollar.   Essentially countries trade in order to purchase goods and/or services that would not have been available within their borders either due to insufficient resources or underdeveloped technology. Therefore through trade, countries are able to obtain any desired good or service that would have otherwise been unattainable or would have placed a burden on economic activity. International trade may be described as a interdependent web of sustainability among countries. International trade therefore mirrors specialisation, this being a key concept underlined in the law of comparative advantage. The law of comparative advantage involves the opportunity costs of two or more parties (a firm or company, in this case a country) in their production of a good or service and highlights their ability in producing it at the highest possible efficiency in relation to all the other possible goods or services that could have been produced in its place. In this sense, there is merit in trading with other countries when international differences are present in the opportunity cost of given goods. An isolated economy with limited resources is able to produce tractors and hats for instance. The more resources allocated in the production of tractors, the less are available for the production of hats and vice versa. The opportunity cost of tractors is the quantity of hats sacrificed seeing that resource allocation was focused on the production of tractors and not hats.  This situation can be illustrated by the diagram overleaf: Diagram (a) shows the maximum combination of tractors and hats this economy can produce. In the event that all resources were used to produce maximum tractor output while sacrificing the production of hats all-together, then the outcome would be shown by point A. Similarly, point D represents the event that the economy sacrificed the production of tractors to achieve maximum hat output.  Points B and C correspond to relative trade-offs. Point E represents inefficient use of resources, while point F requires more resources than the economy has at hand and can only be achieved by development of the given economy. The curve A-D is known as the production possibility curve. Using the principle of comparative advantage, countries derive whether it would be beneficial to start trading and if so, if it should export or import. Take for instance the market for wheat. The wheat industry is large seeing that it is produced in many countries making it a good example in terms of analysing the gains and losses a country may experience as a result of trade. For example, Country As market for wheat is isolated from the world market. There are no transactions be it exports or imports and the market for it is comprised uniquely by its domestic buyers and sellers. The diagram overleaf depicts the market equilibrium without international trade: (b) In an economy like Country As, domestic supply and demand are balanced by adjusting the price. In the absence of international trade consumer and producer surplus are in equilibrium.   To determine whether or not Country A should trade with other countries the domestic price of wheat should be compared to that of other countries, commonly known as the world price. If the domestic price of wheat is lower than the world price then Country A becomes an exporter of wheat seeing that domestic wheat producers take advantage of the increased foreign prices and begin selling to other countries. By contrast, if Country As domestic price of wheat were higher than the world price then it becomes an importer of wheat since consumers are eager to buy cheaper wheat from abroad.   The principle of comparative advantage is a key element as far as trade is concerned. By considering the domestic price in relation to the world price of wheat Country A derives whether or not it has a comparative advantage in producing it. The opportunity cost of wheat is derived from the domestic value. In other words, how much of another good Country A has to sacrifice in order to produce one unit of wheat. A low production price of wheat states that Country A has a comparative advantage to the rest of the world. Conversely, if Country A has a high production value, other countries have a comparative advantage.   Diagram (b) shows the domestic equilibrium price and quantity for wheat during pre-trade conditions. Once Country A starts trading, the domestic price increases to reach the world price level. This is to say that domestic producers will now sell at this new increased price which in turn forces consumers to pay more. This is shown by the diagram below: (c) Quantity demanded and quantity supplied differ when in trade. The new excess quantity is used as exports to other countries. Before trading, the price level adjusted itself so that domestic supply and demand could balance. Consumer surplus being areas A + B and producer surplus area C. Total surplus summing up to areas A + B + C. Now that a new price has been set, consumer surplus is A while areas B + C + D are the producer surplus. The new total surplus is A + B + C + D. Producers surplus increases by areas B and D making them better-off. While consumer surplus is reduced by area B. Due to producer gain trumping consumer loss, total surplus in Country A increases. This example shows how trade bolsters the economic state of a country and reinforces the pro-trade argument. Following these points, one concludes by saying that trade among nations is beneficial seeing that it allows each party to allocate its resources accordingly in order to specialise in what it does best, while obtaining other desired goods at a lower rate. When countries decide what to specialise in upon entering trade with one another, their opportunity costs are taken into consideration seeing as relative production costs differ from country to country.  The following model puts into practice the example with hats and tractors. Take for instance two countries producing hats and tractors, Greece and Britain. British workers earn 6 pounds an hour whereas Greek workers earn 3 euro and have an absolute advantage in terms of both goods. Table 1 shows that less British unit labour hours are needed for both goods. Britain is relatively more productive in terms of tractors seeing that it takes 1.5 times longer for Greece to produce one. However, it takes Greece only 5/4 times longer to make a hat.  Britain holds the comparative advantage for tractor production and Greece in hats. By sacrificing 10 hats, Britain acquires 40 extra labour hours to make a Tractor.  The opportunity cost of a tractor in Britain is 10 hats and 12 hats in Greece. The opportunity cost of Greece however (1/12 of a tractor) is less than the opportunity cost in Britain ( 1/10 of a tractor.).  Once again, this proves that Britain has a comparative advantage in tractors and Greece in hats. Specialisation and trade allows these countries to produce and trade each good more efficiently. Greece focuses on hat production a nd Britain on tractor. Trade has proven to be a very beneficial course of action for countries to take part in. Benefits from trade range from maintaining good-willed relations between nations, to empowering allies with precious resources, to weakening foes by stripping them away and finally to allow each country to obtain goods and services in demand that would have otherwise been impossible to attain. Through the principle of comparative advantage countries determine a number of factors. Initially, with the use of a production possibility frontier diagram, they derive opportunity costs for different combinations of producing goods. Efficient resource allocation paves the way to specialisation of goods. Secondly, they see if they have a comparative advantage in entering international trade and exporting (buying). Trade, exports to be more precise, increase countries economic power as it increases Total Surplus. Finally, when faced with the option of multiple good production, countries compare their compar ative advantage in relation to each good and settle for the most efficient outcome. As a result of specialisation all parties benefit from reduced costs.

I Enjoy Chemical Engineering :: Graduate Admissions Essays

I Enjoy Chemical Engineering    You can get very frightened when you are stepping into a field which is unfamiliar, especially if that field has a reputation as the most challenging major. To me, switching my major from mechanical engineering to chemical engineering at Clarkson University was a difficult long-thought-out decision. It was a result of 18 months of reflection and discussion with faculty. Now, I so enjoy my chemical engineering courses that I plan to continue my education in this field.    The controversy that pushed me over the edge of fear of changing my major was the air pollution problem caused by our transportation. I have always been in love with cars and motorcycles, so I want to work on the electrical vehicle (EV) to fight this environmental problem.    As you know, the state of California will implement the regulation that requires all car manufacturers to sell Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) by the year 2003. Although manufacturers have decided the EV is a quick practical solution, I believe there are many problems that need further research. The latest prototype EV uses a Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) battery as a power source. The battery is mechanically simple, yet, it could be a good alternative to an ordinary internal combustion engine. However, the EV requires about a 288-volt battery which weighs about 1170 lbs. This Ni-Cd battery costs well over $30,000! Some EVs even require a 200-volt power source, a specially made battery charger, and may take up to eight hours to recharge. Even in Volvo's breakthrough idea of an EV with a gas turbine which serves as an energy source and recharges simultaneously, the gas turbine is made of Boron, which is extremely expensive. As a graduate student, I hope to work on developing lighter, more effici ent and economical materials that can contribute to solving the problems with electrical vehicles.    I am committed to my major, chemical engineering, because, as a mechanical engineer, I could only get involved with the development of the structure of EV's but not the development of advanced materials that may be used for electrical vehicles.    I seek more specialized education in advanced material development and the advanced chemistry behind a cleaner burning alternative source of energy, such as methanol. With this special knowledge, I will devote all my effort to creating advanced materials that are cheap, light, and can store more energy than the Ni-Cd battery; it would not be a dream to have clean air in the near future.

Barnsley Venue Guide :: essays research papers

Music and Arts Guide   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The following document features a variety of different venues in Barnsley, which are good for live bands or DJs. This should be of use to any unsigned band wishing to get gigs in the area. Some places might pay to have a band, others don’t. It all depends on the quality/ size of the venue and how well known you are as a band or DJ.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is Butterfield’s Bar on Market Hill, Barnsley. Tel: 01226 733854. It’s a trendy town centre bar, which serves a good range of food every day from 11am to 7pm. As far as evenings go, Wednesday is student night with two for one offers on all drinks and there is a DJ playing every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Butterfield’s also has bands playing sometimes when it is not a DJ night. Overall, It is a very clean and well-run bar.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is Bodegas Bar on Pitt Street, Barnsley. Tel 01226 210220. Website – www.bodegas.co.uk. It is a lively student pub with Pool tables, Darts, two large TV screens and cheap drinks all the time. They have live bands every Wednesday, which are usually Rock or Heavy Metal in style.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chennell’s Bar on Pitt Street Barnsley. Tel 01226 210220. A popular pub for meals and drinks due to the low prices and decent quality. The dà ©cor is old-fashioned but this is still one of the busiest pubs in town due to the friendly staff and cheap drinks. It is not really a place where bands play often; however, It would be worth a try if you could not get gigs anywhere else.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Lord Nelson on Shambles Street, Barnsley. Tel 01226 737151. A student friendly pub with cheap pints upon production of student ID. There is a quiet bar upstairs with a pool table and plenty of room for drinking and eating. Downstairs is a music bar with a dance floor, which is open every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. It is a fairly good venue with plenty of room both on the dance floor and the stage area.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Durty O’Dwyers Bar on Market Hill, Barnsley. 01226 786100.Website – www.odwyers.co.uk. An Irish theme bar with associated dà ©cor and a good food menu from 11am to 3pm daily. It is a fairly small place with live bands on Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons. There is also a practice room upstairs for  £10.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Panama Joe’s is on Pitt Street, Barnsley.

Perspectivism and Truth in Nietzsche’s Philosophy: A Critical Look at

Perspectivism and Truth in Nietzsche’s Philosophy: A Critical Look at the Apparent Contradiction â€Å"There are no truths,† states one. â€Å"Well, if so, then is your statement true?† asks another. This statement and following question go a long way in demonstrating the crucial problem that any investigator of Nietzsche’s conceptions of perspectivism and truth encounters. How can one who believes that one’s conception of truth depends on the perspective from which one writes (as Nietzsche seems to believe) also posit anything resembling a universal truth (as Nietzsche seems to present the will to power, eternal recurrence, and the ÃÅ"bermensch)? Given this idea that there is no truth outside of a perspective, a transcendent truth, how can a philosopher make any claims at all which are valid outside his personal perspective? This is the question that Maudemarie Clark declares Nietzsche commentators from Heidegger and Kaufmann to Derrida and even herself have been trying to answer. The sheer amount of material that has been written a nd continues to be written on this conundrum demonstrates that this question will not be satisfactorily resolved here, but I will try to show that a resolution can be found. And this resolution need not sacrifice Nietzsche’s idea of perspectivism for finding some â€Å"truth† in his philosophy, or vice versa. One, however, ought to look at Nietzsche’s philosophical â€Å"truths† not in a metaphysical manner but as, when taken collectively, the best way to live one’s life in the absence of an absolute truth. By looking at one of Nietzsche’s specific postulations of perspectivism, we can get a better idea of precisely how this term applies to his philosophy and how it relates to the â€Å"tru... ...’s lack of a direct response to this apparent contradiction ensures that this matter will continue to be hotly debated well into the future. For this seemingly simple contradiction of positing truths when one has denied all absolute truths, Nietzsche gives a very complex and personal answer. Bibliography PRIMARY TEXTS Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (London: Penguin Books, 1990). Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, 1967). SECONDARY TEXTS Clark, Maudemarie, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Solomon, Robert C., ‘Nietzsche ad hominem: Perspectivism, personality, and ressentiment,' in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 180-222.

Is Your College Degree Worth Incurring Essay

Such? as? the? question? â€Å"Is? your? college? degree? worth? incurring? significant? debt†. For? several? years,? students? ask? its? a? college? degree? worth? incurring? significant? debt? for? real? and? they? have? many? questions? about? that. But? today? we? are? going? to? talk? about? some? point? to? this? question? who? students? have? been? asking? and? most? students? who? prepare? their? plan? for? college.? ? First? I? will? answer? the? question? by? â€Å"YES†.? Because? you? can? not? start? saying,? after? High? School? I’m? going? to? college? to? study,? for?example? Nurse? Anesthesia? and? you? don’t? even? know? how? much? cost? they? classes.? Indeed? you? should? have? an? idea? about? the? tuition? of? what? you? going? to? learn? and? what? is? the? best? college? or? university? around? you? to? start.? ? In? addition? everybody? know? go? to? college? is? more? extra? than? a? simple? education. And? when? you? go? to? college? you? got? a? degree? you? have? a? better? JOB.? CORRESPONDINGLY? WHEN? YOU? HAVE? A? BETTER? JOB? YOU? CAN? MAKE? MORE? MONEY.? TOGETHER? WITH,? YOU? HAVE? A? BETTER? LIFE.? ? SO? THAT’S? WHY? MANY? TIMES? STUDENTS? WANT? TO? DO? THEIR? BEST,? TO? HAVE? A? HIGHER? DEGREE? COLLEGE.? IT’S? LIKE? A? BETTER? LIFE,? BUT? THEY? SAID? THEY? CAN’T? JUST? THINKING? ABOUT? THAT,? BECAUSE? WHEN? THEY? TRY? TO? HAVE? A? HIGHER? DEGREE? COLLEGE? IT? WILL? BE? MORE? EXPENSIVE? FOR? THEM. ? ?FOR? EXAMPLE,? WITH? A? DOCTORATE? DEGREE? THEY? THINK,? THEY? SHOULD? PAY? 200,000$? WITH? AN? ALONE? SO? THEY? HAVE? LIKE? 20? YEARS? TO? PAY? ALL? OF? THAT? MONEY.? SO? MANY? OF? THEM? SAID? ITS? BETTER? TO? TAKE? A? NORMAL? DEGREE? LIKE? 20,000? $? OR? 30,000? $?.? SO? THEY? AREN’T? GOING? TO? WORTH? INCURRING? SIGNIFICANT? DEBT.? ? IN? MY? FINAL? ANALYSIS? AND? IN? CONCLUSION,? I? THINK? THEY? HAVE? IN? THEIR? HEAD? HOW? THEY GOING? TO? MAKE? ALL? OF? THIS? MONEY.? ALTHOUGH? THIS? MAY? BE? TRUE,? BUT? THEY? FORGET? WITH? A? HIGHER? DEGREE,? THEY? HAVE? GOOD? JOB? SECURITY? IS? WORTH? ALL? THE? DEBT. ? ? ? ? ? ?

Sony Research Paper

Journey of SONY : A Revolution of Walkman to I-Pod 1981 Walkman II Sony is arguably Japan's best known company and one of the world's largest and most well respected consumer-product manufacturers. Its products are world famous and sold everywhere around the globe. Surveys in early 2000s have showed that Sony was the most recognized and esteemed brand name in the United States (ahead of Coca Cola, General Motors and General Electric) and is third coolest global brand after Nike and Tommy Hilfinger among American teens. Although Sony has some of its luster since then it is still a remarkable company.Sony is the world’s No. 2 consumer electronic maker after Panasonic with around $70 billion in worldwide sales. One of Japan’s first internationally-minded companies, it has relied heavily on exports and was among the first Japanese firms to build a U. S. factory. In the 1960s, 70s and 80s it helped turned â€Å"Made in Japan† from a joke into a symbol in unsurpassed q uality. Sony has traditionally been known as a great innovator that transformed entire categories of electronics with products like the Walkman music player and PlayStation game console, and was able command premium prices for its top-quality products.Sony not only changed business and the electronic industry it also changed the world. Before it came along electronics were large bulky products that kept people sequestered in their homes. After Sony, they became small products that people they could to take with them to enhance their surroundings wherever they went. Sony topped a Harris poll for best brands for the 7th consecutive year in 2006. Dell and Coca Cola were 2nd and 3rd respectively. In 2004, it was ranked by Forbes as the 72nd largest company in the world. Sony placed 35th in the 2011 Interbrand Best Global Brands ranking. Coca Cola and IBM were No. and 2. Sony had 160,000 employees and 57 manufacturing sites as of September 2008. It has traditionally been regarded as one of the top transnational companies in terms of foreign assets and foreign employees. The goal of the company has been to apply the most advanced technology to consumer products for fun and enjoyment rather than just practical uses. Sony Walkman Walkman prototype The Walkman miniature cassette player first went on sale in July, 1979. Inspired by pocket cassette recorders designed for dictation, it changed the way we lived by making music and electronics portable, personal and mobile.It changed the lifestyles and listening habits of millions and was particularly embraced by young people, commuters and joggers. In 1986, â€Å"Walkman† was added to the Oxford English dictionary. For a while it was used as a generic term for all portable music devices. The Walkman was originally made as a prototype so that Sony co-founder Akio Morita could listen to opera on long-distance flights. The device, which was original marketed in Britain as the Stowaway, almost didn’t happen. â₠¬Å"Everybody gave me a hard time,† Morita said in his memoirs.Sony engineers and executive said it was ludicrous to sell a tape-player without a recording function. It took a while for the Walkman to catch on. Sales initially were sluggish. The Walkman has been described as Morita’s product and his greatest contribution to Sony. It was Ibuka who came up with the idea for product but Morita was the one who overcame resistance of senior Sony executives to bring the product to market. The Walkman was the right product for the right time. It was the prefect device for the me generation era and the fitness craze.Its headphone output jack was originally named â€Å"guy† and input hole â€Å"doll. † A famous Walkman ad from the 1980s featured a monkey (a Japanese macaque) listening to a Walkman with a very human-like relaxed, content expression on its face. The Walkman was followed by Watchman mini television (1982) and Discman compact disc player (1984) and hund red of imitations by competitors. As of 2004, 340 million Walkman had been sold and130 different Walkman models had been released. They included models that ran MDs and memory sticks. The first device to gain as much attention as Sony’s Walkman was Apple Ipod, released in 2004.In response to that Sony introduced a hard disk Vaio pocket and a hard disk Walkman. In October 2010, Sony announced it was cease producing conventional Walkman cassette players. They were done in by competition from MP2 players and Ipods. They lasted for 31 years. Sony and Sweden’s Ericsson produce cell phones together, mainly making mid- and high-range handsets, In recent years sales have suffered. It has profits have been around $300 million on around $4. 5 billion in sales Sony and KDDI developed a Walkman brand cell phone that downloads music Sony: How did the former gadget king lose its mojo?Before the iPod, everyone's headphones were plugged into the Sony Walkman. But as the Walkman lost i ts relevance, Sony seemed to, as well posted on April 2, 2012, at 6:25 AM Sony has faded since its classic '80s-era Walkman went out of style, but a new CEO is trying to change that. Photo: DK Limited/CORBIS Like Xerox, Kleenex, and Google, Sony's Walkman was the rare brand that was so popular it became the thing itself. The Japanese electronics giant was ubiquitous in other ways, too, and there was a time when it seemed as if everyone owned a Sony device, whether it was a television, a camcorder, or a stereo.But in the iPad age, Sony seems to have all but disappeared from the marketplace for must-have gadgets. What happened? And how can its new CEO, Kazuo Hirai, turn the company around? Here, a guide to Sony's woes: How badly is Sony struggling? It's not pretty. The company is set to post a loss of $2. 7 billion for the current fiscal year. It was worth $100 billion in 2000, but since then has lost 80 percent of its value. And it's even struggling in its native Japan, where Apple f or the first time was just voted the country's top consumer brand. Where did Sony go wrong?Sony is an enormous company, and its movie unit (which produced the Spiderman movies) and music business (which distributes Adele and Taylor Swift) post profits. In fact, its biggest moneymaker is Sony Life, an insurance company. The problem is lackluster gadgets. Consumer electronics still account for half of Sony's sales, and the company's once-unrivaled television division, for example, â€Å"is drowning in red ink,† says Matt Burns at TechCrunch. Why can't it make another Walkman? Sony's â€Å"gift for innovation† came more easily when the company was â€Å"young and streamlined, not sprawling,† says Chico Harlan at The Washington Post.Sony has become an â€Å"unwieldy multiheaded beast,† says Burns, and is simply less focused on product development. Furthermore, Sony is reluctant to take the draconian steps — firing workers, for example — that are often necessary to make companies more nimble. Like other struggling Japanese companies, Sony still adheres â€Å"to cultural expectations of lifetime employment,† says Harlan. What is Sony's new CEO planning to do? Hirai, who took the helm on April 1, is proposing a new business structure called â€Å"Sony One,† which will see the company focus on gaming, mobile devices, and digital imaging.For a company that missed out â€Å"completely on the iPod era of portable music devices,† it's hoping to â€Å"make up for lost time† with a big splash in the smartphone industry, says Devindra Hardawar at VentureBeat. Gaming is still a â€Å"cash cow† for Sony, and its digital cameras are â€Å"better† than most, so the Sony One plan seems solid. Can it make a comeback? Hirai says he's willing to take the â€Å"painful† steps it will take, says Cliff Edwards at Bloomberg Businessweek, including cutting costs. But Sony will also have to do a bet ter job of wedding its gadgets with the vast music and movie content at its disposal.Sony's â€Å"engineers were slow to weave it all together, as Apple did seamlessly with its iPod and iTunes,† says Harlan. It's an ironic twist of fate for the reigning company â€Å"Apple and Steve Jobs were aiming to dethrone 15 years ago,† says Burns. Sony's Walkman Disappears With a Whimper Few tears were shed as Sony announced plans to shelve most editions of its once ubiquitous Walkman cassette player. The now-unwieldy device, which debuted in 1979, was credited with beginning the portable music player craze and ushering the transition of music fans â€Å"from listeners into users. But many columnists, instead of penning fond farewells to the iPod's ancestor, are bidding the device good riddance, asking why it wasn't discontinued â€Å"years ago. † Still, there were a more than a few who waxed nostalgic about those tinny headphones blaring their favorite '80s tunes. A Ver y Subdued Goodbye for the Device The Wall Street Journal's Daisuke Wakabayashi wonders how the iconic device managed to disappear so inconspicuously, especially in Japan. â€Å"Perhaps there was no raucous send-off in Japan, because the Walkman has come to symbolize, fairly or unfairly, how Sony relinquished its portable music player lead to Apple Inc. s iPod on its ways to taking a backseat to Steve Job’s seemingly endless string of hits†¦. To be sure, most consumer electronics products disappear with barely a whimper†¦. However, one can not help but think the Walkman and its incredible success deserved more than a gadget’s equivalent of a gold watch and a pat on the back. † ‘The Best Symbol of the Demise of Sony' Douglas A. McIntyre at 24/7 Wall Street pens a eulogy for the Walkman and, in turn, Sony. â€Å"There will be many histories of Sony written and most will question why the company was not more aggressive to court music companies and c reate its own iTunes store. Unfortunately, McIntyre argues, â€Å"Its digital version of the Walkman came to market too late†¦. The burial of the Walkman signals the death of Sony’s own ambitions in the portable multimedia device industry. It will be a case study at business schools for decades to teach how a company can lose a market it has dominated. † It Used to Be Amazing, Today It's ‘Kind of a Joke' Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall briefly recalls 1979. â€Å"It wasn't just that the device was small, though it was — not that much bigger than the size of a cassette itself.It was that the headphones were so small and managed to provide — right up against your ear — a surprising degree of audio fidelity. Remember, holding a boombox up on your shoulder wasn't just an affectation. It was the only real way to listen to music on the go. † We Wouldn't Have the iPod Without It After making the requisite quips about the Walkman (â€Å"at least it outlived disco†) CNet's Greg Sandoval notes that the devices designers â€Å"likely influenced† the eventual concept of the iPod. â€Å"[Steve] Jobs took portable music to a new level, one where even [Sony] couldn't compete.Jobs wrapped his offering around a cohesive and as yet unbeatable combination of hardware, software, and digital retail. Sony knew hardware but was at best so-so in retail and a total disaster at developing software (see Sony Connect). Some have speculated that Sony's failure to keep up in a segment that the company created was one of the reasons it has given the Walkman such a quiet send off. † ‘Enough Nostalgia. Let's Recall the Bad Times. ‘ NPR's Jacob Ganz remembers the music players with little fondness. Walkman was all about smaller and cheaper: headphones were light, but breakable. You could hear your music on the go; so could everyone else, since the speakers in the headphones were so bad that you had t o crank the volume. † It also had the interesting effect of turning â€Å"music into a drug, boiled down into capsules that were lower in purity but easier to acquire and manipulate. The device itself may have been too rigid and flawed to survive changing times, but the Walkman changed us from listeners into users. † 30 facts from 30 years of the Sony WalkmanThe first Walkman was launched 30 years ago today Related stories Three decades ago today, Sony launched the Walkman in Japan. It changed how and where we listened to music and its legacy and name still continue today. To celebrate the anniversary of the launch, we've gathered together 30 facts from the last 30 years of one of tech's biggest product icons. 1. The idea for the Walkman came from Masaru Ibuka, the founder of Sony. He was a regular user of the 1978 TC-D5 portable tape recorder, but found it too heavy.He and Sony's Executive Deputy President Norio Oga challenged Nobutoshi Kihara to come up with a simple, playback-only stereo version of the small Pressman tape recorder. 2. Despite initial troubles with batteries and the strangeness of a large pair of headphones teamed with a small device, Ibuka said to Sony's Chairman Akio Morita â€Å"Don't you think a stereo cassette player that you can listen to while walking around is a good idea? † 3. Over 300 different Walkman models have now been produced. 4. Walkman was chosen as a name partly because of the popularity of Superman in 1979. 5.In early 1979, Morita held a meeting in which he held up the prototype Pressman-derived device and said the product should be manufactured and would be a hit among the young. He gave the engineering team less than four months to produce the model, which needed to launch in June. 6. Due to the short time frame, members of the engineering team had to work through the night two or three times a week. 7. The first H-AIR MDR3 headphones weighed just 50 grams at a time when most headphones were 300-400 grams. They were being developed in Sony's research labs at the time of the Walkman project. . By June 1989, a decade after the original, 50 million units had been shipped. 9. Morita ordered an initial production run of 30,000 Walkman units to be made – double the montly sales of the best-selling tape recorder. Poor initial response and sales 10. The first TPS-L2 model was shown to the press on 22 June 1979. Journalists were driven to a park, given a Walkman and were told to walk around while listening to an explanation of the Walkman in stereo. 11. However, initial press responses were very lukewarm. They believed it wouldn't take off. 2. By the end of the first month on sale only 3,000 units had been sold. 13. Retailers weren't keen on the product as they didn't think they could sell something that wouldn't record. 14. Yet, the word of the Walkman spread quickly among the young in Summer 1979. So much so that Marui Department Store placed an order for 10,000 units – even though major Japanese retail was still ignoring it. 15. The initial batch of 30,000 units sold out by the end of August and Sony had problems fulfilling orders for the rest of the year. 6. A worldwide launch was planned for six months after the Walkman's Japanese launch, but Sony subsidiaries didn't like the Walkman name. 17. Other proposed names were Soundabout in the US, Freestyle in Sweden and Stowaway in the UK. 18. But Morita went on a business trip and in both France and the UK people asked him when they would be able to get a Walkman. The name was already set in stone. 19. The latest Walkman line is the X-Series portable video player. A complete success 20.To emphasise the nature of the product, the 1979 launch event was held outside with Walkman demos in the form of people roller skating or cycling while listening to the device. 21. 100 million units were shipped by 1992. 22. In 1986 the name Walkman was included in the Oxford English Dictionary. 23. Many at Sony initia lly felt that the Walkman should be able to record, but Morita was determined to produce a playback-only unit. 24. Again, due to the short time frame, the development team was told not to worry too much about what the original Walkman looked like. 25.In the UK, the first Walkman in the UK came with stereo and two mini headphone jacks – even though it only had one pair of MDR-3L2 headphones. 26. Sony does not like Walkman to be pluralised in the traditional form – either as Walkmans or Walkmen. 27. The first Discman was launched as early as 1984 – the D-50 or D-5. Later models included ESP for shock protection. 28. 1992 saw the launch of the digital re-recordable, MiniDisc Walkman. 29. The Sports line of waterproof players was introduced in 1983. 30. Incredibly, Sony still manufacturers cassette-based Walkman players today.