Deep Ecololgy essays

Deep Ecololgy essays The ideas behind deep ecology have major implications today. They allow people to think more profoundly about the environment and possibly come to a better understanding of their own meaning. People are intensely concerned about the worlds technological adolescence, massive consumerism, and overpopulation. A man named Arne Naess, former head of the philosophy department at the University of Oslo founded an idea that can direct peoples anxiety away from their "shallow" notion of the problem to one that is much "deeper." "Deep ecology goes beyond the limited piecemeal shallow approach to environmental problems and attempts to articulate a comprehensive religious and philosophical worldview." (EE p.145) In its most basic form, deep ecology is a wisdom, an ecosophy, which requires humans to see themselves as part of the bigger picture. Naess, Devall, and Sessions outline basic principles of deep ecology in their writing. Furthermore, they address the roles that scientific ecology plays as well as the concept of self-realization. Aside from these ideas, ecosabotage needs to be discussed in terms of how it fits with the practice of deep ecology. The basic principles of deep ecology as characterized by the authors mentioned, show us what is supposedly wrong with the world and also give us a framework by which we can make a change. In fact, Naess and Sessions went camping in Death Valley, California in order to gain a different perspective. They condensed fifteen years their thought on the topic of deep ecology in an effort to make it appeal to people from all kinds of backgrounds. They also emphasize that these principles must all be considered together. The first principle states that the value of life, human or non-human, is intrinsic. This means that everything about it is valuable, including individuals, species, populations, habitat, and culture. When considering non-human life, it important to remember t...

Translating Feel to Spanish

Translating Feel to Spanish The English verb to feel is one of those verbs that can be tricky to translate to Spanish. More so than with most words, you need to think of what the word means when trying to come up with a Spanish equivalent. If youre fairly new to Spanish and trying to think of how to say a sentence using feel in Spanish, you should probably see first if you can think of a different, and simpler if possible, way of saying what you want to say. For example, a sentence such as I feel sad means basically the same thing as I am sad, which can be expressed as Estoy triste. In that case, using sentirse to translate feel would also work: Me siento triste. In fact, sentir or sentirse frequently is a good translation, as it usually means to feel an emotion. (Sentir comes from the same Latin word as the English word sentiment.) But sentir doesnt work with many uses of feel, as in these sentences: That feels smooth. I feel like going to the store. I feel that its dangerous. It feels cold. In those cases, you need to think of a different verb to use. Here are some of the ways you can translate feel:   Feeling an Emotion As stated above, sentir or sentirse can often be used when referring to emotions: Me siento muy feliz. (I feel very happy.)Me siento fuerte psicolà ³gicamente. (I feel psychologically strong.)Se siente en conflicto cuando necesita escoger entre uno u otro. (He feels conflicted when he needs to choose one or the other.)No sentimos nada. (We dont feel anything.) However, Spanish has many expressions using other verbs to express emotions. Here are a few: Estoy muy feliz. (I am very happy. I feel very happy.)Él tenà ­a miedo. (He was afraid. He felt afraid.)Tengo celos a mi hermana. (Im jealous of my sister. I feel jealous of my sister.)De repente se enojà ³. (Suddenly he got angry. Suddenly he felt angry.) Sentirse is frequently used with como to express the concept of feeling like a ...: Se sintià ³ como una extraà ±a en su propia casa. (She felt like a stranger in her own home.)Me siento como una estrella del rock. (I feel like a rock star.) Feeling Sensations Spanish generally doesnt use sentir to express what is felt with the senses. Sensations are often expressed by idioms using tener. If describing what something feels like, you can often use parecer (see next section): Tienen hambre. (Theyre hungry. They feel hungry.)Tengo frà ­o. (Im cold. I feel cold. It feels cold here.)Tenà ­an sed. (They were thirsty. They felt thirsty.) Meaning ‘To Seem’ When to seem can be substituted for to feel, you can often translate using the verb parecer: Parece lisa al tacto. (It feels smooth to the touch. It seems smooth to the touch.)Parece que va a llover. (It feels like its going to rain. It seems that it is going to rain.)La herramienta me parece à ºtil. (The tool feels useful. The tool seems useful to me.) Meaning ‘To Touch’ Tocar and palpar are often used to refer to touching something. Although palpar comes from the same source as palpate, it is used much more often than the English word and can also be used in informal contexts. El mà ©dico me palpà ³ el abdomen. (The doctor felt my abdomen.)Todos tocaron la piel de zorro para que les diera buena suerte. (Everyone felt the fox skin so it would give them good luck.) ‘To Feel Like’ Meaning ‘To Want To’ A phrase such as to feel like doing something can be translated using querer or other verbs used to express desire: Quisiera comer una hamburguesa. (I feel like (eating) a hamburger. I would like to eat a hamburger.)Prefiero salir yo con mis amigos. (I feel like leaving with my friends. I prefer to leave with my friends.)Katrina no tenà ­a ganas de estudiar. (Katrina didnt feel like studying. Katrina didnt have a desire to study.) For Giving Opinions Feel is often used to express opinions or beliefs. In such cases, you can use opinar, creer or similar verbs: Pienso que no me gusta. (I feel I dont like it. I think I dont like it.)Creo que Argentina es el mejor equipo del mundo. (I feel that Argentina is the best team in the world. I believe that Argentina is the best team in the world.) ¿Por quà © supones que tienes una infeccià ³n? (Why do you feel you have an infection? Why do you suppose you have an infection?) Key Takeaways Although sentir and sentirse are the most common verbs translating to feel, in many situations they would be incorrect.Other verbs that are frequently used for to feel include tocar, querer, and creer.A good way to translate feel is to instead translate a synonym for feel as it used in the context.

Articles Review Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Articles Review - Lab Report Example First is conductive, characterized by â€Å"disease or obstruction in the outer or middle ear.† Conductive hearing loss is not the most serious form of impairment, and persons with this type of hearing loss are said to do well with hearing aids, or other assisted listening devices. Sensorineural hearing loss is described next as â€Å"damage to the delicate sensorineural hair cells of the inner ear or the nerves which supply it.† Persons with sensorineural loss may have only a slight hearing loss, or they might be almost completely deaf, depending on the amount of damage. Depending on the severity of the loss, hearing aids or other assisted listening devices may not be effective. The third kind of hearing loss, mixed, is a combination of conductive and sensorineural; therefore, whether amplified listening devices are effective, will depend on the individual. Finally, central hearing loss is described as â€Å"damage or impairment of the nerves† or other part of t he central nervous system. The article goes on to discuss the fact that hearing impairments and learning disabilities do not necessarily come together, and ends with a very brief description of helpful assisted listening devices (Deafness, 2004). â€Å"You Are Not Alone† is an article that describes the negative feelings parents might experience upon finding out a child has a disability. It describes the process of denial, anger, grief, fear, guilt, confusion, powerlessness, disappointment, and rejection that many parents face. It also offers advice. It encourages parents to seek out other parents who have been through a similar situation because they might be able to offer, â€Å"hope for the future† (Smith, 2003). It also advises talking to a significant other, family member, or other adult who will listen to concerns; relying on positive resources to alleviate some of the feelings of helplessness; taking one day

Review of literature on Brady Plan Research Paper

Review of literature on Brady Plan - Research Paper Example According to Rosen (2008, 102-103), this period built a new government in the U.S. and saw the democratic elections in Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, and the establishment of new administrations in Venezuela and Mexico. Within this setting, cutting down debt was one method to bolster developing economies in Latin America. Consequently, these countries take advantage of democratic transformation as a bargaining ticket to gain more favorable debt arrangements. These countries, as developing democracies, thought that pressing for inflexible strictness and full debt settlement would estrange newly entitled voters and threaten the continued existence of democratic governments (Hiatt 2009, 388). In September 1985, President Garcia remarked quite frankly that â€Å"We are faced with a dramatic choice: it is either debt or democracy† (Maswood 2008, 94). In view of this, the objective of this research paper is to analyze the status of the Brady Plan after 23 years of its implementation with a focus on Brazil and Mexico. In particular, this paper tries to answer the question, how did the Brady Plan help solve the problems faced by Mexico and Brazil as a result of the Latin American debt crisis? The success of the loan industry ended in 1982 due to the emergence of the debt crisis, raising alarm on global markets (Buckley 2009, 54). This bleak condition forced several international financial organizations to generate a remedial program, which may function to prevent a potential disaster. This mission engaged the government of the United States, but not, at the outset, as the major player. Basically, the Brady Plan included a rigorous debt assistance program where industrial banks may select from a list of debt-stock reduction and new currency selections, practiced within the context of policy contingency (Iqbal & Kanbur 1997, 25). In actual fact, not many industrial banks were eager to grant a new

The Mongols Essay Example for Free

The Mongols Essay The Mongols swept across Asia and Europe in a bloody rampage. Killing over 6,107,000 people from the years 1220-1258. Treating women like a piece of meat meant to fulfill the pleasure of men. But how Barbaric were the Mongols on a scale of one to ten? Well the Mongols were very barbaric because they were uncivilized, brutal, yet conquered much territory. â€Å"Come out so that we may count on you according to our custom.† And when the people come out to them they seek out artisans among them and kept these. But the others with the exception of those they wish to have as slaves, they kill with the axe†¦This statement proves in many ways that the Mongols were uncivilized. Also soldiers would execute prisoners by shooting them with arrows or by burying them alive upside down in the dirt and tying there arms so they cant dig themselves out. Causing a slow excruciating bereavement of suffocation. Even the Mongol Yasa (laws) and Bilik (rules) were barbaric men were allowed to cheat on women having as many wives as they please but women could only have one husband and if a dad was to die then it was okay to marry all of his wife’s except for his own mother. Could you imagine our society if Mongols were in control? (Doc: 5, 10) â€Å"†¦Severed the heads of the slain from their bodies and heaped them up on piles†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Sounds Brutal doesn’t it? Can you imagine the people who could kill someone cut there heads of then pile them up like some piece of rubbish? Well the Mongols sure were brutal no doubt about it. They were so brutal they killed over 6,107,000 people from the years 1220-1258. In fact, it was commanded that the town of Nishaphur should be laid waste in such a manner that the site could be ploughed upon; and that †¦. Not even cats and dogs should be left alive. Also thief’s, did not exist in the Mongol life because they were so scared of the consequences of robbery that even the poorest sole wouldn’t dare think about steeling. Could you imagine how scary it must have been to be a Mongol or even one of there rivals? (Doc: 4,7) Finally, Under Genghis Khan the Mongols were great conquerors. They subjugated over 4,860,000 square miles. The Mongols had revolutionary war tactics such as, before a fight they would surround the enemy. Having there people (men, women, children, and some times dummy’s) on horses to make the other army think they were fighting a huge crowd causing panic among them as the Mongols came closer and closer attacking their enemy. With this tactic and many others Mongols both brought an onslaught and conquered a large amount of Asia and Europe. No wonder why the Mongols ruled the largest empire known to men for nearly 300 years. (Doc: 1, 6, 3) In conclusion the Mongols on a scale of one to ten were about a seven when it came to how barbaric they really were. Mostly Because of there strategies of war, laws, rules, execution of prisoners, conquest, and finally how brutal all together they were as a group of people. This is true due to the fact the Mongols were crude, atrocious, yet conquered a great deal of terrain.

Martin Luther: Influential Preacher and Reformist :: Biography Biographies Essays

Martin Luther: Influential Preacher and Reformist Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany, the son of Hans Luther, who worked in the copper mines, and his wife Margarethe. He went to school at Magdeburg and Eisenach, and entered the University of Erfurt in 1501, graduating with a BA in 1502 and an MA in 1505. His father wished him to be a lawyer, but Luther was drawn to the study of the scriptures, and spent three years in the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. In 1507 he was ordained a priest, and went to the University of Wittenberg, where he lectured on philosophy and the Scriptures, becoming a powerful and influential preacher. On a mission to Rome in 1510--11 he was appalled by the corruption he found there. Money was greatly needed at the time for the rebuilding of St. Peter's, and papal emissaries sought everywhere to raise funds by the sale of indulgences. The system was grossly abused, and Luther's indignation at the shameless traffic, carried on in particular by the Dominican Johann Tetzel, became irrepressible. As professor of biblical exegesis at Wittenberg (1512--46), he began to preach the doctrine of salvation by faith rather than works; and on 31 October 1517 drew up a list of 95 theses on indulgences denying the pope any right to forgive sins, and nailed them on the church door at Wittenberg. Tetzel retreated from Saxony to Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, where he published a set of counter- theses and burnt Luther's. The Wittenberg students retaliated by burning Tetzel's, and in 1518 Luther was joined in his views by Melanchthon. The pope, Leo X, at first took little notice of this disturbance, but in 1518 summoned Luther to Rome to answer for his theses. His university and the elector interfered, and ineffective negotiations were undertaken by Cardinal Cajetan and by Miltitz, envoy of the pope to the Saxon court. The scholar Johann Eck and Luther held a memorable disputation at Leipzig (1519); and Luther began to attack the papal system more boldly. In 1520 he published his famous address An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation (Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation), followed by a treatise De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium (A Prelude concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church), which also attacked the doctrinal system of the Church of Rome. A papal bull containing 41 theses was issued against him. He burned it before a multitude of doctors, students, and citizens in Wittenberg. He was excommunicated, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, convened the first Diet at Worms in 1521, before which Luther was called to retract his teachings.

Effective communication within my time at BP Essay

While on my internship I wanted to show effective communication. This involved me communicating with my team, working well within my team and giving many presentations to them. At the end of my internship I got feedback from my manager who explained how I was able to show effective communication within my time at BP. Goal – To improve my communication. 1. Introduce and talk to people who I don’t know. 2. Share ideas with colleagues. 3. Ask for help when needed. Feedback – Being able to communicate effectively was an important part of her’ role, as she was dealing with numerous personnel for whom English was not their first language. In her first week she was tasked with composing an email to send to all the regionally based team members. She proved straight away that her written communications skills were good, although she was naturally looking for reassurance of her emails were as required. By the end of the internship, both her written and verbal communication could only be described as â€Å"excellent†. Goal – To improve my ability to ask questions 1. List down any questions that come to mind during work or home. 2. Do some research on the questions before hand and find an answer. 3. If I cannot find an answer I will ask a college or supervisor. Feedback – When she did have any questions she was happy to ask, and did so in a polite and concise manner. If she needed help on tasks or wanted extra elaboration on certain topics she was able to do so. Goal – To improve team working with new people 1. Introduce myself to the new people in my team. 2. Think of questions and ideas to contribute to the team. 3. Contribute my ideas to them and ask questions. 4. Use the information gained and adapt it to my work. Feedback – She fitted into the team from day one, she is reliable, punctual and always polite and courteous. Her attitude to work was excellent, she was always willing to give something ago, with minimal instruction. Goal – To improve my presentation skills 1. Plan a presentation and practice it. 2. Ask for feedback from colleagues. 3. Take the feedback into consideration and improve the presentation. 4. Invite colleagues, managers to listen to the presentation. The first time I met her, she highlighted that she wanted to improve her presentation skills during her time with us. So, on her first day I asked her to help me present the safety moment in our team meeting; and she did a great job! Over the next few weeks she had other opportunities to both help compile presentation material, and also present to others on her own. By the end on the internship when it was time to present to a room full of peers, parents and work colleagues, she was a professional! In conclusion, it’s always very important to show effective communication skills in the workplace as they are vital for teamwork and overall success. These skills were skills that I wanted to improve greatly as I know they will be beneficial in the future. The majority of the feedback from my line manager was very positive and I will take into account the comments for improvement.

Gainesboro Machine Tools Corporation Essay

Kendle International Inc. We looked at the competitive landscape and, based on what was happening, knew we were either going to sell Kendle, grow or disappear. It was May 1997, and Candace Kendle, the chairman and chief executive officer of Kendle International Inc. (Kendle), and her husband Christopher C. Bergen, the president and chief operating officer, were reviewing the strategic options for their Cincinnati, Ohio based company. Kendle, a business they had founded over 15 years previously, conducted clinical trials for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to test the safety and efficacy of their new drugs. The company had grown successfully to $13 million of sales and had attracted significant business from major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Kendle was competing, however, with several larger contract research organizations (CRO), many of which had an international presence that allowed them to do clinical studies outside the United States and gave them an advantage when competing for major projects. To compete more effectively, Candace and Chris had embarked on a plan to grow through acquisition, particularly internationally, and to finance this growth through a public offering of equity. Toward this end, by the spring of 1997 Kendle had lined up two potential European acquisitions—U-Gene, a CRO in the Netherlands with 1996 sales of $12.5 million, and gmi, a Germanbased CRO with $7 million in sales. To finance these acquisitions, Kendle had worked out possible debt financing with Nationsbank and was working with two investment banks on an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that would repay the bank debt if successful and provide the equity base for future acquisitions. It was now time to decide whether to go ahead with the full program of two acquisitions, a large debt financing and an equity issue. Kendle History Candace and Chris met in 1979 while working at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Candace had received her doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Cincinnati, then taught in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Her scientific specialty was virology. At the Children’s Hospital, Candace was serving as the director of pharmacy, working as an investigator on a study of an antiviral drug for the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome. Chris, a Wharton MBA, was a senior administrator at the hospital. Research Associate Indra A. Reinbergs prepared this case under the supervision of Professors Dwight B. Crane and Paul W. Marshall as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  © 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 1 Looking for something new, Candace and Chris began to discuss the idea of going into business together. One day in early 1981 Candace received an unexpected visit from a new physician, replacing the usual medical monitor for her project with Burroughs Wellcome. This physician was a pioneer in the  contract clinical research business. As he described how his business worked, Candace became more and more intrigued. When he left that day, she immediately called Chris and said, â€Å"I’ve got a business idea!† The concept was to set up a small research consulting firm that would take on outsourced research and development (R&D) work on a contract basis from large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Based on the positive response she received from potential clients, Candace left her job at the hospital in June 1981 and Chris left his job in December 1981. Kendle International Inc. was incorporated in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1981, with Candace taking 55% of the shares, and Chris 45%. Candace had strong ties to the Cincinnati area. Her grandfather, a coal miner, had moved there from Appalachia, and the clan had grown to about 140 members, including Candace’s two sons from a previous marriage. By January 1982, Candace and Chris were working from Candace’s parents’ home. Kendle started as a small company with a few contracts, and business grew slowly through referrals from professional colleagues. Kendle suffered the usual bumps of a start-up business, particularly in the late 1980s when it suffered a loss for two years and ran up $1 million in bank debt on a $250,000 line of credit. Afraid that its bank would call the loan, the company went through a bankruptcy scare. Fortunately, Kendle succeeded in attracting business from a new client, the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle & Co. (Searle). By the early 1990s, the company was turned around and it generated annual sales of about $2.5 million. Candace and Chris were married in 1991. The Pharmaceutical Lifecycle The clinical research process was influenced by government regulations that required drugs to pass through a series of steps before they could be marketed for public use. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated pharmaceuticals. To receive FDA approval, a drug had to meet safety and efficacy standards for a specific indication (medical diagnosis). A drug for hypertension, for example, would have to lower blood pressure by a certain statistically significant amount without  producing unacceptable side effects. The entire FDA approval process could take from 8 to 15 years and involve several thousand patients.1 After a pharmaceutical company discovered a new drug and completed pre-clinical testing on animals in the laboratory, an Investigational New Drug application was filed with the FDA. The drug then passed through three phases of clinical testing on humans. Before beginning each subsequent phase, the drug company had to submit additional regulatory information to the FDA. Phase I Phase I studies were primarily concerned with assessing the drug’s safety. This initial phase of testing in humans was done in a small number of healthy volunteers (20 to 100), such as students, who were usually paid for participation. Phase II Once Phase I testing had proven the drug’s safety, Phase II tested its efficacy in a small number of patients (100 to 300) with the medical diagnosis. It was specifically designed to determine the likely effective dose in patients. Phase III In a Phase III study, the drug was tested on a larger patient population (1,000 to 3,000) at multiple clinical sites. The purpose was to provide a more thorough understanding of the drug’s effectiveness, benefits, and the range of possible adverse reactions. Most Phase II and Phase III studies were blinded studies in which some patients received the experimental drug, while control groups received a placebo or an already approved drug. Once a Phase III study was successfully completed, a pharmaceutical company requested FDA approval for marketing the drug by filing a New Drug Application, which averaged about 100,000 pages. †¢ 200-033 Phase IV Post-marketing testing (of at least 300 patients per trial) was sometimes conducted for high-risk drugs to catch serious side effects (liver toxicity) and monitor them for long-term effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. The pharmaceutical companies traditionally designed and conducted their own clinical trials. They selected the research sites and recruited investigators to conduct the trials of the new drug. Investigators were often medical school professors at teaching hospitals, but they could also be professional investigators who conducted clinical trials at dedicated centers or occasionally regular physicians who ran trials, particularly Phase IV trials, out of their private practices. These investigators then recruited patients, sometimes with the help of the pharmaceutical company, to participate in the study. After patients were recruited, there was a considerable amount of data collection by the investigators, monitoring of the process and data retrieval by the pharmaceutical company, and analysis of the data to determine whether the statistical criteria for safety and efficacy were met. Finally, there was the complicated process of compiling the data and preparing the long report for the FDA. The Contract Research Business In the 1970s, large pharmaceutical concerns in the United States began to look for ways to outsource their clinical testing work as their R&D budgets grew. At the beginning, contract research was a small cottage industry and the work was awarded on a piecemeal basis. As Chris recalled, â€Å"For years, there had been companies conducting animal testing and Phase I, but there was no one managing the entire research and development process. The acronym ‘CRO’ (contract research organization) did not exist, pharmaceutical companies gave out only small contracts, and did not have much confidence in for-profit research managers.† The growth of the CRO industry was stimulated by pricing pressures on drug companies that led them to try to transfer the fixed costs of clinical research into a variable cost through outsourcing. As Chris described, The general problem that drug companies face is balancing a variable workload with a fixed workforce. The problem is that you don’t know when the guy in the white lab coat will come running down the hall, beaker in hand, shouting, ‘Eureka, I’ve got it, it’s going to cure disease X’. When he does that, you know your workload is going to spike. Your workload is impacted by the rate of discovery, the number of projects killed in vitro and, subsequent to that, how many studies get cancelled due to safety or efficacy problems in human testing. Pure CROs like Kendle derived their income solely from the outsourced portion of the R&D budget of pharmaceutical clients. In theory, any part of the clinical testing process could be outsourced. While most pre-clinical discovery was conducted in-house by drug companies, the trend in the 1990s was for CROs to receive contracts to manage the entire clinical research piece, especially 3 Phases II and III. The whole process was an incredible race against time, as every day for which FDA approval was delayed could cost the pharmaceutical client over $1 million in lost revenues. Pharmaceutical contracts ranged in duration from a few months to several years. For multi-year contracts involving clinical trials, a portion of the contract fee was paid at the time the trial was initiated, with the balance of the contract fee payable in installments over the trial duration, as performance-based milestones (investigator recruitment, patient enrollment, delivery of databases) were completed. Contracts were bid by CROs on a fixed-price basis, and the research was a labor-intensive business. The contract bids depended on careful estimation of the hourly labor rates and the number of hours each activity would take. The estimation process involved statistical algorithms, which took into account the length of the study, frequency and length of site visits, the number of sites involved, the number of patients involved, and the number of pages per report form. A premium would be added for more complicated therapeutic testing. As the chief financial officer Tim Mooney described the business, The way that Kendle makes money is like any professional service firm—We focus on maximizing labor utilization, especially at the operational level. We assume a 65% to 70% utilization rate, so profit margins are higher if we have a higher utilization rate of personnel. We have the same assumed profit margin on all levels of people, but we can charge higher rates for contracts where we have specific therapeutic expertise that is in demand. Margins can also be higher on some large projects when we can share overhead costs across more sites. The business of contract research entailed several types of business risk. With contracts running at an average of $1 million for companies of Kendle’s size, client dependence was a major risk. Project cancellation by the client and â€Å"change orders† to reduce project costs were also increasingly frequent in the CRO industry, as healthcare cost pressures intensified. On the other hand, product liability for medical risks was borne by the pharmaceutical company. Competition in the 1990s By the mid-1990s, contract research had evolved into a full-service industry, recognized by both the pharmaceutical/biotech industries and the financial community. In 1995, worldwide spending on R&D by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies was estimated at $35 billion, with $22 billion spent on the type of drug development work that CROs could do. Of the $22 billion, only $4.6 billion was outsourced to CROs in 1995. While R&D spending by pharmaceutical companies was growing at 10% a year, CROs were growing at twice that rate.2 Specialized CROs could manage increasingly complex drug trials—in the previous decade, the number of procedures per trial and average number of patients per trial had doubled—far more efficiently than their pharmaceutical clients.3 Kendle participated in this growth in clinical research. Its net revenues grew 425% from $2.5 million in 1992 to $13 million in 1996. From a loss of $495,000 in 1992, its net income rose to $1.1 million by 1996. By 1996, Kendle had conducted clinical trials for 12 of the world’s 20 largest pharmaceutical companies. Kendle’s three largest clients were G.D. Searle, Procter & Gamble, and Amgen, which generated 48%, 19%, and 13% of Kendle’s 1996 revenues, respectively. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 for Kendle’s income statements and balance sheets.) 2 J.C. Bradford & Co., analyst report, January 15, 1998, pp. 5-6. 3 The Economist, â€Å"Survey of the Pharmaceutical Industry,† February 21, 1998, p. 4.200-033 The contract research industry was very fragmented, with hundreds of CROs worldwide. In the 1990s, in response to the increased outsourcing of pharmaceutical R&D, and a demand for global trials, consolidation among the CROs began. A few key players emerged and went public, creating a new industry for Wall Street to watch. Many CRO start-ups were founded by former drug company executives who decided to form their own operations. After a period of internal growth, some of the start-ups began growing through a financial â€Å"roll-up† strategy. An industry publication listed 18 top players in North America, with total contract research revenues of $1.7 billion. The top five public companies, ranked by 1996 revenues, were Quintiles Transnational Corp. ($537.6 million), Covance Inc. ($494.8 million), Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc ($152.3 million), ClinTrials Research Inc. ($93.5 million), and Parexel International Corp. ($88 million).4 (See Exhibit 3 for recent sales and p rofit data on CROs.) With its talent pool of scientists at the Research Triangle and U.S. headquarters of the pharmaceutical giants Glaxo and Burroughs Wellcome (later merged as Glaxo Wellcome), the state of North Carolina quickly became the center of the burgeoning CRO industry. Two of the â€Å"big five† companies, Quintiles and Pharmaceutical Product Development, were started there by academic colleagues of Candace’s. Quintiles Transnational was considered to be the †gold standard of the industry.† Quintiles was founded in 1982 by Dennis Gillings, a British biostatistician who had worked at Hoechst and was a professor at the University of North Carolina, where Candace completed her postdoctoral work. After raising $39 million in a 1994 IPO, Quintiles went on an acquisition spree, adding other professional service businesses. For example, the firm provided sales and marketing services to support the launch of new drug products. By the end of 1996, Quintiles was the worldâ€⠄¢s largest CRO, with 7,000 employees in 56 offices in 20 countries. A typical clinical study managed by Quintiles was conducted at 160 sites in 12 countries, involving 10,000 patients. Quintiles was more diversified than many of its CRO competitors, with about 65% of revenues derived from the  core CRO business and 35% from other services.5 Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) was founded in 1989 by Fred Eshelman, a colleague of Candace’s from the postdoctoral program in pharmacy. Like the founder of Quintiles, Eshelman had worked in drug research for several pharmaceutical firms, including Glaxo and Beecham. PPD’s revenues jumped 500% between 1990 and 1994, based on such work as multi-year contracts for AIDS research for the National Institutes of Health. PPD conducted a successful IPO in March 1996, with its stock jumping from $18 per share to $25.50 per share on the first day of trading. PPD bought a U.K. Phase I facility in November 1995, and in September 19 96 merged with another leading CRO. Their combined net revenues exceeded $200 million. Kendle at the Crossroads To Candace and Chris, it was clear that certain competitive capabilities were necessary for companies of Kendle’s size to compete successfully with the major CROs: therapeutic expertise (in specific medical areas) broad range of services (pharmaceutical companies wanted to work with fewer CROs, with each offering a wide range of services across multiple phases of the R&D process); integrated clinical data management (the ability to efficiently collect, edit and analyze data from thousands of patients with various clinical conditions from many geographically dispersed sites); 4 â€Å"Annual Report: Leading CROs,† R&D Directions, September 1997, pp. 28+. 5 William Blair & Co. LLC analyst report, Quintiles Transnational Corp., June 20, 1997, p. 3. international, multi-jurisdictional presence (to speed up drug approval, tests were being launched in several countries at once); With the exception of international presence, Candace and Chris felt comfortable with their ability to meet these criteria. Kendle’s staff had scientific expertise in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, central nervous system, gastrointestinal, immunology, oncology, respiratory, skeletal disease and inflammation. The company also had broad capabilities, including management of studies in Phases II through Phase IV. It did not consider the absence of Phase I capabilities to be an issue, since this activity was quite separate. (See Exhibit 4 for a comparison of CRO geographical locations.) To build an integrated clinical data management capability, Chris had directed the development of TrialWare ®, a proprietary software system that allowed global data collection and processing and the integration of clinical data with clients’ in-house data management systems. TrialWare ® consisted of several modules including a database management system that greatly reduced study start-up costs and time by standardizing database design and utilizing scanned image technology to facilitate the design of data entry screens, the point-and-click application of edits from a pre-programmed library, and workflow management (parallel processing). Other modules included a system that coded medical history, medication and adverse event data and a touch-tone telephone system that was used for patient  randomization, just-in-time drug supply and collection of real-time enrollment data. Against the backdrop of a changing industry, Candace and Chris felt the need to develop additional business skills and focus Kendle’s strategy. To clarify their management roles, Candace and Chris switched their existing responsibilities. Chris pointed out, â€Å"Candace became CEO as we realized that her focus was long-range and I took over as Chief Operating Officer to focus on the short-range. In addition, the marketing strength of our competitors was propelling them further and further ahead of Kendle. Candace brought her science background and entrepreneurial skills, while I brought my management. The problem was that we were relatively weak in sales and marketing.† To broaden their skills, Candace went off in 1991 to the Owner/President Management Program (OPM), an executive education program run by Harvard Business School for three weeks a year over three years. Chris followed her to OPM in 1994. After completing the OPM program, Candace assessed the situation, We have to be big enough relative to our competitors to take on large, international projects. When Searle was looking for CROs for international work, all we could do was possibly subcontract it out to small shops. In contrast, Quintiles had six overseas offices of its own. Furthermore, when Searle calls and says, ‘I just got off the phone, Quintiles will cut their price by a million dollars,’ if you’re too small, you’re not going to be able to respond to that. Candace and Chris realized that Kendle could not grow fast enough internally to keep up with its peers and did not have the cash for acquisitions. They entertained the thought of selling Kendle, and were approached several times about a sale. But by nature, they were a competitive, athletic couple. Chris got up to play squash every morning at 7 AM, and Candace was an avid rower, recently winning a gold medal in a Cincinnati regatta. Perhaps not surprisingly, Candace and Chris decided to grow the firm and take it public rather than sell. As Candace described their motivation, â€Å"We were not driven to be a public company as such, but primarily to be bigger, and for this, we  needed public financing to succeed in the new competitive landscape. The whole target was not to let the big guys get too far out ahead of us.† Preparations for Growth By 1994, Kendle had grown to $4.4 million in revenues. Candace, the driving force throughout the IPO process, sought advice from an old college friend, a well-known Cincinnati businessman. He advised her, â€Å"before you go public, practice being a public company.† Candace therefore formulated a plan for Kendle to go public in 1999. Kendle began hiring key managers to build up functional units. Between 1994 and February 1997, new directors of clinical data management, information technology, biostatistics, finance, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory affairs, and human resources were hired. As Chris described, â€Å"the plan was to put this infrastructure in place to look and act like a public company— communications, IT, finance. The idea was hire at the top and they’ll fill in their organization.† Many of these new managers had previously worked together at other companies. To prepare for Wall Street scrutiny, Kendle began issuing internal quarterly fi nancial statements and sharing them with employees in an open-book management style. Candace and Chris tried to make the growing number of employees feel like â€Å"part of the family† in other ways, too. The Kendle â€Å"photo gallery† displayed professional portraits of employees with their favorite hobbies. In 1995 Chris led the development of a corporate mission statement and a document on strategic plans that was shared with all employees. Kendle was organized in a matrix fashion (see Exhibit 5 for organizational chart). Each department was treated as a strategic business unit (SBU) with a director who established standards and carried profit responsibility. At the same time, each research contract was managed by a project manager who assembled a team from across the various SBUs. Clinical trials involved five functional SBUs at Kendle: 1. Regulatory Affairs recruited investigators, helped them with FDA registration forms, and obtained approval from ethics boards. Regulatory Affairs maintained a database of 5,000 investigators. 2. Clinical Monitoring sent clinical research associates (CRA) out to the testing sites (every 4 to 6 weeks) to enforce Good Clinical Practice regulations. The CRAs were typically young, single health care professionals who spent a significant amount of their time on the road. The CRA would collect data from investigators, resolve queries generated by Clinical Data Management, and promote patient enrollment. 3. Clinical Data Management produced a â€Å"locked† database that could be submitted to the FDA. Data from case report forms were input into a computer system and â€Å"cleaned† through a manual review of the forms and an automated check of the databases. The challenge was to lock a database quickly while maintaining data quality. 4. Biostatistics would â€Å"unblind† the locked database and analyze it to determine if the data confirmed that the test results met the criteria for safety and efficacy. Biostatistics also defined the scope of new studies. 5. Medical Writing generated â€Å"the truckload of paper submitted to the FDA† for a New Drug Application, including a statistical analysis, a clinical assessment, preclinical and clinical data, a description of the manufacturing process, and the supporting patient documentation. 1996: The Celebrexâ„ ¢ Study, Filing Preparations, and European acquisitions 1996 was a busy year for Candace, Chris, and Kendle’s new management team. They simultaneously began conducting a major drug study, working with underwriters on IPO preparations, and looking for overseas acquisition targets. In 1996 Kendle managed 62 clinical studies at 4,100 sites involving approximately 20,000 patients. Celebrexâ„ ¢ Study In January 1996, Kendle began working on a major drug called Celebrexâ„ ¢ (celecoxib). Its client Searle was engaged in a neck-and-neck race with Merck, the largest U.S. drug company, to be the first to market a COX-2 inhibitor. A COX-2 inhibitor was a new type of anti-inflammatory drug that promised low incidence of bleeding ulcers in long-term, high-dosage users such as arthritis patients. The Searle-Merck race was closely followed in the business press. Searle awarded the international portion of the Celebrexâ„ ¢ contract to another CRO, since Kendle only had facilities for testing in the United States. However, Kendle did win the contract to conduct all the U.S. Phase II and III trials. The Celebrexâ„ ¢ contract was a â€Å"huge feather in our cap,† recalled the chief financial officer. â€Å"In order to beat Merck, we worked very hard and kept compressing the timelines.† To head the Celebrexâ„ ¢ project, Kendle hired Bill Sietsema, PhD, as assistant director of clinical research. A therapeutic expert in skeletal diseases and inflammation, Sietsema had worked at Proctor & Gamble for 12 years. While Sietsema served as overall program director, Chris acted as the operational project manager, meeting with his Searle counterpart in Chicago on a monthly basis. In early 1997, Kendle also set up a new regional office in Chicago, close to Searle headquarters. For Kendle, the Celebrexâ„ ¢ project was a chance to â€Å"show what we could do and to develop a reputation as a leader in the field of skeletal disease and inflammation.† Kendle actively helped investigators recruit arthritis patients, running television advertisements, directing interested volunteers to a call center. Three hundred  investigators enrolled over 10,000 patients, producing over one million pages of case report forms. Most importantly, through close integration of information systems with Searle, Kendle was able to beat an industry standard. Instead of taking the typical six months to one year, the time span between the last patient in Phase II and the first in Phase III, which began in June 1996, was only 22 days. Preparation for SEC Filing By the time the Celebrexâ„ ¢ program rolled around, Candace and Chris felt that they might have to go public earlier than intended because of the competitive landscape. The new chief financial officer, Tim Mooney, took a leading role in the preparations. Prior to joining Kendle in May 1996, Mooney had worked as CFO at The Future Now, Inc., a computer reseller and Hook-SupeRx, a retail drugstore chain. At Kendle, Mooney replaced the controller with an audit manager from Coopers & Lybrand to beef up his staff. Mooney also led the building of many of the other financially related departments at Kendle. To act as the lead underwriters on the IPO, in August 1996 Mooney chose two regional investment banks, Chicago-based William Blair & Company, L.L.C., which had handled the 1995 IPO of Kendle’s competitor Parexel, and Wessels, Arnold & Henderson from Minneapolis. William Blair began putting Kendle through the paces of preparing to file a preliminary prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The process of going public generally took from 60 to 180 days. One of the key steps in the process was the conversion of Kendle from a subchapter corporation to a C corporation at the time of the IPO. (Subchapter S corporations were entities with 35 or fewer shareholders that were treated like partnerships for tax purposes. Corporate income tax was passed through tax-free to the owners who then paid personal income taxes due.) U-Gene In October 1996 Mooney hired Tony Forcellini, a former colleague, as director of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Tony had worked at Arthur Andersen in the tax department, and then as a treasurer at Hook-SupeRx with Mooney. The search for European acquisition targets was mainly conducted by Candace and Tony Forcellini, with back-up support by Tim Mooney and Chris. All the while, Chris and Bill Sietsema were working away on the Celebrexâ„ ¢ program. Forcellini’s first decision was easy—whether to pursue an offering memorandum that landed on his desk shortly after he arrived. The company for sale was U-Gene Research B.V. (U-Gene), a CRO based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. U-Gene was represented by Technomark Consulting Services Ltd. (Technomark), a London-based consulting firm uniquely specializing in the healthcare industry. Technomark had an extensive database on European CROs and was primarily in the business of matching its pharmaceutical company clients’ tria ls with appropriate European CROs, but it also had a small investment banking division. U-Gene, a full-service CRO, was an attractive target for Kendle. The venture capitalist owners were actively looking for buyers. With a 38-bed Phase I facility in Utrecht and regional offices in the United Kingdom and Italy, U-Gene could increase both Kendle’s service offering and geographic presence. Since its founding in 1986, U-Gene had served more than 100 clients, including 19 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. In 1996, U-Gene participated in 115 studies at approximately 500 sites involving approximately 4,700 patients and recorded net revenues of $12.5 million, a 37% increase over the prior year, and operating profit of $1.3 million, a 47% increase over the prior year. Because of its U.K. and Italian offices, U-Gene viewed itself as on the way to becoming a pan-European CRO.  (See Exhibit 6 for U-Gene financial statements.) With momentum building, in November 1996, Forcellini seized upon U-Gene as Kendle’s possible entry into Europe and subm itted a bid, offering cash and private stock. Unfortunately, Kendle lost out on this bid to a competitor, Collaborative Clinical Research, Inc, as U-Gene’s owners either wanted a full cash deal or stock from a public company. Collaborative was a competitor slightly larger than Kendle ($25.7 million in revenues) that had gone public in June 1996 and had established a software partnership with IBM. Although it had access to investigators outside the United States, Collaborative also viewed U-Gene as the establishment of a European presence. On February 12, 1997 Collaborative announced that it had signed a letter of intent to acquire U-Gene in exchange for 1.75 million newly issued shares. While this put Kendle out of the picture, the prospects of a deal were not completely killed. On the same day, February 12, 1997, Collaborative also announced that its first-quarter 1997 earnings would be significantly below expectations. On the next day, on analyst speculation that a major client contract had been lost, their stock fell by 27.3%, closing at $9.00.6 This put Collaborative’s UGene deal in jeopardy. Underwriter Concerns About two weeks after Collaborative’s announcement, on February 25, 1997, another CRO, ClinTrials, also suffered a drop in stock price. ClinTrials’ stock lost more than half its market value,  dropping 59%, to $9.50 per share. The fall began when an analyst from Wessels Arnold downgraded the ClinTrials stock to â€Å"hold† from â€Å"buy,† citing a number of key management departures, and continued after ClinTrials announced that its first-quarter earnings would be half its year-earlier profit. The reason for the unexpected earnings decline was the cancellation of five projects totaling $37 million, with the possibility of even lower earnings due to an unresolved project dispute with a client.7 ClinTrials’ negative performance began to affect other CRO stocks, including that of Quintiles.8 With client concentration an issue in ClinTrials’ stock performance, William Blair developed doubts about the timing of Kendle’s IPO. Although Kendle was close to filing its preliminary prospectus, on the day after ClinTrial’s stock dropped, William Blair analysts had a meeting with Kendle’s management and told them that they had decided to withdraw as lead underwriters in the IPO. Candace was resolved to keep going. She said, â€Å"There’s no way out of the concentration issue. We can’t buy our way out of it, because we can’t do M&A deals until we have a public currency, and every day Searle is bringing us more work, we won’t tell them no.† She then asked Mooney to find new investment bankers, and he thought, â€Å"what am I going to do now?† Hoping for a lead, Mooney called up a former security analyst from Wessels Arnold who had gone to work at Lehman Bros. Although Kendle was smaller than Lehman’s usual clients, Lehman agreed to underwrite Kendle’s IPO, with the reassurance that â€Å"we think we can sell through the client concentration issue.† After an agreement with New York-based Lehman was reached, Mooney searched for a regional firm because, as he decided, â€Å"I didn’t want two New York-size egos. J.C. Bradford, based in Nashville, Tennessee, had a good reputation in the industry , and struck us as a nice regional bank. They were more retail-oriented than institutional-oriented, so they wouldn’t directly be competing with Lehman in types of clientele.† Bradford had managed the IPO of the first large CRO to go public (ClinTrials, in 1993) and Lehman had led the IPO of PPD in January 1996. Gmi and U-Gene revisited At the same time, Forcellini was moving ahead on the acquisition search. In January 1997 he tasked Technomark with using its CRO database to generate a list of possible European acquisition targets that met the following criteria: â€Å"ideally a CRO with United Kingdom headquarters; $5 million to $7 million in revenues; no Searle business; certain types of therapeutic expertise; strong in phases II through IV; and certain country locations.† The initial list had 50 European CROs, which Kendle narrowed down to 14 prospects. Technomark then contacted these 14 prospects to sound out their willingness to sell, bringing the number down to five candidates: three CROs in Germany, two in the United Kingdom, and one in the Netherlands (not U-Gene). To assess the prospects, Kendle used information from Technomark on comparable M&A deals. Candace and Tony Forcellini then traveled around Europe for a week visiting the five companies. They decided to further pursue two companies: a small, 15-person monitoring organization in the United Kingdom and one in Germany. The U.K. prospect was quickly discarded because of an aggressive asking price and accounting problems. Kendle then moved on to the German target, a company named gmi. Its full name was GMI Gesellschaft fur Angewandte Mathematik und Informatik mbH. Founded in 1983, gmi provided a full range of Phase II to IV services. gmi had conducted trials in Austria, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and France, among other countries, and had experience in health economic studies and 7 â€Å"ClinTrials Predicts Sharply Lower Profit: Shares Plunge 59%†, The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 1997, p. B3. 8 David Ranii, â€Å"Investors avoiding Quintiles,† The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC, February 27, 1997, p. C8. professional training programs. In 1996, gmi participated in 119 studies at multiple sites and recorded net revenues of $7 million, a 32% increase over the prior year, and operating profit of $1.4 million, a 16% increase over the prior year. At March 31, 1997, gmi’s backlog was approximately $9.6 million. gmi considered itself to be especially good at Phase III trials. (See Exhibit 7 for gmi financial statements.) While Candace and Forcellini were narrowing down European targets, Mooney was hunting for cash. In February 1997 Kendle met at a special lunch with its existing bankers, Star Bank (later renamed Firstar), in Cincinnati. Mooney recalled the conversation vividly: â€Å"After Candace and Chris described their plans, Star Bank’s CEO made a proposal, ‘If you keep Kendle a private company and avoid the hassles of being public, we’ll lend you the money you need for acquisitions.’† With the financing in hand, Candace and Forcellini visited gmi in Munich. While gmi’s owners were willing to talk, they did not have much interest in selling. As Mooney described it, â€Å"gmi was a classic case of having grown to a certain size, had a comfortable level of income, but weren’t interested in putting in the professional systems to grow beyond that level.† After several conversations in March, it was not clear that Kendle and gmi’s owners w ould be able to reach a mutually agreeable price. At this point in early April 1997, the possibility of U-Gene as an acquisition candidate heated up. After the U-Gene deal with Collaborative Research began to collapse, Kendle had initiated a carefully structured inquiry about U-Gene’s interest in renewed discussions. This inquiry led to further discussions and a request in April for Kendle to meet in Frankfurt to try to reach an agreement. With the gmi deal in doubt, Kendle agreed to try to reach closure with U-Gene. After some discussion, both sides agreed on a price of 30 million Dutch guilders, or about US$15.6 million, $14 million of which would be paid in cash, and the remaining $1.6 million would be in the form of a promissory note payable to the selling shareholders.  U-Gene wanted to complete the transaction within the next several weeks, so it would have to be financed at least initially by borrowings. Even if Kendle went ahead with an IPO, the equity financing would not be completed until the end of the summer. Discussions with gmi continued through this period since Kendle was confident about its ability to obtain financing from Star Bank. Ultimately, Kendle’s team was able to agree upon a price with gmi. The owners were willing to accept a price of 19.5 million Deutsche marks, or about US$12.3 million, with at least $9.5 million in cash. They would accept shares for the remaining $2.8 million, if Kendle successfully completed an IPO. The owners were willing to hold off the deal until the IPO issue was resolved. Closing the Deals and IPO Decision To complete both the U-Gene and gmi deals, Kendle would need to borrow about $25 million to $28 million, so financing became critical. Mooney went back to Star Bank to take the bankers up on their promise. He described their reaction: â€Å"Star Bank said they couldn’t lend $28 million to a company that only has $1 million in equity. Nobody did that. They might be willing to finance one acquisition, with the help of other banks, but there was no way that they would provide $28 million.† Mooney was quite angry, but had no choice but to look for other sources of financing. He first tried to get bridge financing from Lehman and Bradford, but they refused, saying that they had â€Å"gotten killed on such deals in the 1980s.† There was also a possibility of financing from First Chicago Bank, but this did not materialize. Finally, in late April 1997, Mooney contacted NationsBank, N.A., which was headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and provided banking services to the CRO industry. Nationsbank expressed interest, but only in a large deal. Even $28 million was a small amount to Nationsbank. In 11  a few short weeks, Nationsbank ended up structuring a $30 million credit for Kendle, consisting of a $20 million, three-year revolving credit line and $10 million in five-year, subordinated notes. The interest rate on the credit line was tied to a money market base rate plus 0.50% (currently totaling 6.2%), and the subordinated debt carried a 12% rate. †So NationsBank stepped up in a pretty big way. They could have ended up with Kendle as a private company, with $30 million in debt.† Because of the risk, Nationsbank would also take warrants giving the bank the right to purchase 4% of Kendle’s equity, or up to 10% if the IPO was delayed and Kendle had to borrow the full amount to do both acquisitions. Lehman Brothers was confident about an IPO. The underwriters felt Kendle could raise $39 million to $40 million at a price between $12 and $14 per share, and that Candace and Chris could sell some of their shares as well. Premier Research Worldwide Ltd., a CRO with $15.2 million in 1996 revenues, had raised $46.75 million from its recent IPO in February 1997. Kendle felt they had a much better track record than Premier. Kendle now faced some difficult decisions. It could do the full program, including both acquisitions, taking the $30 million Nationsbank deal, and planning for an IPO in late summer. The successful acquisitions of gmi and U-Gene would establish Kendle as the sixth largest CRO in Europe, based on total revenues, and one of only four large CROs able to offer clients the full range of Phase I through Phase IV clinical trials in Europe. The pricing on the two acquisitions of 8 to 10 times EBITDA seemed in line with recent CRO deals (see Exhibit 8). And, once the IPO was completed, Kendle would have both a cash cushion and stock as a currency to help finance future growth and acquisitions. Assuming an IPO of 3 million new shares at a price of $13.00, Kendle would have a cash position of about $14 million and no debt in the capital structure. (See Exhibits 9 and 10 for pro forma  income statements and balance sheets showing the impact of the acquisitions and the IPO.) A related issue was how many of their shares Candace and Chris should sell if an IPO were done. Their current thinking was to sell 600,000 shares. Thus, a total of 3.6 million shares would be for sale at the time of the IPO, including a primary offering of 3 million shares and a secondary offering of 600,000 shares. This sale would reduce holdings controlled by Candace and Chris from 3.65 million shares (83.1% of the shares currently outstanding) to 3.05 million shares (43.4% of the new total outstanding). Doing the full IPO and acquisition program, however, was unprecedented among Kendle’s peers. â€Å"Nobody does this combination all at once—an IPO, senior- and sub-debt financing, and M&A deals,† as Mooney described the situation. Furthermore, the stock prices of public CROs had been falling since last February (see Exhibits 11 and 12 for stock market valuation and price information). If Kendle bought into the full program and the market crashed or the IPO was unsuccessful, the company would have almost $30 million of debt on its books with a very modest equity base. Perhaps it would be better to do just the U-Gene acquisition and use Star Bank to finance it. After completing this acquisition, it could then pursue the IPO. This approach was safer, but of course Kendle might miss the IPO window and miss the opportunity to acquire the second company. Indeed, instead of discouraging Kendle from doing an IPO, the fall in CRO stock prices might be taken as a signal th at Kendle should forge ahead before the window closed completely.

Fundamental Analysis of a Company

Fundamental Analysis of a Company Introduction Tullow oil plc is a global company that deals in oil and gas production. In addition, it also deals with the production of these commodities. The company is based in London. On the other hand, it is listed on both the London and Irish stock exchange markets. Tullow plc was founded in 1985 to become a gas exploration business with its initial interests in Senegal (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 2).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Fundamental Analysis of a Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As a matter of fact, it was listed on the stock exchange market in 1985. Later on in 2007, the company made big strides that enabled it to enter into the FTSE100 Index. In advancing its activities, it has been involved in strategic business moves like acquisitions. For instance in 2000, it acquired BPs Gas fields to increase its potential and market positioning. This deal was concluded at  £200 million (Tullow oil pl c, 2010, p.4). Apart from this, the company was involved in another strategic move in 2004. With increased opportunities in sight it acquired Energy Africa for $ 570 million (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 5). In recent years, the company has expanded rapidly and this has been aided by its acquisition of Hardman resources. It started drilling its first well in 2006. This was done in Uganda around the Lake Albert region. In the process it was able to drill 30 wells (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 7). Because of this, it is one of the largest exploration and production companies in Europe. As a matter of fact, it has over 85 production and exploration licenses. In addition, it operates in more than 23 countries (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 9). To enhance its operations, the company has laid more focus on four regions that it seeks to advance its operations with. On the other hand, it has production from eight countries. Its major achievement is the two world class production projects it has in Ugand a and Ghana (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 11). This is because it has been able to discover massive oil deposits in the said countries. Up to now, the company employs 900 people in all its operations worldwide (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 13). Discussion Fundamental analysis is a broad analysis that a company has to do. This is because it analyses its health and financial statements (Graham, 2004, p. 7). In doing this, it also looks at its competitive advantages and the management that the company has put in place. Fundamental analysis also looks at the market together with the competitors. It has some specific areas that it mainly focuses on (Graham, 2004, p. 9). This differs in relation to its applicability. It can focus on interest rates and state of the economy at that given time. In addition, it can also look at the management, production and earnings. Two basic approaches can be used to achieve this process. This includes top down and bottom up analysis (Graham, 2004, p. 15). To perf orm a good fundamental analysis it is necessary to use the present and historical data.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The long term objective should be to make and come up with good financial estimates. There are many objectives as per to why this is done. It will help to make a good projection on the company’s business performance (Graham, 2004, p. 17). This analysis is supposed to evaluate the management with a broad objective of making good internal business decisions that will move the company forward. With the right measures in place, it can help the company to make and calculate its credit risks as it undertakes its business goals and objectives. Another objective can be to come up with a good stock valuation that will ultimately predict the company’s expected price evolution. International and national macroeconomic environment These environ ments are important as they have a bearing on the company’s performance. International environment The company operates on a global market. This is because it has operations in 23 countries. As a matter of fact it has mainly focused on four regions. These include Europe, Africa, South America and South Asia. The company’s international environment has the following factors in mind. GDP growth rates Most markets that the company has focused its activities on are emerging economies which are still growing with a great potential. There has been a problem with the global economic crisis that slowed down economic activities. On the other hand, countries that the company has invested in are witnessing good GDP growth rates and that is why it has had to invest there. For instance, Africa’s GDP has been growing by 4.3% and this explains why the company has had exploration efforts in Uganda and Ghana (Fratzscher, 2010, p. 14). This growth rate is expected to reach 7% by the end of 2010. On the other, its other markets like Asia have had good GDP projections. It is estimated and projected that the Asian Pacific countries will experience a GDP growth rate of 7% by the end of 2010 (Fratzscher, 2010, p. 17). This is also expected for the South American market that will have a GDP growth rate of 3 to 4% (Fratzscher, 2010, p. 19).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Fundamental Analysis of a Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Inflation and interest rates Various markets have had different interest and inflation rates. Major central banks have reported different interest rates. In relation to the markets that the company operates in, Africa has had high interest rates meaning that the cost of acquiring capital still remains high. South American interest rates have shifted from 8 to 9 % (FXStreet, 2010, p. 3). Europe has had the lowest interest rates in the market. They have revolved be tween 0.25% and 5 % (FXStreet, 2010, p. 4). This represents part of the interest rates that the company has faced in the course of carrying out its activities. Inflation rates have been changing depending on the country that the company operates in. Developed countries have had an inflation rate of 0 to 4 % (Central investment agencies, 2010, p. 8).Developing countries as a whole have had an inflation rate of between 5 to 20% (Central investment agency, 2010, p. 8). This should be factored in by the company as it will have an impact on the prices that it sets. Exchange rates Exchange rates are very important because the company operates in different markets that use distinct currencies. Although the dollar is used as a global business currency, exchange rates vary in relation to different economies (Fratzscher, 2010, p. 21). This therefore means that fluctuating and increasing exchange rates can directly have a bearing on the company’s estimations. After the US economy experi enced some economic shocks, there have been time varying effects on exchange rates. There are various transmission channels towards exchange rates. Since the company deals with various currencies it should have good conversions mechanisms in place. Global oil and gas prices Tullow oil plc deals in energy products and commodities. Because global oil energy prices keep on shifting, it is very critical towards the company’s performance. Shifts in prices have been brought about by unexpected factors that the company needs to be prepared for (Rigzone, 2010, p. 5). Because it operates in different markets, it needs to be flexible as far as energy prices are concerned. Petroleum demand has been increasing every year which has demanded that companies increase production. Stagnation in production can be dangerous and limit supply thereby increasing prices. The world is moving toward full exploitation of gas as an alternative energy (Rigzone, 2010, p. 5). This means that the company ne eds to continue investing in gas production.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More National macroeconomic environment Regional and industry/company dynamics have always changed as time goes by. Foreign competition There is increased competition in oil production and exploration because economies are continuing to grow. Growing economies especially in countries that the company has focused on have brought about an increase in demand for petroleum products (Essar Group, 2010, p. 4). The industry is highly competitive and revolutionized because of increased market awareness. Increased demand for petroleum products has prompted companies to venture in this business thereby increasing competition. This therefore means that the company should continue being strategic on how it carries out its activities. With this in place it can be sure to withstand competition. Total sales and prices Sales and prices have been shifting depending on the existing business dynamics. In general, the industry is experiencing an increase in sales because of increased demand (Petroleum econo mist, 2010, p. 8). Notably an increase in demand has been created by rapidly growing economies that the country has invested in. An increase in demand has in most occasions led to increased supply. This is driven by the urge to reap highly in terms of sales from this upsurge. On the other hand, this unregulated and unplanned supply has always ended up hurting prices (Berner, 2010, p. 13). We have some oil producing countries that always come up with production quotas. In such occasions, sales have always been compromised in that given period. Analysis of the industry and the company The oil industry has been unpredictable in most occasions. Latest results show that the company and industry has continued to make good progress. The company’s exploration and development programs have continued to deliver excellent results. There is a lot of funding in the industry that can help the company advance its operations in new and emerging markets. There is a strong financial performanc e from oil industries aided by good marketing strategies. This can be explained from Tullow plc financial performance. The group has recorded an increase in pretax profit by 184% to $89.0 million in its first quarter performance of 2010 (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 7). Although this has been achieved there is a drop in production by 6%.Generally the outlook for the company and industry is positive. The company further explains that its exploration and appraisal has had a success rate of 82%. This trend has also been witnessed by other industry competitors (Energy business review, 2010, p. 16). UK production has been above expectations as a result of excellent performance from the market players. For instance Tullow plc has had a working production of 18,300 boepd (Tullow oil plc, 2010, p. 9). Iran is a major player in the oil industry (it’s the fifth largest producer) and recently it has been facing sanctions (Webb, 2010, p. 15). This has had an effect on oil production thereby changing the general industry dynamics. In Africa, Nigeria is a major oil producer but it has also been facing problems from insurgents who have reduced its oil production. This means that companies need to be very careful especially those ones that rely on such countries. There is also a major concern that unqualified companies are being awarded contracts that they don’t deserve. This is not a good trend as it might have a negative impact on the industry’s performance. Conclusion Investment recommendation Although the company is experiencing a good performance, it needs to make strategic decisions in relation to investments. Because its acquisitions have been successful, it needs to continue acquiring other companies in a bid to capture a large market share. This venture needs a lot of money and the company will have to look for partners to help it finance these activities. Because the company’s oil exploration and development has had a success rate of 82%, it needs major capital investments especially in Ghana and Uganda to ensure that they are successful. The company needs to invest heavily in exploration led growth. In addition, as the company makes inroads in other new and emerging markets it will be good if it can list in other stock exchange markets to increase its net worth. This is necessary as it will give it a more strategic position in the market. Africa is the groups’ largest core area/market and it needs to invest in environmental management to comply with the Kyoto protocol. This will avoid a lot of conflicts that may end up in courts thereby tainting its image and operations. As a matter of fact, it should invest in health, water and hygiene to take care of the communities. Companies operating in this region have been encouraged to do so for enhanced sustainability. It needs to enhance its diversification in the market to increase the shareholders value as an expectation. Tullow plc also needs to invest in large vess els to increase it capacity and capability. This will have a positive impact on oil production and enable the company to serve its market well. More so, it can help to improve deliveries and meet market targets and expectations. In addition, it should invest in its people for enhanced success. This is necessary because, human resource play an integral role in delivery. Reference List Berner, R. 2010. Deleveraging the American Consumer: Faster than Expected [Online] Available at:  https://www.morganstanley.com/what-we-do/research/ Central investment agency. 2010. Inflation rate (consumer prices). [Online] Energy business review. 2010. Cairn Energy discovers gas in Baffin Bay offshore Greenland. [Online] Essar Group. 2010. Exploit potential of shale gas: US to India and China. [Online] Available at:  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Exploit-potential-of-shale-gas-US-to-India-and-China/articleshow/6430345.cms Fratzscher, M. 2010. What explains global e xchange rate movements during the financial crisis? Germany: Frankfurt. FXStreet. 2010. World Interest Rates Table. [Online] Available at:  https://www.fxstreet.com/economic-calendar Graham, B. 2004. Security Analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill. Petroleum economist. 2010. Refinery sales to re-shape UK business. [Online] Available at:  https://www.petroleum-economist.com/ Rigzone. 2010. Commodity Corner: Crude Continues to Drop on Recovery Fears. [Online] Available at: https://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/97824/commodity_corner_crude_continues_to_drop_on_recovery_fears/   Tullow oil plc. 2010. Our business. [Online] Webb, S. 2010. Analysis: Sanctions tighten pressure on Irans oil industry. UAE: Dubai.

Learn More About the Science of Geology

Learn More About the Science of Geology What is geology? It is the study of the Earth, its substances, shapes, processes, and history. There are several different components that geologists study with regard to this fascinating field. Minerals Minerals are natural, inorganic solids with a consistent composition. Each mineral also has a unique arrangement of atoms, expressed in its crystal form (or habit) and its hardness, fracture, color, and other properties. Organic natural substances, like petroleum or amber, are not called minerals. Minerals of exceptional beauty and durability are called gemstones (as are a few rocks). Other minerals are sources of metals,  chemicals  and fertilizers. Petroleum is a source of energy and chemical feedstocks. All of these are described as mineral resources. Rocks Rocks are solid mixtures of at least one mineral. While minerals have crystals and chemical formulas, rocks instead have textures and mineral compositions. On that basis, rocks are divided into three classes reflecting three environments: igneous rocks come from a hot melt, sedimentary rocks from accumulation and burial of sediment, metamorphic rocks from altering other rocks by heat and pressure. This classification points to an active Earth that circulates matter through the three rock classes, on the surface and underground, in what is called the rock cycle. Rocks are important as ores- economic sources of useful minerals. Coal is a rock that is a source of energy. Other rock types are useful as building stone, crushed stone and raw material for concrete. Still others serve for toolmaking, from the stone knives of our prehuman ancestors to the chalk used by artists today. All of these, too, are considered mineral resources. Fossils Fossils are signs of living things that are found in many sedimentary rocks. They may be impressions of an organism, casts in which minerals have replaced its body parts, or even remnants of its actual substance Fossils also include tracks, burrows, nests, and other indirect signs. Fossils and their sedimentary environments are vivid clues about the former Earth and what living there was like. Geologists have compiled a fossil record of ancient life stretching hundreds of millions of years into the past. Fossils have practical value because they change throughout the rock column. The exact mix of fossils serves to identify and correlate rock units in widely separated places, even in the grit pumped up from  drill holes. The geologic time scale is based almost entirely on fossils supplemented with other dating methods. With  it,  we can confidently compare sedimentary rocks from everywhere in the world. Fossils are also resources, valuable as museum attractions and as collectibles, and their commerce is increasingly regulated. Landforms, Structures and Maps Landforms in all their variety are products of the rock cycle, built of rocks and sediment. They were shaped by erosion and other processes. Landforms give testimony of the environments that built and altered them in the geologic past, such as ice ages. From mountains and water bodies to caves to the sculpted features of the beach and seafloor, landforms are clues into the Earth beneath them. Structure is an important part of studying rock outcrops. Most parts of the Earths crust are warped, bent and buckled to some extent. The geologic signs of this jointing, folding, faulting, rock textures, and unconformities help in assessing structure, as do measurements of the slopes and orientation of rock beds. Structure in the subsurface is important for water supply. Geologic maps are an efficient database of geologic information on rocks, landforms and structure.   Geologic Processes and Hazards Geologic processes drive the rock cycle to create landforms, structures and fossils. They include erosion, deposition, fossilization, faulting, uplift, metamorphism, and volcanism. Geologic hazards are powerful expressions of geologic processes. Landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, climate change, flooding and cosmic impacts are extreme examples of ordinary things. Understanding the underlying geologic processes is a key part of mitigating geologic hazards.   Tectonics and Earth History Tectonics is geologic activity on the largest scale. As geologists mapped the worlds rocks, untangled the fossil record and studied geologic features and processes, they began to raise and answer questions about tectonics the life cycle of mountain ranges and volcanic chains, motions of continents, the rise and fall of the ocean, and how the mantle and core operate. Plate-tectonic theory, which explains tectonics as the motions in Earths outer broken skin, has revolutionized geology, enabling us to study everything on Earth in a unified framework. Earth history is the story that minerals, rocks, fossils, landforms, and tectonics tell. Fossil studies, in combination with gene-based techniques, yield a consistent evolutionary history of life on Earth. The Phanerozoic Eon (age of fossils) of the last 550 million years is well mapped as a time of expanding life punctuated by mass extinctions. The previous four billion years, the Precambrian time, is being revealed as an age of enormous changes in the atmosphere, oceans and continents. Geology Is Civilization Geology is interesting as a pure science, but Professor Jim Hawkins at Scripps Institution of Oceanography tells his classes something even better: Rocks are money! What he means is that civilization rests on rocks: Society relies on a good supply of Earth products.For every structure we build, we need to know about the ground it sits on.Our food and fiber come from soil, a thin biogeochemical layer of incredible complexity.Protection against geologic hazards depends on our understanding of them.

BUSINESS PROBLEM-SOLVING CASE Does Big Data Bring Big Rewards Essay

BUSINESS PROBLEM-SOLVING CASE Does Big Data Bring Big Rewards - Essay Example The factors include-identifying and managing the complexity of the business operations, placing emphasis on the adoption of the information system on a company-wide platform, analyzing potential tangible benefits that are to arise from adopting the system, prioritizing the benefits of the system in accordance with the company’s goals and business needs, ensuring that the system is supported by the top level management and that they take an active role in its implementation and use. Additional factors include- communicating effectively with all the employees and giving them responsibilities in order to mitigate risks. A lot of interesting points have been raised regarding the benefits of a big data system. It is quite clear that the financial goals of such a system are boundless if big corporations like Hertz and Vestas are anything to go by. I additionally agree that when these systems are adopted appropriately, they improve customer relations between companies and their customer bases (Ohlhorst 2013). The example of Sears is a primary case showing how by adopting Hadoop, it has been able to make strides in customizing their retail products to match the specific needs of an individual customer, which is very impressive. However, I am of the opinion that the use of big data systems is not just limited to these benefits. I believe that companies are adopting these systems as a management strategy aimed at promoting their brand on a global level, while also acquiring a competitive advantage over the other players in the industry (Mullins 2013). Many companies have identified the benefits accrued by big data systems on a wider scale. Companies like Walmart provide a good example of companies that have benefitted immensely by extensively incorporating global information management systems in their long term plans. I think that is why Walmart is