Q1) You are the president and chief executive officer of a family owned manufacturing firm with assets of $45 million. The company articles of incorporation and state law place no restrictions on the sale stock to outsiders. An unexpected opportunity to expand arises that will require an additional investment of $ 14 million. A commitment must be made quickly if this opportunity is to be taken. Existing stockholders are not in a position to provide the additional investment. You wish to maintain family control of the firm regardless of which form of financing you might undertake. As a first step, you decide to contact an investment banking firm.a) What considerations might be important in the selection of an investment banking firm?b) A member of your board has asked if you have considered competitive bids for the distribution of your securities compared to a negotiated contract with a particular firm. What factors are involved in this decision?c) Assuming that you have decided upon a negotiated contract, what are the first questions that you would ask of the firm chosen to represent you?d) As the investment banker, what would be your first actions before offering advice?e) Assuming the investment banking firm is willing to distribute your securities, describe the alternative plans that might be included in a contract with the banking firm.f) How does the investment banking firm establish a selling strategy?g) How might the investment banking firm protect itself against a drop in the price of the security during the selling process?h) What follow-up services will be provided by the banking firm following a successful distribution of the securities?i) Three years later, as an individual investor, you decide to add your own holding of the security but only at a price that you consider appropriate. What form of order might you place with your broker?

QHappy morning friends!I take it as a great pleasure in delivering a speech on my admirer. I admire Mr. Shiv Nadar, an entrepreneur who is the Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of HCL Technologies. The reason why I admired him is because of the entrepreneurial spirit in him. At the time when HCL was founded, there were a lot of well established companies in the market yet HCL came through with flying colors. And today he is an IT executive, educationalist, bridge player and one of India's richest people. He hails from Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, India. He received his engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from PSG College of Technology in 1968 and started his career in DCM's calculator division. Along with his colleagues he founded HCL in 1976. India had no venture capital activity at that time. He launched HCL with money generated through selling calculators. His most difficult challenge was getting permission from the government to make computers for HCL. Youthful exuberance and age were on his side. Thus he transformed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the next three decades by constantly reinventing his company's focus. He concentrated his efforts in developing the educational system of India through SSN Trust.In October 2006, he received an honorary fellowship from All India Management Association. In 2007, Madras University awarded him with an honorary doctorate degree for his contributions in promoting software technology. He was also recognized as Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007. In 2008, Government of India awarded him with Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to IT industry.

QA lot of people, including John McCain, think nuclear power is the best solution to the US's energy problems.However, the cost of nuclear power has been skyrocketting. From 2000 through October 2007, nuclear power plant construction costs -- mainly materials, labor and engineering -- have gone up 185%.http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/02/nuclear_power_price/Last November, Nuclear Engineering International ran a story entitled 'For some utilities, the capital costs of a new nuclear power plant are prohibitive.'http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2047917Duke Energy won't even reveal the cost estimate for a proposed nuclear plant in the Carolinas because it's so high.http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1054171.htmlAccording to some analysts, a reasonable estimate for levelized cost range of nuclear power is 12 to 17 cents per kilowatt hour lifetime. The California Public Utilities Commission estimates new nuclear plants would cost 15 cents per kWh before transmission and delivery costs. In comparison, the same commission puts the current cost of concentrated solar thermal at 13 cents per kWh. And the cost could drop by as much as 20% within the next 10 years as the technology improves. And concentrated solar thermal has storage capacity, which means it can follow power demand, unlike nuclear, which produces constant energy output.Jigar Shah, chief strategy officer of SunEdison, said he could guarantee delivery to Florida of more power with solar photovoltaics -- including energy storage so the power was not intermittent -- for less money than the nuke plants being constructed there cost. According to the Bush Energy Department, Americans could get 300 gigawatts of wind by 2030 at a cost of 6 to 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, including the cost of transmission to access existing power lines.http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/02/nuclear_power_price/index1.htmlAnd the risk of nuclear construction projects going into default and costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars is very high.http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/11/mccains-nuclear-energy-plan-may-cost-315-billion/So why should we build any more nuclear power plants when they're more expensive, more risky, and not as clean as renewables like wind and solar thermal?Cactus Jack - nuclear receives far more subsidies than renewables.Bob - nuclear plants take far longer to build than renewable energy plants.eric c - the IPCC advocates a 2% increase in nuclear vs. a 15% increase in renewable energy by 2030.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report#Mitigation_in_the_short_and_medium_term_.28until_2030.29

QHappy morning friends!The entrepreneur whom I admire is Mr. Shiv Nadar, the Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of HCL Technologies. The reason why I admired him is because of the entrepreneurial spirit in him. During the time when HCL was founded, there were a lot of well established companies in the market yet HCL came up with flying colors. And today he is an IT executive, educationalist, bridge player and one of India's richest people. Shiv Nadar hails from Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, India. Shiv Nadar received his engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from PSG College of Technology in 1968 and started his career in DCM's calculator division. Then along with his colleagues he founded HCL in 1976. Youthful exuberance and age were on his side. His most difficult challenge was getting permission from the government to make computers for HCL. India had no venture capital activity at that time. He launched HCL with money generated through selling calculators. Thus he transformed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the next three decades by constantly reinventing his company's focus. He had focused his efforts in developing the educational system of India through SSN Trust.In October 2006, Shiv Nadar received an honorary fellowship from All India Management Association-AIMA. In 2007, Madras University awarded him honorary doctorate degree (D Sc) for his contributions in promoting software technology. Nadar was also recognized as Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 (Services). In 2008, Government of India awarded him with Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to IT industry.

QAs businesses grow and change, Chief Strategy Officers and/or Ethics Officers are pinnacle to the ethical soundness of "change." Change for the sake of change is not always good or enough. Chapter 9 talks a lot about "Ethics as Organizational Culture." Sometimes, having people who are too intimate in the business operations and strategy (owners = majority shareholders/executive management/board members) fail to see the errors of their ways. They are surrounded by people who share the same "biases" and this can hinder the companies ability to move forward. Consulting firms are a way of life in the business world these days. They often offer the expertise and "out of the box" creativity that companies need to stay competitive and be innovative. What experience do you have with consulting firms? What was the "reason" they were brought in? What was the outcome of their involvement?

QWho has primary responsibility for information technology planning and deployment as opposed to aligning information technology with business strategy?a. Business Process Managerb. Chief Technology Officerc. Technical Team LEaderd. IT practice manager

QCraig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer, called for the creation of an 'Internet Driver's License' at the World Economic Forum in Davos, saying, 'If you want to drive a car you have to have a license to say that you are capable of driving a car, the car has to pass a test to say it is fit to drive and you have to have insurance.'

QInspired by Saul Alinsky, FCC 'Diversity' Chief Calls for ‘Confrontational Movement’ to Give Public Broadcasting Dominant Role in CommunicationsWednesday, August 26, 2009By Matt Cover Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy of FCC)(CNSNews.com) – Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called for a “confrontational movement” to combat what he claimed was control of the media by international corporations and to re-establish the regulatory power of government through robust public broadcasting and a more powerful FCC. Lloyd expressed his regulatory call to arms in his 2006 book, “Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America” (University of Illinois Press). In the book, Lloyd also said that public broadcasting should be funded through new license fees charged to the nation’s private radio and television broadcasters, and that new regulatory fees should be used to fund eight new regional FCC offices. These offices would be responsible for monitoring political advertising and commentary, children’s educational programs, number of commercials, and content ratings of the programs. Frequently referencing one of his heroes, left-wing activist Saul Alinsky, Lloyd claims in his book that the history of American communications policy has been one of continued corporate control of every form of communication from the telegraph to the Internet. “Citizen access to popular information has been undermined by bad political decisions,” Lloyd wrote. “These decisions date back to the Jacksonian Democrats’ refusal to allow the Post Office to continue to operate the telegraph service.” Lloyd claimed that neither technology nor liberal reforms have been able to overcome the damage caused when government fails to give everyone an equal voice. Throughout history, Lloyd said, “[t]he most powerful communications tool was deliberately placed in the hands of one faction in our republic: commercial industry.” “Neither Progressive era reforms nor new communications technologies have been able to correct the problems resulting from government abdication of a responsibility to advance the equal capability of citizen discourse,” Lloyd added. “Corporate liberty has overwhelmed citizen equality,” he wrote. Government, Lloyd said in his book, is the “only” institution that can manage the communications of the public, arguing that Washington must “ensure” that everyone has an equal ability to communicate. “The American republic requires the active deliberation of a diverse citizenry, and this, I argue, can be ensured only by our government,” he says. “Put another way, providing for the equal capability of citizens to participate effectively in democratic deliberation is our collective responsibility.” FCC sealLessons for Radicals Lloyd relies heavily on the left-wing radical Saul Alinsky in explaining his strategy. Alinsky (1909-1972) was a community organizer and activist from Chicago and the author of the book, Rules for Radicals, which opens with an acknowledgment "to the very first radical ... Lucifer." As for political tactics, Alinsky said, “The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away. In this book we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people. This means revolution." With Alinsky as the political guide, Lloyd outlines nine “lessons” that people can draw on when trying to combat international businesses. 1. “Organizing people must be a priority. In order to counter effectively the power of major corporations we understood that we had to be able to demonstrate the support of hundreds of thousands of people. As Alinksy wrote: ‘Change comes from power, and power comes from organization. In order to act, people must get together.’” 2. “Understand where people stand on your issue. Once we were clear that we needed to drum up the support of people, we needed to understand what people knew about our issues. As Alinksy wrote, ‘if people feel they don’t have the power to change a bad situation, then they do not think about it.’” 3. “Connect with groups that have already organized the community. Our means of reaching local communities was through existing national organizations. We reached out to groups that had large constituencies and articulated our message by identifying how our goals fit their core interests.” 4. “The strategy must have an inside and an outside game. For media reform, this means we needed to embrace the necessity of operating both in and outside Washington [D.C.].”5. “Don’t wait for events to unfold on their own. Pressure, pressure, pressure. If we wanted events to work in a direction that would benefit us, we knew we needed

QShould you be forced to take an Internet Test Should everybody have a Internet License Should your hardware be controlled These are the proposals that Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, has come up with, who said that America is a free democratic country, it's free as long as companies like Microsoft and Apple control everything you do, Talk about Capitalist freedom control, Communism as nothing on it when it comes to Capitalist controlling the free Citizens of the world.These are the people you support when you buy and use their products, These are the people that want to control your every move. under the disguise of freedom, You do as they tell you. You do as they want, Not what you want, Your freedom is their pleasure to do with as and when they please.Read the report and see what is being done behind your backs by that famous software company http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/microsofts_internet_driving_licence_stupid_unworkable_and_unenforceable

Q(cont) The following is a partial list of Small Business S Corporations that Republican's say will be hurt by letting Bush's tax cuts expire on the top 2%:* Enterprise Products Partners, L.P., a pipeline company with 2009 revenues of $25 billion.* Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a Wall Street firm with $445 million in revenue in 2009.* Price Waterhouse Coopers, an accounting firm with $26 billion in revenue in 2009.* Koch Industries, a conglomerate of partnerships with 70,000 employees.* The Hillman Company, an investment founded by billionaire philanthropist/industrialist Henry Hillman.* Venn Strategies, Inc., whose chief operating officer is Brian Reardon, a former special assistant to former President George W. Bush.* Ferrellgas, a propane and propane accessories business, with $2 billion in revenues in 2009 and 1 million customers.* CoorsTek, a ceramics manufacturer founded by Adolph Coors, with 2009 revenue of $549 million.* Dead River Co., with $500 million in revenue and 1,200 employees.* McIlhenney Co., the Tabasco maker, with $250 million in revenue in 2007.@Fresh: what are you waiting for?