EUREKYS MUSIC

EUREKYS MUSIC  has just released 2 new Albums -

RIA CONCHITA - THE MUSICAL ( Selection of 6 Tracks )
RIA CONCHITA - THE FULL SCORE ( 13 Tracks )

All the Pop Song  tracks have been composed by Ray Williams.
They are available on iTunes World Wide and Amazon.

THE WILD FLOWERS CONCERTO

THE WILD FLOWERS CONCERTO
A Tribute to the Wild Flowers of London 2012 Olympic Park

Millions were enthralled by the London 2012 Olympic Games. Throughout the Olympic Park there were beds of Wild Flowers which gave so much pleasure to the visitors from all over the World.
This new Concerto is a Tribute to all the lovely Wild Flowers which bedecked the Park. It is a personal contribution to the Legacy of the 2012 Olympic Games by Composer Raymond Williams.
 EUREKYS MUSIC is his own music publishing label. Eurekys is a Registered Trade Mark.
The Concerto is for Piano, Violin and Symphony Orchestra. Duration 9 mins 38 secs.
The Concerto is available as a download on most Music sites such as iTunes World wide, Amazon on demand, Google Play and many more..

THE BBC CRISIS - NEED TO DOWNSIZE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

The furor over the recent Newsnight Programme that mistakenly accused Lord McAlpine of being a paedophile and the Jimmy Savile controversy has caused demands for more heads to role in addition to the resignation of the Chairman. The danger of this is that a few resignations of Top Management misses the point and clouds the real cause of problems at the BBC.
The BBC is not all bad. In fact it is a very fine organisation except that -
The Board of Governors are full of bloated Top Cats who are as much out of touch with daily events at the BBC as any executive might be. It needs a few normal people who have lots of experience at Middle Management and the listening public. It needs a big overall.

The BBC is top heavy with too many layers of Management. It needs to be downsized. There are too many layers which leads to the cry - I did not know about this or that problem. Do not blame me.
The Organisation is also too full of intelligent people with little experience of people sensitivity. Too many stuck up snobs who think that they are above reproach. Not all of the executives are like this but certainly a large proportion of the Management Team is in this category.

So what to do -

• Review the the structure and composition of the Board of Governors or whatever they are called
• Downsize the Management Structure
• Reduce salaries by 25% at least of Senior and Middle Management.
• Set out clearly the guidelines for responsibility
• Define exactly the lines of communication
• Recruit a broader range of people into the BBC 

Good luck but for goodness sake, do not involve the Politicians in this. They are just as bad and the House of Commons also needs a big review and downsize..

TERTIARY EDUCATION NEEDS A RADICAL REFORM

In Britain Today there is a debate about the value and credibility of A Level examinations which are usually taken at age 18 and which act as an entry standard for a University first Degree in a British University. There is also controversy about students having to fund their University education with some £28,000 fees for a 3 year course plus living costs and social expenditure.. Universities are continuously asking for more funding.
Employers are raising their standards for recruitment - demanding a 2.1 degree. The poor student who has attained a 2.2 does not get a chance even though there are only a few % marks between a 2.1 and 2.2 degree.
Clearly, there is a need for some more radical thinking about A Levels and the criteria for recruitment policies. Here are some of the improvements which can be made to the present system -

• University entry should be based on a new BCE qualification - British Certificate of Education - to replace the current GCSE examinations.It will be taken at age 16. There should be 8 subjects included in the curriculum including English, Mathematics and a Foreign Language. An overall  % score of 6 x 50% of six major subjects + 2 x 40% of vocational subjects  must be obtained in order to gain entry into the Y1 and Y2 University Degree course which will be studied at school at the old sixth form stage.

• A Level examinations should be eliminated

• Selection for a new styled University Degree should be based on attainment level of results in the BCE plus test results for Emotional Intelligence ( as defined by Henley Business School )  and Psychological Profiling. This combination of factors will give a better level of judgement about a student's potential rather than relying on IQ or Examination results only.

Whilst still at school from aged 16 - 18, the student will study for Year 1 and Year 2 of the chosen degree course. After successful completion of Y1 and Y2 the student will leave school and enter University to complete the degree - 1 more year for a BA Degree for example. Higher Degrees will remain basically the same - 2 more years for a Masters Degree and 3 years for a PhD Degree.
The length of time for professional degrees such as medicine will be reduced by 2 years due to the abolition of A levels.

As a result of these changes -

• The cost of University Education academic fees for students will be reduced by an average of £18,000.
• Living costs of the student will be reduced by 2 years of costs.
• The levels of financial contributions from parents will be drastically reduced.
• This will help young people to save their deposits for a house earlier than previously
• Students can enter the workforce earlier and thereby contribute to taxation revenues and GDP in the United Kingdom.
• University costs will be reduced and hence the demands on state funding.
• Workplace recruitment will be based on a broader range of factors - ensuring that the right person fits the right slot in the Company or Institution.
• There should be no extra costs for the schools.
• The overhead costs of the University should be reduced.

The overall impact on University structures, staffing levels and funding will be dramatic. The Top Universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, London, Manchester should gain due to increased student demand for Year 3 Degree studies.Students will gain because there will be more places at these Universities. The minor Universities might also gain if student demand increases but they must be prepared to restructure, offer more vocational and professional courses and perhaps reduce staff numbers - who can be re-employed in schools for Y1 and Y2 Degree studies.

It is no longer justified for students or Universities to claim that the Social life at University is so important. One year post school is enough for them to experience the social life. Once they have started earning, they can enjoy as much social life as they can afford.

So, why cannot we think more radically about the future of Tertiary Education In Britain Today ?
I do not claim to have all the right answers but we must start the debate outside the box and more widely.

The Business World, Recruitment Agencies, Government and Educationalists need a radical approach to Tertiary Education in order to satisfy the ambitions of the many for the benefit of the many and to improve the prosperity of Britain in future decades.

.

CARE FOR THE ELDERLY IN BRITAIN - COMPASSION OR FEAR

CARE FOR THE ELDERLY IN BRITAIN - COMPASSION OR FEAR

Many people In Britain Today will remember the famous book written by George Orwell entitled 1984. In his novel, George Orwell painted a frightening futuristic picture of what life would be like in the year 1984. He fantasised that peoples' minds and thoughts would be controlled by Big Brother a despotic leader who watched every moment of peoples' daily activities by televisions and CCTV and he ruled the country with the aid of his Thought Police.
In Britain Today in the year 2016 , there are some disturbing trends in Society that could have serious consequences in the future for the elderly sections of the population that could make a sequel to Georage Orwell;s work - call it 2024 - very scary indeed.

Imagine you are an elderly person living in 2024. The World Financial crisis which originated in 2008 worsened during the period 2012 - 2022 and the National Debt in Britain got progressively worse. The British Economy had failed to recover and the Coalition Governments elected in 2015 and 2020 became extreme in their determination to reduce the costs of the National Health Service in Britain. We have to set priorities...we cannot continue to fund the care for the elderly.... the cost for elderly care is too high.....people are living too long.....something must be done.
At the same time, the debate about Euthenasia had pivoted along the lines that People have the human right to choose when to die - upheld by the European Court of Justice 2018. The Government - desperate by 2024 - introduced legislation that for the benefit of the country as a whole, funding for the care of the elderly must be restricted to those citizens under the age of 80 years .After that age, it would be perfectly legal for people to be put to sleep - humanely put to death. In this way, the Healthcare Budget would save millions of pounds.
Is this sheer fantasy or should we as a Society, beware of current trends and thinking that could result in a 2024 nightmare for the elderly ?

The future could be very different for the elderly. The principles of the foundation of the Welfare State in 1946 were- Care, from the cradle to the grave - could once again be the rightful guiding light for Government Policies towards its citizens.. In the 2012 Presidential Elections in the USA, there was a stark difference between the candidates. President Obama was in favour of medicare for the majority and in favour of the Cradle to the Grave philosophy whilst Senator Romsey took the opposite view that people should finance their own care and medical attention.
So, what should be the attitude towards care the elderly in Britain today and the future. It should be -

• Euthenasia should be legally prohibited
• The National Health Service should provide care - From the cradle to the grave.
• The right to life should be ingrained in Law for everyone

BUT, How can care for the elderly be funded ?

Here are some solutions.

• A Wealth Tax shuld be introduced on indivdual funds of £5,000,000 and above. This should be a progressive tax at a fair rate of taxation.
• Anyone with a British Passport with funds anywhere in the World should be subject to British Taxatioin Policies.
• The Bank of England should introduce more Quantitative Easing ( print more new money ) to be used directly to fund new Care4U Care Homes managed by the National Health Service in Britain. An injection of some £60 billion per year over the period 2016 - 2020 should be effective. This Policy  will lead to increased employment and job security within the NHS, benefit the Construction Industry and contribute to an increase in Gross Domestic Product. Goodbye recessions !
• Keysian Economics stressed the importance of the Multifier Effect from new Investment.  There should be more capital investment in Britain and more incentives to increase consumer demand to strengthen the British Economy.
• Inheritance Tax on estates worth £5,000,000 or more should be taxed at 60%
• Personal Taxation should be increased to 70% for those with incomes over £150,000 at 2012 prices.
• National Insurance levels should be increased to cover the cost of elderly care.
• No elderly person should have to contribute more than 10% of net assets towards their elderly care.
• The National Health Service should be responsible for providing care homes
• Private Care Homes charges should drastically reduced - charges such as £35,000 per annum per person - at 2015 prices - are totally unacceptable. The main source of elderly care will be the NHS with a role for the private sector - at reasonable prices.

There will be an outcry about these proposals from Government - Cannot be done - the rich - who will only be intrested in their own greed and glutteness wish to acummulate millions more to their wealth. Not all rich people are like this. Many donate millions to charity.and they must be praised.  But, the majoity are simply gluttons for more wealth.
The potential nighmare of 2024 must not be allowed to happen. In order to stop this happening, we, the young and the elderly must be vigilant to stop current thinking about the care for the elderly.
We must offer the elderly - comfort, compassion, a long life and support and not the fear that comes with them being thought of as low priority burdens on Society.

Beware Britain or pay a terrible price by 2024.  Will the future be one of fear for the elderly ? It is up to us.


RAYMOND WILLIAMS MA MPhil MBA DIPM
EUREKYS

April 2016

MISTAKES TO AVOID IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SUBSIDIARY COMPANY

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

BY

RAY WILLIAMS MA MPhil MBA

After years of using an Agent to distribute their Outdoor Leisure Products in the United Kingdom Market, the Top Management of a French Public Company decided to cancel the contract with their Agent and to establish a new subsidiary company.

The Driving Force for this radical decision was influenced by the high profits made by the Agent during strikes in the UK which led to a huge increase in consumer demand for the company’s portable gas lighting products and cooking products.

On reflection, the Parent Company made some fundamental mistakes and the Objective of this Paper is for MBA students and Corporate Directors to Learn from Experience so that they do not make the same mistakes as the French Parent Company

POOR MARKET ASSESSMENT

The Parent Company failed to make a proper and detailed assessment of the UK Market – Market Size less spikes due to short term demand such as during Power Strikes, Market Trends, Competitive Strenghts & Weaknesses, New Legislation restricting the storage of gas products, retail distribution trends, changing consumer tastes & trends in the UK Holiday Market such as the growth of Overseas Package Holidays and the impact on its traditional Outdoor Leisure markets.

As a result, Expectations were raised for the new subsidiary company based on unrealistic market data.

FALSE COMPARISONS

The Parent Company made false comparisons such as expecting the same performance in the UK as their subsidiary company in Germany. They ignored fundamental financial structural differences and other major differences which made comparisons false and created unfair pressures on the new Top Managemnt of the UK subsidiary company. They failed to analyse in depth market differences and structural differences between countries.

AGENT COUNTER REACTION

The contract with the Agent meant that on cessation of the trading agreement, all unsold stock would have to be re-purchased by the Parent Company. However, the Parent Compny made the new subsidiary company purchase the unsold stock resulting in the new subsidiary carrying too much stock at a very high cost – a very large burden in Year 1 of Trading.

The parent company also failed to take into consideration Agent Counter Reaction such as –

The Agent sold products at a premium price, flooding the distribution chain and preventing the new subsidiary from achieving hign normal sales in Year1.

The Agent decided to create their own range of products and became a serious new competitor selling mainly on price and forcing a reduction in gross margins of the subsidiary in order to maintain Market Sha

UNDERCAPITALISATION

One of the most fundamental mistakes made by the Parent Company was to Undercapitalise the new subsidiary – a very common mistake made by Parent Companies.

The subsidiary was forced to rely on bank borrowings to fund the agent stock buy back, pay salaries and expenses and fund a Television Campaign in order to unblock the distribution pipeline caused by the hostile strategy of the Agent.

As a result, the subsidiary company was doomed to make a loss in Year1 and some members of the Parent Company started to blame unfairly the subsidiary company for the losses and not themselves..

Fortunately, due to the newly formed Top Management of the subsidiary, the company made pre-tax profits for the next 10 years in spite of the hurdles they had to fa

DIVIDEND POLICY

When the subsidiary company became profitable, the Parent Company implemented a 100% Annual Dividend Policy which meant that the subsidiary never created a Retained Profits buffer fund which could have reduced bank borrowings and increase future years profitabilty.

The Parent Company had capitalised the German subsidiary and they continued to make false and unfair comparisons with the UK subsidiary, ignoring the different financial structures between the two subsidia

PUNITIVE GROSS MARGIN INCREASES

In later years, the Parent Compnay decided that they wanted to inflate the profitability of their manufacturing company in France. As a result, they reduced the Gross Profit Margins of the UK subsidiary by 17 % - over and above the normal annual increase in subsidiary puchasing prices. This resulted in a massive reduction in the Pre-Tax Profits of the UK subsidiary company and gave a false assessment of the true underlying profitability of the subsid

NOT INVENTED HERE

In order to improve the performance, the Top Management of the subsidiary put forward many ideas for Diverification in order to counteract a Stagnant Market, Strong Price Competition, the Negative Results of Parent Company Policies and the restrictions caused by Legislation. The Parent Company ignored all the suggestions and instead pursued a policy of Product Diversification within small potential growth markets and with products more suitable for the French M

NEGATIVE IMPACT OF PARENT COMPANY NEW OWNERSHIP

Whilst the subsidairy was striving to grow, there were major changes in ownership of the Parent Company.

Phase 1 – the Parent Company was sold to a major Finance Company whose strategy was – Reduce Costs, Increase short term profits – and sell the Parent Company at an inflated profit. Thus, radical research & development during this period was blocked.

Phase 2 – the Finance Company sold the Parent Company to a well known International Oil and Gas Company who continued the strategy of cost reduction to increase short term profitability. Thus, for a few years the subsidiary had to suffer from a Parent Company Management whose strategy was based on short termism – a dangerous strategy for long term growth and long term survival.

Constant changes in ownership and Top Management can have a disasterous effect on subsidiAry performance and Management morale.

LESSONS FROM EXPERINCE

MAKE A THOROUGH AND REALISTIC ASSESSMENT OF THE MARKET BEFORE LAUNCHING A SUBSIDIARY

CAPITALISE THE NEW SUBSIDIARY COMPANY AND DO NOT FORCE THE FLEDGLING SUBSIDIARY TO RELY TOTALLY ON BANK BORROWINGS

ASSESS THE HOSTILE STRATEGY OF THE AGENT AND REALISE THE FACT THAT A NEW COMPETITOR MIGHT BE CREATED

GIVE THE SUBSIDIARY A CHANCE TO BUILD ANNUAL RETAINED PROFITS                                         

DO NOT MAKE FALSE COMPARISONS BETWEEN SUBSIDIARIES

DO NOT BE TOO GREEDY WITH A 100% DIVIDEND POLICY IN THE SHORT TERM

ENCOURAGE CREATIVE EXPANSION IDEAS

BE REALISTIC IN PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS IN THESHORT TERM

THINK LONG TERM STRATEGY

DELEGATE MORE RESPONSIBILTY TO THE LOCAL TOP MANAGEMENT

THE HACKING AFFAIR 2011

So, the Government has launched an Inquiry into the Hacking Affair headed up by an eminent judge. A Select Committee of the House of Commons will question some witnesses next Tuesday 19 July 2011. The investigations will cost millions and no doubt thousands of pages of reports and evidence will be recorded. So, here is a short cut of key questions to get to the heart of the Hacking Affair.

One of the key principles of journalism is for the Editor to verify the source of the information and to judge what is true and what is fiction. When reporters submitted their copy on topics or people, the Editor should have scrutinised the copy and questioned the journalist about how he / she obtained the information.

Question Did the Editor / Management of the News of the World approve the copy and question the reporters about their copy submission ?

If payments were made to the police -

Question Where are the receipts to justify the payments

If there are not any receipts, why not ? Who authorised any payments and for what ?

Question How could the mobile phone companies and land line companies create a non hacking proof system that allowed hacking to take place, in the words of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on an industrial level ? Have the phone companies failed to provide adequate security for their users ? How can hacking occur and can it be prevented by modern technology ?

Question Did the reporters / journalists lie to the Management of the News of the World about the source of their copy ?

These are some very basic questions that need to be asked at the early stages of the investigation. The British Public want clinical questioning and answers rather than long winded lengthy and costly debates. Get to the hub of the matter quickly and decisively so that a new brighter future for the Media can be evolved.