The Corporation

After watching this film i will answer two questions?

1. Should corporations be entitled to the same legal rights as individuals? Where should the line be drawn?

As corporations as legal persons are immortal, special, unmoral, unethical and cold machines they would not respect others, they would not care to harm you, they would not respond with the full implementation of the law as they are special, they are intangible and will only pay money for any harm done. This is not how life is seen normally by humans.

From my perspective corporations should not acquire legal rights as individuals because they have a big difference, they do not live like us, they just exists as an entity that searches to acquire money with any mean necessary and have no real conscious that retain it for committing crimes towards the community.

Courts must be based on the principle of life, where corporations as i just said just exist and humans live with all the implications it represents.

3. Should individuals (directors, employees, shareholders) bear any responsibility for the actions of a corporation? If so, to what degree?

Of course individuals should bear responsibilities, if not they would take advantage of their situation to brake the law through the corporation for acquiring monetary goods and blame someone else.

If directors, employees and shareholders bear responsibilities they would respect the community rights and will detain chaos. Responsibility is essential in the corporation process for becoming a near conscious entity that respects others.

They would take responsibility equilibrated of the role it plays in the corporation, as an employee, let's say a customer service agent, its responsibilities would be to treat customers as equals, responsibilities over the merchandise it handles(stealing, Damage, incomplete, stock), social responsibility, ethical, moral, a CEO responsibility would be huge, almost unmeasurable as it controls large amounts of employees, transaction between corporations, environmental issues,etc. The responsibility is different in each level of the corporation preventing it to commit damages or at least to try.

References:

http://thedevilspeaks.com/images/devil_inc_logo.png
http://www.impawards.com/2004/posters/corporation.jpg
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/wp-content/photos/Take_Responsibility.gif

Woman Rights and The International Organization for Migration (IOM)

The IOM is an Intergovernmental organization that is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.

It works to:
1.Help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration.
2.Promote international cooperation on migration issues.
3.Assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need(refugees, displaced persons, etc).

It Gives recognition to the right of freedom of movement of persons.

The IOM covers four areas of migration:
1.migration and development
2.facilitating migration
3.regulating migration
4.addressing forced migration

The IOM promotes:
1.International migration law
2.Policy debate and guidance
3.Protection of migrants’ rights
4.Migration health and the gender dimension of migration

IOM efforts towards Woman migrant Workers:

- In November 2002, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, in collaboration with IOM, organized the Hemispheric Conference on International Migration: Human Rights and Trafficking in Persons in the Americas. The Conference aimed at fostering an integral vision of migration. The subject of women migrant workers was discussed in different panels and he Women and Development Unit of the Commission presented a document

entitled “Trata de Mujeres: Conexiones y Desconexiones entre Género,

Migración y Derechos Humanos”. (www.iom.int, 2003)

- A key element in the gender policy of IOM is recognition of the feminization

of international migration, that is, the trend towards women increasingly being

independent actors in the migration process, especially as labour migrants. In this context, women face greater risks of gender-based violence, including trafficking and other rights abuses. IOM has thus placed special emphasis on prevention of such abuses through multimedia public information campaigns in countries of origin aimed at potential women migrants. These campaigns seek to raise consciousness of the realities of migration as well as ways potential women migrants can recognize and address the challenges they may face. IOM also works with Governments and NGO partners to provide practical pre-departure training for migrant women. The most recent example of the latter began in the Philippines in June 2003: the training programme, entitled “The Power to Choose — a Guide for Women Migrant Workers”, used both videos and printed materials, which remain in the possession of the migrants after the course is completed. (www.iom.int, 2003)

We can see that IOM focuses on General sectors almost all the times, but as it have seen issues regarding to women rights, it searches ways to help this affected sectors and help them as previously seen in the two examples.

Unifem is another organization that helps women and created a briefing paper that contains all the human rights protections applicable to women migrant workers - Here is the link

In the briefing paper there are a lot of points like:

- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) guarantees women equal rights in employment.

- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes
the right to fair wages.

The document goes on an on making explicit all rights that help women. We must see the reality of the world, we can say feminism has overcome all this issues but it is a big lie as women suffer infinitum punishes, discrimination and other scenarios that put them in disadvantage with men.

References:

http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/policy_and_research/un/58/A_58_161_en.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Development_Fund_for_Women

http://www.iom.int/jahia/jsp/index.jsp

Images:

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/3d29e44d120dbaa8d14163032/images/UNIFEM_UNWOMEN_UNiTE_logo.gif

http://www.ungeorgia.ge/userfiles/images/IOM.jpg

http://www.unifem-eseasia.org/projects/migrant/small%20pic%20for%20web.jpg

Mergers & Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are a foreign direct investment entry mode, Multinationals use these methods to entering new markets.

The Bharti-Zain Case:

Bharti’s $10.7 billion acquisition of Kuwait-based Zain’s African assets was the second largest deal by an Indian company after Tata Steel snapped one with Anglo Dutch steel maker Corus for about $12 billion in 2007.(Livemint.com, 2010)

The Bharti-Zain is the largest deal in terms of volume in BRIC region so far in 2010, the Dealogic data showed. (Livemint.com, 2010)

We can understand here that an acquisition is a process in which one company takes over the other. a simple way to describe it is when you buy a car that is property from a selling company, once you buy it you will control it and follow your objectives through its capabilities and yours united.

Now that we know what and acquisition is, let's proceed and explain what a merger is. A merger is when to companies unite themselves to create a new company and pursue the company's interests.

A simple way to describe it would be; when two or more persons unite themselves to achieve a goal. Making it simple, when you go and play Fifa(soccer Video Game) and 4 persons will play by composing two teams controlled each by two persons and compete against each other to win the match.

Big deals in India:

- Bharti Airtel Ltd. agreed to acquire the African operations of Zain Africa BV for USD 10.7 billion (INR 493.56 billion).

- GTL Infrastructure Ltd. acquired tower assets of Aircel Ltd. for USD 1.8 billion (INR 84 billion).

- Fortis Healthcare Ltd. acquired a 23.9% stake in Singapore-based Parkway Holdings Ltd. from TPG Capital for about USD 685.3 million (INR 31.10 billion).

- Essar Group agreed buy Trinity Coal Corp. for about USD 600 million (INR 27.47 billion) from Denham Capital Management LP.

- Telenor ASA acquired a 7.15% stake in Unitech Wireless Ltd. for USD 433.36 million (INR 20.22 billion). (They have named their mobile services in India Uninor.)

References:

- Livemint.com. (2010, june 27). Livemint.com. Retrieved october 25, 2010, from Indian M&A volume spikes to record $48.6 bn this year: http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/27133056/Indian-MampA-volume-spikes-t.html

- Indonesiancoal.com. (2010, August 16). Indonesiancoal.com. Retrieved october 25, 2010, from FOCUS: India’s M&A in 2010:http://indonesiancoal.com/article/focus-indias-ma-in-2010.html

Images:

- http://miltondawis.com/images/merger.jpg

- https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgSPcYpZ4nSkfob_QA2MmXzOkIm3BAlvX_U_VyfJIIAsDMZHJYM_HHT_k36BeFMYHxeSUy0YpxFMLDmo8atJeHnkHGYFUPXSHPGwxItGtFTliE0bFgk_QkvJdi_QQ6y8tkgzoqsatZuf9/

Ubuntu Philosophy

Ubuntu Is a Classical African concept, also knowed as an ethic or humanist philosophy
that focuses on people's allegiances and relations with each other.

Nelson Mandela explained Ubuntu as follows:

A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves.

We can see that Africans share a great philosophy in which we all are equals, we all are brothers. The Whole globe must learn from this and finish discrimination and inequality. As Africa was the Cradle of life we must hear them and follow this philosophy, implement it in our everyday lives, organizations, sports, etc.

Ubuntu Philosophy must be present for Cross-Cultural Managers; a great example would be the BP case, that took place in the Soviet Union when it opened their oil market and allowed foreign companies to enter their country. Bp had several issues:

1. American Managers had some advantages (better offices, better living places, more Vacations, preferential treatment over Russian Workers).
2. Misunderstandings between both nations.
3. near negotiation closure.

When the company realized that their strategy was bad at first, they called a meeting and changed several factors; establishing equal treatments to all personnel and implementing a cooperation strategy, making it now a days one of the huge oil companies in Russia and in the whole world.

Cross Cultural managers must be aware of this philosophy because:

• It would bring competitive advantage over other companies.
• Would make a better job environment.
• Would make a better information channel between all personnel.

Most importantly managers we assure success with the application of this type of philosophies.

References:

• Mangaliso, M. P. (2001). Building competitive advantage from ubuntu: Management lessons from South Africa.

Images:

• http://www.download-linux.net/bilder/Ubuntu.png
• http://www.ascleiden.nl/Images/library/webdossiers/library_ubuntu.gif
• http://ianitachi.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/ubuntu.jpg