Mode of Entry in India by Foreign Investors

foreign capital implies funds that are raised from foreign investors for investment purposes in development projects of a host country. Any investment flowing from one country to another country is foreign investment. This concept came in 1950s when many capital deficient countries resorted to foreign capital as a primary means to achieve rapid economic growth. Foreign capital can enter the country in the form of: 1. Direct Investment 2. Indirect Investment Also, with time the concept of foreign aid came up. It is nothing but movement of money from one country to another in the form of aid for development.It flows to developing countries in the form of loans, assistance and outright grants from various governmental and international organizations ADVANTAGES OF FOREIGN CAPITAL 1. It raises the level of investment – Brings in more industries and technology to the country and gives boost to the employment, production and economy of the host country. 2. Helps in upgradation of tec hnology – Foreign investment brings with it the technological knowledge while transferring machinery and equipment to developing countries. 3.Exploitation of natural resources – A number of underdeveloped countries process huge mineral resources, which awaits exploitation. These countries themselves do not possess the required technical skill and expertise to accomplish this task. 4. Development of basic economic infrastructure – Underdeveloped or developing countries require a huge capital investment for development of basic economic structure as their domestic capital is often too adequate. 5. Improves export competitiveness – A foreign investment can help the host country to improve its export performance.This is because of increase in the level of efficiency and the standard of product quality. Also, better access to foreign market further improves the export competitiveness. 6. Benefits the consumers with competitive market – Consumers in deve loping countries stand to gain from a foreign investment through new products and improved quality of goods at competitive prices. 7. Generates revenue to the government – The profit generation by a foreign investment in the host country contributes to the corporate tax revenue in the latter. 8.Supplements domestic savings – Less developed countries lack sufficient savings, required for investment in development projects like building economic and social infrastructure. Foreign capital bridges this gap. 9. Employment increases in the host country – As foreign companies come up, they establish their plant in the host country. As a result, employment also increases. DISADVANTAGES OF FOREIGN CAPITAL 1. Countries face severe debt problems – If all the investors who have invested in the host country, pull out their money overnight then the host country comes in debt. 2.Appreciation of real exchange rate occurs – As more foreign investors invest in the c ountry, the demand for the domestic currency rises. This causes appreciation of domestic currency and hence loss of competitiveness of exports as they become costlier. 3. Chances of inflation – Domestic supply of money increases and if this money is not utilized and absorbed in profitable projects then there is an inclination towards inflation. 4. The economy becomes overvalued – As the investors come in, the money in the economy starts flowing causing unnecessary appreciation in foreign currency. 5.Domestic market is affected – When foreign investments compete with the home investments, the profits in the domestic industries fall, thereby leading to a fall in domestic savings. 6. There is less contribution to public revenue – As the corporate taxes are comparatively less because of liberal tax concessions, investment allowances, designed public subsidies and tariff protection that are provided by the host government. ————†”———————————- TYPES OF FOREIGN CAPITAL There are five major types of foreign capital. They are – 1. Foreign Direct  Investment (FDI)It is a process whereby residents of the source country acquires the ownership of assets for the purpose of controlling the production, distribution and other activities of a firm in the host country. The foreign investors are free to invest in India, except few sectors/activities, where prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’) or Foreign Investment Promotion Board (‘FIPB’) would be required. The followings activities/sectors requires prior approval of FIPB. a. Manufacture of Cigars & Cigarettes of tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes b.Manufacture of Electronic aerospace and defence equipments c. Manufacture of items exclusively reserved for Small Scale Sector with more than 24% FDI d. Proposals in which the foreign col laborator has an existing financial / technical collaboration in India in the ‘same’ field e. All proposals falling outside notified sectoral policy. The foreign investors planning to set of business in India have two options, either to set up a separate corporate entity in India, i. e. incorporating an Indian company or through unincorporated entity, i. e. Branch Office of the foreign entity.Incorporation of an Indian company can be possible under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. The foreign investors can invest in such Indian company up to 100% of capital depending upon sectoral guidelines prescribed by the Government of India. Under Second Option, a foreign company are allowed to operate in India, subject to conditions and activities permitted under the Foreign Exchange Management (Establishment in India of Branch Office of other place of business) Regulations, 2000, through setting up either of the followings: Liaison Office/Representative Office; Project Office; or Branch Office.While making entry into any nation, innumerable clearances are to be obtained at the state and district levels. Also, a number of practical hurdles, such as infrastructure bottlenecks have to be overcome. Also, the exit is difficult, in the sense that, archaic labour laws, such as the Industrial Disputes Act, prohibit the closure of any company. ADVANTAGES OF FDI Below mentioned are some of the advantages of FDI. They are very similar to that of foreign capital. 1. Growth and employment 2. Technology and know how 3. Access to goods and services 4. Fill the savings gap DISADVANTAGES OF FDI . Political lobbying – In the past, there have been many instances in which MNCs have resorted to political lobbying in order to get certain policies and laws implemented in their favor. 2. Exploitation of resources – Exploitation of natural resources of a host country is not a very uncommon phenomenon in the case of FDI. MNCs of other countries have been know n to indiscriminately exploit the resources of host countries in order to get short run gains and profits and have even chosen to ignore the sustainability factors associated with the local communities and local habitat. . Threaten small scale industries – MNCs have large economic and pricing power due to their large sizes. They do not have much problem with regards to financial capital and can hence resort to using advertising which is a costly affair. Also, these companies are global players who have their operations spread across countries and have effective supply chains which enable them to have economies of scale which smaller players in the domestic market of the host country cannot compete with.All this results in the MNC having cheaper products and more visibility due to the higher amounts of advertising and have been known to push out smaller industries out of business. 4. Technology – Although, the MNCs have access to new and cutting edge technology, they do not transfer the latest technology to the host country with a fear that their home country may loose its competitive advantage. 2. Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) FPI is buying and selling of shares, convertible debentures of Indian companies and units of domestic mutual funds at any of the Indian stock exchanges.FPI are done by foreign investors in shares, bonds and equity market. It brings foreign exchange to the country but it has its own problems as it brings volatile money to the country. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) can make portfolio investments. FIIs are allowed to invest in the primary and secondary capital markets in India under the Portfolio Investment Scheme 3. Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) FII is defined as an institution established or incorporated outside India for making investment in Indian securities.They may invest in securities traded in both the primary and secondary markets. These securities include shares, debentures, and units of mutual funds Foreign Institutional Investments are the investments by foreign financial institutes like banks, insurance companies, pension funds, mutual funds etc. These are mostly in Govt. securities which are quite secure. The entry and exit are very simple through FII’s. FIIs must register themselves with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and comply with the exchange control regulations of RBI. 4. External Commercial Borrowings (ECB)ECB refer to commercial loans (in the form of bank loans, buyers’ credit, suppliers’ credit, securitised instruments) availed from non-resident lenders with minimum average maturity of 3 years. ECB for investment in real sector – industrial sector, especially infrastructure sector-in India, are under Automatic Route. ECB in the following requires approval of the government : a. Activities/items that require an Industrial Licence b. Proposals in which the foreign collaborator has an existing venture/tie up in Indi a c. Proposals for acquisition of shares in an existing Indian company in some cases. . Depository Receipts (ADR/GDR) ADR is adopted by many large and well respected companies from India to raise funds from American Markets. If any Indian Company has issued ADRs in the American market wishes to further extend it to other developed and advanced countries such as Europe, then they can sell these ADRs to the public of Europe and the same would be named as GDR. ADRs and GDRs are not for investors in India – they can invest directly in the shares of various Indian companies. They are an excellent means of investment for NRIs and foreign nationals wanting to invest in India.By buying these, they can invest directly in Indian companies without going through the hassle of understanding the rules and working of the Indian financial market – since ADRs and GDRs are traded like any other stock. NRIs and foreigners can buy these using their regular equity trading accounts.  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- ROUTES OF ENTRY There are majorly two routes for entry in India – 1. Automatic Route : The route wherein no government approval is required for the investors. As a reference, FDI up to 100% is allowed in all activities/sectors. 2.Approval Route : The route wherein Government approval is required. This is done by either RBI or FIPB. Apart, from two major classifications. There can also be other classification also as shown below – 1. As a foreign company through a Liaison Office/ Representative Office, Project Office or a Branch Office. 2. As an Indian company through a Joint Venture or a Wholly Owned Subsidiary. LIAISON OFFICE / REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE Foreign corporations/entities are permitted to open liaison offices/representative offices in India for undertaking liaison activities on their behalf. Approval from RBI is needed.No fees, commission o r remuneration can be charged by the Indian liaison office. Liaison office cannot directly or indirectly undertake any trading, commercial or manufacturing activity and therefore, cannot earn any income in India. Its role is limited – 1. to representing the parent company/group companies in India 2. promoting export/import from/to India 3. promoting collaborations between parent company and companies in India 4. collecting information about possible market opportunities and providing information about the company and its products to prospective Indian customers.PROJECT OFFICE A foreign corporation, which has secured a contract from an Indian company to execute a project in India, is allowed to establish a project office in India without obtaining prior permission from RBI. Such offices cannot undertake or carry on any activity other than the activity relating to the execution of the project. The foreign corporation which sets up such a project office is required to furnish a prescribed report to the concerned regional office of RBI under whose jurisdiction the project office is set up.BRANCH OFFICE Foreign corporations/entities engaged in manufacturing and trading activities abroad are allowed to set up branch offices in India. The branch office can carry the same activities as the ones carried on by the foreign corporation overseas except that it cannot carry manufacturing activity on its own (sub-contracting is permitted). It can also stock & sell products in India and is permitted to acquire immovable property necessary or incidental to carrying on activities permitted by RBI. Green field investment:-A form of foreign direct investment where a parent company starts a new venture in a foreign country by constructing new operational facilities from the ground up. It occurs when multinational corporations enter into devolping countries to build new factories. Advantages:- Firm can build the subsidiary it wants. Relatively easily to establish operating r outines. New jobs are created in the local market. Disadvantages:- Faces competition before it is set up Time consuming research has to be carried out before hand. Emerging markets might be unstable, hence leading to extra costs & time consumption. Lengthy process from scratchBrown field investment:- The purchasing of an existing production or business facility by companies or governmental agencies for the purpose of starting new product or service production activity. This type of investment does not involved the new construction of plant operation facility. It is also called merger and acquisition. Advantages:- Less time consuming & quick to execute. Less risky as compared to greenfield. Immediate grab of market share. Reduce competition by taking over rival. The investor can bank on the existing goodwill of the acquired business. Disadvantages:- Not always successful.Cultural clash reducing effectiveness. Some workers are laid off, this affects motivational levels of present work ers JOINT VENTURE The cooperation of two or more individuals or businesses in which each agrees to share profit, loss and control in a specific enterprise. A Joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. The cooperation of two or more individuals or businesses in which each agrees to share profit, loss and control in a specific enterprise. Forming a joint venture is a good way for companies to partner without having to merge.JV’S are typically taxed as a partnership. Advantages:- Help the company to grow in those areas where the company does not have any expertise and would have failed if it was not for joint venture. Joint venture can help the company in reducing the risks which are associated with starting a new business. It results in better utilization of the resources which company has at its disposal. Disadvantages:- It does not give the management of the company control because the decisions are taken by both the companies and therefore it can create problems if both companies do not agree on some issues.It is difficult to integrate resources of companies entering into joint ventures WHOLLY – OWNED SUBSIDIARY A Foreign corporation can set up its subsidiary company either in the form of a private limited company or as a public limited company in India. A company in India is required to be incorporated under The Companies Act, 1956. In comparison with the branch office and liaison office, a subsidiary company provides maximum flexibility for conducting business in India. It can also undertake manufacturing activities in India

Dell Computer Company

DELL’s Working Capital 1. How was Dell’s working capital policy a competitive advantage? Dell has achieved low working capital by keeping its work-in-process and finished goods inventory very low. The competitive advantage Dell achieves from this is that its inventory is significantly lower than its competitors, it does not require large warehouses for stocking the inventories and Dell is also able to adapt the fastest to technology changes in the components. The competitors would find it difficult to adapt to technology changes in a short time because they have larger inventories than Dell does. In short, Dell builds computers only when ordered and thus does not spend much capital as a result. The declining DSI means that Dell takes increasingly shorter days to sell its inventory. 2. How did Dell fund its 52% growth in 1996? Dell needed the following amount to fund its 52% growth in 1996 (using exhibit 4&5): Operating assets (OA) = total assets – short term investment OA in 1995 = 1594 – 484 = 1110 Mil USD Operating Asset to Sales ratio = 1110/3457 = 32% Sales increased from 3457 to 5296 Mil USD in 1996. Multiplying the operating asset to sales ratio by the increase in sales 0. 2 x (5296 – 3457) = 582 mil USD, which is the operating assets that Dell needed to fund its 52% growth. This increase in assets meant an increase in liabilities too, proportional to the sales. The increase in liabilities would be: Liabilities in 1995 = 942 Mil USD Liabilities to Sales ratio = 942/3475 = 27. 1% Increase in liabilities = 0. 271 x (5296 – 3475) = 494 mil USD S o, Dell would have an increase in operating assets of 582 mil USD and an increase in liabilities of 494 mil USD. The short investments would remain the same as it is not related to operations. Operational profit would increase with the Operating Profit to Sales ratio: (net profit/sales) x (5296 – 3457) = (149/3457) x (5296 – 3457) = 227 mil USD In all, we see that a sales increase of 52% has to be funded by 582 mil USD operating assets. The sales increase would also bring additional 494 mil USD in liabilities, while generating 227 mil USD of operating profit, with short term investments remaining the same at 484 mil USD. As a result, any two combinations of liabilities, operational profit or short term investments would be sufficient to offset the 582 mil USD operating assets needed to sustain the 52% sales growth. In 1995, as shown earlier, the operating asset to sales ratio was 32%. Similarly, the ratio in 1996 was (2148 – 591)/5296 = 29. 4%. The difference in the percentages is 2. 54%. This decrease in operating assets in year 1996 suggests that operating efficiency was improved by the same amount. Multiplying this difference in ratio by total sales in 1996: 5296 x 0. 0254 = 134. 5 mil USD, this amount can be reduced from the originally forecasted 582 mil USD to give the actual additional operating asset required to fund the 52% growth: 582 – 134. 5 = 447. 5 mil USD. The net margin in 1995, as shown earlier was 4. % (149/3457). In 1996 it increased to 272/5296 = 5. 14%. This net profit is an increase from the forecasted 227 mil USD (calculation shown earlier), and can be attributed to improved net margins. Also, we see an increase in current liabilities of 187 mil USD between 1995 and 1996. We also see that the sum of the increase in current liability and the net profit, of 199 6, is higher than the actual additional operating asset requirement: 272 + 187 = 459 mil USD > 447. 5 mil USD. Therefore, Dell funded its 1996 sales growth through internal resources, i. e. reducing its current assets and increasing its net margin. . Assuming Dell sales will grow 50% in 1997, how might the company fund this growth internally? How much would working capital need to be reduced and/or profit margin increased? What steps do you recommend the company take? For the year 1996, Operating Assets = Total Assets – Short term Investments = 2148 – 591 = 1557 Mil USD When the sales increases by 50% in 1997, operating assets are also expected to increase by 50%. So for 1997, Dell requires an operating asset of 1557 x 1. 5 = 2336 Mil USD. We should also assume that the net profit as a percentage of sales will increase proportionally by 50% for 1997. For 1996, Net profit as a percentage of sales = 272/5296 = 5. 14% For 1997, Net profit = 5296 x 0. 0514 * 1. 5 = 408 Mil USD For 1997, additional operating asset required = 2336 – 1557 = 779 Mil USD How could this be funded by Dell? Let us assume two scenarios Scenario 1: Let us assume the liabilities remain the same for the year 1997 even when sales increases by 50%, i. e. DELL would not go for any additional liability to fund the increase in operating asset and it would try to do it internally. As per the calculation shown in the attached exhibit, Dell would need 371 Mil USD to fund the increase in sales. The following are the ways DELL could fund this increase in operating asset 1. They could liquidate the short term investments of 591 Mil USD which would cover all of the additional funds required. 2. Dell could sell some of its fixed assets 3. They could reduce inventories, account receivables, and increase the account payables. They could bring down the working capital substantially by having a very low cash cycle. They could negotiate with their suppliers for a higher DPO. With the Just In Time (JIT) concept, they could receive payments immediately from their customers. Let us assume in 1997 Â   |Q4 1996 |Q4 1997 |Difference | |DSI |31 |20 |-11 | |DSO |42 |25 |-17 | |DPO |33 |50 |17 | |CCC |40 |-5 |-35 | So, there is a high possibility to attain a negative cash cycle which in turn saves on the working capital. Average daily sales in 1997 = 7944/365 = 21. 8 Mil USD Cost of sales in 1997 = (4229/5296) x 7944 = 6343. 5 Mil USD Average daily cost of sales in 1997 = 6343. 5/365 = 17. 4 Mil USD For the year 1997, savings due to improved cash cycle is Savings due to reduced inventory days = 11 x 17. 4 = 191. 4 Mil USD Savings due to reduced receivable days = 17 x 21. 8 = 370. 6 Mil USD Savings due to increased payable days = 17 x 17. 4 = 295. 8 Mil USD Total saving from cash cycle improvements = 857. 8 Mil USD Scenario 2: Let us assume liabilities for 1997 increase proportionally (50%) with the increase in sales, i. e. Dell would look for external funding for the increase in operating asset. As per the calculation shown in the attached exhibit, Dell would have enough money to fund the increase in sales with the corresponding increase in liabilities. In fact they will have an excess of 161 Mil USD assuming the long term debt remains unchanged. Dell could use this excess money to repay the long term debt or it could buy back some common stocks. 4. How would your answers to Question 3 change if Dell also repurchased $500 mil USD of common stock in 1997 and repaid its long-term debt? Let us assume Dell repurchased 500 Mil USD of common stock in 1997 and it also repaid its long term debt. In such a scenario, as per the calculation shown in the attached exhibit, Dell would need 452 Mil USD to fund the increase in sales. The points discussed in scenario 1 of Q3 holds good here as well.

Unit 3 Human service Policy Discussion Research Paper

Unit 3 Human service Policy Discussion - Research Paper Example It designed programs that increased the child care spending as well as the food ration for the elderly. The government are now focusing in creating citizenship that are independent by providing ways of creating employment rather than depending on the government support ( J. Soss et al, 2005). However, the Obama administration did not mention anything to do with poverty because the feared attacks from the public. The government used all means possible to remove the attitude of people that the government must support poor people by giving them handouts. Many initiatives have been set up at the state and local levels to find mitigating measures of addressing poverty reduction. Up to twelve states in 2008 took the advantage of the global economic recession to set up poverty commissions and legislative caucuses to address poverty level (Congressional Budget Office). There are several future strategies that were put by the government to curb the rate of poverty increment and these included ways of finding a solution that could help stop the welfare debates especially in political campaigns and media, engaging the public in finding support for the needy, all the cash assistance policies should to be boosted so as to achieve more consistency towards work support as well as findi ng programs that the poor could be easily be integrated into. Establishment of more efficient and effective programs at the state and local levels by the government to help in assisting the poor, reinstituting the 2009 stimulus packages into effective ways of assisting the poor. In conclusion the government helps the poor by implementing the programs and policies that brings to an end the welfare programs. However, the poverty levels in North American and African countries have been on the higher levels for quiet along time (Jason DeParle,

Anthro 101 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Anthro 101 - Essay Example So little is known about Sahelanthropus and Ardipithecus that it is challenging to place it conclusively on the tree. Sahelanthropus was discovered by Ahounta Djimdoumalbaye in 2001 in Chad, in the southern Sahara desert. Sahelanthropus has small brain size, brow ridges and small canine teeth, which are characteristic of later hominids. Ardipithecus discovered by a team led by Tim White, Berhane Asfaw and Gen Suwa in the years 1992 and 1993 in Ethiopia. Ardipithecus is a spectacularly complete fossil with about 120 cm (311") tall and weighs about 50 kg (110 lbs). In August 1995, Meave Leakey, a zoologist at the National Museums of Kenya and her colleagues reported the discovery of hominids from the Lake Turkana region in northern Kenya. These finds, predominantly from the site of` Kanapoi, range in age from 3.9 to 4.2 million years and consist mostly of, teeth and jaws, They show strong similarities with A. afarensis but the Kanapoi hominids are characterized by a series of anatomical features that distinguish them as a new species. A. anamensis. Although characters such as tooth formation and the propping of the frontal part of the jaw are dissimilar in these two species, the more primeval character state in Australopithecus anamensis makes it a good ancestor to Australopithecus afarensis. Australopithecus afarensis was discovered by Donald Johanson in 1973 at Hadar in Ethiopia. It was an adult female of about 25 years. Her pelvis, femur (the upper leg bone) and tibia show her to have been bipedal. She was about 107 cm (36") tall (small for her species) and weighed about 28 kg (62 lbs) From the figure above, Australopithecus anamensis is judged to be a sole ancestor to Paranthropus aethiopicus and robustus, and because they both displays a host of features derived in the robust direction, they are not viewed as an

How intermediate language students in the Uk are tought colloqiula Essay

How intermediate language students in the Uk are tought colloqiula Arabic - Essay Example How Many Languages do they know: - Two students being from a complete different background( Pakistan and Somalia) know English besides their native languages. -Two out of five English students, do not know or have command on any other language other then English. -Three out of five English students hold a firm grip on other languages as well. -They have flair of learning different languages. THE PURPOSE BEHIND LEARNING OF COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: - Two students from Pakistan and Somalia made it a religious need to have the better understanding of Arabic in order to have a sound grip on religion. -Four out of five English students showed that they were interested in learning Arabic because they have flair of learning different languages which would give them a better idea of understanding the Arabic culture as well as this would help them in understanding the better political scenario of middle-east. - One out of five English Students showed that the basic purpose behind learning Arabic wou ld help in getting a better job. It has been observed that Arabic is considered as one of the most important languages in the world as well as it has been set as an important official language in various international organizations around the world. OTHER ANALYSIS ON THE LEARNING PATTERN OF COLLOQUIAL ARABIC OF FIVE ENGLISH STUDENTS: - It has been found out that all these seven students have been studying and learning Arabic from last 2 years except for one who has been learning from 9 months. -Four out of seven students have never visited any Arab state whereas only three students have visited UAE and the Kingdom of Morocco for meeting relatives and found it imperative to know Arabic in order to know well about the Arab culture and civilization. -These results also made it clear the interests of these students very clear that how much they are interested in learning Arabic and to what extent they are willing to learn. Five out of two English students showed their interest in learni ng Arabic for speaking and writing purposes in order to get a job where this skill would help them to excel and progress in future. Whereas on the other hand, other two English students showed their interest in learning the Arabic for speaking purpose only which would help them in socializing with other people from the world particularly from Arab countries. Just one English student opted Arabic in order to read well the history of Middle Eastern countries. While the other two students want to learn Arabic for having better understanding of Quran and visiting other Arab countries. HOW MUCH TIME DO THEY GIVE IN IMPROVING THEIR COLLOQUIAL ARABIC AND WHAT IMPROVEMENT THEY NEED? -It has been found out from the group discussion that these seven students give a little time in improving their colloquial Arabic such as once a week or follow the standard timing as per set by the classes. - However, they still made it clear that they require more time in practicing the colloquial Arabic as it is not their native language and still they find it hard to use it on the regular basis outside their classrooms. They

Impending Extinction of Steelhead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Impending Extinction of Steelhead - Essay Example This is attributed to human activities. Along with the scientific developments came the human population explosion. Hundreds of habitats are being destroyed to serve as agricultural or residential lands. Excessive harvesting of animal meat has led to the decline of reproducing population. Irresponsible disposal of garbage and chemicals has further narrowed life opportunities for organisms. This paper will explore on the reasons for impending extinction of the steelhead. It will also look at the measures taken by concerned entities in preventing this from happening. Our focus would be in the steelhead habitat in the Washington State. This paper is aimed at providing the reader knowledge of what is currently being done today to address the environmental problem. Steelheads are characterized by a dark-olive color, shading to silvery-white on the underside with a heavily speckled body and a pink to red stripe running along their sides. They can reach up to 55 pounds (25 kg) in weight and 45 inches (120 cm) in length. An adult female steelhead will prepare a redd (or nest) in a stream area with suitable gravel type composition, water depth, and velocity. It then deposits 4 to 5 eggs in "nesting pockets" within a single redd. The eggs hatch within 3 to 4 weeks. The juvenile steelhead ... It then deposits 4 to 5 eggs in "nesting pockets" within a single redd. The eggs hatch within 3 to 4 weeks. The juvenile steelhead rears in the freshwater for 1 to 4 years before migrating individually to the open ocean. It stays in the marine environment for 1 to 5 years after which it returns to the freshwater streams and rivers of their birth in order to mate. This process is called anadromy. Unlike other Pacific salmonids, steelheads can spawn more than once and will but will again migrate through estuaries to the ocean. Migrations can reach hundreds of miles as evidenced by a fish tagged in the Sea of Japan and caught six months thereafter in the Skagit River of northern Washington. Some streams host two runs of steelhead, a summer run (returning in summer and early fall and spawning in early to mid-winter) and a winter run (returning in early winter to late spring and spawning within this time frame). FOOD Young steelheads feed primarily on zooplankton. Adults feed on aquatic and terrestrial insects, mollusks, crustaceans, fish eggs, minnows and even other small fishes including other trout. PREDATORS: Fish, mammals, and birds are the primary natural predators of steelhead. Fish predators include the northern pike minnow, walleyes, and smallmouth bass, channel catfish, sculpins, white sturgeon and even some adult salmonids like adult bull trout, rainbow/steelhead trout, cutthroat trout, brook trout, and brown trout. Fish-eating birds present in the Upper Columbia Basin include great blue herons, gulls, osprey, common mergansers, American dippers, cormorants, Caspian terns, belted kingfishers, common loons, western grebes, black-crowned night herons and bald eagles. Mammalian

Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

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Current Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Current Issues - Essay Example This issue is identified as important as the nurses are the integral part of the health care sector. It cannot be denied that the nurses and other staff are the most important requirement of the health care sector. They are the one who are responsible for the care after the diagnosis of the sickness by doctors. The staff crisis is vital and has a direct impact on the health treatment of the patient. The work load on the nurses has increased and the risk of error, injury and occupational exposure might increase tremendously. The staffing crisis is affecting the health care industry and the patient’s life at large. The health care policies are framed with the objective of promoting the health of people in the society for ensuring healthy future. However, the nursing staff crisis can be seen to act as a hurdle towards achieving the goal of health care policy (Wong, 2012). Several American hospitals are facing the issue of staff crisis affecting the patient care needs and the nursing practices. Due to the increase in the staff crisis nurses are not being able to deliver quality service to the patients. According to Royal College of Nursing (2010), the nurses are being forced by the authority to work for more hours and serve every patient even if they are not competent. The crisis is creating an immense situation wherein the safety of the patients are at stake, increasing the chances of errors and accidents. Due to the crisis nurses are assigned with the responsibility of meeting the care needs of many patients than their ability to handle safely. This implies that the nursing practices might be affected leading to incorrect medication, patients accidents along with delay in providing care. This issue is indeed creating a negative impact on the patients as well as on the existing nursing staff in the form of increased work pressure (Needleman et al.,

Texas state legislature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Texas state legislature - Essay Example The legislature is charged with a responsibility to formulate and implement policies on issues that affect the Texas population. Crucial issues are addressed by the legislature on behalf of the people. In so doing, the legislature is responsible for ensuring that all parties bound to the policies being introduced are aware of what the policies entails and its effects on the current Texas State. Public participation in the policy implementation and enforcement is crucial in making the right educational impacts of this legislature. Policies enforced Texas should be in line with the limiting powers of other states in observing Texas, thus an application of typical checks and balances. This is an important component of the state. Bills and laws are made and passed for the benefit of the entire population. These bills and laws are tailored towards achieving social, economic and political growth and development. In order the goals and objectives of these bills and laws to be realized, the public must be well aware of what is constituted in each and every bill put forward, as well each and every law that the legislature seeks to uphold (Forman 461). In this regard, laws can be implemented and the constitution amended as provided for in the power and authority of the state, prior to that of the entire US government. Checks and balances provides for an analytical observation of the public welfare in the context of the way the legislature discharges its duty and mandate to the

Takeover regulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Takeover regulation - Essay Example The hostile takeover occurs when managers from the desired organization refuse the acquisition tender or merger request, and the original organization continues to pursue the acquisition through alternative, yet legal means. As one would assume this process occurs within a variety of structured regulations that differ between countries. Notably, in the United Kingdom defensive tactics by managers are prohibited, whereas in the United States, Delaware law gives managers a good deal of room to manoeuvre. The purpose of this investigation then is the critical assessment of the divergent regulatory patterns for defensive actions against takeovers within the United States and the United Kingdom. Additionally, the analysis proposes a means of improving on the current practice. Overview Structural Significance of Takeover Regulation In recent years one of the most comprehensive analyses of the divergent takeover regulatory patterns between the United States and the United Kingdom was presen ted in Armour and Skeel’s ‘The Divergence of U.S. ... the United States regulations are established by the judicial branch of state government and thus lead to laws that support organizational defense manoeuvres. To a large extent the United States has precluded Wall Street from privatizing takeover’s in the same way that the City of London has because 1930s United States federal regulation pre-empted the self-regulation that occurs in the United Kingdom and hindered the ability of institutional investors to collude towards alternative approaches. United States Regulations In further understanding the intentionality behind takeover regulations it’s necessary to gain a deeper recognition of the history of the regulatory process in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Indeed, Armour and Skeel have argued that the most prominent reasons the United States regulatory process has progressed in this direction, while the United Kingdom’s has progressed in a decidedly pro-shareholder position is because of the hist ory of investor practices. In the United States perhaps the most prominent regulation was established with the 1934 Williams Act. Later amended in 1968 this act was established by the Securities and Exchange Commission and required mandatory disclosure of information related to cash tender offers from companies seeking to acquire another company.2 The 1968 amendment functioned as a means of closing loopholes that had increasingly been exploited in the complex business environment.3 While this regulation seemingly goes against the pervading notion that the United States judicial process favors management intervention, legal interpretation of the Williams Act notes that that the law provides equal opportunity for management and the offeror to present their cases.4 One of the most notable aspects of the

The Cultural Politics of Emotion Essay Example for Free

The Cultural Politics of Emotion Essay The communication gap between First and Third world feminist, as expressed by Narayan lies within a cultural setting: though Western feminism is still an upholding to the rights of women, Third world feminism speaks towards a culture’s specific issues, as Narayan writes, â€Å"I am arguing that Third-World feminism is not a mindless mimicking of ‘Western agendas’ in one clear and simple sense that, for instance, Indian feminism is clearly a response to issues specifically confronting many Indian women† (13). Thus, feminism is explicit to country and cultural beliefs, not hinging upon a predetermined or in this case Western view. There are many people, mostly women, who have been fighting for their equal rights – and we now commonly call this as feminism. Feminism started not merely on 19th century, but even during the 17th to 18th century. This is the very reason why feminists have gotten so much attention from well respected organization and government officials. With this idea in mind, many are now asking, who are the women who started the feminist movements and what prompted them to initiate such action? By digging deeper to what the real meaning of feminism is, it can also be identified the first few women who fought and strived really hard just to show the world that feminism is indeed worth fighting for. These women have their own issues that they highlighted and it all boils down to the fact that females are not just a decoration for males, instead, they are people who can be effective even in dealing with other important aspects of he society like the government. Feminists’ ideas started during the time of the infamous Enlightenment, with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Marquis de Condorcet who initiated championing womens education. The first scientific society for women was founded in Middleberg, a city in the south of the Dutch republic, in 1785. Journals for women which focused on issues like science became popular during this period as well. Mary Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the first works that can be called feminist, although by modern standards her comparison of women to the nobility, the elite of society, coddled, fragile, and in danger of intellectual and moral sloth, does not sound like a feminist argument. Wollstonecraft believed that both sexes contributed to this situation and took it for granted that women had considerable power over men. Indeed, it was during the late 17th century to the early 18th century that the earliest works on the so-called woman question criticized the restrictive role of women, without necessarily claiming that women were disadvantaged or that men were to blame (Deckard, 1975). When 18th century came, the movement is generally believed to have begun as people increasingly came to believe that women were treated unfairly under the law. The feminist movement is rooted in the West and especially in the reform movement of the 19th century. The organized movement is dated from the first womens rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 (Deckard, 1975). This feminism started not on one place or country, but coincidentally, a lot of women from various countries around the world fought for their rights as and equal and rightful members of the society. Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the founders of the suffragette movement and aimed to reveal the institutional sexism in British society, forming the Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU). Often the repeated jailing for forms of activism that broke the law, particularly property destruction, inspired members went on hunger strikes. Due to the resultant force-feeding that was the practice, these members became very ill, serving to draw attention to the brutality of the legal system at that time. In an attempt to solve this the government introduced a bill that became known as the Cat and Mouse Act, which allowed women to be released when they starved themselves to dangerous levels, then to be re-arrested later. (Deckard, 1975). Meanwhile, the Feminist movement in the Arab world saw Egyptian jurist Qasim Amin, the author of the 1899 pioneering book Womens Liberation, as the father of Arab Feminist Movement. In his work Amin criticized some of the practices prevalent in his society at the time, such as polygamy, the veil, or womens segregation, and condemned them as un-Islamic, and contradicting the true spirit of Islam. His work had an enormous influence on womens political movements throughout the Islamic and Arab world, and is read and cited today (Deckard, 1975). Various women were able to raise their voices during that time. They were able to capture the attention of many and hear out their grievances. Let us take a closer look at each of the famous and most influential women during this Abolition Movement, and create a more prominent appreciation on their ways and methods of fighting for their cause. Among the most influential women whose actions were all aimed at highlighting the feminist rights, the Grimke sisters (Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke Weld) topped the list. Motivated by religion and a desire to live a useful life, they were among the first American women to speak in public. They wrote a number of tracts against slavery and for womans rights. To abolitionist acclamations, Angelina became the first American woman to address a state legislature. Both sisters would remain abolitionists and womans rights activists for the remainder of their lives with Angelina concentrating on the abolitionist movement and Sarah concentrating on the womans rights movement (Lerner, 1998). Sarah Grimke offered the best and most coherent Bible argument for womans equality yet written by a woman. She was also able to identify and characterize the distinction between sex and gender; she took class and race into consideration; and she tied the subordination of women both to educational deprivation and sexual oppression. She identified men, individually and as a group, as having benefited from the subordination of women. Above all, she understood that women must acquire feminist consciousness by conscious effort and that they must practice asserting their rights in order to think more appropriately (Lerner, 1998). Angelina, on the other hand, in several of her pamphlets and speeches, developed a strong argument for womens rights to political equality. In her insistence on womens right, even duty, to organize for political participation and to petition, she anticipated the practice and tactics women would follow for the rest of the century. In both her Appeal to Southern Women and in her Letters to Catherine Beecher she fashioned a defense of womens right to organize in the antislavery cause which connected it with the causes of white women and influenced the practice of several succeeding generations (Lerner, 1998). The way in which women are treated is also beautifully highlighted in the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The author in a few brilliant and well-placed strokes of writing, makes it clear to the reader the place that women are given in his setting. While describing the ill treatment of the woman ‘adulterer’ at the hands of the Taliban, Hosseini says, â€Å"And what matter of punishment befits the adulterer? We shall throw stones†. ( 237, Hosseini) The brutality of this remark is accentuated further by Hosseini’s vivid portrayal of the scene in which the woman is mercilessly stoned to death. It is therefore in culture that the main difference between First-World and Third-World feminism lays. The treatment of women in India is one filled with hypocrisy. In Narayan’s essay, the India chastises Western civilization for their treatment of women; for instance, Indian women were permitted to attend higher education classes decades before the English even considered the aspect. Indian’s say that they treat their women as goddesses, while the West treats their women far less as equals, but this in turn is duplicitous, in examples Narayan gives of the treatment from men received by her grandmothers, and her mother (chastisement, beatings, and submissiveness, and silence). In her book, Speech and Silence in the Mother Tongue, Narayan gives childhood examples of how she became a feminist, and they are not dominantly rooted in the idea of Westernization, but culturally in a Third-World view, as she writes, â€Å"†¦though I cannot bring myself to it, of her pain that surrounded me when I was young, a pain that was earlier than school and ‘Westernization’, a call to rebellion that has a different and more primary root, that was not conceptual or English, but in the mother-tongue† (7). This then gives insight into how feminism isn’t dependent upon the introduction of Western culture in liberating women, but is in fact contingent upon a witness’s own account of oppression and their reaction to that oppression, that is that Narayan’s own rebellion was a response to her mother’s sadness in being trapped by her mother-in-law and her marriage. This exemplifies the difference between First-World and Third-World feminism, the fact that Narayan must contend with the paradigm of Western feminism instead of simply revered as representing her own culture’s fault; Narayan is not representing Western ideas but is only supporting equality and fair treatment for her fellow Indian women. In the Indian culture, women are perceived to become wives first and their own identity as a person is wiped away by such a paradigm, this is true for the incentive of women’s movements, the West included. Indian wives are submissive and the Third-World culture enhances this notion by parlaying women into marriage at the age of thirteen (as Narayan’s grandmother had done), and treating them as Other rather than as Self. In her book Speech and Silence in the Mother Tongue, Narayan writes of the predominant sentiment found in India in regards to women and mentions, â€Å"They were anxious about the fact that our independence and self-assertiveness seemed to be making us into women who lacked the compliance, deference, and submissiveness deemed essential in good â€Å"Indian† wives† (8). The wife and mother ideas of women are predominant in most cultures, and the concord factor between First and Third world feminism is united in this fact, and their rebellion against such submissiveness. The culture of feminism is presented as one that has great bonds with politics. For both First-World and Third-World feminism there is no difference in the root of feminism when it is in politics, and political campaigns that women are often secluded: in schooling, voting, and citizenship, women have been treated secondarily in both First and Third world cultures. Therefore, Narayan’s generation of Third-world feminist aren’t rebelling because of Westernization, but because in their own politics women have been forgotten in India and in the West. It takes political connections to other women and their experiences, political analyses of women’s problems, and attempts to construct political solutions for them, to make women into feminists in any full-blooded sense, as the history of women’s movements in various parts of the world shows us. Therefore, the dichotomy of First-World and Third-World feminism finds harmony in this political connection. The westernization of Indian has been blamed for the rebellious nature of feminism and even the introduction of the women’s movement, but in fact, it is the own culture’s deviant nature that gives rise to the necessity of feminism. Narayan gives example of her cousin being tortured with cigarettes and being locked away while in another country and keeping silent about it for years until a relative came to visit. The silence is the devastating part of the story; in Indian culture, it is supposed and indeed ingrained in Indian women to hold their tongues, and be submissive, and not innocent, but obedient. Yet, western culture was seen to pervade the Indian traditional way of living. In the book, Speech and Silence in the Mother Tongue, Uma says, â€Å"Veiling, polygamy, child-marriage, and sati were all significant points of conflict and negotiation between colonizing â€Å"Western† culture and different colonized third-World cultures. In these conflicts, Western colonial powers often depicted indigenous practices as symptoms of the â€Å"backwardness and barbarity’ of Third-World cultures in contract to the â€Å"progressiveness of Western culture. † The figure of the colonized woman became a representation of the oppressiveness of the entire ‘cultural tradition’ of the colony. â€Å"(17) The effect of this colonization of Indian women was one of conflicting progressiveness. Traditions of Indian culture were already bred with English sentiments (such as the sari) and English clothing was continually being upgraded and introduced into Indian culture; in fact men were wearing suits long before women were allowed to change into less traditional clothing. In her book Speech and Silence in the Mother Tongue, in one example Narayan gives, she talks of how, she and her family went on a vacation in a more rural part of the country and she was instructed to wear her Indian clothing and not her Western clothes because she had hit puberty (though in the city nothing was wrong with such clothes), Narayan writes, â€Å"My story reveals that what counted as ‘inappropriately Western dress’ differed from one specific Indian context to another, even within the same class and caste community†(27). The effects of Westernization therefore and colonization give rise to differing ideas of what constitutes traditional wear from one part of the country to another. In conclusion, Narayan gives insight to how differing opinions of feminism are still spurned from similar ideals. Third-World feminists are not ‘outsiders within’, that is, they are not denying the tradition of their country, but instead, feminists need to challenge some of the more patriarchal rules of India. Third-World feminists are not denying their culture, but are asking for change. Work Cited Ahmed, Sara (2004). â€Å"The Cultural Politics of Emotion†. Routledge Publishing Boydston, Kelley, Margolis, The Limits of Sisterhood, p. 178. Deckard, Barbara. 1975. The Womens Movement: Political, Socioeconomic and Psychological Issues New York: Harper Row. p. 253. Gerda Lerner. 1988. The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Womens Rights and Abolition. Oxford University Press. Narayan, Uma. Speech and Silence in the Mother Tongue. Yee. Shirley J. Abolitionist Movement. February 2002. Sunshine for women. http://www. pinn. net/~sunshine/whm2002/abolitn. html

Strategies And Evaluation Of Nissan Management Essay

Strategies And Evaluation Of Nissan Management Essay In 1999 Nissan had been facing great losses for seven of the past eight years which were now resulting in debts. This was mainly caused by the Japanese business custom of keiretsu investments which left little capital for other investments, like innovations in product designs. This lack of design innovation furthermore caused the Nissan brand to weaken as competitors were producing vehicles more stylish and up to date, reflecting customer demands. To foster a turnaround the Nissan president and CEO Yoshikazu Hanawa formed a mutual beneficial strategic alliance (Global Alliance Agreement) with Renault, allowing both companies to expand in new desirable geographic areas. With his experience in turnarounds Carlos Ghosn seemed to be the obvious choice to lead the Nissan turnaround from both the Renault and Nissan point of view. Evaluation The approach was an overall success in meeting the specific and measurable goal of turning the losses into profits not only on time but 6 month prior to the deadline. The Nissan Revival Plan was achieved one year ahead of schedule and succeeded in reducing their purchasing costs by 20 % which meant that they approximately reached the level of Renault. The large emphasis Ghosn placed on the execution also gave him an edge as this phase is much more demanding in terms of communication, meeting objectives on time and budget, potential conflicts with power resources and resistance to change. The respect Ghosn showed for the Japanese culture was vital for the initiatives to succeed, even though I believe it was a mistake for him not to learn about Japan before coming there as it is very easy unintended to insult people from other cultures if you are not familiar with their specific customs, but it also gave him an edge in being open-minded in perceiving the Japanese and Nissan culture. Coming to Japan he only brought three principles of management with him were to be well received and understood by employees: transparency, execution vs. strategy; improving quality and customer satisfaction and reducing costs. Not just anybody could have managed the Nissan turnaround as well as Ghosn did. For instance, A COO from Japan would not have been able to cut back on keiretsu investments. Because of the Japanese business culture to make these kinds of investments and the Japanese emphasis on cooperation and loyalty, it would have been considered to be a sort of betrayal and ultimately would 3 have harmed the Nissan brand even more. Only an outsider with different cultural background could legitimize such a change. The resistance Ghosn eventually faced when ignoring the almost sacred tradition of promoting by education, age and time within the company would likewise have been much more pronounced if the initiative came from a Japanese COO. Resistance to change Ultimately some sort of resistance was inevitable because of the major structural and cultural changes Nissan was facing with Ghosn as COO. People generally do not resist change, per se. but some underlying causes, like lack of understanding, fear of the unknown or fear of an outcome worse than the present situation.1 In this specific case Ghosn went a long way implementing many changes before meeting actual resistance in form of lack of cooperation among employees caused by the elimination of the old promotion system, allowing younger, less experienced employees to be promoted based on their skills and achievements. This resistance was clearly caused by fear of the unknown and fear of loosing/not gaining status by promotions. Resistance is generally a very important form of feedback and Ghosn chose to view the resistance as an opportunity for experience rather than a limitation.2 1 Dent, E. B. and Goldberg, S. G. (1999). Page 26 2 Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W. (2009). Page 101 3 Nohria, N., Joyce, W. and Roberson, B.(2003). Page 45 4 Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W. (2009). Page 100 Ghosn has overcome the actual resistance and prevented potential resistance to the cultural and structural changes in large by clearly communicating all initiatives and objectives to all Nissan employees. Communication had previously been a problem within the company but by creating a matrix structure (combining efficiency and effectiveness) and through consistency between his own actions, thoughts and communication Ghosn was making sure that transparency as well as communication within the organization was improved and afterwards maintained, keeping focus on the strategy.3 Likewise by creating the Cross-Functional Teams, he sought to build engagement and participation and made sure that the employees would have a sense of ownership over the Nissan Revival Plan and motivate communication across departments, stimulate future risk-taking and responsibility as well as regaining confidence in the companys future. Mitigating resistance by involvement and communication are generally very e ffective and will increase employee commitment to execution.4 4 The former lack of accountability and acceptance of responsibility among employees was eliminated by directly assigning responsibility and accountability and encourage people to take risks. This was accomplished in part by monetary rewards and stock options whenever the actions led to increase in operating profits or revenues.5 The previous consensus mentality at Nissan seems to have been: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢If everyone one is responsible then no one is accountable, and nobody gets punished,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- which was affecting risk-taking and slowing decision-making processes across the company. 5 Fu, Dean and Millikin, john P. page C553 Organizational culture As mentioned above, the understanding and respect Ghosn expressed for the Japanese Nissan culture and the fact that he communicated his wish to work through this culture were vital for his acceptance within the organization. He made it clear from the very beginning that he too had a personal stake in the outcome and thereby created a sense of cohesion with the employees. His visibility in the organization from day one and the consistency between his communications and actions was a new but welcome change that made him human in the eyes of the employees. This transparency and consistency together with his explicit promise to respect the culture also helped building a sense trust and thereby employee support for most of Ghosns change initiatives. The Nissan president and CEO, Yoshikazu Hanawa, had a positive attitude towards Ghosn and his experience and abilities in turnarounds, since he explicitly asked Renault to send Ghosn to Nissan to lead the changes. But because Ghosn was a foreigner and not accustomed to the Japanese way of doing business, several industrial business analytics expressed scepticism and concern for this arrangement. It is likely that middle-managers and higher-level-managers have been influenced by these critics and therefore had a negative attitude towards Ghosn as COO, but if they did, they did not make much fuss about it. 5 National culture When you consider the differences between Ghosns leadership style and the Japanese (Nissan) way of doing business, it is actually a bit of an achievement that resistance did not arise earlier and more pronounced than it did. The cultural differences between Ghosn, with his experience in working in organizations with strong corporate cultures, and the Nissan organization, with its weak culture traits, were very pronounced and had great potential to cause some trouble along the way, but it takes two to tango, and one of them has to lead. The initiative of putting together Cross-Functional Teams had great potential for meeting resistance in part because of the Japanese tradition of reaching consensus when making decisions. In addition, if every member of a Cross-Functional Team had to make sure, that their respective departments were supporting every suggestion, then the decision-making process would not only have been slowed severely but would have staled. It is also very likely that the employees at Nissan would have resisted the Cross-Functional Team initiatives because of the Japanese culture of loyalty and cooperation within departments but not necessarily across departments (especially not in troubled times) caused by the weak organizational culture. Early on Ghosn became aware that in order to turn Nissan around, he would have to address some of these cultural issues in order to get to root of the problems and meet the overall goal of creating profits. First and foremost, he would have to communicate and make understood the importance of meeting customer wants and needs (included a radical change in the decision-making processe).6 The management would have to create a shared vision (or long-term plan as opposed to their usual sort-term). Management at Nissan was displaying tunnel vision and was focusing on regaining market share instead of increasing margins and product innovation to meet customer demands.7 The emphasis placed on informal contacts and information, complicated knowledge sharing across the organization, as nothing was written or formally communicated, which also slowed decision-making processes. He would have to overcome these cultural obstacles (underlying problems) before addressing the real problems at Nissan. 6 Nohria, N., Joyce, W. and Roberson, B.(2003). Page 46-47 7 Fu, Dean and Millikin, john P. page C549 6 Luck and timing The timing for these changes was absolutely perfect. Had Ghosn and his Cross-Functional Teams tried to implement the same changes a few years earlier, they would most likely have met great resistance and possible failure. But because of the resent bankruptcy of the major financial house, Yamaichi, and the lack of bailout by the Japanese government, the employees at Nissan began to take their situation seriously and this imposed a sense of urgency among the employees. This sense of urgency helped push changes by making the employees more willing to cooperate and implement the proposed changes as well as taking more risks in order to turn the company around. This willingness for taking risks decreased the previous fear of making decisions (especially faulty decisions) which decreased the need for consensus decision-making , which again increased the speed with which decisions was able to be made. This further fostered motivation for innovative proposals for the product line, which had a positive effect on the Nissan competiveness and on consumer satisfaction. In short, the bankruptcy of Yamaichi was a stroke of luck at the exact right time to help kick-start the major changes at Nissan, especially in the minds of the employees. Looking forward In the next few years (2005) Ghosn will have to return to Renault to take over as CEO (his lifelong dream). The right replacement for his job must ensure continuous growth and success, keeping focus on customer needs and increases in profit as well as to nurture the newly accomplished sense of urgency to keep driving employees towards continuous improvements (Nissan 180). A successor should, besides the above mentioned, be able to create a balance between long-term and short-term objectives to ensure that employees do not fall back into old habits.8 Constantly setting short-term objectives, aligning them with long-term objectives will enhance motivation among Nissan employees as they will see their effort and hard work paying of. 8 Griswold, H. M. and Prenovitz, S. C.(1993). Page 5 9 Krackhardt, D. and Hanson, J. R.(1993). I would recommend Ghosn to use the network analysis9 as a tool for helping him making the best possible decision, ensuring that the person he will choose is trustworthy among employees, accountable and responsible, has influential power. The friendship network is always a good place to start, but he should be sure to mad both the communication network and advice network as well. Perhaps there will be an obvious overlap between the three. 7 Conclusion The Nissan turnaround was a great success in that it met measurable objectives and accomplished to overall strategic goal of increasing profits within the schedule. By approaching the Japanese and corporate Nissan culture with an open mind, Ghosn was able to gain the employees trust. His approach to the cultural differences combined with a great stroke of luck, turned the challenge into and opportunity and he was thereby able to meet the overall goal. In facing the fundamental problems within the organization; lack of clear profit orientation, insufficient focus on customers and too much on competitors, lack of a sense of urgency, no shared vision or common long-term plan, lack of cross-functional, cross-border, cross-cultural lines of work, he had to bend the rules of engagement by changing large parts of the Nissan culture. More specifically, based on the recommendations from the Cross-Functional Teams, he implemented some rather radical changes on the Japanese traditions of doing business, in order to help Nissan get back on track. Even though he was hereby violating his prior commitment to be sensitive to the Nissan culture, he did not experience serious resistance in doing so, because it was ultimately Nissan employees suggesting these changes, he was just executing them. In choosing his Successor Ghosn should map the informal networks within the organization, emphasising on trust, accountability and power to create change. 8 List of literature  · Dent, E. B. and Goldberg, S. G. (1999). Challenging resistance to change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 35(1), 25-41.  · Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W. (2009). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Decoding resistance to change.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Harvard Business Review, 87(4), 99-103.  · Fu, Dean and Millikin, john P. (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢The Global Leadership of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Thunderbird The American Graduate School of International Management, C546 C556  · Griswold, H. M. and Prenovitz, S. C.(1993).à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢How to translate strategy into operational results.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Business Forum, 18(3), 5-9.  · Krackhardt, D. and Hanson, J. R.(1993).à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Informal networks: the company behind the chart.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Harvard Business Review, July/August, 104-111.  · Nohria, N., Joyce, W. and Roberson, B.(2003).à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢What really works.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Harvard Business Review, 81(7), 42-52.

Significance of Realistic Physics in Simulation Games

Significance of Realistic Physics in Simulation Games This dissertation is on the significance of realistic physics in simulation games. Physics in games has changed a lot over the years from arcade games having no physics to Need for Speed: Shift having world class physics. As the years have progressed so has the technology giving ways to make the game more realistic to a point which makes them almost as real as in real life. The question here is that do we need such good physics in games cause in the end the players need have a good time playing the game while having a realistic experience, pushing the realism a bit further can cause problems with the game being excessively difficult the daily gamer. Introduction The oldest form of racing games would be arcade games where there was no physics but the games were still fun to play for the casual gamer. They can be called the classic example for physics-less fun games like outrun, Virtua Racing by SEGA. With time games like The need for speed came out with realistic acceleration top sped etc. they built up on car personalities with different cars having different type of grip, speed etc. with more advanced Physics processing units came better physics with destructible models, actual car damage and very realistic handling etc. as seen in Need for Speed: Shift and Need for Speed: Pro-street these games reached the benchmark for physics at their time but were not as popular as the Need for speed: Most Wanted and similar Titles with intermediate use of physics. But the physics in games now days have totally changed the driving experience in games. My thesis is on how this can be improved and what type of physics should be added and what type to be controlled so as not to make the game extremely difficult but also improve the gameplay and give a better feel of realism. C.1 The Statement of Problem The statement of problem in my dissertation is the fun factor in racing games with realistic physics. Racing games are played for fun and are not viewed as some physics prototype so a game with exceptionally good game does not have to be an exceptionally good game and vice versa. There has to be a balance between fun and physics in game. A game with very realistic handling will make an immature player crash a lot which is not very impressive to the player, whereas in a game without friction or skidding, the player will not have the feel of physics or realism in a game making it boring again. How to get this balance in a game is my main objective. In a racing game there should be balanced handling and to make it more realistic new improved effects for drag can be added. Better collision and realistic damage which effects the players driving can help make the game look more realistic. Things like this are very important nowadays as the competition between games is rising and most of the games are coming out with good physics so it becomes a common ground between most games. New type of physics including centre of gravity, collisions effecting the player, g-forces on the player causing loosing handling, blurred vision can be a thing of the future also player fatigue while driving can be added in the games in the future to make them stand out. C.2 Purpose This study is aimed at accomplishing to implement new type of physics in the game, making them more realistic while still being fun to play. The purpose of this study is that when we are adding new type of physics in a game, it should not be so much that it looks more like a physics prototype than a game. Methodology This chapter explains how the research for this dissertation is done. This dissertation is based on experimenting on different type of games arcade and realistic alike and also based on articles related to this subject. D.1 Study of Existing Information Existing information was collected over the internet mainly from www.google.com and www.gamespot.com. Different type of physics used in current games was searched and also about arcade games. The information was used to understand the working of present day physics realistic games. Information and ideas for different type of physics were also gathered from different forums and articles. To better understand how physics actually works in a game different reference articles which explain how physics is implemented in games with code were studied go get a better understanding about the subject. D.2 Experementation Experimentation was done by testing different racing games from arcade games to realistic games to understand the difference in physics and to understand what type of physics is implemented in present day games. Case study in done in Need for Speed: Undercover, Burnout paradise Dirt, Need for Speed: Shift and Virtua racer to understand the physics in those games and to understand weather they were successful or not and why. Different types of physics modules were studied in each game, understanding what game used what and to how much realism and how it affected the outcome of the sales of the game which tell which was more popular. Literature Review This chapter will discuss the articles significant for this research and what use it has in my dissertation. This chapter is in two parts, one discussing the physics aspect behind making a game and the other one discussing about different games, their popularity and what type of physics they used. E.1 Physics Review Reference: [Title Motion along a straight line by author Michael Tanczos  http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article434.asp ] This page is about basic motion along a straight line which is required to make a game about any moving body. This helps with the basic physics that require programming of moving objects. Reference: [Title The physics of racing by author Brian Beckman http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1610.asp ] This is a comprehensive guide about how to make racing games. This helps with understanding of present day physics and how they are actually implemented in a game. This also helps me to formulate my own ideas to how to add new physics to the game. Reference: [http://www.mathworks.com/products/simulink/demos.html?file=/products/demos/shipping/simulink/sldemo_absbrake.html] This page helped me understand about braking systems in cars. Reference: [Title Motor Sports Setup by author Carroll Smith http://needlesslyobscure.wordpress.com/motorsports-setup/] This is a series of tutorials of how to setup a car. I used this to make compute my own vehicle simulations. Reference: [http://auto.howstuffworks.com/four-wheel-drive1.htm] This article gave me a better insight of how slip works on a car. E.2 Game Review Reference: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_video_game#1970s Title Racing Video Game by Wikipedia] This is where I started researching about history of video games and looking into what types of racing are there and how they developed over time. Reference: [http://www.taito.com/arc/] I visited this website which had old arcade racing which I played and also read about them to get a better understanding of how racing games were back then. Reference: [http://forums.atari.com/] This is a forum where i read about Atari arcade games. Case Study In order to understand the exact nature of physics of present day game sand games from the past, I tested out a few games to understand what different types of physics were applied to them and how they are different from one another. This also helped me to understand how the physics evolved from the past to until now. Another aspect of this study was to understand how the popularity of the game was related to the physics it. F.1 Virtua Racing Virtua Racing was released in 1992 by Sega. This game had excellent and clean 3D graphics for its time. It was based on F1 racing and was one of the best arcade racing game of all time. This set the base for racing games that came after this. It had features like minimap track, speedometer etc. basically it had a fully functional HUD for its time. It had 2 views, one third person and the other was first person inside the car. It had time chase and also the player could race against the AI cars in the single player mode. In the multiplayer mode, two players could race against each other. It had also implemented different cars so the player could choose between them. They were not just artistically different but also were also different in the way they handled. This was a change from the old racing games before this which had only artistic differences between different cars. This game had simulated physic s, there was not an actual simulation engine deciding what the car would do. It w as just programmed to skid if the player was taking a turn over a certain speed. It gave a very good feeling of realism. F.2 Need for Speed Need for Speed for first released in 1994 by Electronic Arts. This game went on to be the most famous game series of all times. Need for Speed was based on street racing. It had good load out of cars which performed very differently from each other. The players had to race in the street with oncoming traffic and against AI player; it also had a multiplayer mode which 2 player could play simultaneously. It had a very smooth camera system which allowed the player to play in a third person view or a first person view with the player sitting inside the car. This game had implemented gearing system which the player could manually change or set it to automatic where the computer would take care of it. This game had very good physics simulations which was quite different from its predecessors. Need for speed has impressive graphics getting better than anyone before them. They had open seamless outdoor worlds. These worlds gave an effect of a 3D world unlike the past games. The cars were also very detailed, which ranged from Lamborghini, dodge viper to Mustangs. They were replica of real life cars with all the details in them that could be put at that point of time. The race tracks also had a lot of variance in them which were set in a realistic environment. This game also had weather effects which added more realism to the environment. The sounds implemented were also awesome. They were very accurate and added to the realism of driving a vehicle as a driver depends on sounds a lot when driving a vehicle. For a game to achieve this, the sounds had to be very accurate which EA achieved with NFS. The simulation engine for this game was also very nice, it gave a clean difference felt in power, speed and handling when driving different cars. Different cars had different statistics and performed better on different tracks. F.1 Need for Speed: Shift This game of the NFS series was a circuit based game and had more advanced physics to its predecessors. Physic-wise, Need for Speed Shift starts to sound really promising. If done right, the 3 different physic models can really make the game enjoyable both for the usual Need for Speed crowd as well as simulation enthusiasts. At first, the driving physics in Shift take some getting used to. You cant go into a corner, hit the apex, and then pump 100% throttle on the way out. Without a doubt, youll inevitably end up facing the wrong direction, or planted into a wall. Throttle control is absolutely mandatory in Need for Speed Shift. Theres no way around this and if you havent got a racing wheel handy, the controller does little to favour irresponsible throttle application or violent steering input. A lot of importance is given to the throttle of the car making it one the most tweaked feature which takes some time getting used to. Due to the high end physics in this game it made it quite difficult to play for the casual gamer so the game had features like 10% extra grip for the newcomers etc. The car could be customised in a lot of ways to make it affect the physics of the car, this helped out the professional players a lot, but in this game doing anything wrong to the customizations without knowing what the person is doing would make the car difficult to handle making it again unfriendly to the casual gamer. One glitch that you often encounter later on in the game when dealing with high performance cars or extensively modified tuned cars. Due to the lowering of body work, additional front splitters, under body modifications and different wheel/tyre combinations, cars seem to run far too low, removing ground clearance and effectively making a car bottom out over even the tiniest of bumps. This results in a ridiculous and uncontrollable glitch where a car will continue down a straight path. This game boosted of great physics giving realism to the circuit/professional racing and tried to make the game real but they failed in a way. The professional player didnt like the game so much because of the physics not being to real life like with some glitches here and there. Also the car would sometimes out or under manoeuvre in an awkward manner as not expected by the user. As for the casual gamer this is not the game for them, this game is very intense and requires decent amount of racing knowledge of knowing when and how to turn/corner at high speeds, tune the car properly according to your personal needs. So in all it was not a great hit either ways. F.2 Need For Speed: Undercover This game does not have realistic physics but it has type of physics which helps the player a lot. The game is made in such a way to make the physics work in the way of the driver to give him/her an awesome driving experience this does not have to be entirely as in the real world. This game allows you to pull of the craziest of stuns with easy, this game is built only to give the driver awesome driving experience with computer guidance to accomplish stunts which would not be possible in the real world giving an adrenalin rush to the player. Key to Undercover is what EA is calling the heroic driving experience. In Undercover this physics system has been given an injection of cool. Think of all the best car chase scenes in movies from the last ten years and youll get an idea of what to expect. EA want you to feel like a skilled stunt driver, and it works. By using a combination of the gas pedal, brake, e-break and gear stick youre able to pull off stunning looking manoeuvres like reverse 180 degree turns. Its like you are Jason Statham from the Transporter movies. While we were quite looking forward some potentially funny moments, it seems EA has gone down a more serious route and it works very well indeed. Your goal in the game is to take down the various captains before taking down the whole operation, which is obviously done while driving at insanely high speeds. The game involves high speed chases over the highway, battling enemy cars, the good old cop chases etc. According to EA the traffic in Undercover is modelled realistically and reacts to your actions. While you can simply push a car over into the way of your target, you could choose to spook a driver of a bus, causing him to jack-knife in the middle of a dual carriageway. Racing at high speed, weaving in and out of traffic appears to offer the kind of thrills that were severely lacking in the more down to earth and structured ProStreet. As EA repeatedly pointed out during the publishers Games Convention 2008 demonstration, Undercover is all about heroic driving, and theres no better reason to drive like a stuntman than trying to outrun a swarm of angry police cars. Police chases thankfully return to Need for Speed in Undercover and these guys are aggressive, very aggressive. To begin with theyre not pushovers, but as you progress through the story and increase your level; your notoriety amongst the police also increases. Before too long theyll spot you on the streets and go after you, hunting you as a pack. If they get you which seems like itll be a regular occurrence for less skilful drivers youll have a strike against your car and itll be impounded. Being able to take pictures of the game during gameplay situations is becoming increasingly common, and with the amount of action on display in Undercover its no surprise to find such a feature here. We didnt see it in action but EA says that the snaps taken have been dubbed Movie Poster Action Cinematic sounds good to us. Undercover still has some way to go in development (its not out until late November) but its already looking very impressive. Car models are incredibly detailed and procedurally deform based on collisions. The areas of the city demonstrated to us were bathed in a gorgeous yellow light that gives the game a highly stylised appearance, and the camera often uncouples from the rear of the car in order to give a better, more cinematic view of the action. With months of development left there were obviously a few technical issues, but on the whole we cant wait to see how the final game looks. As in previous Need for Speed titles the audio is often dominated by the sound of police chatter. We only saw one police chase so cant say how itll sound hours into the game, but they said all the right things to convince us they were on our case. To sum it up, the game is made for the player to have a free stunt filled game which could be easily be pulled of which was not like by the old NFS users. The game wasnt such a big success like the old NFS Most Wanted due the reason that it lacked realist9ic physics but it had player friendly physics which made the game very to finish which much challenge. F.3 Burnout Paradise This game was made for its stunts. It had some realistic physics with a lot of importance given to the car damage. The game was a stunt mania. Though it is not correct to say It had realistic physics but it had good amount of it and put to use in the correct places, the made a game for stunts and it was good for it. The car damage actually affected the car performance. Though it did not have really good physics for driving, it had awesome crash physics. Burnout 5s speedsters will atomise stupendously during crashes, with more than six times as many breakable pieces in each car compared to Burnout Revenge. This will mean you can tear your car in half, rip the roof off or achieve other satisfying shunt stunts. The biggest change introduced in Burnout Paradise is the move to an open world, the streets of Paradise city. The entire city is open at the start of the game, with the idea being that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Not all of the events are present at the start, mind you, and youll have to put in a lot of time to unlock the games roughly 75 cars, but youre never limited in the options before you. The main downtown area of Paradise City is very reminiscent of the downtown tracks in the last couple games, while the western section of the city harkens back to the long, winding, countryside courses of past games as well. A couple of highways will put you dead in the middle of traffic and give you plenty of roads to get up to speed on. In all the game was a success and was loved by crash maniacs but was hated by the driving fanatics. It stood to what it was designed for and achieved excellence in stunts and crash driving. F.4 Dirt Dirt 2 as Dirt is an off-road racing game. I chose this for my case study because this game is somewhat like my project. The game had a lot of focus on suspension and grip, any wrong move by the player could make the car skid off the road, in general the game physics were not player friendly but realistic to give the feel of an off-road racing game with the difficulties involved in an off-road racing game. The physics in Dirt 2 are impeccable. When a truck tumbles after taking a hard landing off a jump, it looks and behaves exactly as it should, which is critical if youre behind the truck anticipating its motion across your driving line. The physics are so realistic that the vibration from my idling engine would shake the skirt on my dash-mounted hula doll. Physics also come into play in the water hazards that now dot many of the courses. Driving through water will slow you down (though this can be advantageous if used strategically), and if youre driving from the cockpit view, my preferred perspective, it will obscure your vision for a few crucial seconds. Dirt 2 also features night-time races, confined to Rally Cross events, which add a whole new dimension to the game. You will have to avoid smashing your headlights on those tight corners if you want to see, and decide if you want to overtake the leader and risk underestimating a dark turn or let him show you the best line through th e corners. Dirt 2 takes the series in a new, quite risky, direction, by taking a more Arcady, fun feel. Although this may have upset some of the hard-core fans of the series, it still kept enough difficulty to please all, even the most casual gamers. It blends the realism of off road racing with the enjoyment of a street racing game and it works perfectly, making one of the best racing games To summarise the game is on the best off-road racing game, like burnout paradise they concentrated on the particular type of physics needed for an off-road racing game. History of Racing Game The old 2D racing games like Speed Race 1974 where generally black and white and were simple arcade games rather than proper simulations. In this era some basic concepts for racing game were developed like collision detection, HUD displays like Tachometer, speedometer etc. were developed. They were all vertical scrolling games and the player had to race with other AI cars or setting a high score. This was the base in the 70s for racing games and racing games evolved from this slowly over the course of years. In 1974 Atari released Gran Trak 10 which was the first racing game to implement ROM (Read Only Memory). This was a black and white game with an overhead view where the player raced against the clock which made the game non-competitive. The next concept came up was a sort of multiplayer where the player played against each other turn wise by competing against each others scores. This slowly evolved to a proper two player multiplayer where the players were able to play with each other simultaneously in a split screen view. In 1976 Crashing race was released which was a multiplayer capable arcade game where the players had to crash into other players to gain score. In this game the collision in racing game was reworked but this was still not a simulation game. The same year Moto-Cross was released which introduced Third-person perspective view into racing games. It achieved this by scrolling the track forward as the player moved and the scene closer to the player kept scaling so that it gave an illusion of perspective. Another game released this year called Fonz introduced feedback in controllers. The next game called Night Driver introduced the first person perspective in racing games. By this time the games were in colour rather than black and white. From 1970 to 1980 the games generally improved in graphics a little bit. In 1980 Namco released Rally-X which was the first racing game to have background music. The game also had a feature to Scroll the screen to either direction giving actual control over the players view. Then in 1982 Namco released Pole position which was the first game to have a track based on an actual circuit. The game had high resolution colour graphics for its time. The game was designed in such a way so that the player had to brake and use controls to manage turns; this is where some kind of simulation started in racing games. The player had to race against AI drivers and also had to race against time which made the game interesting. The game also featured collisions with boundaries and other cars which caused crashes which were first time implemented in a racing game. The game was the first of its kind to implement simulation at the most basic level which is where racing game simulation started from. The games after this adapted this concept and the racing game simulation start ed increasing giving a more sense of realism. The players had to manually shift gears and use brakes on turns to get turns correctly. Pole position 2 in particular had 3 screen display of the game giving a sense of 3D. In 1980s the this was the general trend in racing games and the simple car simulation were upgraded slowly as new hardware came, with this the graphics of the games also improved In 1984 Geoff Crammond developed a racing game simulator RVES for its time on BBC Micro Computer platform. This was the first step in game to really simulating driving. Though this is primitive from present standards but for that time this was huge step in racing simulations. In 1985 HangOn was released which was the first game to use 16 bit graphics and also had an improved simulation and AI system compared to the other games out there at that time. In this time more concern was given on improving graphics rather that the simulations. In 1986, Red Racer was the first stereoscopic 3D game. In 1989 Atari released Hard Drivin; this was the first game to use 3D polygons in a game. In 1990 Papyrus Design Group made the first actual 3D racing game simulator and they actually concentrated more on the simulations rather than the graphics. This simulator simulated realistic physics and telemeter. In 1992 Formula one Grand Prix became a hit racing simulation game which had all the drivers from the actual Grand Prix. From 1993 onwards polygons were highly used to make games and each and every game that was coming out had better graphics than the last one. In 1992 the other game which made big news was virtua racing which was not the first 3D racing game but it had the cleanest 3D graphics for the time. It did not have a pixelated look, rather all the textures were very neat and clean for the time. In 1993 Sega came up with Daytona USA which was the first racing game to feature filtered texture-mapped polygons. In 1994 Electronic Arts came up with Need for Speed which became the most popular racing game series of all time. This game had the most realistic audio for its time, detailing sounds of engines, gearshifts and tyre squeals to perfection. It also featured vehicle traffic in races. This game had both multiplayer and single player capability. In 1997 Gran Turismo was released for play station and was the best game at that time for its simulation and graphics. This was considered to be the most realistic game of its time. In 1999 Midtown Madness changed the face of racing game with free roam in games. After this racing games improved generally on the course of time with better and better graphics and simulations. The latest racing game that is supposed to come out in 2011 called Need for Speed: Shift 2 uses data from actual cars by attaching computers to it and computing every minute detail of the car and driver and have gone so far that they start to bridge the game between real life physics and simulated physics. Racing physics H.1 Basics The very basic idea behind moving a car or any object is F=ma, where F is the force applied, m is the mass of the object and a is the acceleration generated. For a car, the force comes from the engine and the mass of the car is a constant, therefore rewriting it we would get a=F/m. This would give us the acceleration. This is the base idea which would be used over all in the game. For example, even when the car takes a turn, would be a force applied in a direction from the centre of mass of the car. H.2 forces applied in Linear Motion Torque: To keep it simple at starting lets consider the car to be going just in a straight line and see what all we would require for the car to run. Now the car engine generates a force which is from spinning motion of the engine shaft through the gearbox, to the axle and finally to the wheels which would drive the car. This gives an understanding that there is a torque applied as a form of force. F=ma: This tells us that the acceleration on the car depends on the mass of the car directly considering the force is constant. Equations of linear motion: V=U+at v=Final velocity of the car u=Initial velocity of the car a= acceleration The force generated will give us acceleration of the car and thus the speed of the car can be calculated from this. t=time taken S=ut+1/2(a*t^2) This equation will be useful to get the position of the car in X, Y, Z direction in 3D space based on the velocity and direction of the car. S= Distance travelled V^2=u^2 +2aS This equation calculates values independent of time. For all the above equation the time will be considered as Άt, which is a small change in time. All our calculations will be based on these getting small points on a graph thus getting the whole motion. Friction: Considering the car stops Appling force on the tyres, by newtons second law it would still be in motion as no negative force is applied to it. But in the real world this is not true; the car decelerates if there is no force from the engine. This is due to the frictional forces present which act in the opposite direction of the car thus acting as negative forces. This can be categorised in 3 parts in general for a car in order of how strong they are. Internal Friction à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" This friction comes from the moving parts of the vehicle and is very minimal compared to the other two. Ground Friction à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" This friction comes from the friction between the tyres of the car and the ground. It depends on a few things, the larger the tyre of the car the more friction it will have. Also this is also related to the smoothness of the ground and tyres, the smoother tyres give less friction but it to be kept in mind that higher friction tyres have higher grip. Air Friction à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" This is the strongest frictional force of the 3 and exponentially the in depth calculations based on this would come later, for now it is this is just to get an understanding of what all basic forces are applied on a car. h.3 Drag This is the air friction experienced by the car when its driving. The drag is a force value acting opposite the direction the car is travelling. This is the force required by the car to overcome to be in motion. =Drag Force =Density of Fluid =Drag Coefficient A=Surface Area After going through a lot of Drag Coefficients, that value for our car fit to be 0.50 Value 0.60 Truck 0.57 Hummer 0.46 Ford Mustang 1976 0.45 Dodge Viper *List from Wikipedia.org Air density which is fluid density here is 1.29kg/m^3 at sea level, which will be our density. The frontal area of cross section for our car came out to be 2.5m^2 which is our area of reference. Putting the values in the equation of drag This equals All the calculation is are done in metric system. Table for Drag force for our car in Newtons Speed M/s Speed Km/Hr 81.25 10 36 325 20 72 731.25 30 108 1300 40 144 2031 50 180 This shows that as the velocity increases drag force exponentially which increases the force required to overcome it. H.4 Centre of Mass The centre of mass (COM) of an object is the mean location of all the masses in the body. Significance of Realistic Physics in Simulation Games Significance of Realistic Physics in Simulation Games This dissertation is on the significance of realistic physics in simulation games. Physics in games has changed a lot over the years from arcade games having no physics to Need for Speed: Shift having world class physics. As the years have progressed so has the technology giving ways to make the game more realistic to a point which makes them almost as real as in real life. The question here is that do we need such good physics in games cause in the end the players need have a good time playing the game while having a realistic experience, pushing the realism a bit further can cause problems with the game being excessively difficult the daily gamer. Introduction The oldest form of racing games would be arcade games where there was no physics but the games were still fun to play for the casual gamer. They can be called the classic example for physics-less fun games like outrun, Virtua Racing by SEGA. With time games like The need for speed came out with realistic acceleration top sped etc. they built up on car personalities with different cars having different type of grip, speed etc. with more advanced Physics processing units came better physics with destructible models, actual car damage and very realistic handling etc. as seen in Need for Speed: Shift and Need for Speed: Pro-street these games reached the benchmark for physics at their time but were not as popular as the Need for speed: Most Wanted and similar Titles with intermediate use of physics. But the physics in games now days have totally changed the driving experience in games. My thesis is on how this can be improved and what type of physics should be added and what type to be controlled so as not to make the game extremely difficult but also improve the gameplay and give a better feel of realism. C.1 The Statement of Problem The statement of problem in my dissertation is the fun factor in racing games with realistic physics. Racing games are played for fun and are not viewed as some physics prototype so a game with exceptionally good game does not have to be an exceptionally good game and vice versa. There has to be a balance between fun and physics in game. A game with very realistic handling will make an immature player crash a lot which is not very impressive to the player, whereas in a game without friction or skidding, the player will not have the feel of physics or realism in a game making it boring again. How to get this balance in a game is my main objective. In a racing game there should be balanced handling and to make it more realistic new improved effects for drag can be added. Better collision and realistic damage which effects the players driving can help make the game look more realistic. Things like this are very important nowadays as the competition between games is rising and most of the games are coming out with good physics so it becomes a common ground between most games. New type of physics including centre of gravity, collisions effecting the player, g-forces on the player causing loosing handling, blurred vision can be a thing of the future also player fatigue while driving can be added in the games in the future to make them stand out. C.2 Purpose This study is aimed at accomplishing to implement new type of physics in the game, making them more realistic while still being fun to play. The purpose of this study is that when we are adding new type of physics in a game, it should not be so much that it looks more like a physics prototype than a game. Methodology This chapter explains how the research for this dissertation is done. This dissertation is based on experimenting on different type of games arcade and realistic alike and also based on articles related to this subject. D.1 Study of Existing Information Existing information was collected over the internet mainly from www.google.com and www.gamespot.com. Different type of physics used in current games was searched and also about arcade games. The information was used to understand the working of present day physics realistic games. Information and ideas for different type of physics were also gathered from different forums and articles. To better understand how physics actually works in a game different reference articles which explain how physics is implemented in games with code were studied go get a better understanding about the subject. D.2 Experementation Experimentation was done by testing different racing games from arcade games to realistic games to understand the difference in physics and to understand what type of physics is implemented in present day games. Case study in done in Need for Speed: Undercover, Burnout paradise Dirt, Need for Speed: Shift and Virtua racer to understand the physics in those games and to understand weather they were successful or not and why. Different types of physics modules were studied in each game, understanding what game used what and to how much realism and how it affected the outcome of the sales of the game which tell which was more popular. Literature Review This chapter will discuss the articles significant for this research and what use it has in my dissertation. This chapter is in two parts, one discussing the physics aspect behind making a game and the other one discussing about different games, their popularity and what type of physics they used. E.1 Physics Review Reference: [Title Motion along a straight line by author Michael Tanczos  http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article434.asp ] This page is about basic motion along a straight line which is required to make a game about any moving body. This helps with the basic physics that require programming of moving objects. Reference: [Title The physics of racing by author Brian Beckman http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1610.asp ] This is a comprehensive guide about how to make racing games. This helps with understanding of present day physics and how they are actually implemented in a game. This also helps me to formulate my own ideas to how to add new physics to the game. Reference: [http://www.mathworks.com/products/simulink/demos.html?file=/products/demos/shipping/simulink/sldemo_absbrake.html] This page helped me understand about braking systems in cars. Reference: [Title Motor Sports Setup by author Carroll Smith http://needlesslyobscure.wordpress.com/motorsports-setup/] This is a series of tutorials of how to setup a car. I used this to make compute my own vehicle simulations. Reference: [http://auto.howstuffworks.com/four-wheel-drive1.htm] This article gave me a better insight of how slip works on a car. E.2 Game Review Reference: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_video_game#1970s Title Racing Video Game by Wikipedia] This is where I started researching about history of video games and looking into what types of racing are there and how they developed over time. Reference: [http://www.taito.com/arc/] I visited this website which had old arcade racing which I played and also read about them to get a better understanding of how racing games were back then. Reference: [http://forums.atari.com/] This is a forum where i read about Atari arcade games. Case Study In order to understand the exact nature of physics of present day game sand games from the past, I tested out a few games to understand what different types of physics were applied to them and how they are different from one another. This also helped me to understand how the physics evolved from the past to until now. Another aspect of this study was to understand how the popularity of the game was related to the physics it. F.1 Virtua Racing Virtua Racing was released in 1992 by Sega. This game had excellent and clean 3D graphics for its time. It was based on F1 racing and was one of the best arcade racing game of all time. This set the base for racing games that came after this. It had features like minimap track, speedometer etc. basically it had a fully functional HUD for its time. It had 2 views, one third person and the other was first person inside the car. It had time chase and also the player could race against the AI cars in the single player mode. In the multiplayer mode, two players could race against each other. It had also implemented different cars so the player could choose between them. They were not just artistically different but also were also different in the way they handled. This was a change from the old racing games before this which had only artistic differences between different cars. This game had simulated physic s, there was not an actual simulation engine deciding what the car would do. It w as just programmed to skid if the player was taking a turn over a certain speed. It gave a very good feeling of realism. F.2 Need for Speed Need for Speed for first released in 1994 by Electronic Arts. This game went on to be the most famous game series of all times. Need for Speed was based on street racing. It had good load out of cars which performed very differently from each other. The players had to race in the street with oncoming traffic and against AI player; it also had a multiplayer mode which 2 player could play simultaneously. It had a very smooth camera system which allowed the player to play in a third person view or a first person view with the player sitting inside the car. This game had implemented gearing system which the player could manually change or set it to automatic where the computer would take care of it. This game had very good physics simulations which was quite different from its predecessors. Need for speed has impressive graphics getting better than anyone before them. They had open seamless outdoor worlds. These worlds gave an effect of a 3D world unlike the past games. The cars were also very detailed, which ranged from Lamborghini, dodge viper to Mustangs. They were replica of real life cars with all the details in them that could be put at that point of time. The race tracks also had a lot of variance in them which were set in a realistic environment. This game also had weather effects which added more realism to the environment. The sounds implemented were also awesome. They were very accurate and added to the realism of driving a vehicle as a driver depends on sounds a lot when driving a vehicle. For a game to achieve this, the sounds had to be very accurate which EA achieved with NFS. The simulation engine for this game was also very nice, it gave a clean difference felt in power, speed and handling when driving different cars. Different cars had different statistics and performed better on different tracks. F.1 Need for Speed: Shift This game of the NFS series was a circuit based game and had more advanced physics to its predecessors. Physic-wise, Need for Speed Shift starts to sound really promising. If done right, the 3 different physic models can really make the game enjoyable both for the usual Need for Speed crowd as well as simulation enthusiasts. At first, the driving physics in Shift take some getting used to. You cant go into a corner, hit the apex, and then pump 100% throttle on the way out. Without a doubt, youll inevitably end up facing the wrong direction, or planted into a wall. Throttle control is absolutely mandatory in Need for Speed Shift. Theres no way around this and if you havent got a racing wheel handy, the controller does little to favour irresponsible throttle application or violent steering input. A lot of importance is given to the throttle of the car making it one the most tweaked feature which takes some time getting used to. Due to the high end physics in this game it made it quite difficult to play for the casual gamer so the game had features like 10% extra grip for the newcomers etc. The car could be customised in a lot of ways to make it affect the physics of the car, this helped out the professional players a lot, but in this game doing anything wrong to the customizations without knowing what the person is doing would make the car difficult to handle making it again unfriendly to the casual gamer. One glitch that you often encounter later on in the game when dealing with high performance cars or extensively modified tuned cars. Due to the lowering of body work, additional front splitters, under body modifications and different wheel/tyre combinations, cars seem to run far too low, removing ground clearance and effectively making a car bottom out over even the tiniest of bumps. This results in a ridiculous and uncontrollable glitch where a car will continue down a straight path. This game boosted of great physics giving realism to the circuit/professional racing and tried to make the game real but they failed in a way. The professional player didnt like the game so much because of the physics not being to real life like with some glitches here and there. Also the car would sometimes out or under manoeuvre in an awkward manner as not expected by the user. As for the casual gamer this is not the game for them, this game is very intense and requires decent amount of racing knowledge of knowing when and how to turn/corner at high speeds, tune the car properly according to your personal needs. So in all it was not a great hit either ways. F.2 Need For Speed: Undercover This game does not have realistic physics but it has type of physics which helps the player a lot. The game is made in such a way to make the physics work in the way of the driver to give him/her an awesome driving experience this does not have to be entirely as in the real world. This game allows you to pull of the craziest of stuns with easy, this game is built only to give the driver awesome driving experience with computer guidance to accomplish stunts which would not be possible in the real world giving an adrenalin rush to the player. Key to Undercover is what EA is calling the heroic driving experience. In Undercover this physics system has been given an injection of cool. Think of all the best car chase scenes in movies from the last ten years and youll get an idea of what to expect. EA want you to feel like a skilled stunt driver, and it works. By using a combination of the gas pedal, brake, e-break and gear stick youre able to pull off stunning looking manoeuvres like reverse 180 degree turns. Its like you are Jason Statham from the Transporter movies. While we were quite looking forward some potentially funny moments, it seems EA has gone down a more serious route and it works very well indeed. Your goal in the game is to take down the various captains before taking down the whole operation, which is obviously done while driving at insanely high speeds. The game involves high speed chases over the highway, battling enemy cars, the good old cop chases etc. According to EA the traffic in Undercover is modelled realistically and reacts to your actions. While you can simply push a car over into the way of your target, you could choose to spook a driver of a bus, causing him to jack-knife in the middle of a dual carriageway. Racing at high speed, weaving in and out of traffic appears to offer the kind of thrills that were severely lacking in the more down to earth and structured ProStreet. As EA repeatedly pointed out during the publishers Games Convention 2008 demonstration, Undercover is all about heroic driving, and theres no better reason to drive like a stuntman than trying to outrun a swarm of angry police cars. Police chases thankfully return to Need for Speed in Undercover and these guys are aggressive, very aggressive. To begin with theyre not pushovers, but as you progress through the story and increase your level; your notoriety amongst the police also increases. Before too long theyll spot you on the streets and go after you, hunting you as a pack. If they get you which seems like itll be a regular occurrence for less skilful drivers youll have a strike against your car and itll be impounded. Being able to take pictures of the game during gameplay situations is becoming increasingly common, and with the amount of action on display in Undercover its no surprise to find such a feature here. We didnt see it in action but EA says that the snaps taken have been dubbed Movie Poster Action Cinematic sounds good to us. Undercover still has some way to go in development (its not out until late November) but its already looking very impressive. Car models are incredibly detailed and procedurally deform based on collisions. The areas of the city demonstrated to us were bathed in a gorgeous yellow light that gives the game a highly stylised appearance, and the camera often uncouples from the rear of the car in order to give a better, more cinematic view of the action. With months of development left there were obviously a few technical issues, but on the whole we cant wait to see how the final game looks. As in previous Need for Speed titles the audio is often dominated by the sound of police chatter. We only saw one police chase so cant say how itll sound hours into the game, but they said all the right things to convince us they were on our case. To sum it up, the game is made for the player to have a free stunt filled game which could be easily be pulled of which was not like by the old NFS users. The game wasnt such a big success like the old NFS Most Wanted due the reason that it lacked realist9ic physics but it had player friendly physics which made the game very to finish which much challenge. F.3 Burnout Paradise This game was made for its stunts. It had some realistic physics with a lot of importance given to the car damage. The game was a stunt mania. Though it is not correct to say It had realistic physics but it had good amount of it and put to use in the correct places, the made a game for stunts and it was good for it. The car damage actually affected the car performance. Though it did not have really good physics for driving, it had awesome crash physics. Burnout 5s speedsters will atomise stupendously during crashes, with more than six times as many breakable pieces in each car compared to Burnout Revenge. This will mean you can tear your car in half, rip the roof off or achieve other satisfying shunt stunts. The biggest change introduced in Burnout Paradise is the move to an open world, the streets of Paradise city. The entire city is open at the start of the game, with the idea being that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Not all of the events are present at the start, mind you, and youll have to put in a lot of time to unlock the games roughly 75 cars, but youre never limited in the options before you. The main downtown area of Paradise City is very reminiscent of the downtown tracks in the last couple games, while the western section of the city harkens back to the long, winding, countryside courses of past games as well. A couple of highways will put you dead in the middle of traffic and give you plenty of roads to get up to speed on. In all the game was a success and was loved by crash maniacs but was hated by the driving fanatics. It stood to what it was designed for and achieved excellence in stunts and crash driving. F.4 Dirt Dirt 2 as Dirt is an off-road racing game. I chose this for my case study because this game is somewhat like my project. The game had a lot of focus on suspension and grip, any wrong move by the player could make the car skid off the road, in general the game physics were not player friendly but realistic to give the feel of an off-road racing game with the difficulties involved in an off-road racing game. The physics in Dirt 2 are impeccable. When a truck tumbles after taking a hard landing off a jump, it looks and behaves exactly as it should, which is critical if youre behind the truck anticipating its motion across your driving line. The physics are so realistic that the vibration from my idling engine would shake the skirt on my dash-mounted hula doll. Physics also come into play in the water hazards that now dot many of the courses. Driving through water will slow you down (though this can be advantageous if used strategically), and if youre driving from the cockpit view, my preferred perspective, it will obscure your vision for a few crucial seconds. Dirt 2 also features night-time races, confined to Rally Cross events, which add a whole new dimension to the game. You will have to avoid smashing your headlights on those tight corners if you want to see, and decide if you want to overtake the leader and risk underestimating a dark turn or let him show you the best line through th e corners. Dirt 2 takes the series in a new, quite risky, direction, by taking a more Arcady, fun feel. Although this may have upset some of the hard-core fans of the series, it still kept enough difficulty to please all, even the most casual gamers. It blends the realism of off road racing with the enjoyment of a street racing game and it works perfectly, making one of the best racing games To summarise the game is on the best off-road racing game, like burnout paradise they concentrated on the particular type of physics needed for an off-road racing game. History of Racing Game The old 2D racing games like Speed Race 1974 where generally black and white and were simple arcade games rather than proper simulations. In this era some basic concepts for racing game were developed like collision detection, HUD displays like Tachometer, speedometer etc. were developed. They were all vertical scrolling games and the player had to race with other AI cars or setting a high score. This was the base in the 70s for racing games and racing games evolved from this slowly over the course of years. In 1974 Atari released Gran Trak 10 which was the first racing game to implement ROM (Read Only Memory). This was a black and white game with an overhead view where the player raced against the clock which made the game non-competitive. The next concept came up was a sort of multiplayer where the player played against each other turn wise by competing against each others scores. This slowly evolved to a proper two player multiplayer where the players were able to play with each other simultaneously in a split screen view. In 1976 Crashing race was released which was a multiplayer capable arcade game where the players had to crash into other players to gain score. In this game the collision in racing game was reworked but this was still not a simulation game. The same year Moto-Cross was released which introduced Third-person perspective view into racing games. It achieved this by scrolling the track forward as the player moved and the scene closer to the player kept scaling so that it gave an illusion of perspective. Another game released this year called Fonz introduced feedback in controllers. The next game called Night Driver introduced the first person perspective in racing games. By this time the games were in colour rather than black and white. From 1970 to 1980 the games generally improved in graphics a little bit. In 1980 Namco released Rally-X which was the first racing game to have background music. The game also had a feature to Scroll the screen to either direction giving actual control over the players view. Then in 1982 Namco released Pole position which was the first game to have a track based on an actual circuit. The game had high resolution colour graphics for its time. The game was designed in such a way so that the player had to brake and use controls to manage turns; this is where some kind of simulation started in racing games. The player had to race against AI drivers and also had to race against time which made the game interesting. The game also featured collisions with boundaries and other cars which caused crashes which were first time implemented in a racing game. The game was the first of its kind to implement simulation at the most basic level which is where racing game simulation started from. The games after this adapted this concept and the racing game simulation start ed increasing giving a more sense of realism. The players had to manually shift gears and use brakes on turns to get turns correctly. Pole position 2 in particular had 3 screen display of the game giving a sense of 3D. In 1980s the this was the general trend in racing games and the simple car simulation were upgraded slowly as new hardware came, with this the graphics of the games also improved In 1984 Geoff Crammond developed a racing game simulator RVES for its time on BBC Micro Computer platform. This was the first step in game to really simulating driving. Though this is primitive from present standards but for that time this was huge step in racing simulations. In 1985 HangOn was released which was the first game to use 16 bit graphics and also had an improved simulation and AI system compared to the other games out there at that time. In this time more concern was given on improving graphics rather that the simulations. In 1986, Red Racer was the first stereoscopic 3D game. In 1989 Atari released Hard Drivin; this was the first game to use 3D polygons in a game. In 1990 Papyrus Design Group made the first actual 3D racing game simulator and they actually concentrated more on the simulations rather than the graphics. This simulator simulated realistic physics and telemeter. In 1992 Formula one Grand Prix became a hit racing simulation game which had all the drivers from the actual Grand Prix. From 1993 onwards polygons were highly used to make games and each and every game that was coming out had better graphics than the last one. In 1992 the other game which made big news was virtua racing which was not the first 3D racing game but it had the cleanest 3D graphics for the time. It did not have a pixelated look, rather all the textures were very neat and clean for the time. In 1993 Sega came up with Daytona USA which was the first racing game to feature filtered texture-mapped polygons. In 1994 Electronic Arts came up with Need for Speed which became the most popular racing game series of all time. This game had the most realistic audio for its time, detailing sounds of engines, gearshifts and tyre squeals to perfection. It also featured vehicle traffic in races. This game had both multiplayer and single player capability. In 1997 Gran Turismo was released for play station and was the best game at that time for its simulation and graphics. This was considered to be the most realistic game of its time. In 1999 Midtown Madness changed the face of racing game with free roam in games. After this racing games improved generally on the course of time with better and better graphics and simulations. The latest racing game that is supposed to come out in 2011 called Need for Speed: Shift 2 uses data from actual cars by attaching computers to it and computing every minute detail of the car and driver and have gone so far that they start to bridge the game between real life physics and simulated physics. Racing physics H.1 Basics The very basic idea behind moving a car or any object is F=ma, where F is the force applied, m is the mass of the object and a is the acceleration generated. For a car, the force comes from the engine and the mass of the car is a constant, therefore rewriting it we would get a=F/m. This would give us the acceleration. This is the base idea which would be used over all in the game. For example, even when the car takes a turn, would be a force applied in a direction from the centre of mass of the car. H.2 forces applied in Linear Motion Torque: To keep it simple at starting lets consider the car to be going just in a straight line and see what all we would require for the car to run. Now the car engine generates a force which is from spinning motion of the engine shaft through the gearbox, to the axle and finally to the wheels which would drive the car. This gives an understanding that there is a torque applied as a form of force. F=ma: This tells us that the acceleration on the car depends on the mass of the car directly considering the force is constant. Equations of linear motion: V=U+at v=Final velocity of the car u=Initial velocity of the car a= acceleration The force generated will give us acceleration of the car and thus the speed of the car can be calculated from this. t=time taken S=ut+1/2(a*t^2) This equation will be useful to get the position of the car in X, Y, Z direction in 3D space based on the velocity and direction of the car. S= Distance travelled V^2=u^2 +2aS This equation calculates values independent of time. For all the above equation the time will be considered as Άt, which is a small change in time. All our calculations will be based on these getting small points on a graph thus getting the whole motion. Friction: Considering the car stops Appling force on the tyres, by newtons second law it would still be in motion as no negative force is applied to it. But in the real world this is not true; the car decelerates if there is no force from the engine. This is due to the frictional forces present which act in the opposite direction of the car thus acting as negative forces. This can be categorised in 3 parts in general for a car in order of how strong they are. Internal Friction à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" This friction comes from the moving parts of the vehicle and is very minimal compared to the other two. Ground Friction à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" This friction comes from the friction between the tyres of the car and the ground. It depends on a few things, the larger the tyre of the car the more friction it will have. Also this is also related to the smoothness of the ground and tyres, the smoother tyres give less friction but it to be kept in mind that higher friction tyres have higher grip. Air Friction à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" This is the strongest frictional force of the 3 and exponentially the in depth calculations based on this would come later, for now it is this is just to get an understanding of what all basic forces are applied on a car. h.3 Drag This is the air friction experienced by the car when its driving. The drag is a force value acting opposite the direction the car is travelling. This is the force required by the car to overcome to be in motion. =Drag Force =Density of Fluid =Drag Coefficient A=Surface Area After going through a lot of Drag Coefficients, that value for our car fit to be 0.50 Value 0.60 Truck 0.57 Hummer 0.46 Ford Mustang 1976 0.45 Dodge Viper *List from Wikipedia.org Air density which is fluid density here is 1.29kg/m^3 at sea level, which will be our density. The frontal area of cross section for our car came out to be 2.5m^2 which is our area of reference. Putting the values in the equation of drag This equals All the calculation is are done in metric system. Table for Drag force for our car in Newtons Speed M/s Speed Km/Hr 81.25 10 36 325 20 72 731.25 30 108 1300 40 144 2031 50 180 This shows that as the velocity increases drag force exponentially which increases the force required to overcome it. H.4 Centre of Mass The centre of mass (COM) of an object is the mean location of all the masses in the body.