Apple - The Forbidden Fruit

Dear ACCA Candidates, 

Pic 01: The Forbidden Fruit

Today, Apple has made headlines again as the most valuable company on earth. It shares has reached new peak of US$715.24 per share. The paradox is the smarter the phones get, the dumber its user becomes. Particularly the recreational users who are fascinated by games, freebies, videos and all. 

The richer Apple become, the poorer the human brains will be.  

I repeat earlier article- "I absolutely DON'T recommend students ogle over the new IPhone 5. Smart phones are for not so smart people. It distracts you with it many thumb-numbing games. No knowledge or skills are developed as a result.

Still, it didn't prevent Apple from getting a pre-order level of 2 million units.

REWARD yourself with IPhone 6 or 7 when you graduate, or get that other phone, I think its called Samseng Gaga phone. Now its not the time to focus on gadgets that distracts and destructs your chances of success in ACCA exams.

Always concerned Lecturer : Marcus

Pic 02: Looks nice, but deceptively destructive

NEW YORK -- Apple's stock reached $700 for the first time Tuesday, the day after it announced that orders for its iPhone 5 topped 2 million in the first 24 hours.

The stock traded as high as $701.44 in the morning, up a quarter of a percent from Monday's close. It later fell slightly. It had come within 20 cents of $700 Monday.

The rally in Apple's stock price puts the company's market value at $656 billion.
The $700 mark is somewhat of an arbitrary milestone for Apple's stock, representing little more than a nice round number and a record high trading level.

Pic 03: Tech Addiction

After all, Apple already enjoys the distinction as the world's most valuable public company ever, at least if one ignores inflation.

Google, its Silicon Valley neighbor, saw its stock price surpass $700 in 2007. On Tuesday, Google's stock was trading at $715.24. But the online search leader's market capitalization is well below Apple's at $234.1 billion.

Apple started taking orders for the iPhone 5 on Friday. Orders during the first 24 hours more than doubled what Apple had for its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, over the same period last October.

Pic 04: Gadgets burns brain cells

"This was despite somewhat lukewarm reviews and some claiming it had 'lack of a wow factor,' Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in a note to investors. "We continue to believe many underestimate iPhone 5 in that it is a significant update and will drive a powerful product cycle."
Wu estimates Apple will likely ship 27 million iPhones in this quarter. That's up from his earlier estimate of 26 million.

Apple said Monday that while most orders will be delivered this Friday, when the phone goes on sale in stores in the U.S. and eight other countries, demand for the iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply. That means some of the devices will be delivered in October.

Buyers who have a two-year service agreement with AT&T, Sprint or Verizon Wireless are able to order the phone for $199 (16 gigabyte model), $299 (32 GB) or $399 (64 GB).

Pic 05: Devolution of Man

The iPhone 5 represents the first major revision of the iPhone's screen size since the first model was introduced in 2007. It has an elongated screen, at 4 inches measured diagonally, bigger than the previous 3.5-inch screens. That allows room for another row of icons and lets widescreen movies fit better.

The new phone is also thinner and weighs less than previous versions. It can operate on LTE cellular networks and sports a new processor and updated software.

Pic 06: Governments should BAN these

Apple share have risen 87 percent since Oct. 5, when CEO Steve Jobs died. 

Reference:
Charles, 2012, IPHone Reviews, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/sep/19/iphone-5-review?newsfeed=true, 19th September

Apple's CEO - A Poor Billionnaire

- Relevant to P1 (GRE) 

Pic 01: The new IPhone 5 - Will it make Apple's CEO Tim Cook richer?

Note that Executive Directors' pay are crucial Corporate Governance Tool to align them to shareholders' expectations. The critical role that Remuneration Committee play also must not be overlooked. 

What was done in designing Apple's CEO pay is obviously to reduce the repeat of it collapsing. It did twice since its incorporation. 

Take a look at how the real world design Executives' pay. On a side note, the new IPhone 5 looks slimmer and more attractive design and content. I recommend you don't purchase it because precisely the point that its attractive design and has wonderful content. - Buy it after you graduate ACCA! By then could be IPhone+ISpecs 8. 

Apple’s new iPhone 5—set to be unveiled Wednesday, September 12, 2012 in San Francisco—will have a longer screen. It will have LTE technology for faster data downloads. And it will be packed with vitamins and nutrients to give you hours and hours of energy.

No, wait, that’s the 5-Hour Energy drink. 

All right, I give up. I don’t know what’s in the iPhone 5, or the alleged iPad Mini, which may also be unveiled. And I don’t care. I seem to be alone. I look around and all I see are people tapping away on their iPhone screens, oblivious to the world around them. In a coffee shop recently I saw a group of young friends sitting next to each other, ignoring one another, tapping away.

But although I remain immune to the iMania, I can hardly ignore the company. None before has been this successful, ever. 

Apple stock hit a new high of $680 on Monday; it closed at around $660 Tuesday. It is already by far the most valuable company in history. The market value is $620 billion. It has nearly doubled since the late Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO in August of last year. 

There are many reasons for the company’s phenomenal success, of course. The products have good technology, very good design and amazing marketing. Most important of all, Apple has been blessed with absolutely, monumentally, are-you-kidding-me incompetent rivals. 

But here’s one more thing that deserves notice, because it rarely gets any attention, and it’s important for investors. 

Incentives

Steve Jobs made his money on the stock, not on salary, bonuses or other flimflam. If the stock went up, he made money. If it had gone down, he would have lost it. 

And new CEO Tim Cook, the man who will be on stage Wednesday, is in the same boat.

On Aug. 24 of last year, when he took over from Jobs, Cook was granted a giant fistful of restricted Apple stock: 1 million shares. 

That’s some incentive.

Pic 02: Poor Billionnaire. Can see his paper gains on Apple Shares but can't touch them.

They had a face value of $380 million when he got them. In the year and three weeks since, he’s made another $285 million in paper gains on that stock alone. 

Cook was already holding about 360,000 shares of restricted stock even before taking the helm. Bottom line? The man has made about $390 million on his Apple stock in the 55 weeks since taking over, and his stake is already worth more than $900 million. 

No kidding. Just over a year ago, he was someone you’d never heard of. Now he’s nearly a billionaire, thanks to the iPhone, the iPad and the like. 

If you’re curious, the 5.5 million Apple shares that the late Steve Jobs left in his estate have gained about $1.6 billion in value since he stepped down as CEO.

Pic 03: Rich, Super-rich but dead billionnaire. Hmmm... not an enviable position.

But there’s a twist. Cook can’t cash in most of those shares for years. Of the 1 million restricted shares he was given in August of last year, half of them won’t get unlocked until 2016, and the other half won’t until 2021. 

In other words, Tim Cook’s incentives are the complete opposite of those now considered normal in big public companies. He can’t make lots of money by taking big gambles with stockholders’ money, or by juicing the stock for a short-term pop. The only way he can make serious money is by building long-term value. 

The future is unknowable—especially in the technology industry, and especially over five or 10 years. I’ll be amazed if iPhones and iPads have the same cachet or cult status then that they seem to have now. But if you are an Apple stockholder, there is some comfort in knowing the CEO and you dine at the same table (even if your portions differ somewhat in size). 

Pic 04: Iphone 4 is shorter and thicker than the new IPhone 5. Definitely don't recommend you buy the IPhone 5.

All public-company CEOs should be rewarded like this. Maybe then we’d have an economy oriented more toward long-term, sustainable growth than short-term action. 

Pic 05: As of 14th September, 2012, Apple Ltd is worth over US$620 billion. The most valuable company on earth, today.

Pic 06: Short termists me first Bank Leaders of USA. Lloyd Blankfein (Left) and Jamie Dimon (Second from left) control 2 of USA largest but nearly bankrupt banks. Their rewards? Millions of US$ of pay per year for such remarkable talent.

Instead, most are loaded down with bonuses, top-up incentives, stock, options, and as many other freebies as their greedy little arms can hold. Many of the bankers who crashed the economy in 2008 walked away with fortunes, even while their stockholders (and the country) lost their shirts. No wonder what happened, happened. 

Source: 

Brett Arends, 2012, Apple’s CEO on path to first billion, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apples-ceo-on-path-to-first-billion-2012-09-11-22103456?link=MW_story_insert, September 11.

A Flock of Black Swans

- P3 (BA) candidates better read and understand this!

Pic 01: Greek Crisis that hits the World

Pic 02: Mass unemployment and still rising!

What was said in my class? 
Last semester ( about February, 2012), I have said in my modest size P3 class in PJ Kasturi that I am more worried about the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Island, Greek and Spain) Government default more than the after effects of Japan's economic effect of tsunami. [PIC 1 & 2] Guess what? That proved true today as Euro currency is losing credibility and the world of retail investors have exited and poured into the world's last safe investment haven, American Bonds. Just last week, report showed that retailers poured $964 billions into US Treasury Market. 

Are these improbable? Actually not, as P3 candidates are introduced through recent Exam article of the Black Swan concept, made popular by Nassim Taleb in his book Fooled by Randomness. 

Pic 03: I don't know what will happen to me tomorrow! (Nassim T)

Pic 04: Nassim's Best Seller Book

Black Swan - What is it? Black swan theory was developed by Nassim Taleb [PIC 03-05] to explain:
•    the huge impact of unpredictable, rare events that are outside our normal experience and without historical precedent
•    the non-computability of the effect of these rare events because there is no data on which to base calculations
•    the psychological bias that blinds us to the possibility and impact of rare events. We tend to assume that things (such as property price increases) will continue in a predictable way.

Pic 05: Black Swan was never sighted for over 200 years. Thought never to exists, at least statistically.

The phrase ‘black swan event’ is therefore used as a metaphor for the frailty and limitation of any system of thought and planning: bounded rationality. This means that we cannot know all-important factors that will affect the future (and, anyhow, do not have time to evaluate them). We are, in practice, likely to suffer from bounded rationality even with the known knowns because of imperfect research or pressure of time.
 






To illustrate: 

Pic 06: Turkey's Perfect World

Pic 07: Turkey, "Life couldn't be better. Food! Food! Food!"

Imagine you are a turkey [PIC 6-7]. Everyday, you spend a paradisiac life in a garden and a wonderful man comes with a bucket of delicious meal. He has been doing that since you hatch from your egg shell. Your total experience is he is a every turkey's dream man. 

On Thanksgiving Day, instead of bringing the usual bucket of food, he comes in armed with an axe! [PIC 8] What is the probability of you foreseeing that? It is virtually zero or maybe statisiticians called it the Long Tail of the Bell Curve.  This is fits the Black Swan theory that: 

Pic 08: Turkey 'thankfully' became food - A delicious one at that.

1. Huge impact of unpredictable or rare events.
2. Non-computability since he never came in with an axe before. 
3. Psychological bias that blinds you the possibility of you ending on the dining table. 

In P3(BA) the use of Scenario Planning is vital tool when making Strategic Rational Planning. 
 
Below are a host of black swans events. 

Enjoy it as it tells you that our future is not that bright as politicians would like you to believe.

ACCA Candidates need to foresee the 'obvious Black Swan' coming to them. 

1. Do you think that the Big 4 Accounting firms will be a safe employment firm? 
Clue: Think of Arthur Andersen. 

2. Will joining a MNC be considered as sure career progress? 
Clue: Think of difference between Starbucks and Maggi noodles. 

3. Will Asian economies stay resilient despite the record high unemployment in America and Europe? They are at 9.3 million and 18.7million respectively!!  
Clue: Think of what Asian main businesses are. 

4. Should I buy properties now? Its always going up since my grandparents time.

Clue: The answer is in the question!

Pic 09: What is the Probability of the End of the World - Armegeddon? Read Revelation 16:16 and Revelation 19:19 for clues

5. Will the world come to an END? Armegeddon [PIC 10] as made famous be Ben Affleck?
Clue: There will people coming to your doors telling you that. Pay attention to them, I recommend.

In my class, if you pay close attention, you will see how I elaborate the Black Swan Theory and its applications to your career future. Well, its part of P3 syllabus for crying out loud. You gotta to know it.

Best Regards,
Marcus - ACCA Lecturer in theory-narrative papers. 

___________________________________________________________________________________
20 August 2012

Author: Jeffrey Frankel [PIC 10], a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, 

Pic 10: Professor Jeffrey Frankel, Harvard University

Pic 11: World War? Nah, it will never happen!

Wars, Economic Sanctions, Forex Mechanism, Property crisis
Throughout history, major political and economic shocks have often occurred in August, when leaders have gone on vacation believing that world affairs are quiet. Consider World War I’s outbreak in 1914 [PIC 11], the Nazi-Soviet pact in 1939, the Sputnik launch in 1957, the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the failed coup in Moscow of 1991. Then there was the Nixon shock of 1971 (when the American president took the dollar off the gold standard and imposed wage, price, and trade controls), the 1982 international debt crisis in Mexico, the 1992 crisis in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, and the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis in the United States.

Many of these shocks constituted events that had previously been considered unthinkable. They were not even on the radar screen. Such developments have been called “black swans” – events of inconceivably tiny probability.

But, in my view, “black swan” should refer to something else: an event that is considered virtually impossible by those whose frame of reference is limited in time and geographical area, but not by those who consider other countries and other decades or centuries.

The origin of the black swan metaphor was the belief that all swans are white, a conclusion that a nineteenth-century Englishman might have reached based on a lifetime of personal observation and David Hume’s principle of induction. But ornithologists already knew that black swans existed in Australia, having discovered them in 1697.  They should not have been viewed as “unthinkable.”

Pic 11b: Pilots flying directly to your office.

Before September 11, 2001, some experts [PIC 11B] warned that foreign terrorists might try to blow up American office buildings. Those in power did not take these warnings seriously.  After all, “it had never happened before.” Many Americans did not know the history of terrorist events in other countries and other decades.

Likewise, until 2006, most Americans based their economic behavior on the assumption that nominal housing prices, even if they slowed, would not fall, because they had not done so before – within living memory in the US. They may not have been aware that housing prices had often fallen in other countries, and in the US before the 1940’s. Needless to say, many indebted homeowners and leveraged bank executives would have made very different decisions had they thought that there was a non-negligible chance of an outright decline in prices.

From 2004 to 2006, financial markets perceived market risk as very low. This was most apparent in the implicit volatilities in options prices such as the VIX. But it was also manifest in junk-bond spreads, sovereign spreads, and many other financial prices. One reason for this historic mispricing of risk is that traders’ models went back only a few years, or at most a few decades (the period of the late “Great Moderation”). Traders should have gone back much further – or better yet, formed judgments based on a more comprehensive assessment of what risks might confront the world economy.

Pic 12: Big Banks don't fail?!

Starting in August 2007, supposedly singular black swans begin to multiply quickly. “Big banks don’t fail?” [PIC 12] No comment. “Governments of advanced countries don’t default?” Enough said.

Debt troubles in Greece, especially, should not have surprised anyone, least of all northern Europeans. But, even when the Greek crisis erupted, leaders in Brussels and Frankfurt failed to recognize it as a close cousin of the Argentine crisis of 2001-2002, the Mexican crisis of 1994, and many others in history, including among European countries.

 

Nowadays, a eurozone breakup has become one of the most widely discussed possible shocks. Considered unthinkable just a short time ago, the probability that one or more euro members will drop out is now well above 50%. A hard landing in China and other emerging markets is another possibility.

An oil crisis in the Mideast is the classic black-swan event. Each one catches us by surprise: 1956, 1973, 1979, 1990. Oil prices can rise for many other reasons, as they have in recent years. But the most likely crisis scenarios currently stem from either military conflict with Iran or instability in some Arab country. The threat of a supply shock typically fuels a sharp increase in demand for oil inventories – and thus in prices.

The most worrisome financial threat is that currently over-priced bond markets will crash. In theory, inflation (particularly commodity-induced inflation, as in 1973 or 1979) could precipitate a collapse. But this seems unlikely. Default in some euro countries or political dysfunction in the US is a much more likely trigger.

Evidence of extreme dysfunction in US politics is already plain to see, reaching a low in 2011 during the debt-ceiling showdown (also in August), which cost America its AAA sovereign rating from Standard & Poor’s. In theory, as the “fiscal cliff” set for January 1, 2013, approaches, fearful investors should start dumping bonds now. But investors still believe that politicians, aware of the dire consequences of going over the cliff, will again find a last-minute way to avoid it.

Pic 13: First USA Black President - unpredictable event!

Perhaps observers believe that a clear result in November’s elections, one way or the other, would help to settle things. A true black swan – low probability, but high enough to think about – would be a repeat of the disputed 2000 presidential election [PIC 13]. There has been no reform since then to ensure that people’s votes will be counted or that a disputed outcome will not be resolved by political appointees.

Scariest on the black-swan list is a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction. There is a long-standing gap between terrorism experts’ perception of the probability of a nuclear event and the probability as perceived by the public. (Admittedly, the risk is lower now that Osama bin Laden is dead.)

Pic 14: Armageddon as End of the World? Disasters as in Environmental Catastrophe? Economic Meltdown? Divine Judgment? (Please read Matthew 5:5)

Last on the list is an unprecedented climate disaster [PIC 14]. Environmentalists sometimes underestimate the benefits of technological and economic progress when they reason that a finite supply of resources must imply their eventual exhaustion. But it is equally mistaken to believe that a true climate disaster cannot happen simply because one has not already occurred.

Pic 15: Everything is GONE!

Have a nice vacation.

Main source:
Jeffrey Frankel, 2012, A Flock of Black Swans, http://www.project-syndicate.org/print/a-flock-of-black-swans-by-jeffrey-frankel, 20th August.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Serious Humour: Are you ready for lifelong commitment?

Pic 1: Regrets in life?

A woman awakes during the night to find that her husband is not in bed. She puts on her robe and goes downstairs to look for him. She finds him sitting at the kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee in front of him. He appears to be in deep thought, just staring at the wall. She watches as he wiped a tear from his eye and takes a sip of his coffee.

"What's the matter, dear?" she whispers as she steps into the room, "Why are you down here at this time of night?"

Pic 2: Angry dad.

The husband looks up from his coffee, "Do you remember 20 years ago when we were dating, and you were only 16?" he asks solemnly.

The wife is touched to tears thinking that her husband is so caring and sensitive. "Yes, I do" she replies.

The husband paused. The words were not coming easily. "Do you remember when your father caught us in the back seat of my car?"



"Yes, I remember" said the wife, lowering herself into a chair beside him.

The husband continued. "Do you remember when he shoved the shotgun in my face and said,"Either you marry my daughter, or I will send you to jail for 20 years?"

"I remember that too" she replied softly.

He wiped another tear from his cheek and said . . . "I would have gotten out today."

-Pic 3: Release from Prison

Diamonds: Not this girl's best friend (Part I & II)

 - highly relevant to P1 (GRE) 

PART I : THE EXPENSIVE PROPOSAL

Pic 01: Carroll, CEO of Anglo American Ltd, on business analysis, "Men have lost their romanticism. They are not buying enough diamonds."

Anglo American is one of the world’s largest mining companies. Anglo American portfolio of high-quality mining assets and natural resources spans bulk commodities – iron ore and manganese, metallurgical coal and thermal coal; base metals – copper and nickel; and precious metals and minerals – in which it is a global leader in both platinum and diamonds. Anglo American operate in Africa, Europe, South and North America, Australia and Asia.

Anglo American’s diamond interests are represented by 45% shareholding in De Beers, the world's leading diamond company.

Pic 02: Diamonds are forever!

The current boss CEO of the London-based diamond-mining firm, Cynthia Carroll, has found herself under concerted attack from shareholders who are angry about the company’s most recent financial results, published two weeks ago. According to the Telegraph, they described the latest figures as a ‘coup de grace’ in a letter to chairman John Parker, and voiced concerns that the company could be at risk of an takeover because of its weak position.

Investors’ antics got a tad nastier, after they had their initial complaints rejected the by Parker: they have now gone over his head to the firm’s senior independent director, David Challen, calling for Parker to be overruled.

And the cause of all this aggro? Its most recent half-year figures in which Anglo American posted profits of £3.7bn, down 38% from £6bn in the same period in 2011. This was on revenues down 10% from £18.3bn to £16.4bn, and has rattled shareholders’ cages amid turbulent global commodity markets and the growing threat of rival Glencore after its IPO earlier this year. Shares in the company are around 20% lower than they were when Carroll took the top job back in 2007, and 45% below the top price they reached back in May 2008.

Pic 03: Pre-2007 Economic Crisis Proposals, "Will you be my wholly owned subsidiary?"

Pic 04: Hey, where are the men (customers)?

Obviously a lot of the company’s woes can be put down to recession – decreased demand for commodities in recession-hit countries all over the world makes it difficult to keep profits rising. Add to that, there have been legal challenges to several of its projects in South America, and reduced demand for platinum from a depressed car industry has hit the miner’s bottom line hard. But investors will not be interested in excuses when the value of their stock is at stake. The company is undervalued, and faces even graver threats from the Xstrata/Glencore merger which could take place within the next year.

And on men, if they are still making proposals? Well, there are but its just that there is a cheaper substitute. A substitute threat which is defined as "Similar Function, Different Industry." But that topic belongs to P3 (BA), doesn't it? So we shall not go there for this article.

Inexpensive proposal way, "Honey, I have a surprise. It's bigger than diamonds."

There have been calls from several corners in recent months for Carroll to resign, but this is the first time a co-ordinated attack on her position has been presented to senior management. Losing her job at Anglo American would be a stinger: last year she earned £2.17m in a package consisting of £1.17m basic pay and nearly £1m in her annual performance bonus. 

Yes, due to the disappointing performance, this CEO is certainly facing employment termination. Diamonds can kill her career.  So, who says, that Diamond is girl's best friend?




PART II : THE INEXPENSIVE PROPOSAL
 And on How to make a Proposal - Economically?

Flash mobs are renowned for being anything but romantic - until now.

Jack from Boston, Massachusetts has proposed to his girlfriend Teresa Elsey by arranging for dozens of strangers to present her with a single flower each.

In a video that records his genius August 2 proposal, which includes many of the secret operation's impressive nuts and bolts, the young man is seen leading his wife-to-be to the Institute Of Contemporary Art for an after-work date.

Romantic: A man has proposed to his girlfriend using a flash mob. Strangers, like above, handed flowers to Teresa (above) one at a time before a clan later swarmed her with flowers right before he proposed

The young man, whose surname is unknown, told the Huffington Post that since he 'wasn't too nervous about the question itself', he decided to come up with a 'ridiculously complicated plan to worry about instead'.

The pair had visited the museum on their first date.

Growing: As Jack, her boyfriend (left), joined her, they were filmed collecting further flowers as they walked to an after-work date they had planned at Boston's Institute Of Contemporary Art

A group of operatives are overheard throughout the video communicating with one another as they send coordinate the scattered mob's movements to coincide with those of Teresa, a freelance writer.

She is approached by the first stranger once she has left work for the day, however turns the flower down and continues walking on to meet Jack, as planned.

Growing: Strangers approach her thick and fast as she approaches the museum. Jack, meanwhile, sneaks off

Popular: Teresa is swarmed by a crowd of strangers, each armed with a single flower of their own

Romantic: Teresa's ever-expanding bunch of blooms became so large that she was barely able to hold them all

The big question: Jack then gets down on one knee and proposes to a clearly delighted Teresa, who accepts

As Jack strolls with his girlfriend along the Boston waterfront, the target, as the operatives describe her, is approached by a stream of other strangers, all armed with the pink and white blooms.

The load begins to swell so much so that Jack offers a hand, no doubt allowing her more room to receive others he has planned.
As the couple close in on the dock in front of the museum, the crowd turns into a swarm.

Dozens of strangers gather around the beaming young woman who struggles to hold all of the flowers in her two hands.

Uh...humm,,. this is quite self-explanatory

Victorious in tuxedo, "Thanks guys! Who needs diamonds?!"

And they live happily ever after... (Well, uhh.... not quite. There are bills, diapers, teen kids, but let's not go there, shall we?)

Her answer draws a rousing applause from the mob who witness the couple embrace before Jack leads Teresa on to a private dinner.

Before they vacate the dock, however, they are high-fived by his two brothers, who stand at the end of the dock in tuxedos of their own.

Jack said: 'It's been such a gift to share our joy with family members and friends and strangers - to know that other people are joining us in that moment, and somehow believing in the crazy project.'

Exam Question 

Ok! I think you have fun. Now for the serious stuff. 

Note that the above in red bold words. These are real life case of institutional investors activism. The firm is an outsider dominated with investors intervening when their portfolio company is under-performing.

Now that you have enjoyed the article above, will you be able to answer P1 (GRE) Question on  

"Construct arguments the case on why should Institutional Investors intervene in Anglo American Jewelry Limited after the disappointing financial announcement."  


Well that will be a cool 6 to 8 marks.  Answers were provided for this style of answer in class. 

Tip: There is an exam question which deals with this similar scenario. 

Sources:  

• Michael Northcourt, 2012, Anglo American boss Carroll faces shareholder wrath,http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1145077/Anglo-American-boss-Carroll-faces-shareholder-wrath/, 13th August. 
• Anglo American, 2012, Company's Background, http://www.angloamerican.com/business/diamonds/operate, Visited on 18th August 
• Kristen Au, 2012,, The most romantic wedding proposal ever? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2188877/Woman-stunned-flash-mob-strangers-hand-flowers-boyfriend-pops-question.html#ixzz23hXlOIIJ, August 15

TOP 7 FACTORS THAT MAKE MEN DUMB?

- Highly related to all ACCA Male students.

It'd be nice to think that IQ is not a big determining factor for how successful and happy we are in life.

But not so, several studies will say.

One study by the University of Delaware found that contrary to popular belief, the higher your IQ, the more likely you are socially smart.

Another study, this time Swedish, has drawn a link between lower IQ scores and suicidal feelings, hypothesising that lower IQs mean poorer problem solving abilities, and thus a diminished ability in dealing with stress in difficult situations.

And while genetics make up an estimated 40 to 80 per cent of a person's IQ, there are a number of factors that determine how dumb you get.

Here goes, the TOP 7 Reasons that make men dumb:

FACTOR NO. 7 : Long Management Meetings  

And that those people who spend hours and hours holding long, pointless meetings are not only lacking in EQ, they are probably lacking in IQ as well?


"You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute.

His study found that people perform less well on IQ tests directly after spending time in small social groups than they did when they were alone.

And if their performance was publicly revealed and ranked among their peers, they performed even worse.

It is theorised that this is as being in the presence of someone whom you think is smarter than you triggers debilitative cognitive responses by making us act stupid because we feel stupid.

Brain scans revealed that just being reminded of how the rest of group were scoring lit up parts of the brain responsible for fear, anxiety and emotional response.





FACTOR NO. 6 : Jet Lag leads to permanent brain damage


















A study conducted to investigate the effect of flying on Indian male and female flight attendants (FAs) found that a whopping 67.47 per cent of FAs who fly more than 10 years suffer from memory loss.
The paper, published in 2007, found that stress, loss of memory and headaches appeared to share the same etiology such as hypoxia (the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply to body parts), jetlag and irregular sleep.

Another study, this time conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, found that hamsters subjected to extreme, chronic jetlag had about half the normal rate of new neuron birth in a part of the brain, by as much as 50 per cent.

These animals, when later tested in learning and memory, performed poorer than the control group hamsters.

It wasn't that the hamsters were sleep deprived. The two groups of hamsters slept the same total number of hours, but one group had their hours screwed up by sleeping at times completely unrelated to their external environment.

The most frightening point is it is permanent. Or at least a long term problem. The learning and memory problems remained even after the hamsters were put back on a 28 days back-to-normal schedule.






FACTOR NO.5 : The Firstborn is the Smartest

Several studies have found that firstborn children score higher on IQ tests than their younger siblings - a fact backed-up by history, where most Nobel Prize winners and US presidents are firstborns.
However, as a consolation, the effect seems to be slight - a study found that the average difference in IQ was just three points higher in an eldest child than in the second.

Researchers believe this effect is due to family dynamics, and not biological factors. A firstborn is likely to have had more alone time with his or her parents, and those extra months or years of undivided attention can translate into IQ results.

But all is not lost if you are a secondborn. Older siblings tend to exhibit more dutiful and cautious behaviour than their siblings, while younger siblings often develop other skills, like social charm, inventiveness and confidence.







FACTOR NO.4 : Mommy's Love and Nutrients

In a 2011 study from the UK, kids who were breastfed as babies had higher scores on tests of vocabulary and reasoning at age five than those who weren't breastfed.

The physical bond between mom and her child promotes the child emotional and cognitive development at a rate five times faster than a child without being breastfed.

"There are essential fatty acids in breast milk which are good for cell development and brain development in particular," said Amanda Sacker, one of the authors of the new study from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.

She added that there also could be differences in hormones and growth factors which are lacking in formula. A third possibility is that the act of cuddling during breastfeeding sessions may be translating to better smarts in the future.

This adds on the the host of benefits science has found in favour of breastfeeding, including lower infection risks, stronger lungs and less asthma.

Mommy's constant love that includes worries, anxieities and at times panic attack that the child doesn't perform to behavioural and academic expectations are actually a good thing. It persuades the child to be determined and focused in order to gain mommy's acceptance and love.

Invariably, this promotes achievement and mental development in the form of higher IQ.







FACTOR NO.3 : Gadgets and City Life

Dumb 03: Playing non-essential gadgets

Researchers from the University of Michigan found that just being in an urban environment can impair our basic mental processes.

After spending just a few minutes in a crowded city street, your memory capabilities are affected and the mind suffers from a drop in self-control.

In a series of psychological tests, subjects who walked through a city ended up in a worse mood and scored poorly in attention and working memory tests.

The reason is simple: A city, with a concentration of activity in a small area, is a brain drain. The mind has to pay attention to so much stimuli and irrelevant things that what results is an overload on the brain's processing power. Gadgets such as iPhones, Samsung and Notepads sucked up so much time that inhibits brain development.

This is in contrast to looking at nature and wide areas of greenery, which has been proven to be beneficial to the brain. One study has demonstrated, for example, that hospital patients recover more quickly when greenery is visible from their hospital windows.






FACTOR No.2 : Couch Potatoes & Junk Food

Dumb 02: Lack exercise and too much non-nutritious food

A study has found that children three years old and younger who stuff themselves with foods high in fats, sugars and processed foods grow up to have a lower IQ, while those who eat a healthy diet end up as smarter adults.

This is as the brain is believed to be growing at its fastest rate during the first three years of life, and depriving the brain of proper nutrients at this crucial period may have serious ramifications later on in life.

Eating junk food is not only linked to duller minds in childhood. Other studies have found that diet in adulthood also affects mental performance in later years.

A study, published in a 2003 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, found that obesity works independently, as well as hand in hand with other risk factors, to cause a decline in thinking ability, especially for memory and learning.

Those with a "body mass index" of 30 or more performed significantly worse in tests of mental ability, the Boston study found.

It was suggested that obesity may damage brain function by making it harder for blood to reach the brain.

Other studies have speculated that the reduced cognitive abilities of obese people might be due to their resistance to sugar (caused by prolonged exposure to excessive sugar), which affects the health of brain cells.

Exercise moderately will keep the sugar level in checked and promotes better blood circulation that leads to better oxygen supply to the brains.












AND THE NO.1 FEARED FACTOR THAT MAKES MEN DUMB IS ...















FACTOR NO.1 : Beautiful Women

Dumb 01.1: The most destructive, beautiful factor to man's IQ

In 2009, a study demonstrated that after a short interaction with an attractive woman, men displayed poorer performance in mental tasks. The more beautiful the woman, the stronger the effect.
That's not all. A more recent study showed that even the mere anticipation of interacting with a woman is enough to impair the cognitive abilities of men.

Researcher Sanne Nauts and her team from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands had participants take part in a cognitively demanding test.

During the test, they were told that a person with either a male or female name would be watching them through a webcam.

Dumb 01.2:  Woman watching you? Be careful, detrimental to ACCA Scores

The participants knew nothing of the invisible "watcher", other than his or her sex. But just knowing an invisible woman was watching them was enough to severely impact their performance.
In another experiment, the researchers decided to tell the participants that they would be watched by a woman before they took the test.

In reality, the participants never took the test, but took another cognitive test to measure their current level of mental function. Researchers found that just the anticipation of being watched by a woman was enough to make the men score terribly.

Interesting enough, both studies found that this effect only applies to men. Women apparently are not made dumber by interacting with men.


VERDICT
ACCA Male candidates should stopped blaming themselves why their exam scores are so low. In Audit Language, this is an inherent risk to be surrounded by highly intelligent fairer sex. Yes, they as scientifically proven, makes you dumb.

Otherwise, why would an otherwise intelligent man whistle like a fool when a beautiful lady passes by. Can he not talk intelligently? Like saying, "Howdy lady, have a nice day?" Oh no... men make stupid remarks like "Where have you been all my life? or Have we met before?" Duh!

Know your risks! As P1 (GRE-ACCA) paper states on Risks Management - "Be forewarned in order to be Forearmed."


ACTIONS
In class, in order to have optimum score in ACCA Exams, the following strategies are absolutely essential:

1. Focus on the lectures. Not classmates!
2. Take notes to minimise wandering mind or wondering if the lady across the room is cute.
3. Throw away your smart phones, gadgets and delete all software games.
4. Focus on practicing exam questions.
5. Cease looking into the mirror. Remember, we don't want to look good and attract ladies attention. Look into Past Years Questions instead.
6. Spend 6-8 hours a day reading manuals, revising Q&A and doing own notes.
7. Stop thinking if your classmates are smarter. It implies you are not. HARD WORKING people succeeds.
8. Get 45 minutes solo exercise a week like jogging, swimming or washing dad's car.


CONCLUSION
I promise you, guys. It will make you SMARTER and the best part, it has no medical side effects. Your brains become sharper and develop employable skills.But you may ask, What happens when I graduate from ACCA and work in office surrounded by the fairer sex?" Well, all I can say is don't look too far into the future. I am sure scientists will come up with appropriate strategies to manage work.

Source: Asiaone.com (Singapore newspaper)