Summary and analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary and analysis - Essay Example The quantitative information collected like the number of events under the three categories of big, small and medium, event frequency, number of customers covered, selling prices and costs for different items, cost of equipment, various costs etc. is listed out and based on this, financial projections have been made to study the viability of the project. Projections have been made from January to December taking seasonal variations into account. Three products juice, smoothies and soup are assumed to be sold at specified prices. Depreciation of trailer and equipment has been shown as trailer cost and equipment cost. Almost the entire investment is assumed to be funded by a loan. of  £30,000. Profit projections are made month-wise and the Present value of the cash flows has been calculated using a discount rate of 4.4% and the total PV works out to  £75653.53, much higher than the investment of  £30287.64. However, the initial investment seems to have been calculated incorrectly by including various items of expenditure like electricity, petrol etc. and an additional amount of  £500. The correct value of investment should be  £22,450 including only the trailer cost  £14,950 and the equipment cost  £7,500. The NPV will be  £75,636.53- £14,950 =  £60,686.53. The NPV analysis shows that the project is viable and it can be taken up. The profit projections will be realistic only if the assumptions made about the selling prices, costs and the volume of business are correct. Moreover, as pointed out earlier, the calculation of the initial investment is incorrect and needs to be corrected. Moreover, the discount rate of 4.45 per month appears to be very high, since this will be equivalent to an annual rate of more than 50%. However, these corrections will only have the effect of improving the NPV. Based on the analysis, the proposal is viable and

The Burkean Parlor Essay Example for Free

The Burkean Parlor Essay In an ideal world, a Burkean Parlor writing center, whether the collaborative type or in its own pure or hybrid form should be capable of seamlessly merging with the control kind and even harmlessly synthesized with the Storehouse and Garret models. In contrast with the pure Storehouse and Garret models, or the individual and the exterior genre, a Burkean Parlor is dreamed to be an open-ended knowledge center where there is individuality of the genius as there are collaborative knowledge processes. It can also be the interior type blending perfectly well with its own anti-thesis – the Storehouse exterior concept. This is the new hybrid Burkean Parlor writing center – a composite of the Storehouse and the Garret models metamorphosing both as a collaborative and control knowledge center. The knowledge and writing center as envisioned here recognizes and anticipates the varying needs and psyche of the scholar. The current pragmatic and philosophical needs of the writers everywhere demand the most motivating atmosphere that will encourage a spontaneous, prolific and imaginative flow of creativity. This flow of knowledge, although extremely fluid as it is rigid, demands a new form of writing center. Call it a hybrid Burkean Parlor or a new form of intellectual hub where every genius can be his own individual or in collaboration as well as in caution as a control button; where knowledge can be both sourced internally and externally. This neo-Burkean Parlor can be ideally called the Hub. Andrea Lunsford would be glad to join it as she must admit that in the scheme of linearity, her Burkean model could be slowly being rendered redundant and restrictive the way it did with the Storehouse and Garret models. It is as open as any knowledge center and can be as private as a virtual online writing domain. The Hub recognizes the various forces within the universe that creates or brings knowledge constructs to those who become congruent with the forces that make writers write well and thinkers think well. The Hub in any university is the brain as well as the heart of the intellectual interfacing with the school community or anyone who happens to exude the radio frequency of the Hub. It is the former student lounge as well as the internet cafe without the walls that divide the knowledge of the elite or the masa, the common man. It is equipped with the latest communication gadgets and circuitry that shames the traditional classroom: in fact, the Hub is the reason to come to school (Glasser. 1990). Its emptiness is a reason to move out of the school to find another Hub elsewhere. In the Hub, one can commune with oneself and bring out the most intriguing electronic autobiography for every one to read and develop a sense of belonging. As most schools turn to exclusivity, the Hub recognizes no special talents – it is an inclusive school; only for those with a clean heart to write and the need to discover knowledge without the academic compulsion to do so. Freedom is the pervasive atmosphere, but discipline is sharp and vigilance foremost. Here, order is non-existent but the Hub is not chaotic. The Hub graduates students as many times as the students want, as well as it elevates writers to the next level of knowledge and writing. The Hub would look like heaven on earth. Each one talks the same language despite the highly diverse backgrounds with each move and gesture of the writer giving a message of peace and quiet to allow knowledge and scholarly work to evolve in pure immaculate fashion – plagiarism free. The place is a real hub – teachers freely imparting knowledge and learners interfacing with other learners to collaborate and accumulate knowledge from within and without. It is freedom without the control and there is control without the pressure. New learners develop as they are inspired by the oneness in the Hub. While there are many voices, there is only one song sung in the Hub – creative writing? The Hub would hire only people who believe in the richness of culture, the phenomenon of collaboration, the variedness of the sources of knowledge whether the internal Garret type or the Storehouse kind. Here, the manager is the chief motivator, the philosopher of the writing center and the only person therein who can write the best about the smallest thing on earth and lead the reader to strongly believe that it is the biggest thing on earth. Lunsford would have loved the place to tickle her into creating the new Burkean Parlor once more. Inside the Hub, the students would be taught on stabilizing ethics even in the most trying times; on critical thinking without the excesses of rhetorics; writing skills that can move the heart to tears and chuckles no end; and, an on sustaining an imaginative mind to create a peaceful written or online virtual world where the ideal is just a pen stroke away. The lessons here are endless and borderless. Everyone is welcome to be one among them. It is a university within a university. No encroachment here; only an existence arising out of another’s existence: a university creating another university: a university that has not lost its soul. (Lewis, 2006) The Hub will make sure that students are guided into maturity and wisdom without the painful experiences of everyday life. For them, life is both pain and pleasure and one cannot exist without the other. Acceptance here is academic, hence pain is predictable but bearable, but it becomes truly excruciating as he beings to write. Here, the students are given a tour of life itself, and the crossroads available to each. Everything is there: the experiences, all of them, at the push of a button. The student is given the rare experiences of his lifetime: in physical as well as virtual realities. Inside the Hub, there is no difference between virtual pain and physical pain. Both are felt. The writers and knowledge worker in the Hub learns to be surprised at his own writing skill – able to grapple with the exact word and the best adjective fit for the scenario. Indeed, the Hub is a writers’ paradise where awareness (Clark, 2002) is knowledge itself It would not be difficult to relate to the students because the Hub creates the mood for the writer. Anyone can come at any phase of the activity within without feeling like a stranger and still come out with all the stories that abound. List of References Lewis, H. R. Excellence without a soul: How a great university forgot education. NEW York, Perseus Books, 2006. Glasser, W. , The quality school: Managing students without coercion. New York, Harper and Row Publishers. 1990. Clark, R.. Global awareness: thinking systematically about the world. New York. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. , 2002. Glasser, W. The quality school: Managing students without coercion, New York: Harper Row Publishers, Inc. 1990. Villa, R. , Thosuand, J.. Creating an inclusive school, Alexandria, Virginia, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1995.

Why Governments Regulate The Health Care Industry Economics Essay

Why Governments Regulate The Health Care Industry Economics Essay In the first part of the essay we define market failure and look at the model of perfect market, we then compare this with health care market and find out the causes or factors that results in failure in the health care market. In the second part we will look at the ways governments in four different countries have intervened to ensure that the causes of the market failure are corrected. Market failure can defined as a situation whereby there is a failure to achieve an efficient allocation of resources within the market economy. A fundamental problem with the concept of market failure, as economists occasionally recognize, is that it describes a situation that exists everywhere (Nelson, 1987; Dahlman, 1979). There are different kinds of market that exist in the society with the perfect market and monopoly at the extremes and the others in between this spectrum. Perfect Market The perfect market model also referred to as a perfect competition is the most important model because it serves a benchmark from which other kinds of market can be viewed. The main objective of any firm in the market is to maximise profit and the price of the goods and services are determined by market forces. The perfect market is based on the following assumptions; There is full information, The transactions are impersonal, There are no barriers to entry or exit, There are many buyer and sellers, and they cannot influence the market price, The products are homogenous which means that the buyers cannot differentiate between products. Finally the goods are private goods. Why is health care market different? The first reason for this is that health care is a public good which is different from a private good as seen in the perfect market model, public good has two features, non-rivalrous which means that the use of it by one person does not stop another from benefitting from it, and it is non-excludable this means it will difficult to prevent people from enjoying the benefits. With public good there is what is known as a free-rider problem people will not pay for them because others are willing to pay for them. The nature of public goods poses a problem for the market because the private sector will not make a profit from their provision since everyone can enjoy it whether they pay or not. Health care is also a public good and under provision of it also leads to market failure. Health care is also a merit good that society values and believes that people should have them because consumption is believed to generate positive externalities-this will be discussed in the next paragraph as we ll as other causes of market failure. Causes of market failure in health care 1. Externalities Externalities also referred to as third-party effects occur when others are affected by the transaction arising from the production and consumption of health care for which the costs or benefits are not taken into account.The core of the argument against market failure analysis is derived from the study of transactions. (Zerbe et al p7).Whenever there is a transaction externalities are known to occur which leads to transaction costs. This is defined as the resources necessary to transfer, establish and maintain property rights. The property rights was developed by R H Coase where he stated that individuals form firms to reduce transaction costs. Externalities may arise in different ways and they may be either positive (beneficial) or negative (harmful), and can be during production or consumption. Examples of negative externality is smoking which results in external costs on a third party passive smoking and also alcohol ingestion can lead to antisocial behaviour. Vaccination agains t infectious diseases is a form of positive externality where an individual is certain of protection by the consumption of another person. An example of external cost of production is via pollution from an industry and external benefits of production is the patent rights given to firm that discovered a new drug, stopping all other firms from copying the products. When there are externalities in health care this will not lead to a perfect market hence market failure will occur. The externalities discussed so far can be referred to as selfishly motivated. There is externality referred to as caring externality which occurs when individuals get personal satisfaction from knowing that a person is getting the health care they need. Externalities are around us every day but they are not taken into account whenever there is a transaction, this is because property rights are not well defined. Health care is not owned by anyone so therefore there is economic incentive to protect it and the on ly way the property rights can be well defined and protected will be through government regulation e.g. by banning smoking in public places and also making vaccinations compulsory. Even with government legislation it is difficult to achieve this. (Zerbe,1976,1980;Medema and Zerbe,1999a),in a world in which property rights are fully specified and in which transaction costs are zero, the allocation of resources will be efficient. This kind of world does not exist, this is an indication that market failure will always occur. 2. Imperfect information Economics is concerned with the efficient use of limited productive resources for the purpose of attaining the maximum satisfaction of our material wants (Jackson and McConnell, 1985, p3), this involves transacting parties utilising these resources to meet and satisfy their wants. This is based on the assumption that the parties have full information about the goods and services being bought or sold and also about each other. These assumptions describe a market where there is perfect information (Stiglitz, 1993).In the health care there is imperfect information and/or information asymmetry. Information asymmetry can be defined (using the acquisition of health insurance as a classical example) as situation whereby client that wants to get a health insurance has more detailed information about himself than the insurance company. Imperfect information is the case of a physician who has more knowledge than patients. The uncertainty of illness and the cost of it when it arises is one the principal reasons for taking health insurance. Two problems arise whenever there is insurance cover; these are adverse selection and moral hazard. Information asymmetry and adverse selection was first described by George Akerlof in his article, The market for lemons: Quality, Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism. Adverse selection is often referred to as a hidden information problem in a market, where for example sellers may know more about a product than a customer. (Estrin and Laidler). During the 1980s, when HIV/AIDS was first discovered insurance companies suffered from adverse selection as a lot on individuals with this disease took increased insurance cover without disclosing their status. This led to the suggestion that genetic testing should be used for individuals who may wish to acquire health insurance.The concept moral hazard was first defined by the French economist Dreze in 1961 (Mooney 1994, p 135), but it is often described as a hidden action because it results in be havioural changes in patients once their expected losses are covered by health insurance. Ehrlich and Becker (1972) distinguished between ex ante and ex post moral hazard. The former occur in a healthy state when individuals can engage in preventive care such as regular exercises and good eating habits and the latter when the individual is ill, but since the health be it taxation or other forms of health insurance which allows a subsidise price or free at the point of use, there is a greater demand by the patient than it will be if the patient was to pay all the costs. Donaldson and Gerard (1993, p 31), comments,thus, the market fails to transmit efficient price signals to consumers. Donaldson and Gerrard (1993) identified two types of provider moral hazard. They identify moral hazard by doctors who are identifiable actors in the health care system and also moral hazard by hospitals. Doctors are known to act on behalf of the patients both as the demander and supplier of services and do not account for the cost. First on the supply side they are the provider of health care and on the demand side there is information asymmetry. There are different reimbursement which affects doctors attitudes and two that affects the patients attitudes ( charges to patients, private practice).Provider moral hazard occurs most commonly with the fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursement doctors are paid on the quantity of services; more services will result in a higher income. Therefore there is a financial incentive for physicians to provide care in excess of what the patients may require if they had full information. There is not much literature on hospital moral hazard so this can be a n area for future development. 3. Imperfect competition The perfect market provide the best means of making sure that the economy is efficient by encouraging firms to compete and also creating choice. These conditions for efficiency serve as a benchmark to help identify sources of allocative inefficiency referred to as market failures. But in the real world the perfect market does not exist as Hausman argued, when taken literally, the notion of market failure is of little relevance, because perfectly competitive equilibrium, the benchmark against which market fail, does not obtain. Despite this the competitive market have been used on the assumptions on which it was formed, as Amelia Fletcher, Director of Markets and Policies Initiatives commented, Competition is a rivalrous process, in which firms compete effectively to give the consumers a better deal. The question is that is this obtainable in health care with the uncertainty that surrounds ill health? The first problem here is the limited information has about the outcomes and benefit s of various medical treatments. Individuals rarely have the same illness over time so there is little opportunity to acquire information and even on those with long standing chronic illness like diabetes who may have information. The changing world of advanced technologies means that there will be information disparities. Oligopoly is the dominant market model in health care and McPake and Normand (2008, p 141) noted, the key feature of an oligopoly is that the decision made by one firm depends on the decision made by other firms, i.e. there is a high degree of interdependence between firms. Thus there may be incentives for hospitals to collude which results in adverse outcomes for the society. It is generally accepted that competition works best when there is excess capacity, but in health care there is excess demand. 4. Inequality and poverty An individual ability to purchase health care depends upon his income to a large extent. In standard economic theory its the ability and willingness to pay that determines how resources are maximally utilised but this does not happen in the real world as we have noted from previous sections in this essay. Goodwin (2005) commented that, hospitals make demand and other raw materials from suppliers with the expectation that the final products will be bought by consumers-the demand by consumers are those backed by the consumers ability to pay. So what is important in a perfect market is effective demand i.e., there is distribution of resources to meet the basic human needs. Therefore if for example few wealthy people desire a particular commodity and many poor people lack money to purchase basic health needs then the market will be stimulated to create those commodities for the rich, hence the market will fail. Government intervention and regulation of health care market From our discussion it can be seen that intervention is necessary to counteract the causes of market failure as well as the consequences such as adverse selection and moral hazard. Boadway and Wildasin (1984, p 61) suggest that, while typically the remedy for market failure due to public goods is for the public sector to provide the good, the remedy for externalities is often to provide incentives to the private sector to produce the correct amount. We will examined detailed evidence from four countries: the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA),France and Finland to ascertain how they intervene and regulate their health care systems. Methods of government intervention 1. State provision One of the main ways of solving market failure is through public funding of the health service. In the UK, France and Finland hospitals are funded through taxes but in UK it is through general taxation while France and Finland use a social insurance system. This system ensures universal coverage for the population, prevents exploitation of patients by monopoly of providers. The main problem is the issue moral hazard which is more common in publicly tax funded system in UK than the social insurance system of Finland and France. In the UK the issue of moral hazard is controlled by using gatekeepers, waiting lists, waiting times. In France and Finland price mechanism is used to deter moral hazard. Compared to the USA where it is more of private insurance, co-payments, deductibles and medical savings account schemes have been used as ways of reducing moral hazard. Donaldson and Gerard (1993, p 72) argued that, even the US health care system recognises the shortcomings of a total reliance upon market forces. The main form of government regulation there is in the form of insurance schemes for elderly people (Medicare) and indigent people (Medicaid). But in the USA, adverse selection is very common and it also occurs in UK but to a lesser extent, but this is almost non-existent in the social insurance system (France and Finland). 2. Taxation and subsidies Imperfections in the market lead to inefficient allocation of resources and this leads to negative or positive externalities. Taxation is used to discourage certain behaviours like monopolising and overpricing and subsidies can help to reduce the cost of paying for merit goods like health care. Governments in all four countries for example in order to reduce the negative externalities caused by smoking introduced taxes for the purchase for cigarettes and also legislate that companies should advertise the dangers of smoking on the pack of cigarettes sold.Antirust legislation are passed in all four countries e.g. law prohibiting the formation of monopolies and preventing imperfect competition. 3. Regulation Dolan and Olsen (2002), commented that there is constant pressure for more spending in most health services around the world, therefore policy makers have to impose regulatory measures on the providers of services to achieve efficient allocation of the resources. Regulation can be through price control, quality control e.t.c. Regulation of pharmaceuticals is one area where most of government intervention occur, for example in the UK, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence(NICE) issues guidelines on which drugs are approved and can also be used. Also sets a ceiling on how much the cost should be but one main disadvantage is that it can exclude the use of new and effective treatment because of the costs. In USA there is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which also a regulatory body. In France there is the Agence Francaise de Securite Sanitaire des Produits de Sante (AFSSAPS), and in Finland the National Agency for Medicines. 4. Cost benefit analysis Government intervention must take into account the cost benefit analysis, if the benefits are more than the costs. Then the government should collect taxes and provide the good. Government failure Government failure can occur when mechanisms put in place to improve the market failure worsens the situation and lead to inefficiency and inequity in the health care and also create distortion. The following can result in government failure; 1. Inefficiency of State provision In all four countries political self interest can lead to inefficiency and worsen the market failure already present because politicians can design policies to retain power rather than maximise efficiency. In France and Finland the taxation is usually higher and results in more expenditure and in the UK the citizens do not know how much is been used for health care and other sectors of the economy. 2. Changes in government policies In the USA insurance firms can find it difficult to plan without knowledge of taxes, subsidies e.t.c and this will lead to inefficiency. 3.Free markets usually leads to more efficient provision of health care(USA as an example) which allows the law of demand and supply to determine how the market works 4. Lack of incentives Undesirable incentives usually create inefficiencies, for example in France where doctors are paid by salary in some hospitals this will lead to inefficiency. 5. Lack of information Government can lack information just as much as the market because most times the government do not know what kind of health care the consumer really needs and provides this based on the information they have and may not even know the full costs/benefits of the policy. 6. Bureaucracy Most times procedures of the government are usually cumbersome and this cuts across all the four countries. Governments respond more slowly to changes and also the time it takes from planning to implementation may cause policies to be ineffective. Conclusion Market failure is known to exist in all market economy and the health market is not an exception. It has been shown that there reasons why health care market may not work efficiently, thereby necessitating government intervention. Health care is a public good and coupled with the externalities and information gaps are causes of market failure which requires correction but a sufficient justification for government intervention. Intervention is known to be costly, so therefore for it to be effective a cost-benefit analysis to suggest it is worthwhile needs to undertaken to avoid government failure which lead to market failure in itself.

Independent Novel Essay on Pride and Prejudice -- essays research pape

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice â€Å"It is truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.† This quote out of the novel is the very first sentence and is also one of the themes of this novel. Though it may seem like a strange theme it was actually quite good, if not great. It gave the story funny moments, unsure twists, and a type of romantic adventure that almost every girl loves. The theme is simple, yet keeps the audiences interested and involved in thinking what will happen next. Another theme that the novel has is the idea of not judging people by their overall facade, but looking closer into what is truly going on, and in the process of doing that finding yourself as well. Though that theme may be a little difficult to recognize because young ladies in this novel, mainly the Bennet girls, generally think of nothing other than finding a good husband. Though that may be the case, this theme is still visible in the text. There was only one Bennet girl, Elizabeth Bennet, who did not constantly think of finding a husband and was the same young lady that had to read between the lines not only to find herself but to also reveal her love for another. On top of that Elizabeth Bennet, had a mind of her own and had opinions that some women did not think to be â€Å"civil† for that time period. Yet her opinions were very down to earth and honest. That surprised and fascinated a certain gentleman, a Mr. Darcy. It gave h...

The Concept of Satan in World Religions :: essays research papers fc

The concept of Satan in world religions is an interesting one that has not sufficiently been studied by scholars. We all know that Satan is a familiar character from Christianity; does the red-pajama'd, soul-stealing badass, however, appear in other religions as well, drinking the blood of newborn babes and raping evildoers with his white-hot thorned penis? As it turns out, he does (although not in his characteristic red pajamas). In Hinduism, for example, there is an evil trickster known as Majapudu, who is reputed to have twelve horns, eyes of fire, and noxious flatulence that can kill an entire village in minutes, like mustard gas. Worshipers in the south of India and in Burma, fearful of Majapudu's power, reportedly have developed an elaborate set of rites intended to pacify this worst of demons. Some of the rites include the ritual sacrifice of all infants born in the month of D'vindi (roughly mid-November to mid-December of our calendar). The religion of the aborigines of the Ukraine has a similar character, Thauraza. No traditions give any direct description of Thauraza, though, He is said to travel around the countryside in a giant ball of fire, only stepping out to devour the occasional soul and send it to thousands of years of torment in his miles-long sulphurous bowels. Not all Satan characters in world religions, though, are terrifying. Others are more like tricksters, or, even worse, like that frat brother everyone had who was always able to score at any party, no matter what. The Indonesians, for example, tell of a mysterious stranger known as Jobimba, or "mystery man," who would occasionally come into a town, seduce all of the women under thirty, and then leave them pregnant and unfulfilled by their less seductive husbands. The resulting social dysfunction that would ensue was said to be worse than that caused by a thousand episodes of "Dr. Phil." In sum, many world religions talk about Satan (or someone who looks a lot like him). Maybe that's the most important thing about Satan-- he goes by many names and wears many faces (the Devil, the Lord of the Flies, Prince of Darkness, even Jobimba).

Satisfaction Gained from Blogging :: Blogs

Satisfaction Gained from Blogging The question most frequently asked about blogging is why. What is in a blog that makes it something unique that people find attractive enough to want to write about their daily lives to the whole world? While there are many reasons bloggers do what they do, I’m looking specifically at what satisfaction is gained from it. The blog I have observed over the past few weeks is very much like a regular journal posted by Jim. He talks about anything and everything he deems important enough in his life. Generally speaking, he posts about real events and thoughts on real things that happen directly in his life. His posts go back quite a ways too, about a year, and he posts daily. To me, this sounds almost addicting. It was at this point that I began to wonder what made blogging so addicting and questioned the enjoyment and pleasure factors that are involved. I finally emailed Jim and asked him why he blogs and who he blogs for. His answer was the expected answer; "Really, I just do it for myself. My thoughts have no...order, really...they're all very disjointed and random. I don't know why anyone reads mine, it's really not that good and not as interesting as some of the others out there. Though I am flattered when people tell me they do enjoy it. I also think they're crazy, but that's not the point...My friends do theirs as a journal of sorts...but I try not to write anything too incredibly personal." I think many people like Jim want their readers to think that they just do it for themselves and not for any real reasons. However if this were true, no blogger would write their journals online in the first place. The idea of having potentially thousands of people reading their blogs and commenting on them is enough to make bloggers post. If Jim and all those out there that really just do it for themselves they would keep it private. He states that he doesn’t do his as a journal like his friends, but upon reading a few entries, you’ll find that is exactly like a journal, and some of his posts are extremely personal. â€Å"Though I am flattered when people tell me they do enjoy it.† That kind of reinforcement from the internet public is precisely the idea I am trying to get across to the bloggers who may be in denial about doing it just for themselves.

Project Management Wembley Essay

Project Description The aim of the Wembley Stadium project was to build a new 90,000 seat state of art stadium. The new stadium was going to be used for a variety of functions ranging from football and rugby matches to concerts and private events. The stadium was to have a 50-year design life, and be both functional and architecturally significant. In addition, it was essential that the stadium allowed as much daylight and ventilation to reach the pitch as possible. A main goal was to have the build achieve UEFA five-star stadium status. The project was to be funded by a combination of state (National Lottery Fund) and private investment. Multiplex Multiplex is a global contractor based in Australia with expertise across the entire property sector. John Roberts started the firm in 1962 and was President for the next 44 years. In 2002, Roberts passed control of the firm to his son, Andrew. However, one of the last deals that John brought to the table before his retirement was the Wembley Stadium project. Multiplex had completed a number of stadiums prior to the Wembley project, most notably Stadium Australia. Stadium Australia was used as the Olympic stadium for the 2000 summer Olympics. It was constructed at a cost of $690 million and was able to hold 110,000 spectators. Although the Stadium Australia project was a success, Multiplex began to realize that their was much more risk in stadium construction than large-scale landmark buildings. Multiplex won the Wembley stadium contract after selection through a competitive bidding process in 1999. The bidding process was first narrowed down to two bids, however, it was eventually reopened to include two additional contractors. After final review, Multiplex signed a contract to  complete Wembley stadium at a fixed-price cost of  £352m. Mott MacDonald Mott MacDonald was the lead designer of the new Wembley stadium. They are a UK based employee-owned multidisciplinary consulting serving the public and private sectors world-wide. Cleveland Bridge Cleveland Bridge was the initial steel contractor associated with the project. They are based in Darlington, England and have a renowned reputation for bridge building. The Old Wembley Stadium The Empire Stadium in Wembley, popularly known as Wembley Stadium, was the most famous football ground in the world. After it opened in 1923, it evolved into England’s national team stadium for football matches. The FA Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United on April 28, 1923 was the first event to take place at Wembley Stadium. The official attendance for the event was 126,047, which is still the largest for any football match in England. A year later, international football made its debut as England tied 1-1 with Scotland. Since then Wembley has hosted 78 FA Cup Finals, 258 England senior internationals, the 1966 World Cup, 40 League Cup Finals, 6 European Cup Finals, and Euro’96. However, it is not just football that has made Wembley stadium great through the years. In 1948, Great Britain won 23 medals at the Olympic games featured at the stadium. In addition, the stadium has hosted such events as boxing matches, rugby championships, greyhound racing, hockey, and even Evel Knivel. With some much history and importance, it was no surprise that a modern stadium was needed to continue the Wembley tradition into the next century. Project Goals The goal of the project was to create a new modern stadium that would continue in the tradition of Empire Stadium. As pointed out in the history section, the greatest tradition was football. In order to attract major football events (FA Cup, UEFA Finals, World Cup) the stadium must be built to five-star status. In order to adhere to this standards, the stadium must meet the minimum requirements in terms of the size of playing field, floodlighting, VIP parking, seat capacity, VIP seats, VIP seats for visiting team, VIP hospitality, media working area, space for camera’s, number of box seats, number of commentary positions, number of TV studios, outside van area, and press conference seats. B. Reasons for Project Failure The new Wembley stadium was completed in 2007—five years late,  £360m over budget, and surrounded by legal disputes. Before we perform our analysis, we would like to highlight some of the facts that lead to failure. Design Multiplex argued that Mott MacDonald’s design for the Wembley steel work was not fit for purpose and that the initial designs were not correct, constructible, coordinated and consistent. In other words, although the design looked good, it was very challenging and maybe impossible to replicate to scale. Scope Changes The initial scope was to include football, rugby, and athletics in the same stadium. This later became very controversial and resulted in the removal of athletics from the design in 1999, because of the technical and commercial challenges of accommodating three sports within the same stadium. In 2001, the scope was further changed with the removal of a hotel from the project, the expansion of hospitality suites, and considerably changes to the north side of the stadium. These changes took Mott MacDonald an additional 8 months to redesign. Contracting There was no formal bidding process. In addition, it appeared that not all bidders were treated equally. This can be seen when the bidding process was opened back up after the contractors were narrowed down to the final two. Anchoring to a Completion Date When it became a prime objective to finish the project in time for the 2006 FA Cup Final, efficiency and cost effectiveness became secondary issues. It appears many problems could have been avoided if Multiplex did not have to rush the job in order to meet unrealistic expectations. Multiplex claims that it has sustained significant losses as a result of a magnitude of contract breaches and acts of negligence by the client. Loss of Steel Contractor Cleveland Bridge terminated their contract in 2004 because they did not believe that they would be paid for materials and because they felt like the differences between them and Multiplex were too great. This was a major setback to the project. Multiplex now had to search and integrate a new steel contractor for the job. Communication Apart from the major changes in the scope, Multiplex was not given access to  vital design information. In turn, Multiplex underpriced the steelwork. Mott MacDonald had thought that Multiplex was aware of the state of design because they managed the design process and had intimately been involved in the design work.