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Business Business is the activity of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."Having a business name does not separate the business entity from the owner, which means that the owner of the business is responsible and liable for debts incurred by the business.
Business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when:\n\nA business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a food manufacturer purchasing salt), i.e.
Business administration Business administration (also known as business management) is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising business operations.
Business Insider Insider – previously named Business Insider (BI) – is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in Business Insider's parent company Insider Inc.
Small business Small businesses are corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to apply for government support and qualify for preferential tax policy varies depending on the country and industry.
Business Proposal Business Proposal (Korean: 사내 맞선; Hanja: 社內맞선; RR: Sanae Matseon; lit. The Office Blind Date) is a South Korean romantic comedy television series based on the webtoon of the same title written by HaeHwa and illustrated by Narak.
Business is business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when:\n\nA business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a food manufacturer purchasing salt), i.e.
Yoda conditions In programming jargon, Yoda conditions (also called Yoda notation) is a programming style where the two parts of an expression are reversed from the typical order in a conditional statement. A Yoda condition places the constant portion of the expression on the left side of the conditional statement.
Conditions races Conditions races are horse races in which the weights carried by the runners are laid down by the conditions attached to the race. Weights are allocated according to the sex of the runners, with female runners carrying less weight than males; the age of the runners, with younger horses receiving weight from older runners to allow for relative maturity, referred to as weight for age; and the quality of the runners, with horses that have won certain values of races giving weight to less successful entrants.
Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions In mathematical optimization, the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions, also known as the Kuhn–Tucker conditions, are first derivative tests (sometimes called first-order necessary conditions) for a solution in nonlinear programming to be optimal, provided that some regularity conditions are satisfied.\nAllowing inequality constraints, the KKT approach to nonlinear programming generalizes the method of Lagrange multipliers, which allows only equality constraints.
Significant Others The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Significant form Significant form refers to an aesthetic theory developed by English art critic Clive Bell which specified a set of criteria for what qualified as a work of art.
Bit numbering In computing, bit numbering is the convention used to identify the bit positions in a binary number.\n\n\n== Bit significance and indexing ==\n\nIn computing, the least significant bit (LSB) is the bit position in a binary integer representing the binary 1s place of the integer.
Significant other The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Significant Mother Significant Mother is an American television sitcom created by Erin Cardillo and Richard Keith. Starring Josh Zuckerman, Nathaniel Buzolic and Krista Allen, it premiered on The CW network on August 3 and ended its run on October 5, 2015.
The Simpsons The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.
Internet In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct from a fee which the borrower may pay the lender or some third party.
Manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy.
Arithmetic Arithmetic (from Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós) 'number', and τική [τέχνη] (tikḗ [tékhnē]) 'art, craft') is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th century, Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano formalized arithmetic with his Peano axioms, which are highly important to the field of mathematical logic today.
Bitwise operation In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on a bit string, a bit array or a binary numeral (considered as a bit string) at the level of its individual bits. It is a fast and simple action, basic to the higher-level arithmetic operations and directly supported by the processor.
Special Activities Center The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert operations and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015.
Operations management Operations management is an area of management concerned with designing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as few resources as needed and effective in meeting customer requirements.
Operations research Operations research (British English: operational research), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of advanced analytical methods to improve decision-making. It is sometimes considered to be a subfield of mathematical sciences.
Emergency operations center An emergency operations center (EOC) is a central command and control facility responsible for carrying out the principles of emergency preparedness and emergency management, or disaster management functions at a strategic level during an emergency, and ensuring the continuity of operation of a company, political subdivision or other organization.\nAn EOC is responsible for strategic direction and operational decisions and does not normally directly control field assets, instead leaving tactical decisions to lower commands.
Surgery Surgery is a medical or dental specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pathological condition such as a disease or injury, to help improve bodily function, appearance, or to repair unwanted ruptured areas.\nThe act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure, operation, or simply "surgery".
Latin Extended Additional Latin Extended Additional is a Unicode block.\nThe characters in this block are mostly precomposed combinations of Latin letters with one or more general diacritical marks.
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Superintendent of police (India) Superintendent of police or SP is a senior rank in Indian Police Service or IPS. Superintendent of Police in Hindi means पुलिस अधीक्षक. They have one Star and one Ashoka emblem on their shoulders and below IPS is written.
Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Government.
International Standards on Auditing International Standards on Auditing (ISA) are professional standards for the auditing of financial information. These standards are issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).
Additional member system The additional member system (AMS) is a mixed electoral system under which most representatives are elected in single-member districts (SMDs), and the other "additional members" are elected to make the seat distribution in the chamber more proportional to the way votes are cast for party lists. It is distinct from parallel voting (also known as the supplementary member system) in that the "additional member" seats are awarded to parties taking into account seats won in SMDs (referred to as compensation or "top-up"), which is not done under parallel voting (a non-compensatory method).
Regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context.
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Risk Factors
MEADWESTVACO CORP Item 1A Risk factors Risks Relating to Our Business Certain of the company’s businesses are affected by cyclical market conditions which can significantly impact operating results and cash flows
Certain of the company’s businesses are affected by cyclical market conditions that can significantly influence the demand for the company’s products, as well as the pricing we can obtain for our products
The company’s paperboard business is particularly subject to cyclical market conditions
The company may be unable to sustain pricing in the face of weaker demand, and weaker demand may in turn cause us to take production downtime, particularly at our paperboard facilities
In addition to lost revenue from lower shipment volumes, production downtime causes unabsorbed fixed manufacturing costs due to lower production levels
As a result, the company’s results of operations and cash flows may be materially impacted in a period of prolonged and significant market weakness
Moreover, the company is not able to predict market conditions or its ability to sustain pricing and production levels during periods of weak demand with any degree of certainty
Market conditions will also impact the company’s ability to achieve its planned or announced price increases
The company’s businesses are subject to significant cost pressures
Our ability to pass these higher costs on to our customers through price increases or other adjustments is uncertain and dependent on market conditions
The pricing environment for raw materials used in a number of our businesses continues to be challenging, as suppliers of certain raw materials have implemented price increases
Additionally, energy costs have risen significantly and remain volatile and unpredictable
Further increases in the cost of raw materials or energy may materially impact our results of operations as depending on market forces and the terms of customer contracts, our ability to recover these costs through increased pricing may be limited
The company faces intense competition in each of its businesses, and competitive challenges from lower cost manufacturers in overseas markets
If we can not successfully compete in an increasingly global market place, our operating results may be adversely affected
The company operates in competitive domestic and international markets and competes with many large, well-established and highly competitive manufacturers and service providers, both domestically and on a global basis
The company’s businesses are facing competition from lower cost manufacturers in Asia and elsewhere
In addition, there is a risk that growth in paperboard capacity could outpace demand
All of these conditions can contribute to substantial pricing and demand pressures, adversely affecting the company’s operating results
5 ______________________________________________________________________ [29]Table of Contents The company’s operations are increasingly global in nature, particularly in our consumer packaging businesses
Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected by the political and economic conditions of the countries in which we conduct business, by fluctuations in exchange rates and other factors related to our international operations
Approximately 40prca of the company’s annual revenues in 2005 were derived from locations outside of North America
As our international operations and activities expand, we face increasing exposure to the risks of operating in many foreign countries
These factors include: • Changes in foreign currency exchange rates which could adversely affect our competitive position, selling prices and manufacturing costs, and therefore the demand for our products in a particular market
• Trade protection measures in favor of local producers of competing products, including government subsidies, tax benefits, trade actions (such as anti-dumping proceedings) and other measures giving local producers a competitive advantage over the company
• Changes generally in political, regulatory or economic conditions in the countries in which we conduct business
These risks could affect the cost of manufacturing and selling our products, our pricing, sales volume, and ultimately our financial performance
The likelihood of such occurrences and their potential effect on the company vary from country to country and are unpredictable
The company has recently announced a plan to realign its packaging businesses, to establish a new packaging innovation research center and to move its corporate operations and key administrative functions into a new headquarters in Richmond, Virginia
In addition, the company is establishing a new Global Business Services function, which will include many of the company’s internal services operations, including shared services for HR, finance, procurement, logistics and information technology
Although the company is engaged in intensive planning as it implements these actions and believes that it will manage the reorganization effectively to achieve substantial savings for the company, these major changes have attendant inherent risks, including: • The potential for disruption in our businesses and operations as we implement the realignment of our existing packaging businesses and centralize our packaging innovation activities in a new central location The company’s six divisions in its Packaging segment are being transitioned into two focused packaging groups, to be located at the new headquarters
Additionally, the company’s packaging innovation activities are being moved to a new centralized location
The company’s leadership is engaged in intensive planning and expects to successfully and seamlessly manage these transitions
However, any major reorganization presents challenges and it is possible that there could be disruptions in our business and operations during the transition period
The relocation of employees to the new headquarters, with associated issues relating to retention, may increase the potential for disruption
Disruptions in production, quality control, customer service and innovation, as well as in other aspects of our operations, could negatively impact our results of operations
6 ______________________________________________________________________ [30]Table of Contents • The potential that the significant changes being implemented could result in weakness or deficiencies in the company’s internal controls and procedures Effective internal controls are necessary for the company to provide reliable financial reports, effectively prevent fraud and effectively manage our operations
The significant changes being implemented in our businesses, and in particular, our corporate support functions, may require the implementation of new internal controls and changes in existing internal controls
Any failure to implement new or improved controls, if warranted, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, or failure to make appropriate changes to controls, could harm the reporting of our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations
The company has announced a G&A Cost Reduction Initiative
If we fail to fully execute on this initiative, we may not fully realize all the improvements we have publicly announced
In the second quarter of 2005, the company announced a cost initiative with the goal of achieving dlra175 million to dlra200 million of cost reductions, pre-tax and before inflation, on an annual run rate basis by the end of 2007
This initiative is described more fully in Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
” Although we believe that these results are reasonable and achievable, if we do not fully achieve these goals within the expected time frame, or at all, we may not fully realize the improvements we expect in our operating earnings and cash flows
The company has engaged a third party to provide certain information technology services, and will be dependent on this third party for performance of these services which were previously performed by our employees
Beginning in the second quarter of 2006, the company will start to rely on a third-party provider to provide certain information technology services, including helpdesk support, desktop application services, server and storage administration, data center operations, database administration, and voice, video and remote access
Although we believe that we have prudently planned for unforeseen matters, we cannot guarantee that that our outside provider will fulfill its responsibilities in a timely manner and in accordance with the contract terms
Our internal operations including the ordering and shipment of our products to our customers could be adversely affected by failures in performance
The company is subject to extensive regulation under various environmental laws and regulations, and is involved in various legal proceedings related to the environment
Environmental regulation and legal proceedings have the potential for involving significant costs and liability for the company
The company’s operations are subject to a wide range of general and industry-specific environmental laws and regulations
Changes in environmental laws and regulation, or their application, could subject the company to significant additional capital expenditures and operating expenses
However, any such changes are uncertain and, therefore, it is not possible for the company to predict with certainty the amount of additional capital expenditures or operating expenses that could be necessary for compliance with respect to any such changes
The company is also subject to various environmental proceedings and may be subject to additional proceedings in the future
In the case of known potential liabilities, it is management’s judgment that the resolution of pending litigation and proceedings is not expected to have a material adverse effect on the 7 ______________________________________________________________________ [31]Table of Contents company’s consolidated financial condition or liquidity
In any given period or periods, however, it is possible such proceedings or matters could have a material effect on the results of operations
The company could also be subject to new environmental proceedings which could cause the company to incur substantial additional costs with resulting impact on results of operations
Additional matters involving environmental proceedings for MeadWestvaco are