Effect of Short Message System Reminder on Medicine Regime

Effect of Short Message System Reminder on Medicine Regime Effect of Short Message System reminder on adherence with recommended regimen among Ischemic Heart Disease patients. Introduction: Ischemic heart disease is the narrowing of coronary artery by a plaque which composed of fat material, according to World Health Organization (WHO) ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the first leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, accounting for 13.3% of death cases (World Health Organization, 2011). 75% of death and 82% of disability adjusted life years (DALY) in low and middle-income countries occur due to IHD (Gaziano, Bitton, Anand, Abrahams-Gessel, Murphy, 2010), in Jordan IHD account for 18% of death cases, being the first leading cause of death (CDC, 2013). However survival rate of IHD increase recently (Piepoli et al., 2010). Patients discharge to their homes within five days (Saczynski et al., 2010), and the progress of healing after discharge demands an effective care planning, particularly, those who are newly diagnosed with IHD. After discharge patients encounter a challenge time (Eshah Bond, 2009), and life style changes include, adherence with eating heart-healthy diet, adherence with regular physical activity, and adherence with medication have ascertained by American Herat Association and considered from moderate and strong evidence (Eckel et al., 2013). adherence with these recommendations are associated with decrease readmission and mortality rate (Heran et al., 2011) , however few people adhere with recommended guidelines (Martin, Williams, Haskard, DiMatteo, 2005). Non adherence, one of the most important obstacle for successful treatment, is a widespread health problem that threat the health and cause a valuable economical burden as well (Martin et al., 2005). Non adherence to healthy lifestyle including eating unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, smoking, and non compliance with medication are known to increase the development and progression of IHD (Danaei et al., 2009). On the other direction adherence with healthy lifestyle would decrease the burden of IHD (Chiuve, McCullough, Sacks, Rimm, 2006). Medication adherence refers to whether patients take their medications as prescribed, as well as whether they continue to take a prescribed medication (Ho, Bryson, Rumsfeld, 2009). Medication non adherence is a major public health problem (Desai Choudhry, 2013). The immediate time after discharge is a high risk period for non adherence (Baroletti DellOrfano, 2010), in which 24% of patients dont adhere to their prescribed medication (Jackevicius, Li, Tu, 2008). After six weeks of discharge one forth of patients didnt adhere to prescribed medications (Mathews et al., 2012) and 80% on the long term (DiMatteo, 2004). Non adherence to medication lead to progression of the disease, increase readmission, increase mortality rate, and increase health care cost Smoking is so widespread (WHO,2007), and one of the ten strongest risk factor of IHD (Goff et al., 2013), although non adherence with healthy diet, medication, inactivity all are attributing risk factors for development and progression of IHD, smoking has a significant effect of all risk factor (CDC). Smokers have double to four times to develop IHD than non-smokers (CDC). However quit smoking is the single most effective measure to prevent IHD (Goff et al., 2013). A strong evidence exist about the casual relationship between diet and IHD (Mente, de Koning, Shannon, Anand, 2009). Eating unhealthy diet lead to increase blood cholesterol level, developing of hypertension and diabetes mellitus, obesity, and eventually metabolic syndrome which all are modifiable risk factors for IHD (Goff et al., 2013). However eating vegetables, nuts and mono-saturated fatty acid are among protective habits for prevention of IHD progression (Mente et al., 2009). Non adherence to physical activity in different culture and societies are common (Rodrigues, Joà £o, Gallani, Cornà ©lio, Alexandre, 2013). The proportion of adults who meet the recommended guidelines of American Heart Association (AHA) for regular physical activity has reduced over time (Roger et al., 2012). A recent meta analysis has been shown that an inverse relationship exist between physical activity and increasing risk of IHD; those patients who didnt do physical activity are 10-20 more risky than who do moderate physical activity and 20-30 more risky than who do high physical activity (Li Siegrist, 2012). To decrease the effect of IHD and prevent its progression secondary prevention programs done and rehabilitation centers are found, However few people attend these programs regularly (Bjarnason-Wehrens et al., 2010). Many obstacles hinder the attendance of these programs include logistic barriers like transportation difficulties, financial cost, and embarrassment of attendance (Neubeck et al., 2012). So more feasible, economical, and provide privacy for patient method is required as alternative. Tele-health, which define as the use of different type of modern information and technology to contribute t clinical support and to improve health (WHO,2009), is more economical, feasible, and provide the patients privacy. The use of mobile is growing faster and faster, and many patients have mobiles (Deng, 2013). Many studies done using technology to improve adherence among patients, especially Short Message System (SMS) in high technologic counties (Dale et al., 2014; Khonsari et al., 2014). To my knowledge this is the first study done to assess the effect of use of telehealth in a less technology-dependent countries. So the purpose of the study is: examine the effect of short message system (SMS) on medication, healthy diet, smoking cessation and physical activity adherence among IHD patients. Research hypotheses: patients who will receive reminder message will be more adherent to medication, healthy diet , smoking cessation and physical activity than those who will not. References Baroletti, S., DellOrfano, H. (2010). Medication adherence in cardiovascular disease. Circulation, 121(12), 1455-1458. Bjarnason-Wehrens, B., McGee, H., Zwisler, A.-D., Piepoli, M. F., Benzer, W., Schmid, J.-P., . . . Niebauer, J. (2010). Cardiac rehabilitation in Europe: results from the European cardiac rehabilitation Inventory survey. European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention Rehabilitation, 17(4), 410-418. Chiuve, S. E., McCullough, M. L., Sacks, F. M., Rimm, E. B. (2006). Healthy lifestyle factors in the primary prevention of coronary heart disease among men benefits among users and nonusers of lipid-lowering and antihypertensive medications. Circulation, 114(2), 160-167. Dale, L. P., Whittaker, R., Jiang, Y., Stewart, R., Rolleston, A., Maddison, R. (2014). Improving coronary heart disease self-management using mobile technologies (Text4Heart): a randomised controlled trial protocol. Trials, 15(1), 71. Danaei, G., Ding, E. L., Mozaffarian, D., Taylor, B., Rehm, J., Murray, C. J., Ezzati, M. (2009). The preventable causes of death in the United States: comparative risk assessment of dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors. PLoS medicine, 6(4), e1000058. Deng, Z. (2013). Understanding public users adoption of mobile health service. International Journal of Mobile Communications, 11(4), 351-373. Desai, N. R., Choudhry, N. K. (2013). Impediments to adherence to post myocardial infarction medications. [Research Support, Non-U.S. Govt Review]. Curr Cardiol Rep, 15(1), 322. doi: 10.1007/s11886-012-0322-6 DiMatteo, M. R. (2004). Variations in patients adherence to medical recommendations: a quantitative review of 50 years of research. Medical care, 42(3), 200-209. Eckel, R. H., Jakicic, J. M., Ard, J. D., Miller, N. H., Hubbard, V. S., Nonas, C. A., . . . Smith, S. C. (2013). 2013 AHA/ACC Guideline on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular RiskA Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Eshah, N., Bond, A. (2009). Acute myocardial infarction survivors experiences: a qualitative literature review. J Med J 43(3), 238-264. Gaziano, T. A., Bitton, A., Anand, S., Abrahams-Gessel, S., Murphy, A. (2010). Growing epidemic of coronary heart disease in low-and middle-income countries. Current problems in cardiology, 35(2), 72-115. Goff, D. C., Lloyd-Jones, D. M., Bennett, G., Coady, S., D’Agostino, R. B., Gibbons, R., . . . Wilson, P. W. F. (2013). 2013 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Circulation. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.0000437741.48606.98 Heran, B. S., Chen, J., Ebrahim, S., Moxham, T., Oldridge, N., Rees, K., . . . Taylor, R. S. (2011). Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for coronary heart disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 7(7). Ho, P. M., Bryson, C. L., Rumsfeld, J. S. (2009). Medication adherence its importance in cardiovascular outcomes. Circulation, 119(23), 3028-3035. Jackevicius, C. A., Li, P., Tu, J. V. (2008). Prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of primary nonadherence after acute myocardial infarction. [Research Support, Non-U.S. Govt]. Circulation, 117(8), 1028-1036. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.706820 Khonsari, S., Subramanian, P., Chinna, K., Latif, L. A., Ling, L. W., Gholami, O. (2014). Effect of a reminder system using an automated short message service on medication adherence following acute coronary syndrome. Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs. doi: 10.1177/1474515114521910 Li, J., Siegrist, J. (2012). Physical activity and risk of cardiovascular disease—a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. International journal of environmental research and public health, 9(2), 391-407. Martin, L. R., Williams, S. L., Haskard, K. B., DiMatteo, M. R. (2005). The challenge of patient adherence. Therapeutics and clinical risk management, 1(3), 189. Mathews, R., Peterson, E., Honeycutt, E., Chin, C. T., Ryan, K., Effron, M., . . . Wang, T. (2012). Medication nonadherence among patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with percutaneous coronary intervention: insights from the Translate-ACS study. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 59(13s1), E1814-E1814. Mente, A., de Koning, L., Shannon, H. S., Anand, S. S. (2009). A systematic review of the evidence supporting a causal link between dietary factors and coronary heart disease. Archives of internal medicine, 169(7), 659-669. Neubeck, L., Freedman, S. B., Clark, A. M., Briffa, T., Bauman, A., Redfern, J. (2012). Participating in cardiac rehabilitation: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative data. European journal of preventive cardiology, 19(3), 494-503. Piepoli, M. F., Corra, U., Benzer, W., Bjarnason-Wehrens, B., Dendale, P., Gaita, D., . . . Zwisler, A.-D. O. (2010). Secondary prevention through cardiac rehabilitation: from knowledge to implementation. A position paper from the Cardiac Rehabilitation Section of the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention Rehabilitation, 17(1), 1-17. Rodrigues, R. C. M., Joà £o, T. M. S., Gallani, M. C. B. J., Cornà ©lio, M. E., Alexandre, N. M. C. (2013). The Moving Heart Program: an intervention to improve physical activity among patients with coronary heart disease. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 21(SPE), 180-189. Roger, V. L., Go, A. S., Lloyd-Jones, D. M., Benjamin, E. J., Berry, J. D., Borden, W. B., . . . Fox, C. S. (2012). Heart disease and stroke statistics—2012 update a report from the American heart association. Circulation, 125(1), e2-e220. Saczynski, J. S., Lessard, D., Spencer, F. A., Gurwitz, J. H., Gore, J. M., Yarzebski, J., Goldberg, R. J. (2010). Declining length of stay for patients hospitalized with AMI: impact on mortality and readmissions. The American journal of medicine, 123(11), 1007-1015. World Health Organization. (2011). The top 10 causes of death. Fact sheet Number 310: Geneva: WHO. 1

Justice Versus Empire in J.M. Coetzees Waiting for the Barbarians Essa

Justice Versus Empire in J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians Rhythm is the fundamental element of music; without its pulsing drive, a melody seems aimless, and harmony irrelevant. The beat of a drum awakens the primal within us, calling back ancestral memories and basic instincts. It can lead us to dance and to joy, but also, too often, to war. The war drums beat loudly in cycles throughout history. Many would argue they first became audible to our generation immediately following September 11 th, 2001, and grew deafening with the buildup to our invasion of Iraq. Few would deny that with America's massive global economic and military influence, we have become an empire. Many would argue that we have been an imperial power for some time now. Even so, it is only recently that that recognition has entered the popular consciousness, and so only recently could we begin interpreting artistic analyses and criticisms of imperialism as they relate to our own nation. J.M. Coetzee?s Waiting for the Barbarians paints a disturbing picture of what it means to be a citizen and a proponent of empire, one as applicable to modern America as it was to apartheid South Africa at the time it was written. Coetzee has created a story of Justice versus Empire that applies to us all not just as imperial citizens, but as human beings as well. The Magistrate is the novel?s intellectual and its narrator, so the reader identifies with his position best of all; he acts as a countervailing moral force to the all-consuming drive of Empire. He has a strong commitment to the idea of "decency", a concept we can roughly equate with basic human rights. He shudders at the mistreatment of Colonel Joll's first round of prisoners, and completely loses his... ...hem away from the United States mainland and their own homes and families. They have no rights, and journalistic reporting from the area is minimal if it occurs at all. There is frequent talk of what unspeakable acts may be going on there behind closed doors, and there has been no denial from the United States government. Coetzee?s ability to universalize a tale is disturbing in this modern light. Our leaders would do best to heed the lessons of literature; even now, our own population grows skeptical and is unwilling to accept mere nationalistic bluster as justification. Will Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz flee Washington under cover of night someday soon as the people pelt them with stones? It?s a comforting image for some, but even then, the damage may be irreparable. Works Cited: Coetzee, J.M. 1980 Waiting for the Barbarians Harmondsworth, Penguin.

The Global Cement Industry and Cemex’s Penetration Strategy Into International Markets

The Global Cement Industry and Cemex’s Penetration Strategy into International Markets My report argues that demand and capacity creation in developing economies is a major driver in the global cement industry, which given the nature of the product (high transportation costs arising from its bulk) is prone to major company expansion by mergers and acquisitions. Cemex’s expansion strategy focuses on merger and acquisition (M&A), mainly exploiting its expertise of operating in difficult institutional environments and taking advantage of opportunities arising from difficulties in developing market economies.The company successfully adapts best practice and technologies from its acquisitions throughout the wider company. My report begins with definitions, presents an overview of the global cement industry (section two) key players in the industry (section three) and M&A trends (section four). I then analyse Cemex’s entry strategies by exploring in turn the regions in to which it has expanded (section five) drawing conclusions on its penetration strategy. 1Introduction and definitionsCement is a binding substance, which sets and hardens independently binding other materials together. It is intended for use in building or construction material and can withstand varying environmental conditions. About 75% of cement production is used in ready-mixed concrete to be utilized in construction. The remaining 25%, Portland Cement Association (2009) shows, is used for paving roads or extracting oil. As Selim and Salem (2010) indicate basic raw materials for cement production are iron, aluminium, silicon and calcium.Normally cement is divided as Portland cement, Portland cement blends and non-Portland hydraulic cements. Portland cement, which can be roughly divided into White Portland and Gray Portland, is the most commonly used type as it is the basic ingredient of concrete (Cemex, 2013a, PCA, 2013). There are two different processes used in the manufactur e of cement – dry process and wet process. In the wet process, the raw materials, after properly proportioned, are ground with water, thoroughly mixed and fed into the kiln in the form of a â€Å"slurry† (containing enough water to make it fluid).In the dry process, raw materials are ground, mixed, and fed to the kiln in a dry state instead. In other respects, the two processes are essentially alike (PCA, 2013). However, the dry process was considered to be more sufficient than the wet one since it consumes less energy. On the other hand, the dry process requires more investment in equipment and plants. Cement manufactures in developing countries have widely adopted the wet process but the transformation to the dry process is underway on a large scale. 2An overview of the global cement industryThis section discusses the nature of the global cement industry, including the market size and market potential, the nature of cement products, market supply and demand and relat ed environmental issues, to provide a broad view to understand the nature of competition. The following are the main characteristics of the global cement industry. Huge market – especially emerging markets Cement is the primary and indispensable material in infrastructure construction for every country. Although it only accounts for around 6–13% in construction costs (Chandramouli, 2012), there are few substitutes for it (Wesley, 2009).Hence there is a potential huge global market with strong contracts between developed and developing countries. While the developed countries mostly have steady and limited demand for cement, the developing world is a more promising market, as a result of large-scale constructions: the demand of cement is positively correlated with a nation’s economic development. World demand for cement is growing by 4. 7% per annum reaching 6% growth in 2012, with total consumption of 3. 78 million tons (CW Group, 2012).Consumption in developing countries drives this growth in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East regions; China is the strongest driver. In contract, consumption in Europe has been stalled and the growth rate of consumption in the US is a steady 2%. Therefore, developing countries are the main drivers of the growth in cement demand – a trajectory likely to continue. Cost is dominated by oil price and transportation Due to the specificity of cement products, in the cement industry, oil price and transportation cost are dominant factors affecting cost.The cement industry is energy intensive and thus fuel costs is the most critical part in cement manufacturing, constituting 35% of total cost of production (Das, 2011). Therefore, the fluctuation of fuel price, especially oil price, has impacts greatly on production cost. During the first quarter of 2012, the oil price had kept rising and was 12% up by the end of 2011. At that time, the cement industry increased prices to cover hig her fuel cost. In June 2012, Caribbean Cement Company Limited increased the price of bagged cement by 9. %, and the company claimed that its ex-factory was still among the lowest in five other regional markets. Cement is, clearly, a type of high weight-to-price ratio product and it is usually purchased in bulk. As a consequence, transportation expenditure is relatively high and restricts the spatial reach of markets. It is more feasible to produce cement domestically or to import cement products from neighbouring countries to reduce the transportation fee. Hence, the scale of international cement trade is small (5%-7%) when compared with total cement production worldwide (Selim and Salem, 2010).The demand of cement can be unpredictable Since cement production is largely dependent on infrastructure constructions, as Wesley (2009) argues, national construction polices and projects drives demand: sales volume is more sensitive to construction levels than to price. Over the long-term pe rspective, changes in social factors such as population and economic growth also affect cement consumption. The residential day-to-day demand for cement can be uncertain; it may be disrupted by unexpected situations such as bad weather (Wesley, 2009). Constantly related with environmental issuesAlthough cement is locally produced in most cases, the impact of cement production is global, especially its environmental aspects; as Selim and Salem (2010) argues. The mass production with high-energy consumption brings pollution, producing 5% of the world’s total emission of greenhouse gases Loreti (2008) and Uwasu et al. (2012) estimate This pollution is produced mainly in developing countries, which are the main production locations of cement. China alone, being the world’s leader in carbon dioxide emission and cement production, has 15% of its emission contributed by cement the World Resources Institute (2008) suggests.The environmental issue becomes extremely urgent and p ushes major global players to set up stricter emission standards on the cement industry. 3Top players and in global cement industry The table below shows the largest 20 cement producers in the world. It can be seen that top global players in this industry are either from Western Europe or from emerging markets, especially China. Rank| Company/Group| Country| Capacity (Mt/yr)| No. of plants| 1| Lafarge| France| 225| 166| 2| Holcim| Switzerland| 217| 149| 3| CNBM| China| 200| 69| 4| Anhui Conch| China| 180| 34| 5| Heidelberg Cement| Germany| 118| 71| | Jidong| China| 100| 100| 7| Cemex| Mexico| 96| 61| 8| China Resources| China| 89| 16| 9| Sinoma| China| 87| 24| 10| Shanshui| China| 84| 13| 11| Italcementi| Italy| 74| 55| 12| Taiwan Cement| Taiwan| 70| -| 13| Votorantim*| Brazil| 57| 37| 14| CRH**| Ireland| 56| 11| 15| UltraTech| India| 53| 12| 16| Huaxin| China| 52| 51| 17| Buzzi| Italy| 45| 39| 18| Eurocement| Russia| 40| 16| 19| Tianrui| China| 35| 11| 20| Jaypee***| India| 34| 16| Table 1 Global cement companies 1-20 ranked by capacity Source: Global Cement Magazine, 2012 * Includes 15Mt/yr of capacity from Cimpor shares. * Cement capacity calculated from clinker capacity assuming clinker factor of 95%. ***As in April 2012. Table 2 indicates top cement producing countries – again, fast-developing countries are the main force driving cement production. Rank| Country| Capacity (Mt)| 1| China| 2000| 2| India| 210| 3| USA (inc. Puerto Rico)| 68. 4| 4| Turkey| 64| 5| Brazil| 62. 6| 6| Russia| 52| 7| Iran| 52| 8| Vietnam| 50| 9| Japan| 47| 10| Korea, Republic of| 46| 11| Egypt| 45| 12| Saudi Arabia | 44| 13| Thailand| 36| 14| Italy| 35| 15| Mexico| 35| 16| Germany| 33| 17| Pakistan| 30| 18| Indonesia| 22| 19| Spain| 20. 7| Other countries (rounded)| 480| | World total (rounded)| 3400| Table 2: Top global cement producing countries by installed capacity (2011, estimated) Source: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2012 From the tables above, it can be concluded that China is the leader in both cement production and consumption due to its large scale infrastructure construction and fast development, representing more than half of the world’s total consumption. India follows China as the second largest consumer while also having large producing capacity. The United States is the largest cement consumer in the developed world. Major M&A trends As the Economist (1999) illustrates, larger players in the cement sector frequently undertake mergers and acquisitions (M&A) domestically and globally, to increase market share and benefit from economies of scale. The Economist goes on to argue that this high level of M&A activity is driven by the nature of the cement industry since cement production is localised and transportation costs are high; thus global producers need to purchase local companies to enter new markets, especially when a domestic market is saturated or in downturn.Since the 1970s, the cement industry in the developed world has bee n saturated and there is little space for market expansion. Developing countries have consequently become the target market for expanding new capacity and seizing market share a trend clear since the 1990s. The industry is therefore becoming more of a monopoly with oligarchic key players taking the important decisions, making M&A decisions, guided of course by changing economic and market conditions. In the 1990s, global cement giants saw great opportunities for M&A and competed to purchase market share in rapidly developing markets at good prices.For example, the Mexican Peso crisis (1994) resulted in a currency flight to US dollars and Peso devaluation, a situation Cemex turned to their advantage, Wesley (2009) argues, by purchasing Latin American cement companies at undervalued prices. Similarly, after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Asian cement industry fell into a downturn. Global cement giants took advantage and purchased leading cement companies in the Philippines, T hailand and Indonesia as bargains.At that time, six global giants purchased seventeen of the nineteen Philippine cement companies leaving Lafarge, Holcim and Cemex controlling 88% of the nation’s cement capacity. When the regional economy recovered, Cembusiness (2006) suggests, the price of cement rose again quickly and these multinational giants benefited from huge profits in Southeast Asia. 5Cemex’s entry strategy into international markets Cemex is currently the world’s third largest cement producer headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico.Although Cemex founded 107 years ago, it had been a domestic player for its first 80 years and did not start its global expansion until the 1990s. Its M&A progress has been remarkable: it now operates profitably in 50 countries in the world with 44000 employees and annual sales of US$15. 14 billion (Cemex, 2013a). In general, as Hill (2008) points out, a firm’s entry modes into foreign markets include exporting, contracts (licensing or franchising), foreign direct investment (joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary, including M&A) and strategic alliances.As discussed above, global cement giants, including Cemex, mainly enter foreign markets through M&A. Specifically, as a global player from an emerging market, Cemex needs to build its own competitive advantage during its internationalisation processes to cope with its disadvantageous competitive position vis-a-vis companies from developed countries. In short, Cemex is diversifying its market position through internationalisation (Liu, 2013). As Cemex’s expansion history extends spatially, I now turn to discuss its entry strategies into the global market by regions, which are shown in table 3. Cement production capacity (Million metric tons/year)| Cement plants controlled| Sales (millions of US dollars)| Mexico| 29. 3| 15| 3,474| United States| 17. 1| 13| 2,521| Northern Europe| 11. 9| 7| 4,729| Mediterranean| 18. 8| 12| 1,719| South, Central America and the Caribbean| 12. 8| 11| 1,745| Asia| 5. 7| 3| 505| Others| -| -| 445| Total| 95. 6| 61| 15,139| Table 3: Global review of Cemex’s operations As of December 31, 2011 Source: Cemex Annual Report 2011 Europe Europe was Cemex’s first step in global expansion.In July 1992, as Wesley (2009) reports, Cemex acquired two of the largest cement companies – Valenciana and Sanson – in Spain, with Valenciana becoming its regional hub holding company for all of Cemex’s future international acquisitions. However, significant movement into Spain, Europe did not become the main destination of Cemex as this region had limited potential for growth. More importantly, European players such as the French Lafarge and German Heidelberg controlled the European region.These European giants had advantages of scale, market share and advanced technology. What Cemex needed was not only the action of acquiring: it needed the advantages of the post-merger integratio n to catch up and improve. After purchasing Valenciana and Sanson, Cemex integrated its two Spanish subsidiaries by merging and streamlining the organisations and improved its technological and operational implementation. Cemex’s other substantial step in Europe was the purchase in 2005 of RMC, the world’s largest producer of ready-mixed concrete based in the UK.With this acquisition Cemex doubled its size, adding 20 mainly European markets (Cemex, 2013a) and managed to extend its product mix, becoming top producers of not only cement but also concrete and other construction aggregate (China Cement Net, 2005). Latin America Cemex made a series of acquisitions in Latin America, benefiting from the close psychic distance and geographic proximity to Mexico. Furthermore, in the 1990s, Latin America was an underdeveloped market with a high growth trajectory.Although at that time, Latin American countries were in a turbulent political and institutional condition with poor in frastructure and limited market information, Cemex viewed these conditions as advantages Fleury and Fleury (2011) argue, exploiting its experience in dealing with chaotic market environments in its home country and captured the opportune moment of the Peso crisis in 1994. Cemex moved into Latin America, including Central America and the Caribbean, by acquisitions in Venezuela (1994), Panama (1994), Dominican republic (1995), Colombia (1996), Costa Rica (1999), Nicaragua (2001), and Puerto Rican (2002) (see Cemex, 2013a).Latin America has been an important destination for Cemex, especially in the decade since the Peso crisis. During this decade foreign cement giants divided up the Latin American market due to the collapse of local producers and Cemex gained the dominant position. After acquiring those companies, Lessard and Reavis (2009) suggest, Cemex also upgraded its administration, production and technologies in this region, exploiting learning from the company’s operation s in Mexico and Spain. Although Cemex has a noteworthy presence in Latin American countries, its production capacity in South,Central America and the Caribbean accounts for only 13. 4% of its total sales in 2011, less than its capacity in the United States, Northern Europe and Mediterranean respectively and less than half of its domestic capacity (Cemex, 2011). However, there has been a rapid increase in South America and the Caribbean since mid-2000s, as a result of higher levels of public expenditure on infrastructure, industrial and commercial development and housing construction (United Nations ECLAC, 2007).Hence Cemex controls its closest emerging market area, with the exception of Brazil. The USA The United States, unlike other developed countries, remains a major consumer and producer of cement products; however, few its cement producers are American-owned. In the 1970s, Wesley (2009) points out, when Cemex was a domestic firm, most US cement producers were already taken over by European companies. Cemex’s significant incursion into US market was the purchase of American producer Southdown in 2000.Southdown was one of the largest American cement producers and it was state-owned. Cemex’s purchase followed a 20-year joint venture with Southdown called Sunbelt in 1986: following disagreements on management fees and the price of imported cement, the partnership dissolved and Southdown supported anti-dumping measures against Mexican producers (Wesley, 2009). By late 1990s, Southdown was making profits from its upgraded plants and lower costs whilst unsatisfactorily performing on the stock market, enabling Cemex to buy Southdown for $2. billion in November 2000 (Cemex, 2000), becoming North America’s largest cement producer, obtaining Sothdown’s advanced production capacity and markets and circumventing anti-dumping duties. Another Cemex step into North America (Black, 2007) was the purchase of the Rinker Corporation, an Australia- based concrete maker that had about 80% of its sales in the US, notably increasing its share of the U. S. concrete market. Asia Cemex turned its attention into Asia after 1997, seeing the potential in Asian growth and M&A opportunities following the financial crisis in southeast Asia (Wesley, 2009).In the next few years, Cemex made acquisitions in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India. Following rapid economic development and large-scale construction in Asia, by 2011 Cemex only managed to have the capacity of 5. 7 million metric tons in this region, representing only 6% of Cemex global capacity. Cemex failed to gain significant market share in China and India, the two largest Asian cement markets: the company continues to pay attention to the burgeoning Chinese and Indian markets (China Cement Net, 2005), however, institutional restrictions inhibit its growth.Indeed, the cement industry in China has excess capacity following slowdown in construction growth: many cement plan ts having been built during the boom. Currently Cemex does not have specific expansion plan of for China although it expresses a lot of interest (China Cement Net, 2006). In India, Cemex is more positive and in negotiations to acquire several Indian producers. Middle East and Africa (MENA) In 1999, Cemex acquired Assiut Cement Company, the largest cement producer in Egypt, started operating in Africa and increased its capacity following acquisitions (Wesley, 2009).Cemex also has operations in Israel and United Arab Emirates. The total presence in Middle East and Africa is limited since the African cement market is underdeveloped and as Digital Cement (2010) point out, the MENA cement markets are locally controlled. In summary, Cemex’s expansion into the global market is not only the strategic choice about competing and bidding for acquisitions, but also the integration process that ensued, as an opportunity to drive change, and as a result, continuously evolve as a corporatio n (Lessard and Reavis, 2009). 6ConclusionsCemex’s penetration strategy is shaped by the nature of the product and structure of the industry. Since cement is bulky and costly to transport global-global entry strategies are unavailable to it. The industry structure reflects the product in a wide array of regional-scale producers. Like other major players in the industry (such as Lafarge, Holcim and Heidelber) has sought to penetrate international markets by M&A rather than direct investment, strategic alliances or licensing. Another characteristic of the global cement industry is that developing economies are the drivers of demand.Often these markets remain difficult to enter being overly regulated, protected or subject to corruption and political interference. Cemex uses its origins in a developing market as an advantage: the company has expertise in overcoming these barriers, knowledge it has successfully exploited in numerous markets. Additionally, Cemex has taken advantage of other adverse trading conditions in its target markets (Asian financial crisis, Peso crisis) to conclude M&A deals when target company prices are depressed. Bibliography 1. Black, T. , 2007.Cemex Wins Control of Rinker With $14. 2 Billion Offer (Update3). [online] Available at: . 2. Chandramouli, R. , 2012. Cement contributes to less than 10% of construction cost. The Times of India. [online] Available at: . 3. Cembusiness, 2006. (The opportunities in the cement industry under the upsurge of international industrial capital M&A). online] Available at: . 4. Cemex, 2000. Annual Report 2000. [PDF] Available at: [last accessed 28/02/2013]. 5. Cemex, 2011. Annual Report 2011. [PDF] Available at: . 6. Cemex, 2013a. About us. [online] Available at: . 7. Cemex, 2013b. Product and Services. [online] Available at: . 8. China Cement Net, 2005. â€Å" †Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€? CEMEX †¢ (The master of acquisition – interviewing Armando Garcia, executive director of Cemex). [onli ne] Available at: . 9. China Cement Net, 2006. Cemex (Cemex clearly expresses its interests in the Chinese market). [online] Available at: . 10. CW Group, 2012. CW Group: Global cement demand to reach 4bn tons by 2013. CemWeek. [online] Available at:

The Holocaust - Very Important Event in Human History - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 554 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/04/26 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Holocaust Essay Did you like this example? This historical event was very depressing and a very scary moment to many people especially at that day. At this time in 1945, many of the Jews or people with Jewish feature were the ones who were being targeted at these camps. They were the ones who were being sent to these places known as concentration camps which were very cruel. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Holocaust Very Important Event in Human History" essay for you Create order These Concentration camps were basically death for most Jews, but in this time they were being sent there they and they did not know they were going to eventually get killed or enslaved. Many Parents, children, and friends were all sent to these concentration camps to be put to work as slaves. Every single day day in that time period Jews would either get beaten or killed from the people who ran the camps also known as hitler. In the novel I read called Night is a about a boys life and his family getting sent to concentration camps because they were Jewish or had Jewish features. In the book its talks about every thing that happen to his father, and many other Jews because they didnt believe in what Hitler believed in. The things they would do to the Jews were so disgusting you cant even picture it with gout getting shivers down your spine. This book explains everything that would of or happened to these Jews during this time. The Holocaust was ran by a evil man named Hitler. He was a very scary man and he did a very disgusting thing to many people. Hitler killed over six-million Jews, because he wanted only one religion. When Hitler order his army to kill the Jews he would act as if they were gonna give the Jews a shower in one room, but they would actually were gassing them without them knowing and killing them all in the same room. They would also burn the Jews in fire god knows why, and their ashes would always be floating in the air around the camps. We do not want this event in history to ever be repeated ever again. It was very scary, cruel, and highly inhuman. The Holocaust is a very important human event to know and so many people should be aware about it and always tell someone who doesnt know about it to them because they are lucky they are living in a world that is well past that. This event should never be forgotten. Know one should ever judge a person by their race or religion or color, but sadly thats happening with colleges and there acceptance because everythings about diversity now. The Holocaust is important and everyone should know about it and always remember what happened to those who died and to those who lost there family. This moment in time is well over and past thankfully and I hope it never repeats itself again. Even though my family is not Jewish I still cant even think how hard it was for the families who had Jewish family members. I think everyone over the age of twelve years old should start learning about the times when Hitler was a dictator due to graphics and things that happened, because most kids are not mature until twelve years old. To all the people who lost friends and family Rest In Peace.