Saturday, December 28, 2019

From Watford To Barings Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 12 Words: 3467 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Nick Leeson was a working at Morgan Stanley, one of the most successful American banks, where he was on a training course in the Settlements Division for Futures and Options. He was twenty years old, earning 20,000, and he bought his first flat in Watford. He was the model employee at work because nobody knew where he came from and what he did at weekends. The world of futures and options was expanding rapidly, and few people really understood how they worked. Morgan Stanley were one of the players in the market, and they invested a good deal of time in training the back office staff who sorted all the deals out, as well as recruiting the best dealers to go on the trading floor at LIFFE, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "From Watford To Barings Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Nick Leeson first worked in the City as a school-leaver aged eighteen, when he joined Coutts Company, bankers to Queen, in 1985. He worked there for two years, settling all the cheques, but never came across one signed by Charles Windsor. In fact, Coutts had all the problems of all High Street bank because his wives running up vast overdrafts without telling Nick Leeson. Nicks work became increasingly boring as he simply pushed piles of cheques around the large office and bundled them up to be filed in some vast warehouse. In June 1987, a friend of Nick Leeson told him about the job at Morgan Stanley, so he went along for the interview and was offered it immediately. He was told that he could either work in Foreign Exchange for settling all the banks foreign exchange dealings, or in the Futures and Options Division for settling rather more complicated deals. He opted for Futures and Options, thereby sealing his own future. As he pushed through all the settlements for the futures and options deals, he began to see the real money was being made by the dealers. He was stuck in the back office, sorting out paperwork, while the dealers who were out there on the trading floor were earning vast salaries and bonuses. His mother had always pushed him higher, and he began to aspire to becoming a trader. At that time the golden boy of trading floor was James Henderson, who had been hired by Morgan Stanley for a big salary and was doing a lot of business. Nick Leeson managed to become his runner to do all the stuff which is too menial to him. Although the salary was only paid around 15,000, it was the first step on the ladder, and Nick did able to see how the dealers really worked. But his boss refused him to go and the job went to someone else. Nick resigned from Morgan Stanley on 16 June 1989 and started his first days work at Baring on 10 July 1989. Baring Bank Baring Bank was founded in the City of London by Sir Francis Baring in 1763. It was the worlds first merchant bank which provides finance and advice for its clients, but will also trade on its own account as a merchant which is taking risks by buying and selling stock, land or coffee like any other trader. Barings soon became internationally because their ideas for financing trade is flexible and innovative. Since it was not a High Street bank, where only thousands of people deposited their funds, Barings had just a small capital base, so it had to live and thrive on its wits. When Nick Leeson arrived in 1989, Barings still operated in exactly the same way. Staffs were now issued with security passes, and there were some green flickering Reuters screens giving instant share prices on every stock market across the world, but Barings principles seemed to have stayed pretty much the same. Nick was told that in 1803 Barings had financed the purchase from France by the fledgling United States of America of the southern State of Louisiana, among others. The cash-flow calculations were all based on cotton prices and the impact of the abolition of bondage. Barings was first choice as financial adviser and banker for governments, large companies and wealthy clients because of its great Jewish rival, Rothschilds. In 1886, Barings sustained Guinness on the London Stock Exchange. This is an issue which proved so popular that cause mounted police had to summoned to stop the crowds from intruding Barings with their application forms. By the turn of the century Barings had become banker to the royal family, and in their time members of the Barings family have received five separate hereditary peerages as rewards for their services to banking. When Nick Leeson joined Barings the senior peer of the family was Lord Ashburton, who was just about to retire as Chairman. He was a great friend of Margaret Thatcher, and left Barings to become Chairman of BP, Britains largest company and one of the twenty largest companies in the world. The other Barings peers who have married across the length and breadth of Debretts include Lord Northbrook, whose ancestor, the first Earl of northbrook, was Governor of India and First Lord of the Admiralty under Gladstone; Lord Revelstoke; Lord Cromer, whose grandfather was Consul of Egypt and whose father was Governor of the Bank of England and British ambassador to Washington during the Nixon years; and finally Lord Howick, whose father was the last colonial Governor of Kenya and who establish the great Baring Charitable Foundation, which ultimately controlled Barings and gave vast sums of money to charity. Nick started off in the same department he did been in at Morgan Stanley, working in the Settlements Division for Futures and Options. He only been there for nine months before he realized his prospects in London was limited. He was tucked away in the division, reporting to a boss who was very senior, and he knew that he would have to wait for ten years to inherit his job. He rapidly became completely bored and asked for transfer. One of the Barings sensational successes in the 1980s was the operation set up by Christopher Heath to trade stocks and shares in Japan. Barings had engraved out a wonderful position there just as the Japanese Stock Market started to boom. Throughout the 1980s Heath was celebrated as the highest-paid banker in Britain, with a salary about 3 million. Nobody knew exactly how much he was earning, but everybody knew that is was a huge amount because it all came from the dealing he was doing in the Far East. Heath started his amazing business at Japan, but there was also going on in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and all other Asian countries. So Nick Leeson jumped at the chance to go and work in Indonesia, but when he arrived at Jakarta he realized that the realities of Barings overseas operations were very different from their appearance. In Barings glossy literature all about their innovative approach to doing business in the Far East and how they had unique experience and a valuable customer base, but in reality it was actually in a complete mess. The bank didnt even have an office at Jakarta, workers were working out of a room in the Hotel Borubudur. Barings were sitting on 100 million worth of share certificates, which they couldnt pass on to the customers and claims the money because the certificates were in chaos. All of the workers at Barings do not knew how to sort them out. They were stacked up any which way in a basement strong room in the vaults of the Standard Charted and Hong Kong and Shanghai banks. Christopher Heath may have been earning his 3 million, and Barings may have won all the accolades for breaking into the Asian market, but beneath this impressive veneer the reality of Barings was shoddy and inefficient because the bank was sitting on a 100 million hole in their balance sheet. This would have been a disaster for Barings balance sheet. It would have thrown all their ratios awry and severely limited their ability to lend money. This had effectively limiting their ability to act as bankers. Nick Leeson worked in that airless, windowless dungeon for ten months, sorting out the chaos of Barings unclaimed share certificates. The problem Barings had was that they did sold shares to customers, bought in equal number to balance the trade, but then accepted share certificates which did not match. Since the stock market fallen in 1989, the people who had bought the shares were not particularly keen to pay for them. Their main excuse was that the share certificates were either in the wrong denomination, unacceptably tatty or not properly documented. Nick Leeson worked out which trades each bank had done with Barings, found the right certificates, worked out what documentation was needed to go with them, and then walked round to the banks and demanded payment. The Indonesian certificates are all bearer bonds that are equivalent of a blank cheque so they are of value to whoever happens to have them in their hands. He had been in Jakarta for about three months when Barings sent some people to help him out. A beautiful blonde girl, Lisa Sims, was from Kent and this was her first posting overseas. By Christmas 1990, they had reduced Barings exposure in Jakarta to 10 million and when the auditors agreed that Barings need not make any provision in its balance sheet for this liability. The 100 million hole which had been stuck in the bank vaults could now be wiped off the computer. Nick Leeson returned to London in March 1991 and from then on was seen as the settlements expert in futures and options. Throughout 1991, he travelled on Barings expense account looking at their fledgling operations in Europe and the Far East. He accompanied the Development Officer, Tony Dickel, around the world as Barings looked to exploit new opportunities. They visited Frankfurt, where they suggested that Barings should expand their office to plug into the growing European business then Hong Kong and Manila, and late in the year they went to have a look at Singapore operation. Barings had acquired a seat on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange SIMEX but had not activated it. The Barings subsidiary had an office staff around seventy and they did all the usual things like buying and selling Singaporean shares, researching the local markets and offering fund management and banking facilities but they had no ability to deal in futures. Barings lost the opportunity to charge commission because any requests which came to them to buy or sell futures or options had to be brokered through another trader. Tony Dickel and Nick Leeson advised Barings that they should activate the trading seat and staff up in order to take advantage of the growing business there. Tony Dickel and Nick Leeson discussed the Singapore operation throughout January and February 1992. He spoke to James Bax, Regional Manager of Barings South Asia, who had heard of Nick Leesons success in Jakarta. They wanted him to set the operation up and run it. Nick Leeson was the General Manager who recruits traders and back office staff and make money. Lisa and Nick Leeson were thrilled. The news of their transfer to Singapore came through in March, ten days before their wedding. Singapore Nick Leeson had been working is various back offices for almost six years, pushing paper money around, sorting out other peoples problems. In Singapore, he could work with instant money. George Seow was the first trader he recruited. They were a new team and were watching the September futures contracts on the Nikkei index, which is calculated from the fluctuating value of an underlying basket of shares. Futures contracts enables people to buy or sell this basket of shares at a given price in the future, typically anchored around four dates which is the ends of March, June, September and December. Given the uncertainty of future prices, the value can move around wildly as people take different view about how the Nikkei share index itself might trade. The futures contracts and the index move in broadly similar lines, but the time gap and the leverage in the futures market means that the futures are far more volatile than the share itself. Nick Leeson and Fernando had just set up shop in SIMEX and Nick Leeson had no authority to trade himself. He was just there to fill Fernandos orders from Tokyo. He would take his orders down the phone, signal them to George, and tell Fernando whether they had completed them. The deals were very simple. They are doing something called arbitraging. Fernando would watch the futures contracts in Osaka, centre for Nikkei futures trading, and Nick Leeson would tell him every two seconds what was going on in Singapore. Sometimes a local trader would be buying in one market without the ability to trade in the other, and he might have to fill an order which pushed up the whole market price in SIMEX. For a few seconds a difference would open up between the Osaka and Singapore prices. Traders position is called long if they have bought in the hope that prices will rise, enabling traders to sell at a profit later on. Similarly, being short usually means that traders have sold in the expectation of a price fall, which will enable to buy back at a cheaper price. Many traders have set limits on the profit or loss they can take during a day. If the market moves a certain distance from their entry price then they might reach this limit and be forced to sell to cut their losses. This is called a stop loss. By low-ticking someone, Nick Leeson was going to give a new price to the market and push it in a new direction. He was trying to flush out the market to see if there was a stop-loss seller, since as soon as his offer was made in the pit and put up on the screen, the market would see it and it might trigger just such a sale. SIMEX is a much smaller market than Osaka, so sometimes a local dealer who only has authority to trade SIMEX will push the Nikkei index around the SIMEX pit, and the same contracts might have different prices in SIMEX to those quoted on the Osaka exchange in Japan. SIMEX is also a proper market, in the sense that everything is only involves real buyers and real sellers. In Osaka, bids and offers are put on screens and the market moves in a different way. Traders can put all sorts of bids and offers on the screen which change the way dealers think the market might move. The dealers in SIMEX could see the latest prices in Osaka but they could not see the size of the orders. But Nick Leeson could put up prices in Osaka, which made it look as if the market was moving in one direction, and then do the opposite in SIMEX, where there was a real market operating in real time with real buyers and sellers. Arbitraging futures and options is a low risk business. The only real risk is in the split seconds it takes for Fernando to tell Nick Leeson what he wants to do and for Nick to tell George and for George to do it. This is a real risk, however, since somebody else might be doing exactly the same and get there first. It was a frantic work, and the profit margins were small. Nick Leeson wan ted to move into proprietary trading which is make own decision about when to buy and sell, but for the first year he was content to be an order filler for Fernando in Tokyo and their Singapore clients. Nick Leeson did hired two trades which is George Seow and Maslan Tuladi to operate on the floor. While Eric Chang will help him on the telephone, and Risselle Sng and Norhaslinda ( Linda ) Hassan to handle the settlements in the back office. Since Nick Leeson had not taken the exam at that time, he had no authority to trade on the SIMEX floor itself. Throughout 1992 the customers rolled in. When Nick Leeson first arrived in Singapore, SIMEX was only doing a daily total of some 4,000 trades. It was a tiny exchange. Most of the big dealers dealt the Nikkei in Osaka because they could buy and sell in size. Then, during the summer of 1992, just as he was getting going, an amazing surge in business happened. Osaka imposed various stringent regulations on the futures and options dealers which are they had to pay much higher deposits when they dealt and there was no interest earned on the deposits. The interest was just pocketed by the Osaka authorities. A minimum commission was also stipulated. The Osaka authorities made a bad misjudgment that within weeks the trade started to move in Singapore. Between 8:00 in the morning until 2:15 in the afternoon, the number of contracts traded rose from 4,000 a day to over 20,000 a day, and Nick Leeson was taking his share of the orders without stopping, flashing them to George or Maslan, and then picking up the next call almost before they had gone into the pit. In any dealing system there are errors which are someone misunderstands a hand signal and buys the wrong amount , or buys at the wrong price, or thinks they have discretion when they do not, or buys the March contract rather than the September one, or even buys rather than sells. If this happens, the bank has to take the loss. The customer has bought or sold in good faith, and will have gone on to trade on the back of the first deal. If it was dealers mistake, they had to try and rectify it. If there was nothing to be done, the error was booked into separate computer account known as the Error Account, the position closed off and the resulting loss will written off against the firms profit. When they started dealing and they had an Error Account numbered 99905, into which they dumped all the errors before they were transferred over to London. Error Account 88888 became dormant almost as soon as it had been created. But it was still lodged in the computer, it had still been created as a bona fide error account, and not much later Nick Leeson dug it out of his memory and out of the computer. On 17 July, Nick Leeson works with his just recruited worker, Kim Wong. Kim Wong make a mistake that makes Nick Leeson could not see the balancing purchase when he confronted the piles of trading slips. Kim Wong make a mistake by contravention of customers orders, she had sold rather than bought the twenty contracts. The client would expect to have bought these contracts, and they would have to make them good to him. Since the market price had risen throughout the afternoon, Barings had sold well below the market level. In fact, if they had to make the client good and also reserve the wrong deal which Kim had gone on the exchange, they would have to buy back the forty contracts and lose 20,000 doing so. It all the Simon Jones and Mike Killians fault in Tokyo because they wanted to keep the costs down and Simon Jones had hired this girl on a salary of 4,000 a year. Nick Leeson booked a fictitious trade to the customer, Fuji Bank, for the twenty contracts they had bought. To do this, he made a notation on the daily trade sheet that Fuji needed to be made good for the twenty Nikkei contracts at the price they had specified. From the daily trade sheet, this trade would be booked in the computer in the normal course of business, so when Risselle keyed in the trade it would reconcile with the daily trade sheet. However, if it was left at there, it would obviously cause a problem since they had not actually done the trade in question, so Nick Leeson had to book the opposite reconciling part of that trade. He asked Risselle to enter a sale of twenty contracts into the computer as well, booked to Error Account 88888. The position after Kims mistake was that Fuji had sold twenty Nikkei contracts. The position after Nick Leeson entries to the daily trade sheet was that history had been rewritten because Fuji had now fictitiously bought twenty contracts at the original price they wanted and Error Account 88888 had sold the same twenty contracts at the same price to balance that, and the real sale of the contracts which Kim had done was booked to 88888 as well. Thus,

Friday, December 20, 2019

Comparing Daoism and Confucianism - 681 Words

You can compare Daoism and Confucianism to yin and yang because they complement each other. Daoism and Confucianism coexist as complementary value classifications in East Asian societies. Unlike Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, in which these religions were developed in East Asia, Daoism and Confucianism grew mainly in China. Although these religions grew from similar roots, they both still have different emphases. Daoism also known as Taoism, was a philosophical and radical text written by Laozi (Lao-tzu) who was the curator of the royal library of the Zhou dynasty in China. Daoism pertains to the way of nature and immortality which was a tradition of self-cultivation and longevity techniques. Much of Laozi’s teachings were associated with Daode Jing that focuses on Dao as a â€Å"way† or path. This was based on an appropriate way to behave and to lead others (Fisher, 2014). These teachings were also enlarged more forcefully by Zhuangzi, who asserted that the best way to live in a disordered civilization is to become removed from it (Patheos library,). Daoism did not exist until the Celestial Masters clique was founded in 184 CE by Zhang Daoling, which was based the clique on spiritual communications from the sacred Laozi. The Celestial Masters engaged in complex ritual practices, including piety to a huge range of divinities and immortals, and thousands of Taoist texts were formed over the centuries. On the other hand, Confucianism focuses on ways of developing a fairShow MoreRelatedComparing Laozi Gathered Eighty Seven And Book Two Books1162 Words   |  5 Pagesit. The use for it will come from somewhere else. The last theme is Nature. In chapter fifteen, the author was comparing different characteristic to nature. For example, â€Å"Opening up, like ice about to break† (166). In my opinion, I think he wanted to compare everything with nature, because when you do, it makes everything seem much more calm and relaxing when it happens. 2. Confucianism was one of the three main religions that started out in China. There were schools of the scholars and then thereRead MoreThe Religious Traditions Of The East Are All Older Than Western Religions1743 Words   |  7 Pagestraditions and beliefs are different than in the west. The four major religious traditions in the East are all older than western religions. Each religious tradition can be examined for common concepts and differences. Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism have several common concepts and several differences in: their worldviews, their views on the nature of reality as a whole, the nature of persons, the perspectives on the â€Å"human dilemma,† human spiritual goals, the significance of moral valuesRead MoreConfucianism : The Way Of Propriety1265 Words   |  6 PagesConfucianism stands hand in hand with Daoism, as one of the two great philosophical religions of China, but is considered one of the Three Teachings; Daoism and Buddhism a re the other two. Derived from the Chinese teachings of the philosopher Confucius, Confucianism focuses more on ethical living and moral conduct; emphasizing earthly and not heavenly. Even though it is referred to as a religion, Confucianism is often considered to be an ethical system. There are four common aspects when comparedRead MoreThe Main Features Of Egyptian And Mesopotamian Civilizations1364 Words   |  6 Pagescan look at their organization, academic achievements, and economic styles. In terms of organization, there were many similarities. Both were agriculturally based. In both societies, the leader held divine status. However, differences arise when comparing their academics. Both societies developed mostly equal science and elaborate art. However, Mesopotamia developed a more complex writing system and Egypt developed more advanced mathematics. The economic systems are mostly different. Mesopotamia hadRead MoreThe Night Watches Of The Buddha1747 Words   |  7 Pag es Question 3 Compare, contrast and exemplify the role of Chi in Daoism and Confucianism thought This research will compare, contrast and exemplify the role of Chi in Daoism and Confucianism thought. Firstly, this research compares these two religion’s basic practice and to see both belief and practice. Then this research examines how both religions interpret the role of Chi and Confucianism thought. Both Taoism and Confucianism are originated in China and both visits in Temple to pay homage toRead MoreTaoism And The Philosophy Of Tai Chi Chuan1482 Words   |  6 Pagesthe ancient philosophy. 3) http://www.uni-giessen.de/~gk1415/taoism.htm Eastern Philosophy- Taoism. Eastern Philosophy- Taoism. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2015. This article compares Taoism to other eastern philosophies. This will be helpful in comparing Taoist beliefs and others eastern religions. These difference may hold valuable insight for how Taoism spread. 4) http://www.artic.edu/taoism/menu.php Taoism and the Arts of China (Art Institute of Chicago). Taoism and the Arts of China (Art InstituteRead MoreDifferences in Ancient Rome and Han China944 Words   |  4 PagesHan China and Classical Rome When comparing Han China and Classical Rome, many political, geographical, and religious similarities can be found, though many differences are also prevalent. Though Roman and Han political structures both emphasized bureaucracies, they came to them quite differently. Through copious amounts of expansion, both societies spread culture and earned money, though expansion was eventually their downfalls. Their religions differed immensely, with Rome emphasizing polytheismRead MoreRoman Empire And Han Dynasty960 Words   |  4 PagesRoman Empire and Han Dynasty Comparison When comparing Han China and Roman Empire, many political, geographical, and religious similarities can be found, though many differences are also prevalent. Though Roman and Han political structures both emphasized bureaucracies, they came to them quite differently. Through many amounts of expansion, both societies spread culture and earned money, though expansion was eventually their downfalls. Their religions differed immensely, with Rome emphasizing polytheismRead MoreThe Two Chinese Philosophies Of Confucianism1816 Words   |  8 PagesThe two Chinese philosophies of Legalism and Confucianism could not be more opposite. Even though two of the writers of Legalism were students of Xinzu, a philosopher of Confucianism, there are more of differences than similarities between the two. Because of this, legalism, which preceded the concept of Confucianism, had a lot of reasons why Confucianism was considered wrong. While towards the fall of the Qin Dynasty, Confucian beliefs started to revamp and become more widely accepted and thus theyRead MoreHinduism, Buddhism, And Confucianism2227 Words   |  9 Pagesis kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven? and could easily be used to describe three religions of this world. The third, fourth, and eighth largest religions when ranked by membership numbers are Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism and their individual beliefs are different which will be explored; however, these same three religions rank one, two, and three in the nontheistic religions that do not focus on belief in gods?the one area that all three are the same. Hinduism

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Declaration Of Independence Essay Example For Students

Declaration Of Independence Essay The Declaration of Independence was written to show a new theory of government, reasons why they were separating from England, and a formal declaration of war. It gave the 13 colonies freedom from Englands laws. The man responsible for writing the Declaration was Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the Declaration between June 11, 1776 and June 28, 1776. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams looked at what Jefferson had written and made some changes to the Declaration. On July 4, 1776 Congress adopted the Declaration and it was signed by:John Hancock, Button Gwinnett, Lyman hall, George Walton, Wm Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton, Samuel Chase, Thos. Stone , George Wythe, Charles Carrol of Carrollton, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thos Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Tho M. Kean, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, Jno.WItherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephan Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott, and Matthew Thorton. The reason people wanted the Declaration was because the people thought that they had the right to be free from England and to be their own individual colonies with their own laws. Other things leading up to independence were that the British government had committed acts that many colonists believed violated their rights as English subjects. Also that colonial blood had already been shed trying to defend these rights. The French ; Indian war was the war that shed colonists blood to defend their rights. The Declaration of Independence served three major purposes. 1. Preamble and reasons for separation. Among the reasons for separation were statements about the king, George III. It said that he was a harsh and evil king and that the colonists shouldnt have to be under his rule. It also said that the citizens were patient, submissive, and long-suffering people. These statements were made to win the public support of the people for the Declaration. In this part of the Declaration, Jefferson stated the basic principles of democracy. They were all men are created equal, They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable1 rights; . . . among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The purpose of the government was to secure these rights. This basically stated that war did exist. If the Patriots failed to win independence, the leaders of the revolution could be judged guilty of treason against the British Crown and executed. The result of the Declaration of Independence was that colonists gained their freedom. They had freedom of religion and had a better government. Look at the world today and see what it has accomplished. Blacks and women now have just as many rights as white men. I would have wanted to gain independence from the Declaration and separate from England. I think our society has much more freedom now than it would have if we would have stayed with England. Bibliography:

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Management Is Process Of Applying Skills â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Management Is Process Of Applying Skills? Answer: Introducation Project management is the process of applying skills, knowledge, tools and techniques to be able to control, organize, plan and direct project activities to achieve project objectives. In doing all of these, project managers have to ensure that the project is successful. A project is a contractual activity or performance that is designed to produce a specific end product or service within a certain period of time, scope, resources and cost or budget (Edkins et al, 2013). However, this project product has to achieve the intended change, objective or goal that it was expected to achieve. Therefore, project management basically involves the initiation, planning and executing of all the activities and procedure involved in completing a project. Project management has always been one of the best tools that help in making sure that a project is successful. Project management is managed by project managers. They are people who organize and ensure that project procedures are executed and suc cessful. They are the change agents of a project that use their skills to ensure that the project is complete and successful (Ika, 2009). These managers are in charge of a team of project members who are responsible for different roles and responsibilities. Also, these members are usually experts, professionals, skilled and experienced in some of the project fields. Therefore, project management is a very crucial aspect and part of completing a project successfully. In addition to that, it is an aspect that requires a wide range of skills (e.g. technical skills and team management skills) and an excellent business knowledge and awareness. Project Management Phases This process is composed of five phases, which are: Project Conception and Initiation In this phase, the business owners and stakeholders come up with a project idea and it is analyzed in details. They later get permission from the required authorities to officially start the project. To add to that, the business needs/requirements are analyzed, project needs and requirements, businesss financial status among other things. After analyzing the business and projects needs, the decision-making team has to prove whether the project will be beneficial to the business or not (Howsawi et al, 2011). This means that the project objectives, aims, project manager identification and change expectations have to be set. Project Planning This includes the writing down of the project scope and all activities that are to be performed for the completion of the project. These activities include the actual project schedule, resource list, team members and their roles and responsibilities, project budget estimation, projects time period among other things. Project Execution This phase involves the carrying out of the projects plan or rather implementation of the project plan, i.e. performing the activities that have been listed in the project plan. This means that every person/team member has to have all the details of their role and responsibility for them to carry out a certain duty. Monitoring and Controlling In this phase, the project performance is compared with the actual project plan to ensure that everything is carried out and complete. In that case, the team members have to ensure that they maintain their schedules. The project managers must ensure that the project is still adhered to, reports presented to the people responsible, project scope is achieved, project quality is maintained and risks are controlled (Howsawi et al, 2011). In other words, the project managers must ensure that the project is adhering to the actual project plan and maintains the right track. Project Closing Involves the project result/outcome evaluation after all the project tasks are complete and done with and the project end product is officially approved. This phase includes project team members evaluation as well. The project scope is verified to ensure that all the project deliverables and expectations are met and according to satisfactory standards. Project Quality Management Plan And Its Standards For Managing Global Teams Project quality management plan involves ensuring that project management is up to and beyond the clients expectations. This means that, for the managers to provide quality project management, they have to have a very good, effective and efficient plan on how to carry out a certain specific project. This includes providing more specific details for every project management phase and any activity to the team members as well as to the project decision makers (Zafarani, 2011). Therefore, this makes the implementation of a project quality management plan the first step for project managers in achieving project objectives and success. In that case, the following need to be addressed in a project quality management plan, for every project: Ensure that project quality is planned Definition of how the project quality will be managed Definition of all the quality assurance activities Listing and defining any quality control activities Listing and defining the acceptable quality standards Quality Management Approach This is a part of project quality management plan whereby the plan indicates how the business organizes will maintain and manage quality from the start to the end of the project. The purpose of this part is to prevent unnecessary reworks, wastes of time and funds as well as resources (Nanda, 2016). Quality management approach of a project, should not always cover the product only, but should also cover the project process as well. This is to ensure that all the activities, roles and responsibilities of the team members are performed to certain specific standards and measures. In addition to that, the quality standards and measures should be communicated to every team member or any other person in charge of the project, e.g. stakeholders and business owners. Quality Requirements and Standards This is a section of the management plan that describes the projects product and process quality standards and measures. These will be determined entirely by the project team members. The quality will be determined by their skills, expertise, experience and knowledge in their specific roles and responsibilities (Misic et al, 2014). However, the organization stakeholders and business owners should also identify and define their quality standards and requirements. These requirements are the ones to be followed and adhered to by the project team members. Quality Assurance This section of project quality management plan explains how the project team members should define and document the quality requirements auditing process of both the product and the process. This section is meant to ensure that the quality standards are met and adhered to, i.e. they go hand in hand with the control measurements recorded or expected. Also, it is for ensuring that the product and process quality are recorded and documented. Quality Control In this part, the quality management plan concentrates on describing how the project team members will monitor and record the process of quality project management plan implementation. This section also helps in assessing the performance of the whole project quality process and execution of changes whenever they are needed (Misic et al, 2013). This section is meant to ensure that the accepted quality standards of both the product and process are only those that are listed in the quality measurements document. Quality Control Measurements This section contains a sample of all the quality measurements taken from the product or project process itself. This list of quality measurements is to be compared with another list of actual standards and requirements for both the product and process (Misic et al, 2014 and 2014). Therefore, the section is meant to ensure that the correct quality measurements are recorded and compared against the actual standards is done. This ensures that the product and process quality standards match. When it comes to managing global teams, the project quality management plan is extremely essential. This is simply because such a plan will ensure same quality standards and measurements for the project. A project that is being managed by a team from different geographical locations must have a quality management plan for the project to succeed. This is simply because of the different geographical locations have certain differences that may affect the quality of the project. According to Alami 2016, some of the challenges affecting global project teams include: Differences in political views Differences in management structures Differences in cultural practices Differences in legal regulations related to the project Challenges in risk identifications and management procedures Differences in initiating quality controls, quality standards, and measurements. Differences in technological advancement These challenges take a large part in affecting any project that may be being performed by a global team. However, with a quality management plan, the team will be able to share and agree on the same issues and procedures. Therefore, global team members in the same project should ensure that they have come up with a common project quality management plan (quality standards and measures for both the product and project process) which will facilitate project success and objective achievement. Solutions to Global Teams Challenges Affecting Project Quality Management Plan Cultural awareness This involves being aware of the different cultural practices of every group or member in the team. Therefore, the team should know and address each members national holidays, social holidays and religious holidays and how important they are to the individual. The project managers should also find out how these cultural practices will affect the members performance during the project. Therefore, the quality management plan should ensure that it does not affect the members. Generating of team laws and rules This will involve getting to visit the laws that govern every members country and deriving new laws that will go hand in hand with those laws. Basically, this means that the new laws that will be derived should not go against the previous laws. They should be laws that can be followed without breaking the countrys laws. This may include laws that govern product quality standards, any process activity procedures, product quality control standards among others. This is necessary because for a global team to succeed in executing an effective project quality management plan, all the members should be on board and should be able to attain it (Zafarani, 2011). This is simply because it requires the adherence to quality rules and regulations. Derivation of common management structure In most cases, different countries have different project management structure and procedures (Alami, 2016). In the case of a global team project, the team should come up with a common management method that can be followed and understood by every member. Additionally, the management procedure should be acceptable by every member as well. In doing this, the team members will definitely be able to work together which will make teams quality project management plan easier and achievable. Training of team members The team member training should always be done before the start of the project. Through training, the members will be able to understand the projects quality requirements, standards and measures. The training should be used to help the team members share ideas and opinions on most of the differences between them. Also, they will be able to offer suitable solutions to those challenges through discussions. The training will help the members understand each others cultures, law differences, rules and regulations differences among other things (Zafarani, 2011). Through this, they will also have an idea of what is expected of them for the success of the project especially in relation to product and project process quality. With that in mind, it is clear that project quality management plan can be very effective and efficient in organizing and controlling most global teams. However, this will depend entirely on the teams collaboration and cooperation in providing suitable solutions to the changes among them (Veronese et al, 2016). For instance, in the case of Information Technology project management, the project team should focus on accommodating any kind of technology idea even from the members originating from countries with poor technological development. It is also clear that for a global project team to succeed in a producing the expected or best quality project product, they should invent a project quality management plan. Conclusion Project management is certainly a very essential in ensuring project success. It helps project managers implement the project activities tactically and with a procedure. However, every project manager should be willing to follow the management stages for the process to be complete and successful. Furthermore, the project team should invent a project quality management plan to help them in producing the expected product quality at the end of the project. The quality management plan should focus precisely on achieving the quality standards and measures of the end product as well as the quality of the process itself. The project quality management plan can be a very crucial tool, especially for global teams. This is simply because it will contain common quality standards that will guide all the team members even though they have various differences, especially in relation to product quality standards and laws. References Alami, A. (2016). Global Project Management Challenges. Chaves, M. S., Arajo, C. D., Teixeira, L. R., Glria Jnior, I., Rosa, D., Nogueira, C. D. 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