Tyco International- Corporate Malfeasance

It is a mature, consolidating, highly competitive industry. Companies operate off of high margins (high 70%). Smaller companies either go bankrupt or bought out by bigger companies.

Therefore this industry is a pretty good one to already be in, but would be very tough to try and break into. Since established firms do not have to worry about threat of entrants or substitution, they can focus on making their core business practices cost efficient and profitable. Although firms have to deal with high buyer and supplier power, every firm has to deal with these issues. Therefore this leaves only rivalry to compete on, which forces firms to stay sharp, observe the competition, and provide excellent service to the firm’s customers to generate profit.

Since the early 1990s, the players in the market have copied each other's innovations and this has led to very little differentiation of products in the market. Customers in this industry are very price sensitive and little differentiation allows them to shop around for the best deal. In businesses, there was also a trend towards contracts with multiple suppliers and this further increased customer power. These factors combined have led to lower industry attractiveness since 1990.

The short product life cycle in this industry requires competitors to continuously evolve. This continual innovation is difficult for new entrants to achieve. Also, existing products, such as Apple’s iPhone, have built brand loyalty and associated switching costs for consumers, which pose as barriers to entry for new competitors.

Prior to the Tyco scandal, the company was one of America's largest conglomerates, with operating revenues of 38 billion dollars and 240,000 employees, worldwide. Tyco Laboratories began operations in 1960, performing experimental work for the U.S. government. The firm went public in 1964 and quickly expanded, mostly by acquisition, to exploit the commercial applications of its work. Dennis Kozlowski joined the company in 1975 as an assistant controller. The company subsequently shifted its focus from growth to profits within its three primary divisions: fire protection, electronics, and packaging. Kozlowski joined Tyco's board in 1987 and became president and chief operating officer two years later. Kozlowski

As said in every economics class, the reason every business goes into business is to make money. The same can be said in criminal cases involving businesses. In the majority of cases, executives and people highly ranked in the company tend to bend the numbers in the financial/accounting areas of the business or corporation. They do not do this for fun, but rather to make money. Something needs to be done before corporations really get out of hand.

What driving forces do you see at work in this industry? Are they likely to impact the industry’s competitive structure favorably or unfavorably? (Did we answer this question?)

2. Given the industries in which the Cisco competes, what are the implications for the major types of buying situations?

In today’s society crime occurs everyday across all aspects of life. One particular crime is that of white collar and corporate level crime. It is important that we as a society study this type of crime in depth because many individuals believe that white collar and corporate level crimes are victimless crimes when in reality they have the potential to destroy major corporations and economies all with one single case. The news or media rarely talk about this type of crime because it is often difficult to understand and individuals typically lack interest in these types of cases. One particular case is that of Jordan Belfort. Dubbed the infamous “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker who robbed investors of over $200 million dollars to create his wealth through “pump and dump” schemes, insider trading, money laundering securities fraud, and stock-market manipulation. As an attempt to further understand these complex cases I will break down Belfort’s case as far as the methods and means as to how he got started, his use of “pump and dump” schemes and other means as to how he acquired his wealth. In addition to this I will discuss the sanctions and disciplinary action that Jordan Belfort was given, how the case affected society and what new regulations were

In my opinion the threat to new entry into this industry is low. I say it is low because it will require a high amount of capital in order to get established in the industry. Furthermore it takes a lot of resources, innovation, financing and marketing in order to maintain your company so it cab be able to compete with the juggernauts of the industry. The knowledge of this would deter many companies from trying to enter the industry. Thus diminishing

In July 1996, Alert J.Dunlap (also known as Chainsaw Al)was hired as CEO and Chairman by Sunbeams' board of directors to help the company from a period of lagging sales and profits and make it an attractive acquisition target.

It would be convenient to start this research paper by stating that corruption is a challenge mainly for businesses in developing countries and that it is unrelated to the current affliction of the economy in the United States. It would also be convenient to claim corruption has declined in America as a result of awareness raising campaigns and the numerous anti-corruption laws. But none of those aforementioned statements would be true. Corruption is not the exception, but rather the rule in today’s business practices. In 2004, Daniel Kaufmann, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former director at the World Bank, calculated an index of "legally corrupt" manifestations which is defined as the extent of undue influence

Q 1: Evaluate Enron profit and cash flow performance during the period 1998 – 2000?

From the time of WorldCom’s inception there always seemed to be a tradition in management as if the company was only 100 or so employees. There was a “good old boys” mentality among the limited few running the company and if you were outside that circle then were told only what they wanted you to hear. An unspoken rule among employees was to do what you were told without questions or risk the consequences. One example of this situation occurred when senior management member Gene Morse told an employee “If you show those damn numbers to the f****ing auditors, I’ll throw you out the window” (Kaplan, R.S., & Kiron, D., 2007, p. 3).WorldCom showed no concern regarding an employee’s need and obligation to voice concerns on matters related

This research paper will explore the fraud at Tyco and focus primarily on accounting and auditing issues related to the fraud. One thing worth noting about this case is that fraudulent financial reporting was not at the core of the fraud, which was the case with majority other big frauds at the time, such as Enron and Waste Management. On the contrary, fraud consisted of misappropriation of assets, and fraudulent financial reporting came as a consequence of trying to hide misappropriation of assets and the use of corporate money for personal benefit.