Background: A business rescue plan has to comply with a new and vague set of obligations regulated by South African legislation. Expectations of the plan are largely unknown, yet crucial in determining compliance. Establishing an effective benchmark for the plan is essential for the growth and success of the industry. Purpose: The study set out to answer these questions: What are the most crucial elements needed to fill the gap between the specifics of the Companies Act (2008) and the further elements needed to meet the plan’s primary objective of providing adequate information to stakeholders? What are the international principles applicable to rehabilitation plans and what elements underpin them? Method: Thirteen industry experts were selected and interviewed to identify the most crucial elements of the business rescue plan. Sampling was a combination of convenience and purposive sampling. Data collection obtained data on subjects’ opinions, rankings, agreement and ratings. Results: The study was able to confirm that there is indeed a gap between the mandatory elements prescribed in section 150(2) and the provision of sufficient information required by section 150(1) of the Companies Act No. 71 of 2008. The survey revealed that in the subjects’ expert opinion, the international principles are applicable to the business rescue plan. Conclusion: The crucial elements of the rehabilitation plan selected by the experts offer insight and clarity in terms of what is expected of the plan. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / gm2015 / Business Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Diploma thesis aim small and medium business and how to improve real small business. Theoretical part investigates SME´s unique characters and specially influence SME in economic system, developement of business plan.Second part analyse small business and aspects of carry on stagnation small business.

The Master’s thesis deals with the strategy analysis of current situation in a nameless company carrying business in power engineering. On the basis of recognized matter encourage proposals which are important for improve of standing in a company.

Controlling shareholders of private firms may define "value of the firm" in terms of personal utility. They may thus prioritize their personal wealth over the firm. Furthermore, agency-based corporate governance may not apply to privately owned firms. This study looked at managers and owners of private firms as potentially risky decision makers. Financial distress was positioned as a boundary to agency theory-based corporate governance for private firms. Choices of shareholders in respect of board composition and the relationship between board composition and external sources of funding were investigated. Influence on turnaround potential, of management who are also shareholders, was also considered. Data from 104 business rescue plans were used for correlation and multiple hierarchical regression analyses. The mean return to secured creditors was 94 % and the mean return to unsecured creditors was 48 %. Unexpectedly a negative correlation between number of directors and free assets was determined. Yet, in the regression model for return to secured creditors, the significant variables were total directors and free assets. It is concluded that personal surety provided by directors may be detrimental to a private firm's free assets. For unsecured creditors, the significant variables were size; management shareholding, and return to secured creditors. The study was conducted between 2011 and 2016 using secondary data drawn from actual business rescue cases. In conclusion, the agency cost of debt construct was refined and an estimate for the agency cost of distressed debt, was presented. Research findings offer improved insight into agency theory for private firms with a foundation for improved corporate governance models. Theorists may use this research to extend understanding of the theory of the firm and corporate governance. Furthermore bankruptcy and turnaround theory may be enhanced by the findings of this research. Practitioners may use the findings to refine credit risk and pricing models. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Business Management / PhD / Unrestricted

The uptime of machinery in continuous flow process industries such as steel manufacturing plants puts pressure on the maintenance function. This in turn contributes to sustaining reliable physical assets. As absence of reliable physical assets highly affects the competitive advantage. Turnaround maintenance is a common practice in such production setups and requires top-of-the-line managerial attention to be planned,executed and assessed in an efficient manner. By applying an abductive approach and combining the qualitative and quantitative research approaches, this thesis aims to explore the managerial issue of coordinating turnaround maintenance within a continuous flow process industry. The research questions that guide this thesis consist of describing how turnaround maintenance can be coordinated and its associated challenges. By comparing publicly available literature and empirical evidence provided by performing a case study, it is confirmed that the main challenges for conducting efficient turnaround maintenance comes down to the management in all stages associated with the turnaround. To coordinate turnaround maintenance activities in the most efficient manner, several challenges must be overcome. Aligning organisational goals and generating management commitment is the first prerequisite before any improvements can be done. It is necessary to define a common scope that strives for creating reliable physical assets to enhance the competitive advantage. The defined challenges in coordination are related to before, during and after the turnaround execution. These relate to creating a cyclical process for the turnaround where previously acquired knowledge is used for improving future turnarounds. While detailed planning is necessary for each turnaround, a high level of contingency is also necessary. To achieve this and succeed, it is argued that a high level of visibility during the turnarounds and the use of standardised methods is required. / Drifttiden för maskiner i industrier med kontinuerligt flöde, såsom ståltillverkningsanläggningar, sätter press på underhållsverksamenheten. Detta för att i sin tur bidra till att upprätthålla tillförlitliga fysiska tillgångar. Eftersom avsaknad av tillförlitliga fysiska tillgångar påverkar konkurrensfördelen i hög grad. Storaunderhållstopp där den kontinuerliga produktionslinan stoppas, är en vanligt förekommande praxis i sådana produktionsanläggningar vilket kräver ledningens uppmärksamhet för att planera och utvärdera på ett effektivt sätt. Genom att tillämpa ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt och kombinera kvalitativ och kvantitativ forskningsmetodik, syftar detta examensarbete till att utforska den ledarskapsrelaterade frågan om att koordinera underhållsaktiviteter för stora underhållstopp inom processindustrier med kontinuerligt flöde. Forskningsfrågorna som vägleder detta examensarbete består av att beskriva hur större underhållstopp kan koordineras och dess associerade utmaningar. Genom att jämföra offentligt tillgänglig litteratur och empiriska bevis från en fallstudie, bekräftas att de största utmaningarna för att genomföra ett effektivt underhållstopp beror på ledningen i alla steg som är förknippade med underhållstoppet. För att samordna underhållsaktiviteterna på ett så effektivt sätt som möjligt måste flera utmaningar övervinnas. Att anpassa organisationens mål och skapa engagemang hos ledningen är den första förutsättningen innan fler förbättringar kan utföras. Det är nödvändigt att definiera gemensamma mål som strävar efter att skapa tillförlitliga fysiska tillgångar för att i sin tur öka konkurrensfördelen. De definierademanagementutmaningarna sammankopplas till före, under och efter underhållsstoppet. Utmaningarnahandlar om att skapa en cyklisk process för underhållsstoppen där tidigare förvärvad kunskap nyttjas för att förbättra framtida stopp. Även om detaljerad planering är nödvändig för varje underhållstopp, är en hög nivå av beredskap också nödvändig. För att uppnå och lyckas med detta krävs en hög grad av visibilitet under underhållsstoppen och användning av standardiserade metoder.

Teacher turnover has a significant effect on the overall success of schools. The use of comprehensive turnaround strategies such as the conservatorship process created a problem for a small Southeastern high school by affecting teacher retention rate. A qualitative approach was used to investigate how aspects of turnaround strategies influenced teacher morale, which may have contributed to the small Southeastern high school's lower than average teacher retention rate. Bandura's self-efficacy theory provided the conceptual framework for this qualitative case study. The research question addressed teachers' perspectives of morale as well as their views and experiences with the conservatorship process. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 8 teachers who were actively employed at the school before the conservatorship process and were retained by the district. After coding each interview, 6 themes emerged relating to factors that influence teachers' perspectives of morale: (a) powerlessness, (b) excessive visitations, (c) loss of confidence, (d) ineffective instructional practices, (e) stress and burnout, and (f) ineffective professional development opportunities. As a result, a professional development project was created to train administrative leaders and teachers on the benefits of the distributed leadership framework, including how to use teachers' experiences and expertise in school reform efforts. The impact of this study is the potential to affect teacher morale positively and promote positive social change in the high school by fostering an environment in which stakeholders work collaboratively to increase the teacher retention rate, furthering the success of this small Southeastern high school.

Three major socio-demographic aspects of community life were examined in nonmetropolitan Utah within the context of the post 1970's population turnaround. They are: differentials by migrant status and housing type, patterns of community satisfaction, and migration expectations and migration. Findings indicate that groups of residents with different migrant status and/or housing type have unique patterns in socio-economic status, social integration and community attachment, and potential contributions to the community. It was argued that these phenomena can be largely explained by the exchange theory. With respect to the pattern of community satisfaction, it was found that the mobile home dwellers' level of satisfaction is mainly affected by their assessment of the interpersonal relations and the local government of their residence community whereas the conventional-home residents' level of satisfaction is affected by multiple sources: interpersonal relations, community facilities and services, community physical appearance and local government. The major difference between the recent migrants and the established residents was properly reflected by the findings that community physical appearance is a significant cause of satisfaction among the former versus community facilities and services among the latter. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the processes of the rural revival. Migration intention was found to be less constrained by the respondents' background characteristics and even the objective community conditions. However, when intention is transformed into action, the respondents' ability and flexibility to move, their social and economic bonds, and the objective conditions of the community, all come into effect. Housing type was also found to be interacting with migration intention in influencing migration.

No description available.

In August of 2007, Los Angeles Unified School District embarked on a new journey under the leadership of Superintendent David Brewer toward improving the achievement of some of Los Angeles’ lowest performing schools. By establishing a partnership with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, the goal of the improvements was to form a team of talented and experienced educators who would identify schools whose majority of teachers would be willing to be led and supported by these experienced educators under an umbrella organization called the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools in agreement with United Teachers of Los Angeles. The Deputy Mayor, Ramon Cortines, recruited me, the researcher of this study, to serve as Superintendent of Instruction of the Partnership in February of 2008. For two and a half years, I, along with 28 team members worked tenaciously to develop and implement a model that would accelerate achievement. While there were numerous initiatives and programs attempting to improve student performance in the lowest performing schools, no initiative in the district alleviated teachers from the day-to- day constraints of district policies and procedures. The reform model developed by the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools was the focus of this research. An analysis of the implementation of the Partnership Model at one particular site, Excellence Elementary School, yielded results that examined if the Partnership Model was able to successfully transform outcomes in an underperforming school.

Yes / Time, cost and risk are the main elements that effect the operating margin of the oil and gas companies due to Turnaround Maintenance (TAM). Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) is a methodology for the total shutdown of plant facilities during a pre-defined period to execute inspection actions, replacement and repairs according to Scope of Work (SoW). This paper presents a new methodology for improving TAM scheduling of oil and gas plants. The methodology includes four stages: removing Non-critical Equipment (NE) from reactive maintenance to proactive maintenance, risk-based inspection of Critical Static Equipment (CSE), risk-based failure of Critical Rotating Equipment (CRE), and application of failure distributions. The results from improving TAM scheduling is associated with decreasing duration and increasing interval between TAM leading to improved availability, reliability, operation and maintenance costs and safety risks. The paper presents findings from the TAM model application. The methodology is fairly generic in its approach and can also be adapted for implementation in other oil and gas industries that operate under similar harsh conditions.