Assess the Value of Formal Investment Appraisal Techniques Essay

Assess the Value of Formal Investment Appraisal Techniques - Essay Example The central themes of all three writers under review have therefore been to look into how best practices in formal investment start up have been adhered to; particularly with the cases of acquisition of venture capital. Below, there is a detailed discussion of the three themes of the essay as presented from the perspectives of the three writers. Formal Investment Appraisal as Part of a Businesss Plan (Ashmalla et al.) Ashamalla, Orife and Abel (2008) who pointed to venture capital as a formal investment type in today’s contemporary world, they point to the designing of business plans as the most viable formal investment appraisal to use to secure venture capital and also assess the progress of the ventures that come out of the venture capital investment. Ashamalla, Orife and Abel (2008 p. 385) take the meaning of formal investment from the perspective of venture capital. The writers therefore undertake exclusive research on how business owners perceive venture capital and how they go about the subject. The writers explain that venture capital is an aspect of formal investment whereby business owners and investors seek for source of funding to start up their businesses and ventures. This is has indeed been an ongoing phenomenon in contemporary business setting for a very long time. Primarily, investors and entrepreneurs seek for capital to start up their businesses because of the belief they have always had in their abilities to make revenues, amass profits and pay off the sources of their capital. Because the search for capital to start up any venture results in an eventual amassment of wealth, Ashamalla, Orife and Abel (2008, p. 386) regard the practice as an important investment pattern in contemporary business scenarios. Generally, investments are undertaken to make profits. To this extent, the writer agrees with Ashamalla, Orife and Abel (2008) on this point that venture capital is now regarded as an important source of formal investment for business owners and investors. The writer however criticizes the situation whereby investors have to look for other form of funds to pay off their debts. This is because it is not always certain that the ventures they start will be profitable. The writers therefore collected data on how different respondents who were all business oriented personnel viewed and envisioned the use of business plan as an appraisal technique. In the larger sense, there were several respondents who agreed to the importance of business plans in helping investors secure venture capital. The reason given by such respondents has to do with the fact that business plans helps the creditors in assessing the real strategies and visions of the capital seekers. In this way, the capital seekers are put in a better position to convince creditors that they have put enough plans in place to pay off the debts should it be granted. There were respondents who also held the view that business plans are only cosmetic and that they do not actually raise the chances of capital seekers of securing capital. From the estimation of the writer, an investor who has not started a venture yet could have nothing more tangible in proofing his lot than a business plan. Business plans are there very important appraisal techniqu

Writing the History of the Australian Frontier Essay

Writing the History of the Australian Frontier - Essay Example However, Reynolds denied the claim by Windschuttle and stood by his original estimate. Thus, there started a conflict between the two distinguished figures over the number of Aboriginals killed in the frontier. "This skirmish was the first in what has since become known as the Aboriginal history wars. Windschuttle fired more shots in articles in the last four issues of Quadrant in 2000. Reynolds returned fire in a major article in the March 2001 issue of The Australian Review of Books. And there have been carefully staged verbal skirmishes in venues like Gould's Book Arcade in Sydney, on ABCTV Lateline and at the National Press Club in Canberra." (Ryan 2001, P. 31). Therefore, there has been a significant conflict of ideas and arguments by Henry Reynolds and Keith Windschuttle on the topic of writing the history of the Australian frontier and it is essential to comprehend the main areas of disagreement and agreement between the two. This paper undertakes an exploratory analysis of th e major arguments by Reynolds and Windschuttle in order to identify the major areas of disagreement and agreement between them, the evidence provided by each of them to support his position, and the utility of Ryan’s article to comprehend the realities of this controversy.... h Windschuttle has been their positions on the number of causalities in the Australian frontier and the two proposed significant substantive evidences to argue their positions. According to Reynolds, "It seems reasonable to suggest that Aborigines killed somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans in the course of the invasion and settlement of the continent. There were many hundreds of others who were injured and carried both physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives. Calculating the Aboriginal death toll is much more difficult For the continent as a whole it is reasonable to suppose that at least were killed as a direct result of conflict with the settlers." (Reynolds 1981, P. 99). Therefore, he mainly argues that the casualties can be calculated around 2,000-2,500 Europeans, and it is much more difficult to calculate the Aboriginal death toll. He also ascertains that Tasmania documented the conflict better than anywhere else in the country and Ryan's estimate of 800 is possibly more precise than the other estimations. The secondary effects of the invasion include disease, deprivation, and disruption which were responsible for the premature deaths of many more people and it is not possible to arrive at a realistic figure on the question. Windschuttle confronted the views by Reynolds on the number of deaths in the Australian frontier and his article "The Myths of Frontier Massacres in Australian History," claimed that many massacres of Aborigines in the Australian frontier were fabricated pointing out that the number of casualties in the frontier was far fewer than estimations of Henry Reynolds. He also disagrees with Reynolds' argument that the number of the Aborigines who died defending their territory outnumbers, in both relative and even