Lakshmi Mittal and the Growth of Mittal Steel Assignment

Lakshmi Mittal and the Growth of Mittal Steel - Assignment Example This paper discusses the consistent growth of Lakshmi Mittal and all the issues it met, including in the final stages before merging with Arcelor. The strategy it undertook concerning foreign direct investment (merging and acquisition) undoubtedly enabled it reach greater heights. Arcelor Mittal Steel Company is a company that was started as a result of a merger between two steel companies namely Mittal Steel and Arcelor. The origin of the company was in India with Mittal being started in the early 1970s. The company, just like any other investment, faced some key issues and challenges as it developed. However, all these challenges have to be overcome by identifying available opportunities and making use of them. Competition in India was very stiff leading to limited growth opportunities. The main competition came from state and the privately owned companies. This led to the decision of Mittal to expand its borders to other countries, beginning with Indonesia. It is evident that Mittal in its foreign direct investment chose to use the method of merger and acquisition, rather than Greenfield investment. This is so because the merger method offers a lot of advantages. The local companies to be merged to or acquired are already conversant with the local customs and the institutions associated to the acquired firms. Furthermore, there is an advantage of easy access and relations with distribution systems. Mittal company only had to make improvements on what the merged firms had done, so as to establish itself in a competitive position and eliminate the potential competitors. Marinescu and Constantin (2008) say that â€Å"from financial point of view, the acquisition necessitates a smaller initi al investment. Capital is injected step by step, leading to lower market risk as opposed to a Greenfield† (n.p.). In as many countries that Mittal developed, there are a lot of advantages that are achieved by the host nations. Apart

Myth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Myth - Essay Example According to Campbell, myths are not lies or tall-tales. They are however imaginative, symbolic stories that people of virtually all times have told as a means of expressing their deepest feelings and insights of the ultimate reality1 . Therefore it is not possible to suggest that a myth means only one thing. With time, it is easy for a story to loose its concrete localization, or even become associated with a different story or hero altogether. This implies that a myth can go into a number of directions with time, acquiring new associations or losing the old ones. In many performances, mythical stories that are familiar to certain people were used to catch the attention of the audience. Self conscious collection in a body becomes very important when it is found that the common body of knowledge within a certain culture has started to fade away. However, some people perceived myths to be for those people who are weak and had undergone psychoanalysis and thus needed only to see through their superficial covering of the past incidents2. Myth is so enduring that it does not easily vanish with the increased complexities of life. The changing global economic and political situation has had little effect in causing the myth to wither. Myths appear at all levels of social life although it has been felt that it is important at the primitive social life. Therefore, a myth can be taken to be a sacred form that can explain how for instance the world and mankind came to be. A myth can be used to give an explanation of something that extends beyond human mortal beliefs but has certain meanings. This can be based on what many people refer to as sacred beliefs/life. However, some scientists have argued that a myth is not based on sacred traditions or collective rituals. In this perspective it is also a fact that modern human beings are products of non-mythological world's way of thinking. It is however true to claim that myths have been highly coiled around many sacred socio-historical settings, which might seem to be more of t raditional and less technologically oriented modern people. However, putting the myth stories from one society with another that are related can make a person to understand more of what happens and why such things happens. It also helps people to live harmoniously in the society. According to Billias, myths helps to human beings to know their true selves by creating a world that all the people can live in with the surrounding community3. Literal Vs Metaphorical Interpretation of myths In interpreting mythical stories, they can be taken to be literally or metaphorical. When talking about literal interpretation, it is assumed to represent factually true statements or false, depending on the case. Metaphorical interpretation is taken to mean merely poetical language or existentially significant. Therefore, literal language is simply cognitively meaning while the metaphorical language expresses attitude and commitment4. The literal and metaphorical interpretation can be applied in the case of incarnation of Jesus. As Gill explains, "that Jesus was God the son incarnate is not literally true since it has no literal meaning, but it is an application to Jesus of a mythical concept whose function is analogous to that of the notion of divine sonship ascribed in the ancient world to a king", (Para 11)5. Literal and metaphorical meaning depends on the authors or narrators implicit