BUS345 University of La Verne Importance of Workplace Diversity Paper Please follow the this topic， and write as the sample one, need 5 full pages, double

BUS345 University of La Verne Importance of Workplace Diversity Paper Please follow the this topic， and write as the sample one, need 5 full pages, double space. Due US pacific time, 5/21 Running Head: IMPORTANCE OF WORPLACE DIVERSITY
The Importance of Workplace Diversity
Name
Institutional Affiliation
1
IMPORTANCE OF WORPLACE DIVERSITY
2
Workplace Diversity
The work environment is crucial for the performance of the businesses. Proper work
environment ensures that employees maximize on all the possible benefits that they can accrue to
make the business successful. Diversity in the work place is essential since the most business
deal with diverse clients who need to feel a sense of belonging while trading with the business.
When clients enter a business and find people who they can relate with in the business, they are
encouraged to trade more with the business in the nearby future (Forsey, 2018). Diversity also
creates an opportunity for a business to gain diverse ideas due to its diverse nature of employees
(Johnson, 2019).
Businesses that are of a diverse culture look more appealing to potential
customers than those that lack diversity (Mayhew, 2019).
Businesses should conduct an
environmental analysis frequently to ensure that their environment is suitable for employees to
attain maximum output.
IMPORTANCE OF WORPLACE DIVERSITY
3
References
Forsey, C. (2018, May 15). 5 Awesome Benefits of Diversity at Work. Retrieved from
Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/benefits-diversity-workplace
Johnson, R. (2019, January 28). What Are the Advantages of a Diverse Workforce?
Retrieved
from
Chron:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-diverse-
workforce-18780.html
Mayhew, R. (2019, February 12). Why Is Diversity in the Workplace Important to
Employees? Retrieved from Chron: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/diversityworkplace-important-employees-10812.html
Running head: BUS345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING INVESTMENT PLAN
University of La Verne
Personal Finance: Final Paper
Developing Investment Plan
Name
For: Prof. Hasse
BUS 345
Date
BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
Abstract
This paper covers how to develop an investment plan that is tailored to an individual’s
personal needs and preferences. First, the paper emphasizes and explains the
importance of establishing clear goals for investment. To do so, it evaluates important
factors such as tolerance for risk and the link between risk and return. The time
horizon of investing is also factored in. After explaining how to set clear investment
goals, the paper goes on to develop an investment portfolio that best suits the
individual’s goals. Various financial instruments, such as bonds, stocks, and mutual
funds, are explained and evaluated. A sample portfolio is developed and is included as
an appendix to this paper. I have used myself as an example for the paper, in order to
better illustrate the decisions.
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
BUS345 Final Paper: Developing an Investment Plan
Developing a solid investment plan may seem like a long, hard, and
technically advanced process. Many factors are to be considered before any
investment is made. However, investment planning is generally not very different to
any other type of planning. It all begins with an understanding of one’s current
position, future goals, and the best path to get there. A carefully structured plan will
help individuals reach their financial long-term (or short-term) goals.
The first step in any investment plan is assessing one’s starting position, and
knowing where one wants to get down the road. Questions to be answered should be
“where am I now, and where do I want to be in the future?” Typical goals may be
continued education, home purchase, or retirement. One should also know where to
obtain one’s starting investment capital from. My personal goal, for the purposes of
this paper, is to pay off my student loans in full, while also building up a solid savings
account for future use. The capital I will use for this purpose is sourced from
government loans I have taken out while studying in the US. I have been lucky
enough to have my education paid for by my future employer. Also, any Norwegian
studying in the US is eligible for loans up to $40,000 dollar per academic year from
the Norwegian government, meaning I have $160,000 to invest. These loans are
interest-free while studying, so that is why I chose to max out these loans each year
and invest them, as I was quite confident I could make more than 0% growth on them,
and therefore making some money on these loans before paying them back. The
absolute worst-case scenario for taking out these loans (if I lost my entire investment,
which is highly unlikely) would be that I would have a student loan to pay off, just
like anyone else. The interest-rates they carry once one starts working are also much
lower than going market rate, as the government subsidizes them. In other words,
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
there was very little for me to lose, and therefore I can choose to be more adventurous
and take on bigger risks, and hopefully make bigger returns.
My personal investment goal touches on something very important in
investment planning: namely time horizon. Time horizon is defined as: “the length of
time over which an investment is made or held before it is liquidated” (Investopedia,
2013). There is no such thing as one, universal time frame that is considered to be
“the right one”; it all depends on one’s individual goals, objectives, and life situation.
For example, a 60-year-old with a $750,000 retirement account should be more
cautious and invest in more liquid and stable instruments than someone who is just
starting out his or her professional career. Since I am young, and have not even started
my professional career, I can take on bigger risks as I practically have all my life to
make up for it if anything goes wrong.
Once the investment goals and time horizon is known, one can move onto the
next step, which is how to reach those goals within the given time frame. There are
many financial instruments, with each having their own characteristics and pros and
cons. A financial instrument is defined as: “a real or virtual document representing a
legal agreement involving some sort of monetary value” (Investopedia, 2013). They
are generally classified as either equity or debt based. Equities represent ownership of
an asset or a company, while debt represents a loan made by an investor to the owner
of the asset. Common stock is the most normal form of equity investment, while
bonds are the most prevalent option in the debt market. Bonds are defined as “a debt
investment, in which an investor loans money to an entity (typically corporate or
governmental) which borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or
fixed interest rate” (Investopedia, 2013). The bondholder will receive predictable,
fixed income at the agreed dates. These payments are called coupon payments. How
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
high this interest-payment is depends on the entity’s risk profile in terms of their
credit rating, ranging from AAA (highest rating) to C or D (which is the lowest
rating). Debt investments are generally considered less risky than equity investments,
as the only way one does not get paid is if the bond-issuer defaults. If that happens,
there is still a good chance one can recoup all, or at least part, of one’s investment in
bankruptcy court. Since the risk is relatively low, and the income so predictable,
bonds are good investments for conservative investors with relatively short timehorizons. As a result, I have decided to stay away from bonds for now.
The equity market, on the other hand, has more risks, but historically also
higher returns long-term (Damodaran, 2015). When investing in equities, one can
actually lose his or her entire investment. There are two ways to make money on an
equity investment: appreciation and dividends. Appreciation is the increase in market
value of the stock, while a dividend is a distribution of the company’s earnings to the
stockholders. However, there is no such thing as a guaranteed dividend, as no
company is forced to pay dividends. It is solely at the discretion at the company’s
Board of Directors if they find it to be in the company’s best interest. Historically, no
other investments have yielded better return long-term results overall than the stock
market (Damodaran, 2015). This does not mean one cannot lose money even longterm. However, a diversified portfolio of stock seems to make the most sense for a
young, aggressive investor like myself. The main benefit of diversification is
guarding against non-market (also called specific) risk. Non-market risk is “tied
directly to the performance of a particular security and can be protected against
through diversification” (Investopedia, 2013). In other words, it is the risks associated
with an investment that is not directly tied to overall market performance. Academic
research suggests that “almost all of the benefits of diversification can be achieved
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
with approximately 30 stocks in a portfolio and the majority of the benefits of
diversification occur within the first 20 stocks of the portfolio.” (McNamara, 2012).
One should not only spread one’s money to different companies, but also into
different types of companies. In short, one should allocate money across the different
sectors. I have chosen to invest half of my capital ($80,000) across ten sectors, with
two companies in each sector. This will give me most of the benefits of
diversification, while saving me from the headache of managing an additional ten
stocks. 20 stocks is still a substantial number of stocks to manage and monitor. I will
mainly pick stocks from the Northern European market. There are two reasons for
this: the financial institution I am investing from is based in Norway, so the trading
fees are lower within that region. Also, I know more about the market and companies
based in this area. Since I am a fairly aggressive investor, I will invest in some
adventurous growth stocks. To evaluate stocks, I use both technical and fundamental
analysis. Technical analysis is concerned with the numbers (Price/Earnings,
Price/sales, Return on Equity, Return on Assets etc.), while fundamental analysis
focuses more on the overall direction of the company. My current personal stock
portfolio is attached as “Appendix A”.
Another, perhaps easier, way of making a diversified investment is through the
purchase of a common stock mutual fund. A common stock mutual fund “invests in
the common stock of numerous publicly traded companies” (Investopedia, 2013). It is
a great way for young, inexperienced investors to get instant diversification. Another
benefit is that it offers time savings, as one personally does not need to actively
manage the portfolio; experts will do that for the investor. Mutual funds charge fees
for actively managing one’s investment, normally ranging from anywhere between
0.5-2% of the invested capital. I have decided to invest the other half of my capital
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
($80,000) in a mutual fund focusing on small/midcap companies in Europe. The fund
is called Castor Invest and is based in Norway. I have been in this fund since January
2013, and it has given good results. The return was 25.7% in 2013, 18.2% in 2014,
and 10.22% so far in 2015. I currently pay 1.5% of my invested capital in
management fees, but that is reasonable given the results the fund has yielded. The
current portfolio of this mutual fund has been attached as “Exhibit B”.
In conclusion, I chose to invest all of my $160,000 in the stock market, where
$80,000 has been invested in various stocks chosen by me, and the remaining $80,000
is invested in a mutual fund. Other, more conservative, investors may consider other
investments, such as bonds or real estate. Investment is also a learning process to me.
Picking, monitoring, and managing my own stock portfolio is a great way to learn
about the market mechanisms, while the mutual fund offers at least a sense of reduced
risk, as the money is managed by seasoned professionals. However, by being fully
invested in the stock market, I have assumed a quite high level of risk. Still, I am
comfortable with that, given my investment goals and time horizon as explained
earlier in the paper. That is really the essence of investment: knowing one’s personal
goal and in turn finding the risk-return trade-off one is comfortable with.
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
Appendix A: Personal Stock Investments
Sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company 1
Volvo AB
Consumer Staples
Energy
Lerøy Seafood Group
Statoil
Financials
DNB
Health Care
Industrials
Information Technology
Materials
Telecommunications
Services
Roche Holding AG
SAS AB
PSI Group
Norsk Hydro
Utilities
Total
Telenor
Arendals
Fossekompani
Company 2
Ekornes
Carlsberg AS‐
B
Det Norske
HitecVision
AS
Medi‐Stim
ASA
Byggma
Opera
Kemira OYJ
TeliaSonera
AB
Hafslund
Total
Investment
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$16 000,00
$160 000,00
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
Appendix B: Common Stock Mutual Fund
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BUS 345 FINAL PAPER: DEVELOPING AN INVESTMENT PLAN
Works Cited
Damodaran, A. (2015, January 5). New York University Stern School of Business. Retrieved
May 18, 2015, from Annual Returns on Stock, T.Bonds and T.Bills: 1928 ‐ Current:
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/histretSP.html
Depra, D. (2014, September 15). Tech Times. Retrieved May 1, 2015, from Tech Times:
Microsoft drops Nokia branding, declares price war with Android One:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/15611/20140915/microsoft‐drops‐nokia‐
branding‐declares‐price‐war‐with‐android‐one.htm
Investopedia. (2013, January 1). Investopedia. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from Time
Horizon: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/timehorizon.asp
Investopedia. (2013, January 1). Investopedia. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from Financial
Instruments: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financialinstrument.asp
Investopedia. (2013, January 1). Investopedia. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from Bonds:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bond.asp
Investopedia. (2013, January 1). Investopedia. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from Market
Risk: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketrisk.asp
Investopedia. (2013, January 1). Investopedia. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from Common
Stock Fund: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/common‐stock‐fund.asp
McNamara, B. (2012, May 18). TCW Group. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from A
Concentrated Approach to Diversification: Insight Into Equities:
https://www.tcw.com/Insights/Viewpoints/05‐18‐
12_A_Concentrated_Approach_to_Diversification.aspx
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