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Key characteristics of a whistleblower
The verb whistle-blowing refers to revealing the hidden actions of another individual or groups of people (mostly executives) of a company for wrong actions they perpetrate in the dark. A whistleblower is thus any person who exposes any information regarding illegal activity dishonesty, or correct activities within an organization. In many cases, whistleblowers are employees or ex-employee of a company (Green, 2004).. Among the essential characteristics of whistleblowers is that they are altruistically motivated. They do their actions to expose the truth so that a person suffering unfairly may get saved. Secondly, they are utilitarian. They serve to be useful rather than attractive. Thirdly, they are not interested in altering their behavior. They do what they do because they believe it’s the appropriate course. They, therefore, allow their attitudes and beliefs to drive them. In many cases, whistleblowers are well educated as only people with such wisdom can manage what they do. They are also aware that what they do is prone to danger and severe retaliation (Green, 2004).

Instance of whistleblowing
On the 11th of March 2016, two former students of Bard College revealed that the college officials were violating the False Claims Act that regards the federal grants and that which stipulates the use of Title IV student aid funds. These two whistleblowers had researched and found that Bard has for long received funds through the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program though they the college has not yet complied with the conditions of such grant. Bard was also allegedly reported to be awarding, disbursing and receiving Title IV student loan funds at campus locations though such were not yet recognized. They also did so without providing notice of the locations to the Department of Education. Such actions showed an infringement of applicable regulations and agreement with the Department of Education. The case is still not solved and until the Court decides the fate of the culprits, the effect of the whistle-blowing to the whistleblower and the institution’s heads may not be determined. However, the prospective effects might be the jailing or fining of the Bard College heads. More so, the court might decide to demote them. The whistleblower might face threats from those persons that they exposed (Newman 2016).

Justification of the whistleblowers’ reporting

In any case, the actions of the whistleblowers were justified. Any publically traded company or any government institution represents is there to serve the people rather than inflict pain or take the public’s money without their consent. The government takes a lot of taxes from the public which it uses to pay for the services of workers of public institutions. It is thus wrong for these few individuals to grab or siphon the money once more from the public funds. As a matter of facts, it’s only the whistleblowers who might find out such actions as perpetrators do it hidden. Their actions were thus justified as they saved the public from continued fraudulence (Green, 2004).

Extent to which the whistleblower would be protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was developed and passed by the U.S. Congress to guard shareholders as well as the general public from such things like accounting errors and fraudulent practices. It was also aimed at improving the accuracy of commercial disclosures (Green, 2004). Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act would protect the whistleblowers against harm by the Bard’s heads for providing information about financial fraud. However, the two had to show that an actual violation occurred. It would then protect them against retaliatory actions such as threats or discrimination.

Business Plan
When planning to start a business or expand an existing business, having a business plan is the most vital and the first step. It is difficult to define a business plan, and its definition may differ from one organization to another. However, it is simplest form business plan can be a document showing where you want your businesses to be after a certain period and how you are planning to get there. Thus, before starting a business, the business plan acts as the blueprint for building the business. Writing a business plan is usually the first and important step to get started. A business plan lays out the directions for the company’s future and indicates where to begin in carrying out the standards for success. A five-year financial projection should be available in making a complete business plan. The projection helps to know the amount of funding needed for one to start rolling out (Hafford-Letchfield, 2011).

The business plan should also provide definitions on how you would wish to operate your business. It includes a description of the management team. It should also have methods for interacting with customers, and the marketing strategy. The business plan can project a strategy that relates to the founders’ style of management. A business plan can serve numerous purposes. A company can use a business plan to seek to fund from investors. Another company can use the business plan for requesting a loan from a bank. Another company many simply need a business plan to lay out the strategy of the business as a way of ensuring their success. Whatever the case for the business plan, all businesses need it (Zaval, and Wagner, 2011).

Business Case
A business case is a formal document meant to convince a decision maker to prove a certain action. A business case explores the feasible approaches to any problem and enables the owners of the business to choose the best option for ensuring the success of the organization. A business case can also be a documented argument that is meant to convince the decision maker in proving a certain type of action is the best. Thus, the main rule of a business case is to articulate a clear path to the most attractive and desirable Return on Investment (ROI). A business case in its simplest can be a spoken suggestion. A business case specifically talks about a single problem that a business is facing. For example, the business case can point out that a business does not make an adequate amount of money on Sunday evening to cover the cost of operation. Additionally, a business case showing complex issues of the businesses need to present the information in a carefully constructed manner. The business case document has to examine the risks, benefits, and the actions as well as the actions that need consideration. The business case conclusion should present a compelling argument for the solution implementation (EPMC, Inc, 2011).

Project Plan
A project plan is a formal written document that is meant to guide the execution and control of a project. Having a project plan is vital for any successful project, and it is a vital document creation that needs creation before commencing on any business project. The project plan in IT means the Gantt chart as well as any document showing the activities of the project as well as the timeline of these activities. However, it is inaccurate to consider these documents alone as being the project plan. Precisely, these specific documents should be termed as being the project schedules and can be considered to be part of the actual plan of a project (Zaval, and Wagner, 2011).

A project plan can be for managing and calculating the associated risks. It can be used to control delivery and schedule. It can be used to communicate and document stakeholder expectations to the project and their products. A project plan provides an answer to questions like why is a business project sponsoring. What other tasks relate to the products? Which activities are necessary to complete the project and what are the main deliverables and products. Who will take part and what are their responsibilities in this project? What is the schedule of the project and when is the time for completing the projects’ milestones? (Shillito, 2000).

Therefore, the initiation of any project requires a vital and detailed document for tracking the functionalities, requirements, updating and scheduling of a project. A poor document will lead to disastrous results against the stakeholder’s wishes (Shillito, 2000).

Relations to each other
A business plan is among the five elements that are necessary for attaining the objectives of a project. The other elements are a business case, project feasibility study, FSR plan and the implementation plan (Triantis, 2013). A business plan is a decision-making tool that formalizes the project of either the new existing businesses in setting objectives and goals and presenting convincing evidence to the achievability of these goals. The business plan draws heavily from the knowledge derived from the business case development and also captures the results of the whole business planning processes. A business plan discusses the entity of a business its market, objectives, and goals, and explains actions. A project plan only covers a minimal unit within an operating business. The making of a project plan requires the good understanding of the operations of a company. It mentions the objectives and goals of a project, the objectives of a project or the target purpose of the project (Zaval, and Wagner, 2011).

Strategic business plan for Apple iPhone in Malaysia

The strategic business plan for Apple iPhone begins with an executive summary. This summary points out the main focus o the phone’s strategic plan. It presents the structure of the document. The first section is the analysis of the Smartphone in Malaysia’s industrial environment and a macro business environment. The second part reports on the customers buying habits in the market of Malaysia. The third section provides details abbot the implementations instructions and tactics for the marketing plan. The executive summary follows other vital parts of the formal document such as acknowledgment, index of tables, index of charts and the table of content. The main paper comprises of the introduction part that covers the background history of the company. Financial highlights, an overview of the product, research significance, and background. The second section covers the objectives of the report. The objectives are; 1. To analyzes the smartphone industrial environment including the completion trends in Malaysia. 2. to research into the behavior of customers of the iPhone users the Malaysian market. 3. To provide detailed implementation tactics and instructions of the marketing plan. 4. To provide a marketing plan for the company in the next three years. 5. To give recommendations on iPhone marketing in the next three years.

Section three of the business plan covers the research design. The author mentions that he will use both the quantitative and qualitative research methods in finding answers to the research question. The research question is can the iPhone series dominate the Malaysian market and the preference of customers just as the case of America? Part 3.2 is on data collection. It mentions that the main source in market analysis is using questionnaire and closed questions to find out the customer psychology activities and behavior. Other parts that follow are sampling, survey question design and implementation. Section 4 provides the vital part of the strategic situational analysis. It uses the PESTLE analysis to illustrate the external environment factors affecting the company. These factors are legal, environments, political, social and cultural factors.