Greek Economy

Course: International Financial Management

Date: July 8, 2012

Case: The Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis and the Economic and Monetary Union: A Failing State in a Skewed Regime by Kevin Featherstone

Background Information

In 2010, Greek's economy reached the point that the leaders of the country could no longer downplay the problems of the country's economy. The country's leaders had tried to conceal their economic woes from outsiders, but the weakness of the Euro in the European markets made the problems to large to conceal. The European financial markets were all struggling and Greece's government made several decisions that made the country's economy worsen.

The newly elected government of George Papandreou in October of 2009 discovered that many of their campaign promises and ideas were going to have to wait. The economy was in trouble. The new leader promised radical ideals, but found issues with the international financial markets and labor strikes and discontent at home.

People/Key Players

European Union Commission

Economic and Monetary Union

Greece government

Key Relevant Events

- Poor intra-governmental coordination, the Greek government lacks a centralization of resources to affect financial matters and assigns independence to the ministries. The ministries lack of executive strength worsened the government's economy. Coordination was lacking between the branches of the government.

- Greek government's lack of information on the number of workers in the public sector hindered the information on tax payments to the county.

- The 14,000 plus "budget lines" represents huge problems for the government. Making the management of the budget inefficient and un-track able. The lack of knowledge of the systems makes accounting controls ineffective and changes in policy difficult.

- Rigid employments laws and under-developed welfare system stalls the government's reform efforts. Greece has sustained a high level of unemployment in young workers for over 10 years.

Key Facts

The key information in this case study is that documents are growing in today's businesses. Whether documents are paper or electronic; documents must be captured, retained and disposed when their usefulness has been met. Managing documents electronically will help eliminate the mounds of paper that businesses create, but technology doesn't currently exist. The benefits of having a document in paper exceeds the electronic version of the document; however, storage of the document electronically and then reproducing in paper is more cost efficient. Electronic records have grown at an enormous rate and the policy to handle the volume has not been clearly addressed. The facts stated above were identified in the reports and studies mentioned in the Chronology of key events.

Concepts

The following concepts must be understood about electronic document management.

- Electronic document management will help reduce current paper documents along with electronic documents. Paper will be scanned into the electronic document management system.

- The primary purpose of electronic document management is to "corral" all documents that businesses create for future reference. Businesses must keep essential documents for decision making and records.

- EDM will not take businesses into the "paperless age", but will help businesses with storage and document management.

- EDM must be deployed at all levels of business. All levels of a business create documents, therefore; all levels must be able to store the documents.

Assumptions

The main assumptions in this case are

- Paper and electronic documents are growing at an enormous rate and are becoming increasingly harder to manage.

- Businesses must use the documents that they create in decision making for their future.

- Storage costs for paper documents are expensive and not efficient. EDM will ease the management burden of the documents.

- Businesses must utilize their IS section and train the employees to use the EDM system.

Point of View

The point of view in this case is documents, both paper and electronic, are growing faster than businesses can effectively store the documents. Documents are the lifeblood of businesses and are vital to the future decisions of the business. Management of documents must be at all levels of a business. Sales reports and spreadsheets are important, but communications like email traffic and telephonic conversations must be kept for documentation for a business to make decisions that will affect the future. A change in management's view of document retention must be made to allow documents to be stored at all levels of employee participation.

Problem Statement

Electronic documents management is a growing problem for all business. The amount of paper and electronic documents is growing at a large rate yearly. Businesses must be able to store, maintain, retrieve and dispose of documents efficiently. Businesses must be able to use their documents in the decision making process for their future. The cost of storing documents in paper is growing and not efficient.

Electronic document management has been considered as a support function of business; however the importance of EDM has grown due to the increase in documents. EDM will be looked upon for increasing efficiency in storage and retrieval of documents. Savings will be part of EDM due to reduction in storage costs. Businesses must not look at EDM as a support function, but consider EDM as an integral part of the business. Apathy by business leaders will not decrease the amount of documents that their business does not control.

Problem Casual Analysis

Factors that contribute to the problem are that business leaders are not aware of the growth of documents that are produced in their business. Spreadsheets and costs reports have always been looked upon by managers as important; today's business must be aware of email traffic,