Apple Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Apple Strategy - Essay Example This has been done using the quality employees who they employ. In recruiting the new employees, Apple does not necessarily follow what most companies have been doing. Contrary, Apple looks for great sales persons who have been using their products and have consequently developed a likeness of the same. By doing this, they help differentiate true enthusiasm and the salespersons believe in the products. The company has gone further to invent black cards. This strategy is to be used by their customers whereby they can issue black cards to their employees. The cards have an Apple emblem and they contain some written materials on the sidelines. This card directs the Apple customers to talk to the company. On the rear side of the black card, it recommends the Apple customers to fill in, whereby they indicate, whether they have received good customer service or not. Moreover, the company has also developed an idea of a store within a store. This has been achieved through the setting up of Apple shops in big departmental stores and supermarkets such as the Best Buy. They have also placed Apple consultants at this shops whereby they train employees about their brands and all others (Apple Inc., 2010, p.1). For Apple to climb to such heights, the company has developed a distribution and market segment that has overseen the brand name attain global recognition. Through its distribution and marketing segment, the company sells its product throughout the world using online stores, retail stores, direct sales force, third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. The company also sells to consumers, of large-scale and small-scale, and small and medium sized business, creative customers, education, enterprise, and the government (Apple Inc., 2010, p.1). Business Strategies Apple has employed high standard of business strategy, which are followed by all members of the institution. This is done because the company is committed to delivering nothing but the best personal computing, moveable digital music and moveable communication practice to customers, scholars, instructors, commerce, and administration agencies through its groundbreaking hardware, software, peripherals, amenities, and internet offerings. The company’s business level strategies shows the companies unique ability to come up with, and develop the companies own operating system, hardware, application software, and services to deliver its clienteles different products and elucidations with superior ease-of-use, seamless integration, and innovative industrial design (Apple Inc., 2010, p.1). This company believes strongly in the need for continued investments in research and development. The reason is that the development of this will enhance innovativeness in its products and technologies. In the business level strategies, the company considers the use of cost leadership. This is done in order to compete for a wide customer base, which is usually based on its prices. How ever, the products developed by Apple are expensive for moderate people in other countries outside the US. Nevertheless, these prices are based on internal efficiency so that the company can form a margin, which will sustain above average returns and cost to the customer so that customers will purchase Apples products. This happens since the technology sector is standardized whereby if a company fails to achieve certain targets, other rival companies will surpass it. Some of Apples largest competitors are Samsung and HTC. However, there has been a continuous effort to lower the cost to be relative to customers (Apple Inc., 2

Marketing plan Essay Example for Free

Marketing plan Essay Marketing Plan How to sell Vrd’s Executive Summary: Compact is a company that wants to be well known by marketing a new Voice Recognition Device (VRD). This company will be able to create, develop, and sell the product to many different customers. The product is used and operated by performing tasks without using keyboards, a mouse, or any buttons. Compact wants to serve as many customers as possible. We are flexible and are willing to work with any customer that comes our way. Our target market is essentially everyone. Specifically groups including mangers, assistants, creators, students, home users, and parents are the market segments. All of these customers will be able to take our business to the next level as we sell our products to them. †¢Managers need a product with many special commands and high error protection. The managers need the VRD product to do their work. †¢Assistants defiantly need a product that has a high ease of learning. The product will give them time to multitask with many projects at one time. †¢Creators need a product that is quick and able to get the job done. They don’t really need ease of learning or error protection. These people know how to fix a lot of things. Students want the best product at the cheapest price. The product will allow students to do homework on the go and communicate with teachers. †¢Home users can include everybody from kids to the elderly. For these people this product needs a high ease of learning. In addition, the special commands can be low for the home users because they are just getting started with technology. †¢The parents are caring and buying the product for their kids. They care about the education of their child and want them to be ahead of the game. They just want a product with a high ease of learning for their children. Our company is trying to serve everyone from the broke students to the high end mangers. We feel like our customers/consumers were willing to shop online and at stores. The major retail store will have the product like Wal-Mart and Target. Online shopping will be convenient for the managers, assistants, and creators. Most of these people are very good with computers. To support our decision with choosing this market, we were able to focus heavily on customer service, advertising, and special commands. Also, we felt since we were targeting everyone in the market that error protection, and ease of learning. This will give the ability for our company to sell more and maximize our profit. Our company was able to compete against three other companies selling Voice Recognition Device. And we were able to compete against one other company for the second item DVC. These companies were; Vocley, Voyz, and Echo. The other companies made us take a look at how we can improve our business. The company we competed against for DVC was Echo. We were able to use other companies’ choices to figure out some good business decisions. Also, we used other companies to see what mistakes that we shouldn’t make. To increase our profit we had to change and adjust things to fit the customers. The Compact Company was about profit but at the same time we wanted to sell a great amount of goods. This helped us to determine if our company should change advertising, or customer service, or decrease the price of the product. As the game went on we had to change our market to the higher market in order to make a better profit. This was allowed by watching and understanding the market. The two huge this to make profit was advertising and customer service. The advertising allowed us to promote the product. So with the more promotion we wanted to make sure was had good customer service. This would allow customers to depend on the company anytime they needed us. There were four types of advertising to choose from and they were; Direct, Indirect, Pioneering, and Reminder. For our company we were Direct for the first eight weeks. The dealers were able to target most of their sales face to face with people. But we soon realized that not everyone works like this and wants to buy. Changing to Reminder would inform the customer but give them the chance to come to us. We didn’t want to force their hand into buying something they didn’t want. For Compact this was the best decision we soon upped the profit and price. This had a major effect on the sales of the product for us. We found that the right type of advertising is vital. The distribution intensity is the percentage of time that the dealer is selling your product in each of the channels. You want to have the dealers working but don’t want to over work them. Compact’s dealer intensity was 50% in each channel. The dealers in each channel would have a great amount of time to work and personal time as well. They don’t want to go through a lot of steps to learn how to use the product. Home users are mainly using VRD for online shopping or communicating with other people. This is more of something for them to do while they are laid back. B. Preferences The home users want a good price not as low as students. Also, they want a product that is easy to learn and pick up on. C. Differences from other segments This category could include with a lot people like kids, adults, and elderly. As long as the product is user friendly with the home user anyone is able to use it. They just use the product for fun and games. It is nothing serious like the managers or creators use VRD for. D. Trends We as a group would say the trend of this market is many put into one. A lot more people are using throughout this market so it is offered to many. More people are working and planning on the go so this would be much help to them. Also, the kids doing homework they are forming groups also with the product. Assistants: A. Needs and wants Assistants need something that they can depend on all the time and VRD is that product. While at work they are always asked to do many tasks. VRD is the product that they are able to use with excellent software. Also, has a great ease of learning to pick up on things easier. This device will make the assistant work look better than it really is. B. Preferences The product needs to have to have a high ease of learning. Basically, the ease of learning needs to be on a kid’s level to use. You want the assistants to be able to do their jobs with low amount of stress. C. Differences from other segments The major difference with the assistants is most do not purchase they project. They are mostly purchased by the company that they work for because of the ease of learning. The VRD will be able to keep the assistants on task with their job. And be able to keep their bosses happy with them. D. Trends Once the major and high end companies started purchasing the VRD, they will need less and less assistants. The reason our group thinks this is because the ease of learning will allow less workers, to do more jobs effectively. Creators: A. Needs and wants These are the Market testers, designers, and Writers. This can also include some businessman and professional living. These people want the high speed and want things to want as fast as possible. They don’t worry much about the ease of learning. B. Preferences They just want the speed and high special commands. Price is not really a problem with this group of people. C. Differences from other segments The Creators use the VRD product for professional work. The creators are people who need a product and do not care how much it cost as long as it gets the job done. This group is willing to spend as much money as needed. D. Trends As long as this product works for the creators it will grow. Managers: A. Needs and wants Managers always in charge of other people they need a product that is able to multitask and help others. They need something that is high speed and functions well. Most managers are businessman who has special documents to send out and this product is a huge advantage. B. Preferences These people do not care how much the product is. They just want something that functions very well. Also, this group has the highest special commands at 15. 3. Also, this group wants a lot of error protection too. C. Differences from other segments The managers are people that are very knowledgeable and know a lot about computers and laptops. They do not need any instructions or label how to work VRD. They have been working with them long enough in their field that they will be able to figure it out easily.  D. Trends For this product to stay trending with the managers it will need to have updates all the time. The managers always will want the best product on the market and VRD is it. Parents: A. Needs and wants This group is getting the VRD product for either their kids or grandkids. This will have to have a great ease of learning for the kids. The special com mands don’t have to be high at all. Parents can use this as a teaching tool for their kids. B. Preferences The parents just need a product with a high ease of learning for their kids. C. Differences from other segments Vocley’s strengths seem to be their unit sales, which has led the industry. Other strengths are higher commission percentage for their sale representatives, which give more incentives to create business. Weaknesses can be found in the retail price in distribution channel 1, which is one of the highest of the four companies. With all their success they have maintained a low customer service budget as well as advertising dollars. The data shows that they are trying to promote more business in channel 2 with five more sales representatives than in channel 1. Voyz is targeting the market segments of assistants and managers. It appears that there is a large difference in preferences from the different market segments which makes it hard try and clump a group together. In channel 1 Voyz is carrying the lowest retail price which is good for those that shop in that distribution. Voyz strengths are that they offer low prices in both channels and have great advertising. A weakness would be their budget for sale promotions. Voyz had a big jump from week four to week five, with more than 2. 5 million dollars in sales. This could be caused by an increase in advertising as well as higher commission. In the later weeks they made an emphasis on increasing their sale promotions. Echo led the four companies in special commands as well as overall profit for the first couple of weeks. They are targeting high-end, well to do users that shop in distribution channel 1. Echo is looking to sell to managers, creators, and assistants. Echo has been profiting the most because of the higher prices. Channel 2 is higher than industry average as well, but with good promotional money and advertising they are getting customers to buy into the company. Technologically this product is evolving very quickly and new opportunities are readily available to try and compete with other competitors that are defining the industry. To be on top we need to predict the future of what the customer wants long term, ultimately being the key to success. If better opportunities arise to make our product in another country for less cost and the same technology is available that decision will be made by the head of the company and could put us at a strategic advantage, possibly opening new paths for consumers that didn’t even know about our product. A potentially global market will once again change the game and the product will see a phenomenal rate of growth. To introduce a product to other countries can be an enormous task with major spending but in doing so it will allow for greater profit in the future. Furthermore, producing our product in another country might bring down cost and ultimately lead to more profit. Production can occur in a country where there are low wages and lower cost for parts to make the end product. In addition, another country might have better tax incentives and other government funding to help the production of the VRD to become a more profitable product. Producing the VRD in another country will expand sales internationally as well because there will be more brand awareness in those markets. 2. Marketing Objectives: Compact’s marketing objectives focused on market segments that haven’t been utilized yet and customer satisfaction to retain as many customers as possible. If we can keep our customers happy and attract other consumers from different companies or market places we will gain an advantage. Our marketing type was direct for most of the game but to try and secure those other customers plus retain ours we switched to a reminder strategy. Ultimately, this didn’t turn out as well as we would have liked it to. In fact, in week 10 we had a major decline in profit. To gain an advantage our company needed to focus on high quality customer service and smart advertising to make the customer feel like they’re getting the knowledge and the most innovated type of product, with the company always supporting their product. Our budget for many weeks only allowed for a certain amount of money to be spent which cut into our customer service budget and our advertising. We also had to adjust our research and development since our company could not buy market reports. This was tough to do, but for a couple of weeks we saw a steady growth rate in profits, nothing compared to the leaders though. Our company was still producing profit, but in order to be at the top of our industry we decided on an approach to flood the customers with sales reps and create more advertising hopefully attracting customers that either didn’t know about our product or steal customers from our competitors. 3. Marketing Strategies: 3. 1 Target Market: After playing the game, we encountered different problems with our marketing strategy. Initially our group was doing well and we understood the features of the VRD. After receiving the reports in the first couple of weeks we realized that we had more special commands, ease of learning and the error protection then needed. We got different results from both channels so our strategy was to focus on one channel and put more of an emphasis to sell from that channel. We focused on channel 2 at first, and then gradually brought channel 1 into our strategy since our group was not doing well. Our group had some good competitors and they were doing really well in the business. In order to compete with them we had to change our strategy each week we gave our inputs. We analyzed our competitors and received as much information as we could. With a low budget we were unable to produce reports to determine where we needed to focus our dollars on. This hurt our overall plan because our group had to play a guessing game in order to try and figure out what the customers wanted. Initially we saw that students and the home users were more interested in our products. So we were giving our inputs accordingly. In order to make this an equal amongst all, we had to change some plans so that assistants and managers didn’t fall behind in buying our product. We tried incorporating a strategy to include these types of users and make them aware of our brand, but the other brands already established themselves which led us to have a hard time in the marketing mix. Our main focus was to make sure the customer was getting the special commands, error protection, and ease of learning that they wanted. Throughout the game we adjusted this several times. During one week we adjusted the commands down to better suit the customer’s needs, which we thought would possibly give us an advantage. 3. 2 Product Strategies: As we analyzed the market, we knew exactly what customers needed and what their field of interest was. We knew that we could extend the special commands to 20, ease of learning to 15 and error protection to 15. We could have increased our special commands very quickly but we knew that it’s a long run game and if we had increased our special commands rapidly we will not have any options in the future. We thought our plan was working very smoothly, but, our competitor’s strategy ended up becoming suitable for the market and dominating the industry. We decided to increase our special commands to try an put a product on the market comparable to the one of our competitors. Our biggest competitor ended up being ECHO because they also included the second device in their strategy. Another reason why we were competing with them was because we were the bottom two companies in our industry fighting for those last dollars whereas Vocley and Voyz both secured the top two spots and were fighting for the overall postiton. Initially we were making $800,000 but now we are making 1. 2m. As we changed the strategy and focused on different fields, we were back into business. We cut our cost in most of the things in order to concentrate more on customer support and advertisement. And the results were good enough. we were also spending a lot on our sales agents. We are gradually increasing our special commands, ease of learning and error protection and this was giving us leverage with the other companies but we couldn’t receive as much profit as them which led us to have an overall lower budget. As we said, there were lots of ups and dows in the business and that’s a reality. In real world we have these kinds of issues and its very normal because as time passes, lots of good companies and businesses come into picture and we have to think outside the box in order to compete with them. 3. 3 Promotion Strategies: Product promotion is important to target your segmented market. We strategized to develop the best method to promote our product. We needed to reach our consumers as effectively as possible. We saw different outcomes when we allocated our resources in different areas. Starting in period four we were allowed to determine how much money was going into our promotions. When we had more money to spend we were able to put more money into our promotions for both products. In turn we saw an increase in our units sold. Promotional dollars spent was direct correlated to the units sold, but with less revenue, we had less money to put into our promotion. 3. 3. 1 Customer Service: Customer service is essential to keep your customers happy. Customer service is the level of ease a customer can contact and reach the company. The customer should be able to contact the company in order ask for assistance in the product usage, discuss complaints that they may have, or re-order damaged or under warranty products. Customer service is very important to the customers and the more money that a company can set aside for customer service, the higher the levels of customer satisfaction with the company can be. This was difficult for our team to think how much to put into customer service, at first we spent less money on customer service and were still able to keep our customers satisfied. What our team found strikingly odd was that our customer service could continue to increase, but our customer service, was still not near the industry average. In the first three games we did not think that customer service levels would have the impact that they did on our sales. So we did not put high amounts of money into serving the customer’s needs. Then we realized the more our competitors spent in customer service, the more our customers where unsatisfied with the service levels that they were receiving. Our percentage was steadily decreasing and we needed to increase our percentage in respect to the industry average. On the y axis was the number of units sold and the x-axis the game period. In our findings we found that if you increased the customer service budget, you have happy returning customers. Our strategy was to stay with the industry average after finding the correlation between customer service and units sold. However, it is difficult to stay with the industry average, when sales are decreasing and revenue is dropping. 3. 3. 2 Advertising: Advertising is essential when targeting your market. A company can have the best idea in the world but without customer knowledge the product may never reach the market. Our team understood the importance of advertising our product and initially spent $280,000 in advertising alone. We knew that we had to reach our markets in order to sell our product, this strategy seemed to work very well for us and for the remainder of the game we contributed at the least $200,000 to advertising. In week four we were allowed to choose the type of advertising to market our product more effectively. In week four we went with the reminder, we choose reminder because we had the highest brand recognition out of all four of the competitors. Unfortunately, this did not work out in our favor, as our sales dropped dramatically. In week five we decided to choose pioneering, to show our market that we were the best in the market, if they wanted to quality and the most advanced product in the market. In week five this worked in our favor as our sales increased as well as our revenues. We typically kept with the direct market approach throughout the game except in period 5. We saw that we needed to have large amounts of money in each of the product advertising budgets in order to appeal to our target customers. We spent less money in advertising with product one, and did find that sales impact total units sold. With less and less money to spend in each product segment it was difficult to allocate which product should have the most advertising dollars to spend. In the long run we choose to try to compete with our competitors in the first product market. 3. 3. 3. Personal Selling: Understanding the significance of personal selling in marketing can help a company target their market. Personal selling is the most expensive form of advertisement, but it is the most effective. Selling at the personal level is a more direct approach in contacting your consumer. A person can better target a potential buy. Our team had to choose the appropriate amount of sales people and determine their commission to better influence the sale people to sale to the final consumer. Sales people are an incredibly important part of advertising, a sales person can influence the consumers to purchase the product. However a sales person needs the proper incentive to work their hardest to sell to the consumer. Initially we could only choose the number of sales representatives in each channel. First we equally divided them between the channels and found that the channels had different selling rates so we distrusted the sales representatives from then on. We put higher numbers of sales representatives in the channel that was in need of better sales. Later on in the game we were able to determine the work load of the sales representative and the commission that they could make. Initially, we thought that the higher we make the commission the harder the sales representative would work so in week four we increased the commission to a higher percent. We were also allowed to determine how much time the sales representative was supposed to have customer contact. We thought it was essential for the sales representative to send the most amount of time possible with the customers, without hindering their work performance. So we only made the sales representatives spend small amounts of time doing paper work and clerical duties. Although we were allowed to alter the sales person’s duties and commission so far the push percentage has been steady at of an average rate of . 38. We no longer purchase the reports to determine how well our sales representatives are pushing our products in each channel. Since the beginning we have increased our sales force, although it is the most expensive marketing tool, it is typically the most effective. The chart below shows that we have increased our sales force in each channel; additionally we have continued to raise their commission on the products they are selling. Keeping the number of sales representatives and their commission in mind we thought it would allow for a bigger push in each channel if we steadily increased both. † These methods can attract the consumer to use these products, sometimes it’s the consumers first time using the product and can affect their future purchases. If a customer is satisfied with a sample they can decide how much better the product is than the rest of your competitors and create brand loyalty to your product. We kept the sales promotion amounts pretty constant until period six and did not see an increase in the amount of sales. We did see an increase in our sales in period 7 as we spent almost double are typical spending on promotions but only had an increase of sales of about 5,000 units. Well the product was doing we were then able to order the appropriate amount of manufactured product for the next week. During the game we were able to keep manufacturing at similar levels as our sales were not increasing drastically. We did increase our production when our sales were increasing. 3. 5. Pricing Strategies: Consumers have always been very sensitive with price, and will be. Products that are priced incredibly high are sometimes seen as high quality or part of the social elite market. On the other hand products that are priced lower can been seen as high value or affordable. Price is one of the essential variables to reach your target market. Our team was able to understand our distribution channels and was able to determine that the people that tend to purchase our product in channel 2 were more price sensitive than those in channel 1. It didn’t occur to us that we should change the prices in the different channels until week four. After changing the prices in each channel we were able to target the different markets in each channel more effectively. Throughout the game we allocated our money different according to the resources that we had and what we needed to improve upon. Most of our money was allocated to our sales force in the first product segment. Combined from both product sectors and adding their salary and commission they were almost 75% of our total expenses. This does show that person to person selling is the most costly. Our next largest expense was advertising as we spent about 1/3 of our funds to advertise our product. The rest were very small amounts of our expenses throughout the game, we decided to spend less money in these areas as they had a smaller impact on our unit sales. Controls For the controls we wanted to see what worked best within our plan. We wanted to take a look at the controls every week and be able to monitor it. This would depend on want the customers’ wants and needs were. We knew and understood that we were here to serve them. Within the first three weeks we were able to reach our goal to serve the customers. We focused on ease of learning and special commands. We also were able to level off at error protection on the fourth week. But this was not enough as the weeks progressed we were always able to add more. During the fourth week we were able to purchase two more of each. That was ease of learning and special commands. The main reason that we raised those was because we seen other groups doing it to better serve their customers. We wanted to serve them as best as we could. Toward the end with extra money coming in we were able to increase all of them by two during the seventh week. Throughout the weeks we had to decide whether or not to buy the reports. We bought the reports in a later week to see if our preferences were in line with our target market. We made adjustments to our strategy and preferences so that we could meet the needs of our target market. Our objective for the remaining weeks was to make sure that overall we still had a profit and we were not losing money. This was attained and our objective was completed. In a real environment though, the company would have to consider strategic moves in order to stay competitive and survive in the long run. Our product was on a path towards the decline stage, if not already there. In the end, we still completed the game with a profit and had a product that certain groups of consumers relied upon.

Everyone needs a family to love :: essays research papers

It was no coincidence that I met a very wise person in my life. Now this person I found was always there for me! Wherever I went I knew they were in my heart to help me out, just to make things clear I’m not talking about God (even tough he is very wise and trustworthy) I’m talking about my family, the ones that have raised me since I was small and helped me through my life to get where I am today! They were the ones I knew I could count on to help me, but in the beginning I took them for granted and just there to live with and feed me, I never thought they would help me the was have! Well I was just sitting down with my dad and having a conversation about life, which soon ended up as an argument and the meanie that he is, I got grounded and had to do community project work for 4 whole months(BORING!!!). Now you see my dad is a very strict and did anything for his community and was always a few centuries behind, but he was the one that got me to find the real me! Well on the first day of my ‘community service’ I had to clean up the beach, which I found EXTREMLY boring! On the second day I did the same thing and did the same thing for 3 whole months. But on the fourth month I was told I was going to a work at an AIDS Children Orphanage, it sounded better than the beach so I went there. As soon as I walked in I could here all the children screaming with joy as another person came in to play to feed to teach them! These children looked as if they had no worry in the world, they didn’t know they were very sick they just knew they wanted to learn and play with people so much, some of the didn’t know what it was like to have a mother, a farther, but they seen to live just as well, but they needed that extra bit of love that your parents give. I found out that day how blessed I was to have a loving family always there to back me up, before I took them for granted I thought they were a waist of time I could live without them, which is true I could look at those children, but I realised that my family gives me that sense of security and of hope.

Abnormal Psychology Maladaptive Behavior Essay

Briefly describe each of the major theoretical perspectives in maladaptive behavior. Which of the perspectives do you believe is the ‘right’ perspective, or is there a ‘right’ perspective? Biological Perspective: Suggests that all disorders physical or behavioral have biological causes. Causes may lie in heredity, genetic accident, or bodily infection, or trauma(Sarason, 2005) Psychodynamic Perspective: Point of view that emphasizes thoughts and emotions as the most important determiners of behavior. Basic ideas come from the work of Sigmund Freud(Sarason, 2005). Behavioral Perspective: A theory of behavior based on the idea that much of a person’s behavior is learned rather than genetically based. According to this view, behavior is based on past experiences with the environment(Sarason, 2005). Cognitive Perspective: Point of view that considers behavior to be the result of information processing and problem solving. Emphasis is on mental processes of which the individual is aware or can easily become aware(Sarason, 2005). Humanistic-existential Perspective: The idea that all individuals are unique and should be free to make their own choices about life directions. Emphasizes the creative freedom and potential of the individual(Sarason, 2005). Community Cultural Perspective: Viewpoint that much maladaptive behavior results from poor living conditions, discrimination, and so on. Emphasis is on preventive activities(Sarason, 2005). I personally believe each perspective is important, I do not think one could be better than the other, because the human body in all its parts is so complex, whether it be your culture, genetics, your uniqueness, learned behavior etc†¦ I just believe it can be a combination of perspectives depending on the individual at hand.

Difficult Times Always Lead To Better Days

Every cloud has a silver lining means that you should never feel hopeless because difficult times always lead to better days. Difficult times are like dark clouds that pass overhead and block the sun but after some time the cloud shines much brighter than previous time. Life is full of challenges and the longer we live, the more we face new events or challenges in life. Some pass easily and others not.So there are two kinds of people in this world; one who works hard and overcome the situation and the other are those who gives up rapidly. The world we live in is not perfect, and we will never ever find a world which is perfect in itself. Every day there will be things that make us cry or feel sad about ourselves. People who will stand in front of the difficulties which they face, they will be able to improve themselves and let their dreams come true. They are known as brave people and the entire world respect them.In contrast, there are people who watch their steps carefully, they st udy their books and do what their bosses, parents, or teachers tell them to do. But if they, for example, could not solve a math problem they will close their books and stop studying. Furthermore, if there is a problem between a husband and a wife, and this husband or wife is one of those people who give up easily, they may get divorced from the first difficulty but if they stand against the problem and face that problem, it may possible that they will win the situation. Difficult Times Always Lead To Better Days Every cloud has a silver lining means that you should never feel hopeless because difficult times always lead to better days. Difficult times are like dark clouds that pass overhead and block the sun but after some time the cloud shines much brighter than previous time. Life is full of challenges and the longer we live, the more we face new events or challenges in life. Some pass easily and others not. So there are two kinds of people in this world; one who works hard and overcome the situation and the other are those who gives up rapidly.The world we live in is not perfect, and we will never ever find a world which is perfect in itself. Every day there will be things that make us cry or feel sad about ourselves. People who will stand in front of the difficulties which they face, they will be able to improve themselves and let their dreams come true. They are known as brave people and the entire world respect them. In contrast, there are people who watch their steps carefully, they s tudy their books and do what their bosses, parents, or teachers tell them to do.But if they, for example, could not solve a math problem they will close their books and stop studying. Furthermore, if there is a problem between a husband and a wife, and this husband or wife is one of those people who give up easily, they may get divorced from the first difficulty but if they stand against the problem and face that problem, it may possible that they will win the situation.

12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men The issues of injustice and possibilities to follow the wrong conclusions during the jurors’ analyzing the case in the court can be considered as the most controversial aspects of the process which results can be irreversible. All these problems are revealed in the movie 12 Angry Men directed by William Friedkin which was released in 1997.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on 12 Angry Men specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, in spite of the main theme of legitimacy discussed in the movie, some important aspects of the social psychology can be discussed using the examples of relations and interactions between the characters of the movie. The main two aspects which should be effectively analyzed are the problem of stereotypes and the question of the successful leadership. The plot of the movie is based on the story of a young Spanish-American boy who is accused in killing his father, and the main task of the jur ors is to decide whether he is guilty or innocent. The jurors have their own personal vision of the case and are inclined to accuse the boy without paying much attention to the discussion of the case’s details. However, there is Juror # 8 who does not want to follow the viewpoint of the majority of the group and insists on the further detailed analysis of the case (12 angry men, 1997). The peculiarities of the manner to persuade the public and lead the persons’ to making their own right conclusions which is demonstrated by Juror # 8 can be discussed in the field of the social psychology with references to its main aspects along with the group’s inclination to follow the stereotypes and bias. The main difficulty which complicated the jurors’ clear vision of the problem can be discussed as the progress of stereotypes in their attitudes to the people. While discussing the peculiar features of the case, the jurors focus on their beliefs about definite groups of people and the possible characteristics which can be used to describe their behavior. Thus, accusing the boy in murdering his father, the jurors reveal their stereotypes about those people who grow in poverty in slums (12 angry men, 1997). Following these stereotypes, the jurors are inclined to wrongly interpret the boy’s possible actions with references to their vision of the case according to their stereotypes.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Moreover, the situation is also complicated by the combination of stereotypes and discriminative views against the representatives of the minority groups (Franzoi, 2002). Nevertheless, Juror # 8 is not so categorical in his discussion of the issue as the other jurors influenced by their own stereotyped visions. According to the aspects of the social psychology, it is possible to speak about the juror’s revealing the effective leader’s behavior. The leader is a person who can motivate the others to reach the goals and achieve high results (Franzoi, 2002). The behavior of Juror # 8 can be considered as the behavior of the task-oriented leader. In spite of the fact his leadership is not open and not formal, Juror # 8 is successful in controlling the situation of the discussion with the help of different conversation tactics and a series of thought-provoking questions. Juror # 8 realizes the principles of the coaching leadership with focusing on creating the supportive atmosphere during the discussion. The principles of social psychology are regularly realized by people in their everyday interactions. That is why different aspects of the social psychology can be involved in the analysis of the characters’ behavior and actions in movies, novels, and shows. References 12 angry men. (1997). [Video] Web. Franzoi, S. (2002). Social Psychology. USA: Mcgraw-Hill College.Advertising W e will write a custom essay sample on 12 Angry Men specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

Bimbo Strategic Analysis Essays

Bimbo Strategic Analysis Essays Bimbo Strategic Analysis Essay Bimbo Strategic Analysis Essay Through the development Of brands, fresh produce and quality and continuous innovation, the Group has earned a share of market leadership in bakery products in the U. S. , Mexico, in most Latin American countries in which it operates and in Spain and Portugal. The Group operates n 19 countries including USA, Mexico, Latin America, Spain, Portugal and China. At December 31 SST 201 2, the Group operated 154 manufacturing facilities worldwide, with a capacity to produce commercial quantities of a variety of products in their major markets. In order to ensure the freshness and quality of its products, the Group has developed an extensive direct distribution network, which has one of the largest fleets of distribution in the American continent. At December 31st 2012, the direct distribution network of the Group included approximately 51 ,OHO distribution routes, spread over ore than 1 ,600 distribution centers and reaching over 2. 2 million outlets. The Panel finds that this distribution network is one of its main competitive advantages. Main brands in Mexico Bimbo Marines Barrel Resorcinol Mission To Nourish, delight and serve our world. Vision Vision 2015 We are a company with trustworthy leading brands for our consumers Our customers preferred supplier A forward looking and innovative company A financially strong and sound company An extraordinary place to work In 2015 we are the best baking company in the world and a leader in the food industry, where people make the difference every day. We strive to be a highly productive and deeply humane company. Values Passion Team Quality Effectiveness Profitability SOOT Analysis We can see in the SOOT analysis that Bimbo counts with really strong characteristics that positions it in a unique place in the market in comparison with their competitors like their global expansion, their distribution channels and all the brand equity (values, brand image and fidelity). Not everything is perfect for Bimbo as it has to take in consideration those weaknesses they have in order to grow in a faster way, nothing worry but they have to work on hat in order to not be affected by the threats and take advantage of the opportunities. Porters Five Forces Models of Competition Rivalry among competing firms industry. There are several competitors in the baking industry. It is estimated that the top four companies account for only 1 17% of the market. The industry is characterized by many small bakeries, but there has been a recent trend towards consolidation of economy of scales. Businesses compete on price, quality, differentiation and relationships with key suppliers. Threat of new entrants. The barriers to entry into the industry are low. Economies of scale are inefficient but are not required for success in the industry. As a result small businesses can enter with a small amount of capital. The two main determinants of the success of the new company is the leaders ability to get enough distribution channels to cover operating costs and to build recognition and brand loyalty. Distribution channels typically include retail stores, such as supermarkets and grocery stores, and can be easier to achieve if the bakery has an established brand or marketing resources can create one. Bargaining power of buyers. Buyers of products in bakery industry such as supermarkets, grocery stores r convenience and hotel chains are able to appropriate much of the gain due to the large number of small bakeries compete to get a outlet for their products. As a result, buyers can get low prices and quantity discounts. Only the big players like Kraft, Kellogg, Yamaha Baking and Group Bimbo have the power to level the forces and achieve a more balanced share of the profits. Bargaining power of suppliers. Providers do not have much bargaining power in this business as well developed markets for its consumer products and the nature of what they sell. Bakeries can be affected by changes in prices of raw materials, but these hinges are a result of the determinants of global supply and demand rather than the bargaining power of suppliers. Threat of substitute product. There are many substitutes for these products. The breakfast cereals, rice and potatoes are viable alternatives and people can also bake them at home. To avoid this, bakeries trust on products and convenience. PESTLE Analysis Political It is the federal government that passes and enforces legislation concerning the entire country. Actions by the federal government affect a large number of firms and are consistent across state boundaries. Environmental analysis, over, should not overlook actions by both state and local governments. Local governments have the potential to affect business practices significantly. Some local governments may be willing to provide incentives to attract business to the area. Some may build industrial parks, service roads, and provide low-interest bonds to encourage a desirable business to move into the community. Economic GAP (official exchange rate): $1 trillion (201 0 est.. ); $876 billion (2009); $1. 088 trillion (2008). Per capita GAP (POP method): $13,542 (2009 est.. ); $14,534 (2008). Annual real GAP growth: 4. 5% (2010 est.. ); -6. 5% (2009); 1. 3% (2008); 3. % (2007); 5. 1% (2006); 3. 2% (2005). Inflation rate: 4. 6% (2010 est.. ); 3. 57% (2009); 6. 5% (2008); 3. 8% (2007); 3. 4% (2006); 3. 3% (2005). Natural resources: Petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber. Agriculture (4% of GAP): Products-?corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit, tomatoes, beef, poultry, dairy products, wood products. Industry (31 % of GAP): Typesfood and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables. Services (64% of GAP): Typescommerce and tourism, financial services, transportation and communications. Trade: Exports (2009)$230 billion f. o. B. Imports (2009)$234 billion f. o. B. Exports to U. S. (2009)$185 billion (80% of total). Imports from U. S. (2009)$112 billion (48% of total). Major marketsU. S. , EX. (5% of total), Canada (3. 6% of total). Social Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and the second most-populous country in Latin America after Portuguese-speaking Brazil. About 76% of the people live in urban areas. Many Mexicans emigrate from rural areas that lack job opportunities-?such as the underdeveloped southern states and the crowded central plateauto the industrialized urban enters and the developing areas along the U. S. -Mexico border The coloratura dimensions of the environment consist of customs, lifestyles, and values that characterize the society in which the firm operates. Socio-cultural components of the environment influence the ability of the firm to obtain resources, make its goods and services, and function within the society. Technological Cooperation between the United States and Mexico along the 2,000-mile common border includes state and local problem-solving mechanisms; transportation planning and institutions to address resource, environment, ND health issues. Another technology, the electric razor, has yet to totally replace the blade for shaving purposes. Perhaps the difference is that the manufacturers of blades have innovated by adding new features to retain customers. Manufacturers of fountain pens did not attempt to innovate until the ballpoint pen was well established. Environmental Mexico have a history of cooperation on environmental and natural resource issues, particularly in the border area, where there are serious environmental problems caused by rapid population growth, arbitration, and industrialization. There have been several studies of the relationships between environmental factors, particularly air pollution, and attacks of asthma. Legal The legal environment facing organizations is becoming more complex and affecting businesses more directly. It has become increasingly difficult for businesses to take action without encountering a law, regulation, or legal problem. A very brief listing of significant laws that affect business would include legislation in the areas of consumerism, employee relations, the environment, and competitive practices. Analysis Mexico is a country with opportunities for a sustainable development, as its economy is growing so fast and it has been attracting foreign industries for promoting the FED. Its legal and political system is flexible and it has De bases to promote business all over the county. Mexico has to focus into develop environmental and tech analogical issues, as it has been failing in these two aspects and in consequence their economic growth has been running slowly. External Factors Evaluation (FEE) 2 Bimbo shows a high strong score for external factors, as they can explode and take advantages of what they are actually doing and have preventive actions for future threats Internal Factors Evaluation (FIFE) 2 Bimbo shows a good internal profile but they must be focusing into solve internal management and financial aspects in order to explode their potential. The total score, considering both evaluations, is 6. 55 which it means that Bimbo has a good profile that makes its position unique in the Mexican market. Competitive Profile Matrix According to the results Of the CPM analysis We can notice that Group Bimbo has big advantage in comparison with their competitors, especially in Financial Position and Brand name. Bimbo could use this information to expand the business in news countries where their competitors have not en positioned yet and use their experience as well to develop new products and brands to create presence in new markets where there are different kinds of needs. Matching TOWS Matrix 2 Considering the results seen in FIFE and FEE tables, we have analyzed that Group Bimbo should be focusing in Grow and Build tactical strategies; it means that their strategies should be aggressive and intensive. Research and development play an important role in theirs strategies, due they have to impulse their attractiveness in the market and as well gaining new markets through launching new products. FIFE= 2. 95 SPACE Matrix Group Bimbo is located in the aggressive side due it is the principal company in the bakery industry, so they possess a lot of benefits like good financial strengths mostly in liquidity and cash flows, it doesnt has problems with the quality of their products and its product life cycle is big therefore this could let them invest in growth in the global market and in technological innovation as well to adapt their production to the news changes and still on the top of their industry. Bimbo has a big presence in the market and a great consumer loyalty, maybe this is the reason they dont depend too much of the demand elasticity to establish the prices of their products and they dont have too much pressure from the competitors. Boston Consulting Group Matrix 12 Bimbo counts with several brands in many countries, but in Mexico, the top 4 leader brands are: Bimbo bread, Marines, Resorcinol and Barrel, and they are being ranked by revenue. We can notice that the first 2 brands have similarity percentage in the corporate revenue and they have similar market share so it means that these two brands are performing well. Bimbo is competing in Mexico with Hostess Brands and Marines with Games an important impetigo that is gaining market. Resorcinol is competing with Son RISC that represents the same threat that Games. At the end we have Barrel that is weak if we compare the brand with the largest competitor, and its losing market, so it means that Bimbo should focus their efforts into position Barrel in the market. In this graphic we can notice that the 3 top brands are positioned in the market as stars products, so it means that Bimbo is doing a good job with these brands and should be focusing their efforts into strategies for market growth. Regarding Barrel, the fourth one, is considered as a dog product, so t means that they should divest this product or find a new market abroad for this brand, as we can see in Mexico is not performing well. The General Electric Business Screen Matrix Bimbo is ranked as Medium in market attractiveness as it has 90% in the market, so it means is really well positioned in the consumer mind, so the companies and the brand are creating relationship, experience and fidelity among the population. In competitive position, it has been ranked as strong due their competitors have a low percentage in the market, and it counts with a large full range of brands that makes it stronger than their competitors. Grand Strategy Matrix Bimbo is in the second quadrant because has an excellent strategic position as it is the principal company in the bakery sector, has a powerful advantage to have a complex and great chain distribution and well knowledge about its consumers. When it is necessary also Bimbo could take big risks to compete in the market like low its prices even when the inputs costs are increasing.

Lester Allan Pelton - Hydroelectric Power

Lester Allan Pelton - Hydroelectric Power Lester Pelton invented a type of free-jet water turbine called the Pelton Wheel or Pelton turbine. This turbine is used for hydroelectric power generation. It is one of the original green technologies, replacing coal or wood with the power of falling water. Lester Pelton and the Pelton Water Wheel Turbine Lester Pelton was born in 1829 in Vermillion, Ohio. In 1850, he immigrated to California during the time of the gold rush. Pelton made his living as a carpenter and a millwright. At that time there was a great demand for new power sources to run the machinery and mills necessary for the expanding gold mines. Many mines depended on steam engines, but  those required exhaustible supplies of wood or coal. What was abundant was water power from the fast running mountain creeks and waterfalls. Waterwheels that had been used to power flour mills worked best on larger rivers and did not work well in the faster moving and less voluminous mountain creeks and waterfalls. What worked  were  the newer water turbines that used wheels with cups rather than flat panels.  Ã‚  A landmark design in water turbines was the highly efficient Pelton Wheel. W. F. Durand of Stanford University wrote in 1939 that Pelton made his discovery when he observed a misaligned water turbine where the jet of water hit the cups near the edge rather than the middle of the cup. The turbine moved faster. Pelton incorporated this into his design, with a wedge-shaped divider in the middle of a  double cup, splitting the jet. Now the water being ejected from both halves of the split cups act to propel the wheel faster. He tested his designs in 1877 and 1878, getting a patent in 1880. In 1883, the Pelton turbine won a competition for the most efficient water wheel turbine held by the Idaho Mining Company of Grass Valley, California. Pelton ´s turbine proved to be 90.2% efficient, and the turbine of his closest competitor was only 76.5% efficient. In 1888, Lester Pelton formed the Pelton Water Wheel Company in San Francisco and began to mass manufacture his new water turbine. The Pelton water wheel turbine set the standard until the Turgo impulse wheel was invented by Eric Crewdson in 1920. However, the Turgo impulse wheel was an improved design based on the Pelton turbine. The Turgo was smaller than the Pelton and cheaper to manufacture. Two other important hydropower systems include the Tyson turbine, and the Banki turbine (also called the Michell turbine). Pelton wheels were used to provide electrical power at hydroelectric facilities around the world. One in Nevada City had an output of 18000 horsepowers of electricity for 60 years. The largest units can produce over 400 megawatts. Hydroelectricity Hydropower converts the energy of flowing water into electricity or hydroelectricity. The amount of electricity generated is determined by the volume of water and the amount of head (the height from the turbines in the powerplant to the water surface) created by the dam. The greater the flow and head, the more electricity is produced. The mechanical power of falling water is an age-old tool. Of all the renewable energy sources that generate electricity, hydropower is the most often used. It is one of the oldest sources of energy and was used thousands of years ago to turn a paddle wheel for purposes such as grinding grain. In the 1700s, mechanical hydropower was used extensively for milling and pumping.   The first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity occurred in 1880, when 16 brush-arc lamps were powered using a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The first U.S. hydroelectric power plant opened on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin, on September 30, 1882. Until that time, coal was the only fuel used to produce electricity. The early hydroelectric plants were direct current stations built to power arc and incandescent lighting during the period from about 1880 to 1895. Because the source of hydropower is water, hydroelectric power plants must be located on a water source. Therefore, it wasn’t until the technology to transmit electricity over long distances was developed that hydropower became widely used. By the early 1900s, hydroelectric power accounted for more than 40 percent of the United States supply of electricity. The years 1895 through 1915 saw rapid changes occur in hydroelectric design and a wide variety of plant styles built. Hydroelectric plant design became fairly well standardized after World War I with most development in the 1920s and 1930s being related to thermal plants and transmission and distribution.

Development of the cotton economy in the South 1776-1860 Essay

Development of the cotton economy in the South 1776-1860 - Essay Example The Northern merchants reaped huge gains from cotton trade as they were engaged in buying cotton from farmers and exporting it to England in exchange for manufactured products. According to Seavoy (184), the trade business in North American states was actually an international affair as those in the North would export to foreign markets the cotton they had bought from the southern farmers. The economic success for both the north and south lay on the support of the southern slaves, which saw the emergence of capitalism, slavery/ forced labor and the civil war. This paper looks at the impacts of cotton farming and the long term effects it had on the American history. Development of the cotton economy in the South The economy of North America and South America differed in that the northerners chose manufacturing system while the southerners chose landowning aristocracy. The aristocratic federal system allowed a high degree of independence as labor was drawn from various fronts. Demand f or labor rose sharply in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in both North and South America. Northern immigrants came from Europe and were excellently absorbed into society while Southern immigrants came from Africa and they were not absorbed. ... They were sold to Southern American planters. Instead of paying the immigrants themselves, planters in the South paid the ship captains. Due to capitalism, the planters overworked the immigrants in order to pay higher prices to ship captains. Southern immigrants as well as their children became slaves for their entire lives. The slaves were increasingly used to grow cotton in the South. Cotton accounted for fifty percent of all American exports and the South generated more than fifty percent of the global supply of cotton in 1840. This enormous production, as Walton and Rockoff, (p 125) and say held many foreign countries in partial repression. By then, Britain was the leader in terms of industrial power, and its most pertinent manufacture was cotton cloth. Southerners repressed nations like Britain as they perfectly knew that Britain was attached to them mostly by raw cotton. This dependence gave them an invigorating sense of power. The South grew rapidly as a result of cotton and d iversified agriculture. The rapacious craving for cotton in Lancashire matched the increasing production in the South driven by vitality of slave institutions and availability of cotton growing land. The immorality of enslaving Africans has continuously haunted American economic history. African enslavement became a prime factor in antebellum politics and a pertinent aspect in the civil war. Even today, the role of blacks in American history and economy persists. The antebellum Southern encounter was largely as a result of peculiar slavery institution. Cotton economy restrains industrialization in the south Cotton economy in the South

Ocular Centrism and the Other Senses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ocular Centrism and the Other Senses - Essay Example The author traces such an ocular centric culture from the renaissance era during which individualism took shape and found more application during the industrial era of the 19th and 20th century that have led to the present technological dependence of mankind, however, he also cites a few examples of ocular centric architecture as early as the age of the Greeks. In addition, the author feels that significance given to the power of sight has been witnessed in the architectural structures and the culture of the respective periods. For example, a person with blindness is considered severely disabled when compared to one who is deaf. The ocular centric nature of succeeding cultures has not only led to an increasing dominance of sight and its influence of culture, it has led to ignorance of the other senses which has also influenced architecture by making it one – dimensional. In order to prove this point, the author examines various structures of the past that have qualities absent in contemporary architecture. For example, the author explains the use of light and shadows in some famous structures and how a lack or limited amount of light contributes to the aesthetic beauty of a structure. He also goes to propose that light in the use of today's structures invades privacy and has other effects such as limiting the creativity of the human mind. With respect to sound, he says that although it has been taken into account in today's buildings, they do not aid the effects of hearing such as its interactive ability which was incorporated in structures of the past. Similarly, the power of smell and touch have not only shown to be important factors in architecture, they are shown to have an influence on the human mind itself. Therefore, by ignoring these senses in creating architecture, western culture has also experienced a significant reduction in the qualities that is attached to these senses such as intimacy which is associated with touch, warmth associated with smell and interactivity associated with hearing, etc. Therefore, the resulting structures are one-dimensional in nature and do not engage the individual as intensely as with structures of the past. Hence, architecture needs to encompass the variety of senses and emotions experienced by an artist rather than the dominating sense alone. The author also establishes that art is as much an interaction between the viewer and the structure as it is with the quality of the structure alone. Ocular centrism has not only led to a one-dimensionality of the structures but also a corresponding quality in today's artists that significantly decreases the quality of contemporary art. Today's structures are built with the idea of optimality and rationality than through the experiences of the artist. The author also cites simple buildings such as hospitals and houses for this purpose (Pallasmaa, 285-296). Human Rootedness The author's remarks are significant because of the importance of architecture i n human life. Architecture is a reflection of the characteristics of the culture of the particular period. It is the same reason architecture is studied in such detail while endeavoring to know about the nature of past civilizations. Architecture and other forms of art deal with questions that have been at the centre of man's imagination ever since civilization took shape. This is evidenced in the ancient cave paintings around the world to the relatively

Contemporary Issues in Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Contemporary Issues in Management - Essay Example Table of Contents Introduction Organizations’ view of Work Life balance Theories on Quality of life Advantages of Work Life balance Programs Best Practices to Improve Quality of Life Effect of Quality of Life programs on employees Conclusion Contemporary Issues in Management - Quality of Life and Work Life Balance Introduction Recent decades have seen a change in the working style. Not only are more people part of the workforce now, they are also working more hours (Chick, 2004). The stressful work life often becomes overwhelming and it’s easy to lose perspective of what is really important. As a result people end up making bad decisions and often neglect their personal life as shown in a study conducted by the Families and Work Institute (Bond, 2002). Balance is always the key to a healthy living. If a person works too much and sacrifices quality family time, he might be successful professionally, but the achievement and material gain is not proportionate to the price he has to pay for a neglected family. According to Caliguiri and Lazarova (2005, pp.124), â€Å"Work-life balance can be defined as maintaining a happy and healthy personal life while being successful at work, and attaining a broadly defined sense of personal fulfillment†. The phrase â€Å"time poverty† is commonly used now with more and more people complaining they have more work to do in less time. This paper deals with the concept of work-life balance and its importance in organizations by specifically looking at Four Seaons Inc, which is a leading hotel chain that has presence in over 35 countries. Many enterprises have realized the benefits to a workforce which has an improved quality of life, as employee satisfaction has a direct relationship with the success of the organization (Wickham, Parker and Fishwick, 2006). Organizations’ view of Work Life balance There is a growing realization among organizations that quality of life needs to be improved because of the multiple roles being played by an employee. It’s difficult to juggle home and work life and often results in lower productivity (Lockwood, 2003). Four Seasons is an organization that has remained an employer of choice by providing them with not just good salary and perks, but also by facilitating a good work-life balance among the employees. For this reason, it figured as no.55 on the Fortune list of top employers across the world (money.cnn.com, 2011). If the employee at Four Seasons feels in control of his work life and does not have stress, it can lead to higher productivity and less absenteeism. This is because work-life balance has a growth and profit impact, producing a positive return on investment (Quinlan, 2005; Purcell, 2002; Bird, 2006). Better policies towards employees at four seasons help in maintaining a healthier and happier work force also help reduce health care costs at four seasons which often results in greater loyalty and motivation and decreases the turnover rate (Lockwood, 2003; Quinlan, 2005, Landy and Conte, 2010).Employee retention may also be seen as an important benefit(Joshi et al, 2009). In the 70s employers thought of work-life balance as an issue of working mothers alone. During the 80’

Businesses value of information______Study case Assignment

Businesses value of information______Study case - Assignment Example Naturally, large companies such in the same caliber as Telstra have establishments around the world on various technologies i.e. cloud services, software development among other. The statutes and charters in these industries do not distinguish the variations in such technologies. This advocates for the frequent lawsuits between companies and transnational organizations. Moreover, the patent laws in the industry emphasis on flexibility due to the vast growth and development of new technologies (Lamb, 2012). Competition is always a significant element in all industries but in telecommunication and computer technology production, sharing ideas on areas such as graphic user interface and operating systems is not a major issue because novelty and innovation are the key determinants of success in such an industry. Relatively, the flexibility aspect of the patent laws and system in general only give protection on a neutral perspective hence making it easy for lawsuits in difficult situations. Relatively, Telstra should assume the role on the global platform coming up with a way to offer customers a hosted ERP system on cloud without abusing the different regulation s and legal patents. This will reduce the possibility of lawsuits, which might negatively affect Telstra’s trust by the consumers. Given Telstra is an already established company in telecommunications and media, the main significance relative to its current aim of provision of information technology services is a Geographic Information System (GIS). Geographical information systems have become predominant in many organizations in the course of improving their effectiveness, especially for companies thriving in different but related markets. GIS describes computer-based systems specially designed in order to assist in the capturing, storing, manipulating, analyzing, as well as management and presentation of different kinds of spatial

Recommendation letter carol v0.2-yuwei-ec19970 Essay

Recommendation letter carol v0.2-yuwei-ec19970 - Essay Example She has had experience in leading a group of sales people of which most were much senior to her. Despite this professional gap, she could lead that team to work together cohesively and delivered a good result. This led to her selection in the QDII business launch team and she was expected to make something happen in ambiguity without formal team and authority. As expected, she grew up to the qualitative and quantitative benchmarks. She coordinated the launch of our first bank QDII fund, which despite its market competition could generate over 20 million RMB in a single month. Efficiency in business environment management was observed in her while developing a corporate culture initiative. ‘’The Gourmets†, initiated and founded by her, was one of the most popular clubs under the â€Å"Employee’s Union†. The club not only offered its members chances to try different cuisines but also functioned as a very good platform for positive interaction among all strata of employees. Her burning desire to achieve and learn also impressed me strongly as she had a real strong passion for investment management. She always ensures her capacity building by keeping alive the urge for knowledge and by reaching out to newer domains. I believe and trust in her great deliverance towards the job requirements and superior learning capability. Judy is very intelligent and always keeps a will to learn. However my working experience with her in launching new QDII business could reveal to me, the weakness in her range of knowledge. She had learned a lot of finance and economics as a part of her college curriculum and self-study but was weak in other managerial subjects like marketing and accounting. To be a generalist who could launch and oversee a whole business process, she should attain a more balanced knowledge base. I have no doubt on her academic learning skills. My belief is well averred by her college academic performance as she has scored great in her professional

Issues associated with use of force on inmates Essay

Issues associated with use of force on inmates - Essay Example The law in the country establishes the rights to an inmate. The following are some of the rights. For one, they have the right to trial. This is because not all inmates breach the law. Second, they have the right for treatment with respect. Third, they deem for the right to a legal counsel from a legal representative. Third, they deserve the right to a range of reading materials (Barkan & Bryjak, 2011). Other rights include-right to nutritious meals, to take part in enlightening programmes, and the right to get information of the rules, procedures, and schedules concerning the operation of each detention activity. Further, they have the right to communicate with family members. The reasons why inmates should have the above rights are that they are human beings requiring what others have. Second, some are not necessarily criminals as there are suspects amongst criminal offenders. The punishment on an inmate by personnel is very different from that on a suspect by police. This is due to various distinguishing reasons. Police use force when arresting individuals, and when dispersing demonstrating groups. They do this through pushing the individuals, or using firearms. On the other hand, personnel use force on inmates when they want the inmates to partake a certain job, and when punishing the prisoners. It is a difficult to deal with people of an older age. The police may use certain devices when dealing with people and in different scenes. They use tasers, and stun guns to determine the time a certain shot takes place and aids in dispersing people. They are effective in that the police get to know the time of the shooting. An advantage is that they help astonish assailants at a distance. In addition, the use of tasers is a way of conducting current over longer distances. Several lessons come out from the essay. It is evident that inmates have their rights despite them being lawbreakers. The police and other security personnel should not

Recommendation letter carol v0.2-yuwei-ec19970 Essay

Recommendation letter carol v0.2-yuwei-ec19970 - Essay Example She has had experience in leading a group of sales people of which most were much senior to her. Despite this professional gap, she could lead that team to work together cohesively and delivered a good result. This led to her selection in the QDII business launch team and she was expected to make something happen in ambiguity without formal team and authority. As expected, she grew up to the qualitative and quantitative benchmarks. She coordinated the launch of our first bank QDII fund, which despite its market competition could generate over 20 million RMB in a single month. Efficiency in business environment management was observed in her while developing a corporate culture initiative. ‘’The Gourmets†, initiated and founded by her, was one of the most popular clubs under the â€Å"Employee’s Union†. The club not only offered its members chances to try different cuisines but also functioned as a very good platform for positive interaction among all strata of employees. Her burning desire to achieve and learn also impressed me strongly as she had a real strong passion for investment management. She always ensures her capacity building by keeping alive the urge for knowledge and by reaching out to newer domains. I believe and trust in her great deliverance towards the job requirements and superior learning capability. Judy is very intelligent and always keeps a will to learn. However my working experience with her in launching new QDII business could reveal to me, the weakness in her range of knowledge. She had learned a lot of finance and economics as a part of her college curriculum and self-study but was weak in other managerial subjects like marketing and accounting. To be a generalist who could launch and oversee a whole business process, she should attain a more balanced knowledge base. I have no doubt on her academic learning skills. My belief is well averred by her college academic performance as she has scored great in her professional

Answer 3 history questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Answer 3 history questions - Essay Example However, Lincoln’s tolerance in the matter was criticized by the Radical republicans who were of the absence of any Black civil rights in the Presidential Plan. After all the Blacks were emancipated after the Civil War, the Radicals were now demanding greater rights for them as equal Americans. Abraham Lincoln was the assassinated in 1865 after which President Andrew Johnson passed legislatures in the Southern states which limited the rights of Blacks to a set of codes. Hence, the period under the administration of President Johnson saw laws restricting Black rights and supporting the domination of the Whites (Public Broadcasting Service a, n.pag.). Along with support from President Johnson and his restrictive Black codes, the Southerners tried to maintain slavery in essence. Anger erupted in the North against the unfair black codes having a detrimental effect on the support for the Presidential Reconstruction. Support for the Radical wing of the Republicans increased and in t he next congressional election of 1866, the Radical republicans won. A massive majority of seats won by them allowed them to influence the Reconstruction in the Congress. Furthermore, it could supersede any refusals of permissions made by Johnson. In the Reconstruction Act passed in 1867, five Southern Confederate states were divided into military districts and gave a framework of how the government would be organized. Southern states were also prescribed to authorize the Fourteenth Amendment so as to allow equal rights and protection for the Black slaves before they were readmitted to the Union. Following the Reconstruction Act the Blacks acquired a say in the government regulations which was a remarkable step in the history of the American politics. Years later, however, counterrevolutionary players including the Ku Klux Klan would cause reversal of the legislations brought about by the Radical Republicans thereby spurring up hostility and white supremacy in the Southern States (P ublic Broadcasting Service a, n.pag.). The 1925 film The Birth of a Nation illustrated the same era of the Southern states after the American Civil War. The film distorted the reality of the Reconstruction period by showing the Blacks as dominating the Whites in the South thereby providing glorification of the Ku Klux Klan (Public Broadcasting Service b, n.pag.). 2. John Gast’s painting Manifest Destiny, also known as the American Progress, is a vivid presentation of the American West in the 19th century. The painting demonstrates the advancements in technology as the conventional travois used by Native Americans is followed by a wagon and then a pony express. Railroads can also be seen where the trains are travelling over the rails. With the construction of railroads after the American Civil War, the West was opened up for settlers across America as well as other continents. When seen sequentially, the painting demonstrates the American Progress as it is with the Native Amer icans coming in their travois before the European and American explorers came in their carriages and expresses. Then after them came the farmers and other settlers from other parts of the country via railroads in trains. White settlers arrived from the East crossing the Mississippi while the African American settlers came from the

Language and Arthur Millers skills as a dramatist Essay Example for Free

Language and Arthur Millers skills as a dramatist Essay A view from the bridge is a two-act tragic play by Arthur Miller in the mid 50s. This play puts light on the working American-Sicilian population, in particular the Carbone family, the head of which is Eddie Carbone. In this essay I will be analysing Eddie Carbones character whilst occasionally making comments on the language and Arthur Millers skills as a dramatist. Eddie is a simple, straight forward man that lives with his beloved wife and niece. Alfieri describes Eddie as a long shore man. He is very protective over his orphaned niece, Catherine. Arthur Miller uses informal language to show Eddies social class. It is worthy to note that Arthur Miller was skilfully able to come down to the status of long shore man and was able to produce speech successfully in their tone and language. Eddie is portrayed as generous, but at the same time selfish and self-protective. This is since, although he is generous to offer his home to two of his wifes cousins, Marco and Rodolfo, he believes he is Superior. This is shown as he reminds Beatrice not to offer them his bed and he is very jealous of anyone that gets too close to Catherine. This jealousy also adds to his hardship in accepting Rodolfo and Catherines relationship, another reason to this envy is his over-protective nature. He has brought up Catherine as his own daughter and feels afraid to let her grow up, so he cannot face her having any relation to other men. Eddies wife, Beatrices is unhappy with Eddies attitude towards Catherine, which soon starts to create a rift between the couple. Its been many days and nights since you havent slept with me; shows that Eddie has been so caught up in Catherine and making sure she does not fall for Rodolpho, that he begins to forget about his duties as a husband. Further into the play, Eddie begins to feel another emotion towards Catherine: sexual attraction. This is shown by many things which happen throughout the play. He quickly begins to feel extremely jealous of the immediate impression Rodolfo makes on Catherine. The stage directions state at a point, He looks at [Catherine] like a lost boy, when she reveals her feeling for Rodolfo to him, but he is unable to admit it to everybody else. Furthermore, Eddie becomes so obsessed with Catherine, that he has no control over his emotions; for example Catherine begins to like Rodolpho, Eddie cannot control himself and has to find a way to vent his anger, so He decides to hurt Rodolpho, by using an exercise of teaching him to box,:you ever do any boxing? Eddie, at this point, feels so remorseless, that even when Rodolpho refuses to hit him, I dont want to hit you Eddie, he stills feels like the need to hit him, showing how obsessed he is. Moreover, Eddie becomes too interested into the relationship between Catherine and Rodolpho, that he involves the Immigration Bureau, this is because he could not spilt the true love apart. In the eyes of the audience and the other characters, it causes Eddies remaining honours to be thrown in the dirt. As in any community, even though there may be accused, the government should not be called in, otherwise the one, who spread the word, shall not be respected by all others and therefore, he becomes an out-cast. His redemption occurs towards the end of the play. His honour is restored with his own death. This is as he fights with Marco and ultimately dies, but he accepts his fate, and therefore restoring his respect and honour. In this part of the play, he also shows how he had planned the fight and was so obsessed that he brought a knife and fought like a coward. This brought his redeemed respect again to an all time low. Society respects a man, who acts like a man, and Eddie in this part, fights like a coward, which is unacceptable in the society. In conclusion, Eddie, although being a real man at the start, ends his life in a shameful and cowardly way. In my analysis, I have shown how Arthur Miller portrays this in an effective and skilful way, which shows his brilliant ability as a writer. I feel that A View from the Bridge is a very high-quality book with a interesting and deep story, giving it full marks in my view.

Cultural Imperialism Theory Analysis

Cultural Imperialism Theory Analysis What is the ‘cultural imperialism’ thesis and how valid is it today? Discuss with reference to relevant theory and examples. The best way to understand what cultural imperialism is, is by analysing its difference from the traditional modes of imperialism. This theory has been developed through a long line of historical events, especially ones that developed around the relationship of the west with the rest of the world and led to our contemporary society and whether or not this society is a big global culture due to cultural imperialism. In this essay I intend to explain the difference between imperialism and cultural imperialism, present the multiple forms it can be discussed and understood based upon and go through some historical events, important to define its concept. The second part of the essay will be more focused on the global perception of western media within non-western countries and several globalization and cultural globalization developments, in order to understand whether or not cultural imperialism is valid in our modern society, as far as these globalization developments are concerned. Imperialism, as a concept we have come across through history, is the policy of expansion of control or authority exercised in foreign entities as a means of obtaining and/or maintaining an empire (Hopper,2007, Ritzer,2011). This term is usually used to describe the political domination of one, usually stronger, nation to other countries, whether that domination is practised with direct territorial conquest or indirect methods of political and economic controlling. This political or traditional imperialism though is quite different from cultural imperialism, although the lines of distinction are usually blurred (Harvey,2003). Even though imperialism is usually used in conversations about politics or wars, cultural imperialism thesis describes the process within which a dominant culture penetrates the modern world system and how its dominating stratum, values and attitudes are spread to foreign cultures, creating unequal relationships between them, favouring the more developed and pow erful one (Hopper,2007, Schiller,1976). In other words, it is the concept within which certain dominant cultures, mainly western ones, threaten to overcome other more vulnerable ones (Tomlinson,1993). This term therefore is usually associated with globalization processes and deterritorialization, where culture seems to not necessarily be related only to geographical and social territories (Ritzer,2011). The fact that some cultures appear to be subordinate to others, within the concept of cultural imperialism is a natural social phenomenon which occurs at a later stage of a long historical chain of colonialism (Hopper,2007), that allowed western cultures to force their beliefs and values on areas, such as Africa or Asia, that were not traditionally inhabited by populations same as the metropolitan authority that conquered them. Since at some point in history West Europe controlled most of the world, they had easily penetrated societies for centuries, introducing the western civilisation to them and undermining their local heritages. All those undermined localities and cultures resulted to a modern world system, where West Europe does not rule most of the world anymore but has left its fundamental characteristics there, only to be re-enforced by the contemporary Trojan horse ‘for penetrating foreign cultures’, the media. After the Second World War and the end of the tradi tional European colonization, the two superpowers that emerged, the USA and the USSR, realised early enough their benefits from cultural imperialism and, more specifically, media imperialism to promote their authority along with their ideals. Media imperialism is the theory which suggests that smaller nations are in risk of losing their traditional cultural identities due to western mass media dominance (Ritzer, 2011). The USA’s use of cultural imperialism and the mass media then, empowered their position as the most powerful and, consequently influential, country in the world, enabling them to lead the way in terms of food or drink ( McDonalds, KFC, Coca Cola) or film and entertainment industry (Hollywood cinema). The promotion of American culture therefore has become another layer of cultural imperialism and the mere exposure of western media to other nations has created a sense of American superiority in the world, resulting to individual and traditional cultural identitie s to risk being forsaken forever (Hopper, 2007). Debates on media imperialism as a sub-category of cultural imperialism appeared first during the 1970’s when unequal media flows and absolute control over them by dominant nations increased over developing countries. By the time new and more powerful media appeared, during the 1980’s-1990’s, it became much more difficult for smaller nations to resist them and for local media outlets to survive (Boyd-Barret, 1998). This new form of imperialism did not only affect developing countries’ media but also the shaping of their local cultures, receiving also a lot of criticism over the years, since according to Ritzer, ‘it undermines the existence of alternate global media from developing countries, as well as their influence of the local and regional media’ (2011). Also, it considers the audience to be passive and ready to accept and interpret the same medium exactly the same way as everyone else in the world. This is problematic since audiences aroun d the world have many, big or small, differences between them which cause them to interpret things their own way. For example, The Simpsons is a very popular show throughout the world, translated in several languages and shown in many countries. However it contains various references of drugs, sex and drinking which make it difficult for the show to be shown as it is in every country, since references like that may cause offence in certain places, like Pakistan for example. That is why it is edited to be suitable for its target audience, which proves that audiences can interpret the same medium in lots of different ways. Another reason why media imperialism is criticised, is the fact that most media flows from developed countries to developing ones are controlled entirely by one company or owner, who decides what gets to be shown or gets censored. Those media therefore, could be very biased and untrustworthy and since they create a type of cultural dependency between the developed a nd developing countries, being biased means that the smaller nations would be completely controlled and exploited. Moreover, capitalism came to re-enforce media imperialism and the contemporary, capitalist driven system it creates as ‘the primary driving force behind cultural globalization’ (Ritzer, 2011). Despite the debates and arguments against media imperialism though, the existence of new global media which subsequently allowed several cultural characteristics to flow easily all over the world, creating a more global culture, is a fact. Culture, as in the shared sense of habits, traditions and beliefs of a country, society or a group of people (Cambridge Learner’s Dictionaries) is usually associated and defined within specific geographical barriers. For example, there is Cypriot culture in Cyprus, French culture in France and so on. The possibility though, that cultural and media imperialism create for a globalized culture to exist is mostly based on the deterritorialization theory. Based on this concept, the growing presence of social forms of control and involvement goes beyond the limits of a specific territory (Giddens, 1990). Deterritorialization therefore, is the transformation that occurs on local cultures from the impact the media and communications have on them, ca using them to no longer be as defined with local geography as they once were (Tomlinson, 2007). Deterritorialization then has become a general cultural condition, re-enforcing the idea that more and more cultures throughout the world are the same. Examples of instantaneous global communications, such as television or the internet, support the formation of a globalized culture, along with the English language considered to be the world’s global and information language. Another example of how traditional cultures can easily be derived from globalization and deterritorialization concepts, is how the residents of Fiji, particularly women, changed their traditional preferences of robust, full figure bodies and started dieting for the first time, resulting in health problems like anorexia or bulimia, after being introduced to television and western media in 1995 (BBC News). This influence of the USA or other western countries on smaller nations, as far cuisine, technology, busines s practises, political techniques, entertainment, fashion or food are concerned is known as Americanization or Westernization and is one of the effects of cultural imperialism (Hopper, 2007). Another theory is the cultural hybridization theory, which emphasizes on how the world seems to have become a smaller place and also on the interaction between the global and the local that has created new types of unique hybrid cultures that are neither global or local (Hopper,2007, Ritzer, 2011). In other words, it describes the ways in which different cultures create new forms and connections with each other, developing new types of cultures from the blending of their individual characteristics. A specific term about cultural hybridization came out of Roland Robertson’s (2011) work on the interaction of the global and the local and how the first, instead of eliminating the second, combines itself with it resulting to new forms of localities, based on the global. This term is glocalization and an example of it could be how internationally known companies slightly alter some of their products based on their locations and audiences. More specifically, Pringles’s flavour s in the USA range between original, salt or vinegar while in Asia you can find flavours such as seaweed or peppered beef. Due to phenomena like this and according to Ritzer (2011) ‘globalization leads to increasing sameness throughout the world’, resulting in cultural convergence, with the McDonaldization theory as a main example of it. McDonaldization theory was first introduced by George Ritzer in 1993 and uses the principles of the fast-food restaurant company as its model, to prove how some specific principles ‘are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society, as well as the rest of the world’ (Rtizer, 2011). With five principles, McDonaldization theory shows how the world can become more globalized, exactly the same way the fast-food restaurant became globally known and successful, with restaurants built in almost every country in the globe. The five dimensions, according to Ritzer, are efficiency, as in the way of finding the best possible method for accomplishing a task, calculability, which means emphasizing on the quantity rather than the quality of products, so that customers get more amounts of product in less period of time; predictability, as in the stereotypical way in which employees and customers are expected to behave in everywhere in the world and control, as in the con trolling or even replacement of employees by technology. The fifth dimension, is the so-called irrationality of rationality, which refers to when something that is normally considered to be rational is in fact exactly the opposite and sometimes can also be described as dehumanization, for the employees and/or the customers. These principles have Mcdonaldized many aspects of contemporary society, emphasizing the convergence even more. The modern trend of ‘speed-dating’ for example, is a McDonaldized way of the traditionally time-consuming process of meeting new people, since in this case potential partners gather up for short face-to-face meetings with each other. Also, the use of the Internet as the standard tool for the process of getting and exchanging information, making libraries more and more obsolescence is another example. Based on the aforementioned aspects of globalization and global culture in relation to cultural imperialism, there appears to be a general view that one cannot adequately grasp the relevance of globalized culture through the cultural imperialism thesis alone. That is because it oversimplifies the process of information flow, which is normally complex and unpredictable, by suggesting there is only a one-way flow of imperialism, from stronger nations to less powerful ones. Such a suggestion could not possibly be absolutely valid, especially nowadays, when more non-western countries, such as India, have started to grow into powerful, out-sourcing exporters, e.g. Bollywood movies (Hopper, 2007). It also overlooks the importance of the international relations between developed and developing countries, since the influence of the western media on non-western societies is somehow bound to them. Where those relations are not as good, then it is obviously unlikely that the influence of the me dia will affect the local population. This, in addition, is proven by the national media systems and protectionism applied by some European countries, like Canada and France as a form of rejection and protest against the American domination in the European film market. This form of resistance to Americanization is overlooked by the cultural imperialism thesis, as well as Stuart Hall’s (1973) encoding and decoding theory, which suggests that there are various different ways in which audiences can decode the same media text. To conclude, it is understandable that cultural imperialism is a very vague concept which can be understood in specific forms regarding specific contexts of imperialism, media and globalization processes. It establishes connections between developed and developing countries for print media, television, radio, film or consumer goods, creating a new form of imperialism in its core, the media imperialism, which allows western media and therefore culture to easily spread the information they want to convey the world and continue being a superpower. That makes cultural imperialism an expansion of cultural values re-enforcing a dominating ‘global’ culture through products or commodities diffused with cultural values that are strengthened by media imperialism. The media are after all a very important part of people’s daily lives. The cultural imperialism thesis though has created several debates and arguments over the years, about whether or not it is the right thesis to describe and evaluate our contemporary culture, as far as globalization processes are concerned. Due to all the critiques about how it overlooks important aspects of society, information flow and media theories in general, it is mostly considered to be a negative way of understanding media globalization and global culture and therefore it is not as valid as it seems to be in our contemporary society. Bibliography CAMBRIDGE Learners Dictionary 2007 Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences Of Modernity. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1990. Hall, Stuart. Encoding and Decoding In The Television Discourse. Birmingham [England]: Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, 1973. Harvey, David. The New Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Hopper, Paul. Understanding Cultural Globalization. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2007. Lenin, Vladimir IlÊÂ ¹ich. Imperialism, The Highest Stage Of Capitalism. New York: International Publishers, 1982. News.bbc.co.uk,. BBC News | Health | TV Brings Eating Disorders To Fiji. N.p., 1999. Web. 30 Apr. 2015. Robertson, Roland. Globalization. London: Sage, 1992. Schiller, Herbert. Communication and Cultural Domination. New York: International Arts and Sciences Press, 1973. Oliver Boyd-Barret, Media and imperialism reformulated In Thussu, Daya Kishan(ed.) Electronic Empires: Global Media and Local Resistance. London: Arnold, 1998. Tomlinson, John. Cultural Imperialism. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. Tomlinson, John. Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction. The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX: Continuum, 1991. Tomlinson, John. Internationalism, Globalization And Cultural Imperialism In K. Thompson(Ed.) Media And Cultural Regulation. London: Open University/Sage, 1997. Tomlinson, John. The Culture Of Speed. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2007.