Saturday, December 28, 2019

Music And Community Native American Music - 1199 Words

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY Northridge Music and Community: Native American Music A paper submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for MUS 309, Lecturer: â€Å"Gee† Rabe By Abhimanyu Ranjit Lalchandani Spring 2015 Introduction This paper will demonstrate the various analysis of the Native America music and some details about history of Native American Music and themes which represents the religion and music. It also gives importance’s to the music which are used based on the events and their significances of the person related towards the history. The broad view points of the Native American music which give the reasons why the songs are interested in the light of enjoying it. Analysis of Native America Music Native†¦show more content†¦(Native American Music). The big part of the Music comprises of â€Å"life of Native American† as it’s played with most of their experiences. The Native American music gives a broad descriptions as to how the music were made. The usually would comprise of the â€Å"vocal† as it suggest to be the backbone of their style of music. It suspect that the music most important aspect it’s towards the way their â€Å"Voice†. Native American Music reveals the usage of â€Å"piano† works that have some elements related to the musical. (Native American Influence in the Piano Music of Louis W. Ballard). HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC In the history of Native American Music, is the major league of the Sioux Nation who are also known to be the first people. They were consisted of 7 different tribes in the entire Great Plains. They took an advantage of the accessible horses which were mainly from America. They know to be very family-oriented warriors(The Great Sioux Nation). It was the main reasons how they manage to be united together as a family. They followed a ritual that the men and women had a set roles which were given. The men usually would be protecting the lives of the family. They would hunt and have a war. Women basically would rule the family life. People who represent the Sioux believe in deeply spiritual. It represents by the dance and music. The Sun Dance which was believed to be the most valuable religious used in the

Friday, December 20, 2019

Literature and South Africa - 6676 Words

DECLARATION NAME: Ndumiso Ncube STUDENT NUMBER: 46302522 MODULE NUMBER: THL 2601 ASSIGNMENT NUMBER: 02 I declare that this assignment is my own, original work. Where I have used source material, it is acknowledged in accordance with departmental requirements. I understand what plagiarism is and I am aware of the departmental policy on it. Signature: Ndumiso Ncube Date: 25 March 2013 CHECKLIST Please tick the appropriate (√) | | YES | NO | 1 | I acknowledged all source material (study guide, tutorial letter, internet, other sources) used in my assignment. | √ | | 2 | Irrespective of whether I participated in a study group or not, the wording of the assignment is my own. | √ | | 3 | I indicated all sources used in my assignment†¦show more content†¦Despite its free verse, prose like language, there are strong rhythmic patterns created by line breaks, repetition and syntactical deviations. There is a staccato marked by abrupt breaks or interruptions in line 12 to 16, all perhaps, in one way or the other, to create a sound that can help decipher its themes and meanings. Extratextual code is â€Å"the relations of the text with the historical and social contexts† (Oliphant and Keuris 2010: 13). This means that in trying to understand and interpret an aesthetic object, in this case Mending Wall, one needs to contextualize the poem in terms of its social, historical, political, and ideological, and even its geographical environment. In Mending Wall, one notes the significance of the culture of repairing walls during springtime as one aspect that contextualizes the poem. The geographical setting, in this case, where during spring the â€Å"frozen ground swell† can be connoted to water turning to ice. This in turn can be geographically linked to continents like Europe and America. The spelling of the word ‘neighbour’ as ‘neighbor’ in the poem suggests that this poem was written somewhere in America. This linking of the codes as is done above becomes an extratextual code. In trying to find a set of interrelated sign s, one also may want to find more on the biographical extratext of the poem and poem. Robert Frost is described by Helen and Phahlele (2011:103) as someone who grew up inShow MoreRelatedLiterature and South Africa6682 Words   |  27 Pages References Jong, M.D. 2008. Theory of the Sign in Literature and Culture. Only Study Guide for THL201A. University of South Africa: Pretoria Lotman, J. 1977. The Structure of the Artistic Text. Translated from Russian by G. Lenhoff and G. Vroom. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Oliphant, A.W. and Keuris, M. 2010. Structuralist and Semiotic Theories of Genre. Only study guide for THL2602. University of South Africa: Pretoria. SECTION 2: READING, RECEPTION AND INTERPRETATION Read MoreSouth Africa And South African Literature Essay1487 Words   |  6 PagesAfter the end of World War II, new ideals began to encroach on South Africa. One of these new ideas was Apartheid, the idea that the races should be separate. This idea quickly became practiced in everyday life and became included in the laws governing South Africa. As one can imagine this ideal also invaded the literature written in South Africa and South African writers. In order to develop Apartheid, the creation of an â€Å"other† was necessary, which established a type of â€Å"us† versus â€Å"them† mentalityRead MoreA Literature Review of Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa1911 Words   |  8 PagesBrett Holberg Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa Attacks on foreigners in South Africa have been on the rise since the transfer of power to the ANC in 1994. These violent outbursts, which have resulted in riots and dozens of murders, have been described as xenophobic in nature. After the months of summer 2008 in South Africa where there was a sudden wave of anti-immigrant violence, scholars are asking what is the driving force behind these attacks. Scholars see continuity in the ideology behindRead MoreThe Multifaceted State Of South Africa Underwent Vast Reconstruction1518 Words   |  7 PagesThe multifaceted state of South Africa underwent vast reconstruction after the end of the apartheid in 1994 and experienced transformative changes in the racial, economic and societal relations of the region. Aside from the divisions and devastations the country faced as a result of apartheid the country also opened its economy to international business, deregulating major sectors of its economy and engaging in trade liberalization policie s in an attempt to spur economic growth and internationalRead MoreThe Culture Of South Africa1622 Words   |  7 Pages South Africa By: Hannah Devine December 5, 2014 Period 4 â€Æ' There are 196 countries in the world and South Africa is the 25th largest. Inhabited by around 53 million people, the country is represented as a whole by all of those people, exhibiting the five elements of culture in their everyday lives. The country is called the rainbow nation because if its diversity of people, religions, and cultures. Culture is all the things that make up a people’s way of life as well as what we inherit from ourRead MoreGender Roles, Hiv / Aids, Financial And Economic Status, Transactional Sex And Social Status Essay1474 Words   |  6 PagesThis literature review will explore other published literature on the topic of sugar daddies, female sexuality, gender roles, HIV/AIDS, financial/economic status, transactional sex and social status. The published literature will enable me to gain insight into the topic and to identify key issues that need to be discussed. This literature review demonstrates what has already been done in this study and identifies the gaps in the literature that needs to be explored. The term ‘sugar daddies’ is notRead MoreInformation And Communications Technologies ( Ict )1576 Words   |  7 PagesGreyling , Margaret , 2014). South Africa is experiencing a national ICT skills shortage, similar to the international ICT skills shortage currently being experienced. Various issues contribute to this problem. The ICT skills shortages have been predicted over the past two decades and the ICT sector is experiencing a global ICT skills shortage (Gupta Suma, 2015; Calitz, Greyling , Margaret , 2014; Manpower Group South Africa , 2014). It is estimated that South Africa needs 30 000 to 70 000 skilledRead MoreE Commerce And The Internet Essay1226 Words   |  5 Pagessales in South Africa during 2016. Although e-commerce is still in its starting phases, it is expected to reach a total market size of R7.5 billion in 2015 (Goldstuck:2015). During 2015 there was a survey and 22 percent of South African internet users said that they have made purchases on the internet and 48 percent plan to do this again. E-commerce in South Africa is still low in comparison with global standards; however the number of e-commerce users is set to triple in the future, making South AfricaRead MoreLiterature Review : Risk Perception1709 Words   |  7 PagesCHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW Risk Perception In behavioral and cognitive psychology, it is widely recognized that humans are not always rational decision makers. Even when humans learn of new, relevant information, it is difficult to predict how that information will in turn affect decisions and behaviors. Previous studies have concluded that there is no significant relationship between sexual knowledge and safe sex. One notion that is an antecedent to adopting protective behavior is riskRead MoreNew Negro Essay984 Words   |  4 Pagesrelocation in search of better living conditions. The mass movement of black people from the rural areas of the South to the cities of the North, known as the Black Migration, came in the 1890s when black men and women left the south to settle in cities such as Philadelphia and New York, fleeing from the rise of Jim Crowe Laws and searching for work. This migration of blacks from the South has been an important factor in the formation of the Harlem Renaissance. The period referred to as the Harlem

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Corporate Governance Of Ethical Activities â€Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss About The Corporate Governance Of Ethical Activities? Answer: Introduction Liquidity is regarded as the stage where it becomes difficult for the organization to conduct its business operations and in turn company has to sell its assets when the company becomes solvent. The ultimate reason behind liquidation can be considered as high debt burden where the company has taken the higher amount of loan and is not able to repay the accounting back. The present study is based on three organizations named HIH insurance, OneTel company and ABC learning that have gone into the process of liquidation due to the presence of different reasons. Apart from this corporate governance and ethical activities of the companies have been analyzed in the present study. Events That Led To Liquidation A large number of valid reasons are present due to which companies operating in the market reaches the liquidation stage and in turn, it becomes difficult to conduct overall operations. The liquidation of HIH insurance was the biggest example of liquidation in the Australian marketing where the overall analysis has shown that some issues in the internal system of the enterprise were present such as ineffective monitoring, poor planning, ineffective utilization of financial resources, etc(Jiangbo 2008). HIH group operates on the wider basis and is comprised of HIH Casualty, FAI general insurance company, General insurance limited, etc. Further, the directors of the organization breached their duty, and due to this reason, they were not involved in the key affairs of the enterprise. Overall the corporate culture of the business was conservative in nature along with the poor governance practices that directly led to the downfall of the organization in the market. Considering the acquisition strategy of HIH company which was also aggressive and this acted as the main issue while maximizing profits. In March 2001, the estimated value of the firm was between $3.6 billion and $5.3 billion as analyzed by liquidators. Further, the liquidation of the business badly affected the construction sector where different builders undertaken by the company had to seek replacement coverage(governance 2011). The key reason behind liquidation was the inability of the organization to pay claims of insurance policy holders and another form of debts that were due. The report published by the HIH royal commission indicated that company witnessed loss of $73 million against a net earned the premium of $1550 million on 30th June 1999. So, this reflects the key reasons behind the failure of the company in the market. In case of OneTel company, the ultimate reason behind failure was inappropriate corporate governance. CEOs of the organization has the high amount of control over the major affairs and on other executives. Further, this directly led to the conflict of interest and this was mainly compromised due to the provision of non-audited services of the organization. The top executives of the company were not at all able to manage key activities, and this raised situation of liquidation. The company was not able to manage its main expenses as the adequate amount of profits were not earned(Monem 2011). This situation was adverse for OneTel company operating in the market. Some valid reasons due to which organization reached into liquidation position were wrong strategic decisions, ineffective pricing policy, unbridled growth, etc. Further, it is a well-known fact that every organization has to take some corrective action for managing overall cost and this is only possible when proper planning is done by top executives which were not present in case of OneTel company(governance 2011). On the other hand, some issues have been identified in the corporate governance structure of the enterprise that involves ineffective audit control, poor pay to performance link execution, inappropriate communication between management and board. Due to all these valid reasons, it became quite difficult for OneTel company to operate in the market and company has to shut down its operations. Considering the case of ABC learning center where the key operations of the company were to deliver childhood education services in the market of Australia. Further, due to the presence of a large number of reasons organization was not able to survive in the market(Sammut 2008). The key reason was the rise in the overall level of the expenses that involves advertising cost, staff salary and another type of costs due to which profitability level of the company declined at the faster pace. Further, corporate governance practice of the organization was also inappropriate where top executives of the firm were not able to manage overall operations. In the year 2008, the organization suffered the loss of 1.78 billion. Apart from this, the debtor director voted to enter into the practice of voluntary administration in Australia. Apart from this, cash problem was witnessed by the firm in the year 2008 and due to this reason situation of liquidation occurred(Crikey 2008). The firm was not abl e to manage its major expenses, and overall profitability level decreased at the faster pace. So, these were some of the valid reasons due to which ABC learning has to shut down its operations. The Reason Behind Companys Financial Stress At the time of carrying out business activities and operations, it is required by corporations to take care of areas such as corporate governance and ethics. In simpler terms, corporate governance can be defined as the set of rules and procedures which promotes long term relationship between management and all stakeholders. The practices of corporate governance have a direct impact on the overall operations and business activities of an organization. Companies such as HIH insurance company, ABC learning center, and One Tel have set the example of how inappropriate corporate governance practices can increase the overall financial stress on businesses(Bank 2006). The practices carried out HIH insurance company cannot be termed as ethical as the companys Board of directors were indulge in breach of The Corporate Act which is completely against business ethics. However, the insurance company has taken strict actions against those directors by restricting them to be the part of decision-making process. Conservative corporate culture is also considered as another major factor which has resulted in financial failure or liquidation of HIH insurance company. Another reason why HIH insurance company practices are considered as unethical is that the organization has misguided the investors by presenting wrong financial figures and data in front of them(Steele, Wee Ramsay 2016). Such type of practices directly results in creating several obstacles in the long term growth and success of companies. The financial failure of ABC learning center is another example which indicates the significance of corporate governance practices and ethics in business operations(Walsh 2010). The company was not able to obtain an adequate amount of cash flow, and overall operations were affected by the same. In the short run, the learning center was somehow able to manage its operational cost whereas, in the long term, it became quite difficult for the company to deal with the same. The failure in corporate governance practices can also be witnessed by the fact that ABC learning center was not able to carry out effective management of the funds which it has obtained through the renowned banks operating in the country(Sammut 2008). The concept of ethics and corporate governance reflect the fact that it is required by companies to measure the impact of decision the on all stakeholders before taking any decision. However, the case of One Tel was completely against this concept and this, resulted in liquidation of the company in the long run(Morrison Anderson 2015). Here, the two CEOs of One Tel were taking major decisions linked with financial management, operations and the views of other people on the board were not taken into consideration(Lane 2016). The result of this is that the organization started to witness such as shortage of finances and losses every year. Another reason, which has led to the liquidation of One Tel, can be termed as its auditors conflict of interest. Major Factor Liability Liability alone cannot be considered as the reasons behind liquidation of HIH insurance company, ABC learning centre and One Tel. The main reason here is that these companies were not able to carry out ethical practices and operations with guidelines of corporate governance. In the modern era, the competition among businesses in Australian market has become so intense that it is no longer easy for companies to sustain in long run(Saville 2003). Furthermore, ethics and practices according to the guidelines of corporate governance can assists in carrying out smooth flow of all functions and activities. HIH insurance company, ABC learning centre and One Tel financial failure can be termed as perfect example of the situation which can be occurred due to inadequate and ineffective financial planning(Kruger 2011). These companies would have managed their cash flow and finances by carrying out following business ethics and corporate governance practices. Conclusion In the modern era, companies cannot sustain in the marketplace without carrying out adequate financial planning. Furthermore, businesses should avoid implementing corporate cultures which are highly conservative. It can be inferred that HIH insurance company, ABC learning centre and One Tel financial failure due to lack of corporate governance practices is a big learning for other businesses operating in the Australian market. The failure in obtaining required cash flow has resulted in creating several obstacles in the growth of the company. References Bank, TW 2006, Case Studies on the, viewed 13 September 2017, https://www.iaisweb.org/modules/cciais/assets/files/pdf/061004_BGN-0_hih_background_note.pdf. Crikey 2008, ABC learning collapse is a policy failure, viewed 13 September 2017, https://www.crikey.com.au/2008/11/07/abc-learning-collapse-is-a-policy-failure/. governance, CC 2011, HOW THE COLLAPSE OF ONETEL AND HIH INSURANCE CHANGED, viewed 13 September 2017, https://www.longdog.com.au/be-daring-not-risky/corporate-governance-and/collapse-corporate-governan.pdf. Jiangbo, XU 2008, ' HIH Insurance Limited: Corporate Governance and Corporate Excesses.', Corporate Governance and Corporate Excesses., 31 August 2008. Kruger, C 2011, Numbers finally start to add up as operators go back to basics., viewed 13 September 2017, https://www.smh.com.au/business/numbers-finally-start-to-add-up-as-operators-go-back-to-basics-20110121-19zy6.html. Lane, RJ 2016, Unexpected corporate failures in Australia through the decades: commonality of causes, Doctoral dissertation, James Cook University, Australia. Monem, R 2011, ' The One. Tel collapse: lessons for corporate governance.', Australian Management Morrison, D Anderson, C 2015, 'Is corporate rescue a realistic ideal? Business as usual in Australia and the United Kingdom.', Nottingham Insolvency and Business Law e-Journal, vol 2015, no. 3, pp. 417-435. Sammut, J 2008, The ABC of policy failure, viewed 13 September 2017, https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/the-abc-of-policy-failure/news-story/e5f9cb130150525aba97487de2a91c9d. Saville, M 2003, HIH : The Inside Story Of Australia's Biggest Corporate Collapse, viewed 13 September 2017, https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/14/1047583693489.html. Steele, S, Wee, MS Ramsay, I 2016, Remunerating Corporate Insolvency Practitioners in the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore: The Roles of Courts. Walsh, L 2010, Unravelling the truth of ABC's collapse, viewed 13 September 2017, https://www.news.com.au/finance/unravelling-the-truth-of-abcs-collapse/news-story/d1167b3594b991bee8853fe647e03465.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Leadership in Business Employee Performance

Question: Discuss about theLeadership in Businessfor Employee Performance. Answer: Strategies for Developing Informal Coaching and Empowering Others Business coaching is now a fundamental activity for many organizations to enhance employee performance. Coaching impart skills and abilities while also help in dealing with challenges within the organization. Coaching is usually achieved through a conversation session between a coach and a team of employees. Many authors have attributed coaching and mentoring as a way of enabling people to achieve their full potential. Through informal coaching, the staff are empowered to come up with solution for their problems rather than being forced (Viney and Harris, p. 126). Most formal coaching is conducted by professional that is hired, however, informal coaching can also be carried out effectively by managers and leaders in the organization. Strategies for Coaching and Empowering Team Members The informal coaching is done in general conversation. This necessitates a leader to identify complexities experienced by a team in performing their tasks. This then creates opportunity to offer them support. The first strategy in conducting informal coaching is to read the team and be aware of their moods. Coachee has to identify whether employees are distracted, happy, sad or angry. Knowing these emotional instabilities create a chance to initiate informal coaching. By having a simple conversation with the staff, supervisor is able to know their thinking and feeling and thus evaluate the best time when employees will be receptive to coaching. The next step is for the coach to ask for permission from the staff member to engage in chat about work. During informal coaching process, there is no advice or giving instruction to team or workers. It is all about discussion and asking staff questions directly and guide them to an answer that suits them. The coaching session are best conduct ed informal office space like corridors, lunch or tea break. The spare time after meeting offers excellent time for engaging with employees in an informal coaching session. The body language of the speaker is reported to have very much impact on the audience. Using appropriate stance, facial expression and gesture helps in building a strong, positive and credible emotions to connect with coachee (Douglas-Cowie et al., 2003 Strategies for Improving Creativity in Organizations Complex business environment due to increased technology and globalization has increased business competition necessitating organizations to be creative so as to maximize productivity and enhance survival. I have designed several strategies discussed below for improving creativity in organization. Creativity requires time, space and resources so I have developed creative work environment that allows employees to have freedom to explore innovations. Low stress environment has been reported to booster generation of new ideas and its implementation to increase efficiency (Perry-Smith et al., p. 93). The employees are also motivated to be creative by offering bonuses, prices and perks to those with extraordinary performance. However, the best strategy is to provide them with proper tools they need to enhance creativity including training, computers, financial resources and software. Organizations that have well established research and development department are likely to achieve more cr eativity in their processes (Shin and Zhou, p. 7). I also encourage workforce diversity to create a pool of talents and skills that are necessary for creativity and innovations. Having workers from diverse background in terms of religion, race, color, nationally, gender and sexual orientation bring different experience and viewpoints to the organization (Bassett?Jones, p. 167). I have built as strong team consisting of members with diverse skills to exchange ideas and offer alternate perspectives and to innovate. Most innovations require risky undertakings and therefore employees may not be willing to be part of creative mindset due to fear of punishment is suggested strategies failed. I will therefore create an open environment by having a suggestion box where employees will contribute anonymously. Processes for Diagnosing Problems with Performance Diagnosing problems in an organization at an early stage help in putting everything on the right part before situation worsens. Diagnosing problems is the work of the supervisors and managers to identify root cause of performance problems and offer possible suggestions to remediate the problem. One strategy to diagnose problem is to conduct employees survey where a questionnaire will be administered to them to provide valuable information affecting performance such as satisfaction, customer, focus, culture, environment, engagement and leadership. The questionnaire can be sued to effectively assess employee satisfaction in all aspects of organization. Employee surveys can be conducted annually or quarterly since there is positive relationship between company performance and employee satisfaction (Chi and Gursoy, p. 246). Employee highlights reasons for their dissatisfaction. Organization can then address it through education and training programs, reengineering processes and organizat ion cultures and adopting various ways of motivating employees. Another strategy is to conduct an audit on human resource department. The HR audit target several functions that affect performance such as talent management, engagement, remuneration, strategy, structure and recruitment to detect any defects that are impacting performance negatively. Conducting interviews with management team helps in uncovering issues hindering good performance (Beer and Eisenstat, p. 29). The result from analysis of the interview provides a gap that lead to poor performance. Other tools for diagnosing performance problems are observation and focus groups. The interventions will depend on the problems identified. People can be recruited best on the abilities to match task in organization. Furthermore, offering career development opportunities, financial and nonmonetary incentives and job promotions can help enhance employee performance in the organization. Reference Bassett?Jones, N., 2005. The paradox of diversity management, creativity and innovation. Creativity and innovation management, 14(2), pp.169-175. Beer, M. and Eisenstat, R.A., 2000. The silent killers of strategy implementation and learning. Sloan management review, 41(4), p.29. Chi, C.G. and Gursoy, D., 2009. Employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and financial performance: An empirical examination. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(2), pp.245-253. Douglas-Cowie, E., Campbell, N., Cowie, R. and Roach, P., 2003. Emotional speech: Towards a new generation of databases. Speech communication, 40(1), pp.33-60. Perry-Smith, J.E. and Shalley, C.E., 2003. The social side of creativity: A static and dynamic social network perspective. Academy of management review, 28(1), pp.89-106. Shin, S.J. and Zhou, J., 2003. Transformational leadership, conservation, and creativity: Evidence from Korea. Academy of management Journal, 46(6), pp.703-714. Viney, R. and Harris, D., 2013. Coaching and Mentoring. Leadership in Psychiatry, pp.126-136.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

3 New CoSchedule Features You Should Know About (+1 On The Way)

3 New Features You Should Know About (+1 On The Way) Attention marketers! Get ready to feel the HEAAAT. It’s ONLY February †¦but your #1 marketing calendar is pumpin’ out some seriously HOT features just for you + your team. One month into the year and we’ve got 3 NEW features for Team Pro plans  (and another major player coming very soon on the docket.) Intrigued? Cool, keep reading. Here’s your quick highlight reel from this month (+ an exclusive first look at ONE serious feature coming VERY soon). 3 @Features You Should Know About + 1 More On Its WayGet serious about segmentation with Facebook Targeting Segmentation matters. Blanketed responses don’t work on readers AND your Facebook messages are no different. You’ve gotta speak to the right people and the right time. And thanks to ’s recent feature, Facebook Targeting (available on all Team Pro plans), you can now get specific; catering your messages to a very specific audience. Simply create your highly targeted list with FB’s Preferred Audience settings AND save: Age Gender Relationship Status Interested in Location Language Education Level College Graduation Years Interests AND best of all, with ’s Facebook Targeting, you can create your audiences once, save them in your settings, and reuse them again and again. As a marketer, you sell a product (whether it’s YOU, a service, or a tangible item) to a specific audience. Thus, utilizing options such as age ranges, relationship status, location, education level, etc can assist you in converting users MORE effectively. Why? Because  when you share the right content, with the right people, you ADD  VALUE. And when you add value, you build a following that’s a bagillion times more likely to convert. A bagillion. Build a following that’s a bagillion times more likely to convert with @Every message should be seen as one to one, not one to many. When you write a message, you write to ONE reader, and segmenting your messages empowers you to write to a very specific audience. An audience that (thanks to FB targeting) you now know VERY well, and therefore have the means to convince on a very personal level. Get Your Reports Sent to the RIGHT People at the Right Time (With Minimal Effort) You and reports have a love-hate relationship. It’s the bane of your existence and the reason for that pay raise. Every boss, big wig, investor, and client wants to know the fruits of their (your) labor and reports are the tell all. Only frustration: getting your data into a nice, neat, easy to read report and sent ON TIME. You’re busy doing the work, and now you need to make time to report on it. With ’s export capabilities we’ve done the manual work for you. You can now choose to export your Social Analytics reports  via CSV, PDF, or even schedule a recurring email to send to your team, clients, and/or stakeholders. Annnnd you can even add a little branding to your reports. Grab a logo, insert your company (or client’s) name, and a little description to give your reports that added personal touch. In a world where marketing can feel like a bunch of warm fuzzies, having the report to back you up and the numbers to prove your worth are MUY BUENO. Hit the easy button with ’s export report features (available on all Team Pro plans). Hit the easy button with ’s export report featuresBecause Your Content Rarely Fits the â€Å"One Size Fits All† Category Create your own content types (made for you just for you). Content isn’t a â€Å"one size fits all† AND what your team does on a daily basis is unique. Create your own custom content types (available on Team Pro plans) for everything you do! TPS Reports Blog Posts Presentations Podcasts Social Media Campaigns If you can do it, you can organize it. If you can do it, you can organize it with @.Prioritize the Content YOU Care About Not all pieces of content are created equal. With Content Types, you can now prioritize the content that matters most to your team. Easily create a hierarchy of content types based on the pieces of content you use most so you can get to the real work faster. Give your team even more context with Content Types. Clarity is crucial when there’s multiple folks working on a single piece of content. Add context and get specific with Content Types so you can keep your team on the same page and get projects moving forward (faster)! What’s Coming Up? Marketing Projects Are a  BEAST and We’re Here to Tame ‘em Marketing is more than a blog post. It’s more than social promotion. It’s more than an email or a newsletter or a webinar. It’s a million different things†¦ †¦.happening all at once†¦ with finite resources. And you are the MAESTRO of it all. You are the one managing every detail Making sure the right people are working on the right parts Coordinating tasks, timelines, resources, and tools†¦ AND you are the one making sure the entire production of [insert BIG project] is executed  on time. It’s a lot to manage. Especially when all those moving parts are spread across your calendar. Which is why we’re building Marketing Projects (coming soon to a Team Pro plan near you). Why get excited? ‘Cos  with Marketing Projects by you’ll be able to: Keep your entire operation in one big piece of content! (eeeeHHHH!) Track your project’s overall progress with a nifty BURN CHART, cuz we’re all nerds and graphs are our love language. Easily manage your team’s time (know who’s on a project, and what they’re working on) Get a visual preview of your entire project on the main calendar (yes you’ll be able to create events that last more than one day) It’s organization on steroids. And this product marketer here is freakin’ out. Its organization on steroids.It’s gonna be an awesome feature for folks that manage A LOT more than blog content (which is basically all of you!). Stay tuned. P.S.  Not on a Team Pro plan but want a test run? No problem. Go to your billings page and you can trial Facebook targeting, custom content types, and export scheduling FREE for 14 days with a Team Pro trial.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Tom Wolfes The Bonfire of the Vanities essays

Tom Wolfes The Bonfire of the Vanities essays Tom Wolfes The Bonfire of the Vanities is an entertaining, amusing, yet serious story. It sheds light on the imperfections of man and says a lot about human nature, mostly negative. In the following paper, Ill discuss some of Wolfes underlying themes and try to interpret what he wants the reader to take away from his book. Some of the things Ill talk about are class roles, the perception of ethnicity and race, money issues, self image, and lastly womens issues. Well start off with the subject of class roles and differences. Shermans ride through the Bronx is one of the best displays of these roles and differences. Here, a rich white couple is utterly lost in the worst part of the Bronx. They are driving a $48,000 Mercedes absolutely scared out of there minds. Sherman is in such fear of the locals he refuses to stay stopped at red lights because he thinks he might be attacked. The actions of Sherman and Maria prove how far apart the social classes in America really are. Two people from the upper class cant even feel normal driving through a part of a lower class neighborhood. The separation between rich and poor is incredible. The conversation between Reverend Bacon, Moody, and Fiske also correctly portrays the class gap. Bacon talks about how the upper class simply helps the lower class out of fear. They want to lower the steam effect and keep the lower class happy. The success of the upper class relies on a content lower class. In order for the rich to stay rich they need the poor to stay poor. Next, Ill talk about the perception of ethnicity. People in this novel are very ethnocentric and Wolfe uses this fact to bring out their prejudices against people that arent like them. One of the main groups that gets picked on are people of Jewish decent. Kramers coworkers Andriutti and Caughey say, Did you know that Jewish guys all ha...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

LAW OF INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE CONTRACT Coursework

LAW OF INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE CONTRACT - Coursework Example The insurance also covers some liabilities that arise in cases where there is a collision with another ship and also the liability for colliding with other objects (FFO-Fixed and Floating Objects). Typically, claims under Hull and Machinery insurance include, total loss of the ship; damage to ship, engines and equipments; explosions and fires; groundings; collisions; and striking other objects. The scope of the type of damages covered by Hull and Machinery Insurance has been defined by International Hull Clauses (IHC). In clause 2.1.6, it states that HM & I covers the losses caused to the ship due to â€Å"contact with land conveyance, dock or harbor equipment or Installation.†1 There are certain risks and liabilities that are not covered under Hull and Machinery insurance. A prudent ship-owner may look to get insurance cover for liabilities to third parties. Such liabilities might arise due to a third party’s legal or contractual claim against the ship. P & I insurance is arranged by entering the ship into a mutual insurance association which is usually referred to as a â€Å"club†. All the members of this club are ship-owners. Therefore, the P & I club is only answerable to its members. A Marine Insurance company, on the other hand, is answerable to its shareholders. P & I clubs provide insurance covers for much broader risks than the Hull and Machinery insurance schemes. When a ship has an accident due to the perils of the sea, Hull & Machinery insurance provides cover for the loss that has occurred to the ship. There are many other things that are connected with the ship. The crew of the ship, the employees, may also get hurt and claim compensation for their injuries. Also, the owner of the cargo that may have been carried in the ship would also claim for his loss against the ship-owner. Hull & Machinery insurance does not provide cover for such liabilities to third parties. However, the ship-owner can get protection from such claims by pursuing P & I insurance. As far as the liability to the owner of the cargo is concerned, the cargo owner has a first claim against the carrier. The cargo owner may not succeed in his claim because either the ship-owner was not responsible for the loss or he is protected under Hague-Visby2 rules. In such cases, the cargo owner claims compensation from his insurer under Cargo Insurance. By the right of subrogation, the insurer, after compensating his client, would be able to pursue the claim in his own right against the carrier. To avoid this claim against him, the carrier seeks the services of P & I club. This means that the same cargo can be insured twice. P & I clubs also settle the claims against the ship-owner when the crew is injured. There can be other â€Å"Third† parties that can have legal or contractual claims against the ship-owner. P & I insurance addresses all of those claims. There are risks that are not covered by P & I insurance because they are covered by an other form of insurance. In relation to Hull & Machinery Insurance, P & I insurance is able to cover almost all the risks that H & M leaves out. Even for the claims that are not fully covered by H & M insurance, the portion of the claim that is left out can be covered under P & I insurance. Therefore, P & I insurance complements Hull and Machinery insurance as the risks that are not covered by one are covered by the other. When both forms of marine insurance are

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Patsy Cline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Patsy Cline - Essay Example The posthumous Patsy bears only a partial resemblance to the live Patsy, who we can now know only through interviews and pictures." (Jensen, 107) An analysis of what has happened to Patsy Cline's image over time reveals how femininity is constructed in country music and popular culture, in general. This paper, therefore, focuses on the life and music career of Patsy Cline in relation to her country music, which discloses the true merit of her music and answers the question what makes her so important a musical genius. Patsy Cline has been remarkably considered to be the most influential country musician of the last century, and her posthumous influence on the development of country music is even more significant. Her performance career started in the mid 1940s and came to a startling close with her murder in a plane crash in 1963. Patsy started her recording career in Nashville by the year 1955 and soon became a member of the Opry. Her rich tone and emotionally expressive bold contralto voice earned her a great status among her contemporaries. These qualities, accompanied by her image as the sole mover in the country music industry, made Patsy an international figure, and they also inspired several vocalists of different music genres. Therefore, the image of Cline as the most celebrated of the country musicians is categorical. She was a country pop star and her fame was established by the various performing on radio and television broadcasts etc. Patsy Cline has been a country artist who consisten tly fought the pop styling, and one of the major factors ensuring her success as a renowned musician is her desire to be... Patsy Cline has been remarkably considered to be the most influential country musician of the last century, and her posthumous influence on the development of country music is even more significant. Her performance career started in the mid 1940s and came to a startling close with her murder in a plane crash in 1963. Patsy started her recording career in Nashville by the year 1955 and soon became a member of the Opry. Her rich tone and emotionally expressive bold contralto voice earned her a great status among her contemporaries. These qualities, accompanied by her image as the sole mover in the country music industry, made Patsy an international figure, and they also inspired several vocalists of different music genres. Therefore, the image of Cline as the most celebrated of the country musicians is categorical. She was a country pop star and her fame was established by the various performing on radio and television broadcasts etc. Patsy Cline has been a country artist who consisten tly fought the pop styling, and one of the major factors ensuring her success as a renowned musician is her desire to be consistent with country style as against the trends of popular pop music of the time. Though her voice had been flat, rich and ‘pop’ sounding, she always chose to be a country singer, and her resentment of being forced into recording slower, more melodic material earned her the crown of country music.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Site Survey and Final Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Site Survey and Final Project - Assignment Example As the building is so tall and the third largest insurance company in the US is located inside it, so it is always a responsibility of the security agents to run a periodic check. It is because large transactions are done and there is the need for protection of the company. The employees have a special batch which entitles them their identification and so they become distinguishable from the other visitors. There is also a strict rule that the employees should wear them. There are many special visitors to the place sometimes who are escorted by the guards and special honor is given to them. The building was built in 1993 at the expense of $100 million and was named as the capital holding center at first. The building is also constructed mainly of the reinforce concrete with full steel constructions as it is so tall. It has a dome at the top which is a distinguishing factor and it demarcates the name capital holding at night from the interiors of the building. The fences are given aro und it which is also very strong which is another factor of being distinguishable. There are many special features in the building like the half acre plaza which is made up of patterned granite and is decorated with lamps, flower trees and four fountains. It can be termed as a very famous architectural identification which is a good symbolization of the work of the people. The building has a five level garage to support the vehicles as they may be large in number. Polished black granite is also used which is very attractive. The full building is lighted which is also sufficient to detect people going at a reasonable distance. The color of the lighting has a fluctuation from white to reddish green from Thanksgiving Day to New Year. The lighting system has special security such that no one gets to the power system in the building responsible for lighting. There are special alarms in the building such that everything gets traced when there is an emergency relating to fire or any theft. The police and the fire departments are always kept in contact so that assistance can be taken. The alarms are so designed that they also do some additional functions like strengthening the security and sealing all important information along with notifying the people. There are cameras which keep an eye on the movements of the people and they are operated by special security professionals in the building. They also have the control over the cameras and that helps in the monitoring of the building continuously. There are some arrangements made such that the people don’t face any problem when there is an emergency. Special exit points are there and the building is given hidden support from inside to withstand such acts. There are systems such that both the people and the employees can get out of the building whenever there is an emergency and no one will be unsecured. After all the building is a great place which is the tallest and also maintained in a fashionable way. Facili ty characterization Physical conditions: The building is a great monument like structure which is surrounded by fences from all sides and has strong walls which make it safer. As it is an old building, there are every steps being taken towards its conservation. The building has a dome on the top which is a symbolism of the great art and architecture. The AEGON center has square feet of space and has a skyline silhouette so that it can be distinguished as the tallest building in Kentucky. Facility operations: The buildin

Friday, November 15, 2019

The Video Game Console Market Marketing Essay

The Video Game Console Market Marketing Essay The video game console market is a fast growing market. Sonys PlayStation 3 competes together with Nintendos Wii and Microsofts Xbox 360 for the market leader position. Compared with these competitors, Sonys PS3 includes the newest technologies and provides the highest variety of functionalities. Therefore, Sonys strategy is to target customers who focus on high technologies and multimedia-entertainment. However, this involves that the PS3 competes not only with console manufacturers, but also with other multimedia producers such as PC manufacturers. Due to the fact, that the Sonys PS3 will be quite expensive, the console will be available in a premium edition and in a cheaper basic edition. Considering the distribution of its PS3 games, Sony tries to change its traditional supply chain by providing an Internet platform, where users can download games. This results in saving costs and a faster distribution. Furthermore, the most important marketing tool is the Internet for promoting the PlayStation 3. Blogs, MySpace, YouTube and other kind of websites enable an area-wide promotion of the game console and especially, it is done by consumers. Another important tool is the official website, which offers among others information about the console and about available games. Additionally, Sony promotes its PlayStation 3 together with a meaningful slogan, which differs between Europe (This is living) and U.S. (Play Beyond). Finally, Sonys financing objectives are to sell 15 million exemplars in the first-year and to achieve total sales revenue of $8.25 billion. Its marketing goals are to sell more than 100 million exemplars in the long-run and to become the market leader. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 1 Situation Analysis 2 2.1 Current marketing environment 2 2.2 Current Product Line 2 2.3 Product Analysis 3 2.4 Target Markets 3 2.5 Competitive Analysis 5 2.6 Product/Market Analysis Tools 5 2.7 SWOT Analysis 8 3 Objectives 8 4 Competition 9 4.1 Game console industry 9 4.2 Direct competitors 9 4.3 Market concept of competition 11 5 Product Unique selling proposition 12 6 Distribution 12 6.1 Supply chain 12 6.2 Next generation supply chain 14 6.3 Business Models 15 7 Marketing Strategy 16 7.1 AIDA 17 8 Marketing Mix Strategy of 4 Ps 18 8.1 Product 18 8.2 Price 18 8.3 Place 19 8.4 Promotion 19 9 Financial projections 19 10 Implementation controls 20 Situation Analysis Current marketing environment The video game console market is highly influenced from its demographic and technological environment. The worldwide population is growing and more and more people have a strong need for entertainment. Many people require something against boredom in their free time. Furthermore, the technology environment creates a variety of new functionalities which are almost unlimited. According to Moores Law, processor speed and memory capability reduplicate almost every 18 months by constant prices. Additionally, technologies such as High Definition TV provide a new way of entertainment consumption. Finally, another important influence in peoples behavior is enabled by the Internet. Its introduction was a milestone of the new economy. It allows finding almost any required information and enables worldwide communication as well as interaction and it simplifies doing business. Current Product Line Before we describe the features and functionalities of Sonys new video game console, the PlayStation 3, we would like to give a short overview of the companys current home video game line: PlayStation (PS1) The Sony PlayStation is the companys first video game console and was produced in the mid-1990s. It belongs to the fifth generation of video game consoles and provides a 32-bit processor. Furthermore, the PlayStation was the first game console that reached the 100 million mark. PlayStation 2 (PS2) Sonys PlayStation 2 is part of the sixth generation era and was released in 2000. Besides its 128-bit processor, it was the fist video game console that provides DVD playback functionality. It placed first in number of units sold in its sixth generation of video game consoles and it became the fastest selling and most popular game console in history, with over 110 million units shipped worldwide by November 2006.  [1]   PlayStation Portable (PSP) Sonys PlayStation Portable was the companys first handheld game console released in 2004. Besides playing games, it also provides different functionalities such as playing music, watching videos, viewing pictures and using Internet applications. Nowadays, the PSP is the main competitor of Nintendos Game Boy and Nintendo DS. Product Analysis The Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) is the seventh generation video game console and the third in Sonys PlayStation series. The console was launched in North America and Japan in November 2006 and is yet expected to be launched in Europe by March 2007. The reason for its delay in Europe is a shortness of supplies with parts of the Blu-ray drive. The console offers high-end technology and it has been described as an engineering masterpiece because of its promising specification and use of new technology.  [2]   Furthermore, the PS3 will be available in two different editions on the one hand, a basic edition with a 20 GB hard disk drive (HDD), and on the other hand a premium edition with 60 GB HDD. Nevertheless, both editions will have key elements such the Blu-Ray Disc for High Definition movies, the Cell chip, Giga-bit Ethernet for high speed Internet-connection, and an HDMI connection for optimum output on HDTV. Compared with the basic edition, the premium edition will provide some extra features like support for multiple external memory storage devices (Memory stick, SD) and Wireless connectivity. More information about the specification can you find in the Appendix. Furthermore, Sonys newest game console provides a Linux operating system and some Internet applications such as an Opera Web browser and multiplaying functionality. Finally, another feature of the PlayStation 3 is the backward compatibility to Sonys previous video games for PS1 and PS2. Target Markets The following section should provide an overview of Sonys target market and of its targeted customers. Target market approach In our opinion, Sony should use a segmentation approach as their general strategy to reach targeted customers. Although mass-marketing would create the largest potential market, which leads to the lowest costs and results in lower prices or higher margins, we propose segment marketing because it can create a more fine-tuned product offering and price for the target segment. Moreover, this approach enables to select more easily the best distribution and communication channels, and to have a clearer picture of the main competitors.  [3]   Segmenting consumer markets Cultural distinctions, different needs and demands of individuals, and diversities in customers buying behaviours require market segmentation of companies to satisfy their customers effectively. Thereby, the market can be divided in geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural segmentation variables and the company can focus on target segments which it wants to attract.  [4]   According to Sony, the main geographic segments of the PlayStation 3 consist of the Northern America market, the Japanese market and the European market. When Sony released his first video game console PlayStation in 1994, the companys main focus was on the marketplace from 12- to 17-year-old boys. But nowadays, Sonys demographic segmentation divides the market of the PS3 in male and female, old and young players and expands its business vastly to a mainstream entertainment.  [5]  The PS3 offers a multifaceted repertoire of video games which includes something for everybody. Theres not merely one game to ultimately define the PS3 platform, but rather different must-have games for different segments of consumers. Additionally, an important and profitable demographic segment could be the college market because according to a study by Anderson Analytics GenX2Z only 26 percent of students report not playing video games.  [6]   Furthermore, Sony concentrates on a strong customer loyalty status in the behavioural segment. Besides its popular brand and the high reputation of its products, the company tries to win over its former consumers by the implementation of a backward compatibility which enables to play video games from its previous video game consoles (PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2). Finally, one of the important target segments of the PS3 involves consumers who require high technology. The company is convinced that its consumers desire and want to get the best out of the best. Characteristics of the targeted customers / product uses As already mentioned, Sonys targeted customers want to have the newest technologies and functionalities. Moreover, they need an entertainment system which provides functionalities such as viewing pictures, movies or listening music. The Playstation 3 can fulfil all this particular requirements and reach therewith a lot of different customers. First of all, video game players can use the console, because it provides high technology and a lot of different available games. Furthermore, movie lovers can use the PS3 because it involves a DVD drive and also allows watching movies in High Definition with its Blu-Ray drive. Moreover, customers can use the game console to see pictures from their last holidays easily by inserting their memory card in the included card-reader. Finally, customer can use the console to surf in the Internet or to use it instead of a computer, because its Linux operation system provides similar functionalities. Summarized, all members of a family can use the PlayStation 3 for different needs. For instance, children play video games during the day and when the father arrives, he uses the PlayStation to read his emails. Thereafter, the mother inserts the SD card in the PS3 and shows him the pictures from her trip to Stockholm last weekend. And at the evening, the whole family watch a movie together. This multimedia functionality provides the biggest benefit for the PS3s consumers. Purchasing process Some customers make their decision which game console they want to buy dependent from the number of available games. Not only the functionality and technology, but also the variety of games can be important for the decision-making process of customers. Therefore, the company has to offer information about the games which will be available for its game console. The primary channel for providing such information would be the official webpage. Furthermore, the final end-user of the game console is not always responsible for the purchasing process. For instance, sometimes parents purchase the game console for their children, and therewith another party is involved in the purchasing process. Market size estimations The number of consumers in the video game console industry increased continuously during the last years. Due to the fact, that game consoles of the newest generation are comparable with an entertainment system, we estimate a market size of 400 million potential users in Europe if everybody would buy the product. Considering that one product would be enough for a family, our final estimation of potential consumers will be 100 million in Europe. Furthermore, a forecast report of PricewaterhouseCoopers has shown that by 2010, the worldwide video game market will grow to $46.5 billion, at an average 11.4% compound annual rate.  [7]   Competitive Analysis Nintendo and Microsoft are the main competitors of Sony in the video game console industry. Considering the seventh generation, Sonys PlayStation 3 compete with Nintendos Wii and Microsofts Xbox 360. These two consoles were released world-wide in November 2006 and November 2005 respectively.  [8]   According to a study of the NPD Group about the best-selling video game consoles for December 2006, the Xbox 360 sold 1.1 million units, the Wii 604.2 thousand units and the PS3 490.7 thousand units. However, the PS3 sales figures include only the U.S. and Japan market, where it is released already. More details about the competition situation will be discussed in chapter 4 Competition. Product/Market Analysis Tools Product Life Cycle According to Sonys previous game consoles, the PlayStation 3 should have a 10-year product life-cycle. Its state-of-the-art technology involves that the usage of the PS3 resources and technology are just at the beginning and can fulfil all game requirements in the next years.  [9]   The product life-cycle consists of four different stages: Introduction: At this stage, the sales growth increase slowly when the product is introduced to the market. In Europe, the PS 3 is already located in the middle of this stage, because many game-console lovers and fans have ordered the PS 3 in advance to become one of the first consumers after its release in March 2007. For instance, a new PS 3 is pre-ordered almost each 20 seconds in Great Britain.  [10]   Growth: At this period, a market acceptance of the product is recognizable and the number of sales units increases. First-users report about the product positively and other consumers are becoming curious. Maturity: A slowdown in sales growth will be at this stage because the product has achieved acceptance by most of the buyers. Decline: Most of the potential buyers have already the product and therewith the number of sales declines. Figure 1: PlayStations Product Life-Cycle Different marketing strategies are necessary for each stage of the product life-cycle. We will discuss our recommended strategies in7 Marketing Strategy. Due to the fact, that the PlayStation 3 was already released in Japan and U.S., Figure 2 shows that the PlayStation 3 is located in a higher position compared with Europe. Figure 2: PS3s Product Life-Cycle in Japan and U.S. After shortness of supplies and an enormous rush demand in Japan and in the United States after the release in November 2006, a kind of stagnation is visible in these both markets today. Vendors report that a large contingent of the PlayStation 3 is still available in their shops.  [11]  Although Sony sees the reason for that in its optimized supply chain, the company has to consider new marketing strategies to increase its sales. The Boston Consulting Groups Growth-Share Matrix In the following section, we would like to analyse and classify Sonys game console product portfolio by profit potentials. Therefore, we used the Boston Consulting Group approach presented by Kotler.  [12]   Due to the fact, that the PlayStation 1 is not be sold anymore, we didnt regard it in our analysis. Figure 3: BCGs Growth-Share Matrix for Sonys game console product-line First, we placed the PlayStation Portable in the Question marks sector, because the market of game handhelds is still growing and as the strongest competitor of the market leader Nintendo DS, the relative market share of the PSP increases. Therefore, Sony has to spend a lot of money in the development and advertising of the PSP to keep up with the fast-growing market, and to overtake the market leader. Additionally, we also placed the PlayStation 3 in the Question marks sector, because the market of the seventh generation video game consoles is still increasing and it is not visible already if the PS 3 will take the position of the market leader. Finally, we located the PlayStation 2 in the Cash cow sector. The PS2 has a falling market growth rate after the release of the next generation game console. Nevertheless, it is still the market leader in its generation and it achieved higher sales units (1.4 million) as the Xbox360 (1.1 million), Nintendo Wii (604.2 thousand), and the PlayStation 3 (490.7 thousand) in December 2006.  [13]  According to the 10-year product life-cycle, the PS2 is in the decline stage and will stay in the market for the next 3 years yet. SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis is the overall evaluation of a companys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  [14]  It is used as a framework to help an organization develop its marketing strategy. Thereby, strengths and weaknesses are internal factors which can be controlled by an organization, whereas opportunities and threats consist of external factors which are uncontrollable by an organization. Figure 4: SWOT analysis for Sonys PlayStation 3 Objectives Sonys financial objectives are to: Achieve first-year total sales revenue of $8.25 billion, based on an average price of $550 per unit. Sonys PlayStation 3 marketing objectives are to: Achieve a first-year unit sales volume of 15 million, which represent a projected market share of 25 percent. Increase second-year share to 40 percent and become the market leader. Sell more than 100 million units in the long-term. Arrange for distribution through the leading electric, video games and computer retailer in the top 100 and establish an Internet platform. Competition Game console industry According to the industry concept of competition presented by Kotler  [15]  , an industry is a group of firms that offer a product or class of products that are close substitutes for another product. The structure type of the video game console industry is an oligopoly, because the Japanese Nintendo and Sony, and the U.S. Microsoft dominate the market. Particularly, the structure is a differentiated oligopoly, because only few companies producing products partially differentiated along lines of price and features. Furthermore, the console industry is characterized by large cost of barriers to entry according to Porters model of five competitive forces. It may cost up to $2 billion to develop a competitive console platform and returns on investment may take several years.  [16]   Furthermore, these three console manufacturers have a similar business model consisting of the following three income flows: Hardware sales Sales of own software/games Licences fees from other software/game developers that use the console platform Finally, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony compete on a global basis with core markets in Japan, Europe and in the United States. Direct competitors The following section compares the direct competitors Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony with regard to their products, prices, sales units and game range. Product differentiation First of all, the following table shows the particular specification of each game console: Nintendo Wii Microsoft Xbox 360 Sony PlayStation 3 First publication 19 November 2006 (USA) 22 November 2005 (USA) 11 November 2006 (Japan) Processor IBM Broadway PowerPC (729 MHz) Tri-Core Xenon PowerPC (3,2 GHz) PPC Cell PowerPC (3,2 GHz) Graphic chip ATI Hollywood (243 MHz) ATI Xenos (500 MHz) nvidia RSX (550 MHz) Drives Own format (Wii and GameCube) CD, DVD (external HD-DVD drive available) CD, DVD, Blu-ray Maximal video quality SDTV = 480p (NTSC) or 576p (PAL/SECAM) HDTV = 480p 720p 1080i/p HDTV = 480p 720p 1080i/p (supports HDMI) Back. compatibility yes yes yes HDD 20 GB 20 GB / 60 GB I/O USB 2.0 (x2), SD USB 2.0 (x3) USB 2.0 (x4), PE: MemoryStick, SD CompactFlash Communication IEEE 802.11b/g Ethernet Extra feature: Wlan-Adapter Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0, Wireless Controller, IEEE 802.11b/g (only premium edition) Furthermore, both competitors of Sonys PS3 provide an internet platform: Microsoft: Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is an online service that is used to distribute video games to Xbox 360 owners. Thereby, Microsoft offers an Xbox Live Marketplace, a virtual market place, where consumers can download movie and game trailers, game demos, Xbox Live Arcade games, gamer tag images, and Xbox 360 Dashboard themes.  [17]  The consumers can pay with Microsoft Points, which can be purchased by credit cards. Nintendo: WiiConnect24 It allows distributing content such as software patches and updated game contents while the Wii is on stand-bye.  [18]   Price strategy Nintendo offers the cheapest price in the game console market. Therefore, the company dispense with some extra features such as DVD drives or HDTV quality. Contrary, Sonys PlayStation 3 offers the newest technology with a plenty of accessories, but also the highest price. The following list shows the current prices in January 2007:  [19]   Nintendo Wii Microsoft Xbox 360 Sony PlayStation 3 Ca. 250 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 300 400 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ (HDD-drive costs 200 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ extra) Basic edition: 500 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ Premium edition: 600 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ Market share in Japan and U.S. The following figures show how many game consoles each of the manufacturers has sold in Japan and U.S. during the last months:  [20]  21 Whereas Nintendos Wii was the market leader during the Christmas time in Japan, Microsofts Xbox 360 could sell the most units in the United States. Games An important criterion for buyers is the volume of games which are available for each game console. At the moment, Microsofts Xbox 360 consists of 82 exclusive games and 132 cross-platform games. In contrary, Nintendo offers 55 exclusive and 96 cross-platform games for its Wii. For Sonys PlayStation 3, 43 exclusive and 77 cross-platform games are planned. Figure 5: Available games for each console (Source GAMEZONE)  [22]   Market concept of competition Due to the fact, that the PlayStation 3 is more a multimedia centre than only a game console, we have to consider more competitors as only game console manufacturers. Therefore, we used the approach of Rayport and Jaworski to identify direct and indirect competitors by mapping the buyers steps in using the product.  [23]  The following figure shows the PS3s direct and indirect competitors: Figure 6: Competitor Map Sony PlayStation 3 Summarized, Sonys PlayStation 3 competes not only with other video game console companies, but also with PC manufactures and other high technology producers. Sonys PS3 offers besides a Linux operating system a plenty of functionalities such as Internet to attract previous PC users and to expand its market. This approach is comparable with Coca-Cola which identifies milk, coffee, tea, and water products as its main competitors.  [24]   Finally, Figure 7 shows Sonys market position with regard to technology and price compared with its video game console competitors: Figure 7 Market position of the main video game consoles Product Unique selling proposition The unique selling proposition is a marketing approach to promote a products benefit and to convince customers that the company can deliver it. For Sonys PlayStation 3, the main benefit, especially compared with its competitors, is its functionality as a multimedia centre and its state-of-the-art technology. Nevertheless, Sony has to consider that its targeted consumers are located in different market segments with different demands and wishes. Therefore, the company has to develop different unique selling propositions. First considering the video game hardcore fans segment, these costumers want to have the best and newest technology. Due to the fact, that the PS3 fulfil these requirements at best compared with its competitors, Sony should promote this in its advertisements, especially in game magazines. Furthermore, Sony wants to attract also middle-age consumers and families. The most benefit for these customers is to use the PlayStation 3 as a multimedia system which offers a variety of functionalities. Therefore, the company should focus on its multimedia range. Summarized, the companys unique selling proposition should consist of newest technology and multimedia-functionality. To emphasize this, Sony uses a short slogan after every mention of its products. In the United States, Sony evokes the following slogan: Play Beyond. People should associate therewith that the PS3 is not only a game console which enables playing video games, but also a system which allows playing in High Digital quality and getting a feeling of reality. Furthermore, the PS3 offers more than playing video games, it is a multimedia system that can be used for different pleasures such as Internet surfing or watching movies that can also be interpreted as a kind of playing. However, Sony uses a different slogan for the European market. The reason is that people with few English skills will not understand the impact of Play Beyond or will be interpreted wrongly. Therefore, Sony uses the following slogan in Europe: This is living. The slogan is really simple and uses words which can be understood by not English-speakers. Consumers can associate that the PS3 delivers a kind of living standard and ensures to enjoy living. Furthermore, its a relation to PS3s multimedia functionalities which are desired for every household these days. It emphasizes that the game console is the core of living room entertainment. Distribution Supply chain With the video game industry being the fastest growing sector of the growing entertainment industry, the industrys revenue has now reached $26 billion in annual revenue and there is currently no indication of decline in the industry. So, in order to identify how the revenue is distributed, its essential to look at the supply chain of the entire PS3 business. As seen in the supply chain, there are opportunities in many aspects of the console business, coming from the actual console sales as well as extras such as games. Figure 8: Original supply chain for video games.  [25]   The customers, as identified by our segmentation analysis table, are at the end of the supply chain, and their consuming of video games are distributes across several actors. Additionally, the most known among the actors are of course the hardware manufacturers, which include Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. Except for the revenue coming from the console sales, they also get about 20% of the market price for the games, which are mostly sold in the growth level of the product life-cycle. The additional revenue in the supply chain is split among the other actors. Looking more closely at the publishers and developers, we realize that the publishers are likely to take a large portion of the revenue. Those are the large international companies that have sufficient funds to build a distribution network and employ developers to pull off new best-selling games for the consoles. Hardware manufacturers usually try to pull off deals with these companies when they identify potential best-selling games because the top 3.3% of the games bring in 55% of the sales revenue. For this reason, some hardware manufacturers, most notable Microsoft, tend to buy top-creative publishers to secure exclusive rights of new games for their console. Because of the complexity with world-wide game launches, there are almost always distribution partners in the chain, those accounts for an estimate of 10% of the shelf price. Next are the retail channels, which include online stores as well as retail stores. However, they are becoming increasingly bypassed in the supply chain, as discussed in the next generation supply chain (described in detail below). When they do exist in the supply chain though, they take an estimate of 30% of the shelf price. Developers are a mix of artists and engineers that create the actual games played on the console. Typically, they are funded by the publishers and together they take between 40 to 60% of the shelf price. Notably, in recent years another actor have also entered the supply chain as the industry have grow

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Essay --

Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Review of the effects of Chinese Herbal medicine in NSCLC treatment By: Jay Shah December 11, 2013 Pharmacology 5600 Herbal medicine, like any alternative forms of medicine and therapy has its share of critics, but like most herbal medicine, it has been developed and practiced for millennia. The first known record of Chinese herbal medicine was found in the â€Å"Wushier Bingfang† (prescriptions for fifty-two ailments) silk manuscript from the Han Dynasty around 206 BCE (Zhang et al, 2012). It contains two hundred and fifty herbal cures to issues such as hemorrhoids, arthritis, inflammation, seizures, warts and many others (Zhang et al, 2012). Historical records of Chinese herbs include over a hundred thousand medicinal recipes to thousands of issues, mostly consisting of plant extracts (Chen et al, 1999). The understanding behind Chinese herbs is an elemental approach that looks as humans as a component of nature and hence can be cured of ailments through natural elements (Chen et al, 1999). Image 1 depicts various Chinese herbs including, ginseng, Astragalus, lilyturf and others. With the development of allopathic medicine from the western world, herbal medicine from around the world has been castigated out of the mind for the majority of the world due to its lack of proper scientific evidence. Recently however, herbal medicine, especially Chinese and Indian has seen somewhat of a resurgence on the global scale in terms of credibility thanks to new research and data from around the world. The National Institute of Health recognizes Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a viable source of alternative treatment for various ailments and says that over a million people as of 2004 regu... ..., Zhang L, et al. (2011) Effect s of chemotherapy combined with Chinese herbal medicine Kangliu Zengxiao decoction on tumor markers of patient s with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a randomized, controlled trial. J Chin Integr Med 9: 525–530. 11. Li G, Shu-Ping B, Ling Z, Xiao-Hong W (2009). Astragalus polysaccharide injection integrated with vinorelbine and cisplatin for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: effects on quality of life and survival. Journal of Medical Oncology s12032-011-0068-9. 12. Liu QY, Yao YM, Zhang SW, et al. Astragalus polysaccharides regulate T cell-mediated immunity via CD11c (high) CD45RB (low) DCs in vitro. J Ethnopharmacol. 2011; 136(3):457–64. 13. Clement-Kruzel S, Hwang SA, Kruzel MC, et al. Immune modulation of macrophage pro-inflammatory response by goldenseal and Astragalus extracts. J Med Food. 2008; 11(3):493–8.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Assignment; Bias, Rhetorical Devices, Argumentation

An example of bias within this speech would be: â€Å"to point out and make public the dishonesty, the downright villainy, of Boss Jim W. Gettys' political machine — now in complete control of the government of this state! One example of fallacies that I found in this speech was; â€Å"Now, however, I have something more than a hope. And Jim Gettys — Jim Gettys has something less than a chance. Every straw vote, every independent poll shows that I'll be elected. Now I can afford to make some promises! † Some rhetorical devices found in this speech were: †¢Alliteration: â€Å"Now, however, I have something more than a hope. And Jim Gettys — Jim Gettys has something less than a chance. Every straw vote, every independent poll shows that I'll be elected. Now I can afford to make some promises! † †¢Alliteration: †The working man — The working man and the slum child know they can expect my best efforts in their interests. The decent, ordinary citizens know that I'll do everything in my power to protect the underprivileged, the underpaid, and the the underfed! † †¢Alliteration: â€Å"Here's one promise I'll make, and boss Jim Gettys knows I'll keep it:†¦Ã¢â‚¬  †¢Hyperbole: â€Å"with one purpose only: to point out and make public the dishonesty, the downright villainy, of Boss Jim W. Gettys' political machine — now in complete control of the government of this State! † †¢Paradox: â€Å"Well, I'd make my promises now if I weren't too busy arranging to keep them. † The speaker addressed arguments in the first paragraph of the speech by stating that because of Jim Gettys â€Å"control† he had no hope of being elected. In the second paragraph however, he reinforces that he is being elected by stating, â€Å" Now I can afford to make promises! † By doing this, he is preparing to address any potential counterarguments by shaping his speech to combat what the opposition might say.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Zara Case Essay Example

Zara Case Essay Example Zara Case Essay Zara Case Essay Q1a. Should the company upgrade the POS terminals to a modern operating system? It might not be in the retailer’s best interest to perform such upgrade, as the new system will replace three of the existing legacy systems in terms of ordering and fulfillment. The IS department will perceive such upgrade as a radical move and is expected to show high resistance in response to it. Even though Zara has a decentralized decision making process, the retailer’s IS department exercises absolute autonomy on the IT infrastructure and design. The fact that â€Å"only one person had left the department† in the past 10 years further confirms that the retailer is suffering from cognitive and action inertia, and thus creating a huge barrier for such upgrade. Nevertheless, Zara should still perform such upgrade in the long run. Q1b. Should the company build in-store networks? Yes, it will remove some redundancies in daily operations. For instance, employees no longer have to collect data physically from each POS terminal in order to obtain daily sales totals. In-store network will also enable store managers to have a more comprehensive understanding of sales activities on both a consolidated level and section (Men, Women, or Children) level. Q1c. Should the company give employees the ability to look up inventory balances for items in their own stores? Yes, this will result in a more efficient and systematic stock auditing and ordering process. In specific, it will not only provide store managers with updated inventory balances, it also helps them when reviewing the latest offer from La Coruna and preparing â€Å"the order† in the face of the narrow 24-hour order window. On the other hand, the store product managers can now retrieve more reliable and updated sales figures from each store. This enables the managers to be more effective when making store-to-store transfers. The commercials responsible for matching aggregate supply with demand from each store will demonstrate higher quality of decision making, especially when allocating inventory amongst stores in times of shortage of an SKU. Last but not least, the improved inventory figures will result in a better production schedule and planning that reflect the constantly changing customer demand for different SKUs. Q1d. Should the company give employees the ability to look up inventory balances for items in other stores? If employees have the ability to look up inventory balances of their own stores, granting employee access to inventory balances for items in other stores is icing on the cake. The is because store managers can have better inventory control, and will be in a better position respond quickly to unexpected surge of demand for a particular item. In the event that commercials at La Coruna didn’t deliver the full amount of a specific item that the store ordered, the store manager can immediately seek for â€Å"help† from stores that have extra inventory and thus capturing sales that might otherwise be lost. Q2. What is the Zara â€Å"business model†? How is it different from the business model of other large clothing retailers? What weaknesses, if any, do you see within this business model? Is it scalable? What information does Zara need to operate its business model? Zara â€Å"business model† The Zara business model is to link customer demand to manufacturing and link manufacturing to distribution. Terefore, Zara needs to respond very quickly to the demand of target customers, who are young, fashion conscious city dwellers with fast changing tastes. Differences between Zara and other large clothing retailers The business model is different from other large clothing retailers in the followings: -Zara does not rely on advertising and marketing to drive their business. It only spent 0. 3% of its revenue in marketing, as compared to 3% to 4% in other large clothing retailers. -The lifespan of the clothes is short. On average, 75% of its merchandise are sold within 3 to 4 weeks. -The decision making in Zara is decentralized. The employees in Zara are empowered to decide what garments to be put in the stores. The â€Å"commercials† at La Coruna have great discretion in deciding what clothes would be designed and produced, unlike other companies which use a small elite team for design and production. Weaknesses within Zara Business Model -Since Zara has a short lead time for delivering products, it keeps no buffer stock and most, if not all, logistics arrangements were centralized at the head office in La Coruna. This makes Zara very vulnerable to accidental incidents. -As the store managers are empowered to decide what products to be put in the store, their business sense are crucial. However, since the store managers are not expertise in this area, they may not be able to pick hot items and certain sales opportunities may be lost. Information needed to operate in this business model -To operate this business model, the store managers should have the access to accurate and updated sales and inventory data for them to decide what to order and what not to order. In addition, they should know the availability of the products they would like to order eg. by having access to the inventory level of other stores. -With the tight order deadline with La Coruna, the store managers need on-time inventory balance to plan for the re-order point and optimal order quantity. Q3. What current or potential weaknesses do you see in Zara’s IT infrastructure and IT strategy? IT infrastructure -Critical core services are relying on out-dated O/S (Operating System) and Hardware Technology, where failure of the services could heavily impact normal operations. As the Zara in-house POS system is implemented on an O/S which the vendor has dropped support, no official fix will be prepared once system or software bugs are identified which might lead to unstable system behavior or security leakage. -Running critical services on out-dated O/S will also limit the compatibility and extensibility with the improving software and hardware. This will prevent Zara from sustaining business growth by further improving scalability of services using enhanced hardware architecture or enhanced networking capabilities with other IT software/inventory systems. Moreover, as IT hardware is improving in a rapid pace, legacy hardware components might not be available in the market for Zaras purchase. Zara might face difficulties in purchasing commercial license for O/S that vendor has dropped support. -Unconnected terminals between headquarters and POSs might implied out-sync or inconsistent information sharing in time-critical information such as inventory. Bottl eneck in information sharing or slow responsiveness from customers query are fatal to real time sales, especially Zara is focusing on Fast Fashion Business and place Inventory Management as their competitive advantage. IT strategy -Zara fails to identify how IT can further improve and achieve the companys competitive advantage. For example, while Zaras success based heavily on competitive Inventory Management, the company fails to further improve it by enhancing communications of instant inventory data delivery to front line sales. -Zara fails to recognize the dependency on IT to achieve competitive advantage and it does not perform continuous improvement (or innovation). This will make Zara moving from Strategic Mode to Factory Mode especially when other companies are catching up Zara with similar strategy. Zara does not have dedicated planning, decision making or leading role for IT operations and strategic planning. While the General management core could share these responsibilities, they cannot concentrate their focus on IT incident management (upon system failure) and they do not have up-to-date knowledge and technical exposure for strategic planning, expansion and upgrade decision. For insta nce, Global CIO (Chief Information Officer) and/or Chief Operations Officer) should be employed for Global directions/planning and local CIO/COO (per region) should be assigned for local incident management and business process improvement. Zara does not have solid planning on ever greening of IT services. Ever greening of IT services will ensure the Company placing their IT assets on compatible and up-to-date O/S and hardware where vendor support or human expertise can be located promptly and efficiently for resolution against service failure or consultancy on service improvement. There is no regular strategic alignment with Company’s goal. Regular strategic alignment can help adjusting Zaras IT direction. -There is no constant operational improvement. Constant operational improvement is important for the optimization of IT work flow. It can reduce unnecessary IT overhead and improve service responsiveness. Also, Zara should reshuffle hardware resources after constant review of system usage. This will improve hardware utilization, which in turn improves Zaras ROA (Return on Assets). -There is no strategy to enhance extensibility which is the key to information sharing success. Great flexibility and readiness to interface with different data sources will improve Zara’s ability to perform data analysis or forecasting and to achieve fast responsiveness to fashion change or new source of marketing statistics.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Best Friend essays

Best Friend essays Do you have a true best friend? I sure do. _____ is truly my best friend. She is always there for me. She knows everything about me; even my secrets. I cant keep anything from her! She is the person who will help me when I am down, turn my frown upside-down, and make me feel better about myself. I cant imagine any better of a friend. I love her more than anything and I would die for her. Megan and I are always together; no matter where we are! We go to places like the mall and movies, to the mountains and lakes! Together we go most everywhere! A few days ago we got Pose pictures together! We always go shopping together and she helps me pick out what and what not to buy! Together we are unstoppable! We also help each other with schoolwork, and family and friends problems. She helps me through my toughest times, and is there for my best times. Its hard to find a friend like that. You may just have good friends that you can count on sometimes, but to be dependable on a person and knowing they will be there for you, its hard to find someone like that. Without her I would not be as happy as I am now. We have so many inside jokes that nobody would understand unless they were there, or if they were just us! Not everyone gets our stupid jokes, and they might think that there immature and childish, but together we make them funny and get a good laugh out of it! Shes the kind of person that I could never lie to. Even if I did try to lie to her, she knows me so well; she could tell I was lying. Megan can tell if Im lying even if I am keeping a straight face! I dont know how she does it! We think so alike and its like were communicating with our minds! At the same time were always thinking the same thing or have the same idea. She also knows all my expressions and how I sound when Im hyper, frustrated, depressed, annoyed, or happy. Shes a friend that I could and will neve ...

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Textual Analysis on the book of The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Research Paper - 1

Textual Analysis on the book of The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - Research Paper Example Many critics claim that dystopian novels set in the future are not really about the author’s idea of the future, but instead are deliberately exaggerated stories about what the author thinks is wrong with the world of his or her present. With this in mind, it is easy to see that Butler was writing not about the year 2024, but about the year 1993. In The Parable of the Sower, it’s easy to see the fears and problems represented that were prevalent in American society in the early 1990s. Huge corporations exploiting increasingly powerless workers, an epidemic of crack addiction among the inner-city poor, race riots triggered by police brutality, and a new public discourse about rape dominated the news of the day. Crime—particularly violent inner-city crime and gang-related crime—had been extremely high in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The change that the main character, Lauren, preaches about is really the change that Octavia Butler wished to see in her own society. The basis for the Earthseed philosophy that Lauren tries to spread is that the only god is change, and people can create the change they want to see if they understand that they are able to do it. The people who don’t know they can create change, or those who fear change, will eventually become victims of it. In Lauren’s world, the problems of the late twentieth century United States have grown so severe that they make life essentially unlivable for impoverished people. Problems that were once thought of as only urban issues have moved out into rural areas. It’s the extreme nature of these problems that forces the change to happen. If Lauren had lived in a slightly safer or more stable situation; if she had been able to stay safely in her home, or if she’d had a loving family alive to keep her there, she would never have tried to travel north and gather followers for her new religion. Instead she might have lived quietly and never shared her ideas with

Friday, November 1, 2019

Performance Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Performance Management - Essay Example The analysis and better decision making can be done by discussing the components of cost and their effects on the overall cost and final decision to be taken. All the costs that can affect the decision, rather all the relevant costs should be considered in this case. It is important to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant costs for the decision making purposes as it allows better decision making for cost reduction and cost maximization. Additionally overheads allocation should also be done on fairer and activity driven basis so that better decisions can be taken. (DRURY, C. 2008; HANSEN, MOWEN, & HANSEN.2006) The company shall lay150 meters of pipe each week in-house to utilize its labour and machine, however decision has to be taken for the remaining 750 meters for small pipe and 300 meters of large pipe to be laid in-house or subcontracted. Direct Material Cost: The company has an option to subcontract the project where the material cost will be borne by subcontractor, charg ed by UGC in the price quoted. On the other hand the company if undertakes the project in-house the direct material cost will be ?45/per meter on small pipe and ?55/meter on large pipe. Direct Labour Cost: Company can use in-house labour by shifting labour from other departments, there will be no opportunity cost involved as the company has substitute labour to be used in other department on the same rate. The crucial think here will be to decide if it is cost effective to use in-house labor if they are paid on overtime basis or would it be beneficial to subcontract. Also which of the pipes, small or large should be laid by the limited labour provided. (PROCTOR, R. 2009) Variable Overheads: With increasing automation the labour hours and costs have decreased and companies have lost the traditional measure of allocating overheads and therefore activity based costing, that is assigning costs to cost drivers are now used. If company decides to complete the project in-house it will incu r variable overheads on per meter of pipe laid. Small pipe will incur ?5 while large pipe will incur ?10 on each meter of pipe laid. The variable overheads are allocated on the basis of meter, which is on the basis of activity rather than direct labour hours that is overheads are allocated on cost drivers basis. (KAPLAN & ANDERSON. 2007; HANSEN, MOWEN & GUAN, L. 2009) Fixed Overheads: Fixed overheads are irrelevant for decision making purposes and become unchanged regardless of the activity. In the scenario lease rentals are the fixed cost. These will be incurred by the company whatever decision might be taken and are irrelevant to the decision. If UGC subcontracts or undertakes the project in-house, in both the cases it has to pay the lease rentals for the machines. (WEYGANDT, KIESO & KIMME.2009; HANSEN, MOWEN, & HANSEN.2006) Detailed Analysis: UGC has decided to lay 150 meters of each type of pipe using the in-house facility. The remaining will be either subcontracted or will be d one in-house depending on the cost and availability of labour. Direct labour is the limited resource in the project and company has to take its decision subject to availability. After laying 150 meters of each type of pipe which it plans to do, UGC will be left with 72.5 hours of direct labour on normal rate and 100 hours on overtime rate of Machine E and 30 hours on normal rate and 90 hours on overtime rate of Machine J. UGC now has to decide whether to lay small pipe or large pipe in this remaining capacity. For this it shall consider the cost it will incur to outsource the pipes and the cost of utilization of labour on normal and overtime rates. It will cost UGC ?56.83/meter of small pipe and ?89.16/ meter of large pipe using the normal labour. UGC has to incur ?60.83/meter to lay small pi

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Acquisition Strategy Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Acquisition Strategy Analysis - Essay Example This paper will mention two organizations that are under a different industry operation but make use of acquisition strategies in order to make their positions stronger in today’s competitive business world (Chan, 2003). Advantage presented by a merger or acquisition to either two or even more organizations is an option of strategic positions that are attractive for the ability to achieve operating economies, thus strengthening the effects of the organization’s competitiveness and competencies, resulting to new avenues that allow more innovative market opportunities. An acquisition can be referred to as a combination between two or even more organizations or companies whereby, one of them thoroughly buys and assumes all the operations or processes of the other one. These strategies, if properly researched and handled, can result to generation of an enormous amount of profit to the organization; however, not every single company that makes use of mergers or acquisitions can be termed as successful. Most companies are yet to meet their goals or expectations as a result of acquisitions performance. In fact, a handful of the organizations have epically failed (Gamble & Thompson, 2011). ... Sixteen years ago after its publicity, its market capitalization was approximately 120 billion dollars, which is vastly larger than that of Xerox, Apple, and Dell combined. Cisco has managed to sail through whereas several because of its expertise in professionalizing processes which most firms occasionally embark on when they need them or when they are greedy to make more profits. The Airspace former CEO once said that most of the companies he had interacted with rarely use acquisition strategies and in fact, integration is their job at night. He went ahead to say that, unlike the others, Cisco consists of individuals whose initiative is to strategize both during the day and night. Acquisition therefore, to him, is the company’s core function (Gamble, 2011). According to experts, Cisco is a highly successful company in terms of identification of new technologies in the market and taking calculated corporate risks mainly in markets that are new. However, the main point to note is that the firm’s acquisition and merger operation strength lies elsewhere. The firm noticed that technology acquisition cannot only lie on technology but the people as well. Hooper, the CEO, said that the firm’s most strategic and useful asset is the people. The people in this case mean the firm’s expertise. He says that once the firm loses product managers and technologists who may have created, say, a router to a link after an acquisition, then it may be said to have lost an immense deal of products which might have only existed in the heads of those employees. The core nucleus to the firm’s acquisition machine may be said to be its development group. It comprises of 40 individuals securely tucked to a cubicle firm that is