Lodging - 4399 Words

Executive summary The purpose of this report is to designing a new boutique hotel’s club floor. The structures of this report are as follows. First, we will discuss the background information and state the objective of the report. Second, we will focus on South Korea IT Professionals and analysis their demographic and socioeconomic profile by relevant articles and literatures. Also, the purchasing power and arrival number of South Korean business traveler will be forecasted. Third, we will conduct a service analysis of South Korea IT professionals by Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension. Fourth, Hotel ICON and Butterfly on Prat are selected as our major competitor; therefore we will conduct a competitor analysis to find out their strengths†¦show more content†¦We will discuss and analyze IT Professionals business travellers’ demographic and socio-economic profiles below. Demographics elements contain education level, gender, marital status and trait. 2.1 ) Demo graphics 2.1.1) Education Level From the UNESCO, it shows South Korea has the highest tertiary rate in the world. (Nick.C. Hanna.P.,2013) Korean government invest large amount of resource in the information technology education to develop I.T. experts. Therefore, Korean Information technology professional usually equip with high educational level. Base on their background, they will look for advanced technological service. Besides, though they are intellectual in the Information technology, through our interview with Korean tourist, we found that most of them are not familiar with the international language—English. Interviewees indicate people in their country seldom use English. It is easy to have communication failure if we cannot communicate with them effectively, so we need to recruit staffs who are familiar with Korean. Then we can guarantee them a nice moment of truth. It shows we are concerning. 2.1.2) Gender Although Korea is a feminine country, both gender are openly for cont est, female is less involve in the I.T. field. Women only make up less than 18% of IT workers. (Wisat, 2013) We assume that we may have more male guests. In order to favor our target guest, we will consider the construction ratio of the use ofShow MoreRelatedTaking a Look at Types of Lodging621 Words   |  2 PagesThese past few years, the lodging industry has been growing very significantly. â€Å"The global hospitality sector witnessed a strong appetite for growth in 2013, a trend that is set to continue and pick up pace in 2014† (Strong Performance Predicted for Global Lodging Industry in 2014, 2014). A decade before, there were no many options of the lodging accommodation. But with the massive growth of hospitality industry, lodging accommodations are now varied. Full-serviced hotels, hostels or dormitoriesRead MoreCareers At Lodging And Food And Beverage 21152 Words   |  5 PagesCAREERS IN LODGING AND FOOD AND BEVERAGE 2 Lodging, food and beverage is becoming popular in the world today. A lot of people are going to college in order to be in this type of work. They learn how each field work and also how challenging the field has become over the years. It is fascinating how much these fields are so vast but yet similar. Many people that want to get into thisRead MoreHtm100 - Assignment 1 - Careers in Lodging and Food and Beverage Industries1419 Words   |  6 PagesCareers in Lodging and Food and Beverage Industries Name School HTM 100 Professor Name February 3, 2013 Careers in Lodging and Food and Beverage Industries The hospitality industry is a very lucrative and rewarding career choice. Choosing a career in this field is not for the faint at heart. A career in this industry requires an individual that is ambitious, self-motivated, and has a charismatic personality. However, the hard work comes with many personal and financial rewards. HospitalityRead MoreLodging1094 Words   |  5 Pagesthe United States. d. A weak U.S. dollar in the international market decreases the number of international tourists traveling to the United States. 8. A regional study of the economic impact of tourism found that for every tourist dollar spent in lodging properties, three tourist dollars were spent elsewhere in the region. This is an example of: a. globalization. b. the ripple effect. c. infrastructure investment. d. superstructure investment. 9. Which of the following is likely to have theRead MoreCareers in Lodging1166 Words   |  5 PagesCareers in Lodging and Food and Beverage Industries 1 Assignment 1: Careers in Lodging and Food and Beverage Industries Maria Ransom Strayer University Alexandria Campus Professor: Jennifer Gallagher HTM 100 - Principles of Hospitality and Tourism Management February 3, 2012 Assignment 1: Careers in Lodging and Food and Beverage Industries 2 Describe the various types of management careers that can be offered within each industry (lodging and food and beverage). The lodging and foodRead MoreLodging Inductry24737 Words   |  99 PagesMarket-segment scope: Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts. See â€Å"Defining the Corporate Mission†. †¢ Vertical scope: examples of tour operators tie together airline travel, ground transportation, sightseeing, restaurant meals, club entertainment, hotel lodging, and travel gifts. See â€Å"Defining the Corporate Mission†. †¢ Geographical scope: Biscuitville fast food chain, Sheraton hotels, Hilton hotels, Canada’s Delta Hotels. See â€Å"Defining the Corporate Mission†. Supportive PowerPoint Slides: 3-11Read MoreA Report On Brazilian Hotel Industry1418 Words   |  6 Pages Brazil Motivated by the great prospects of the Brazilian Hotel Industry, many entrepreneurs are taken by the idea of establishing a lodging business in the country. This guide will provide the steps to open a hotel in the country, and give some general information about the sector. The lodging industry in Brazil It is no news that Brazil is a very coveted touristic destination for many travelers. The country offers its visitors a diverse range of options, highlighting its natural beauties and historicRead MoreOverview Of The Accommodation Industry1336 Words   |  6 PagesOverview of the Accommodation Industry The hotel industry included a vast array of lodging options including from luxury resorts, casinos, hotels, motel, bed and breakfasts and campgrounds. Business in the hotel industry focus on providing consumers comfort, efficiency and customer services for those seeking accommodations while traveling or for other purposes. The hotel industry is one of 25 subsectors of the travel industry sector of the hospitality industry. 1) Food and Cuisine, 2) AccommodationsRead MoreWhy The Companys Leadership Is Different From Other Hospitality Businesses1072 Words   |  5 Pageshundreds of thousands of dollars. No hotel, however splendid, looks good to someone whose day it has ruined. For example, lodging manager usually work long and irregular hours including weekends, evenings and most public holidays, usually works indoors, and from an office or lobby may need to travel to other areas to carry out promotional activities. And the work conditions for lodging manager are busy and stressful. Usually the working environment is fast-paced, because hotel runs 24 hours every dayRead MoreEssay Oceania812 Words   |  4 Pagesadditional performances its profitability Weekly Salaries for $300,000 $200,000 Paid by the host theater INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATION Cast Crew Lodging Board POPs interest is that WCT pays the fee, in its familiar hotel Marquis Another choice of Hotel Boarding prepaid 100 members/ 7 days/ 50% prepaid Lodging prepaid 100- 6 months advance booking/ 7 nights/ 50% prepaid Additional profit from Autograph party for patron and donors Withholds info

What is a monopoly and what is required Free Essays

Monopoly is at the opposite end of the spectrum of market models from perfect competition. A monopoly firm has no rivals. It is the only firm in its industry. We will write a custom essay sample on What is a monopoly and what is required or any similar topic only for you Order Now There are no close substitutes for the good or service a monopoly produces. Not only does a monopoly firm have the market to itself, but it also need not worry about other firms entering. In the case of monopoly, entry by potential rivals is prohibitively difficult. A monopoly does not take the market price as given; it determines its own price. It selects from its demand curve the price that corresponds to the quantity the firm has hosen to produce in order to earn the maximum profit possible. In assuming there is one firm in a market, we assume there are no other firms producing goods or services that could be considered part of the same market as that of the monopoly firm. The result is a model that gives us important insights into the nature of the choices of firms and their impact on the economy. There are some Advantages of a Monopoly. The Monopolies avoids duplications and hence wastage of resources. Enjoys economics of scale, due to it being the only supplier of the product or service n the market, makes many profits and be used for research and development to maintain their status as a monopoly. They also use price discrimination to benefit the weaker economic section of society. To avoid competition, they can afford to invest in the latest technology and machinery. There are some Disadvantages of a Monopoly. Monopolies have poor levels of service, there is no consumer sovereignty, the consumers are charged high prices for such low quality goods, and lack of competition could lead to low quality goods, as well as out dated goods. First off, any arket type can see super normal profits in the short-run. What is more important is what happens in the end. Pure monopolies are not the only monopoly that can make profits. Natural Monopoly or a price discriminating monopoly can make profits as well. The only difference between them is â€Å"why’ they are monopolies to begin with. Oligopolies are not monopolies, although they do tend to make above normal profits. Monopolistic competition does not yield these types of profits in the end. Economic profit goes to zero here in the end because there is a lack of barriers here to prevent competition from entering. How to cite What is a monopoly and what is required, Papers

Case Study Topic Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Question: Describe about the Case Study Topic for Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Answer: Introduction Tacoma Narrows Bridge connects Kitsap Peninsula and Tacoma and Washington State Department of Transportation maintains this bridge. Tacoma Narrows Bridge has exhibited a large oscillation in vertical manner and total length of this particular bridge is 5000 feet. However, Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened on 1940, July 1 and it was collapsed just after four moths because of aero elastic flutter, which is caused by a wind of 42 mph. The major reason of collapsing Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the failure of engineering and science. Arioli and Gazzola (2015) have mentioned that the use of plate girders and the main length of the span should be decided with a proper consultation of the potential civil engineer. Tacoma Narrows Bridge was narrow and long in unusual manner and was severely compared with the other existing suspension bridges of previous era. The design of Tacoma Narrows Bridge was not suitable as cheaper stiffening used for girders, which are 8 foot tall. Even the stiffening was not in adequate manner and aerodynamic stability theory of suspension bridges had not worked out in the case of Tacoma Narrows Bridge (McKenna 2014). The facilities and possibilities of wind tunnel were not available for Tacoma Narrows Bridge because of the military effort of pre-war. As opined by Knig and Weig (2012), suspension bridges require wind tunnel, which can move a large quantity of air instead of slow velocity and it should be controlled in careful way. Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed because of desirability of three-dimensional dynamic model and the partial use of this model. Gander and Kwok (2012) have stated that the issue of stability includes aerodynamic lift, which is very much sensitive towards the profile of deck. Construction and design In todays great era of suspension bridge the concept of using rope for the cables is an old one and with the constant advancement of technologies, there are drastic transformation in the designing and construction of suspension bridge (Fernandes and Armandei 2014). Mostly the chains, wrought-iron bars and iron bars are used instead of cables and ropes in order to build a perfect and durable suspension bridge. However, the collapsing of suspension bridge is not as abnormal as it mainly collapses only because of windstorms or after suffering various damages. Therefore, people generally avoids suspension bridges during 19th century as it was unreliable and risk, with the advancement of modern technology and bridge architecture, the suspension bridges are built in reliable manner by the civil engineer. McRobie et al. (2013) have suggested that deflection theory is considered as best way o build suspension bridges as following this particular theory, suspension bridges do not require cabl e stays or stiffening trusses. This is the reason that suspender cable, main cables, weight of the deck provides the structural strength alone against the fundamental effects of traffic and wind in sufficient manner. Tacoma Narrows Bridge represents a perfect culmination of the contemporary trend for building a longer bridge with low stiffening and narrower road width. The civil engineers encountered first problem of building Tacoma Narrows Bridge involves the geographical location of the bridge itself, as the water is more than 200 feet deep and treacherous and swift tides move 8.9 miles per hour. Even the basic lengths of crossing of Tacoma Narrows Bridge posed difficulties with the combination of water depth. If the incident of collapsing would not happen, then Tacoma Narrows Bridge would be third longest suspension bridge, holding its position just after Golden Gate Bridge and George Washington Bridge (Malk 2013). Reason of collapsing of Tacoma Narrows Bridge The major reason of collapsing of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is the traffic surveys, which is imposed by the challenge of final engineering, as there is no justification of making a bridge of more than two lanes. Clark Eldridge developed the original design of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and this particular design suggested two traffic lanes and towers of completely different heights, 2 side spans, stiffening trusses of 25 feet deep and a centre span. However, this primary design was changed after the force of federal authorities and Moisseif has made the new design of this particular ridge. Koo et al. (2013) have suggested that a suspension bridge should be most appropriate choice for the decided site. However, only because of the critical design just after four months, Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed during a windstorm as the attached cables were anchored into the ground and later the cables were replaced and because of it was scary, notorious and risky of travelling through this part icular suspension bridge during high winds. As the mathematics of oscillations were difficult to understand in the era of 1940, therefore, the design of Tacoma Narrows Bridge was not appropriately made and it collapsed after oscillating and twisting in violent manner because of a windstorm of 60 kph. However, there were also advantages of Tacoma Narrows Bridge. As opined by Olson et al. (2015), Tacoma Narrows Bridge was more flexible than the Golden Gate Bridge and George Washington Bridge. The other bridges of its time are more stiff and less prone to the accelerations of wind induction. The Federal Works Agency (FWA) identified and investigated the major reasons behind the collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Although this bridge was well built and well designed, it failed to face the static forces like windstorm (Pipinato 2013). The exceptional flexibility of Tacoma Narrows Bridge is another reason of the collapse as it was unable to absorb the dynamic forces that can handle wild oscillations. Wind causes a vertical oscillation and it caused structural damage before collapsing. North ends cable band failed to prevent the sudden twist motion on the bridge. As opposed by Arioli and Gazzola (2016), any kind of twisting motion can cause a high stress into the bridge that is responsible for leading a failure of collapsing of central span and su spenders. Although the workmanship and supervision of Tacoma Narrows Bridge was exceptional, still it collapsed just after four months of its inauguration because of technical fault and wrong mathematical design of suspension bridge. Another major reason of collapsing Tacoma Narrows Bridge involves its rigidity against the existing dynamic forces and static forces, which can be calculated by employing the same mathematical methods of civil engineering (Bulleit 2013). However, there were efforts for handling ad controlling the primary amplitude of oscillation of the bridge during windstorm. Carpinteri and Paggi (2013) have stated that relevant experiments and studies are required for determining the necessity of aerodynamic forces that has a serious impact upon suspension bridge. Only because of the narrowness, lightness and extreme flexibility, Tacoma Narrows Bridge failed to face the random environmental forces. There was a resonance on the bridge because of structural difficulties and the natural frequencies approached the oscillation, which was induced by the wind (Wuand Kareem 2013). An aeronautical engineer, named von Karman, has provided another explanation of the collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridge. According to this individual, the attributed motion of this particular bridge creates a periodic shedding of large air vortices and then there was structural oscillation. Oh (2014) has argued with this proposed theory and mentioned that this theory cannot be considered to be appropriate in the case of Tacoma Narrows Bridge because of critical and wrong mathematical cal culation. Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses because of the general proportions of this particular bridge and the type of floor and stiffening girders. The basic ration of width of this bridge to the length of central span was smaller. Even its vertical stiffness was less than the previously constructed bridges (Zhao et al. 2014). Theories of collapsing the bridge As bridges are all about appropriate structures, therefore, all the features should be added according to the stiffness and strength of it. The consequences of a bridge failure are immense as the society begins to question to the structure and type of the bridge. Even during the planning of next design of suspension bridges, the civil engineers should follow the modern law of physics for actual life span of the bridges. The theories of aerodynamics have been proved as essential while making the design of suspension bridge. According to Meador (2014), the present bridge architecture is solely based on the appropriate and cumulative experiences of the bridge planners, builders, designers and fabricators. Even the bridge designer should have made a thorough research on the existing forces that can damage the structure of bridge and its ultimate collapsing (Rogers et al. 2013). The associated engineers, who have investigated the collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridge has found that it caused because of high level of flexibility, lightness and narrowness, which is completely against the theories of physics of making a stable and strong bridge. Yu et al. (2012) have suggested that resonance can be considered as an essential process and the frequency of the object should be matched with the natural frequency level, that has the potentiality to cause a dramatic enhance in the amplitude. Robert H. Scanlan and K Yusuf Billah have come up with another theory of collapsing of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Brownjohn et al. 2014). They suggested that because of aerodynamic flutter, the bridge collapsed. The physics theory can be applied here as the rotation of the deck of Tacoma Narrows Bridge became faster during the action of wind force and because of this; there was a failure in centre stay. The constant enhances in the rotation and negative damping effects lead up a terminal oscillation, which caused the collapse of this particular bridge (Tang and Bittner 2013). Ethical and procedural concerns Zhan and Fang (2012) have mentioned the collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridge clearly reveals the failure of engineering education. Static forces like wind with high velocity have destroyed most of the suspension bridges. In this era of new technologies, there should be a perfect and adequate balance in between the progress and public welfare. If Moisseif followed the same design of the existing suspension bridge that sustained and is stable, therefore, Tacoma Narrows Bridge would not collapsed for the costs of endangering lives and dollars. Even if the engineers had not adapted innovative techniques of building suspension bridges, then there would be no such disaster (Seely 2015). The engineers should not push the ultimate limits of the present modern technologies, for making the most flexible suspension bridge and there was very little consideration of the research that it could hold the weight of rail traffic. The actual failure was the structural design of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which was sleeker, longer and less expensive bridge. As opined by Hook and Olson (2015), the pushing of the modern technologies by the civil engineer caused such disasters like the collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridge and offer with the cost of the loss of life. However, with the advancement in modern technology, the bridge architecture is constantly improving and it can be expected from the potential and efficient civil engineers not to make same faults of building the Tacoma Narrows Bridge during their new ventures. The civil engineers should learn more about the physics of oscillation while making the suspension bridge and avoid the cases like Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Olson 2015). Even the implementation of the dumping devices ether being planned and installed in the bridge. Conclusion Tacoma Narrows Bridge was not the first suspension bridge that collapses because of technical faults or the wrong measurement in the structural design of the bridge. In fact, from the history of bridge architecture, it can be seen that there are several cases of destruction of suspension bridges only because of their failure to prevent the static and aerodynamic forces in proper manner. Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the most expensive suspension bridge, which collapsed after interaction with the windstorm. The civil engineers should remember the safety of human beings before designing and innovating structures of the new suspension bridges. The collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridges reveals the necessity of vertical rigidity, torsion resistance and damping in the suspension bridges. This disaster should be avoided during the basic design of the bridge. References Arioli, G. and Gazzola, F., 2015. A new mathematical explanation of what triggered the catastrophic torsional mode of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.Applied Mathematical Modelling,39(2), pp.901-912. Arioli, G. and Gazzola, F., 2016. Torsional instability in suspension bridges: the Tacoma Narrows Bridge case.Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation. Brownjohn, J.M.W., Koo, K.Y. and De Battista, N., 2014. Sensing solutions for assessing and monitoring bridges.Sensing technologies for civil infrastructures,2, pp.207-233. Bulleit, W.M., 2013. Uncertainty in the design of non-prototypical engineered systems. InPhilosophy and Engineering: Reflections on Practice, Principles and Process(pp. 317-327). Springer Netherlands. Carpinteri, A. and Paggi, M., 2013. A theoretical approach to the interaction between buckling and resonance instabilities.Journal of Engineering Mathematics,78(1), pp.19-35. Fernandes, A.C. and Armandei, M., 2014. Phenomenological model for torsional galloping of an elastic flat plate due to hydrodynamic loads.Journal of Hydrodynamics, Ser. B,26(1), pp.57-65. Gander, M.J. and Kwok, F., 2012. Chladni figures and the Tacoma bridge: motivating PDE eigenvalue problems via vibrating plates.SIAM Review,54(3), pp.573-596. Hook, J. and Olson, D., 2015. Analyzing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse Using the Physics of Free Fall.Bulletin of the American Physical Society,60. Knig, D.R. and Weig, E.M., 2012. Voltage-sustained self-oscillation of a nano-mechanical electron shuttle.Applied Physics Letters,101(21), p.213111. Koo, K.Y., Brownjohn, J.M.W., List, D.I. and Cole, R., 2013. Structural health monitoring of the Tamar suspension bridge.Structural Control and Health Monitoring,20(4), pp.609-625. Malk, J., 2013. Sudden lateral asymmetry and torsional oscillations in the original Tacoma suspension bridge.Journal of Sound and Vibration,332(15), pp.3772-3789. McKenna, P.J., 2014. OSCILLATIONS IN SUSPENSION BRIDGES, VERTICAL AND TORSIONAL.Discrete Continuous Dynamical Systems-Series S,7(4). McRobie, A., Morgenthal, G., Abrams, D. and Prendergast, J., 2013. Parallels between wind and crowd loading of bridges.Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A,371(1993), p.20120430. Meador, G., 2014. Failure by Design.Source: https://www. bps-ok. org/physics/faildes/failure_by_design. pdf, Accessed on,10. Oh, H., 2014. Motion in a hanging cable with various different periodic forcing.The Pure and Applied Mathematics,21(4), pp.281-293. Olson, D., 2015. The 75th Anniversary of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse.Bulletin of the American Physical Society,60. Olson, D., Hook, J., Doescher, R. and Wolf, S., 2015. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse on film and video.The Physics Teacher,53(8), pp.461-465. Pipinato, A., 2013. Moving load and fatigue analysis of a long span high speed railway bridge. InAdvanced Materials Research(Vol. 629, pp. 403-408). Trans Tech Publications. Rogers, M., Pfaff, T., Hamilton, J. and Erkan, A., 2013. Incorporating Sustainability and 21st-Century Problem Solving into Physics Courses.The Physics Teacher,51(6), pp.372-374. Seely, B., 2015. Wind Wizard: Alan G. Davenport and the Art of Wind Engineering. by Siobhan Roberts (review).Technology and Culture,56(1), pp.281-283. Tang, P. and Bittner, R.B., 2013. Use of value engineering to develop creative design solutions for marine construction projects.Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction,19(1), pp.129-136. Wu, T. and Kareem, A., 2013. A nonlinear convolution scheme to simulate bridge aerodynamics.Computers Structures,128, pp.259-271. Yu, Y., Wang, J., Mao, X., Liu, H. and Zhou, L., 2012. Design of a wireless multi-radio-frequency channels inspection system for bridges.International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks,2012. Zhan, H. and Fang, T., 2012. Flutter stability studies of Great Belt East Bridge and Tacoma Narrows Bridge by CFD numerical simulation. Zhao, X., Gouder, K., Limebeer, D.J. and Graham, J.M.R., 2014, December. Experimental flutter and buffet suppression of a sectional suspended-bridge. In53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control(pp. 3197-3202). IEEE.

Tivo 2002 Essay Example

Tivo 2002 Essay nbsp; CONTENTS 1. Point of View 2. Marketing Objectives and Relevant Case Facts 3. Problem/Opportunity Statement 4. Alternative Courses of Action 5. Evaluation of Alternatives 6. Decision 7. Implementation Plan 8. Contingency Plan / Risk Analysis 1. POINT OF VIEW Taking the marketing manager perspective the main issue is centered on the department’s inability to classify the recently collected customer experience data to clearly explain consumer behavior; more specifically, purchasing behavior. The department is unable to connect customer experience to consumer behavior, and customer behavior into sales. In addition, the current product message is not reaching customers adequately. 2. MARKETING OBJECTIVES AND RELEVANT CASE FACTS (RENIER) The current situation can be analyzed using the relavant finance and marketing facts. The finance facts are: †¢ Steady, but less than expected sales; †¢ Steady market growth at approx. 20% per quarter; †¢ Heavy marketing investments lead to significant net losses; †¢ Gross margins turned positive for first time in last half year. We will write a custom essay sample on Tivo 2002 specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Tivo 2002 specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Tivo 2002 specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The marketing facts are: †¢ Market research yielding customer experience; customer satisfaction and equipment usability; †¢ Two customer segments identified; †¢ Marketing department has decided more emphasis should be put into the message of convenience; †¢ Marketing research has focused on current client base, without investigating consumer behavior of other consumers. Marketing objectives Focusing on these facts the marketing objectives should be to increase understanding of consumer behavior. Key areas of focus for the marketing department will be to identify the reasons for the purchase, the purchase drivers and their sources. At this point, the cultural, social and individual forces, specifically motivation and perception, and the psychological processes need to be determined. Finally, the buying process needs to be examined. The increased understanding of the consumer behavior should lead to opportunities to improve the product message and thus influence consumer behavior more effectively. In summary, the plan is to understand our current customer’s behavior to understand buying patterns. Then, adjust our processes and message as needed. And, develop a plan to stimulate identified drivers through the product message. 3. PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT The main problem TiVo faced was not achieving the desired sales level, leading to significant financial losses. In order to better address this issue the company’s approach was to prepare a series of surveys with its current clients in order to better understand their level of satisfaction with the product, reason to buy, most important product features, and demographics. These surveys revealed a very high general customer satisfaction, but gave limited insight in the consumer behavior in the buying process. The problem statement for this situation is therefore: In order to answer the problem statement presented above and to set up an effective action plan to increase sales, TiVo has to overcome three critical obstacles: 1. The company needs to shift focus from understanding current clients to understanding consumers in general (that is: potential clients). This implies a shift in marketing research focus. 2. The company needs to find a way to stimulate recognition of a problem in watching television. This implies focus on the first step of the buying process. 3. The company needs to leverage the satisfaction of current clients. This implies using the social factor of family influence in consumer behavior. 1. Shift marketing research focus TiVo’s market research efforts were put on understanding current clients while it was not clear the total number of still available clients in the market as well as other important factors regarding buying behavior were not being considered. We cannot assume that everyone with a TV enjoys it as much as current clients do and feel the necessity to record their TV shows. The focus in current clients’ behavior and the lack of information about the rest of the market considering client’s cultural, social and personal factors does not allow us to clearly see the potential for this product and more effort must be put on that rather than simple sales effort. Furthermore, it should be noticed that the results of the marketing research carried out by TiVo could be influenced by a set of other biases: non-response bias; web users bias; reward bias; questionnaire length bias and formulation-bias (the bi-annual survey asks directly about â€Å"satisfaction†, which makes respondents typically score high). 2. Influence problem recognition From these learnings we can see that there was an important element in promoting the product which is referral and trial. This demonstrates that many clients would only recognize a need once they were shown the benefits of using TiVo. . Leverage satisfaction as a social factor Basically, new clients relied a lot on current clients before making a decision (70. 1% knew someone who had the product) and more than half of the clients who bought it either read an article, tried the product in a store or had a reference (data from exhibit 3). We also realize from surveys that people who had Tivo were heavy TV users since from case exhibit 7 more than seventy percent of the clients affirm that their lives were better with Tivo and before acquisition TV schedules would affect their personal schedules not to miss their favorite shows. As so many people were socially influenced by friends and family to buy TiVo, the company should find a way to further leverage the very high customer satisfaction to increase sales. 4. ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION TiVO can take action in each of the 4 P’s of marketing trying to stimulate sales. In this chapter these courses of action are set out, the following chapter will evaluate all of the actions proposed in order to arrive at a recommended approach. Action 0 Prior to exploring the opportunities for changes to Product, Price, Placement and Promotion, we need to point out the opportunity TiVo has to change nothing. Although the financial situation of the company is not promising, gross margin has recently turned positive and the number of new subscriptions is increasing each quarter. Product Customizing TV consumption has proven to be a market opportunity. TiVo’s reputation among their customers leads to conclude that this is an appreciated product, with high rates on consumers’ satisfaction in relation to the service provided. However, since 1999, the year when TiVo was created, the trend on TV consumption, with the invasion of the Internet as an entertainment provider has drastically changed the picture. As competitors withdraw providing the service to the market, this leads to the assumption that DVR innovation is not being properly transmitted to consumers. This situation leads to the following potential actions in the area of product changes: †¢ Explore completely different platforms, combining Internet and TV; †¢ Add features to the device in order to further improve the customer experience. Price Pricing is well defined taking into account TiVo out sources via Direct TV the customer’s acquisition costs being the latter financially responsible. Difference in prices, whether the service is provided through TiVo alone, or through Direct TV customers brings options to customers and we consider it a positive fact. The case does not provide much detail on the pricing strategy of the company and does not offer clues that lead to the idea that the product is priced wrongly. The company might benefit from offering discounts to increase sales. Potential actions in the area of price are: †¢ Investigate the price-elasticity of the service in order to see if prices could be increased; †¢ Offer cheap or free trials to trigger new consumers to try the product; †¢ Offer discounts to customers that are effective in referencing the product to others (buzzing). Placement TiVo is currently using Best Buy as the exclusive retailer. Coverage of Best Buy can be read as a huge success, with more than 1. 400 stores in the US, plus its subsidiaries such as â€Å"Geek Squad†. Furthermore, the placement in cooperation with the cable providers should bring in additional revenues. Potential changes to this strategy are: †¢ Widen the scope to other retailers not so technologically oriented. This could open a new segment for final purchasers acquiring TiVo at stores (Sears, Macys); †¢ Build more partnerships and joint ventures with cable companies; †¢ Build partnerships with TV hardware companies to sell the TiVo with the TV; †¢ Sell the Company to cable or satellite TV suppliers. Promotion The detailed surveys carried out by TiVo’s marketing team do not provide a onvincing reason for the lower than expected sales. The high rate of buyers that have had recommendations from friends and that have seen demos of the product seem to indicate that TiVo needs to convey the message of how TiVo can change the customer’s life (â€Å"problem recognition†) more effectively. New marketing campaigns and promotions could be driven to either swap to other targets (other than young men or busy families) or stimulate the existing ones by further exploring the â€Å"deep emotional response† TiVo can be proud of obtaining from its final customers. Potential promotion actions are: †¢ Carry out consumer surveys in the mainstream market, not only targeting current customers; †¢ Target the mainstream market without first carrying out more marketing research in this segment; †¢ Strengthen the problem recognition-message in all marketing campaigns; †¢ Incentivize current customers to carry out more Word of Mouth marketing to friends and family. 5. EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES The potential actions set out above will need to bring TiVo the required sales increase in order to become profitable in the long run. Furthermore, all the company should urgently improve its short term financial position. Interest income has stopped and interest expenses are skyrocketing, indicating increasing debt and lack of cash. Sales Marketing account for 60% of the overall expenses over the last year. These expenses result in a significant net loss for the company. The actions taken should therefore be beneficial for both short term and long term financial performance. Other criteria to be considered when evaluating the alternatives are the ease of implementation and the risk level associated with the action. The criteria defined for evaluation are: 1. Cost of implementation (short term) 2. Ease of implementation 3. Market size share impact 4. Profitability/margin impact (long term) 5. Risk level â€Å"Table 1 Evaluation of alternatives† gives the detailed evaluation on these alternatives based on these criteria. Obviously, changes to the product will be time consuming, expensive and carry a high risk. Pricing and discount alternatives are attractive due to relatively low risk and good options to leverage the high customer satisfaction in both trials and buzz-marketing. Placement changes will involve high levels of negotiation and might involve legal issues as Best Buy is currently the exclusive retailer and existing partnerships with cable companies might have exclusivity-clauses. For all promotion changes considered in the table the amount of funds available for marketing is considered fixed. Naturally, sales will increase further if more funds are made available. However, marketing ROI appears to be low in the short term, considering the enormous amounts of money spent on marketing in the past years. Tuning the marketing message appears to be most promising. Table 1 Evaluation of alternatives [pic] 6. DECISION After analyzing the survey results, consumer behavior and evaluating the potential actions, we propose the marketing team the following strategies, combining the promising actions defined in the previous chapter: 1. Redefine campaign message (Corresponds to action nr. 12 in table above) The company has to redesign the marketing campaign to increase the sales level very fast in order to solve the cash problem it has. We believe the best way of doing this is to have a clear tailored message focused on problem recognition, thus influencing the buying process. The message should be tailored for specific audiences (e. g. single women; families with teenagers, etc. ), as the benefits of the product are specific to segments. Changing the message to make the positive impact of TiVo on the life of customers clearer is a low risk, low cost strategy that could have very high sales impact. 2. Incentivize Word of Mouth (Corresponds to action nr. 13) By the surveys it is known that the subscribers are mostly single men and families and also that the majority of the people that buys TiVo do it after a recommendation, so it can be inferred that the product is selling as a consequence of a mouth to mouth campaign. We recommend launching a marketing campaign to our customers incentivizing them to bring new clients to the company. We recommend sending all customers online information, and printed catalogues annou ncing that for each new subscriber they refer they will get determined prizes; some of them will be for children in order to get all the family members involved. . Offer Trials (Corresponds to action nr. 4) Another important factor to use in the new campaign will be to show real cases of customers? satisfaction. As the surveys showed, the clients who have the product are in majority very happy with it so this feeling has to be transmitted to the possible customers in order to transform them into clients. A good way to convince potential clients about the benefits of TiVo is to offer them cheap or free product trials (price to be determined based on project costs) for a limited period (e. g. 14 days). 4. Survey whole market (corresponds to action nr. 0) The company will need to improve understanding of the needs of the whole market. All the surveys the company has done until now have been only to its clients, not to the non-clients. We believe it is essential to make surveys to the w hole market to understand why people are not buying the product. Because of lack of awareness about the product? s benefits, too high price, sale points, among others. 7. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN The actions defined above should all be started as soon as possible, but will have different time paths, as shown in Figure 1. 1. Redefine campaign message The potential customers are all TV-owners who wish to gain more control over their agendas or that want to â€Å"capture† the TV-moment or â€Å"re-watch† scenes from the main program to commercials. In order to achieve this campaigns should focus on â€Å"showing the end game†: interview or show ads of real people with real experiences; connecting with the rest of TV watchers (potential customers) who were either looking the same experience or triggered an interest to get the same experience. The message changes from â€Å"buy it because we believe is good† to â€Å"buy it because we have proof from real consumers just like you! The redesign of the marketing campaigns will take approximately 4 months, so that the new message can be launched long before the Christmas shopping season. 2. Incentivize Word of Mouth Word of Mouth (WoM) is one of the most powerful marketing tools that should give result that can alter the current situation. TiVo needs to give incentives (e. g. free month of use or presents) to customers who persuade others to try or buy the product. This program should be run for a number of months and then be evaluated. [pic] Figure 1 Implementation plan 3. Offer trials In order to show how confident TiVo is about the product and to give our customers a chance to â€Å"check-out† the product, the company should offer customers a â€Å"pay after 14 days† policy. The customer can try the product for free for 14 days and if they want to keep it, they pay for the product in full; otherwise they have to return the product â€Å"in the same condition† as they have purchased it. This will allow many more customers’ attention and interest about the product which we believe will lead to increase in sales. This campaign can be launched within months and evaluated while running the campaign. Risk of the campaign will be the cost of returned devices that will have to be sold at a discount. 4. Survey whole market Although TiVo did survey consumers (which provided valuable information if we wanted to implement our current product), TiVo’s purpose is to attract potential customers and it’s important to know the current trend and what the mainstream markets are. Most of the customers have answered positively about the product once they’ve purchased it. It is a matter of letting the product be known Knowing about the mainstream market and preferences of ustomers in these markets will enable the company to better understanding of the market and how to promote it to be attractive. The survey results will help redesigning the campaign, as defined in the first action. 8. CONTINGENCY PLAN / RISK ANALYSIS Risk profile of the actions explored above is very low. In the first place costs will be low in relation to the Marketing Sales budget. Secondly the brand ima ge is not likely to suffer from the â€Å"customer friendly† actions. In case the change of marketing message would work counter-productive, it would be easy to shift to the current message again. Sales forecasts will need to be adjusted in both scenarios. Key risk for the company seems to be to run out of cash required for marketing in the short term. As gross margin recently turned positive, the contingency plan in this case would be to cut marketing costs and focus on Word of Mouth, while at the same time trying to attract more capital. [pic][pic][pic] What actions should TiVo take in order to convince the public to buy its product, in that way increasing sales in order to become profitable?

Free Essays on Where The Red Fern Grows~summary~

Billy lives on a farm. He wants two good coonhounds very badly, but his Papa cannot afford any. Billy works hard, selling fruit and bait to fishermen, so eventually he has enough money for the dogs. He gives the money to his grandfather, who orders the dogs for him. Billy sneaks off in the middle of the night to go to town and pick them up. While in town, other children pick on him, but he stands up for himself and is helped by the sheriff. On his way home, he and his two pups sleep in a cave. Outside, they hear a mountain lion, and the pups bravely howl back. He decides to name them Old Dan and Little Ann. He can see that Old Dan is very brave, and that Little Ann is very smart. Once home, he wants to begin training them. He has to have a raccoon hide to train them with. His grandfather shows him a way to set a trap that will catch even a clever coon. Just when he is about to give up on the traps, he catches a coon. The next day he begins to train Old Dan and Littl! e Ann. By the time raccoon season starts in the fall, they are ready. On the first night, his dogs tree a coon in the biggest tree imaginable. Billy immediately sees that it will take days to cut down. He is determined to cut it down, because he told his dogs that if they could tree a coon he would take care of the rest. His dogs are counting on him. His parents bring him food. His grandfather shows him how to make a scarecrow, to keep the coon in the tree so he can go home and eat dinner. When the big sycamore finally falls and his dogs catch the coon, he is very proud. Billy goes coon hunting almost every night. His father relieves him of his chores, and Billy gives him the money from his coonskins. Sometimes, coons try to trick his dogs, and Old Dan gets into trouble. One night, Dan gets stuck in a muskrat hole. Another night, he climbs a tree. Little Ann is usually too smart to get into trouble, but one night, after the first snowfall, she falls through the ice on the ... Free Essays on Where The Red Fern Grows~summary~ Free Essays on Where The Red Fern Grows~summary~ Billy lives on a farm. He wants two good coonhounds very badly, but his Papa cannot afford any. Billy works hard, selling fruit and bait to fishermen, so eventually he has enough money for the dogs. He gives the money to his grandfather, who orders the dogs for him. Billy sneaks off in the middle of the night to go to town and pick them up. While in town, other children pick on him, but he stands up for himself and is helped by the sheriff. On his way home, he and his two pups sleep in a cave. Outside, they hear a mountain lion, and the pups bravely howl back. He decides to name them Old Dan and Little Ann. He can see that Old Dan is very brave, and that Little Ann is very smart. Once home, he wants to begin training them. He has to have a raccoon hide to train them with. His grandfather shows him a way to set a trap that will catch even a clever coon. Just when he is about to give up on the traps, he catches a coon. The next day he begins to train Old Dan and Littl! e Ann. By the time raccoon season starts in the fall, they are ready. On the first night, his dogs tree a coon in the biggest tree imaginable. Billy immediately sees that it will take days to cut down. He is determined to cut it down, because he told his dogs that if they could tree a coon he would take care of the rest. His dogs are counting on him. His parents bring him food. His grandfather shows him how to make a scarecrow, to keep the coon in the tree so he can go home and eat dinner. When the big sycamore finally falls and his dogs catch the coon, he is very proud. Billy goes coon hunting almost every night. His father relieves him of his chores, and Billy gives him the money from his coonskins. Sometimes, coons try to trick his dogs, and Old Dan gets into trouble. One night, Dan gets stuck in a muskrat hole. Another night, he climbs a tree. Little Ann is usually too smart to get into trouble, but one night, after the first snowfall, she falls through the ice on the ...

Active Voluntary and Nonvoluntary Euthanasia Essay Example for Free

Active Voluntary and Nonvoluntary Euthanasia Essay ? The term euthanasia originated from the Greek word for â€Å"good death. † It is the act or practice of ending the life of a person either by lethal injection or the deferment of medical treatment (Munson, 2012, p. 578). Many view euthanasia as simply bringing relief by alleviating pain and suffering. Euthanasia has been a long-standing ethical debate for decades in the United States. Active euthanasia is only legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and in the United States in the states of Washington, Oregon and Montana (Angell). Several surveys indicate that roughly two thirds of the American public now support physician-assisted suicide, and more than half the doctors in the United States do too (Angell). Active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia matter because they allow the patient or family to relieve them of pain and suffering, and to die with dignity and respect. In this paper I will argue that it is immoral and unethical to deny a patient the right to die and that active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia should be a legal practice in the United States. When denied the right to die one can endure a tremendous amount of physiological and emotional pain. The 1973 case of Dax Cowart is a great example of this. Dax went through fourteen months of grueling, barbaric treatments of skin debriding, tank soakings, and dressing changes. He compared the debridements to being skinned alive and the solutions poured over his skin were like having alcohol poured over raw flesh except it burns more and longer (Asher). Dax requested on several different occasions to just leave him alone and let him die but all of his physicians’ refused his requests and kept going with their treatment plan. The physicians were going against the principle of non-maleficence, which states, â€Å" Physicians have an obligation to do no harm to the patient† (Munson, 2012, p. 892). Dax suffered through painful debridements for months without proper pain control because his physicians were too worried about him becoming addicted to the pain medications. They knew how painful these debridements were for their patient and they continued to maintain the same treatment plan with no modifications. They deliberately violated the principle of non-maleficence. If active voluntary euthanasia were an acceptable practice in society, Dax ould have been able to refuse the treatments and die by way of infection, or a physician could have given him a lethal injection. Either of these options would have helped Dax to die keeping his wishes of dignity and respect intact. In this case, death is less harmful than the barbaric treatments that Dax had to endure for countless months. Today, many Americans are so concerned about the possibility of a lingering, high technology death that they are responsive to the idea of doctors being allowed to help them die (Angell). This is why we need to legalize active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia in the United States. In an article from The New England Journal of Medicine, Marcia Angell states, â€Å"The most important ethical principle in medicine is respect for each patient’s autonomy, and that when this principle conflicts with others, it should almost always take precedence† (Angell). To deny someone his or her autonomy is to treat that individual as something less than a person (Munson, 2012, p. 900). It is wrong to take control of someone else’s life and to dictate their actions. Each person has a right to act autonomously; in doing this they must have the ability to choose among different options. A forced option is no option at all (Munson, 2012, p. 901). Dax Cowart was denied his autonomy when the doctors would not listen to his wishes of wanting to die; instead they did what they wanted. Munson states that, â€Å"Making decisions for the good of others, without consulting their wishes, deprives them of their status as autonomous agents† (Munson, 2012, p. 902). Dax was not given options to choose from, nor was his voice heard at all in the process, which violated the entire principle of autonomy. It should have been his choice because it was his life. In a completely different case, Terri Schiavo was denied her autonomy when she was kept alive on a feeding tube, when she had previously stated this was not what she wanted if it ever came down to it. With our autonomy, we should have the right to say how and when we die. It should not be based solely on societies morals, values, and beliefs. No one else should have the right to decide how one ends their life, except for that person. We value our autonomy because we are more willing to live with our own choices then to have somebody else decide for us. Active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia give patients their autonomy and right to die with dignity. Active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia should be an approved practice because it allows patients who are in a persistent vegetative state the chance to die with dignity, while allowing their loved ones to keep their morals and values in place. Patients that end up in such unfortunate circumstances are unable to use their autonomy and make decisions regarding their treatment and potential end of life care. Maintaining one’s autonomy is part of a dignified death. If these were approved practices, it would allow family members the chance to put an end to their loved one’s suffering the way they would have wanted. It is unethical to force someone to do something against their will, as it is also immoral to make someone live if it’s against their wants or beliefs. On February 26, 1990, Terri Schiavo collapsed and unexpectedly went into a persistent vegetative state, where she remained for fifteen years by sustaining artificial hydration and nutrition through a feeding tube. Terri lost all dignity and autonomy when her terminal illness came, requiring care around the clock. Michael Schiavo believed that his wife would not want to be kept alive in her condition, which ultimately lead to his decision of discontinuing her feeding tube. After a long, tortuous thirteen days, Terri starved to death. The way Terri died was very inhumane and unethical; however it is an approved practice in the United States that continues to be used even today. If active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia were an acceptable practice in the United States, patients like Terri would not have to die in such a barbaric way. It is unethical to allow a patient to starve to death, as it is also unethical to deny a patient the right to die (Munson, 2012). Non-voluntary euthanasia would have allowed Terri to die pain free with her dignity and wishes in place. In Timothy Quill’s article, Death and Dignity, A Case of Individualized Decision Making, he talks about his patient Diane, who was diagnosed with leukemia. Diane denied all treatments and eventually agreed upon home hospice care. It was extremely important to Diane to maintain control of herself and her dignity during the time remaining to her. She wanted to remain an autonomous person, and when this was no longer possible, she clearly wanted to die. She asked Dr. Quill for sleeping pills, which he wrote a prescription for knowing she had trouble sleeping, but also knowing it could be a means to an end when the time came for Diane. Diane was able to make an informed decision to take her own life and to die with dignity and her wishes respected in the end. Dr. Quill states, â€Å"I know we have measures to help control pain and lessen suffering, to think that people do not suffer in the process of dying is an illusion† (Quill 2). This is why people in our society should be more open-minded to active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia. These two concepts can allow our terminally ill, suffering, loved ones to die with the dignity and respect they deserve, like Diane was able to do. Patients who are diagnosed with a terminal illness such as cancer or progressive neurological disorders eventually become weak and debilitated. These patients end up relying on family, friends, and healthcare workers to help them do their activities of daily living such as batheing and eating. Many of these terminally ill patients lay in bed suffering, with zero quality of life, just waiting to die. These patients have lost their will to live and find no joy or simple pleasures left in life because their pain has become too unbearable. These patients suffer on a daily basis, while family and friends watch, helplessly; as their loved ones decline day by day. It is unethical for society to expect these patients to go on with the quality of life they are maintaining. Terminally ill patients should be allowed to control their demise and end their suffering at their own disposal. Therefore, active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia should be a socially acceptable and approved legal practice in the United States. One could oppose the original argument saying that active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia should remain illegal in the United States because it is inhumane and barbaric. Patients do have other options such as hospice programs and pain control. These provide alternative options that can be ethically and morally acceptable in our society. There are a number of options to treat chronic pain such as narcotics. There are an enormous variety of narcotics on the market, all of which can be tried until a specific one is found to be to right for that patient. Palliative care and hospice programs are gaining more attention for the end of life care they provide for terminally ill patients. The goals of these programs are based on comfort care, dignity and respect to the terminally ill patient. These programs allow patients to die with their dignity, respect, morals, and values all in place. Due to the fact that there are other options available for terminally ill patients, other than death, active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia should remain an illegal practice in the United States. Another powerful argument made by Marcia Angell is that â€Å"people do not need assistance to commit suicide, with enough determination they can do it themselves† (Angell). People who are too debilitated for physical means can simply just stop eating and drinking and ultimately starve to death, while others given a terminal diagnosis, that have physical means, can end their lives by pills or a gun. This is another reason why active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia should remain an illegal practice in the United States. In response to this objection, a rule utilitarian could argue that, the taking of a human life is permissible when suffering is intense and the condition of the person permits no legitimate hope (Munson, 2012, p. 84). Pain cannot always be controlled by narcotics and pain-alleviating techniques, there will always be a small percentage of patients whose suffering simply cannot be adequately controlled. Palliative care and hospice programs are a great idea but are not available to everyone because not everyone has insurance and the means to afford them. They can be very pricy and space is very limited, even with insurance and affordab ility in place. Allowing active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia would give patients more ethical options for death, rather then having to commit the ultimate sin of suicide by starvation or the use of a gun. It is unethical to make a person feel that starvation or the use a gun are their only options. Having the options that active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia can give, would enable a patient to many more ethical options for death, which would ultimately, relieve family members from having to deal with the emotional pain and suffering of finding their loved one’s mutilated body after a self inflicted suicide by use of a gun. Based on the ethical dilemma at hand, my three points have proven that active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia should be a legal practice in the United States. One could object this, but I have proven my argument by the physiological and emotional pain one can endure when denied the right to die, by maintaining patients’ autonomy and dignity throughout the process, and by focusing on the quality of life for patients diagnosed with terminal illnesses. The long-standing ethical debate of euthanasia is decades old and will never have a perfect resolution, but one must take into account all sides of each argument to make an informed decision for their self. It is crucial that society remain open-minded regarding this issue. It is unethical to deny a person the right to die. Therefore, active voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia should be made an approved and acceptable end of life medical practice in the United States. Active Voluntary and Nonvoluntary Euthanasia. (2016, Dec 13).

Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Business Strategy - Essay Example The organization we have selected to compare with Kellogg is General Mills, a manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods. General Mills’ mission is nourishing lives. General Mills seeks to attain this mission through making lives healthier, easier and richer (General Mills, 2010). The organization makes lives healthier by continuously improving the health profile of its products. It makes lives easier with foods that are simple to prepare and it makes lives richer by making foods for special moments such as birthdays. Goals and objectives help an organization in controlling its plans and providing its staff with the direction to take for the organization to realize its mission and vision. General Mills has not clearly delineated its vision through a vision statement. However, this can be inferred from the organization’s mission and values statement. Likewise, we can use the values statement to point out General Mills’ goals. From the values statement G eneral Mills aims to assert its values everyday through its people, its brands, its innovation and its performance. These goals are: to ensure that its brands continue to win consumers trust around the world; to nurture diverse, talented, committed people who contribute to their communities; to continue developing and implementing innovative ideas that further build the company’s brands and business; and to continue delivering outstanding performance for its investors. According to Kotelnikov (2011) core competencies are the things that a company does better than its competitors in the critical, central areas of the organization where the most value is added to its products and/or services. For General Mills, its core competencies are in its intimate consumer knowledge and its innovation. These two competencies manifest themselves in in the mix of new products and improvements to existing products that General Mills is renowned. The company extends its legacy of learning ab out products, processes and unique disciplines; improving production efficiencies, elevate quality and reducing costs; and preserving precious institutional memory through its multiple schools such as Cereal School, Yogurt School and Packing School. 1.2 Explain the significance of stakeholder analysis, (especially for the selected organization) (P2) The topic of stakeholders is very popular and contested among theorists. There is quite an amount of contesting literature around which theorists try to update and replace. Freeman, the â€Å"father† of stakeholder theory has also given different definitions of whom or what constitutes a stakeholder. In 1984 Freeman defined stakeholders as â€Å"any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization objectives† while in 2004, Freeman defined stakeholders as â€Å"those groups who are vital to the survival and success of the corporation† (Fontaine, Haarman, & Schmid, 2006). The former definition (Freeman 1984) is preferred in academic circles because it is entirely organization orientated. This is the one we shall use in this discussion. General Mills’ mission is to nourish lives. Nourishing lives refers to nutrition, which as the cliche goes, â€Å"you are what you eat†, is the crux of human health. Furthermore, General Mills is also a Fortune 500 company, among the largest food companies in the world, with a presence in more than 100 countries on six continents. This inter-continental presence implies that General Mil

Coca - Cola Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Coca - Cola - Case Study Example While the company is actively using sponsorship as a marketing and promotion tool, the Coca-Cola’s market capitalization has decreased significantly after the death of its CEO, Roberto Coizueta in 1997. While in 2014 market capitalization of the Coca-Cola Company is 183, 99 billion dollars, the Coca-Cola Company has weaker financial position than it had 17 years ago. These values indicate that Coca-Cola Company is an organization aiming to maintain leadership position and also is striving to â€Å"shape a better future† (The Coca-Cola Company, n.d., n.p.). Collaboration value means that the company is focused on people and teamwork. By combining efforts and human resources the company leverages collective genius (The Coca-Cola Company, n.d., n.p.). The company is also promoting the corporate spirit and passion among its employees to the brand. The value of diversity stresses that the company is operating globally, and diversity at workplace and diversity of brands are two integral parts of the business. Also, the value of quality reveals that the company focuses not only on production of high quality products, but also on everything they do. Coca-Cola Company is involved in sponsorship of mega sports events such as the Olympic Games, The Rugby World Cup, the NFL, the Tour de France or Formula 1 for a quite long period of time (Nufer & Buhler 2010). Global sports events such as the Olympics and Rugby World attract people from all over the world and generate the target audience, which Coca-Cola Company is trying to reach, and establish in the minds of these people association of the sport event with the brand of the company (Nufer & Buhler 2010).Therefore, the company uses such events as marketing tools which enable it to improve the image and increase awareness of the company (Nufer & Buhler 2010). Sponsoring of big and attractive sporting events enables Coca-Cola to minimize

Personal Responsibility Essay Example for Free

Personal Responsibility Essay Task Personal Responsibility Thesis Rough Draft Many people have different complex ideas of what the definition of personal responsibility is, I feel mine is simple. My definition of personal responsibility is, when someone takes accountability for their obligations. To me this means that if someone accepts to do a particular project or assignment they are responsible and accountable to make sure it gets done. College success very closely relates to personal responsibility in that, in order to be successful in college you have to take personal responsibility to complete your assignments and courses on time in order to graduate when you are scheduled to. I am going to put aside time each night and find a spot in my house where I can study without distractions to complete my course work on time. To be specific, having personal responsibility means you have to be accountable for your actions. When people are holding themselves accountable for their actions they tend to work harder to complete the task correctly. They also will be certain to turn it in when it is due. Another part of the equation is taking responsibility for yourself. Being responsible means you do your assignments on time. It also means you did them correctly. By being responsible you show others you can be depended upon to fulfill your part of the task. The final portion of my definition is feeling a sense of accomplishment. Finishing a task on time and correctly gives a person a great sense of accomplishment. Being able to contribute to the team goals and be acknowledged for it makes a person feel good. I know I take a sense of pride when I am able to accomplish something I’ve been tasked with and finish it to the best of my ability and the rest of the team is happy with my efforts. In conclusion, although some people rather let others handle things, people need to be accountable for their actions for three main reasons. First, if people keep themselves accountable they will do a better job and complete their tasks on time. Second, it gives a person a sense of accomplishment and they feel good about themselves. But most importantly, it shows the other members on the team that they will do their part and can be relied and depended upon and complete their portion of the work.

Essay --

The Differences Sunni and Shia Ideology Thesis: The Sunni and Shia ideology in terms of the concept of imamate, their believe on al-Quran and Hadith and the successor of the leadership after the death of the prophet Muhammad i. Sunni and Shia ideology in terms of the concept imamate. A. The appointment of shall be the duty of human priest or God? 1. Sunni a) They stated that the selection of imam is the responsibility among Muslim and it is not duty of God. b) The Sunni say believe in imams excluding priests rule of faith. c) The importance of Salat (prayer) than Imamate by Sunni. 2. Shia a) They stated that the appointment of the imam is the duty and responsibility of God b) Of the fabricated views and beliefs of the shia is that they hold their imams something of divine origin, much above the human beings, and even above Prophets and Messenger. (Tarjman Al-Hadith, The Shi’ites And The Sunna, Idara Tarjuman Al-Sunnah, 1984, p.90) c) The Shia say, believe in twelve imams, including the pillars of faith. (www.wiki.answers.com.) d) The importance of Imamate in Shia is more importance of salat (prayer). ii. Sunni and Shia ideology in terms of al-Quran and Hadith. A. Al-Quran and Hadith 1. Sunni a) Sunni agreed on the truth of the al-Quran and protected from any deviation. b) Sunni Muslims accept this Hadith as Sahih (authentic). The Hadith of al-Quran and Sunnah is used by the Sunnis to stress importance of following the Sunnah. (Yaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, Islamic Beliefs & Doctorine According to Ahl al-Sunna, As-Sunna Foundation of America, 1996, p.242) c) Accept all the hadith narrated by Bukhari and Muslims and other hadith books. 2. Shia a) They had argument on the truth of the al-Quran and accused that al-Quran have devia... ...ussion concluded whereas faith practiced by the Shia obviously been in conflict with the faith that underpinned by Sunni. It is not only against the consensus of â€Å"the scholars, even worse, it has been inverting the texts that have been handed down by God as understood by the majority of scholars to mankind. Based on this differences, there is no way to achieve unity and strengthen them to adopt beliefs or withholding resources unless one of the parties to leave their positions and recognized source of resources. Although there is a meeting point between the two parties, but much dispute on the ground that creates a gap in the far east and far west. In the case, there is no better shield strong in facing the challenges of this movement effectively unless Muslims should return adheres to the belief that authentic knowledge legacy of the Prophet and his companions R.A.

Exceptionally Able/Gifted Children Essay

Definition: a child who shows exceptional ability in one or more areas mathematical, verbal, spatial awareness, musical or artistic ability. These children have an IQ of 130 or above. This is the top 2% of the population in Ireland. Characteristics of Gifted Learners: * Keen powers of observation – noticing details other children of the same age would miss, including non-verbal cues. * Develop skills quicker – gifted children learn to read, walk and talk quicker than other children. * Intellectual curiosity – wanting to know everything about everything – objects, ideas, situations, or events. Gifted children are always asking the ‘bigger’ questions, especially about the world and God. * Good memory – often have a large storehouse of information about a variety of topics, which they can recall quickly. Causes of Gifted Learners: * This is a cause of great debate between psychologists. * Some people believe that gifted learning is inborn, where the child was born with high ability in one area. * Others believe that gifted learning is a by-product of deliberate practice. For example, if a child is surrounded by music and plays an instrument from a young age, then this child is more likely to be gifted in this area than others. Consequences of Gifted Learners: * Boredom – teachers often forget about gifted children. The children get distracted easily or get bored as the work is too low of standard. * Perfectionism – gifted children want to strive for perfection but often fail to attain their own high standards. * Sensitivity – a gifted 7 year old may have the intellectual ability of a 17 year old but the emotional ability of a 4 year old. * Alienation – a gifted learner’s outlook in life is very different to their peers. Because of this they may struggle to gain and maintain friendship with peers. Tips for teaching * Gifted children have special educational needs. Regular school work may not provide sufficient challenge for them. There are several approaches that can be of help, and sometimes a combination of them all is needed. * Do your job to the best of your ability. * Child centred planning – plan for the need of each child in the class, not for the class as a whole. * Acceleration – possibly moving the gifted child into an older class for some/all subjects. The child will be doing the work of an older class and it will be more challenging. * Differentiation – keep the gifted child with their age group but provide different material for the gifted learner to do.

Management process

First, Sam must establish standards, or a set of ‘requirements' for his business. Sam is working on the first step, establishing standards to measure performance. Sam wants to make $100,000 more this year that he did last year so he can replace older equipment In the repair shop. Raising the price of repairs can do this. This is a financial goal. It is important not to take customers for granted. A goal to increase customer satisfaction from 84% last year to 90% this year Is set. Customer service satisfaction must Increase by six percent this year. This Is a customer service-related goal.Sam sets a goal to increase the quota, or a goal set for production, for the amount of cars each mechanic must repair each week. This is a production goal. With all of the new goals Sam set for the repair shop over the past week. Employees may not be able to keep up with the workload. To ensure the goals are met, Sam must devise a way to measure the productivity and performance of his employees . This measurement is compared with the goals he set above, or the preset standards. Once he evaluates the information, Sam can provide feedback to each employee.This will help them make Improvements to their work. This is an employee performance appraisal. Sam developed the standards for what he would Like to accomplish in the above step. Now, he needs to develop a way of determining whether the goals are being met. 1 OFF yester and an employee evaluation system. Sam is working on the second step, measuring actual performance. Sam will present the new pricing guide to employees. He explains his plan for raising much-needed revenue to each employee so the employee understands the reason for the price increase. It is important to include employees in setting goals.If Cam's employees understand the reason for the price increase, they will be more likely to buy-in to the goal. Sam also introduces the customer satisfaction survey to his customers. Each customer will fill out a survey wh ere they will rate their experience based on many factors like: Timeliness of pairs Quality of work Price Friendliness of mechanics Ease of payment Sam also has to develop a way to measure how many cars are being repaired by each mechanic on a weekly basis to be sure that the amount of repairs done weekly, monthly and in a year add up to the desired goal of increasing revenue by $100,000 set forth above.He introduces the mechanics to a repair quota system. Each mechanic must fix ten engines, patch five tires and replace 15 windshield wipers each week. That means that each mechanic must bring in about $280. 00 in revenue each week to reach the goal. Once broken down for the mechanics, the goal is legalistic and attainable. The toughest challenge for Sam will be to introduce the employee appraisal system. He uses a system that involves the employee setting goals for themselves and Sam setting goals for the employees.After chatting with each employee, Sam is able to determine the crite ria for acceptable performance. He will include the sales quota system from above, dependability, reliability, motivation and absenteeism in the appraisal. He will sit down with each employee to explain the process. If employees have input in setting goals for themselves, they are much more likely to achieve the goals. Perhaps the salespeople are not making as many client calls as they did last year. Management process If you are a company Like DATA or BARILLA, you will have several businesses under you ND a corporate WHQL which controls these. Each of these businesses may be run by an independent co. , much like DATA motor runs the vehicles and TTS runs the IT. The Corporate WHQL will have grand plans on how much each business should operate. This grand plan is called Corporate Strategy.Business Strategy For Example, Raja can make a grand plan of expanding his business decisions to be the provider of low cost furniture or highly differentiated furniture,house hold furniture only,modular furniture only, a supplier of a II furniture needs etc. ,. TLS Is what a business strategy Is. Functional Strategy. If your in a retail chain business like Big Bazaar, you may have merchandise strategy supply strategy etc. ,. Similarly Raja too can have a strategy to purchase wood in bulk from Malaysia and ship it and call it has procurement strategy.Define the term ‘management'. Explain the Behavioral scienc e theory and Systems theory. According to F. W Taylor,† Management Is an art of knowing what to do,when to do and see that It Is done In the best and cheapest way. ‘ Behavioral Science Theory. The thought was originated by vilified Parent In 1896, and he researched organization & management relationship. Later, Hugo Mustering applied psychology to increase industrial production in 1912 & around the same time. Walter 1911 . But it was Elton Mayo & F.J Rotisseries who made an impact on the behavioral science theory through their Hawthorne experiments in Western Electric Co. , in 1933. These experiments proved that good working relationship with the supervisor and colleagues and the idea of challenges in the Job accounted for higher productivity. Challenge is created through setting high goal which cannot be normally achieved but which can be achieved with a little additional effort. These experiments brought to fore the importance of behavioral science in management. Exten ding the idea sometime in 1946 & 1947, Max Weber propounded the theory of bureaucracy.System Theory: Though the systems theory can be traced to biology, where we have cardiovascular system, nervous system, etc which re fairly independent yet interdependent, it was Chester Bernard who extended this into management area through his writing ‘Functions of the Executive' in 1983. In systems theory, we perceive that organizations have a number of fairly independent systems such as purchase system, operations system, marketing system,financial system. Etc. The working of these are interdependent. But it has to be integrated by the manager.This theory, perhaps, brings the idea of integration as a key component of management. Give the definition and importance of planning in an organization and explain the steps in planning. Definition Planning: Planning can be defined as a basic management function which enables one to select the purpose of the business, and how the resources should b e mustered to achieve that purpose to include using the available resources optimally to do that. Planning implies goal setting for the organization keeping in mind the constraints, opportunities, and threats as much as what the person robustness which is planning ants to do.Thus, a plants a blue print for goal achievement, as blue print that specifies the necessary resource allocations, schedules, tasks & other actions to achieve the purposes. Steps in Planning: 1. Being aware of opportunities 2. Establishing Objectives 3. Developing Premises 4. Determining alternative courses 5. Evaluating Alternative courses 6. Selecting a course 7. Formulating plans 8. Qualifying plans by Budgeting Explanation of the steps in Planning 1. Being aware of opportunities- Being aware of opportunities in the market w. R. T Establishing Objectives- 3. Management process If you are a company Like DATA or BARILLA, you will have several businesses under you ND a corporate WHQL which controls these. Each of these businesses may be run by an independent co. , much like DATA motor runs the vehicles and TTS runs the IT. The Corporate WHQL will have grand plans on how much each business should operate. This grand plan is called Corporate Strategy.Business Strategy For Example, Raja can make a grand plan of expanding his business decisions to be the provider of low cost furniture or highly differentiated furniture,house hold furniture only,modular furniture only, a supplier of a II furniture needs etc. ,. TLS Is what a business strategy Is. Functional Strategy. If your in a retail chain business like Big Bazaar, you may have merchandise strategy supply strategy etc. ,. Similarly Raja too can have a strategy to purchase wood in bulk from Malaysia and ship it and call it has procurement strategy.Define the term ‘management'. Explain the Behavioral scienc e theory and Systems theory. According to F. W Taylor,† Management Is an art of knowing what to do,when to do and see that It Is done In the best and cheapest way. ‘ Behavioral Science Theory. The thought was originated by vilified Parent In 1896, and he researched organization & management relationship. Later, Hugo Mustering applied psychology to increase industrial production in 1912 & around the same time. Walter 1911 . But it was Elton Mayo & F.J Rotisseries who made an impact on the behavioral science theory through their Hawthorne experiments in Western Electric Co. , in 1933. These experiments proved that good working relationship with the supervisor and colleagues and the idea of challenges in the Job accounted for higher productivity. Challenge is created through setting high goal which cannot be normally achieved but which can be achieved with a little additional effort. These experiments brought to fore the importance of behavioral science in management. Exten ding the idea sometime in 1946 & 1947, Max Weber propounded the theory of bureaucracy.System Theory: Though the systems theory can be traced to biology, where we have cardiovascular system, nervous system, etc which re fairly independent yet interdependent, it was Chester Bernard who extended this into management area through his writing ‘Functions of the Executive' in 1983. In systems theory, we perceive that organizations have a number of fairly independent systems such as purchase system, operations system, marketing system,financial system. Etc. The working of these are interdependent. But it has to be integrated by the manager.This theory, perhaps, brings the idea of integration as a key component of management. Give the definition and importance of planning in an organization and explain the steps in planning. Definition Planning: Planning can be defined as a basic management function which enables one to select the purpose of the business, and how the resources should b e mustered to achieve that purpose to include using the available resources optimally to do that. Planning implies goal setting for the organization keeping in mind the constraints, opportunities, and threats as much as what the person robustness which is planning ants to do.Thus, a plants a blue print for goal achievement, as blue print that specifies the necessary resource allocations, schedules, tasks & other actions to achieve the purposes. Steps in Planning: 1. Being aware of opportunities 2. Establishing Objectives 3. Developing Premises 4. Determining alternative courses 5. Evaluating Alternative courses 6. Selecting a course 7. Formulating plans 8. Qualifying plans by Budgeting Explanation of the steps in Planning 1. Being aware of opportunities- Being aware of opportunities in the market w. R. T Establishing Objectives- 3.

Gaurdianship Vs. Democracy essays

Gaurdianship Vs. Democracy essays Global Warming Is it a problem? Without debate, most scientists and the general public agree that human activities increase the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is also accepted by scientists that greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earths atmosphere and warm the planet. The Earths surface temperature has increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century - melting glaciers, decreasing snow cover in the northern hemisphere and even warming below ground. So, by the atmospheric build up of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, which are increased by humans, the planet becomes warmer as scientifically documented, creating environmental problems for human life. (Global Warming A Real Problem) Energy from the sun keeps the Earth at an average 60 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing life as we know it. The greenhouse gases allow the earth to be at this average temperature. Without the help by the greenhouse effect, the earths temperature would be much colder, preventing life as we know it today. This warming of the Earth is produced by the natural greenhouse effect. The enhanced greenhouse effect is what could cause climate change. The term basically speaks for itself. The extra carbon dioxide and other gases released into the air by humans increases the amount of energy that becomes trapped (Earths Life needs greenhouse effect). The average global surface temperature on earth has increased .6-1.2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century with the nine warmest years in this century has all occurred in the last 14 years. Globally, sea levels have increased, Northern Hemisphere snow cover and Arctic Sea Ice has decreased, and the alpine glaciers have increased to melt. All of this has an effect on increased rainfall and precipitation. A scientific assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the balanc...

Hurricane Wind Driven Ventilator in Saudi Arabia Essay

Hurricane Wind Driven Ventilator in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example Wind power Wind power is the process of converting wind energy into any other form of energy that may be beneficial to human consumption or usage (Wind power, 2012). This can be done by using wind turbines for producing electricity (Fig 1) windmills to produce mechanical power, using wind pumps for pumping out water or in drainage and in the sails for propelling the seas in the oceans. A large winding farm can contain thousands of individual wind turbines (Mother Nature Takes a Part: Wind Energy, 1999) that are connected with the network of electric power transmission. The wind farms that are located in offshore locations usually harness powerful winds which are more frequent in the areas. In Saudi Arabia or the Gulf countries the wind pattern is more regular in nature (Hays, 2009). The power of the earth's wind along with the solar radiation that reaches earth can play a major role in increasing the energy supply in the kingdom. The project discussed in the paper is the Hurricane: W ind Driven Ventilator that was undertaken by the Green Energy Solutions company in Saudi Arabia. These exhaust ventilators were used to cool the temperatures during the hottest summers. An Introduction to the Project The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a dry, arid climate with continuous general flow of the wind (Dry Climates - B Climate Type, 2011). The Hurricane: Wind Driven Ventilator project was developed by Green Energy Solution. The company specializes in their knowledge about wind, solar energy and how to use these renewable sources of energy to produce an eco-friendly solution. There are many projects that have been completed by the company successfully in UAE. One such project was the Hurricane: Wind Driven Ventilator that was completed by the company known as International Paints...A large winding farm can contain thousands of individual wind turbines (Mother Nature Takes a Part: Wind Energy, 1999) that are connected with the network of electric power transmission. The wind fa rms that are located in offshore locations usually harness powerful winds which are more frequent in the areas. In Saudi Arabia or the Gulf countries the wind pattern is more regular in nature (Hays, 2009). The power of the earth's wind along with the solar radiation that reaches earth can play a major role in increasing the energy supply in the kingdom. The project discussed in the paper is the Hurricane: Wind Driven Ventilator that was undertaken by the Green Energy Solutions company in Saudi Arabia. These exhaust ventilators were used to cool the temperatures during the hottest summers.The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a dry, arid climate with continuous general flow of the wind (Dry Climates - B Climate Type, 2011). The Hurricane: Wind Driven Ventilator project was developed by Green Energy Solution. The company specializes in their knowledge about wind, solar energy and how to use these renewable sources of energy to produce an eco-friendly solution. There are many projects that have been completed by the company successfully in UAE. One such project was the Hurricane: Wind Driven Ventilator that was completed by the company known as International Paints (International Paints, n.d).

Economics Of Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economics Of Industry - Essay Example Some of the factors which can define the decision making process of whether to buy or outsource also depend upon the agency relationship. Bergmann and Friedl (2008) are of the view that since managers have the private information regarding the projects therefore they intend to exert "unobservable levels of different kinds of effort in order to increase the feasibility of successfully completing the project in terms of meeting product specifications." (Bergmann and Friedl). This paper will attempt to present a comprehensive analysis of the above factors and their impact on the decision making process of whether to buy or outsource. Further, this work will also attempt to present what remedies may be available to address such problems in terms of agency cost. To make or buy is one of the fundamental dilemmas faced by the modern organizations as increasing competition and globalization is forcing organizations to re-evaluate their strategies as well as processes and technologies to better position themselves onto the competitive landscape. As discussed above that the decision to make or buy depends largely upon whether the organization is willing to refocus its strengths on exploiting its core competencies and outsource some of the activities which do not probably fall under the domain of their specialty therefore instead of developing weaknesses into strengths, organizations often consider to focus on their strengths. Secondly, lack of internal resources such as manpower, technology, economies of scales etc may force organizations to decide on buying rather than producing in house. Thirdly, cost reduction is another critical element which contributes in deciding whether to buy or make because due to lack expertise, lack of resources, org anizations may find it expensive to produce in house and rather focus on outsourcing. However, despite all these factors, there are some other critical elements which contribute to that decision making process. As discussed above that uncertainty is one of the key elements which differentiate the labor markets therefore both internal as well as external factors heavily influence the decision making process of make or buy. Internal organizational factors such as agency relationships as well as adverse selection involve the management of the firms however; uncertainty and asymmetric information may be internal as well as external in nature. Agency Relationship Diversification is one of the reasons why managers often decide to make investments so that the risk could be easily distributed across the different products as well as markets. It is also because of this reason that the managers often have to decide whether to initiate that diversification process by producing that product or procuring that machinery in-house or outsource them. However, Denis et al (1997) are of the view that there is a negative relationship between the diversification and the managerial equity ownership. (Denis, Denis and Sarin) This fact also points towards the tendency of the managers to perform in ways which create a sort of value reducing diversification for firms. Therefore taking an analogy from this fact, it can easily be inferred that while making