Friday, November 29, 2019

Website implementation in a printing company

Website development for any growing company is of benefit especially due to the rapid globalization of companies. Most companies despite their size and location are fighting hard to reach the top in terms of providing their products and services to the whole world.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Website implementation in a printing company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Research done on most companies show that most companies have developed websites so as to be able to reach as many customers as possible. This is the case because of the high competition from companies dealing in related products or services and the need to globalise their company. Statistics show that there are an approximate 1.8 trillion internet users it the world as at December 2009. Asia was rated the highest continent in internet usage with 764 million users while china was rated the country with the largest population of interne t users. This data indicates that over fifty percent of the world’s population has access to the internet. This means that any advertisement on the internet will reach a larger population as compared to regional or location advertisement using other ways such as newspapers or sales promotions. Websites are used by many companies as a means of communication as well as for the purpose of marketing and selling of services offered. A printing company is no exception since its services are demanded in almost all parts of the world. Implementation of a website in a printing company would definitely lead to increased sales of the company at the same time satisfying the customers (â€Å"World internet users†, 2010, p. 1). This is a recent development in the printing industry since it has been before thought to be a minute industry and available in almost every location. The idea of globalising such an industry through website development is beneficial because of the many advan tages related to website marketing. Some of these benefits have been reported to be satisfaction to the customers by adding value to the products or services offered. The website gives a site where the customers can be served at any time and day even if the printing shop is closed; they also get instant feedback without having to travel hence saving much of their time. The customers are able to view free tips and guidelines concerning the services they require. Websites have also been known to market companies, potential companies despite their location will be able to view the company through internet access (Duermyer, 2010, p. 1).Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This reduces the cost of training sales personnel to advertise the company’s products or services and in turn saving the company lots of cash. The cost of printing pamphlets to be distributed to cus tomers or advertising in newspapers, billboards, magazines will also be saved since marketing will be online. The printing company will have an automated system where the customers make their orders, receive services and pay for them electronically. Websites provide a simplified chain to be followed when purchasing or requesting for a service hence creating a room to attract as many customers as possible. All these benefits channel to increased sales of the company at the same time expanding it to operate globally. Apart from increasing sales, websites would show any recent changes and developments of the company to their customers, for example in cases of change of location or development of new products or services (Berry, 2010, p. 4). Reference List Berry, T. (2010). Print shop website business plan. Web. Duermyer, R. (2010). Internet Marketing. Web. Internet usage statistics. (2010). World internet users and population stats. Web. This research paper on Website implementation in a printing company was written and submitted by user Catseye to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Garcia Lorca essays

Garcia Lorca essays Yo me cortar la mano derecha Tengo un guante de mercurio y otro de seda No solloces. Silencio, que no nos sientan. Asà ­ es como este poeta y dramaturgo se expresaba al escribir sus poesà ­as. En esta poesà ­a en particular habla de la muerte, su tema favorito. Sus principales temas para sus poemas e historias eran el amor, pasion y la muerte violenta. Lorca escribi sus obras de teatro que terminan en un dramtico final irnicamente era el mismo final que el mismo tendrà ­a. El tambin se inspiraba en su querida Granada, escribiendo con influencia gitana. Pese que Lorca no estaba interesado en la polà ­tica muchos asà ­ lo pensaban principalmente los nacionalistas. Asà ­ es como la vida de este ilustre poeta termin en una trajedia, và ­ctima de la Guerra Civil Espa Federà ­co Garcia Lorca naci un cinco de Junio del as ricas familias de su pueblo. Su infancia la vivi hasta los 10 an estudi mà ºsica y actividades para preparar su sentido rà ­tmico. En el Instituto de la ciudad, complet el Bachillerato al mismo tiempo que se dedica intensamente a sus estudios de mà ºsica. Llegando a su adolescencia empez a escribir poemas que luego los recitarà ­a en Cafs locales. Luego de estudiar en Madrid, viaja por los Estados Unidos, en donde estudia y da conferencias en al Universidad de Columbia en Nue...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Start your own small business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Start your own small business - Assignment Example reasons due to which individuals start their own business is that they want to operate independently and want to become the boss instead of being bossed around. These individuals do not prefer taking instructions from others. They believe that they are quite creative and can perform better by starting their own business. A research was conducted by Lange in order to identify the factors due to which individuals choose to be self-employed instead of working for another organization (Lange, 2012). Lange identified that autonomy and independence were the main factors that were motivating these individuals to be self-employed. Another reason due to which individuals choose to start their own business is that the concept of job security is fading away. Brenner reports that fresh graduates have started perceiving that being an entrepreneur provides them with the feeling of job security (Brenner, 1991). This means that the previously held belief that an individual’s job is much secur e when they are employed is fading away and now individuals believe that self-employment results in job security. Brenner, O., Pringle, C., & Greenhaus, J. (1991). Perceived fulfillment of organizational employment versus entrepreneurship: Work values and career intentions of business college graduates. Journal Of Small Business Management, 29(3),

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Why is bureaucracys relationship to democracy so conflicted Essay

Why is bureaucracys relationship to democracy so conflicted - Essay Example Bureaucracy and democracy are independent in their application to governance but are closely interconnected in a distinctive way. They operate alongside each other but in different directions, with democracy being associated with values such as equality, involvement and independence while bureaucracy supports hierarchy, division of labour and objectivity. This paper discusses why bureaucracy’s relationship to democracy is conflicted. Managerial excellence and participation in governance are significant backgrounds of public perception with regards to bureaucracy and democracy. The people’s view of the accomplishments of the public sector influences their democratic ideals for instance confidence in government and its agencies as well as their effective participation in public affairs. Managerial excellence is influenced by human resource characteristics and is interpreted differently by stakeholders among them the public who are the major clients of the government. Bureaucracy is focused on attaining managerial excellence in the public domain to enhance the accomplishments of democratically elected governments (DuGay, 2000). In this view, the two concepts have a strong interplay because the power to elect governments is vested in the people while on the other hand the elected government needs to establish an efficient bureaucratic system to offer services to the public. It requires effective and competent decisions and leadership qualities for the goals of a bureaucratic system to be realised. This includes maintaining high quality workforce established through meritocracy and professionalism. Managers in the bureaucratic system must promote the ideals of the elected government that represents the people. The public expects transparency and accountability in government that is reflected by its employees. Employees are also expected to maintain innovativeness and creativity to effectively solve problems affecting the

Monday, November 18, 2019

To What Extent Was the Effectiveness of Transition Strategies Essay

To What Extent Was the Effectiveness of Transition Strategies Dependent on the Initial Conditions of the Transition Economies - Essay Example The changing economic landscape in the last century has brought with it considerable political and social change. In terms of theoretical and scholarly research some of the most prominent considerations have been in terms of the shift between developing, emerging, and first worlds. Within this context of understanding one recognizes that a central area of concern has been transition economies. Transition economies are those where a nation is shifting from a centrally planned economy to a free market. Within the modern world environment this has become a highly complex notion as nations such as China have seemingly transcended traditional bounds of the centrally planned economy and combined state-sponsored industries with aspects of the free market. Still, to a large degree the traditional structural boundaries of the transition economy still hold. This essay considers the extent that the effectiveness of transition strategies is dependent on the initial conditions of the transition e conomies. Russia While the subject of transition economy strategies is complex and multi-varied, one of the central understandings is that there has been considerable difference regarding success among these transition countries. One recognizes that while there may be no objective or prescriptive approach to successful transition, one of the most thematic elements has been that the most successful transition economies have been linked to the success of the initial conditions of the transition economy. This is a complex notion that demands deconstruction. One of the major considerations in these regards has been the Russian transition approach. While theorists disagree as to the original state of the Russian centrally controlled government, to a great degree the original conditions were stark. Following the Cold War with the United States and Western powers, Russian experienced a state of considerable economic decline. To a great degree it seems that many of the earlier challenges carried over to the post transition period. As one might expect countless literature has been written on Russia’s transition, still there are a number of notable considerations. Roland (2004) links one of the primary challenges to the lack of structure in Russia’s original socialist system. While one would consider that a centrally controlled system would have stringent controls, it appears that to a degree this didn’t occur in Russia’s socialist practice. It is noted that the government had only centrally planned for approximately 100 goods, when in reality there was over 12 million that needed to be accounted for (Roland 2004). The cumulative effect particularly in Russia, but also in many other socialist economies, was that there emerged a market where quality products were not a concern, because the market consistently had shortages. This structure extended to workers as the seller’s market ensured they were always well employed. When the transition period arose t hese issues came to the forefront, as entrenched enterprises and workers viewed the changes as a threat. Crime and Corruption One of the major problems that arose in transition economies, particularly in Russia, was organized crime. While the emergence of these crime institutions surely had a complex array of reasons, it seems fairly plausible that the dissonance created in the transition between the earlier seller’s market period and the later free market may have contributed to a higher propensity of individuals willing to participate in such activity. These occurrences attest to a level of carry over from dysfunctions in the pre-free market economy that would indicate that the original state of the economy has a direct impact on transition strategies. Boerner & Hainz (2009) support the notion that inefficient pre-liberalization economic states directly contribute to later era corruption practices. Specifically, â€Å"

Saturday, November 16, 2019

The Blue Ocean Strategy

The Blue Ocean Strategy Indian bus service industry was extremely unorganized till recently before redBus emerged and took the industry by its neck and brought a sort of revolution never imagined for such an unorganized industry. This was primarily because the information flow and availability in this industry was very difficult and there was a lot of mismatch. The bus ticket industry was highly fragmented with small players active regionally. All these were small small agents competing against each other. Due to lack of any major player there was not much competition for redBus and hence it was able to create a marketspace for itself through entering the bus ticket industry online. By the time redBus entered the horizon there were settled names both in airline and railway ticket booking industry who were operating online. But even for them it was a huge task to enter bus ticketing industry due to the sheer complexity present in the industry and emulating the online model for bus ticketing industry was perc eived to be almost impossible even by these major players in e-commerce. This study deals with how a disruptive model can change the scenario of the complete industry. redBus which at the time of its inception was confined in a small flat of 2 rooms is now a 400 million company with over 400 employees and offices across India. Currently it is the only major player concentrating completely on bus ticketing industry with a market share of over 70%. In this research, I have tried to analyze the bus ticketing industry and how redBus identified the opportunities present in this segment and created a value chain which not only gave them a distinct product but also at competitive cost. It is a perfect example of Blue Ocean strategy where entry of redBus changed the entire landscape of the industry. It revolutionized the way the people buy bus tickets in India. One of the unique bus ticketing system of its kind in the entire world, competitors have leaped in this market but none has receive d success like redBus. This study further covers how redBus has sustained its competitive advantages and what are the challenges and growth opportunities going forward. CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION: Blue Ocean Strategy As the authors of the book Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Kim Chan and Renee Mauborgne say: Although the term blue ocean is new, their existence is not. They have been a part of business transformation in past as well as in present. If we look back in the past say a century ago, How many of todays industries were then known? The answer will be majority of todays industries were unknown in their current form. Many industries such as automobiles, aviation, health care, and management consulting were unknown or were just beginning to emerge. Now lets look at the industries 3 decades back. Again, multibillion-dollar industries like mutual funds, computers, mobile phones, smart phones, gas based power plants, discount retail, biotechnology, nanotechnology, express parcel delivery, coffee bars, video games, home videos, and CD player and many other such industries were all non-existent in a practical or popular way. Similarly, lets turn the clock forward a bit and try to look into the future. Lets say after 30 years or say 50 years how many of the now unknown industries will emerge and will exist. If history is any indicator of things to come in future, the answer is there will be many such industries that we cant even think of right now which will emerge. This is the reality; industries are dynamic. They never remain the same over a long period of time. They change continuously and evolve. The participants, the process, the market and the operations everything changes. Operations improve, markets evolve and grow, and non-customers become customers. History tells us that we have huge potential to change the existing industries and recreate them and not only that it teaches us that we underestimate our capability to create new ones. To have an idea of how dynamic things can get, the 50-year old Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, which was published by the U.S. Census, was substituted by the North America Industry Classification Standard (NAICS) system in 1997. The reason being the number of industry sectors that SIC covered were half the number of sectors that actually existed in 1997. The old SIC system covered only 10 industry sectors. The new NAICS system doubled it to twenty sectors to reflect the emergence of new-age industries. For example earlier the service sector included all that is now fragmented into different specialized industries like IT, healthcare, social assistance, etc. Given that these systems are made to ensure stability, continuity and for keeping standards, such a substitution shows the significance of growth of Blue Ocean industries. Yet the dominant emphasis of strategists has been on competitive strategies also known as red ocean strategies. Part of the explanation for this is that its roots in military strategy heavily influence corporate strategy. Strategy is about fighting different competitors over the same area of land that is constant and not unlimited. Unlike battles though, the history of industry tells us that the universe of market is unlimited and there is a place for everyone; rather, blue oceans have been always in existence. They have continuously been created. To believe and restrict oneself to red ocean is therefore to accept the constraints that are associated with war-limited piece of land and the need to fight and defeat an opponent to succeed-and to reject the unique strength of the business world: the capacity to create new market universe that is uncontested. Blue Ocean v/s Competitive Strategy (Red Ocean) Blue Ocean emphasises the importance of value innovation that can completely negate the competition replacing competitive advantage with value innovation as the firms primary goal thus highlighting the importance of creating demand and exploiting untapped maket rather than risking competition. There is a debate in the academia and research groups as to which strategy is better suited but all evidences are as case studies on different companies which is not enough to define any one of the two strategies as a clear winner. Rather the two strategies co-exist and should co-exist because a firm on the foundation of Blue Ocean strategy may ultimately have to face competition depending on the imitability of the business model and then before they have more value innovation to differentiate themselves and still remain cost competitive, they must also have a competitive strategy to ensure they do not fall behind of competition. Research results of researchers like Andrew Burke Andres van Stel and Roy Thurik suggest that the notion that blue ocean makes competition irrelevant may not be true. When combined, the two provide a more holistic and realistic depiction of economic performance. Thus, in real life the any strategy must be adopted after evaluating the business and market circumstances appropriately as these define the degree of scope for effectiveness of either Blue Ocean or competitive strategy. Furthermore, what emphasis and mix should be given to either form of strategy across short and long-term time horizons is apparent in most innovative companies competing in short term red oceans while significant time and resources are devoted to the long-term goal of developing innovation that creates consumer demand and new markets. Figure 1: Red Ocean v/s Blue Ocean Strategy Source: www.blueoceanstrategy.corporatestrategy.com Blue Ocean and White Space The term white space has been used in business parlance to mean uncharted territory or an underserved market. But as Mark W. Johnson perfectly writes in Seizing the White Space the term is the range of potential activities not defined or addressed by the companys current business model, that is, the opportunities outside its core and beyond its adjacencies that require a different business model to exploit. White space is a subjective valuation: one companys white space may be another companys core. What matters is that it describes activities that lie far outside a firms usual way of working and presents a series of unique and perplexing challenges to that organization. Its an area where, relatively speaking, assumptions are high and knowledge is low, the opposite of conditions in the companys core space. The chance to seize a piece of white space presents a tantalizing opportunity. Success here can bring the transformational growth that so many business leaders seek. Yet understandably, a play for the white space feels risky, and often the numbers dont appear to add up. The market seems too foreign, or core capabilities wont apply. Some executives, having made one unsuccessful foray, just wont risk failing again. Figure 2: White Space Source: Seizing the White Space, Mark W. Johnson Blue Ocean Strategy and Applied Concepts The Strategy Canvas The strategy canvas is the central diagnostic and action framework for building a compelling blue ocean strategy. The horizontal axis captures the range of factors that the industry competes on and invests in, while the vertical axis captures the offering level that buyers receive across these entire key competing factors. There are two purposes that are served here: It captures the current state of play in known market space, which allows users to clearly see the factors that the industry competes on and where the competition currently invests. Then, it propels users to action by reorienting focus from competitors to alternatives and from customers to non-customers of the industry. The value curve is the basic component of the strategy canvas. It is a graphic depiction of a companys relative performance across its industrys factors of competition. A strong value curve has focus, divergence as well as a compelling tagline. Figure 3: The Strategy Canvas Four Action Framework This framework can also be referred to as the Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid. To reconstruct buyer value elements in crafting a new value curve, we use the Four Actions Framework. As shown in the diagram, to break the trade-off between differentiation and low cost and to create a new value curve, the framework poses four key questions to challenge an industrys strategic logic and business model. Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated? Which factors should be reduced well below the industrys standard? Which factors should be raised well above the industrys standard? Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered? Figure 4: Four Actions Framework By pursuing the first two questions managers gain insight into how to drop their cost structure vis-à  -vis competitors. Rarely do they systematically set out to eliminate and reduce their investments in factors that an industry competes on. The result is mounting cost structures and complex business models. The other questions provide insights into how to lift buyer value and create new demand. Collectively, they allow exploring how to reconstruct buyer value elements across alternative industries to offer buyers an entirely new experience, while simultaneously keeping your cost structure low. Eliminating and creating are vital as they push companies to go beyond value maximization exercises with existing factors of competition. They prompt companies to change the factors themselves, hence making the existing rules of competition irrelevant. Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) The PDCA Cycle is a checklist of the four stages, which one must go through to get from `problem-faced to `problem solved. This concept was developed by Walter Shewhart, the pioneering statistician who developed statistical process control in the Bell Laboratories in the US during the 1930s. It was taken up and promoted very effectively from the 1950s on by the famous Quality Management authority, W. Edwards Deming. Consequently, PDCA cycle is also commonly known as `the Shewhart Cycle and the Deming wheel. This cycle diagram can be applied in team meetings to take stock of what stage improvement initiatives are at, and to choose the appropriate tools to see each stage through to successful completion. Here is what we do in each stage: Plan to improve operations first by finding out what things are going wrong (that is identify the problems faced), and come up with ideas for solving these problems. Do changes designed to solve the problems on a small scale first. This minimizes disruption to routine activity while testing whether the changes will work or not. Check whether the small scale changes are achieving the desired result or not. Also, continuously Check nominated key activities (regardless of any experimentation going on) to know what the quality of the output is at all times to identify any new problems. Act to implement changes on a larger scale if its successful on small scale. Also Act to involve other persons (other departments, suppliers, or customers) affected by the changes and whose cooperation is needed to implement them on a larger scale. If the experiment was not successful, skip the Act stage and go back to the Plan stage to come up with some new ideas for solving the problem and go through the cycle again. Plan-Do-Check-Act describes the overall stages of improvement activity, but how is each stage carried out? This is where other specific quality management, or continuous improvement, tools and techniques come into play. The diagram below lists the tools and techniques that can be used to complete each stage of the PDCA Cycle. Figure 5: PDCA Cycle VRIO Framework VRIO is an acronym for Value, Rarity, Imitability and Organization. This is also a 4 questions framework where one asks about a resource or capability to ascertain its competitive potential: the question of Value, the question of Rarity, the question of Imitability (Ease/Difficulty to Imitate), and the question of Organization (ability to exploit the resource or capability). The Question of Value: Is the firm able to exploit an opportunity or neutralize an external threat with the resource/capability? The Question of Rarity: Is control of the resource/capability in the hands of a relative few? The Question of Imitability: Is it difficult to imitate, and will there be significant cost disadvantage to a firm trying to obtain, develop, or duplicate the resource/capability? The Question of Organization: Is the firm organized, ready, and able to exploit the resource/capability? The VRIO framework, in a wider scope, is part of a much larger strategic scheme of a firm. The basic strategic process that any firm goes through begins with a vision statement, and continues on through objectives, internal external analysis, strategic choices (both business-level and corporate-level), and strategic implementation. The firm will hope that this process results in a competitive advantage in the marketplace they operate in. VRIO falls into the internal analysis step of these procedures, but is used as a framework in evaluating just about all resources and capabilities of a firm, regardless of what phase of the strategic model it falls under. CHAPTER-2 LITERATURE REVIEW Paper 1: Blue Ocean Strategy versus Competitive Strategy: Theory and Evidence. Burke, Andrew, Andrà © van Stel, and Roy Thurik. ERIM Report Series Research in Management (May 2009) Theme: Empirical analysis of blue ocean strategy versus competitive strategies based on data assembled from 655 retail shops through 41 shop types in the retail industry in Holland. Summary: This paper addresses the debate surrounding Red Ocean (competitive strategy) v/s Blue Ocean (New Market) strategy. The authors note that Blue Ocean seeks to emphasise the importance of value innovation that can completely negate the competition replacing competitive advantage with value innovation as the firms primary goal thus highlighting the importance of creating demand and exploiting untapped maket rather than risking competition. This results in increased profitability in the industry. There is a debate in the academia and research groups as to which strategy is better suited but all evidences are as case studies on different companies which is not enough to define any one of the two strategies as a clear winner. Rather the two strategies co-exist and should co-exist because a firm on the foundation of Blue Ocean strategy may ultimately have to face competition depending on the imitability of the business model and then before they have more value innovation to differentiate themselves and still remain cost competitive, they must also have a competitive strategy to ensure they do not fall behind of competition. Research results in this paper suggest that the notion that blue ocean makes competition irrelevant may not be true. To test the superiority of either tools the authors looks at the two strategies from both long term and short term perspectives and outline a theoretical model which suggests that every market will experience new vendors arriving to share the profits that are there on the offering in the industry. Thus the composition of the pie chart of market share will continuously exhibit different set of players with some fading off while others entering the market but only until the saturation point is reached where everyone will break even. Looking at the industry an its players over a period of time in this manner will give us an understanding about whether the new market strategy or the competitive strategy is more viable for the industry. If companies succeed over a long period of time by creating value innovation (new market strategy) as the new companies entered, both the i ndustry profits as well as the firms profit will grow steadily and so will the number of vendors in the strategy. On the other hand, if the profitability of the blue ocean firm went down with increasing number of vendors in the industry, it would be an indication of the dominance of the firms that followed competitive strategy over the firms that followed new market (blue ocean) strategy. After studying the complete data from 1982-2000 of 655 retail shops over 41 shop types in the Dutch retail industry and after testing and analyzing the premise the authors concluded for half the shop types, the firm profits were directly proportional to the number of firms while the blue ocean strategy was dominant over a long term with number of vendors and firm profitability rising/falling together over all shop types in the whole period under consideration. The authors also concluded that in short term Red Ocean strategies were at work. The study highlights that the two strategies co-exist and cross each other throughout the industry life and there is no particular choice that any manager prefers. Paper 2: Synthesizing a Blue Ocean. Master Thesis. Vester, Daniel. Aalto University, 2012. Theme: Applicability of New Market strategy frameworks and techniques in the electronic musical instruments industry for innovating new products. Summary: In this paper, the author targets to show how value innovation could be used in case of an electronic musical instrument company to add value to their product and create new market space. To explain this, he choses to compare the traditional strategies like competitive strategy, Porters 5 forces strategy to the blue ocean strategy. Blue ocean strategy is eventually selected for the process of product development of ArturiaMiniBrute, an analogue synthesizer reason being 1) Its attention on constructing new uncontested market space and at the same time targeting lower cost and product differentiation as well; and 2) The ease with which the analytical tools and frameworks in a Blue Ocean strategy could be blended into the product development process and usability of the instrument thus developed. Blue ocean strategy tools such as the Strategy Canvas, Four Action Framework, Buyer Utility Map and Three Tiers of Noncustomers are applied after quantitative analysis of sales figures in the electronic musical instrument industry for identifying Arturias closest competitors in various synthesizer markets and to design the strategy for ArturiaMiniBrute. The authors observations and interpretations show that the Blue Ocean Strategy techniques and frameworks can aid electronic musical instrument firms add value to their instruments/products/offerings and create new market space. Subsequently, the author advocates that companies should shift focus from technical features of the musical instrument to the emotional appeal of the musical instrument, and urges that companies should get out of the traditional mindset, challenge established rules of the industry by eliminating factors that have been ignored and not given due importance but which may be of great value to the customer. Paper 3: The Impact of Blue Ocean Strategy in Low-cost Transport. Ã…Â  tverkovà ¡, Hana, Michal ÄŒervinka, and Vlasta Humlovà ¡. In 2012 International Conference on Traffic and Transportation Engineering. Belgrade, November 29-30, 2012. Theme: Applicability of blue ocean strategy theory to Ryanair (air transport industry) Summary: This paper illustrates how blue ocean strategy can be vital and have an important influence in the low cost aviation sector. The authors chose to analyze the low-cost air transport industry in the European Union. They report that the market is highly competitive and the regional players fight amongst themselves on the base of cost competitiveness. The authors show that a cordial relationship between regional airports and any carrier firm can enable budget airlines to provide distinguished value for airline passengers at a low cost to the companies. The authors also suggests using the case of Ryanair that infrastructure improvement for non-core activities at the smaller airports might be essential to facilitate such relationships between budget airlines and small regional airports. CHAPTER-3 EXAMPLES OF BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY Air Asia One of the major developments that the airline has experienced has been the evolution of the budget airlines. For instance, emergence of Air Asia in Malaysia is a classic example. Air Asia have avoided the competitive strategy or the red Ocean (competition against Malaysia Airline and other airlines like Tiger Air, Jet Air and other regional airlines) by considering factors that are important to customers but easily taken for granted by most of the other airlines. With the Four Actions Framework proposed by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, Air Asia have ensured they make Malaysia Airline, Tiger Air, Jet air and regional players irrelevant by implementing many important strategic moves explained below. STRATEGY Eliminate: 1) OTC booking 2) Seating Class booking arrangement 3) Free breakfast/lunch/dinner on the plane Reduce: 1) Number of attendants serving on the plane 2) Luxury facilities delivered 3) Quality of the seats Raise: 1) Increased flight hours for their aircrafts: frequency of flight 2) Selected key endpoints/destinations catered frequently Create: 1) Booking system became online 2) Travel system: point-to-point Through these strategic moves, Air Asia has been able to concentrate on factors that really matter for the customers like better booking channel, point-to-point travel system, etc. that makes customers lives simpler and adds value to them. This is a perfect example of Value Innovation, as not only does this help Air Asia increase the value to the customers but at the same time reduces cost for Air Asia significantly Value Innovation. This also allows Air Asia towards customers who were not traditionally target thus creating a new market space and targeting non-customers in the traditional airline industry. Current Airline Customers: 1) Corporates and business fraternity in Malaysia or ASEAN region. 2) Those individuals who can afford to buy expensive airline tickets from airlines like Malaysia Airline and other regional players. Non-Customers: 1) Officers from the government and other government staff 2) Those individuals who cannot afford to buy expensive tickets such as students or recent graduates or lower middle class and rural people. With effective execution of Blue Ocean strategy, Air Asia has furthered expanded their gamut and has ventured into other businesses like they started Tune Hotel and Tune Money. The model is again towards creating Blue Ocean market space. Crocs Inc. Company Snapshot Crocs Inc. is one of the major players in shoe industry who have been very successful. It designs, fabricates and markets bright-colored, comfy-branded footwear and accessories for all segments men, women and children. Blue Ocean Strategic Move Crocs Inc. with its distinctive lightweight clogs created a blue ocean market space in the shoe industry. These types of shoes gave customers a perfect combination of comfort and fashion at an affordable price point. Crocs shoes have mass appeal because not only are they branded but also in a way they are refreshing, they are different from traditional sandals and casual shoes and add a fun element as well as they come in a wide array of bright colors which provide a funky look. Combined with their new crocodile logo on their shoes it also gives them a bold look. Crocs have been a run-away success also because they provide customer what they never even thought of, they satisfy their customers by adding value to their customers usage by giving features like lightweight, waterproof, ergonomic comfort and anti-microbial and anti-skid. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨Success Founded in 2002 as a new type of boat shoemaker initially, the company has grown into a global sensation in casual footwear industry with sales across the globe in over 90 countries and reaching 1 billion US dollars in 2011. Figure 6: Crocs Four Actions to create Value Innovation Source: Frontier Strategy, LLC Nintendos Wii The video game business has a huge market and is a multi-billion dollar industry. Video consoles, which form a big portion of this market, were very recently in the past controlled by two major players: PlayStations (PS12 and soon PS3) from Sony and Xbox (Xbox and Xbox360) from Microsoft. Nintendo, however, a distant third player created ripples in the market space with its launch of the Wii. This is an especially interesting case study from a strategy perspective since its a brilliant example of the so-called blue ocean strategy. The graphic below demonstrates Nintendos Wii strategy with the help of the strategy canvas and is quite clear. Figure 7: The Strategy Canvas of Nintendo Wii On giving a closer glance to the above graphic, one will notice that Nintendo is competing on a completely different strategic landscape as the attributes are completely differently focused for Nintendo in comparison with Sony and Microsoft. The Wii is not only affordable for general public, it has no Hard Disk, no DVD, no Dolby 5.1, weak connectivity and comparatively low processor speed, but enthralls the user by its innovative motion control stick. The stick is designed such that it integrates the movements of a player directly into the console of the video game, The user gets an interface where he gets a live feel of himself playing in the screen. With this feature Nintendo not only won the existing customers in the video game world but also brought in a completely new set of customers to the business. We can again think of the Four Actions Framework in all of the above descriptions of features. I will explain here with a couple of those features: Reduction in cost through elimination of some features like Hard Drive, DVD, Dolby 5.1 and low processor speed A raise in demand by creation of motion stick: strong value innovation for new gamers/customers. These 2 features disregard the traditional belief in competitive strategy of either going for cost leadership or product differentiation and not simultaneously for both. In other words, through this example we see that while Sony and Microsoft are fighting in the same old bloody Red Ocean of existent market, Nintendo created a new market space for itself in the form of Wii and is now sailing calmly in this Blue Ocean that it created for itself. CHAPTER-4 BOS: A Case Study on redBus Story of redBus One fine evening an electrical engineer in Bangalore planned to travel to Hyderabad to celebrate Diwali with his family but the answer he got from the agents when he reached at bus stands was that all tickets were sold out and he could inquire about the availability from some other agents. Although the person got frustrated but an appalling question was making rounds in his minds; why werent there other methods to get bus tickets booked rather than moving from one agent to another? He questioned why cant bus tickets be booked online like airlines and railway tickets? The person was Phanindra Sama and his frustration lead way to a revolution in Indian bus industry and redBus was born. Phani discussed the idea with his friends (Sudhakar Pasupunuri and Charan Padmaraju) and they started working on the idea. Initially they decided to develop an IT based inventory system for bus operators but the idea was dismissed by the operators and agents as the task seemed huge to them. Meanwhile they came in contact with the Bangalore chapter of TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) which accepted their venture and mentored the team and guided them with various assignments pertaining to market surveys and market research. The TIE mentorship enabled redBus to get venture capitalist interested in them and a VC named Seedfund funded them with $500000. This is how redBus was born on 18th August 2006, Indias first online bus ticketing website, a concept which was in use for airline and railway booking but no one had realized that it could be feasible enough for the bus travel also. Exhibit 1 gives company details. Exhibit 1 The Team Major Milestones Exhibit 2 Company Details Bus Ticket Industry- Overview in India The Indian bus travel industry was highly fragmented with a large number of small operators and agents having very little orientation towards technology. Most of the operators were regional players having small fleets of ten buses where few were long route players having 100 or more fleets of buses. Exhibit 2 gives the details of the industry structure. Long route buses were known as contract carriages and their tickets were to be bought in advance whereas short haul buses known as stage carriers and their tickets were sold in the coach itself. The booking system was agent driven in which each agent had contract with three of four operators and tickets were allocated to them on the basis of quota system by the operators. Each agent used to sell its quota of tickets and all the unsold tickets were informed to the operator before some fixed time of bus departure. No centralized inventory was maintained by either the agents or by operators

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Steroid Use By Athletes Should be Banned :: Argumentative Persuasive Steroids Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to sometimes get the extra edge on the competition. Most of the time people do not realize the long-term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the use of steroids in a person’s life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950’s. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effe cts not known to the uninformed user.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though steroids are known as a somewhat dangerous substance, they are legal to have and to consume. There has not been a study that proves such possible side effects are linked to medical problems of steroid users (Rogak, 89). There are those who have pointed out several cases where someone has died and an autopsy has shown that the person was using steroids, but they claim this does not mean that it is a deadly drug as some medical professionals have stated (97). Some advocates of steroids believe that because steroids are legal, and because it is the decision of the user to take the drug, steroids are not causing a problem in society. Alcohol and cigarettes are consumed by millions of people, causing a lot of deteriorating effects on their bodies, but there has never been a ban on these items because of the dangers that they can cause. Why should steroids be different? Some people say that the wide spread use of steroids among athletes is forcing the young athletes to use steroids, even though it is against their standards.

Monday, November 11, 2019

How to Use 2g and 3g Gprs Mobile Internet on Your Computer Essay

Imagine a situation where you have to send an important email to your friend or boss and your internet doesn’t work. Imagine the helplessness, the frustration, the anger. I am pretty sure you didn’t imagine it but recalled a moment when something of the sort actually happened to you. Internet connectivity, although becoming better with each passing day is still a luxury in many parts of the world, especially in rural areas. But the advent of smartphones is changing that. Nowadays, you can connect to the internet very easily using your mobile phone. I hope I am not the only one to feel this but using the internet on the mobile is just not as fun or convenient as using it on a computer. So today, I will teach you how to connect to the internet on your computer using the GPRS internet pack you have on your mobile phone. The recipe is simple. Here’s the ingredients: 1. A datacable OR a bluetooth enabled mobile phone(your computer should be bluetooth enabled too in this case). 2. The necessary drivers to use your mobile as a modem. Make sure the internet on your mobile phone is working before actually going through the next steps. Installing the drivers First lets install the drivers necessary to use your phone as a modem. To check if they are already installed, go to Control Panel->Phone and Modem->Modems If you can see the modem for your mobile phone, then you can skip the next few paragraphs. If not, then install the PC suite for your mobile phone on your computer and connect your phone to it and the drivers will be installed automatically. If you don’t have the PC suite, either download it from another PC with an internet connection or if you are a geek, you can download the specific drivers for only the modem from the internet. Go back to Control Panel->Phone and Modem->Modems to double check if the modem is installed. CONFIGURING YOUR PHONE’S MODEM I will first explain the connection procedure using a data cable. * Go to Control Panel->Phone and Modem->Dialing Rules. Click on New and select â€Å"India† as the country and write the ZIP code of the place where you are going to use the internet. Leave the other fields as they are and press OK. Now click on the Modems tab again. Select the modem you are going to use and click properties. Choose the â€Å"Advanced† tab in the dialog box that follows in the space for â€Å"Extra Initialization Commands† type the following codes depending on your cable operator: AIRTEL AT+CGDCONT=1,†IP†,†airtelgprs.com† AIRCEL AT+CGDCONT=1,†IP†,†aircelgprs.com† IDEA AT+CGDCONT=1,†IP†,†ideagprs.com† TATA DOCOMO AT+CGDCONT=1,†IP†,†TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET† VODAFONE AT+CGDCONT=1,â€Å"IP†, â€Å"www† Don’t get freaked out if the only two options in the drop down list below are Japan and Afghanistan(I did), you can leave it as it is and press OK. Please doublecheck the part after â€Å"IP† from your mobile internet’s settings before you continue. It is called APN(Access Point Name) and it allows you to access the internet from your mobile phone e.g. The APN for Airtel is â€Å"airtelgprs.com†. They may differ in your state from the ones I have shown here. CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET Now go to Control Panel->Network and Sharing Center and click â€Å"Set up a new connection or network†. In the menu that follows, choose Set-up a dial-up connection. Enter the phone number as â€Å"*99#† without the quotes. Leave everything else empty. You can change the name of the connection to whatever you want. You’re done! Now go to the network icon and double click on the connection you just created. Enjoy the internet. If an error #734 occurs, it means that either the internet on your mobile is not working right now or that you have entered the wrong APN. Check your APN and reconfigure the settings. Your internet should work fine. Also, don’t forget to mark â€Å"No Proxy† in your browser’s connection settings. Now lets move on to connection using bluetooth. Activate bluetooth on both your mobile phone and your computer. Pairing your mobile phone with your computer If your mobile is already paired, move on to the next section. If not, Go to Control Panel->Devices and Printers->Bluetooth Devices and click on â€Å"Add a device†. Let the setup find your bluetooth device and click on it to pair with it. Check your mobile phone and match the passkeys. Now, all the processes are the same as the data cable with a few differences. To set up the modem you can right click on the icon for your phone in the Bluetooth Devices folder and click on â€Å"modem† or you can go to â€Å"Phone and Modem† as before and select â€Å"Standard Modem Over Bluetooth Link† and do everything exactly the same way as I explained before. Now, we need to set up a dial-up connection. Go back to â€Å"Bluetooth Devices† and double-click on the icon for your phone. Click the â€Å"Connect† button which is next to â€Å"Use your phone to connect to the internet†. If it doesn’t work the first time, select the option to enter the details manually. Now enter the phone number as *99# and enjoy. The version of windows while writing this tutorial is Windows 7 Premium. The process is similar for other versions. I’ll be write another one for connecting your mobile internet to a computer with a linux-based operating system later. If you had any problems, please comment below and I will reply with a solution.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Free Essays on Paragent Competitive Analysis

2005 Entrepreneurial Consulting Report Table of Contents I. Executive Summary 3 II. Overview 4 How Andrew, Brian, and Dustin Became Involved 4 First Meeting With Clients 4 Initial Objectives 5 Possible Timetable 5 III. Research Questions 6 IV. Methodology 7 V. Results 8 VI. Discussion and Recommendations 27 VII. Appendices 27 I. Executive Summary The goal of this consulting project was to aid Paragent with the release of their new performance monitoring software. They had done some preliminary research about the general aspects of many companies, but they had not focused in on any key competitors or taken an in-depth look at them. The consulting group from Ball State helped them by doing a competitor analysis of, what it believed to be the most prominent competitors. The first order of business was to understand Paragent ¡Ã‚ ¦s project. The group visited the company ¡Ã‚ ¦s headquarters and was given a thorough demonstration of the product. This helped the members to see where Paragent was at with the development of the software and what some of the key differentiating aspects were. Paragent has produced an agent that is implemented into every computer that allows the computer to talk  ¡Ã‚ §smartly ¡Ã‚ ¨. Say for instance, there is a problem with one computer; the others will stop  ¡Ã‚ §talking ¡Ã‚ ¨ to it so that the problem does not spread. The ability of Paragent ¡Ã‚ ¦s software to run without servers was another differentiating point. The consulting group members then decide what companies they would research and how. It was decided that Andy and Dustin would conduct research on the company and product of 5 companies; Andy researched 3 and Dustin 2. Brian researched 1 company and took different look at the comparison between Paragent and its competitors. He looked at the company as a whole, and more specifically their website design and utilization. This allowed the group to view Paragent... Free Essays on Paragent Competitive Analysis Free Essays on Paragent Competitive Analysis 2005 Entrepreneurial Consulting Report Table of Contents I. Executive Summary 3 II. Overview 4 How Andrew, Brian, and Dustin Became Involved 4 First Meeting With Clients 4 Initial Objectives 5 Possible Timetable 5 III. Research Questions 6 IV. Methodology 7 V. Results 8 VI. Discussion and Recommendations 27 VII. Appendices 27 I. Executive Summary The goal of this consulting project was to aid Paragent with the release of their new performance monitoring software. They had done some preliminary research about the general aspects of many companies, but they had not focused in on any key competitors or taken an in-depth look at them. The consulting group from Ball State helped them by doing a competitor analysis of, what it believed to be the most prominent competitors. The first order of business was to understand Paragent ¡Ã‚ ¦s project. The group visited the company ¡Ã‚ ¦s headquarters and was given a thorough demonstration of the product. This helped the members to see where Paragent was at with the development of the software and what some of the key differentiating aspects were. Paragent has produced an agent that is implemented into every computer that allows the computer to talk  ¡Ã‚ §smartly ¡Ã‚ ¨. Say for instance, there is a problem with one computer; the others will stop  ¡Ã‚ §talking ¡Ã‚ ¨ to it so that the problem does not spread. The ability of Paragent ¡Ã‚ ¦s software to run without servers was another differentiating point. The consulting group members then decide what companies they would research and how. It was decided that Andy and Dustin would conduct research on the company and product of 5 companies; Andy researched 3 and Dustin 2. Brian researched 1 company and took different look at the comparison between Paragent and its competitors. He looked at the company as a whole, and more specifically their website design and utilization. This allowed the group to view Paragent...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Effects of Videos on Youth essays

Effects of Videos on Youth essays Our youth has grown up with MTV, BET and because of the entertainment value of these entities our youth have been led astray. Some of our youth cant distinguish between reality and the entertainment that the aforementioned media giants are feeding us. The trend toward baggy pants and hair that is uncombed has come from this culture that has prevailed the last ten years. Our youth have adopted every trend that has been shown through these mediums. The reality is that this has led to some behavior and dress that is not appropriate for all venues. The fascination with entertainers and athletes is not strictly a hip-hop generation thing but in this country Hollywood stars are treated like royalty. We need to do more to make Mac-Arthur genius award recipients, for example, as celebrated as Allen Iverson and Jay-Z, but we're up against resilient forces. One thing that obsessive video viewing has done is to create for our youth a false sense of reality. For example our youth think that the lifestyles that are portrayed in the videos are real and not just for entertainment value. Kids imitate the behavior that they see on the screen and sometimes this leads to disrespect and other issues especially at schools. If you ask a youth what they think about the videos you will get the sense they think that they are real life situations that people are living and never consider that these are staged scenes similar to going to a club where your environment is controlled for a specific mood. The image bite has replaced the sound bite. This is one of the complexities about hip-hop. Hip-Hop gains access to public space in the context of popular culture. In that space various sub cultures converge such as elements of prison culture and street culture, for example. The older generation has a responsibility to become savvier in deciphering these cultural convergences. A good place to start is to make a distinction between hip-hop culture and Bla...

Monday, November 4, 2019

The Nervous Tissue Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Nervous Tissue - Coursework Example The connective tissue generally serves to support and connect the body tissues. It also functions in protecting organs and storage of nutrients. The elements of this tissue are fibres, ground substance, and cells. The loose connective tissues (areolar, adipose and reticular) and dense connective tissue (dense regular and dense irregular) are the two kinds of the mentioned tissue. The bone, cartilage, and blood are specialized connective tissues. Categorized into compact and spongy is the bone tissue. The types of cartilage are hyaline cartilage, fibrocartilage, and elastic cartilage and the blood tissue consists of erythrocytes, thrombocytes, and leucocytes. There are three types of muscle tissues, namely the smooth, skeletal and cardiac muscles. The cells that constitute the smooth muscle are spindle-shaped, lying on the walls of organs and blood vessels. The smooth is an involuntary muscle. Striated and packed in bundles, the skeletal muscle aids in movement because it attaches to bones while the cardiac muscle tissue is located in the heart. It is vital for effective blood-flow, which accounts for the heartbeat. The muscular tissue allows for movement of structures and that of the entire body. It also moves food, waste, and blood through organs and accounts for mechanical digestion.The epithelial tissue is classified into tow, namely the cell shape and layer arrangement. Squamous (flat), cuboidal, columnar and transitional are shapes of the tissue in discussion. Based on cell arrangement, the tissue consists of simple, stratified and pseudostratified columnar epithelium. Simple epithelium consists of a single layer of cells for filtration and absorption while stratified aids in protection from abrasion on the skin. Tissues of the endocrine and exocrine glands form the glandular epithelial tissue. The epithelium functions to cover the surface of the body and lining body cavities. It plays roles in filtering and secretion as well.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Harrods Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Harrods - Research Paper Example Graphs illustrated and explained in the report gives a clear idea about the position of Harrods in the market as compared to its competitors. Secondary research is conducted using credible industry sources such as Market Researech.com, Hoover’s, Harrods website, and other online database. Company Overview Harrods is a luxurious, high-end retailer, founded in London in 1834 and possess a rich heritage and history that makes them the world’s most famous department store (Harrods). The department store is situated on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England, being the one of the largest department stores in the world (store occupying 4.5acre and selling space over one million square feet across over 330 departments). As Mahoney points out, Harrods is the second-biggest store and offering an extensive section of products, a world-class shopping experience and greater customer service. The Harrods brand also stands for other business undertaken by the company which in cludes Harrods Bank, Harrods Aviation, Air Harrods and Harrods Estates. The Harrods group of companies holds its motto â€Å"Omnia Omnibus Ubique – All things for All People Everywhere† (Harrods). Though operating only in London, it has become an international retail icon with superior brand responsiveness among global consumers. History shows that the firm has gone beyond being a high-quality branded store and product designer to a fashionable society, a status icon for celebrities and commoners equally. The store faces about 300,000 customers visiting during peak days, and has a workforce of 5000 employees from more than fifty different countries. The Harrods Ltd. was sold to Qatar Holding LLC for $ 2.2 billion in 2010. The products sold through the firm’s brand ranges across women’s and men’s wear, children’s products and toys, wine and spirits, kitchen products and appliances, beauty products, bags, and accessories. Company process Reven ue: - The lion’s part of Harrods’ revenues comes from its luxury retail division operating at Knightsbridge location. The rest come from the divisions at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and from its four subsidiaries, namely, Harrods Bank, Harrods Aviation, Air Harrods and Harrods Estates. Cost: - The Costs of the company include (i) Costs of Goods Sold, (ii) Marketing and Advertising, and (iii) Other Operating Costs. The costs of goods sold include purchase of inventory, storing costs, store construction and maintenance, transportation and shipment, and other administrative expenses. The marketing and advertising costs include all the expenses incurred by the company with regard to the promotional purpose through print or audiovisual media. And other operating costs include all other expenses borne by the business while functioning. Financial Analysis Nicolini, Papaioannou, Rasheed & Subject report that on peak days Harrods receives over 300,000 customers and during sal e events, the firm takes in about $1.813 million every hour. Since the firm possesses strong brand awareness in the UK market, it does not give importance to funding on traditional methods of brand advertising or using print or news media as their public association can take the role of buzzing about the firm. Though not affected by the recent meltdown in financial markets, financial analysts forecast its future impacts on the consumer behavior and ultimately on the market. As Graham reports, the Managing director