The Story of Odysseus

Odysseus, a hopeless player or a faithful husband? In my opinion, I believe that Odysseus is a hopeless player. Although he was trying to return to Ithaca so that he could be reunited with his beautiful wife Penelope, on his journey he was not always faithful. First off I would describe Odysseus as a desperate type of guy because he tries to charm every girl he lays eyes upon, he will go for anything he can find. On one of his adventures he received a bath from four lovely ladies. Odysseus just meets these women and he starts flirting with them.That is absolutely appalling and quite disturbing. Also that’s not all this selfish player did. Secondly, Odysseus cheated on Penelope more than once! That’s so rude, and inconsiderate! He cheated with Calypso at least once and with Circe multiple times! Crew members Elpenor, Achaemenides, and Mnestheus said that they had a feeling Odysseus was cheating because he always left the sleeping area at night, and would return in the mo rning. Making it seem like he never even cared about Penelope. Was it really a plan to get back to home or just meet a bunch of women on the way?Lastly I think Odysseus is a hypocrite because he gets mad at the suitors for having sex with the maids even though he did the same thing with Calypso and Circe. It doesn’t make sense to me how you can be mad at someone for something then you go to the same thing? In my statement saying Odysseus is a â€Å"hopeless player† him being a hypocrite basically described the first part, hopeless. Every now and then I think that Odysseus needs to check himself. Overall Odysseus, not a good guy, he flirts, he cheats, and he’s a hypocrite. In other words he’s a hopeless player.

Comparing and contrasting the presentation Essay

  Comparing and contrasting power in Hawk Roosting and Human Interest The effects of power seem to be largely psychological in both poems. In Human interest the damage coursed by love and jealousy drives the man to kill his lover , to show power not only to himself but to his girlfriend. Later on in the poem we see the man in his prison cell questioning his motive behind his sudden outburst of rage; whereas in Hawk Roosting the hawk believes there’s no need for other predator’s existence as nature is ‘all’ his and ‘no arguments can assert’ his right to his power to kill. In Hawk Roosting the hawk has no restrictions in life and does as he pleases as he see’s himself as an all mighty being. But in Human Interest the man has a spur of the moment action that has a long-lasting effect, both on the dead girlfriend and on him in terms of a prison sentence. The effect of power on the hawk causes him to become arrogant and this making the pointlessness in other animals while the effect of power on man drives them insane and blind to those around us. The hawk wishes to ‘keep things like this’ and although we know this is about the hawk wanting to keep himself above all the rest he will eventually crumble and fall just as nature intended. The hawk abuses his power by killing those smaller then him to increase his status in the food chain. The effects of power leave contrasting images of a grief-stricken man left in a secluded room and the arrogance of roaming free, though both eventually are seen as murderers in life and will be nothing more.

Experimental in science Essay

Experiment One: A researcher wanted to test the effect of caffeine on sleep. Fifty students volunteered to participate in the study and signed up for one of two nights. Thirty-three students participated on Tuesday night. They each were given two cups of regular coffee to drink one hour before going to sleep. Seventeen students participated on Wednesday night. They each were given two cups of decaffeinated coffee to drink one hour before going to sleep. Each student was monitored with an EEG (a test that looks at brain function) to record exactly when they fell asleep. Students in the caffeine group took significantly longer to fall asleep. The researcher concluded that caffeine interferes with the ability to fall asleep. 1. What was the independent variable for Experiment One? 2. What was the dependent variable for Experiment One? 3. What components of the experiment were set up properly? 4. How could Experiment One be improved? Experiment Two: A researcher wanted to determine if a new anti-anxiety drug decreased anxiety levels. Three hundred patients were given the new drug and three hundred patients were given a placebo (also known as a â€Å"sugar pill† that does not contain any medicine). All of the patients were told they were receiving the new drug and were monitored for six months. At the end of the six months, all of the patient information was analyzed and the researcher concluded that because the patients given the placebo indicated the same reduction in anxiety as the patients given the new drug, the new drug was ineffective in decreasing anxiety levels. 5. What was the independent variable for Experiment Two? 6. What was the dependent variable for Experiment Two? 7. What components of the experiment were set up properly? 8. How could Experiment Two be improved? 9. Describe how a variable was NOT controlled in one of the two experiments. How might this have impacted the results?

MGT DQ3 WK4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MGT DQ3 WK4 - Essay Example Leaders do the right things and inspire trust; while managers do things right and rely on control. Some of the skills that leaders need to possess include the ability to lead by example by taking the initiative where and when necessary, lending a helping hand, and ensuring that all you do is understandable by those under you. Leaders must be passionate and enthusiastic in order for them to inspire trust. Effective communication and taking responsibility and ownership are other essential skills that leaders need to possess. Leaders must also be able to delegate duties, since they cannot single-handedly do everything. Leaders must also be very honest, brave, organized, know their people, be good listeners, and must be followers, as well (Bennis, 2009). In order for managers to develop and enhance leadership skills, there are certain measures they need to adopt such as considering their employees as valuable assets in the organization, treating them with respect, and guiding them towards the achievement of the organizations goals. Managers also need to be themselves, give due credit to their employees where necessary, communicate effectively, and lead by example (Bennis, 2009). I so doing, they will be able to motivate their employees, communicate with them better, and make their employees trust them. I think that Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin Group is an effective leader. Sir Richard Branson has always let his actions speak for themselves; he has led by example. He is enthusiastic and passionate about his companies, and as a result, he has managed to inspire the trust of, not only his employees, but many other people. He is tenacious, honest, he knows most of his top employees, he is a good listener and most of all; he is a follower and has the ability to delegate; a trait that has enabled him successfully own more than 400 successful

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - Case Study Example Third, BYOD is beneficial to the company since it lowers the cost of purchasing and maintaining the IT devices used for work. Fourth, when an organization adopts this strategy, it likely to attract and retain talented employees, especially the young. Finally, BYOD helps to transform the workplace by allowing employees use new and innovative ways to work. For instance, employees can take advantage of cloud computing and virtualization in doing their work. There are a number of limitations associated with BYOD. First, BYOD implementation poses a major risk to the data held by an organization (Ernst & Young, 2013). Specifically, the use of personal devices to access company data may lead to leakage of confidential information. In order to address this challenge, many companies use virtualization where cooperate data and applications are accessed from a central position (Cisco, 2014). This gives the company control over its resources. In addition, containerization is also used where corporate data is put into separate structures which give the organization enhanced control (Reddy, 2012). The second challenge is that the devices may provide an avenue for an enterprise network to be attacked. This may give unauthorized persons access to company network. In order to solve this problem, many companies are making use of encryption which makes it difficult for authorized persons to access company data. Encryption is also used to prevent users from accessing information from lost devices. Thirdly, BYOD may lead to many devices connecting to the company network since one employee may have multiple devices. This may reduce the efficiency of the network. To address this, companies manage the number of devices used on its network. This is mainly achieved through the use of passwords. Finally, when a company adopts BYOD strategy, it

Executive Summaries of Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Executive Summaries of Article - Essay Example Items that have to be shown in investing activity are shown as operating activity. Moreover, when such items are rectified for classification, the re-statement of the figures is not done (Daniel, Susan, & Dana, 2007). Controls should be so efficient that they are capturing the correct classification of the items each year. Such misclassifications mislead the users of the statement of cash flows. Secondly, when classifications are done, they should be re-stated as per the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Since, this re-statement is not being done, the ratio of current years and that of comparatives are also being distorted. Such inconsistency in the ratios affects the decision making of the investors. 1. Untrained Staff: There is untrained staff, which is not capable of preparing Ha cash flow. The staff is not technically sound due to lack of knowledge and training. Many a times the staff is not even capable of adjusting the profit for non-cash items. Qualified and experienced staff should be hired to remove these errors. 2. Lack of Adequate Review: It is observed that the senior management does not appropriately review the statement of cash flows. There are some complex items in the cash flow, which come in the form of balancing figures such as taxes paid. These figures are difficult to be calculated. Junior staff may manipulate such figures to balance the cash flow statement. Such manipulation could be rectified at initial stage if reviews are done in detail. 3. Misclassification of Balance Sheet items: It is observed that the balance sheet items are not classified appropriately. The items of short-term investments such as securities, which are highly liquid in nature, are classified as a cash equivalent. Such misclassification eradicates the item from investing items in the cash flow. 4. Consolidation weaknesses: The consolidation process is a complex process that

Norms and Roles Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Norms and Roles - Assignment Example Make things together and sort out is mostly what I did. Haolin is ISTJ style person; he and I also have one type different. Thinking types use reason and logic to handle problems, but feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions. During this team work, when we have some different opinions in the same topic, Haolin will put his thought forward at once, but sometimes I will check the book to find the words to prove my options. Actually, because four of us have been team member for several times, when the case handed out to us, we divided our work after that, and everyone has own topic and work to do. During the several project classes, we discuss our thought about the project, and try to find one thought which our case writing followed. So I think we have no obviously conflict on the problem-solving styles. With regard to the formal roles, I mainly deal with organizing the work and ensuring that there is coherence once it is completed. This is done after they have completed their factions and are satisfied that each part has been handled exhaustively. Asin on the other hand ensures that all plans regarding what should be done and when it should be finished are in place. He sets deadlines and ensures that all work is completed within the given timeframe. Haolin is basically an overseer, who ensures that everything runs efficiently. Thus he would be quick to cite any problems and give objective solutions to these. With regard to the informal norms and roles, I am responsible for ensuring that we maintain positive relations that are essential for optimal performance. Asin on the other hand helps in sourcing for important information from the tutors as well as fellow students. According to Rob and Prusak (2002), this ensures that the work done is reflective of the social diversity and therefore comprehensive. Perhaps Haolin’s informal roles are the most rewarding to

Reading reflection 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reading reflection 6 - Essay Example According to the article, the police generally will associate certain crimes with a certain race. The police have a set mentality on a crime committed. The will go to brutal lengths in order to prove that certain minorities commit crimes more often. Police brutality will usually occur because of a number of reasons. The most common one is racial discrimination. Between 1990 and 1994, 89% of reported custody deaths involved Hispanics or African Americans (Elisha, Joshua & Zenobia 2010). These are examples of police brutality cases that are reported. Such examples include those involving Patrick Hall, Rodney king and Oscar Grant. I concur with the author’s views on Police brutality and racial discrimination. Police brutality especially towards the minority is not always physical. This is best illustrated by the case of a Patrick Hall. Patrick Hall, an African American who served in the US army. He then enrolled at Illinois State University from where he started his own business. Hall employed most of his friends who were also black. The police started harassing him as soon as they discovered his progress (Elisha, Joshua & Zenobia 2010). The police would humiliate Hall with random checks for illegal activities. They went as far as surveying and intimidating Hall. This forced him to shut down the business and leave the city. This is a classic case of emotional and verbal abuse among minorities. Police brutality will happen for a number of reasons. Chief among them is racial discrimination. Use of excessive force is described as police brutality. By 1999, 75% of males who were African American are pulled over because they were Black (The Struggle Against racial Profiling). Law enforcement officers will verbally, emotionally and physically offensive to citizens of race. However, the number of such incidences is decreasing constantly in the wake of human rights awareness. A criminal justice

Evaluate the Society of Homeopaths Code of Ethics and Practice and Essay

Evaluate the Society of Homeopaths Code of Ethics and Practice and discuss its value within the profession - Essay Example urn in order to treat patients they employ the use of five different models with the homeopath discerning which model will bring the most benefit to the patient (Owen 2007 p.1-12). In order to morally appraise the employment of such alternative techniques, questions both scientific and philosophical are raised. It is only through such discussion and debate that we come to a set of moral rules and guidelines which can define when and how the practice of homeopathy can be pursued. They not only preserve the reputation, dignity and integrity of the practice but also allow the practitioners to take responsibility for their actions. These are the Society of Homeopaths Code of Ethics and Practice and this paper will provide an assessment of its value within the profession (Owen 2007 p.1-12). As mentioned before these guidelines are of course based upon philosophical principles. It is through these principles that these procedures are decided and debated upon. Two of the parameters which have been used to decide whether or not the guidelines are ethical or unethical are the principles of moral relativism and utilitarianism. Moral relativism works on the principle that in a society most of its members consider certain actions to be either morally conscionable or unconscionable. Given that each society holds a different moral value for each action it stands to reason that each member of the society will have a different moral standard for each action. This brings us to the second philosophical tenant known as utilitarianism. According to this principle the result of taking an action defines its morality. Thus in this principles value is given to the consequences of the action taken rather than individual opinion of the action taken. Thus the true purpose of this principle is to maximize the advantage of the action taken (Driver 2006 p.11-21 & p.40-60). The reason why these parameters are mentioned above is because the ethical guidelines rather than being rigid and

Indian Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Indian Women - Essay Example Studying on Indian women (1) means to study the variety of women oriented cultures and values that the Indian women are distinguished for. There is not only one typical cultural aspect associated with the term, "Indian Woman", but there are rather diverse cultures and values that have become the ethos of the varied types of womanhood found in the country. The Indian woman can be classified into various categories such as a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife and even in the professional sector as a working lady and a housewife. All of these diversities are maintained in a streamlined manner and as India is a vast as a country, similarly, the cultures also vary. There are places where patriarchal society exists and there are also certain areas, such as some parts of Kerala, where there exists matriarchal society. Patriarchal society is one which is dominated by the male members of the family whereas the matriarchal society is dominated by the female counterparts. The role of the wome n in both the societies has lots of differences and this adds to the variety of the cultural diversities of the women in India. But keeping apart all the above said things it can be said with great certainty that whatever diverse forms the Indian woman may have but there is one national culture which is almost the same and found throughout the country. It has been the concern of many thinkers that the Indian woman not only devotes her precious time in the performance of the regular domestic chores but rather succumbs to the egoistic pleasures of her master and even for her own pride (2). It is now high time that our womankind should be freed from this barbaric act of forcing them to give up all their time in the kitchen. There has been certain revolutionary change that has taken place in the recent times and one of them is that of the growing status of the women. It is for the contribution of many factors that such a revolution has taken place freeing the modern woman from the fetters of the worn-out traditions, ignorance and prejudice. Talking about the culture, along with the growth of the British system in the 19th century, a varied cultural change could be felt. Towards the end of the decade, the change in the culture of India had taken a strong grip in the urban cities like Bombay, Chennai, Calcutta etc, and the world of restr icted domestic life and the most intimate relationships became subjects of public issues and topics of debates. India's (3) culture is implanted in values and virtues so deeply that even the British colonialism couldn't move even a single piece of it during their reign of change. But today, India is going through a change which is no less awkward. The change, however, is being determined by all such things: education, opportunity and development. My Interviewee, Sheetal, has been staying in India and she has two children. She stays in a joint family system where all the members of a family stay under a single roof and share everything within them. They follow the rules of a Hindu joint family. According to her in the joint family system, the head of the family deals with all the problems of the house that comes up and thus nothing goes out of the house to become a public issue. This has been found embedded in the Indian

Langston Hughes Masterpieces I, Too and A Dream Deferred Essay

Langston Hughes Masterpieces I, Too and A Dream Deferred - Essay Example The lines below show a steadfast refusal to accept the racial segregation. â€Å"Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed - I, too, am America.† The poet proudly and clearly declares, he too is an American and is not going to give up at any cost. â€Å"A deferred dream† was written long after the Harlem Renaissance. All the hopes and dreams expressed during that period hadn’t materialized even after two decades of waiting. The racial differences prevailed even during the 1950’s. The poem is an expression of the desperation of when the situation will finally change if at all. The first and last lines of the poem are extremely powerful. â€Å"What happens to a dream deferred?† â€Å"Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?† The poet laments with untold sadness when he asks whether his dreams will drop dead with him pressing his soul with a great burden. He immediately expresses his anger asking whether the dreams will explode causing another revolution. In short he urges his fellow brothers to start leading their dreams instead of waiting for them to happen at the mercy of someone else. Scanty Support from Non Black Poets The poet as a young representative of the Harlem renaissance hopes to change the world through his pen. Many of his African American colleagues had the same dream. But, not everybody was supportive. The modernist poets like Fearing and Davidman saw the Harlam Renaissance as a way of the black community to achieve dominance. Though they agreed racial discrimination should be kept in check, their views about the struggling of the black people were generally pessimistic (Smethurst, 1999). None of their works expressed the warm confidence and positive attitude as shown in these lines of â€Å"I, Too†. â€Å"But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes† In fact only a very few like Langston had this cheery spirit in the Harlem Renaissance group. But, sadly even his great warrior spirit gets wounded by time. Poets like Sterling Brown and Don West were also popular folk poets. But their poems usually kept â€Å"folk† out of the mass culture, catering the artistic side of educated people rather than the struggling blacks. The modern digital generation might find it hard to believe such inequalities were meted out to their fellow brothers with President Obama ruling the country now. But, the situation was much different a century before. The Repressed Anger The poem â€Å"A Deferred Dream† is like a continuation of the first poem â€Å"I, Too†. They record the changes expected with time and the disappointment of it not materializing as fast as expected. The author hopes he would be able to dine equally with the Whites in the future definitely. He cherishes the dream with his heart and soul. Twenty five years later, he is tired of still cherishing the same dream. He is tired to see his fellow brother being exploited still in terms of education, employment and several other fields. He watches them shed their roots and try to imitate the White people blindly. The poet is deeply hurt by this. On the other hand he also notices people with the true ‘black† spirit too who give him hope. He believes these people will fight for their rights better than the educated blacks. He warns the society about how the suppressed feelings of the black peop

Perceptual Map Marketing Essay Example for Free

Perceptual Map Marketing Essay The purpose of this document is to illustrate the information contained within the Perceptual Map Marketing simulation and relate to its information as practical and important. Contained in the simulation were three phases, each of significant importance. We will include in this document the situation, the recommended solutions and the results. We will discuss the multiple marketing aspects that were revealed within the simulation and we will attempt to create satisfactory responses to the various questions which arise out of the relationships between differentiation and positioning of products or services and what the impact of the product life cycle on marketing is. It is the hope that after reading this document there will be a clear concept of what the results of this simulation were and how they are applicable to the papers mission. All good things have a story and Cruiser Thorr was no exception. We learned about the meaning behind the bike. The simulation showed how to create and use a perceptual map using the bike as a primary example. When using the Perceptual Map it then became clearly more evident which direction the marketing goals should take to carry on its back the heart and soul of the Morotcycle brand. In selling thousands of motorcycles a year the Thorr Motocycle company has created a client base capable of supporting their imense variety of choice that is given to the consumer. Everything from the type of engine to how many people can ride the bike. They sell accessories such as protective gear, clothing and even little models for children. The services they offer to their customers are that you would expect from a first rate bike shop. Our task is to set up a positioning strategy, a perceptual map and create the parameters that will become vital to the product as it will be the customers only information before making a major purchase. For decades now the industry of motorized bikes have been on the ries. Even with this evident truth backed by consumer research the top selling item that Thorr Motorcycles is creating seems to be dwindeling. The logical conclusion that we are coming to to is that their target customers are in the decades of their 30s till almost 60s and through the proccess of life seem to have lost interests in what Thorr stands for. No longer are these men rebels or out to â€Å"be wild† as Steppenwolf would say. Any consumers who are younger are simply not capable of affording the high price tag associated with a Thorr bike which ranges in the high 20 to low 30 thousand dollar range. Younger riders are more apt to buy less expensive, quicker riding bikes that are the exact opposite of the image that Thorr stands for. We are going to solidify Cruiser thorrs postion in the market by creating its Perceptual map. There are four basic parameters that are relevant to the entire scheme of biking industry which reflect the highest chances for Cruiser Thorrs survival. These are the four parameters: lifestyle image, product design and styling, service offerings, and price. The selection of lifestyle image is almost a no brainer as it is the backbone of the Cruiser Thorrs previous success. The entire bikes thriving record is built upon a reputation that having their bike is a status symbol. The same reason that people buy Starbucks instead of simply brewing their own coffee at home. Unlike other industries, transportation specfically speaks to the identity of the person who has the item. They will spend much of their time utilizing their vehicle. In no vehicle type is this more relevant than in bikes where people will see the bike and there will be no windows, walls, or doors hiding the rider from the world. Everyone will see who the rder is and that is why Product Design nd Styling are so vital to its success. The bike and the rider are one. Man and machine moving along the pavement together. The service offerings are probably the most second important aspect to a vehicle other than the price. Maintanence and such can get very expensive very quickly. Assuring that you are taking care of you customers and looking out for their well being is primary in the grand scheme of all things. At the end of the thought of course is always the most important aspect. Cost and price. The price is affected by many, many things. Among these things is engineering, construction, materials, labor, transport of the bike itself. The whole purpose for this bikes creation is ot make money. To make money you must have a clear marketing plan. Due to this obvious fact we have restructured Cruiser Thorr and decided to not create a new bike. It is imperative to keep the Cruiser Thorr in production if Thorr is going to keep making motorcycles. It is the bike that has built their empire. It would be as if Levis stopped selling 501 Jeans. We instead create a financing option that gives the consumers with less money an opportunity to own a Cruiser Thorr. With increased service options will be able to make rational sense of the high price that we will be able to keep at the same price. For advertising it would probably be a good idea to put some endorsements in race tracks, hook up with a popular drink brand like MONSTER and maybe make a â€Å"Monster Bike† that can ride around. We can also take a page out of the GM book and put our bikes into movies and on television for product placement. The current straegy is based on price, product, location, current pomotions and services offered. With the goal of repositioning the product in an attempt to remove the competions hold on the market because we will move the parameters into concurrent thought forms and proccesses making us and our strategies the same as the competition. We know that there are four key factors that are represented by stages in a products life cycle that are important for the marketing officer to know and understand. The four stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Once a product reaches the stage of its full maturity it is time to revisit it with the hope of making improvements. If this is not done the product will very quickly enter the declining stages of its life cycle. This is the reason that Cruiser Thorr started to drop its sales figure. Their product had reached its maturity. Their current customers were old and any knew ones had no idea what Cruiser Thorr, the brand, stood for. For this reason we had to reinven and improve their bikes. It was necessary to compete. It is the hope that we have together reached and addressed the various key points necessary to form a graps of the information that was provided. We have described the three major phases in the simulation. The situation and the recommended solutions have been addressed along with what our results were. We have talked about the different marketing aspects and answered the different question sthat were arisen between the relationships of differentiation and positioning for each of the products and services and its impact. It was the desire of I to create a solid understanding of the purpose and use of Perceptual Maps in Marketing. References All information was taken from the Perceptual Map Marketing Simulation provided on the University of Phoenix website.

The Operation System Process Control Management Information Technology Essay

The Operation System Process Control Management Information Technology Essay In this Project, the project is divided into two sections. The first section is Operation System where process control management is selected as the research area. The first section consists of the investigation of what type of scheduling mechanism used in Window Vista and how Window Vista handles the process and thread. The internal system structure is also discussed in the first section. Besides that, different process algorithm will be identify and determine which process algorithm is the best. Lastly problem faced by process control management in Window Vista is also discussed. In the second section which is Computer System Architecture, Microprocessor have been chose n as the research area. Major trends affecting the microprocessor performance and design are identified and differences between microprocessor design goal for laptop. Server, desktop and embedded system will be discussed. Section1: Operation System-Process Control Management Introduction According to techterms.com, Operation System can be described as the program which allocates memory, processes tasks or instruction and serves as the user interfaces. In this document, Window Vista has been selected as the Operation System of the research. Types of scheduling mechanisms employed, creation and handling of process or thread and internal system structure Type of scheduling mechanism used in Window Vista Window Vista is one of the NT-Based operating created by Microsoft. The type of scheduling which NT-based operating system use is the Multilevel Feedback Queue (MLFQ). Englander (2009) described MLFQ as an attempt to combine the several features of different algorithms such as First in First Out, Round robin and Priority algorithm. In Window vista, its uses the MLFQ with 32 priority level which were defined from 0 to 31.The priority 0 through 15 are categories as normal priority while priority 16 through 31 are categories as soft real time priorities which require privilege to assign a thread . Besides that, the priority level of a thread may be changed according to the input, output or the CPU usage. Multilevel Feedback Queue Scheduling Multilevel Feedback Queue Scheduling main idea is to separate processes with different CPU-burst characteristic. In MLFQ, dispatcher will provide a number of queues with different priority. When a process is processed in queue 1 and requires a long time, it will be moved to queue 2 and waits for its turn to be processed again while all the process in queue 1 finish processed. This process will continue as much level as how many queues are provided by the dispatcher. In the last queue of MLFQ, it uses the Round Robin scheduling which will continue to provide time until the previous process is executed. However, when an input or output bound jobs occur, the kennels may change the priority level of the process and the process will be directed to the queue of the priority. There are also different factor which would affect MLFQ such as the number of queue, scheduling algorithm of each queue and method used to determine the priority level of the process. The diagram below show how a MLFQ function. CPU CPU P P P P CPU P P P P PNew Process Level 1 q=1 Level 2 q=2 Level N Q=2n (Figure Extracted from The Architecture of Computer Hardware and System Software, Drawn by Yap Kient Loong) Creation and handling of process or thread In the previous version of windows OS, the kernel scheduler had to make some unfair assumption regard tread execution time because the CPU cycle counters were not considered. For example, according to the diagram below, unfairness occur when two threads with same priority is ready to run at the same time. Thread a runs until the next time-slice internal expiration and the scheduler assume that it had run for the interval and its turn is finish .After that the thread B runs for a full interval. Threads A and B become ready to run Thread A Thread B Idle Interrupt Interval 1 Interval 2 (Figure Extracted from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.02.vistakernel.aspx, Drawn by Yap Kient Loong) In Window Vista, in order to provide fairness, CPU cycle counting is introduced. The scheduler would use the cycle counter register to determine how may CPU cycles a thread proceeded and the scheduler would be able to figure out the turn on the CPU by estimating the number of cycle the CPU capable to execute in a clock interval. The scheduler would not keep track of the interrupt during thread a turns which mean a thread will always obtain a turn on the CPU which would provide greater fairness. The diagram below show that at least one time slices is given to both threads. Threads A and B become ready to run Thread A Thread B Idle Interrupt Interval 1 Interval 2 Interval 3 (Figure Extracted from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.02.vistakernel.aspx, Drawn by Yap Kient Loong) Internal System Structure In the internal system structure of Vista, Window Vista uses MLFQ to process and execute the new process. In MLFQ, when a new process is entered into the dispatcher, the process is being processed in queue1 with the highest priority and if the quantum of the process is finished before it is executed, the process will be moved to the queue2 with lower priority and it will waits for its next turn after the processes in queue1 finish processed. This situation will keep on continue depending on the level of queue provided by the dispatcher and in the last queue, round robin algorithm is used to provide time until the process is complete. Besides that, the priority of the thread may be changed by the input/output and the CPU usage and the thread will be directed to the queue of the new priority. In window vista, when a thread is interrupted, cycle counter register will be used to determine that how much cycle a thread had processed after estimate number of cycle CPU executed in a clock in terval and the scheduler would not keep track of the interrupt and the thread will be able to obtain a turn on the CPU. Other Process Algorithm and determine which is the best Non-preemptive According to stargazer.bridport.edu (2011), non-preemptive algorithms are designed that once the process is allowed to process, it will not be removed from the processor until it has completed. First-in, first-out(FIFO) FIFO algorithm will assign the priority to processes in the order which they request the processor. The first process who requests the processor would be given the highest priority .However, FIFO scheduling is unfair because the short process would have to wait for the long process to be completed before it could be processed. Shortest job first(SJF) In SJF, the process is given priority according to the length of the next CPU burst of a process which means the lower burst time the higher priority of the process. The biggest advantages of this algorithm are that it is optimal and provide the minimum average time. Preemptive According to stargazer.bridport.edu (2011), preemptive algorithms are designed that the process with the highest priority should be using a processor. If a higher priority enters the queue, the process within the processor would be removed and return to the queue until it was the highest priority. Round Robin(RR) According to Englander (2009),Round robin is the simplest preemptive algorithm. RR provides each process a quantum of time, when the quantum of time of the process finish it will be return to the back of the queue and waits its turn. This process will continue until each process is completely processed. The diagram below had shown that SJF would have the shortest average turnaround time which means that Shortest Job First would be the best among the algorithm with the same burst time while First-In First Out would be the worst algorithm because it has the longest average turnaround time which is 13.4 Milliseconds. Type of algorithm FIFO SJF RR Waiting Time 48 Milliseconds 16 Milliseconds 29 Milliseconds Average Waiting Time 9.6 Milliseconds 3.2 Milliseconds 5.8 Milliseconds Turnaround Time 67 Milliseconds 35 Milliseconds 48 Milliseconds Average Turnaround Time 13.4 Milliseconds 7 Milliseconds 9.6 Milliseconds (Figure Source: Shanmugam, K. (2011). CPU Scheduling, Drawn by Yap Kient Loong) Problem faced using these techniques of process control management and solution used to overcome them Problem: Starvation In Window Vista, there are possible for starvation of MLFQ if new process continue to enter the queue. Starvation is a situation where a process is not given the CPU time for it to be executed. For example in MLFQ, when a process enter queue1, it was allowed to execute for 1 time unit and it was preempted to queue2.In queue2,the process is allowed to execute for 2 time unit and this situation keep on repeating until the process is fully executed. This has shown that when a process is preempted to the next queue, the process will receive more time unit and a longer process may still suffer from starvation. In order to solve this problem, the process should be promoted to a higher priority queue after the process has waited a long time to be executed. Conclusion (Operating System) In Conclusion, although there are different kind of algorithm, window Vista have selected Multilevel Feedback Queue to handle the process and thread because MLFQ have combined several features from FIFO, Round Robin and Priority algorithm. Besides that.in order to provide fairness, Vista had introduced CPU cycle counting had been introduced to ensure fairness of the process. Frequently Ask Question (FAQ) What is Starvation? Starvation is a situation where process is not given the CPU time for it to be executed. What is FIFO? First In, First Out is an algorithm which assign the priority to processes in the order which they request the processor. What is SJF? Shortest Job first is an algorithm where the process is given priority according to the length of the next CPU burst of a process. Limitation (Operation System) The FIFO process algorithm may cause delay or loss for real-time application because it treats all short or long process equally according to the order when they request the processor no matter of its priority. The round robin process algorithm assumes all process equally important. However for example, when three process starts at the same time and each process require 2 time slice. By comparing the result with FIFO, RR may require more time. Although RR is fair but it is inefficient. MFLQ process algorithm may provide fairness to the process by using CPU cycle counting .However longer process would still need to overcome problem such as Starvation. Section 2: Computer System Architecture Introduction According to webopedia.com, microprocessor is defined as a silicon chip which contains a central processing unit (CPU).Nowadays, microprocessor is widely used in our daily electronic devices because microprocessor is responsible for performing the instruction and function of a computer and manipulates the data from software and transfer information between hardware component such as keyboard and memory. The table below will show some of the trends which affect the performance and design of the microprocessor. Name Date Transistors Microns Clock Speed Data width MIPS 8080 1974 6,000 6 2 MHz 8 bits 0.64 8088 1979 29,000 3 5 MHz 16 bits 8-bit bus 0.33 80826 1982 134,000 1.5 6 MHz 16 bits 1 80386 1985 275,000 1.5 16 MHz 32 bits 5 80486 1989 1200,000 1 25 MHz 32 bits 20 Pentium 1993 3,100,000 0.8 60 MHz 32 bits 64-bitbus 100 Pentium II 1997 7,500,000 0.35 233 MHz 32 bits 64-bitbus ~300 Pentium III 1999 9,500,000 0.25 450 MHz 32 bits 64-bitbus ~510 Pentium 4 2000 42,000,000 0.18 1.5 GHz 32 bits 64-bitbus ~1,700 Pentium 4 Prescott 2004 125,000,000 0.09 3.6 GHz 32 bits 64-bitbus ~7,000 (Figure Source available from: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor1.htm, drawn by Yap Kient Loong) Major trends affecting microprocessors performance and design Pipelining According to techterm.com, pipelining can enable multiple instructions to be able to process at the same time. For example, in the past processor without pipelining is not capable to process two instructions at the same time. Pipelining enable the microprocessor to be able to fetch the second instruction while the microprocessor is decoding the first instruction. Pipelining also help to reduce the cycle time of the microprocessor which enhance the ability of the microprocessor to be able to fetch, decode and execute the instruction faster and more efficient. Clock Rate Another trend that was affecting the microprocessor is the Clock speed or clock rate. According to techterm.com, clock rate can be defined as the rate at which a processor can complete a processing cycle. This prove that microprocessor with a higher clock rate will be able to process an information faster. However, different element such as architectures of the processor, cache size and the speed of ram would also affect the clock rate of the processor. Transistors The number of transistor is also one of the important trends that affect the processor because transistor plays a huge role in transmitting the instruction. By increasing the number of transistor, the microprocessor would be able to perform better performance because the clock speed is increased. However, by increasing the number of transistor, more heat will be generated. Size Size of the processor has always been one of the trends that affect the design of the microprocessor. By reducing the size of the size of the microprocessor, it will allow the devices to be able to execute the instruction at higher clock rate. This is because by reducing the size, the circuit pathways are also reduced. Therefore, the processor would require less time to process the information and help to improve the process speed of the processor. However, maintaining the devices temperature would be difficult because the smaller the device, the hotter the temperature Multicore Multicore technologies have been one of the major trends which affect the design nowadays because the performance of the processor is greatly. According to Webpodia.com, Multicore is described as a type of architecture where a single physical processor contain more than or two core logic of processor. By using the multicore technology, the microprocessor would enable better multitasking and be able to process the information faster. This is because while the first instruction is being process, the second instruction will be processed by the other core which will help to increase the efficiently of the system. Differences between microprocessors design goal for laptops, servers, desktop and embedded system Microprocessor had been used widely in technology nowadays and has become one of technology which we would require. This is because microprocessor is required to execute and process the instruction from the user. However, microprocessor is also divided into few categories such as laptops microprocessor and server microprocessor to obtain the optimise performance. The table below will show the difference between the different kinds of microprocessor. Type of Microprocessor Desktop Laptop Server Embedded High Power Consumption Yes No No No Heat generated High Low Low Low Stability High High Highest High (Figure Differences between different Microprocessor, drawn by Yap Kient Loong) Desktop Microprocessor The main design goal of desktop microprocessor is to provide the maximum performance of the system to the user and keeping the power consumption in a reasonable limit. This microprocessor is also design to be able to handle high performances or complex application or program such as high graphical games and multimedia. Besides that, desktop microprocessors also enable better multi-tasking due to higher clock speed to increase the efficiency. Laptop Microprocessor The main design goal of laptop microprocessor is to enable the laptop consume less power and be able to run cooler compared to different type of microprocessor and enhance portability. This is because a laptop is not capable to fit large heat sinks just like a desktop and may cause uneasiness to the user due to the heat generated. Therefore the microprocessor should be able generate less heat which replaced the problem of large cooling system and enable the laptop to have a longer battery life. Server Microprocessor Server microprocessor main design goal is to be able to maximize the robustness of the server and availability and stability of the server. Besides that, a server microprocessor should also have low power consumption, less heat generated and capable to allocate the resources of processor for system cache. The main priority of the microprocessor is to be able to process and execute instruction fast in order to respond to the customers request quickly. Therefore the reliability and availability has become one of the most important factors to the design of the microprocessor nowadays. Embedded System Microprocessor Embedded System microprocessors are microprocessors which are embedded in automobile, industrial control system or medical field devices. Each of the devices would have its own function and require a microprocessor to process instruction. Due to the constraints on the size, power consumption and area usage of the microprocessor, the design of the microprocessor had been difficult to the designer. Therefore an embedded system microprocessors design goal should be able to consume less power and generate less heat in order to have the maximise performance of the devices. Conclusion In conclusion, there are a lot of trends which would affect the performance of the microprocessor. In order to fulfil the requirement of the user ,the design of the microprocessor have been modified through time in order to provide the best performance to the user such as the increase of transistor ,reduce the size of the microprocessor and new technology such as Multi-core technology. Each To fulfil the requirement of the user, microprocessor have been divided into different kind of microprocessor and each kind of microprocessor is designed with different goal and motive. Frequently Ask Question (FAQ) What is Microprocessor? Microprocessor is a silicon chip which contains a central processing unit which performs instruction and function of a computer. How Pipelining affect the microprocessor? Pipelining can enable multiple instructions to be able to process at the same time by the processor which can enhance the clock rate and performance. What is embedded system microprocessor? Embedded System microprocessors are microprocessors which are embedded in automobile, industrial control system or medical field devices which help to process instruction from the devices. Limitation (Computer System Architecture) The Microprocessor might get overheat after a long period of usage due to the static which pass through the transistor within the microprocessor. The speed of microprocessor is limited due to the transmission delay and heat build-up on the chip. Microprocessor is limited to do a one thing at a time with only a small amount of data. Although several microprocessors can be operated simultaneously, each processor is only capable to handle a small amount of data at one time. (3010 word)

Competition in the coffee industry

Competition in the coffee industry INTRODUCTION Today we stand witness to a new coffee era, one made up of Caffe Lattes, Espresso Macchiatos, Cappuccinos and Frappuccinos. Specialty Coffee is here to stay and no one will be more eager to tell you that than Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, the worlds largest specialty coffee bar. The study of Starbucks Corporation leads one on a multifaceted journey through an organizations insinuation into a culture, its dominance of a market and its creation of a brand synonymous with loyalty, integrity and longevity. Ever since it first spread through the Moslem world in the sixteenth century, coffee has played a pivotal role in society by providing meeting places for intellectuals from all sides of life to converge. As coffee was slowly introduced to the European world it was recognized for both its sociability and its taste. Soon Coffee houses were prevalent throughout Europe and were the natural locations for political, literary and societal debate. It crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the mid-seventeenth century and replaced beer as New York Citys favorite morning drink. Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 16,635 stores in 49 countries, including 11,068 (6,764 Company Owned, 4,304 Franchised) in the United States, followed by nearly 1,000 in Canada and more than 800 in Japan. Starbucks sells drip brewed coffee, espresso-based hot drinks, other hot and cold drinks, snacks, and items such as mugs and coffee beans. Through the Starbucks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand, the company also markets books, music, and film. Many of the companys products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Starbucks-brand ice cream and coffee are also offered at grocery stores. Michael E. Porter provided a framework that models an industry as being influenced by five forces. The strategic business manager seeking to develop an edge over rival firms can use this model to better understand the industry context in which the firm operates. Porters Five Forces of Competitive Position: Industry Rivalry The dynamics of the industry rivalry within the specialty coffee industry has changed dramatically since 1987. Unlike the early days of the specialty coffee industry when Starbucks competed primarily against other small-scale specialty coffee retailers they now compete against companies of varying sizes and different exposures to specialty coffee. Starbucks competes with a variety of smaller scale specialty coffee shops, mostly concentrated in different regions of the country. All of these specialty coffee chains are differentiated from Starbucks in one way or another. Coffee Bean competes with Starbucks. They are similar to Starbucks in their attempt to create a third-place but distinguish themselves by creating an entirely different atmosphere. Where Starbucks strives to create an upscale European atmosphere, Coffee Bean tries to implement a more American feel to their coffee houses. Often they will use knotty pine cabinetry, numerous fireplaces and soft seating. Also they offer a barrage of magazines and newspapers as well as the guarantee of speedy service and free refills. In addition, they offer free WiFi, drive through accessibility and meeting rooms for rent. Through their subsidiary VKI technologies, they have become the world leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of coffee making equipment and related products. In addition to these smaller scale specialty coffee companies, Starbucks must now compete against two of the largest companies in the fast food industry who have recently entered the specialty coffee segment. The first of these competitors is Dunkin Donuts, who claims to be the worlds largest coffee and baked goods chain. Currently, Dunkin Donuts operates about 5,500 franchises around the United States, 80 stores in Canada and 1,850 throughout the rest of the world. In the past couple years the franchise has put enormous emphasis on their coffee beverages. They serve coffee beverages in an assortment of types and styles including espresso, cappuccino and latte. They also serve their coffee in an assortment of flavors including French Vanilla, hazelnut, cinnamon and numerous others. The largest industry rival currently facing Starbucks is the McDonalds restaurant fast food chain. McDonalds originated from a single San Bernardino, California hamburger stand, which opened in 1948, and has turned into what is now the worlds largest restaurant chain with over 14,000 restaurants in the United States alone. The key to McDonalds success has been the consistent quality standards they achieve for their food, coupled with their quick service and low prices. 10 years ago Starbucks and McDonalds were at complete opposite ends of the spectrum in the restaurant industry. However, McDonalds, encouraged by the success of its upgraded drip coffee, began testing numerous drinks sold under the name McCafe. Starbucks meanwhile, with its rapid expansion, was adding drive-through windows and numerous breakfast sandwiches, similar to the Egg McMuffins served at McDonalds, to their stores. These measures have drawn the two companies closer together as competitors due to an encroachment into the demographic consumer base made by each company. In summary, the current impact of the industry rivalry force created by the competition between specialty coffee retailers is very high, especially as contrasted to what it was at the time of Starbucks rapid expansion twenty years ago. The growth of the industry has slowed while the number of competitors within the industry has increased. Both of these factors, in addition to Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds high strategic stakes in the specialty coffee industry, have caused this change from weak to strong industry rivalry. Potential for New Entrants Another of the five forces in Porters model, which has changed significantly since the late 80s when we analyze the current environment in which Starbucks competes, is the potential for new entrants. As stated earlier, the primary deterrents to entry in the specialty coffee industry are the various barriers to entry. The economies of scale within the specialty coffee industry have increased as the size of the top players has increased. Companies such as Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds have national distribution channels through which they can transport their specialty coffee at a relatively low cost compared to potential new entrants who have no such developed distribution systems. These larger companies are also able to economize on their accounting operations and marketing budgets by facilitating their specialty coffee operations from the same department as for all segments of their businesses. Finally, these larger corporations are also able to reap economies of scale through their purchasing by negotiating long term contracts with coffee farmers and purchasing coffee beans in bulk quantities at discount prices. There is numerous cost disadvantages imposed on new entrants that are independent of the economies of scale considerations. As the industry matures, the ability to access distribution channels and select from the highest quality coffee beans has becoming increasingly difficult. Most of the favorable store locations within the larger metropolitan areas have already been occupied by current competitors within the specialty coffee industry. Additionally, many companies now have proprietary product technology involved in the production of their specialty coffee as well as lower per unit costs due to an experience curve. Product differentiation within the specialty coffee industry has moved away from the purely objective and defined traits such as the taste of the coffee, convenience of the stores and prices charged. The industry has progressed toward more subjective traits such as the ambience of the store, the social responsibility of the company and brand identification. Many companies have gained very loyal customer bases stemming from their past advertisements, customer service, objective product differentiations and early entry into the industry. All of this makes it more difficult for new entrants to gain a solid customer base. From the analysis above, it can be ascertained that the barriers to entry in the specialty coffee industry have increased substantially. As a consequence, the potential threat of new entrants has gone down. Since, the industry does not have large capital requirements, smaller specialty coffee shops are still prevalent throughout the United States and the potential for more of them to enter the industry is still present. However, these new entrants can be disregarded given the unlikely nature of their concerted expansion and the inconsequential effects they have singly on the overall demand in the consumer market. Substitute Products The force created by substitute products in the specialty coffee industry has decreased. Many companies that presented the specialty coffee industry with a threat in the form of substitute products have actually entered the industry and now compete directly by offering their own premium coffee selections. The primary substitute products still posing a threat to the specialty coffee industry are the caffeinated soft drinks offered by Pepsi and Coca-Cola. However, even these substitute products pose little threat to the premium coffee industry. In the past five years, studies done on the percentage of meals or snacks that included a carbonated soft drink as opposed to coffee have shown a reversal in consumer preference. Coffee has gradually gained preference over carbonated soft drinks. This is mostly attributed to the health concerns associated with carbonated soft drinks and the new evidence showing coffee as a relatively healthy alternative. Supplier Bargaining Power With the extensive growth in the specialty coffee industry, supplier bargaining power has changed in numerous ways. In 1987, when the first Starbucks was conceived, the farmers from whom Starbucks purchased its premium coffee beans were numerous, small and unconnected to one another. Currently, many of the farmers who sell to Starbucks and other premium coffee chains are united by an initiative known as fair trade certified coffee, which was organized by TransFair USA. Under this initiative, companies such as Starbucks are given the opportunity to advertise their coffee as being fair trade certified if they purchase from coffee suppliers that are democratically owned cooperatives. This initiative was designed to ensure that the coffee farmers would be compensated fairly for their crops. Their increased unity under this initiative worked as a positive externality by increasing their ability to exert bargaining power over their buyers. The fair trade coffee certification is looked at by consumers in their decision of where to purchase their premium coffee. Thus, although the farmers are still numerous and small they are now connected through the initiative launched by TransFair USA and act in some respects like one large entity. Although the farmers of premium Arabica beans are still in constant competition with the substitute Robusta coffee bean growers, their bargaining power is not significantly diminished by this threat due to the unlikelihood of a big premium coffee retailer adopting the substitution. When Starbucks first began purchasing premium Arabica coffee beans in the late 1980s, they executed purchases incrementally throughout the year. Currently, they lock their coffee suppliers into long-term contracts to dilute potential price volatility. These contracts have stipulations within them which place a financial burden on the coffee suppliers if they choose to supply a different company. By creating these switching costs for the premium coffee suppliers, Starbucks has diminished their ability to play one buyer against another, which decreases their bargaining power. A last component to the analysis of supplier bargaining power within the current specialty coffee industry environment is the threat of forward integration. Technically, the farmers can forward integrate by setting up smaller coffee shops and brewing their own batches. This is, however, extremely unlikely and has yet to occur. When comparing the bargaining power of suppliers today in the specialty coffee industry to the bargaining power of suppliers during the late 1980s, it is apparent that suppliers are more powerful today. The increased unity among the coffee farmers, decreased significance of specialty coffee retailers purchases as a proportion of premium coffee bean sales and increased importance placed on high quality coffee beans by the purchasers have all acted to increase the bargaining power of the supplier group. Although Starbucks has locked some of the coffee suppliers into long-term contracts not all suppliers are affected; thus, the supplier bargaining power is only ma rginally diminished by that tactic. Bargaining Power of Buyers The last component of Michael Porters five forces analysis to be applied to the modern specialty coffee industry is the force created by the bargaining power of buyers. The primary buyers in the specialty coffee industry remain individual consumers, who neither engage in concerted behavior nor individually purchase in large volumes relative to the total sales of a corporation such as Starbucks. Unlike the late 1980s, however, there are a few buyers who purchase in large volumes. These large buyers are typically other multinational corporations who choose to serve Starbucks brewed coffee in their offices. However, the effects of losing one of these buyers to a competitor would not be detrimental to a company with a large sales volume such as Starbucks. Neither the individual consumers nor the multinational corporations who purchase specialty coffee commit a significant fraction of their resources to these purchases. This makes the buyers less sensitive to price fluctuations and gives the players within the specialty coffee industry more control over pricing. This acts to decrease the bargaining power of both the buyer groups. The expansion of the specialty coffee industry created a wider array of competitors who offered high quality specialty coffee. This made it much harder for the players in the specialty coffee industry to differentiate themselves through quality and turned quality into the industry standard. In addition to the increasing quality standardization which specialty coffee has undergone, the buyers face no switching costs and have an enormous selection of retailers from whom they can buy. The buyers of specialty coffee do pose a credible threat of backward integration. This threat can be carried out if a buyer chooses to start a mom and pop specialty coffee store in close proximity to an established specialty coffee store. Same-store sales are roughly 20% lower in Starbucks stores located within a two block vicinity of mom-and-pop specialty coffee stores. The ability of buyers to backward integrate is enhanced by the availability of all information regarding the demand, market pricing, and supplier costs in the specialty coffee industry through sources such as the World Wide Web. With full information, the buyer is in a better position to ensure that they pay a favorable price and receive an appropriate level of quality from the product. The amount of bargaining power that can be exerted by the buyers within the specialty coffee industry has increased as a result of the availability of information regarding market variables. This along with the other previously discussed changes to the dynamics of buyer bargaining power has increased its overall magnitude from the level it was at in the late 1980s. Limitations of Porters Five Force Model Porters model is a effective tool used to identify whether new products, services or businesses have the potential to be profitable. However it can also be very illuminating when used to understand the balance of power in other situations. Porter argues that five forces determine the profitability of an industry. At the heart of industry are rivals and their competitive strategies linked to, for example, pricing or advertising; but, he contends, it is important to look beyond ones immediate competitors as there are other determines of profitability. Specifically, there might be competition from substitutes products or services. These alternatives may be perceived as substitutes by buyers even though they are part of a different industry. An example would be plastic bottles, cans and glass bottle for packaging coffee for Starbucks. There may also be potential threat of new entrants, although some competitors will see this as an opportunity to strengthen their position in the market by ensuring, as far as they can, customer loyalty. Finally, it is important to appreciate that Starbucks purchase from suppliers and sell to buyers. If they are powerful they are in a position to bargain profits away through reduced margins, by forcing either cost increases or price decreases. This relates to the strategic option of vertical integration, when Starbucks acquires, or mergers with, a supplier or customer and thereby gains greater control over the chain of activities which leads from basic materials through to final consumption. It is important to be aware that this model has further limitations in todays market environment; as it assumes relatively static market structures. Based originally on the economic situation in the eighties with its strong competition and relatively stable market structures, it is not able to take into account new business models and the dynamism of the industries, such as technological innovations and dynamic market entrants from start-ups that will completely change business models within short times. For instance, coffee and soft drinks is often considered as being highly competitive. The industry structure is constantly being revolutionized by innovation that indicates Five Forces model being of limited value since it represents no more than snapshots of a moving picture. Therefore, it is not advisable to develop a strategy solely on the basis of Porters models Haberberg and Rieple, but to examine it in addition to other strategic frameworks of SWOT and PEST analysis. Nevertheless, that does not mean that Porters theories became invalid. What needs to be done is to adopt the model with the knowledge of their limitations and to use them as a part of a larger framework of management tools, techniques and theories. This approach, however, is advisable for the application of every business model. CONCLUSION Any company must seek to understand the nature of its competitive environment if it is to be successful in achieving its objectives and in establishing appropriate strategies. If a company fully understands the nature of the Porters five forces, and particularly appreciates which one is the most important, it will be in a stronger position to defend itself against any threats and to influence the forces with its strategy. The situation is fluid, and the nature and relative power of the forces will change. Consequently, the need to monitor and stay aware is continuous. Some issues during the implementation of these Five Forces are crucially important for organizations to build long-term business strategy and sustaining competitive advantages rather than simply list the forces. Successful use of the Porter Model Analysis includes identifying the sources of competition, the strength and likelihood of that competition existing, and strategic recommendations for the action a company should take to in order to develop barriers to competition. Having applied Michael Porters five forces model to the specialty coffee environment which confronted Starbucks in 2007, a conclusion can be logically derived regarding how the proportional effects of each force on the competition within the specialty coffee industry has changed since 1987. Specifically, the force created by industry rivalry has gone from one grounded in strategies of differentiation and focus while discouraging price wars to an extremely competitive environment where differentiation is increasingly difficult and price wars are looming. The strength of the force imposed by the potential for new entrants has decreased as a result of more formidable barriers to entry. The bargaining power of both suppliers and buyers has increased as a result of increased unity among the suppliers and the accessibility of information to the buyers. The threat of substitutes is still insignificant given the continued declining sales of carbonated soft drinks compared to coffee and speci fically specialty coffee.

Nasa Mars Missions Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"The United States is justified in spending billions of dollars on NASA space missions to Mars.† Throughout the course of history, man has dreamed of stepping foot on another planet. The advances in technology in the 20th century have allowed man to do what at one time was considered unthinkable for millenniums before. With the advent of the modern space program in the early 1950’s, NASA has performed many inconceivable feats. They have sent and returned men to space. They’ve set up space stations orbiting the earth. They have allowed men to land on the moon, collect samples, and then return to the earth. They have sent spacecraft to explore comets and other planets. They have even sent space probes outside the known walls of this solar system. Recently, NASA has been spending billions of dollars in researching our second nearest planet, Mars. In understanding the scientific importance that such research can mean, the United States is justified in spending this money on NASA space missions to Mars. President John F. Kennedy said in 1961 that he believed that the United States could put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Unfortunately, he never lived to see this prophetic feat performed. But in July of 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon before live audiences around the world. As he stepped out on this extraterrestrial surface, he stated the now famous words, â€Å"That was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.† But why was Kennedy so adamant about sending men to the moon? What significance could such a feat serve in our lives? Of course, we lived in a different time then. Many believed our effort to send a man to the moon was just an attempt to display the philosophical superiority of capitalism over communism during the height of the Cold War. If America could send a man to the moon before the Soviets, then perhaps, it was thought, that the world would come to understand that our capitalistic form of government allows scientific advancement much faster and better than a communist or socialist form of government. No doubt, the United States was involved with a â€Å"space-race† that was much more political in nature than technological. But perhaps President Kennedy saw something else. Perhaps he saw the benefits of such a feat in realms other than just political or philosophical. While signing the authorization bill of the N... ...worlds. Mars is just the second â€Å"giant leap† in our knowledge of the universe. Who knows what discoveries will be found on our research of other planets? To give up on space exploration due to financial restraints is like giving up on science in general. Just like the world is much bigger than our neighborhood, city, state and even country, so is science bigger than our planet. We must continue to reach out to other planets to find knowledge that may make our life on this planet more meaningful and better. The science fiction of yesterday always seems to become the science of today. Television shows like Star Trek and Star Wars have elements that are just now being developed within our lifetime. Technology begins with a dream – a concept – that is realized with greater technological advances. And these advances are developed through steps. It is impertinent that the United States continues to fund the exploration of Mars. We must not fall behind or lose this opportunity that we have to discover great new truths for the sake of economic or political reasoning. When all rationale are considered, it makes social, technological, and ecological sense to continue these great missions.

Oliver Twist - Summary :: essays research papers

During the summer of 1999, I have chosen to read the book, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Reading this book will better prepare me for my upcoming course of global studies because it deals with many of the regions and time periods we will be studying in class. Although this book was a classic that I thought I had known so much about, reading it and paying attention to the setting and surroundings of the young boy’s life, I noticed many historical events and customs from his time period. The following is a report including the answers to the questions provided for my summer reading program. The story begins with a woman giving birth to a baby without the proper instruments necessary and dies. The boy is brought up in a dirty home with little to eat and under poor conditions. No one knows of the boy’s identity. His government caretakers give him the name Oliver. Oliver grows up in a world with no sympathy for poor orphans. He goes to London to escape his mean guardians and to try to make a better life for himself. On his journey he is mixed up with thieves and is caught stealing even though it was the people he was with. He gets sick and is taken care of by the people who he originally stole from and they grow to love him. The thieves find out about him staying with the people and kidnap him. More stealing takes place and Oliver is trained to be a better thief. One time, during a robbery, Oliver is shot and left for dead by the thieves. The people at the house Oliver was to rob took him in and gave him a home. Oliver’s identity is found. It turns out that O liver was supposed to receive an inheritance from his father and one of the people who got him caught knew this. After confessing, Oliver received his inheritance and lived a happy life from then on. After reading this book and studying the surroundings of the main characters as well as the other characters, I am lead to believe that this book takes place in two different sections of England in the late seventeen hundreds to the early eighteen hundreds. Most of the story takes place in warehouses and in broken down buildings or other hideouts. Other scenes take place in the home of wealthy people in London.

Reason vs. Passion in Jane Eyre Essay

Reason and passion are two emotions that are shown by most of the characters in Jane Eyre. Some people ´s behaviour is governed by rationality and they think carefully about all what they do. The opposite happens with impulsive people who follow their feelings, prevailing passion to reason. Passionate people do not think before performing their actions, because of that they are considered more authentic than people who act guided by reason. However, sometimes passion must be left behind and people have to act according to reason and consciously. This situation is clearly shown in Jane Eyre, the novel written by Charlotte Brontà «, in which the two most important characters show strong passion and reason in their personalities. Through conflict, allusion and symbolism the writer tells the story of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. Conflict is used by the writer to show the collision and disagreement between two persons and also the inside conflict in a person. In the novel a conflict between two human beings is clearly expressed in the relationship that Jane has with her evil aunt Mrs. Reed. Jane feels humiliated and denigrated by her aunt, she cannot bear any more the cruel treatment and she feels dominated by fury. The writer describes Jane ´s behaviour as â€Å"..shaking from head to foot, thrilled with ungovernable excitement† (29), uncontrollable and irrepressible as all kinds of passion. The conflict between them is clearly shown by the writer when Jane says, â€Å"†¦I am glad you are no relation of mine: I will never call you aunt again so long as I live.† (29). The lack of love and the difficult relation between them is evident in those lines. Moreover, Jane ´s life is almost always a fight between reason and passion, in the novel the author shows how women in Victorian ´s time s were not allowed to guide their decisions by feelings or emotions. Restrictions and limitations were ordinary in women ´s life and those restrictions were the cause of many internal female conflicts. An example of this occurs with Jane when she says,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦I must renounce love and idol. One dear word comprised my intolerable duty- â€Å"Depart!†Ã¢â‚¬ (279). In this situation Jane has to fight against her passion; against her love and hope to stay with Mr. Rochester despite knowing that he was already married. Jane says, â€Å"..Mr. Rochester I must leave you.† (268) she is concerned about what she must do, even when it does not concurs to what she wants. Guided by her reason she leaves Thornfield and she exclaims, â€Å"Farewell! Was the cry of my heart as I left him. Despair added, Farewell for ever!.† The author shows clearly, how reason and passion can produce conflicts with other people and also internal ones. Allusion is also used by the writer to indicate the power that passion and reason have in the characters ´ personalities. Allusion to God and the Bible are common in the novel. At that time people ´s behaviour was governed by Christian duties and they had to struggle between those duties and their natural human passion. Jane Eyre is not the only character who shows passion in the novel and also Mr. Rochester has a strong and fervent presence which is demonstrated by the writer in an example when he says, â€Å"†¦By God I long to exert a fraction of Samson ´s strength, and break the entanglement like tow!†(267). The reference to Samons,(â€Å"the man of the sun†) who is mentioned in the Bible because of his supernatural strength given by God, represents the violent and uncontrollable emotions of Mr. Rochester expressed when Jane tells him her will of leaving Thornfield and him. Furthermore, allusion to God is used many times in the novel and it denotes the imp ortance of religion at that time and the strong belief in God and divine punishments. However, many times Jane ´s behaviour is against will of God but also against society ´s rules. An example of that is stated by the writer when she says â€Å"†¦I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;-†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (223), it clearly shows Jane ´s rebellion and audacity to talk to a man inappropriately. Besides, she says, ..†it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God ´s feet, equal,-as we are!† (223) here it is expressed a divine equality and at the same time the human passion which does not know about reason. On the other hand, allusion to God also expresses the power of faith in guiding Jane to follow her reason and an example of that is given when she says: â€Å"I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principl es received by me when I was sane, and not mad- as I am now.† (280). Jane ´s madness is actually her passion, her love and the law of God is the sensible behaviour that she has to have, and even which she used to have. That conscious and prudent conduct is her reason, which represents the will of God. Moreover, when she leaves Mr. Rochester her last words are blessings, she says, †God bless you, my dear master!† (281). It states her strong belief in God and the peace of the right decision making. Those allusions to God represent the importance of religion in that period of time in which the novel was written and how it influences in people ´s reason and passion. Central character ´s personalities are well developed through fire, symbolism of passion and water as symbolism of reason. Fire represents passion and sexual appetite in the character of Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester ´s wife, who sets fire to his bedroom. That scene is described by Jane, who says, â€Å"Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapour, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.† (130). The fire around the bed is a clear representation of sex and passion and it is reasserted when Mr. Rochester describes Bertha as â€Å"intemperate and unchaste† (270) which are adjectives related with uncontrollable passion and sex. Then another incident is the fire which destroys Thornfield and in which Bertha dies and Mr. Rochester goes blind. A host tells Jane the story that happens two month after her departure and he says,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦she sets fire to the hangings of the room next to her own (†¦) a nd made her way to the chamber that had been the governess† (378). It reflects Bertha ´s intention to kill Rochester and Jane ´s love and represents the danger of uncontrollable feelings. On the other hand, water symbolizes the extinction of fire and the reason that defeats passion. It happens when Jane saves Mr. Rochester ´s life in the bedroom fire and she says, â€Å"I rushed to his basin and ewer; fortunately,(†¦) both were filled with water. I heaved them up, deluged the bed and its occupant† It states Jane ´s intention not to follow her feelings towards Mr.Rochester but act guided by reason. Moreover, she says, â€Å"by God aid, succeeded in extinguishing the flames†, which indicates Jane ´s will of acting guided by religious rules and extinguishes her inappropriate love. Fire as imagery of the danger of improper feelings and water as representation of reason and death of passion tells the character ´s personalities. In conclusion, Charlotte Brontà « exposes through conflict, allusion and symbolism how passion and reason are the guide of characters ´ behaviour at different situations in the novel. Jane as a child and when she is treated unjustly is guided by passion, but then when she grows up she learns how to control her passionate emotions. However, in some situation she is not able to do it and reacts with rage, for instance when Mr. Rochester tells her that she has to leave Thornfield. In contrast she follows her reason when she knows that he is already married, but it is possible because of her strength and religion belief. She takes the hard decision of leaving her love, faces an uncertain reality and only comes back when Mr. Rochester is widow. He ends up being a partial dependent husband because of his disabilities and it could be interpreted as a punishment for his excessive and improper passion. It is not a classical romantic novel but the romance genre is predominant and in the end love survives dangers and difficulties.

International Marketing Essay

1. Introduction 1. History Lever Brothers was founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever. The company initially started its operations by manufacturing soap. In 1917, the company began to diversify into foods, acquiring fish, ice cream and canned foods businesses in order to apply synergies caused by commonalities in the raw materials required to produce and distribute these products. In 1930, the Dutch company Margarine Unie merged with a British company, Lever Brothers, to form the multinational Unilever. Unilever has two parent companies: Both companies have the same directors and effectively operate as a single business. 2. Marketing Management Philosophy Marketing management process undertakes the stages of strategy formulation, implementation and control. Therefore, it is imperative to first identify the adopted marketing management philosophy by the organization. Organisational purpose of Unilever clearly states that organisation’s focal attention is centered towards anticipation and satisfaction of customer needs and wants. Kotler (2000) mentions that marketing concept holds that the key to achieving its organizational goals consists of the company being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering and communicating customer value to its chosen target markets. Deep insight into organizational purpose reveals that goals and objectives of Unilever depend on determining the needs and wants of target markets and to satisfy the customers efficiently than competitors. The company also considers its role as socially responsible entity by ethical business practices and ongoing welfare projects in many of the South Asian markets. Such adopted marketing management philosophy as a central element of corporate purpose will definitely influence the international/Global strategy of Unilever. Hence, it can be concluded that whole of the business philosophy of Unilever is embedded into marketing oriented organization with the purpose to keep in consideration the expectations of all stake holder groups. 2. Organisational structure of Unilever Organisational structure of Unilever follows a de-centralized setup, where corporate level strategies are formed by board members and executive committee. Unilever operates in two separate global divisions for food and home & personal care business. Table 1: Regional groups Source: http://www.uniliver.com The directors of these global divisions are company’s executive committee. Business level strategies and formulated by Presidents of each of the separate regional groups made for food and health & personal care business. These business presidents are responsible for delivering business results in their respective regions and reports to Directors of Food and Home & Personal care division. At functional level, host country managers are responsible to implement strategies and to make functional level strategies in accordance with the changes in sub-localities. The core building block in Unilever is the local operating company. These companies are organized into eleven regional groups. At regional levels, Unilever has deployed host country managers. 3. Global or international strategy of Unilever At present, it is difficult to suggest any of the orientation stage for Unilever. When it comes to global marketing, market segmentation decisions are no longer focused on national borders. Cateora and Graham (2000) explain that at global marketing stage, companies treat the world including their home market, as one market. Market segmentation decisions are no longer focused on national borders. However, critical review of Unilever’s operations state that the marketing strategies of the company are both internationally and globally oriented. While, developing market segments, Unilever takes into accounts the incomes levels, usage patterns and other factors that span countries and regions. The global brands of Unilever in Food and Personal care business are examples of it. However, the company also laid a minute focus on various regional markets by developing distinct regional market segments in light of the tastes, preferences, income and other factors of these markets. The broad category of local brands is an example of it. Therefore, in order to determine elements of Global/International marketing strategy of Unilever, it is imperative to analyze the stages of international marketing involvement and strategic orientation of the company. The deep insight into these dimensions reveals the stature of organization as international or global company. 1. Stages of marketing involvement Initially, the focus of the company was limited to few product categories, targeted segments and market. However, with the passage of time, the company was gone through the transition process from one stage to another. The learning curve and experience of Unilever along with analysis of market potential and company capabilities enable the organization to extend its product portfolio and to step into different markets. By keeping in view the involvement factors of company towards strategic marketing orientation, it is difficult to suggest any one stage of orientation. Unilever is truly international in a sense that it sells diversified range of products around world which comes up from planned production. However, the concept of global marketing states that market segmentation decisions are no longer focused on national borders. In practice, critical review of Unilever’s operations reveal that the marketing strategies of company are both internationally and globally oriented. Development of market segments at Unilever takes into account the taste and consumption preferences and other segment variables that span countries and regions. The global brands of Unilever in food and personal care business highlight this approach. At the same time, Unilever focuses on regional and country markets by developing distinct regional market segments by considering tastes, preferences, income and other natures of these regional markets. The broad category of local brands made to tailor the regional market needs exhibit this approach. Hence, it can be concluded that Unilever is catering to the needs and wants of mass market segments around the world by making a blend of international and global orientation. 2. Strategic orientation 1. Strategic Brand Management International strategy of Unilever is focused to build its business by creating, developing and delivering value brands. Unilever has a diversified product category and each product line has much depth and width in it. Evaluation of Unilever’s marketing strategies reveals that the organization is more centered towards buildings and positioning brands, Branding is known to be the spinal cord function at Unilever which basically stick together all functions of marketing like marketing research, product development, pricing, advertising etc. Thus, Marketing functions and activities at Unilever are combined together to focus the process of branding. As first step, marketing research function facilitates the brand managers and business level managers with the comprehensive profiles of various regional markets around the world. Then, strong brands are developed as a solution to customer needs. Unilever has core focus towards effective brand management in order to develop both global and local brands. As a part of future growth strategy of company, Unilever implied law of contraction to refine and retune its diversified brand categories by focusing only on potential brands. Consequently, organization resources will be allocated on the brands, which have growth potential and growth levels and will be pursued to enhance profitability. Jean and Kapferer (2000) states that the brand is a focal point for all the positive and negative impressions created by the buyer over time as they comes into contact with brand’s product, distribution channel, personnel and communication. Accordingly, brand managers and research experts at Unilever classify the customer groups in term of their demographic, geographic, economic and personal profiles. Along with, they identify the changing consumer preferences in terms of their needs, wants, satisfaction, tastes and expectations. All these considerations are then tailored to manipulate the marketing mix elements to develop a successful and value delivering brand. One of the prominent examples of Unilever brands which shows the company’s insight into consumer health requirements is Annapurna Salt. Continuous marketing research function and collaboration with health organisations let Unilever to identify that majority of people living in Africa and south Asian region inherently have deficiency of iodine component in their bodies. As a result, Unilever introduced iodised salt for the consumer segments in this market with the brand name, Annapurna. The particular example shows that understanding of consumer needs enables Unilever to build in health benefit into their product. 2. Social Responsibility This dimension of international marketing strategy clearly defines the characteristics of organizational cultural paradigm and purpose of the company to position itself in minds of customers. Kotler (2000) defines that societal marketing concept holds tha the organisation’s task in to determine the needs, wants and interests of target marketes and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhance the conusmer’s and the society’s well-being. In realistic and factual terms, in today’s business environment, social responsibility is a good marketing strategy to effectively position the corporate and brand names in targeted markets. Companies have international and global orientation operates in variety of international regional markets. Although, the principle of marketing always remain the same regardless of the market environments, however, at the corporate level, the strategists also take into consideration the role and overall contribution of company with in each market and region. Contemporary marketing philosophies do consider the role of an organization as socially responsible entity by ethical business practices. The degree to which an organization will be socially responsible to its macro market environments is determined at the stage of formulation of corporate level strategy. Incase, of a multinational company like Unilever, international marketing strategies take into account the role of company in various environments. Organization does incur some costs to emerge as socially responsible organization and do seek some benefits out of it in form of consumer’s affiliation and overall perception of organization in their minds. Unilever claims: As a multi-local multinational we aim to play our part in addressing global environmental and social concerns through local actions and in partnership with local governments and organisations. Now it is quite obvious that at broader scale the international marketing philosophy of Unilever is to stand as socially responsible organization. However, the action-oriented approach towards implication of social responsibilities entirely depends upon individual nature of market and environmental conditions. As a decentralized approach of strategy, the corporate level management at local operating companies defines the paradigm of social responsibility in regional and country markets and business level managers pursue the objectives by developing and implementing action-oriented strategies. Unilever Pakistan is the largest consumer goods company in Pakistan. In Pakistan, it is registered as a separate local operating company. In order to pursue international marketing strategy contents in relevance to social responsibility, Unilever Pakistan, in context to the local market environment analyzed and assessed nature of market environmental. The through analyses of environmental and natural resources reveal that the country faces shortage of water resources which are crucial to be used as household, agricultural and industrial requirements. In result, Business level managers worked out to enhance the performance and efficiency of its production and manufacturing processes by cutting shirt the overall requirement of water resources to be used in processes. With in five year time, Unilever reduced its total water consumption by 40% and proved its role as a socially responsible organization in the sector. 3. Identification of Major Competitor: Jobber (2004) defines that the most important part of conducting competitor’s analysis is identification of competitors, following product form, product substitution, generic strategies and competition arena. In FMCG sectors, there are some names which have made significant progress in the industry. Namely, few of them are Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever. The examination of Unilever’s business segments and product categories reveal that Nestle and Proctor & Gamble are chief competitors of Unilever in international market. Precisely, Nestle is the chief competitor to Unilever due to parallel level of competition among these two companies in respect to homogeneity among their international marketing strategy. The emphasis of both of the companies towards building global and local brands simultaneously, shows that the adopted business slogan is â€Å"Think Global-Act local†. As a result Nestle and Unilever stand shoulder to shoulder in many of the regional markets with diversified line of their local product brands. Annual turnover of Unilever for the year 2003 shows that its Food division contributed 57% share to total sales turnover and 43% share is contributed by Home & Personal Care division. The percentages clearly exhibit that Unilever has comparative strength in its food division over home & personal care division. In light of the analysis, it can be concluded that Nestle is the chief competitor of Unilever in the business segments of Food as Nestle is recognized as world largest manufacture of food related items. On the other hand, Proctor & Gamble is Unilever’s leading competitors in business segments of Home & Personal care as P&G has relative strength in this sector. In food sector, Nestle is far ahead then Unilever due to width and depth of its product lines. In comparison to Unilever, The product categories of Nestle includes; Baby food, dairy products, Break fast cereals, Ice cream, Chocolate & confectionary, prepared food, Beverages, Bottled water and Pet care nutrition. In Home and Personal care, P&G enjoys leadership position in Beauty and Fabric care as the company attains strong global brands in these categories like Ariel and Pantene. 2. Percentage Contribution of geographical markets to total organizational Turnover Annual Sales figures of Nestle, for the year 2003 shows that European and American markets are its major business markets, as both of the markets contributes 32% and 31% respectively to total organizational turnover. Similarly, in case of P&G, North American and Western Europe are the chief markets with 50% and 24% share to turnover respectively. For Unilever, major business markets are Europe and North America which percentage share of 43% and 23% respectively to total sales turnover. The figures clearly state that all of the organizations have a cut-throat competition in North American and European markets and each of the organization has relative strengths in these markets. However, the Asian Pacific markets which have a huge business potential due to huge house hold size and populated economies, there still exists significant margin of improvement. For P&G, Northeast Asian market contributes 21% share to total turnover for year 2004. For Nestle, Asian and African markets contribute to 16% of annual turnover. And in case of Unilever, Asia and Pacific contributes 17% to total organizational turnover. 4. Nature of markets and methods of entry 1. Nature of Markets The business operations of Unilever are expanded over almost 110 countries world wide. Each of the regional and country market has different nature in terms of economies of scale, market segmentation, level of competition, political and social factors. In order to have a deep in-sight to explore and identify the marketing strategies of Unilever in relation to market nature, we will give you a highlight of company’s operations in Asian region with particular emphasis on Pakistani and Chinese market. 1. Nature of market in Pakistani 1. Economic & Demographic Profiles Pakistani market constitutes total population of almost 150 million people. In Pakistan, the affluent and rich class is no more than 6% of the total population. Almost 32% of population is living a life under poverty line. The major segment of the society belongs to middle class consumers which are actually target market for FMCG Company like Unilever. The product portfolio of Unilever constitutes almost 135 brands for Pakistani market. Majority of these brands are part of consumer basket index in South Asian society. Prominent examples are the items like cooking oil, laundry detergent and tea, as these product categories are used with in every Asian household. 2. Level of Competition FMCG companies like Unilever owns a diversified range of products which are different in their nature and most of the product categories are not even interrelated such as laundry detergent and tea. These differential products in a way are recognizable as different strategic business units. Unilever markets almost 135 brands in Pakistan and have not to confront too many players in FMCG industry. The structure of industry in Pakistani market has been shaped in form of Oligopoly, as there are only few leading players as Nestle and Proctor and Gamble. However, each product category defines different level of competition when it comes to analyze the potential of different competing brands both in global and local context. For example, while comparing to huge industry giant like Uniliver, P&G offers limited range of product categories in Pakistani market. On the other sinde, leading detergent brand, Ariel, owned by P&G gives tough time to brands which are included in Unilever’s product category of laundry detergents. Similarly, there are some local companies who manufacture and market a single brand. Tapal is one of the leading tea brands in Pakistani market which stand in cut throat competition against Unilever’s global brands, Lipton and Supreme. The third important factor which determins level of competition for Unilever in Pakistani is the huge market of unbranded products. The unbranded products are low priced and inferior in quality and they are marketed in within regional boundaries. In order to combat these unbranded products, Unilever extended its distribution network to remote areas to capture market share. 3. Blend of Local & Global Brands Unilever clearly understand the cultural and social differences in Pakistani society which have a significant impact over people’s preferences, tastes and life style. By following the nature of market with heavy regional segregation, Unilever decided to offer both Global brands and developing local brands in the market. Lipton is the leading brand of Unilever in the product category of tea. It is marketed in over 100 countries and it shows the global presence of the brand. However, Unilever Pakistan owns several regional brands in product category of tea which are low priced. These tea brands like; Tazza, A1 and Top star are distributed and circulated in regional markets. Similarly, the advertising and media focuses regional languages to promote these brands. 2. Nature of target market in China China cosmetic market has been expanding rapidly over the past 20 years. In 1982, the total sale was only about RMB200 million. By 2001, this figure went up to about RMB40 billion, a growth of 200 times from 1982. China’s annual sale of cosmetics are forecasted to reach RMB60 billion by 2006 and RMB80 billion by 2010. Despite significant growth over the last two decades, there are still have a number of opportunities in Chinese cosmetic market and the country is expected to remain a dynamic market. This is based on some factors: firstly, with a population of billion and 480 million urban residents, China has the largest number of potential cosmetic customers in the world. Secondly, as a result of China’s 7-8% high rate of economic growth, living conditions will continue to improve, which enable an increasing number of people to join the cosmetic consumption force. Finally, China has opened its market according to WTO rules will further stimulate its cosmetic market with more international and domestic players. 2. Method of Market Entry 1. Market Entry Methods in Pakistani Environment As far as market entry mechanism is concerned, Unilever follows two approaches. First, Unilever sets up a local operating company in a country of choice by following the business regulations & company act status in host country. The second approach of market entry followed by Unilever is acquisition. In some of the market settings, Unilever prefers to acquire a prominent brand in spite of establishing totally new setup of production and distribution. Such approach of diversification and market entry strengthen its grip in local markets around the world. By having an investment to acquire a local brand will enable the company to use the pre-running production facilities and marketing networks & distribution channel. This mode of entrance into a market doesn’t swallow precious time resources to build brand awareness. 1. FDI FMCG sector primarily requires a blend of capital intensive and labour intensive resources. Therefore, it was a best option for Unilever to establish its manufacturing and production facilities in local area to reach economies of scale by using cheap skilled and un-skilled labour. For example, in Pakistan, Unilever is operating as locally registered company and it fulfills all the legal requirements of Company Act 1981 and regulations of security and exchange commission. Moreover, Unilever is a public listed company and follows the legal requirements of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. The Chief Executive of Unilever Pakistan Ltd. reports to Unilever’s top management, based in team leader country of the regional group. Under such form of market entry, Unilever has to made foreign direct investment in selected country markets. By foreign direct investment, Unilever establishes manufacturing & production facilities along with development of integrated marketing and distribution channels. Unilever established a local operating company in Pakistan with the name, Unilever Pakistan Private Limited. 2. Acquisition The strategy of Unilever in regional country markets like Pakistan is to dominate the market by acquiring the leading local brands offered by other manufacturers. Hence, the benefits result into diversification and enhanced market share. The leading example in this regard is of Polka, which was leading ice cream brand in Pakistan. Unilever launched it global ice cream brand Walls in Pakistan in year 1998-99. Initially, Walls faced severe competition from Polka, as the national brand attained a strong image and equity in the market. As a result, Unilever Pakistan, decided to extend the brand lines by acquiring Polka. The acquisition of Polka enables Unilever to use production and distribution facilities to promote Walls. The targeted markets of Unilever are divided into Regional & sub-regional markets. In each of the country, there exists a local operating company. All these local operating companies are organized into eleven regional groups. 2. Methods of Market Entry in China When the Unilever firstly entered the Chinese market, they usually chosen a Chinese company to cooperate or conduct joint venture, because they were not familiar with Chinese market and did not has distribution and sale channel. However, when they had developed their sale force and built sale channel, Unilever has bought the share from the Chinese company and built new plants in other cities, which is direct investment. 5. Extent of standardization or adaptation of marketing strategy Unilever claims to be the one of the biggest consumer goods manufacturing company in the world. It claims that everyday, almost 150 million people in over 150 countries choose our products. So for a multi national company of that stature, an emerging question for marketing directors will definitely be to examine standardization or adaptation approach in order to develop international/global marketing strategies. An expert’s opinion in this regard is that, â€Å"Forward looking, proactive firms have the ability and willingness to accomplish tasks, standardization and localization. Global markets continue to homogenize and diversify simultaneously. The in-depth study of the product categories and length, depth, and width of product lines reveals that the management of Unilever has a dual focus on homogeneity of needs of consumer around world and towards global customization. In addition, some of the marketing analysts state that a successful company should focus on both of the aspects such as standardization and adaptation at the time of deciding target market segments, the measures of determining these segments and targeting strategy. Unilever states: â€Å"Our deep roots in local cultures and markets around the world are our unparalleled inheritance and the foundation for our future growth. We will bring our wealth of knowledge and international expertise to the service of local consumers- a truly multi local multinational† The argument can be justified by Unilever’s motto: â€Å"A Multi-local Multinational†. In-light of the above created discussion, we conclude that Unilever is conscious of the features of global and international markets. For instance, the product category of Unilever constitutes the global as well as local brands, which implies that Unilever manipulates the marketing mix elements by having a favourable blend of both standardization and adaptation. 1. Product When the Unilever wanted to enter the Chinese market, they use product adaptation strategy, which means, â€Å"adapting a product to meet local conditions or wants in foreign markets (Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, Wong 2001, p.175)†. They did not just bring the products sold in UK to launch in Chinese market, but has done a number of researches about Chinese women’ skin and found that Chinese people’ skin is quite different from European’s. Therefore, they have changed the formula of the pond’s products, which can be perfectly suitable for Chinese women. As can be seen, Unilever has adopted adaptation strategy, which is highly cost, but has increased the market share. 2. Branding and promotion Unilever has implemented plans to make greater use of its corporate brand in support of its companies and products around the world. By 2005 subsidiary companies will adopt the name. Also, over the coming years the Unilever name will appear on all product packaging. Consumers and stakeholders will find it easier to see who Unilever is and what it does. Its goal is to strengthen Unilever’s business and reputation, so that both Unilever and its brands are better understood and trusted throughout the world. The trend shows the enhanced recognition of branding as supreme function of marketing. Al Ries and Laura Ries (1998) explain that marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect. If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. Although, Unilever announced corporate brand, they still use the adaptation strategy in some of the products. For example, the Unilever has changed their brand name from English form into Chinese manner, which is easier for Chinese young women to identify and remember. In addition, food division of Unilever claims Knorr as one of its supreme global brand with almost 2.3 billion euro annual sales in over 100 countries. The product range of knorr includes soups, sauces, noodles and complete meals. Similarly, in personal care market, Unilever owns prominent brands as Axe, Dove, Lux, Ponds, Rexona and Sunsilk. However, in frozen food category, Unilever has supreme local brands. i.e. Findus (for Italian market), Bird’s eye for UK and Iglo for other European countries. Moreover, in category of margarine & spreads, Becel is a prominent brand for Dutch market. Flora is the brand in UK and Take control is in American market. In olive oil category, the most important brand, Bertolli is appealing to consumer taste for Mediterranean food. Unilever clearly at the same time recognizes the homogeneity of consumers by developing global brands and also make itself adaptive to the cultural, political and social environment of different regional markets by developing local brands and keeping in view the distinct needs of the consumers. Unilever normally design different advertisement for different countries. For example, when Unilever shoot an advertising film in Asian marketing, it is keen to adopt Asian actresses. 3. Pricing Terpstra and Sarathy (2000) state that incomes, culture, and consumers’ preferences differ from country to country, thus, for the same price in different countries, the demand will be different. Therefore, Unilever has institute dissimilar prices according to the nature of markets in different countries. For example, the level of income in china is relatively low. Therefore, the price of pond’s products in china is lower than Europe. Another reason for low price strategy is that Unilever produce Pond’s in china. The cost is low. However, if Unilever just export its products from one country to another country, the cost will be high considering the tariff, insurance and transport fees need to be added into the cost. Therefore, Unilever would adopt the standardization within the operation to balance the difference. 4. Distribution It is not easy to build distribution channels in foreign countries. When Unilever enters in a new marketplace, it is more likely to find some partners. For example, Unilever has cooperated with several big Chinese companies. Therefore, it can use the existing sales distribution network. However, Unilever not just satisfy to employ this network. It has work with big supermarket in china, which can deliver and sell mass products in china, to build their own distribution channels. However, Unilever do not use joint venture in Holland. They directly work with whole sellers, department stores, and supermarkets to distribute their products. As can be seen, Unilever use different distribution strategy in different countries. In this way, Unilever use the adaptation marketing strategy. In Pakistan, Unilever established its unique distribution system by setting up business partnership with various distributors and traders. Various geographical areas have been distributed into business regions. With in each business region, Unilever selects trading companies by assessing their financial worth and experience. These distributors act on behalf of Unilever as they are responsible to Unilever items directly to the chain of retailers. 6. Conclusion Reference – Kotler P., Armstrong G., Saunders J., Wong V., 2001, Principles of Marketing. London: Pearson Education. – Terpstra V., Sarathy R., 2000, International marketing. London: The Dryden Press – Kotler. 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