Sunday, November 24, 2019

The Age Of Excellence in 5th Century Athens essays

The Age Of Excellence in 5th Century Athens essays One figure towers over 5th Century Athens: Pericles. This Age of Athens, which begins either in 462 or 450 or 445 BC and lasts until 404 BC, when Athens is defeated by Sparta, is called the Athenian Age, the Classical Age, or, after its most important political figure, the Age of Pericles. Pericles' rule as a statesman in Athens is called the Golden Age of Pericles, and he was an eager supporter of democracy. He wanted all citizens of Athens to take an active part in politics, and he was the first to pay servants to the state. He made it so that the members of the council were chosen by all Athenians, and Pericles restored and built many temples and structures, such as the Parthenon on the Acropolis, employing the poorest citizens. Pericles embodied the spirit of classical Athens, allowing it to flourish and having the belief in the Athenians as all Leaders should. Pericles was born in 495 B.C. He was born into the family of the Alcmaeonids, who played large financial and political parts in Greece for several centuries. His mother was Agariste, the sister of Cleisthenes, and his father was Xanthippus. He commanded an Athenian contingent of the allied fleet, and because he belonged to a wealthy family, and had rich friends, he was able to travel and meet envoys. This travel and exploring gained him much experience. Pericles gained power by way of the law courts after a hearing, because of his natural ability. He ran for office, to be a general. Once elected, the generals, being ten in number, were seldom put in charge. Pericles was chosen as a statesman because this way his opinions counted considerably. He maintained this position for thirty years, and this era is known as the "Age of Pericles." He had the aristocratic leader Cimon ostracized, thus becoming the foremost leader of Athens for 15 years. Under Pericles, Athens became the most spl endid of Greek city-states, both politically and culturally with its fleet, making allies ...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The thesis statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The thesis statement - Essay Example Some of the factual content that the author uses to support the argument includes the mentioning of the fact that whales are able to discipline their children, play games, help wounded fellow whales and coordinate complex activities. The use of the fair minded yet purposeful tone makes the reader listen to the argument before making a judgment on it. Moreover, it makes the writing more compelling. One major weakness which is however evident in the text is that the argument on the intelligence of the creatures is not very much compelling. Parallelism has been greatly used by the author in the essay for a positive outcome. This is a technique that employs the use of grammatically similar components to be able to add balance and rhythm to sentence (Montgomery, Durant & Fabb, 2007). An example is the word whale that has been repeated in the beginning of most of the sentence to not only lay emphasis but also creates a

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Long-Term Stability of Clay Slopes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Long-Term Stability of Clay Slopes - Essay Example In order to describe "the long term stability of clay slopes", this paper will look at factors that make slopes become unstable overtime; the measurement of the instability; impact of long-term stability; and the prevention of instability of clay slopes. To begin with, long term stability of clay slopes is influenced by several causes which as are embedded in two major factors. These main factors, according to Price (1984) and Ritter (1986, p 121) are shear stress and shear strength. Shear stress refers to the forces that cause movement of materials down slope while shear strength is the force that resists materials from moving down the slope. These forces oppose each other in the sense that, while shear stress wants movement of material to commence, shears strength refuses. This means that movement will only occur when shear stress exceeds shear strength. Otherwise, like Sparks (1964, p 56) puts it, in uniform material, shear stress and shear strength may remain comparatively uniform. It is worth noting that shear stress has several intricate components that make it provoke movement of material down slope. Ritter (1986, p 121) outlines material internal friction characteristics; material normal stress and material normal cohesion as factors that determine stability of shear stress. Any drop or increase in these factors may alter shear stress. Internal friction is further broken down into plane friction (produced when one grain of soil slides past another) and interlocking friction (which originates when particles are required to move upwards and over one another. Secondly, Ritter (1986, p.122) further states that effective normal stress has the capacity to hold the material together, thereby increasing internal resistance to shear. It acts perpendicular to a shear surface and is absorbed by the underlying slab at the point of contact between grains. It should also be noted that some of the shear surface is usually occupied by openings which are filled with air or water. And since pore pressure exists in these interstitial spaces, it tends to support part of the normal stress. Thirdly, Ritter (1986, p.123) further states that clay soils have cohesion, which comes as a result of ions and water by clay minerals, thereby creating a binding structure among particles. Unfortunately though, cohesion decreases with increased water acquisition in the soil material. Clay cohesive strength very much depends on attractive forces between the particles and the lubricating action of the interstitial liquid. The more the clay acquires water, the more the slope becomes unstable. However, it should be noted that the rate at which the slope gains more water and the water drains away determines the time the slope should become unstable. For example, fast gaining and slow draining of water on a particular slope will make the slope fail very fast. On the other hand, slow gaining and fast draining of water will make the slope remain stable for some time. Where clay soils remains in an undisturbed normal cohesive strength, long-term slope stability will be evident. Sparks (1964, p 57) agrees with the above statement and adds that cohesive strength increases with depth thereby exceeding shear stress, hence surface mantle (slope material) is the one to be more unstable. As more water is added , cohesion decreases and when all pores are filled, any further input of water results in complete

Monday, November 18, 2019

Marketing Communication strategy of Cirque du Soleil Case Study

Marketing Communication strategy of Cirque du Soleil - Case Study Example In this paper I will examine the marketing communication of Zumanity, a show produced by the renowned Cirque du Soleil. I will review the effectiveness of the strategy employed with regards to the Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action model as advocated by E. St Elmo Lewis circa 1900. The Cirque du Soleil was born in Quebec, Canada in 1984 during the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's arrival in Canada, founded by Guy Laliberte. It is a spectacular theatrical delight, a combination of arts of the circus and street entertainment. The shows features original music, flamboyant costumes, dramatic lighting and visual effects. However, in comparison to the traditional circus it differs significantly in that it is an all human show with absolutely no animal involvement. (www.circusnet.info) From its beginnings in 1984 - 2003 the Cirque du Soleil grew rapidly and extensively, transforming from one show travelling circus to an international multi show production company. Significant elements including strategic European alliance with the Swiss Circus Knie, resident shows in Disney World Florida (La Nouba) and in Vegas (O), alliances with MGM-Mirage and Imax and both film and television productions. Cirque du Soleil productions target all genres, however, there is a gr eat emphasis on family audiences. (www.cirquedusoleil.com) 2003 marked Cirque du Soleil's 15th show. ... The creative thinking behind Zumanity had been in the piping since 2001, in collaboration with MGM-Mirage. Designed to be extraordinary, just as the circus had been reinvented 20 yrs previous, Zumanity was designed to reinvent the adult entertainment market in Vegas. Zumanity: billed as; "An edgy and provocative discovery of sensuality and eroticism" (Canadian Congress of Advertising; 2004). Zumanity is the first production to show an alternative side to Cirque du Soleil and its communication strategy needed to be exact in order to achieve success with a carefully selected and targeted market. Key issues the company had to overcome are noted by Canadian Congress of Advertising (2004): image risk, social tolerance to sexuality and competition; Zumanity was not what the traditional Cirque customer would expect, it was to be more dance orientated, smaller, sensual and erotic. Care would be of the essence to ensure the original brand would not be compromised. Zumanity is not simply another erotic show and the communication strategy needed to portray the message that it is; "resolutely sexy and astounding, while meeting Cirque's high creative standards." Legalities and social considerations had to be accounted for. The direction thus for materials to "show eroticism without really showing it." Marketing needed to be savvy. The media budget was $3.2 Mill in comparison to the major competitor at the time, Celine Dion who was launching her new show, with a $10 Mill media budget. PEST analysis had to be carried out and important features such as the financial slump and impending Iraq war taken into consideration. Awareness, imagery and materials needed to be created and tickets sold before the show actually existed. The Canadian

Friday, November 15, 2019

Literature Review 2.0 Spending Behavior

Literature Review 2.0 Spending Behavior Nowadays, the marketers are facing great competition among themselves to market the products and services to the consumers. The study of consumer spending behavior enables the marketers to understand how consumer thinks, feels and react to the subtle environment when purchase a product(Wassana Suwanvijit, 2009). Hence, the marketer can predict the consumer spending behaviors and develop a proper marketing plan to address the products to the consumers. According to businessdictionary.com, consumer spending could be defined as goods and services bought by households in the satisfaction of their needs and wants. In addition, Spending is defined as the act of expending and behavior is defined as response of an individual to an action, environment, person, or stimulus. While Kotler (2000) stated that consumer behavior studies how individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. In our research context, spending behavior is defined as the act of disbursing money in response to an action, environment, or person in the satisfaction of needs and wants. 2.1 Factors Wilson, et.al, 2005 stated that consumer spending behavior is strongly influenced by four factors: Cultural factor (culture, sub-culture, social class), Social factor (groups, family, roles and status), Personal factor (Age and life cycle stage, life-styles, occupation, economic situation, personality and self concept) and Psychological factor (motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitude). Understand these four factors could help to address customers needs and wants and finally increase sales. In addition, there is another factor so-called economic factor which would affect consumers spending as well. 2.1.1 Personal Factor Wassana Suwanvijit, (2009) conducted a study to examine factors affecting consumer life-styles and purchasing behaviors. He found that consumer life-styles are derived from and personalized through social and cultural learning and consumer demographics will influence consumers behavior. In this study, Wassana Suwanvijit,(2009), administered a questionnaires to 300 consumers at Songkla province. The result indicated that demographic and socio-economic factors affecting the consumer life-styles and purchasing behaviors. In Songkla, average spending rate was approximately 550 baht per time and the factor affecting the spending per time was consumer income. The author also found that consumer promotion will affect consumers spending behavior and sales. Chetsada Noknoi, Sutee Ngowsiri, and Wannaporn Boripunt, (2009) also conducted a study to test the relationship between demographic characteristics and the consumer behavior. The study found that consumer behavior is dependent on the demographic characteristics such as income, age, marital status, occupations, etc. Besides, based on the research paper done by Juma K. Salim, the researcher proved that various life cycle stages and socio-demographic factors such as region of residence, race of the reference person, and sex of the reference person were found to be substantial factors of the pattern of expenditures within each occupational group. The researchers results are consistent with the results found by Abdel-Ghany and Sharpe (1997), Cage (1989), and Jacobs, Shipp, and Brown (1989). The researcher also proved that the occupation influence expenditure between teachers and non-teachers. Teachers spend a lot in only two categories of expenditure, education and miscellaneous, compared to professionals and administrators or managers.Besides occupation, level of education also influences spending behavior. Income, education, and occupation are some of the factors that influence ones position in society. Vanessa G. Perry and Marlene D. Morris (2005) examined the relationship between consumer financial knowledge, income and locus of control on financial behavior. In this research, it suggested that consumers propensity to budget, save and spending depends partly on their level of perceived control over outcomes as well as knowledge and financial resources. Apart from that, race and ethnicity can also affect the consumer financial behavior. According to Rotter (1966), locus of control was being defined as a general, relatively stable propensity to see the world in a particular way, capturing general beliefs about the causes of rewards and punishments. The research showed that individual self-concept influenced both financial and non-financial preference and behaviors. Consumer spending behavior is also affected by a persons personality and attitude. Cordell et. all (1996) and Cadha (2007) explained that the consumers are drawn to purchase counterfeits of luxury brands due to the desire of owning the prestige and status symbol that the trademarks brand shows. T. Min, P. Ian and Curtain had viewed the attitudes towards counterfeiting of luxury brands can be influenced by a person personality variable (e.g. value consciousness, integrity, personal satisfaction, trend tracking and the status consideration). They reviewed the theories established and examined their understanding that the desirability of purchasing the counterfeit products was affected by the good value of the brand name (which labeled on the counterfeit product and add value to the product). Below are the explanations of the personality variables which could reveal a person spending behavior. i. Value consciousness Human have the curiosity to seek variety and difference of a certain products/services and they try to spend on the news fashion products in order to satisfy their curiosity. For those who can afford the branded products, they will obviously spend a lot of money in order to obtain the value of that product. Nevertheless, people will try to attain the value of the luxury brand things by choosing the counterfeit product with lower prices. ii. Integrity If the consumers view the integrity as an important value, there will be less people to purchase the counterfeiting of luxury brands and this indirectly change their spending behavior to buy non-branded things with possess a cheaper prices-low consumption. iii) Personal Satisfaction Accomplishment, social recognition and desire to enjoy the valuable things are the personal satisfaction variables in their spending behavior where consumer will be more conscious of the appearance and visibility by purchasing the fashion products. By spending on the new arrival of products which is more expensive, they diluted their income and incurred more expenditure in their own saving-spending portfolio. iv) Status consideration Status consideration is refers to consumer who are both seeking self-satisfaction and recognition as well as for showing to surrounding people. Because of this status recognition, people tend to spend more to purchase the luxury brand which indirectly changed their buying behavior. 2.1.2 Cultural Factor M. Pierre, (1958) claimed that individual spending pattern shows a person class position despite from the persons income. He classified that a person spending structure was affected by the influences from family, their colleague, voluntary association, age and gender. These influences variables on affecting a person spending behavior integrated together in order to classify the persons class position in his/her social unity. Pierre also mentioned that the ranked status system involved all the members of a society in term of hierarchy (from super-ordinate to sub-ordinate). Whereby, whether a person will or will not attempt to buy a thing are strongly related to his/her class membership, and depend on whether the person is mobile or stable. He specified that the consumption patterns included a several factors such as class replacement, choice of store, communications skills, save versus spend, and psychological differences. In his studies, he realized that there are six-class system which is Upper-Upper Class (old families), Lower-Upper Class (newly arrived), Upper-Middle Class (professionals successful business men), Lower-Middle Class (white collar salaries), Upper-Lower Class (wage earner skill labor groups), and Lower-Lower Class (Unskilled labor groups). i) Class Placement M. Pierre explained that the class placement can be determined in three categories which included the occupation, source of income and housing type (e.g. luxury apartment, banglo). In his research in metropolitan area (Chicago), he discovered that the Upper-Lower class people possess expensive house and the home was equipped by the solid heavy appliance. While, the Lower-Lower class people have less property minded (lack of intention to buy or maintain a home) and they intended to spend their income on their clothes or automobile. ii) Choice of store M. Pierres studies revealed the relation between choice of store, pattern of spending and class membership. He described the people are very realistic in the way of spending in order to match their values and expectations refer on which type of store they choose (e.g. high status branded shop-Nike, Addidas). He verified that the social status of the department store becomes the primarily basis to identify the consumer class position. He mentioned that people are not going to take action by entering to a store where he/she might not affordable. iii) Communications Skills The kind of super-sophisticated and clever advertising is almost meaningless to Lower status people. M. Pierre stated that the lower class people may not comprehend the subtle humor in the advertisement(s) and they are difficult in extracting the art of the advertisement(s) information. They also have a different approach in determining the information given. In other word, they lack of intelligence and have different understanding in their communication skill. These indirectly defined the spending behavior between class positions of a person. (iv) Saves versus Spends M. Pierre clarified that the Middle-Class people usually have the financial knowledge place in their thinking for the forms of saving whereby they tend to choose the investment saving. While Lower-Status people intended to save in an almost low-risk funds (non-investment saving) which can quickly converted to spend-able cash. This clearly showed that the lower status people have more spending habit. Pierre mentioned that the Lower-status people will spend on artifact-centered products (cheaper items) and the Middle-Class people will spend on experience-centered products (planned spending).But, Pierre stated that the spending behavior of a person still governed by class membership in his/her society. (v) Psychological differences M. Pierre explained that the spending-saving analysis has a very obvious effect in psychological implications to differentiate the classes. Middle Class Lower Status Pointed the future Pointed present and pass More urban identification More rural identification Stress on rationality Non rational essential Greater sense of choice maker Limited sense of choice maker See themselves tied to national happening Concern their own and family members 2.1.3 Psychological Factor D. Ap S.K.Pamela, (2005) argued that consumer behavior is often strongly influenced by the subtle environment and traditional perspective on consumer choices. They explained that people always occasionally purchase the things on the spot where they choose the products at the moment of awareness and occupied with things rather than thinking on selecting an affordable groceries to purchase. This resulted in troubling the consumers spending habit. Bargh(2002) described the consumer behavior are cast items of the cognitive psychology. While, Chaiken(1980) and Petty, Cacioppo and Schuman(1983) explained that, before people buy(or choose or decide), they are less initiative to collect the products information. Attitudes can be based on cognitive beliefs such as when a person finds a product which is very useful or more benefit effect, or the product show and possess symbolic meanings (Venkatraman Mac-Innes, 1985). Karen M. Stilley, J. Jeffrey Inman and Kirk L.Wakefield (2010) conducted two studies to investigate the effects of promotional saving on both planned and unplanned spending, and how does it varies according to income level. In order to test the hypotheses, Karen M. Stilley et al. interviewed 400 customers who entered two grocery stores located in a southwestern U.S. city. Every tenth shopper or one every five minutes was selected, whichever came first. In addition, respondents were first asked what items they planned to purchase and how much were they planned to spend in total. Then, In-store slack (ISS) was calculated by subtracting the itemized portion from the total respondents planned to spend. Besides, respondents were required to indicate their household income before they exit the grocery shops. For the purpose of increase the response to such sensitive question, respondents were given seven choices of range rather than gave a specific figure of household income. The results o f the research showed that the promotional on unplanned grocery items would attract customers to spend more and this is increased with the higher income level. Apart from that, Ajay Kalra and Mengze Shi (2010) also examined sweepstakes reward structures that maximize consumers valuation. They claimed that consumers value maximizing sweepstakes should effectively motivate consumers participation and thus increase sales. From the other perspective, sweepstakes and contests would increase consumers spending on a certain products. Ajay Kalra et al. defined sweepstakes and contests as the promotional tools used by organizations to attract more customers, which in turn gaining additional sales. By having sweepstakes, consumers are tend to spend more in order to increase the probability of winning grand prize. In addition, the introduction and increased usage of electronic transfer systems has led to the likelihoods of a cashless society (Humphrey et al., 1996; Humphrey and Berger, 1990; Olney, 1999). In the research paper done by Mohamad bin Ali (2004), the variables been developed are hedonic motivation, credit cards used, unplanned purchase, peer influence, TV viewing and shopping frequency. The results exhibited the positive correlation of hedonic motivation, credit card use and unplanned purchases with compulsive buying tendency. Many people spending to release stress and treat it as retail therapy. Shoham and Brencic (2003) stated that people go to shopping as retail therapy are expect that shopping could reduce their stress. Credit card is encourages compulsive buying because credit card eliminate immediate need for money to buy thing. Furthermore, Fusaro (2006) argues that debit card users make more frequent and smaller withdrawals to control their spending behaviour. A cashless transaction takes off the pain of transferring cash and may encourage consumers to spend more. From a hedonic perspective, a cashless transaction does not recap the thought of the amount of money spent at the time of purchase as compared to cash payment which recaps thoughts about costs or benefits of purchase at the time of purchase (Prelec and Loewenstein 1998, p.25). D. Ap S.K.Pamela, (2005) made a several statement on the factors of unconscious spending behavior of the consumers: i. The choices of buying the product are influenced by automatically response or one persons attitudes ii) Attitudes were not really guide the behavior of the persons spending and people tend to buy things on impulse and the impulse choices are strongly affected by the subtle environment. From the above statements, they reviewed and discussed about their studies on consumer behavior. They pointed out two important results on their understanding which: Perception-behavior link is a mere perception of a social environment which leads people to face in direct effect behavior. This mean that the behavior of a person is often imitative (follow others action) and thus this behavior is contagious (spread and affect others-ripple effect) Automatic goal pursuit related to the goal-directed-behavior where the consumer purchasing behavior is often unconsciously guided by the environment. 2.1.4 Social Factor A persons spending may be affected by his social group of people, which normally being called virtual communities. It is defined as self-selecting groups of individuals engaged in sustained computer-mediated interactions around common interests or goals, governed by shared norms and values, and serving individual and shared needs (Bagozzi and Dholakia 2002; Dholakia, Bagozzi and Pearo 2004). Such characteristics of virtual groups as open, non-discriminatory participation, possibility of anonymity, and low visibility of product usage suggest that virtual communities potentially employ mechanisms of influencing shopping decisions that are different from those of other reference groups. Some virtual communities apply informational influence on shopping decisions by aiding the transfer of information among reference group members regarding product opinions (Deutsch and Gerard 1955). In virtual communities information can be spread through what other members post about their product and brand use, or shown through picture sharing and in occasional face-to-face meetings. 2.1.5 Economic Factor Rex Y. Du and Wagner A. Kamakura (2008) examined how consumers allocate their discretionary income to meet different consumption needs and how the resultant consumption pattern will change in response to changes in prices and budgets. For instance, how does escalating gas price affect consumers spending on food and apparel. Rex Y. Du et al. had used the CEX family extracts made available by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) for the 1982-2003 period. The CEX was collected from different samples each year and 66,368 households were being examined in this research. Besides, Rex Y. Du et al. had conducted three policy simulations to test consumers reaction to environmental shock. Those three policy simulations were reactions to shift in energy costs, reaction to a tax rebate and welfare losses due to spiraling costs of prescription drugs. The result for the first simulation showed that consumers reduce their spending when the energy costs increase, especially the poorer qui ntile. For the second simulation, the result showed that tax rebate would increase consumers spending even though for those nonessential items, such as airline fare and charity. For the last simulation, the result showed that consumers could have reduced their prescription drug expenditure by an average of 37% while maintaining the same level of treatment. Indeed, economic condition would affect consumers spending behavior. Conclusion Indeed, consumer spending behavior is strongly influenced by the factors such as personal, cultural, psychological, social and economic condition. Demographic characteristics such as income, age, marital status, occupations, etc. would have direct relationship to consumer behavior (Chetsada Noknoi et al. 2009). In the research done by Wassana Suwanvijit (2009), 300 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in Songkhla. For a city with a population more than seventy thousands of people, it would be better if the number of respondents could be at least 500 in order to draw a more convincing conclusion about the results. Next, the influences from family, colleague, friends, etc. would affect a person spending behavior. Besides, it has to depend on several factors such as class replacement, choice of store, communications skills, save versus spend and psychological differences as well (M.Pierre, 1958). In addition, the promotional savings, sweepstake contests, ease of payments, etc would motivate consumers to spend more, which directly affect their spending behavior. In the research done by Karen M. Stilley, J. Jeffrey Inman and Kirk L. Wakefield (2010), they collected respondents household income through provided choices of range to the respondents instead of asking a specific figure from them. This action was more effective in getting information from the respondents due to confidential problem. Apart from that, virtual communities may affect a person spending behavior through the information given among reference group members (Deutsch and Gerard, 1995). Lastly, the economic factors such as changing in gas price, tax rebate, etc. would affect consumers to change their spending as well.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Making the Right Choices Essay examples -- Literary Analysis, Alonzo M

It may take many people to realize that the decisions they make today could possibly affect the outcome tomorrow and even later in life. When we are children, our parents and guardians are responsible for properly guiding us to make the right choices, they are the people who are supposed to teach us right from wrong and in most cases they are the people who reveals the many harsh realities of the world to us. Through childhood we may not worry about how the bills will get paid, or what job we will have when we are adults because for many people the answer to those questions often change with time. As we grow older it is up to us to follow their guidance and learn from what they have taught us and live in a society as one. Life is full of choices, some larger than others but during all stages of life we are given the opportunity to shape our own futures, make a difference in our community, and try to achieve our life goals. The decisions we make today could have an adverse affect on w hat we do tomorrow. In life, we are all faced with decisions regarding numerous life choices on a day to day basis. In Alonzo Mourning’s book â€Å"Resilience,† based on his experiences Mourning gives his audience suggestions to follow in his path to succeed in life to achieve our goals. We learn as adults that some of the choices we made in the past were not to our benefit, but we may not know the decision was wrong at the time. In many points in the book Mourning talks about the importance of having faith in God and praying about situations, because he feels his belief and faith in God is what gets him through many difficult times. When Mourning spoke with a young boy and his father regarding their common illness he advised the father, â€Å"Pray for it and ev... ... with people who are going to push you to work harder and make something of yourself. Having a strong support system will bring you a long way in life, just having people there to support you through good and bad times is something many others lack and forces them to give up. Through the many peer pressures in life, stay away from people who have bad qualities and indulge in drugs just for a â€Å"thrill† in life. Life is much better sober and once a person is addicted to drugs and other illegal substances, it is hard to recover. In life, friends will come and go, but if these â€Å"friends† don’t have your best interest at heart, then many you should rethink your friendship. Being skeptical is not a bad thing if your being cautious for yourself. As long as you try to follow these suggestions made by Alonzo Mourning, it will help you to succeed in life and achieve your goals.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Customer Relationship Management and Support Related Cost

1. Discuss briefly the factors that drove Harrah’s customer relationship strategy. 2. Discuss briefly the integration between Harrah's patron database and the marketing workbench. 3. Discuss briefly whether Harrah’s business and IT strategies were aligned, and what factors contributed to or detracted from achieving alignment. 4. Does Harrah's have a sustainable competitive advantage? Can other companies duplicate what Harrah's has done? 5. What are the lessons you learn from the experiences at Harrah’s that can benefit other companies embarking on a customer relationship management initiative?In Old costing system , material realted overhead cost was divided into 3 categories1)Material related 2)Production related 3)Support relatedThe support related cost were allocated based on sum of direct material , direct labor costs , material overhead and production overhead. Compared to old costing system, in PROKASTA 2 additional cost pools (Order processing and special components related cost) to allocated support related costs. This strategy was in line with management belief that support cost was more driven by number of orders of motors and number of special components required to process the order instead of machine hours and labor hours required to process the orderWith PROKASTA , the cost of base motor and cost of custom component using old costing system but support related cost pool (pre-PROKASTA) unit cost . Then PROKASTA cost elements were then added. It allowed the firm to relate cost and product mix strategy With new costing system , firm was able to determine proper cost of each order and the profitability of the order it received. Based on the PROKASTA the manager were able to identify which orders were profitable and which were not . It also allowed to determine price at which motors were transferred from EMW toto the sales Division3.Do you agree with Siemens’s decision to set up both sales and EMW as profit Centre? What are the cost and benefits?Siemens was a decentralised organisation with 7 major groups and 5 corporate divisions. The firm is required to identify the profitability of each and every division to evaluate peromonce and make proper divsions. So in this regards it makes sense to set up both sales and EMW as profit centreBenefits : 1)Decisions are better and more timely because of the manager’s proximity to local conditions 2)Managers will have more control over resultsCosts: 1)Insufficient information available to top management; increased costs of obtaining detailed information. 2)Lack of coordination among managers in different parts of the organization.4.Do transfer pricing system make sense? Why do you think so? Yes , I think transfer pricing makes sense. †¢Transfer pricing will help Generate separate profit figures for each division and thereby evaluate the performance of each division separately. †¢Transfer prices make managers aware of the value that goods and servi ces have for other segments of the firm and will help in determining sales and pricing decisions †¢It will also affect the allocation of an organization’s resources

Friday, November 8, 2019

The Life Of LOUIS PASTEUR Essays - Food Preservation, Food Science

The Life Of LOUIS PASTEUR Essays - Food Preservation, Food Science The Life of LOUIS PASTEUR Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in D?le, a small town in France. He grew in a humble family and his father was a tanner. He graduated in 1840 from the College of Arts at Besancon and entered the prestigious Ecole Namale Supervieure, Paris, to work for his doctorate degree. He chose for his studies the then obscure science of crystallography, which was to have a great influence on his career. Pasteur entered the scientific world as a professor of physics at the Lycee of Tournon and started his research on the optical properties of crystals of tartaric acid salts. He found the two forms of this acid which could rotate the plane of polarization of light, one to the right and the other to the left. This was his first important discovery in crystallography, the phenomenon of optical isomers. Paradoxically it incited him to abandon the field. But it won the acclaim of the French Academy and Britain's Royal Society. Thus Pasteur became famous at the age of 26. Pasteur soon began researching the complexities of bacteriology. The prevalent theory of life at the time was spontaneous generation which states that certain forms of life such as flies, worms, and mice can develop from non-living matter such as mud and decaying fish. Pasteur disproved this theory with a simple experiment. He showed that microorganisms would grow in sterilized broth only if the broth was first exposed to air containing spores, or reproductive cells. His findings led to the development of the cell theory of the origin of living matter which states that all life originates from preexisting living material. In 1849, Pasteur became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, where he began studying fermentation, a type of chemical breakdown of substances by microbes. He served the rest of his career as Dean of Sciences at the University of Lille. Soon after his arrival at Lille, Pasteur was asked to solve the problems of the local industries, vinegar and silk manufacture. A producer of vinegar from beet juice wanted to know why the product was sometimes spoilt. On examining the juice microscopically, Pasteur observed that the contaminant, amyl alcohol, was optically active. This gave clear evidence that it was produced by a living organism. Pasteur then proposed a biological interpretation of the process of fermentation. He demonstrated that when no contamination by living contagion took place, the process of fermentation or putrefaction did not take place. Thus the celebrated techniques of Pasteurization, came into being, it could not only preserve wine and milk but drastically cut inflation in the surgeon's operating table. Today pasteurization follows closely the early techniques of Louis Pasteur. In the case of milk pasteurization, the milk is heated to 161?F for 15 seconds followed by a rapid cooling to 50?F or lower. This process removes any unwanted bacteria, but also kills any beneficial bac! teria and reduces some of the nutritive property of milk. The Franco-Prussian War opened an avenue to press his microbial theory of infection, he got the grudging agreement of the military medical corps to sterilize instruments and steam bandages. As a result, thousands of lives were saved. In 1873, Pasteur was elected to the French Academy of Medicine, a spectacular achievement for a person without a medical degree. Pasteur was now ready to move from the simpler forms of life in the microbial world to the diseases of the higher animals. The opportunity came through a devastating outbreak of anthrax, a killer plague of sheep in 1876. Pasteur tried to produce pure cultures, his objective was to fight the disease and not just to describe it. Pasteur had accidentally forgotten in a corner of the laboratory a culture of fowl cholera and noticed that it had lost some of its virulence. Then he vaccinated some chicken which resisted the disease. The same technique, after improvement, was applied against bacillus anthracis: sheep inoculated with the vaccine survived and the non-vaccinated ones died. A scourge that had crippling economic effects was brought under control. Simultaneously, the principle of immunization or the protection of the body through vaccines was discovered. In 1865, the silk industry of France faced an economic ruin by an epidemic among silkworms.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Achilles Armour

Achilles Armour Achilles’s armor is considered as one of the best and the most powerful, that is why it is not a surprise that Ajax and Odysseus wanted to have it after Achilles’s death. However, to make sure that the Achilles’s armor is given to the most deserving of them, Ajax and Odysseus were offered to prepare speeches to convince the meeting that particularly he deserves attention and should be give Achilles’s armor.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Achilles Armour specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Therefore, each of the parties presented many arguments. Ajax and Odysseus presented their personal consideration about why Achilles’s armor should belong to one of them. Ajax has provided many arguments, however these three are considered as the most powerful and convincing. First, Ajax pointed that he saved the Greek ships from Hectors torches and he was the one who threw a boulder at Hector. Secon d, Ajax saved Odysseus in battle and he considered it as the stress on Odysseus’s helplessness. Finally, Ajaxs shield is full of holes which were made during the previous battling, that is why he needs a new shield, while Odysseus’s one is new. Odysseus’s arguments were much stronger that is why the Achilles’s armor was given to him. Thus, Odysseus claimed that it was he who brought Achilles out of hiding on Scyros to join the Greeks. That is why this action may be considered as his indirect slew of Hector. Next. Odysseus killed Dolon the Trojan spy and got many wounds in the fight that tells about his bravery while Ajax was never wounded. Finally, Ajax does not deserve to have the Achilles’s armor as he was about to leave Troy and Odysseus did all possible to convince Agamemnon not to stop fighting and to return Ajax at the field of battle, otherwise, he could leave and never return. Odysseus’s speech is believed to be more compelling as ha ving presented just several arguments in this paper, his speech was full of objective and argumentative reasons based on the Odysseus’s achievements during the war, while Odysseus’s arguments mostly looked like the desire of a child to convince others to give him the armor just because he is good and long. It was inadmissible to point at the family relationships with Achilles as the reason to give the armor to him. Moreover, all Odysseus’s reasons are based on the battle destinations, the intentions to help and his participation in the events which impacted the war outcomes.Advertising Looking for essay on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Reading the debate speeches of each men, it is possible to create an opinion about each of them. The speech of Odysseus characterizes him as a powerful man, a wise leader and a person who got used to prove in action that he deserves respect . Listening to all his arguments, it is possible to notice that he fairly accesses his place in the fight. He does not exaggerate his achievements and offers only the facts which are useful in considering the case. Ajax’s speech is absolutely different as being a person who had done absolutely nothing, he tries to exaggerate his achievements by means of the achievements of others. Having nothing to present about the war achievements, Ajax begins to point at the features which have nothing is common with the subject (like the family relationships with Achilles and the absence of the new shield). It characterizes Ajax as a weak, powerless and ambitionless person without any principles and objective and fair thinking.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Meg Whitman and Ebay Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Meg Whitman and Ebay - Case Study Example Her take on the customer is enticing. Any business is composed of customers, without whom; their absence will cause the downfall of the business. Diligence and dedication is necessary for a leader, who wants to realize her dreams. A leader should be a role model, Meg, was an all round leader who played roles in every sector of the company. Policies play a crucial role in maintaining a company. They should however, be reviewed frequently to suit the market. Among her strategies to attain this success, include the launch of eBay initial public offer that ensured hiring of efficient professionals, the ability to understand new, appropriate, and relevant business models. Adoption of a sufficient business policy to protect customers through; the launch of a comprehensive security and trust program, implementing the software to aid in fraud identification, and offering of free insurance on items whose cost is above two hundred U.S dollars. This case study of Whiteman dem onstrates the essence of embracing appropriate technology in order to build a powerful electronic commerce system like eBay. This can only be achieved and sustained through creating an appropriate loyal and passionate customer base. Importantly, the incorporation of strategic decision making is necessary if not vital for expanding a

Friday, November 1, 2019

Talk about the holocaust memorial building in Germany Essay

Talk about the holocaust memorial building in Germany - Essay Example Every time I think about the video I wonder if it was worth my time. Is this what people like to watch in the western lands? I did not feel much of anything from watching this video except boredom. There was nothing very interesting about the video itself. If they wanted to build a monument about the Holocaust, why did they not build something like a tower instead? They could have built a home for the Jewish people as well instead of moving them to Jerusalem. So many people are angry because of the Jewish people who were brought here after World War II. I think it is weird to have built such a structure. I think the memorial is pleasing to the eyes but it is dull at the same time. They look like large coffins from far away. Maybe the memorial is supposed to emphasize the many different ages and types of people with each and every block. Sadly, the architectural design does not appeal to me. While it may represent many different things to various people, it does not strike me as something significant except for the fact that it was historically