Costco Case Study

Christopher GildeaÐ ¡ostco Case Study Seminar:   Business Policy and Strategy Professor Gregory P. Grogan Abstract ?Costco, a discount warehouse based in Issaquah, Washington, specializes in selling quality products at low prices. The company operates as a membership retailer, focusing its business on small and consumers with incomes averaging $75,000 with over 30 percent having incomes of $100,000 or more annually. The wholesale club segment of retailing in 2008 was estimated to be a $120 billion business in the United States, and it was growing about 20 percent faster than retailing as a whole (Thompson, 2010). The three main competitors were Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale. Costco has a majority of the warehouse club sales across the United States and Canada and is looking to keep its edge. ?The pricing strategy that Costco has implemented, focuses on the price-sensitivity of its consumers. The company has excelled in keeping its prices low by capping the markup on its merchandise. By keeping the markup lower than its competitors, Costco has provided its customers with deep discounts on over 4000 products within its stores. Sam’s Club, which offers the same number of products within its stores, earns half the income that Costco does at each store. Costco sales are even higher per store than BJ’s, which offers 7,300 items compared to 4,000 items at Costco and Sam’s Club. Costco has been very efficient at utilizing its floor space and generating high revenues from it products within its stores. ?Costco is trying to generate huge sales volume and quick inventory turnover by applying a business model that offers limited selections of nationally branded product in wide range of merchandise categories. Costco apply number of operating excellence such as efficient way of managing inventory and just in time inventory, efficient distribution, minimum merchandise handling, and volume purchasing to reduce the price of its product. One of the major benefits of high sales volume and rapid inventory turnover is that they can sell their inventory and receive cash that can be used to pay its vendors and take the advantage of early-payment discounts. ?Even with the low price strategy, Costco employee salaries and benefits are by far higher than its competitors. This compensation has motivated it employees and retain good workers in turn, Costco gets lower turnover and higher productivity. Combined with a smart business strategy that sells a mix of higher-margin products to more affluent customers, Costco actually keeps its labor cost lower that its competitors as a percentage of sales (Ampel, 2004). They are also retaining more employees than any of their peers. ?Costco has strong ethics within its company, developing a motivating workplace for its employees to flourish within the company. They prefer to develop their employees within the company. When doing this, they have turned down outsiders who may be able to bring in new innovations that can propel the company further ahead of its competitors. New recruits and experienced businesspeople have been overlooked. As the world becomes more globalized, the company needs to look at intelligent outsiders who can have a significant impact on the company. The strategy they have in place deters the company from accepting outside viewpoints, which could bring greater profits. ?One of the major strategic drawbacks of Costco is that they only carry a selection of 4,000 types of merchandise. This is less than most of their competitors, and may cause major problems in the future because most customers want choices. Costco has ignored many of its customers’ requests to stock certain goods in order to only sell products that will sell quickly. Though there method has been very successful, the company should increase it products that they sell in its stores. This increase could be between 1000 to 1500 products with the store brand Kirkland involved. ?Costco has some other operational level problems that in some extent hinder the overall companywide effectiveness and goals achievement. For example, they don’t accept all kinds of credit card from the customers (only American Express); though it is done to minimize the cost of overall operation. Their competitors are capitalizing on use all major card cards. Since November 10, 2006, Sam’s Club began accepting payment via MasterCard credit cards. The results with MasterCard were favorable; company officials reported that in the week following the MasterCard acceptance, the average ticker checkout at Sam’s Club was up 35 percent (Thompson, 2010). To allow their customers the use of different payment options will ultimately bring ore sales. Conclusion ?It is never acceptable to simply do business the way it has always been done because the market changes, the industry evolves, and numerous other external factors make it absolutely necessary for a business to evolve to retain or gain market share. This is particularly important in the industry Costco is in. The company needs to focus on it customer n eeds, its future hiring/company growth, and opening up to different payments. With an improved strategy in place, Costco can continue to service its customers, while satisfying the needs of its shareholders. ?Reference:Ampel, F. J. (2004, Embracing costco-ization — unlike most big-box retailers, costco's success is based on its high-quality service and superior product mix. Residential Systems, 5, 28-28. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/200686953? accountid=9997 BJ’s Wholesalers homepage, accessed at http://bjs. com on April 8, 2013 Costco homepage, accessed at http://costco. com on April 8, 2013 Sam’s Club homepage, accessed at http://samsclub. com on April 8, 2013 Thompson, A. A. , Strickland, A. J. , Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and Executing Strategy. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. 17th ed. Costco Case Study What is Costco’s business model? Is the company’s business model appealing? Why or why not? The centerpiece of their business model involved generating high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover by offering club members low prices on a limited selection of name brand and private label products. The Club members pay an annual fee, which was a very important aspect of their business model. These fees provided enough revenue to increase the company’s overall profit.Costco was also able to sell and receive cash for their inventory before it had to pay many of its merchandise vendors; even when vendors’ payments were made just in time for vendors to take advantage of early payment discounts. High sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover allowed the company to finance a large percentage of its merchandise inventory through payment terms provided by vendors rather than by maintaining large working capital to ensure timely payments of suppliers.Yes, the com pany’s business model is appealing because the company’s increased inventory turnover and low operating costs allowed it to maintain a profit, despite their significantly lower gross margins compared to the industry (traditional wholesalers, mass merchandisers, supermarkets and supercenters). What are the chief elements of Costco’s strategy? How good is the strategy? The chief elements are pricing, product selection, maintaining low operating costs and expansion. Pricing/Product Selection-The company philosophy was to provide high end quality product and/or services to club members but maintain low prices.Stores carry approximately 3,600 items, whereas, 85% is name brand and 15% Kirkland brands. These items range from perishables (food/drinks) to nonperishable household items. Costco also offers several services such as: one-hour photo, gasoline, pharmacy, optical, hearing aids, and travel services. Although the services remained constant, approximately 25% of i ts product offering were always changing. Buyers for Costco were making one-time purchases of items based on consumer taste and trends. These items would sell out quickly and were higher prices items such as: big screen TV’s and diamond rings.Costco purchased these â€Å"treasure hunt† items on the gray market from retailers and/or wholesalers who were looking to get rid of excess or slow selling inventory. Club members eagerly looked for these â€Å"treasure hunt† items because it was rare the items would be available again. For many years the company even had a 14% markup cap on name brand products compared to the industry at 20-50% markup prices. There was a 15% markup cap on their private selection of products (Kirkland Signature), which was 20% below to comparable name brands.Costco’s prices were slightly above break-even levels and sales revenues barely covered operating expenses. The company makes up for the modest contribution to operating profits with the membership fees, which attributes to over 70% of operating profits. Revenues from membership fees outweigh net income annually. Low Cost Leader/Company Expansion-Costco’s ability to maintain low operating costs is key to being able to offer club members with consistently low prices. They did not invest in amenities within their warehouses such as: shopping bags, decor, salespeople, billing, and accounts receivable.The building were strategically placed in high traffic areas but avoided prime real estate to avoid excessive land costs. The large metal buildings were designed for economy and efficiency. In addition to keeping overhead low, Costco had shorter hours of operation to reduce labor expenses as well. Costco’s growth strategy is to increase overall company sales by 5% and to open new stores within and outside of the U. S. The company spent 1. 3 billion to open 20 new stores and the average annual sales per warehouse was 103 million, which more than cove rs the company’s initial start-up costs.Do you think Jim Sinegal has been an effective CEO? What grades would you give him in leading the process of crafting and executing Costco’s strategy? What support can you offer for these grades? Refer to Figure 2. 1 in Chapter 2 in developing your answers. Mr. Sinegal has been an effective CEO by being fully committed to the Costco vision and business strategy. In this aspect Mr. Sinegal would receive an A because he was very much â€Å"hands-on† which ensuring that each facility operated according to Costco’s business model/strategy, mission, and philosophy.Sticking with the company’s present strategic course creates opportunities for growth and increased profitability as displayed in the opening of 20 new locations. The company does not engage in extensive marketing or sales campaigns and the CEO would receive a B. Communications are sent by flyers, via Costco website/email, in-store product sampling, occa sional direct mailers to potential new members, and special campaigns for new store openings. This process works well for keeping expenses minimal, however, implementing effective marketing practices would greatly benefit the company.Marketing can help Costco grow their business by focusing on their best customers (Executive members) and attracting more club members, in order to, boost their sales and increase profit margins. Mr. Sinegal refuses increased customer prices to increase company marginal profits or to provide senior management with salaries comparable to other executives within the same industry. He found it unnecessary for executives to make 100 times more than employees and insisted on paying employees higher wages and increased benefits, than the industry standards as well.This greatly reduced employee turnover and increased consumer loyalty with Costco, which would earn him an A. The company has some of the most affluent customers with incomes ranging from $75,000 to over $100,000 annually. There are Gold and Executive memberships of which 38% are Executive members. Executive members generally spend more than other members and they had an 89% membership renewal rate. The membership format facilitated strictly controlling the entrances and exits of warehouses, resulting in limited inventory losses of less than 2/10 of 1% of net sales-well below the industry standard.Although Executive members provide a substantial amount of sales, the company should get in line to service potential club members who do not have annual incomes within the $75,000 to $100,000 (median range $50,000 to $75,000), as well as, continue to market to the Executive club members. This will strengthen the company’s future prospects and increase competition, in order to reach the projected 5% increase in sales. Managers are delegated additional responsibilities and were held accountable for store operations, product selections and promotions.These individuals had to pro ve that they could function within a fast paced retail environment and be able to promptly find resolutions to multiple issues. They also had to stay in tune with their customer needs and/or wants (consumer trends), in order to, maximize sales and quick turnover. For the most part, the company promoted from within, which earns the CEO letter grade C. Approximately, 98% of management is selected from within and that can cause conflicts with the organization. There is no opportunity for innovation and/or change (fresh ideas) from the outside.Employees can feel entitled to certain positions because of their length of tenure with the company, instead of whether or not they can effectively do the job. It can also cause â€Å"hostile work environment† by increasing competition among employees. It can hinder the company from focusing on top senior level technical talent. They targeted local universities for new hires, in order to, engage educated and hard-working individuals whom ha d not chosen a specific career path yet. The company needs to find a balance between promoting from within and outside of the company.For items that were not practical to stock at the warehouses, members are able to obtain a wider variety of value-prices products and services on the company website. Yes, the company is being impacted growing technological advances and the CEO would receive a D. The company is being affected by their inability to provide Apple products and/or services to club members due to online restriction. Costco needs to seek resolution for the online restriction. Apple is a popular high end product that Costco would generate increased revenues for the company and the website can only be accessed within the U.S. and Canada.The company is faring well against their direct and indirect competitors with expansion (within and outside of the U. S. ) and increased sales growth. The company buys majority of its merchandise directly from the manufacturers which allowed t he company to have sufficient inventories to meet demand. The CEO would earn a C because management is not being proactive. They are â€Å"assuming† that if they were to encounter any issues with supply, the business could just switch manufacturers without disruption.If Costco is going to pursue overall company growth, the supply chain should be aligned with its core business strategy and value proposition such as their competition (Wal-Mart). Costco should continue with the company goals to expand international and needs to ensure their website is capable to service their consumer demand in these other countries. It will make the organization more competitive, considering many of Costco’s competitors have global operations setup already. With the market share Costco already has within the industry, Costco has an opportunity to capitalize on their expansion.What core values or business principles has Jim Sinegal stressed at Costco? He stressed five business principles: obey the law, take care of our members, take care of our employees, respect our suppliers, and reward stakeholders. Obey the law-Mr. Sinegal put strong emphasis on abiding by the laws of every community where Costco conducted business, which consists of any state or government laws and/or regulations. He had a strict code of ethics. Take care of our members-Sinegal believes in customer satisfaction period.This was displayed not only in the superior products and services being offered but with the company’s efforts within their local communities as well. Take care of our employees-In addition to providing higher wages and great benefits, Costco provides their employees with opportunities for advancement, volunteer activities, and a safe/healthy work environment. Respect our suppliers-Costco honors all commitments and protected supplier property. They did not engage in situations that would cause conflicts of interests such as not accepting gratuities of any kind from a suppli er.The company also reserved the right to utilize their better ethical judgment when in doubt regarding what course of action to take. Reward our stockholders-Costco is publicly traded and depends on shareholders (investors) to be successful. They are treated as business partners and it is essential the company provides a good return on their investments. What is the competition like in the North American wholesale club industry? Which of the five competitive forces is strongest and why? Complete a five forces analysis of competition in the North American wholesale industry?The competition is fierce to strong in the North American wholesale market. Costco largest direct rival is Wal-Mart but there are also significant indirect rivals such as Amazon. com and Target. Rivalry can be considered fierce to strong when the battle for market share is so vigorous that the profit margins of most industry members are squeezed to the bare minimum. The industry is growing 15-20 percent faster th an retailing as a whole. Costco had 57% share of warehouse sales across the U. S. with Wal-Mart having approximately 35%.We believe the threat of new market entrants is the strongest of the five forces because Costco is not just in competition with other warehouse clubs but other types of retailers Dollar General, Lowe’s specialty chains, gas stations, Internet retailers such as Amazon. com and Barnes and Noble whom hold substantial market share Strengths †¢3rd largest retailer †¢Has 57% share of warehouse sales across US †¢No one manufacturer supplies a significant percentage of merchandise that Costco stocks †¢Provide high end products and services at low prices †¢Rapid inventory turnover †¢Minimal overhead expensesWeaknesses †¢Profits (low profit margins) dependent on card membership fees otherwise operating costs barely covered †¢Websites only operate in US and Canada but company has expanded internationally/website also unable to c arry certain products such as Apple –technological advances †¢Price caps 14-15 percent on name brand and Kirkland Signature products †¢Promotes more than 98% from within Opportunities †¢To gain new memberships for potential customers with median incomes between $50-$100K annually †¢To open additional stores in other countries besides Japan †¢Increase marketing efforts Threats†¢Entrance of other retailers whom adopted the low cost strategy and have significant market share -increased competition †¢Lack of supply management How well is Costco performing from a financial perspective? What is happening to net sales, total revenues, and net income? What are their profitability and expense ratios? The company has been consistently improving company performance from years’ 2000-2011. Without the sales from the memberships, sales would not be enough to cover the operating expenses for Costco.Net sales, net income, and total revenue have incre ased from the years’ 2000 to 2011. Net profit margin is 16. 8% and company collects almost 17 cents for each dollar of sales. So while the company increased its net income, it has done so with diminishing profit margins. Merchandising costs are high and account for at least 89% of operating expenses. The CAGR performed on total revenue displays an approximately 11% increase in total revenue and 11. 5% increase to stockholders’ equity shows that investors are receiving substantial returns on their investments with Costco.Long term debt has more than doubled over than last 10 years, the calculation for long-term debt and capital clearly show that less than 15%. The company has established their creditworthiness and can borrow money if necessary. The company’s current ratio is 1. 14 which is stable because it is over 1. 0, however, ratios of 2. 0 or more are better. The return on assets and equity have fluctuated over the years. ROA was actually higher in the past compared to the most recent calculation. For example in 2005, ROA was 6. 4% and 7. 3% in 2000.The total assets accumulated over the years have increased but the return on those assets have not. ROE was 14. 9% in 2000 and 14% in 2008. Overall, Costco is doing well but the company could be doing better. Gross profit margin= 87,048 – 77,739/ 87,048 = 0. 1069 (10. 7%) Operating profit margin= 2439 / 87,048 = 0. 02801 (2. 8%) Net profit margin= 1462 / 87,048 = 0. 01679 (16. 8%) Total Return on Assets= 2439 / 26,761 = 0. 091140092 (9. 1%) ROA = 1462 / 26,761 = 0. 052663809 (5. 3%) ROE = 1462 / 12,573 = 0. 116280919 (11. 63%) EPS = 1462 / 443. 1 = 3. 299948093 (3. 30)Long Term Debt to Capital Ratio = 2153 / 14,726 = 0. 146203993 (14. 62%) Current Ratio = 13706 / 12050 = 1. 137427386 (1. 14) CAGR -10 year total revenue (88,915 / 32,164) = 2. 764426066-2. 77 rounded 1 / 10 = 0. 1 2. 77 ^ 0. 1 = 1. 107255833- 1. 1072 1. 1072 – 1 = . 1072 (10. 72%) CAGR- 10 year stockholders†™ equity 12,573 / 4240 = 2. 965330189 – 2. 97 rounded 1 / 10 = 0. 1 2. 97 ^ 0. 1 = 1. 115001996- 1. 1150 1. 1150 – 1 = . 1150 (11. 50%) Based on the data in case Exhibits 1 and 4, is Costco’s financial performance superior to that at Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale?Costco has a larger share of the wholesale club sales in the United States. In fact, they have over half. Sam’s Club is next in line and BJ’s Wholesale is much smaller. Costco is efficient and utilizes its resources in order to remain more successful and have a greater impact than other wholesale clubs. Even though their profit margin may not be as high, they prove to have a stronger customer base and greater sustainability overall. Does the data in case Exhibit 2 indicate that Costco’s expansion outside the U. S. is financially successful? Why or why not?This data does show that Costco’s expansion outside the U. S. is financially successful. Sales and operati ng income continue to rise on a regular basis for the warehouses. This proves stability and consistency. Revenue also continues to rise enabling growth and success. How well is Costco performing from a strategic perspective? Does Costco enjoy a competitive advantage? Does Costco have a winning strategy? Why or why not? From a strategic perspective, Costco is performing well. They have evaluating their strengths and weaknesses and are able to accentuate their strengths.They look for opportunities and focus on making the most out of what they have. They are not afraid to venture into new opportunities and stray away from threats. Market share is consistently on the rise and they are increasing their customer base. Customers are aware of the care they get from Costco and the good reputation is reflected in their success. The continuous growth in memberships displays loyal customers. Costco certainly does enjoy a competitive advantage of consistently providing low prices, customer servi ce, increasing market share, and maintaining a profitable reputation.This is also why they do have a winning strategy. They align their business strategy with their mission and push forward. Are Costco’s prices too low? Why or why not? Costco’s prices are not too low. By evaluating their financial statements and review customer satisfaction, they are on target. They are meeting their goals and making a difference while still pleasing their customers. This is a happy medium that is hard to reach. Because these prices are part of their competitive advantage, it would not be a good idea to change this.What do you think of Costco’s compensation practices? Does it surprise you that Costco employees apparently are rather well-compensated? The compensation package provided by Costco is essential to the way they run their business. It is much better than those of its competitors, creating an advantage. This is another way that Costco aligns their strategy with their mis sion and values. While executives are offered a smaller compensation package, regular employees can take advantage of a larger package. This shows that they are all working together and one is not better than the other.It takes all of them to successfully run the company. Again, this is an advantage because employees can make Costco their career reducing the turnover. While competitors go through many employees in a short amount of time, Costco has the same staff. It did surprise me before reading this case, but based on their strategy and focus, this is the right thing to do and they prove that it really does pay off in the long run. What recommendations would you make to Costco top management regarding how best to sustain the company’s growth and improve its financial performance?While Costco remains successful at this time, it is important that they maintain engagement from customers and employees. It could be beneficial to look into untapped markets within the United Stat es and overseas. As times change, they may need to update processes and goals. One suggestion would be online shopping. The transition to online shopping abilities could enhance their overall success. This could also benefit customers overseas and will increase the market of Costco. They must remain one step ahead of the competition in order to stay on top. By focusing on their strength of customer care overall they will sustain their advantage. Costco Case Study Christopher GildeaÐ ¡ostco Case Study Seminar:   Business Policy and Strategy Professor Gregory P. Grogan Abstract ?Costco, a discount warehouse based in Issaquah, Washington, specializes in selling quality products at low prices. The company operates as a membership retailer, focusing its business on small and consumers with incomes averaging $75,000 with over 30 percent having incomes of $100,000 or more annually. The wholesale club segment of retailing in 2008 was estimated to be a $120 billion business in the United States, and it was growing about 20 percent faster than retailing as a whole (Thompson, 2010). The three main competitors were Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale. Costco has a majority of the warehouse club sales across the United States and Canada and is looking to keep its edge. ?The pricing strategy that Costco has implemented, focuses on the price-sensitivity of its consumers. The company has excelled in keeping its prices low by capping the markup on its merchandise. By keeping the markup lower than its competitors, Costco has provided its customers with deep discounts on over 4000 products within its stores. Sam’s Club, which offers the same number of products within its stores, earns half the income that Costco does at each store. Costco sales are even higher per store than BJ’s, which offers 7,300 items compared to 4,000 items at Costco and Sam’s Club. Costco has been very efficient at utilizing its floor space and generating high revenues from it products within its stores. ?Costco is trying to generate huge sales volume and quick inventory turnover by applying a business model that offers limited selections of nationally branded product in wide range of merchandise categories. Costco apply number of operating excellence such as efficient way of managing inventory and just in time inventory, efficient distribution, minimum merchandise handling, and volume purchasing to reduce the price of its product. One of the major benefits of high sales volume and rapid inventory turnover is that they can sell their inventory and receive cash that can be used to pay its vendors and take the advantage of early-payment discounts. ?Even with the low price strategy, Costco employee salaries and benefits are by far higher than its competitors. This compensation has motivated it employees and retain good workers in turn, Costco gets lower turnover and higher productivity. Combined with a smart business strategy that sells a mix of higher-margin products to more affluent customers, Costco actually keeps its labor cost lower that its competitors as a percentage of sales (Ampel, 2004). They are also retaining more employees than any of their peers. ?Costco has strong ethics within its company, developing a motivating workplace for its employees to flourish within the company. They prefer to develop their employees within the company. When doing this, they have turned down outsiders who may be able to bring in new innovations that can propel the company further ahead of its competitors. New recruits and experienced businesspeople have been overlooked. As the world becomes more globalized, the company needs to look at intelligent outsiders who can have a significant impact on the company. The strategy they have in place deters the company from accepting outside viewpoints, which could bring greater profits. ?One of the major strategic drawbacks of Costco is that they only carry a selection of 4,000 types of merchandise. This is less than most of their competitors, and may cause major problems in the future because most customers want choices. Costco has ignored many of its customers’ requests to stock certain goods in order to only sell products that will sell quickly. Though there method has been very successful, the company should increase it products that they sell in its stores. This increase could be between 1000 to 1500 products with the store brand Kirkland involved. ?Costco has some other operational level problems that in some extent hinder the overall companywide effectiveness and goals achievement. For example, they don’t accept all kinds of credit card from the customers (only American Express); though it is done to minimize the cost of overall operation. Their competitors are capitalizing on use all major card cards. Since November 10, 2006, Sam’s Club began accepting payment via MasterCard credit cards. The results with MasterCard were favorable; company officials reported that in the week following the MasterCard acceptance, the average ticker checkout at Sam’s Club was up 35 percent (Thompson, 2010). To allow their customers the use of different payment options will ultimately bring ore sales. Conclusion ?It is never acceptable to simply do business the way it has always been done because the market changes, the industry evolves, and numerous other external factors make it absolutely necessary for a business to evolve to retain or gain market share. This is particularly important in the industry Costco is in. The company needs to focus on it customer n eeds, its future hiring/company growth, and opening up to different payments. With an improved strategy in place, Costco can continue to service its customers, while satisfying the needs of its shareholders. ?Reference:Ampel, F. J. (2004, Embracing costco-ization — unlike most big-box retailers, costco's success is based on its high-quality service and superior product mix. Residential Systems, 5, 28-28. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/200686953? accountid=9997 BJ’s Wholesalers homepage, accessed at http://bjs. com on April 8, 2013 Costco homepage, accessed at http://costco. com on April 8, 2013 Sam’s Club homepage, accessed at http://samsclub. com on April 8, 2013 Thompson, A. A. , Strickland, A. J. , Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and Executing Strategy. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. 17th ed.

Yusuf Pathan

Yusuf Khan Pathan (born 17 November 1982 in Baroda) is an Indian cricketer. Pathan made his debut in first-class cricket in 2001/02. He is a powerful and aggressive right-handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler. His half-brother Irfan Pathan is also an Indian cricketer. Though younger than Yusuf, it was Irfan who entered the Indian team first. Following his impressive performances in the 2007 Deodhar Trophy and the Inter-state domestic Twenty20 competition held in April 2007, Pathan was made a part of the Indian squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, held in South Africa in September 2007.He made his Twenty20 international debut in the final against Pakistan. He opened the batting for India in the match, and scored 15 runs in the process. [1] After a good domestic season in 2007/08, he was signed by the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League for USD 475,000 (INR 1. 9 crore). In the 2008 IPL season, he scored 435 runs and took 8 wickets. He recorded the sea son's fastest half century (from 21 balls) against the Deccan Chargers, and was also the Man of the Match in the final against the Chennai Super Kings.Following his good showing in the IPL, he was selected for the Indian one-day team. After the IPL though he played all the games in the Kitply Cup and Asia Cup he got to bat only four times. He couldn't perform very well with the bat and the ball in the Asia Cup and in the Kitply Cup and so he wasn't selected for the Series. against Sri Lanka. He performed well in domestic circuit and impressed the selectors and was selected for the England ODI series in November. He scored a fifty off just 29 balls in the second ODI against England in Indore, on his 26th birthday. [2].Yusuf had made his One-Day International debut for India against Pakistan at Dhaka on 10 June 2008. He became a regular feature of the national One-Day International team, but has yet to make his test debut [3]. Even though Pathan could not repeat his first IPL performa nce in the second season, he was selected in the Indian team to play the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 championships in England. In the second of the Super 8 matches of India, he made an unbeaten 33 from 17 balls against England, despite his team losing the game and crashing out of the tournament before the semi-finals.In late-2009, Pathan was dropped from the limited overs team after a series of unproductive performances and the allrounder's position was taken over by Ravindra Jadeja. In the final of the 2010 Duleep Trophy cricket tournament, Pathan scored a hundred in the first innings and a double hundred in the second and led his team West Zone to a three wicket win over South Zone. Pathan made 108 in the first innings and an unbeaten 210 from 190 balls in the second innings. This became a world record in cricket for the highest successful run chase in first class cricket history. 4] On 13 March 2010, Pathan scored a century off 37 balls, in an Indian Premier League match against Mumb ai Indians. The innings also included record 11 consecutive hits to the boundary (6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4). On 7th December 2010 Y Pathan scored his maiden century against New Zealand in the 4th ODI at Chinnaswamy stadium Bangalore,he scored 123 runs off 97 balls with 7 sixes and 7 fours and he named match of the match award. At the award distribution ceremony he stated that â€Å"this knock will boost my career†. [citation needed]

A-Maze-Ing Laughter Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A-Maze-Ing Laughter - Article Example The whole environment occupies approximately 20 square meters of land. However, the environment is well lit such that the iconic laughter sculptures are visible clearly even during the night. Although the sculptures are placed together, they are evenly distributed across the small area and each one of the sculptures faces a different direction. It is claimed that each of the sculptures weighs approximately 250 kilograms. Whereas some of the sculptures are fully clothed, others are half-naked. The primary idea of the sculptures is to represent reality through art. Although it is difficult to determine the exact reason why the figures are laughing, any person can have their own interpretation of the cause of such exaggerated laughter. Laughter can represent a wide variety of human feelings. Laughter can be ironic, skeptical, sarcastic, genuine, or simply, an expression of pure happiness. Laughter is a form of relief from issues affecting society. This manmade environment represents the realities of life through artwork. ... Most importantly, the site has already become a tourist attraction and soon enough, it will become a major attraction site attracting people from all over the world. This manmade environment holds dear to the people of Vancouver. Indeed, the artist, Yue Minjun, sold the sculptures at a price of 1.5 million dollars. Artistic director of the Biennale, Barrie Mowatt, agreed to give the A-Maze-ing Laughter manmade site to Parks Board for a period of 20 years without a lease fee. This shows the importance of the site to the people of Vancouver. However, the public was expected to show their commitment and desire to have the site retained in the present position by sending emails to the board. The A-Maze-ing Laughter campaign seems to be successful and presently, the site is in hopes of being retained. Potential donors to buy the sculptures have been found. However, they have reserved their offer until the site is fully secured so that the sculptures can have a permanent home (Griffin web) . The manmade site has a very significant relationship with the surrounding. Notably, A-Maze-ing Laughter manmade site is located in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. This is one of the most metropolitan areas in Canada with a very diverse population. The exaggerated laughter iconic sculptures are a tourist attraction site for the large population around the city. Additionally, the site is located within the town where it can easily be accessed. It is worth noting that the site compliments the busy lifestyle of the city.  

Business strategy discussion board Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business strategy discussion board - Essay Example These confused and uninspired thoughts make us lose our initiative to express our thoughts freely and openly. Our confusion and lack of motivation led some of us to actively fail to involve ourselves in the project. Also, because we can't logically express ourselves out, we find it difficult to bind and unify our ideas together. As a result of this, there have been clashes and contradictions of ideas along the way that have just surfaced out as we passed our individual contributions for the group assignment. This even made our group even more difficult to manage. Another problem that we encountered is difficulty in interacting with each other. I admit that the internet makes our lives easy and more productive. But for me face-to-face conversation is still effective in a group project. I believe the atmosphere would be more enthusiastic and more interactive if meetings are done personally. I think this could have been solved if there is someone in the group will stand out and act as a leader. An effective leader streamlines any confusing or contradicting thoughts that the members in the group have. He also gives motivation for each member to eagerly involve themselves and participate in group meetings and discussions that are very vital for the success of the group.

Special Needs Rule Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Special Needs Rule - Essay Example In the case of a student who requires to be searched, the authority directly involved is the school officials, and therefore should be directly involved in the search. A clear example is the case, New Jersey v.TLO, and in this case, the Supreme Court ruled that searches that do not have probable causes can only be legal if they are done by the school authority. School setting is always a special setting, and the allowed officials are the school authorities. However, the presence of the police is welcome, but has to be regulated. As posited in the case, New Jersey v. TLO, the setting of a school may require modification especially in terms of suspicion or suspecting. The police cannot just move in to make unwarranted searches, rather, the school officials should be the one to be used. After the suspicion is confirmed, then, the law would take its course, and this time it would be implemented by the police. According to Gardner & Anderson (2009), the move to control searchers due to individualized reasons is to avoid seizures without deeply based suspicion. There is always a high need to differentiate an emergent issue in terms of searches and searches within special situations. Emergent searches are only when in the confines of police administration or not in a confine of a special situation. Special searches have to be

An Individual Vs. Team-Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

An Individual Vs. Team-Case - Essay Example This is because it is they who analyze the market niche of a particular product and come up with the recommendations on the course of action to be taken. For instance, it is the financial analyst who studies the market situation of company’s products, establishes the competitors and strategies they adopt and recommend what the company needs to do in order to remain competitive. This position is also well paying in terms of remuneration individuals of this cadre gets. However, it is said that change is like rest and every employee would not want to stay at one role every time and again. In this case, they always tend to crave for a more demanding role as a way of growing in their career. This tends to prompt them to seek for promotion as a motivating factor. This is what may prompt a financial analyst to seek for promotion to the level of an operation manager of a company that has a more challenging role a part from the fact that it is also well paying. ... This is the case regarding the situation before us. Decision Making Successful organizations highly depend on competitive products and services to succeed in the marketplace. Wang (2011) notes that, internally, quality management decision making is vital to establish and sustain this success. Managers face a number of challenges on a daily basis, and their ability to make decisions determines how successful and their individual careers can be in the long run. Quality decision making is, therefore, a competence that every manager who is responsible must acquire and a discipline that should be practiced. All responsible managers and leaders should always be willing and able to share how they make decisions (Wang, 2011). However, the team leader is he decision maker and has to bear the final responsibility for any decision made. Nevertheless, he or she is at liberty to choose who to invite in the final decision-making process and how to guide the process in order to maximize the quality and executability regarding the final decision made. It is, however, worth noting that managerial decision making is part of a continuous journey and not a one-time event. The three critical steps that make up this journey are: observe, think and experiment. Moreover, the overall outcome of managerial decisions can be optimized through continuous improvement. It is a matter of fact that taking up a new role is something challenging – one that requires good leadership qualities and styles. This is particularly challenging in a situation where the company is operating during a â€Å"shut down.† Therefore, to bring a turnaround on the company, proper strategies need to be employed, coupled with proper decision-makings to accomplish goals. In this regard, I

Satyam Computer Service Accounting Scam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Satyam Computer Service Accounting Scam - Essay Example After resignation of Srinivas Vadlamani as chief financial officer Ram Mynampati was appointed as the interim CEO of the Satyam computer services and this turned to be the worst scam in the company history. After an audit that was done the report stated that the company cash was not encouraging since the company was in a state of collapsing. After the scam, the aim of Satyam computer services is to ensure that the business continues. After the fraud was noticed, the government of India disbanded Satyam board and the government was not providing funds to the company. A team of auditors from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was appointed to investigate the fraud which is well known to regulate all Indian public companies (Winkler 2010). Satyam computer services is one of the companies that are under Bombay Stock Exchange and still under the New York Stock Exchange, meaning that the company is under the United States international regulators of capital market. The company will face legal process since United States believes that the company has broken the rules of stock exchange. Two of United States law firms are filling lawsuits against the company since the fraud has been in the history as the worst ever scam in India under the New York Stock Exchange and the aim is to recover some of the funds. The scam will have negative effects on the company and the Indian people in coming years since the company was the largest IT service provider and outsourcing giant in India Information Technology. This means Satyam computer service will either be sold but the auditors must recover the funds first if the company will go to that position of being sold. The competitors again will benefit from the company being sold. Its riv als like HCL, Wipro and TCS will pick the best employees and clients thus completely outdoing Satyam

Marketing Concultancy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Marketing Concultancy - Coursework Example This is a big problem potentially for Apple because the new firms can tank iTunes music revenues, and seriously undermine Apple’s business model. The proposed solutions therefore rely on leveraging the formidable strengths and assets of Apple, including its large cash hoard and its venerable name, to come up with alternatives to Spotify in order to check the latter’s rise and to shore up Apple’s revenues in music subscription sales. This solution leverages key strengths, and also leverages emerging trends in cloud computing and the benefits to be had from harnessing technological progress in cloud computing. This report makes use of external environmental analytical frameworks such as PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces frameworks, as well as a SWOT analysis, to properly assess the extent of the market problem and Apple’s condition relative to the external market challenge (Hunt 2011; Goldman 2010; Ausick 2013; Google Finance 2014; Schaefer 2014; Hinks 2014; McDuling 2014). Apple needs no introduction. The maker of the iPhone and the iPad is the most influential and the biggest name in technology, and its smartphone business and the ecosystem of apps, software, music and other digital content is the biggest in the world in terms of revenues and traction in the premium markets all over the world. The company is described as being in the business of providing both portable devices and computing devices for mobile communication and personal computing, together with the digital content, platform and apps that go with the hardware. Apart from the iPhone and the iPad, the company is also the maker of the Mac and the Apple TV platforms, together with software such as iOS and OS X, and iCloud. Content is aggregated via iTunes and the App Store. With a market capitalization of $ 661.67 billion, Google is the biggest tech firm

Agency budget Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Agency budget - Research Paper Example icant change is expected in terms of sales and gross margins, which in the next five years is estimated at; $300,000, $350,000 and $550,000 for year 1,2,3 respectively. The net profit expected within this period will be $10,000, $50,000, and $100,000 respectively for year 1, 2, 3. An investment of up to $1,000,000 is likely to be injected in the projects to realize the mentioned above monetary gains. Crexoc advertising agency will design and build after which it will test and deploy the email advertising campaign. Part of the project will entail reporting the progress of the real time, which gives the customer convenience in terms of flexibility (Kitcher, 2011). Crexoc will finally do an analysis of its success to find out on the other areas to support the tool in future campaigns of thee company. Email marketing is a scientifically developed tool with effective strategies that are geared to assure the company the success of reaching so many clients in real time. The basic threat is only the risk that the potential customer might completely reject the advertising. Crexoc advertising agency plans through this project to offer marketing services to companies willing to adopt the same techniques as a cornerstone of their marketing program. They estimate that email marketing will launch over 250 billion emails across the cyberspace in a cost effective manner and maximized effects. I t is worthwhile to note that research has it that email ad-response rates are currently averaged at around 15% (Lee, 2003). The company will use the already established extensive network of contacts with companies already using the mode of marketing. In addition, it will engage its internal expertise to launch an intensive email marketing campaign to selected groups (Shore & Carfora, 2011). The groups entail 50,000 selected businesses quarterly with online companies targeted as suitable while offline companies will be targeted as long-term strategies. Sales are expected to strategically

Dramatic Iron In Tragedy Essay Example for Free

Dramatic Iron In Tragedy Essay Dramatic irony is endemic in the experience of the tragedy; people get shocked when tragedy strikes but they will murmur underneath that they had seen it coming though the victims did realize it. Neighbors and friends read signs of death, they are afraid to it directly or try to tell it indirectly and the victims can not believe or just cannot understand. Tragedy sometimes strikes when least expected, Lindsay a beautiful young Woman of two, separated from her husband because he abused her physically, her estranged her husband did not accept the separation though it was authorized by a local judge. He visited her house often and without notifying her in advance, he claimed that house was still his home because they had bought the house together before he started in drinking before that ruined their relationship and turned their home into a battle field. Lindsay had no problem with that he was still the father of her children, though she no longer loved him, in fact she was seeing granted so that they could marry. She knew Andy would be jealousy if he got a wind that there was another man in her life but didn’t think much about it and when Andy bumped on them kissing on the coach, she didn’t think there was anything to worry about, furthermore they had decided that they should move on, in the best way each one knew. Andy reacted coolly, and seemed to be okay as the shook hands with Lindsay’s new man, she was surprised by his calmness and understanding. When Andy offered to take Lindsay and their children out for dinner, she suggested that her new boyfriend should also as he had already met him and even implied that if he was seeing someone he should also come with her. It didn’t seem to be a good ideal to her man but she managed to convince him and together they left in Andy’s car towards a local restaurant. Andy was quite jovial through out the evening, talking nostalgically of the old times they had shared as a family, he made it clear that he was fine and would respect. Lindsay’s decision to move on, he promised to help hasten the divorce to set her free. Andy drove his family and their new friend home, but as soon as he parked the car, he left outside and he held a pistol in hands he pulled he trigger and shot Lindsay and her man as he mocked them, telling them they can marry in hell. Luckily he did not kill his children but he turned the pistol to it and placed it on hid head, pulled the trigger and died on the spot. Lindsay was dead, her children became orphans, and she knew that Andy still bred her; some of her friends had warned her that it was too soon to enter into another relationship but she had not hindered their advice. They knew Andy would get crazy with jealousy, some of them would not even believe that he had not started a fight with Lindsay’s boyfriend on the first day he savo together. Family members must have worried about Andy’s welfare especially after they realized that Lindsay was saving someone else, they knew how possessive he was with her, the guessed that he could harm the man they knew that there was no way to take the pain and reaction he felt and so they just waited for time to heal his wounds. However, tragedy struck and all they could now say was they had seen it coming. Most tragedies that happen are as a result of all careless mistakes for instance when someone dies in road accident, people will always say they knew it would happen, may be they will talk about his careless and fast driving or say that he left very angry or struck, they saw him getting into the vehicle but did not stop him and he goes and trashes and dies. In every tragedy there is dramatic irony, and no matter how many tragedies strike people are always shocked and they never learn to stop the. Dramatic irony s endemic in the experience of tragedy, think of the humblest that killed may in the united states, the US had now with Iraq, they knew they would strike them but did not take much precautions neither did they try to stop them, until the tragedy struck. When a bus gets involved in an accident, the lucky passengers that bus had been driving careless before the us crashed, they will have felt it before it happens but do nothing to stop it. I can use this to justify that dramatic irony is endemic in the experience of tragedy, and it will always be, no matter how hard we try. References Barnard B. A and Winn F. (2005); Access to Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama; Amazon publishers, New York Diayanni R. (1997); Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, drama and the Essay Amazon publishers, New York Dawson C. and Flood J. (2000); Spotlight on Literature; McMillan series Kennedy X. J and Gioia D. (2004); Literature: An introduction to Fiction, Poetry and drama Interactive edition 9th Edition. Royle T. ; (1999); Scottish Literature: McMillan series -Introduction to Literature: McMillan series -Enjoying Literature: McMillan series -Understanding Literature: McMillan series -American Literature: McMillan series English and Western Literature: McMillan series

Implementing Digital Marketing Strategies For Nissan Micra Marketing Essay

Implementing Digital Marketing Strategies For Nissan Micra Marketing Essay EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Phonethics Mobile Media develops digital and mobile content for promotion of products and services online. There are various tools and platforms aailablc to promote offerings over the internet. To name a few. Blogging Micro-site Online Games Flash Games Banners SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Videos Picture Galleries Social Media Marketing The project required using the concept of Social Media Optimization to execute the ongoing campaigns successfully ABOUT THE INDUSTRY Digital Marketing is the promoting of brands using all forms of digital advertising. This now includes Television, Radio, Internet, mobile and any other form of digital media. Digital Marketing is the practice of promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner. Whilst digital marketing does include many of the techniques and practices contained within the category of Internet Marketing, it extends beyond this by including other channels with which to reach people that do not require the use of The Internet. As a result of this non-reliance on the Internet, the field of digital marketing includes a whole host of elements such as mobile phones, sms/mms, display / banner ads and digital outdoor. Strategies for Digital Marketing There are two basic digital marketing strategies used by current and potential customers. These two types of digital marketing are called the Push and the Pull. Their methodology for providing information to customers works as follows: Pull digital marketing the customer seeks information about products and/or services by visiting the companys sources of information searching for the specific product or service information. They are basically requesting to view this specific content. These are typically located in websites, blogs, streaming audio and video sources. Customers have found related information on other websites or been directed to the companys sources by a referring website to find the information. Advantages: No restrictions on file size No opt-in requirements Low technology requirements for the company Disadvantages:- Marketing required Little tracking of visitors No personalization to keep the visitors coming back. Push digital marketing customers are provided information by receiving or viewing advertisements digitally, such as: SMS, RSS, cellphone calls, etc., as subscribers of the latest product and service information provided by the company. Advantages Faster delivery push technologies can deliver content immediately as it becomes available. Consistent delivery some push platforms have single content types, making it difficult for the user to block content by type. Better targeting since push technology usually justifies subscription, more specific marketing data may be collected during registration, which allows for better targeting and more personalization. Better data marketing data can be correlated to each request for content, allowing marketers to see information such as user name as well as demographic and psychographic data. Disadvantages Smaller audience push technology not implemented on common platforms generally need client and/or server software before content can be created, distributed, and/or viewed. Higher cost less popular platforms may have higher implementation costs. Lesser discoverability smaller audiences mean fewer views mean less visibility in search engines. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS On average each adult with a social networking page or profile has profiles on 1.6 sites, and 39% of adults have profiles on two or more sites.Half of all current adult social networkers say that they access their profiles at least every other day. Internet marketing, also referred to as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing or e-Marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing in terms of providing instant responses and eliciting responses are the unique qualities of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also often grouped together under internet marketing. Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along many different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. In 2008, The New York Times working with comScore published an initial estimate to quantify the user data collected by large Internet-based companies. Counting four types of interactions with company websites in addition to the hits from advertisements served from advertising networks, the authors found the potential for collecting data upward of 2,500 times on average per user per month. Facebook Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The websites name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 120 million active users worldwide. Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria, Pakistan and Iran. It has also been banned at many places of work to increase productivity. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. Community mindset: connect Primary demographic: 25 to 45 Ideal fit for: entertainment, lifestyle brands, and non-profits Biggest opportunity: using ads to build fans Biggest challenge: few appreciate Facebook advertising Metrics: fans, comments, likes, wall posts Helpful tools: Lexicon, ad interface, applications, analytics, connect, etc. Orkut Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website is named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Bà ¼yà ¼kkà ¶kten. Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. In fact, as of December 2009, 51.09% of Orkuts users are from Brazil, followed by India with 20.02% and United States with 17.28%. Originally hosted in California, in August 2008 Google announced that Orkut would be fully managed and operated in Brazil, by Google Brazil, in the city of Belo Horizonte. This was decided due to the large Brazilian user base and growth of legal issues. As of July 2010, Alexa traffic ranked Orkut 65th in the world; the website currently has more than 100 million active users worldwide. Anyone of age above 13 years can join orkut. Community mindset: connect Primary demographic: 15 to 25 Ideal fit for: entertainment, lifestyle brands, and non-profits Biggest opportunity: Community building Biggest challenges: noisy; losing market share quickly Metrics: friends, favorites, groups, impressions Helpful tools: Open Platform, Orkut Promote LinkedIn LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 21 June 2010, LinkedIn had more than 70 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Membership The membership grows by a new member approximately every second. About half of the members are in the United States and 11 million are from Europe. With 3 million users, India is the fastest-growing country as of 2009. The Netherlands has the highest adoption rate per capita outside the US at 30%. Community mindset: connect Primary demographic: 35 to 55 Ideal fit for: service providers, industry associations Biggest opportunity: creating thought leadership via QA and Groups Biggest challenge: time commitment Metrics: profile connections, best answers, group members, discussions Helpful tools: Applications, Salesforce plug-in Twitter Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read other user messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the authors profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default, however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other author tweets-this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers. As of late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of following individual authors.[5][6] All users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as, for smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries.[7] While the service is free, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide and currently has more than 100 million users worldwide. It is sometimes des cribed as the SMS of the Internet The use of Twitters application programming interface (API) for sending and receiving SMS from other applications often dominates the direct use of Twitter. Community mindset: create (micro blogging) Primary demographic: 35 to 45 Ideal fit for: service industry Biggest opportunity: customer service, consumer insight, sales and marketing Biggest challenges: noisy; reliability issues; platform limitations Metrics: followers, @ replies, retweets, direct messages, custom hashtags Helpful tools: BingTweets, TweetBeep, TweetDeck, HootSuite, CoTweet, Mr. Tweet, Twitalyzer, blog plug-ins YouTube YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, BBC, VEVO and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users 18 and older. Community mindset: vote Primary demographic: 25 to 45 Ideal fit for: big brands and entertainment Biggest opportunity: creating viral content (e.g., United Breaks Guitars) Biggest challenges: noise; conversions Metrics: views, comments, subscribers, ratings Helpful tools: TubeMogul, YouTube Insight ABOUT PHONETHICS Phonethics Mobile Media was setup in Feb. 2006. It is essentially a Digital marketing and online promotion firm. The mission of the company- To create character-led Original Content Content Format: Short form Video, Animation Audio(15 sec 30 min) For commercial distribution on the wireless and emerging media. The company has its genesis in a 9 year old Advertising and computer film production company, Ethics. Phonethics was founded by Saurabh Gupta along with an angel investor. The company is mentored by Prof. Deepak Jain (Dean- Kellogg College) and enjoys creative support and involvement from actor, Rahul Bose. The company has two divisions: IP products Division: Creating Character led content Services division: Executing advertising corporate assignments Phonethics specializes in creation of Short From content for the Web and Mobile platforms. Content creation abilities: Identifying and conceptualization- Scripting and Storyboard Video creation Shoot, Edit and produce video products Animation 2D and 3D Audio Music and Sound Design Currently Phonethics has a library of 8 characters with fully evolved storylines. Each character is representative of a particular vertical of content. The base content for all forms of media is Video, Animation pieces with affiliate products in the form of Ringtones, Wallpapers, etc. PROJECT DETAILS Overview Campaigns Worked On: Take Care Take Charge ( An initiative by Garnier Times of India) Nissan Micra Responsibilities At Phonethics, I was absorbed as an employee and put on to the Business Development team as a team leader. The first month was clogged with sales and promotional work, where I was expected to understand their clients and working style. Combined with constant mentoring and on-the-job training, I got the opportunity to add value to myself as well as the organization. Working on two different brands catering to diverse target audiences threw light on the dynamics of the Indian Markets. In order to successfully and effectively carry out the promotional work it was necessary to understand the needs of the respective clients and cater to them. TAKE CARE TAKE CHARGE Project Overview Take Care Take Charge was promoted by Garnier and Times of India. It was a 45 day campaign built around the topic of paper recycling.  Beginning from April 22, Over the next 45 days, this campaign helped to build a greenhouse of ideas to help build a greener planet. For every idea received, Garnier and the Times of India bought 10 kilograms of used paper. And on June 5 World Environment Day the campaign culminated with an entirely recycled special edition of the Times of India. Many Sustainable solutions to environmental issues under the following broad themes: transport and vehicular pollution; heritage and cultural conservation; and biodiversity and greening were generated. All the ideas were shared on www.takecaretakecharge.in Ideas was judged on robustness, scalability, ease of implementation and cost. Ten ideas per city was finalized by the Centre of Environment Education. The shortlisted ideas was not only published in the Times of India, but also was recommended to the government for implementation. Project Objective Times of India approached Phonethics with a main objective of creating a buzz about the campaign and invite green ideas from the users across the 6 cities using TOI network as a platform. Promotional Strategies Adopted Website development Banner advertisement Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Optimization (SMO), Social Media Management (SMM) SMS Bursts Facebook Ads Project Execution Design Development of Website on the Green Theme Banner advertisements featured in TOI and allied websites. Social Media Engagement in popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut and Twitter. Due to SMO, Traffic to TCTC website increased, Generating Leads The Campaign was also optimized in the Mobile world with users being able to send in their ideas using their cellphone which were featured as Daily Contributions in the website Mailer was sent to each lead asking for a proper description of the idea in the defined format. Every week , Of the ideas submitted from 6 cities , 10 of them where published as Featured Ideas the in website At end of the campaign, 60 Best Ideas from the 6 cities were published Vital Stats Impressions: 545, 29,895 Clicks: 47,565 Ideas Registered: 5000+ Page Views: 126,789 SCREENSHOTS City Specific Idea Count was displayed on the Map of India Users could send in their ideas through their mobile which is published as a daily contribution NISSAN MICRA Project Overview The All new fourth generation Nissan Micra was unveiled at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Nissan India was planning to launch the small car named Micra in India on 15th July 2010 and its success would play a very crucial and key role in plans of Nissan for Indian Market. New Nissan Micra would be an excellent combination of newer generation cutting edge technology, exceptional design and advanced features. Developed and built on Nissans all-new V-platform, the new Nissan Micra was designed and tested in Japan to be built in at least four overseas locations, and fine-tuned to meet the differing tastes and needs of customers in 160 countries worldwide. The main threat being faced by Nissan in India was the low brand awareness in the minds of Indians. Nissan had to tap into the small car segment that was already wrought with fierce competition. Nissan approached Phonethics Mobile Media to handle the entire digital campaign for Micra. They were concerned about getting maximum number of bookings through the 11 dealers spread across India. Project Objective(s) Create a microsite for lead generation Display banner ads on popular websites where the intended small car buying audience visits Create and maintain a fan page on the popular social networking website FACEBOOK to facilitate direct interaction with the intended target audience Run an ad campaign on Facebook Reach and interact with the prospective buyers through social media websites Promotional Strategies Adopted Do the initial research and check where competitors and other small car makers display banner ads Send greetings to individuals who have shown interest and signed up at the microsite. Create promotional messages for the activity keeping in mind the appropriate forum/community Tracking codes were implemented for independent community managers for tracking and filtering clicks and to generate accurate report of clicks. Update the microsite with the updates of the company. Project Execution The work started off by creating a microsite for generating leads and capturing interest. A FACEBOOK fan page was made and latest updates about Nissan Micra were regularly posted. Customer queries were also managed mainly dealing with the car price, availability and technical specifications. Community managers were assigned the work of posting details about the car on relevant communities and groups. The FACEBOOK fan page generated close to 2000 fans in a short span of a month. FACEBOOK fan page was integral in engaging the audience and generating brand awareness amongst the younger internet savvy crowd. Around 1000 bookings were generated even before the TV ads had started playing. Vital Stats *** Till 17th June10 Impressions: 95,88,621 Clicks: 54,447 Leads Generated: 5861 Page Views: 153,491 SCREEN SHOTS A banner ad on display at a popular website Measuring Performance The three most common ways in which online advertising is purchased are CPM, CPC and CPA CPM (Cost per Mille), also called Cost per Impression (CPI), is where advertisers pay for exposure of their message to a specific audience. Per mille means per thousand impressions or loads of an advertisement. However, some impressions may not be counted, such as a reload or internal user action. The M in the acronym is the Roman numeral for one thousand. CPV (Cost per Visitor) or (Cost per View in the case of Pop Ups and Unders) is where advertisers pay for the delivery of a Targeted Visitor to the advertisers website. CPC (Cost Per Click) is also known as Pay per click (PPC).Advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their listing and is redirected to their website. They do not actually pay for the listing, but only when the listing is clicked on. This system allows advertising specialists to refine searches and gain information about their market. Under the Pay per click pricing system, advertisers pay for the right to be listed under a series of target rich words hat direct relevant traffic to their website, and pay only when someone clicks on their listing which links directly to their website. CPC differs from CPV in that each click is paid for regardless of whether the use makes it to the target site. CPA (Cost per Action) or (Cost per Acquisition) advertising is performance based and is common in the affiliate marketing sector of the business. In this payment scheme , the publisher takes all the risk of running the ad, and the advertiser pays only for the amount of users who complete a transaction, such as a purchase or sign-up. This is the best type of rate to pay for banner advertisements and the worst type of rate to charge. Similarly. CPL (Cost per Lead)advertising is identical to CPA advertising and is based on the user completing a form, registering for a newsletter or some other action that the merchant feels will lead to a sale, Also common, CPO (Cost per Order) advertising is based on each time an order is transacted. Cost per conversion Describes the cost of acquiring a customer typically calculated by dividing the total cost of an ad campaign by the number of conversions. The Definition: Conversion varies depending on the situation: it is sometimes considered to be a lead, a sale or a purchase. CPE (Cost per Engagement) is a form of Cost Per Action pricing first introduced in March 2008.Differing from cost per impression or cost per click models, a CPE model means advertising impressions are free and advertisers pay only when a user engages with their specific ad unit. Engagement is defined as a user interacting with an ad in any number of ways. @ Phonethics The success of any running campaign can be measured and reviewed using the Google analytics tool. This tool gives a complete break up of where the traffic has originated. The tool gives details about the website from which traffic was generated the search keywords used to to reach the landing page etc. Any campaign can be reviewed on the following parameters Number of clicks received: Campaign-wise, as on any date (beginning from te 1st day of the campaign) Graphical representation of the websites through which traffic is being directed to th desired Landing page Regional graph providing details of where the clicks are coming from Number of Clicks, banner ad location wise, which can measure the effectiveness of a particular banner ad.

Who is Barbra Jordan? Essay -- essays research papers

Barbara Jordan The book "Barbara Jordan" is about a politician/humanitarian Barbara Jordan. Barbara Charline Jordan was born on Febuary 21,1936. In 1953, Barbara Jordan graduated from Phillis Wheatly High school; from there; she went on to Texas Southern University where she graduated magna cum laude. She then continued her education at Boston University Law School. Afterward she returned to Texas to work for a judge in Harris County. In 1960, she worked for the campaign to nominate John F. Kennedy as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. In 1962, Ms. Jordan ran for Texas House of Representatives where she lost the election. However, she did not lost her determination and she ran again in 1964 for Texas House where she lost again. Nevertheless, that still did not make her give up hope. In 1966, Barbara Jordan was elected to Texas Senate, becoming the states first black senator since 1883. She authored the state's first successful minimum-wage bill and pushed for civil rights legislation. Ms. Jordan served two terms as a senator. Ms. Jordan then proceeded to set another record becoming the first black woman the head any American State Government as she served as governor for a day. Ms. Jordan then was assigned to the House of Judiciary Committee, where she earned national attention for her articulate speech in favor of impeaching President Richard M. Nixon (196...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight †The Believable Character of Sir Gawain :: Sir Gawain Green Knight Essays

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – The Believable Character of Sir Gawain  Ã‚   One of the most important components of any literary work is the central character. To make literature truly great is to have a character whose personality is believable. When the character is believable, the reader is more likely to relate to the character and be drawn into the work. There are three basic ways a character's personality can be revealed to a reader: what the character thinks about him or herself, how others think and feel about the character, and the character's actions help define his or her personality. When these three methods are in sync, then the character becomes a real person. However it is very easy for a writer to make the character become too perfect and the illusion of reality is lost. The way an author can work around this is to allow certain aspects to become out of sync, such as a flaw in personality which can only be brought to light when the character is pushed to his limits. This is how the personality of Sir Gawain, the central character of Sir Gawai n and the Green Knight, is depicted. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a great medieval poem written by an unknown author who is believed to be a contemporary of Chaucer. The poem takes place in Arthurian England. Sir Gawain begins his rise to greatness when he takes a challenge given by an ominous figure known as the Green Knight. Throughout the poem, Gawain is tested and is found to be truthful until he is tested in the gift-giving game in which his flaw is revealed to the reader. The events in the poem make the character of Sir Gawain very believable and is part of the reason why Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the greatest literary works of Middle English. In the first segment of the poem, we are introduced to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It is Christmas time in King Arthur's court when the Green Knight enters the dining hall. He is very large and completely green. He challenges the court to a beheading game in which one of the knights must cut off the Green Knight's head and then in 12 months and a day find the Green Knight and allow the Green Knight to chop his head off.

Political Campaign Videos Essay

Shifts in the campaign films â€Å"The Sky is the Limit† by George Bush and â€Å"A New Beginning† by Ronald Reagan must have been very evident to expert media critics, but were not at all noticeable for average reasonable television viewers, making the films more effective materials in campaign. Let us first take a look at the campaign film of George Bush. The first of the film â€Å"A New Beginning† engaged the viewers to listen and take a look at Bush’ personal life. It contained clips of Bush’ father, mother and wife talking about him and that is where â€Å"personal† or â€Å"emotional appeal† comes in, because it was the family of Bush speaking. Bush’ parents talked about how loving and wonderful he is as a son. Even his love life was discussed by his wife, telling the audience that Bush is a type of person who keeps his words which he proved when he married Laura right away as promised. At this early part of the film, the film seemed to be just a simple documentary of George Bush’ personal life, until a clip of George Bush saying â€Å"I am the person who likes to smile† came in. He was saying that he likes to laugh, with his face extremely closed up while driving, followed by a very short clip showing himself laughing at a political assembly. This, then, is the start of political campaign and is also the first shift in the movie. The shift was made very subtly, though, because there was a mix of personal appeal and political campaign. The next clip was Carlos Ramirez talking about Bush being a person full of family values. While the topic was still very personal, the interviewee was a political person, Carlos Ramirez being the mayor of El Paso. With this, the combination of politics and personal appeal was created, signaling the second shift that was about to happen. This is indeed a clue that the next shift will be from personal-political to something that’s purely political. The third shift is marked by an interview with Ernie Ladd, a co-founder of a mentoring program for leadership called â€Å"PULL. † Ernie Ladd was talking about Bush’ performance as a leader. When the topic is about leadership, it clearly shows that the current focus of the clip was into politics. To soften the blow, Bush was shown on TV again, being back to a regular guy for another shot at personal appeal. Then again, it was still political because here, he was talking about change. At first, he was sympathizing over children who were coming from very difficult situations and comparing it to his wonderful life. He said he wanted to change this and make lives better for all children, while uttering the purely political line â€Å"This is the reason why I want to run as a governor of Texas. † The campaign, at this stage, is at its full swing. Another shift was created, but this time, there was an effort in emphasizing the goals of Bush in the elections. Phyllis Hunter, a representative from READ of the state of Texas, talked about changed which Bush caused in the state. She further explained the positive changes which took place in Texas which may not have been impossible without Bush. â€Å"She gave testimonials on how helpful Bush is as a person which can be seen through her exact words, I have seen a big difference since he has been governor of the state of Texas in the amount of supports that we have to help us as educators reach the standards. He said if you need it, we’ll get it for you. We have websites, we have grant programs, we have teacher training in the state of Texas, and we have George leading the way (Parmelee, 2003, p. 52). † From this point, the film became highly political because what were shown were purely campaign materials. There was Bush talking to kids while reading their letters to him, in which a letter even contained a wish for Bush to win. Here, Bush tells the kids that he hopes he wins, too. This campaign material was given drama and personal appeal when the kids were involved. Lastly, Bush was uttering the words â€Å"I’m confident I can do the job that people want me to do. I’m a proud member of my party, but I’m more than that; I’m an American. I love my country. I love what America stands for. I’m going to remind people that we’re lucky to be Americans (Parmelee, 2003, p. 52). † Ending the film is a song entitled â€Å"We the People† matched with a loud applause. Ronald Raegan’s film â€Å"A New Beginning†, on the other hand, starts with a footage of his inauguration. While uttering his constitutional oath, a montage of Americans leading a normal life was overlapping with his voice. His oath, then, functioned as a voice over to regular citizens who tended animals, tilled the lands, worked in offices, and the likes. It was indeed a technique that made the film strong because the film was able to make portray that the heroes of the United States are the Americans, and not Ronald Raegan himself. From this scene, a shift was made to Raegan talking about how he finds his job in the political arena, saying that â€Å"hearing honest views while having meetings† coming from the executive branch of the government makes him inspired as a political leader. After mentioning people from the executive branch, the film shifts to ordinary people again, giving testimonials on how they have learned values like patriotism, respect and pride because of Reagan. It was in the fourth shift when a sudden change can be noticed, because the music suddenly became dramatic, having the lyrics â€Å"Freedom, they can’t take that away, I am proud to be an American† as a contributing factor to the emotional appeal. This part extended to a few minutes (as long as the whole song) and converted the film temporarily into a music video until it was cut to a few clips showing Reagan’s trips to demilitarized zones in Asia. In this shift, the film showcased the military power of a country where Reagan shows how delighted he is to hear pride among soldiers. He then meets the soldiers from South Korea and greets then one by one with the words â€Å"I am proud to know you. † This way, he is sending the message that we should emulate his behaviour of acknowledging these soldiers or â€Å"heroes† everytime we see them. Testimonials from ordinary Americans are inserted again, in which everyone says that they get to spend more money and they can feel the progress of the economy since Raegan led the nation. The topic of inflation was also discussed, with statistics mentioned to prove that he is most concerned with inflation and security of elders. The music in this scene is lively and victorious, followed, again, by testimonials from other people. The most dramatic shift comes with the topic of the assassination attempt on him. This part was purely emotional and personal, sharing to the audience the moment he talked to the doctor and the doctor told him â€Å"God must be on your shoulder. † However, an abrupt change occurred when a sudden lively music entered the scene, showing again his trips to Asian countries. This time, he says that people go to the West, which shows that the West, then, provides future for the people. He says that Americans have a lot to offer, which brought a change on the clip by inserting a clip about the World War II veterans who risked and sacrificed their lives at Point d’Hoc. He tells us that men these days can be found in offices, stores, farms and shops as a result of a free society all because the military force helped the nation achieve it. After this, the film becomes political when Reagan started talking about reform, simplifying taxes and creating enterprise zones and business incentives. From this, he also talks about peace which he achieved because he is helping people. The film ended with the song God Bless The USA (Morreale, 1991, p. 84). The values common to these two films are pride, patriotism, generosity, leadership, spirituality and respect. What makes these films different are how these two define themselves. Bush defines himself as a person full of family values, someone who wants to make everybody happy, respectful of his parents, wanting to create change, full of optimism and reaching big dreams, in which his being a family-person and wanting to create change is emphasized. Reagan defines himself as a person who respects heroes, full of patriotism, prioritizes economy of the nation, advocates freedom, spiritual and a peace-lover. In this, his respect for heroes or military and his patriotism are emphasized. Musical scores that are lively and victorious support the progress, dreams and freedom the candidates are portraying in the film. The sentimental songs support the personal and emotional appeal of the film, which helped in making the audience feel what the candidates wanted them to feel. Visual images also had a role – American flags, innocent kids, boy scouts, soldiers, baseball, laughter, sunrises – all these promoting a positive vibe for their personality, making the candidates look as more positive individuals in front of the camera.

Management Planning: Boeing

This paper will examine the management planning of the Boeing Company. To better understand Boeing’s management planning, this paper is broken down into sections: First this paper will evaluate the planning function of Boeing’s management. Second, we will try to provide an analysis of the impacts that the legal, ethical and corporate social responsibility of the Boeing’s management planning by providing relevant examples of each. Finally, this paper will delve on three factors that influence Boeing’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning. By analyzing and evaluating these aspects in Boeing’s management planning, the reader will better understand how it brought success into this company. Management Planning: Boeing As the world’s renowned aircraft company, Boeing was founded on July 15, 1916 by William E. Boeing. Since then, the Boeing Company earned its place as a major aerospace and defense corporation. By revenue, Boeing is considered as the largest aircraft manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft (Pragmatics’ ITES-2S Portal Boeing, 2007). Aside from that, Boeing ranked as the second largest in terms of deliveries around the world and it positioned itself as the second largest defense contractor in the world (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2007). It also attends to demand in producing rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems. This is why the company had sprawled globally in 145 countries and its sales had put it in one of the top U.S. exporters list (Boeing in Brief, 2007). All of these achievements by Boeing can be attributed to its brilliant management planning. To get a better insight into Boeing’s management planning, it would be best to evaluate their planning function. To be an effective and efficient global company, Boeing took advantage of planning to create a long tradition of aerospace leadership and innovation. As a mark of its good leadership, the steady managing of its physical assets had been the evidence of how it attained the top position in the aviation market. Boeing, being the largest producer of commercial aircraft in the world, faced a huge task in keeping its production on schedule. Each airplane requires more than 1 million individual parts and assemblies, and each airplane is custom configured to meet the purchasing airline’s exact specifications. These parts and assemblies must be completed and delivered on schedule or else the production process will stop and cause unnecessary delays. As a large company, Boeing developed a systematic procedure for selecting goals and strategies that should define their standards for the future success of their business. The deliberate pursuit of those standards should be done through their objective-seeking work (Roney, 2004, p. 33). This is the reason why Boeing invested in a number of new information systems that would enable them to increase production efficiency. This gives the Boeing management the power to plan and control their logistics in every element of its supply chain. Using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and internet links, Boeing is working with suppliers so that they can provide exactly the right part or assembly at exactly the right time. They call it â€Å"Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system†, which they currently use within Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). This ERP system automatically generates purchasing data, which is formatted by their supplier network (Boeing Suppliers, 2007). This enables Boeing to proactively produce engineering specifications and drawings available to its suppliers through secure Internet connections, even before starting an airplane into production. As work on the airplane progresses, Boeing keeps every member of the supply chain continually informed of completion milestones achieved and necessary schedule changes. Lind (2006) cited that as Boeing enabled their enterprise-level research and development (R&D), Boeing’s plans responded effectively and efficiently to improve its business needs. In fact, the effectiveness of their planning by the use of their new systems, Boeing had cut in half the time needed to complete individual assembly processes and it has realized similar reductions in part defect costs. The combined effects of these increased efficiencies are helping Boeing do a much better job of meeting its customers’ needs. Instead of waiting 36 months for delivery, customers can now have their new airplanes in 10 to 12 months. Because the management planning focused on increasing their production, the impact of their management planning affected their legal aspect in terms of downsizing.   This happened when Boeing experienced a slowdown in its aircraft production after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the company was forced to trim down the number of employees in its plants. This is why Boeing faced many legal actions filed against them by previous employees (Kirkpatrick, 2006). This also affected the ethical stance of Boeing because they could not justify the 30 percent widespread layoff nationwide. Some employees decried discrimination against the method of their employee reduction program that violated the Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which articulated that it is â€Å"unlawful for a covered employer to discriminate against employees over the age of 40 by reason of their age†. Boeing should not forget its ethical standards by ignoring the rights of some individuals just to promote efficiency and productivity (Sims, 1994, p. 6) Despite this, Boeing gained in the aspect of corporate responsibility to the environment as they prided that their planning allowed them to switch to technologies and cooperative partnerships that help ensure a safe and habitable global environment for the future (Health & Safety, Boeing Website, 2007). In fact, they introduced the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which is aimed to provide airlines with unmatched fuel efficiency, resulting in exceptional environmental performance. The airplane will use 20 percent less fuel for comparable missions than today's similarly sized airplane. It will also travel at speeds similar to today's fastest wide bodies, Mach 0.85. The features provide the economic and social benefits of modern air transportation, with the environmental benefits of quiet, fuel-efficient operation. In this regard, it is deemed that the three factors that influence Boeing’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning are efficiency, productivity and creating cooperative partnerships. Lind (2006) explained that Boeing meets the diverse needs of its markets by making it a focused research organization inclined to promote efficiency, productivity and creating partnerships with its clients. It referred to its management planning as a â€Å"catalyst of innovation† for their enterprise. Lind (2006) explained that â€Å"Phantom Works† is Boeing's central research organization and contains a number of R;D programs, or â€Å"thrusts,† which address areas of common technology needed for their diverse product lines. As Boeing is focused on to increase productivity, they broadly use this system across Boeing’s current and future product lines. However, their contingency planning did not fare well when Boeing resorted into layoffs after their production was affected by the 9/11 attacks. Many employees that were laid-off questioned the process of their dismissal (Kirkpatrick, 2006). If Boeing wants to establish itself as an ethical organization, it should inform their employees about the processes of evaluation, what type(s) of monitoring it conducts and how company came into that decision that was implemented by the organization. It is but ethical that Boeing should adhere to truthful disclosure. Truthful disclosure is a necessary condition for maintaining individual employee rights in a company (Ambrose, 1998, p. 77). In the overall, Boeing’s management planning is sound and understandable because it is a business that should adhere in its efficiency, productivity and cooperative partnerships.   As it is operating in an extremely competitive industry, it should manage its assets well and maintain a high regard for technologies to be able to surpass other aviation companies. More than aspiring for financial gains, the Boeing Company should be able to create a veritable contingency plan when production is affected by unexpected factors. Aside from managing the quality their asset and technology, it should not forget to manage their own people as well. It should maintain legal and ethical processes when Boeing decides to cut off its large labor force. Boeing should remember that it is their employees that have to make any strategy work in its creation. Bad planning, with regards to its ethical stance to employees can be bad for their reputation. Thus, it is recommended that Boeing should develop a contingency plan of appearing to be transparent when it comes to evaluating the performance of its employees. References Ambrose, M. L. (1998). Chapter Four Electronic Performance Monitoring: a Consideration of Rights. In Managerial Ethics: Moral Management of People and Processes, Schminke, M. (Ed.) (pp. 61-77). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Boeing in Brief. (2007). About Us. Retrieved July 16, 2007 Environment ; Safety. (2007). About Us. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from Boeing Website: http://www.boeing.com/aboutus/environment/prod_tech.html. Kilpatrick, J.J. (2006, January 2). On Getting Bounced at Boeing. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from Townhall.com: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JamesJKilpatrick/2006/01/02/on_getting_bounced_at_boeing. Lind, J. (2006, September-October). Boeing’s Global Enterprise Technology Process: Personality-Driven Research is Avoided by Applying Systems Engineering to R;D Management in the Company’s Central Research Organization.  Research-Technology Management  49(5):  36-43. Pragmatics’ ITES-2S Portal Boeing Pragmatics, Inc. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from Pragmatics:   https://ites-2s.pragmatics.com/metadot/index.pl?op=show;iid=2232. Roney, C. W. (2004). Strategic Management Methodology: Generally Accepted Principles for Practitioners. Westport, CT: Praeger. Suppliers. (2007). Boeing ERP Application. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from Boeing Website: http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/doingbiz/edi/erp_guide.html. Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. The Boeing Company. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing.. ;