Saturday, October 12, 2019
Belief in John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath :: Free Essay Writer
Belief in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath Holiness, sin, and life are repeatedly questioned throughout John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, particularly by the former preacher, Jim Casey. As a preacher, Casey only preaches what the bible states and he resigns from his occupation after he feels the urge to pursue life's true meaning and values of the individual - basically to make sense of the world he resides in. Casey closely resembles the character and motives of Jesus Christ, as he is enthused to uncover the answers to his wonders and doubts and begins to hold new beliefs of sacrificing the self to sustain the rights of society. All the while, questions concerning the ideas and beliefs of the world circulate through Jim Casey's mind and he makes the decision to separate himself from the teachings of society to determine logical resolutions to his convoluted uncertainties. After renouncing his job as a preacher, Casey first decides to ponder his questions by going "into the wilderness like Jesus" and seeing if he can attain the 'spirit,' while analyzing his thoughts (489-90). When others around him rarely observe ideas in depth, Casey transforms all of his thoughts into complex puzzles and seeks the answers little by little. Casey believes that by taking his ideas one piece at a time, he will one day be able to encounter the "real" truth. When he first hears of the conflict between the different social classes, Casey "[throws] back his head and [looks] at the sharp stars" in deep thought, his mind poring over the controversy (77). Casey's hours of analyzing bring his thoughts together and creates for him a la rger intellectual depth, which distinguishes his sole purpose from those around him. Light is used to exemplify Casey as Jesus Christ, holy and virtuous, and separate from other people. Even during insignificant situations, his character is expressed when "the light of the coming morning made his forehead seem to shine, and his hands, swinging beside him, flicked into the light and out again" (89). Casey's image as a holy figure automatically makes him a peacekeeper among the Joad family, and most of the time he succeeds in maintaining his title role. The members of the Joad family understand that Casey is not simply a 'former preacher,' but is someone with vigorous aura and strong beliefs on the rights of people. When Casey talks to Tom by a fire one night, "the firelight [goes] deep into his eyes and [ignites] red embers," signifying his powerful presence (72).
Friday, October 11, 2019
Executive summary about wal-mart CSR Policy
Wal-Mart is a large company that deals with almost all areas of shopping and there are situated in United States and other parts of the world. Wal-Mart is known to have about 100 million customers alone in the United States and earns billions in profits. In a situation like this there are meant to reach out to those customers in one way or the other to prove to them that they are appreciated thereby nurturing and maintaining the relationship with customers and other people of the world, these are the reasons why Wal-Mart rolled out their CSR policy to this effect.As a consumer, going through this policy would encourage them and keep their heart to the store. Whenever they think of shopping, they think of Wal-Mart. There are many superstores around and the once a customer decides to go to, is based on choice. This choice is motivated by the attitude of the store to a particular customer. So this policy should be encouraged so as keep the customer coming back , because this is the only way to kept the business going and growing.In addition, as an associate supplier, I would encourage this CSR policy in other to increase my sales and put money in my pocket and increase the gross income of Wal-Mart.I am very much in support of their CSR policy going by the areas, which there go into to affect, change and better the life of people.CSR PROJECTS OF WALMARTEnvironment: Wal-Mart is a company that manufactures thousands of junks everyday, and in their quest for a safe environment, for all, I think would go a long way in bringing the heart of people to them.Community projects: It is also a wonderful idea for Wal-Mart to work with voluntary organizations like Red Cross, Unicef, United Way, Special Olympics. A good collaboration with this organization would be a speedy way to reaching millions of life all over the world and I know thee action is boosting their image worldwide.People: For a quest to provide better service to customers worldwide, I believe their effor ts on staffs and associates to make them effective would help a lot. Offering assistance such as training, scholarships, and many other programs to make them happy and comfortable.Disaster Relief: Assisting disaster victims like that of flood, earthquake, fire, and disease would is also a good way of exhibiting a kind gesture.THE MOST SIGNIFICANT COPERATE POLICY.However, the most significant of all policy carried out by Wal-Mart is their policy on environment. I give kudos to that. Based on the speech made by their executive on their policy on cooperate policy on environment, I am made to understand that they are to begin the manufacturing of 100% recyclable goods and packs. There is also an attempt to reduce their packaging by 5%. This would go a long way in reducing millions of junks in the environment and would be encouraging a healthier one for that matter.MY OPINION ON WALMART CSR POLICY AS A CUSTOMERAs a consumer who shops constantly with Wal-Mart, the CSR policy is a very lov ely one. It makes me feel like I am not shopping in vain. I just have it in mind that any time I shop in Wal-Mart, I am indirectly rendering a help to someone else and it makes me feel good that I am touching the life of someone out there.But sometimes I seem to wonder how this becomes so possible, after selling at a very cheap price, they still stretch out to lend a help hand, to me, this is heavenly and I will like Wal-Mart to keep up the good work. I also strongly believe that many other consumers out there are feeling the same way. Even as their aid is made public, it makes those that do not know about them to be informed.Reaching out to customer and letting them know that their patronage is appreciated would make them come back always and working on all means to deliver a quality service just gives the customer the mind set that every thing about Wal-Mart has quality.In summary, reaching out to customers in every means possible and making them feel and know that their money is worth it, keeps bringing them back.SURVEY CARRIED OUT ON OTHER CUSTOMERS (BOTH REAL AND POTENTIAL)Number of surveys carried out                                                  50Percentage supporters of CSR policy                                       85%Percentage non-supporters or CSR policy                                10%Percentage of undecided                                                             5%Percentage effect per-customer shopping rate                           20% (increase)Percentage (potential) increase in customer rate                        45%DERSCRIPTION OF TABLEThe table shows that they is a positive effect of the CSR policy on both in the rate of shopping and has a very good potential of increasing customers. This is because everyone would like to shop where he/she would get their money’s worth and would also be appreciated.MY OPINION ON WALMART CSR POLICY AS A SUPPLIERI, as a supplier to Wal-Mart is supporting their CSR policy. Based on popular demand, I have seen that Wal-Mart is a brand on the heart of millions of people all over the world. In addition, as a successful business venture, there are taking upon themselves some responsibility of the government, putting in lots of money to better the lives of people. I believe this is making them a responsible citizen. With this form of responsibility is supposed to be commended because they are giving back to the people what was given to them. Whatever way used by Wal-Mart to improve their excellence and service to customers would favor me as a supplier. Therefore, I believe that engaging in charity works, eradication of poverty, and assisting disaster victim is a well-directed effort.SURVEY CARRIED OUT ON OTHER ASSUMED ASSOCIATE SUPPLIERSNumber of surveys carried out                                                      50Percentage supporters of CSR policy                                            78%Percentage Non-supporters of CSR policy                                    22%Percentage positive effects on marketing strategy                         64%Percentage effect on sales                                                              35%DESCRIPTION OF TABLEWith this table above, it is seen that with a personal surveys and questionnaires carried out on assumed suppliers, it is discovered that there would be a very positive effect on the total business outfit if the policy were enforced.The views of about 39 supporters was based on better marketing strategy and the CSR policy would be the best so as to increase the income, reach out to 65% of customers worldwide, increase the aw areness of Wal-Mart by 64% and the gross earning could be increased to between 20% to 35%; this I believe would increase dividend per share.MY DECISION, EFFORTS, AND IDEAS.As a supplier who is in support of the efforts taken by Wal-Mart, I would seek possible way to improve in the products I supply to them. I would support them also by seeking a better packaging to reduce environment hazard thereby aiding the environmental section of the CSR policy. I would also seek out possible ways to join in the voluntary section. To put in my energy where seems necessary.Other ideas I would like to put in are by suggesting that Wal-Mart should also get involved with grass root talents. These can be done in the areas of entertainments and sports. Helping upcoming talents in the streets would also be one of the best and fastest way to reach the heart of the ordinary man. This idea is a very important one because in know that entertainment is a way of winning peoples heart.Programs to this effects could be organizing talent hunt shows, reality TV programs and any other forms of entertainment that you can lay your hands on and you know people loves so much, for examples music, soccer, football, basketball and all the rest of them.With additional efforts as these, we would be exercising a powerful marketing strategy.IN SUMMARY: I believe that all these actions being taken by both Wal-Mart and me a as a supplier is all part of the effort to market the company and an increase in come on both their side and mine. This is because I feel that if they grow, I grow, if they lose, I lose, so it is all about teamwork and service to humanity.EFFECT OF WALMART PRIVATE LABEL ON MY PRODCUT AS A SUPPLIERI have come to understand that the uses of Walmart private label on my products are very okay and do not harm them at all. It a phenomenon that the Wal-Mart private label is seen as a brand of quality, affordable and certified by customers. Therefore, since I have noticed that according to s tudy and experience that Wal-Mart label is always on the mind of customers, I allowed it and it goes a long way to increase sale.Therefore, having the private label of Wal-Mart would put more money in the pocket of the supplier.REFERENCES(1) Biesada, Alex. (2006, October 13). Hoover's.  â€Å"Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.†Retrieved.(2) Frank, T.A. (2006). â€Å"A Brief History of Wal-Mart.†The Washington Monthly, Retrieved, July 24, 2006.(3) Staff Writer. (, 2006, April 17) â€Å"Fortune 500.†CNN/Fortune.. Retrieved on July 15, 2007.(4) Staff Writer. (2007, April 16) â€Å"Fortune 500.†CNN/Fortune. Retrieved on July 15, 2007.(5) Staff Writer. (2005, October 25) â€Å"Is Wal-Mart Going Green?†MSNBC, Retrieved on November 8, 2007.(6) Koenig, David. (2006, March 22) â€Å"Wal-Mart Targeting Upscale Shoppers.†ABC News.(7) Reyes, Sonia. (2006, August 23)†Study: Wal-Mart Private Brands Are Catching On.†Bra ndweek. August 21, 2006. Retrieved on August 30, 2006.(8) Ortiz, John. (2005, October 26) â€Å"Can Kroger Slow Wal-Mart?†Deseret Morning News. Retrieved on July 25, 2006.(9) The Rise of Wal-Mart. Frontline: Is Wal-Mart Good for America? (2004-11-16). Retrieved on 2007-09-19.(10)                   †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Neighborhood Markets.†Wal-Mart (http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=504;contId=47). Retrieved on April 19, 2007.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Mandatory Second Language Essay
As I was getting ready to go out, â€Å"Made in China†tag of my shirt caught my attention. â€Å"My shirt traveled many miles to reach in my hands,†I said to myself. Then I looked at my shoes; they were made in Bangladesh. I called my computer tech; I was transferred in India. For a moment, I thought I was a citizen of a globalized society where borders did not exist. As a matter of fact, U.S companies invest more than $3.5 trillion a year to do business in other countries while foreign companies invest more than $2.3 trillion a year to do business in the United States (Williams, 2013, Intro to Management, 154). Our task is to set those numbers higher, which might not be an easy job if you don’t speak other countries language as they speak English. In order for a new generation to face globalization challenges, second language should be mandatory for all U.S students. As we grow global more foreign business in coming to U.S soil, and more U.S companies are reac hing international market. I also hear people complaining of high levels of unemployment. The company I work for is aiming to open another 500 hotels in Asia region. Bilinguals are in demand. Most of the qualified trainers must speak another language besides English. Preferably, Chinese or Indian. There is a demand for workers, but skill needed to do the job is missing. The company I work for has signed 21 new deals in China during 2010, compared with 18 all during 2009. â€Å"And development keeps growing,†says Harris Chan, Starwood’s vice president of operations support for China and Taiwan. Not only that, but according to the standards and policies of the company, every hotel should have a Chinese speaker in the team. Now I have a dilemma; should I spend 18 months going for my Master’s or should I use that time learning Chinese? Both options are valid for my working career. As I am working for a hotel industry, training is part of the job. The company sent me in Europe for a job training. A week in Barcelona! I struggled so hard to sharpen my Spanish, before getting to Spain. The city was beautiful and impressive, but it would be better travel experience for me if would be able to tell the waiter how I wanted my eggs cooked, or how to ask for the bus station. What made me feel comfortable was the team I was working with. Everyone spoke another language besides their native ones. They all spoke English. I felt not confident using my broken English accent Spanish. I admit it was uncomfortable than everyone else spoke another language (maybe two) and I was the only one feeling comfortable only in English language. In fact, Spanish, Chinese, or any other language is not a bad idea in the country of melting pot. According to a study of an educational institution on 2010, below are the top ten foreign languages spoken in high schools of New York: America is the land of immigrants. Along with their traditions, immigrants bring their languages also. That is part of the American culture also. It is our job to maintain it. Not everyone that comes in the U.S soil speaks English. Does that mean, we have to shut the communication with the new immigrants just because of the language barriers? We all agree that, building walls is not an option. From the census of 2013, the governmental authorities stated that â€Å"As the nation continues to be a destination for people from other lands, this pattern of language diversity will also likely continue.†I believe that, separating from social events just because of the language barrier it is unhealthy for the overall society. Isolation makes people unsocial and less active in their communities, which leads them on building walls instead of bridges. Social health depends on proper communication. Our future generations need to fit in the multicultural and global environment. Our communities grow healthier and stronger is we are capable of speaking each other’s language. In a conclusion, I would say that a second language is a need for our generations. The latest global business events are requesting it, by developing new multilingual markets. A good portion of the US trade is done with non-English spoken countries. Our future business achievements will depend on how well we will be able to communicate. Second, the American youth is facing an intellectual competition with foreign counterparts on language skills. While the average European teenager speaks two languages, most of the teenagers in the homeland speak only English. It looks like we are falling behind. Third, diversity plays a role in national and global business growth. Therefore, diverse language environment is common. Being able to speak more than English, it is not just a skill but a requirement in the new era of business globalization. Reference Lavrusik, V. (2010, April 4). Top 10 languages spoken by students at Manhattan International. http://archives.jrn.columbia.edu/coveringed/schoolstories10/2010/04/top-10-languages-spoken-by-students-at-manhattan-international/index.html Ryan, C. (2013, August 1). Language Use in the United States: 2011. http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf Williams, C. (2013). MGMT3 (5th ed). Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning Yu, R. (2010, October 26). Foreign hotels flock to China. https://web-b-ebscohost-com.libdatab.strayer.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=8&sid=684e6cc8-a980-4638bf02a989aee7%40sessionmgr110&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=J0E369281117410
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Business Model Re-Engineering: Myspace
â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- Business Model Re-engineering MySpace Date: November 4, 2011 â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- Word Count: 3742 Introduction Nowadays, increasingly more industries, especially the media sector, are facing a continuous change. In the case of media, this is mainly a result of steadily developing digital technology. Even though a company’s business model might have been successful for many years, it suddenly can start to become weaker. The media market is quite competition-driven and hence a competitor with a new business model might alter the industry almost instantly (Business model re-engineering, n. d. ). In such a competitive market, the â€Å"strategy [†¦] is about being different. †(Eisenhardt & Sull, 2001, p. 116). This statement perfectly implies that companies and their products need to be so unique with such a well thought-out and innovate business model that they can create a competitive advantage. However, this adaption of the business model in an ever-changing media environment turns out to be quite a complex challenge, since now many companies face a decline of customers and revenue. A good example for a business model that could not survive the changing media environment in terms of online social networking is the one of Myspace. Consequently, I am going to propose a re-engineering of its business model. In this paper, I will focus on the problems of the current business model and carefully analyze the context of the market in order to propose a refreshed model that will help Myspace to survive and to compete more successfully in nowadays’ social networking market. Myspace needs a business model that provides value to its customers, guarantees a competitive advantage, as well as collects revenue (Teece, 2010). Myspace Myspace. com, which was founded in 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson (Piskorski, Chen, & Knoop, 2008), is an online social networking ervice that is now owned by Specific Media LLC and singer Justin Timberlake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011). Specific Media LLC is a media company which sells advertising online with a technology that aims at targeting specific customer segments (Specific Media LLC, 2011). Specific Media LLC, however, has not been the owner of Myspace for long. In June 2011, the company bought Myspace for about $35 million and as part of the deal pop star Justin Timberlake took an ownership stake (Specific Media Acquires Myspace, 2011). Before, from 2005 until 2011, it was owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (News Corporation to Acquire Intermix Media, Inc, 2005). From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the most popular social networking website in the world, as measured by the visitors. But the number of 75. 9 million visitors per month in 2008 dropped to 34. 8 million in May 2011 (Gillette, 2011). Problems Is Facebook Myspace’s biggest problem? Since 2008, Myspace has been continuously losing members which was at the time when it was overtaken by Facebook (Mack, 2008). Myspace has been gradually losing its users which can be expressed by the declining members and visitors of the website. As from February 2010, the visitors decreased by 43. 3 per cent (Arrington, 2011) and the members shrunk by ten million within one month at the beginning of 2011 (Stafford, 2011). This decline brings along a dramatic loss in revenues which are solely generated by advertising (Enders, Hungenberg, Denker, & Mauch, 2008). Facebook has now about 25 times more users than Myspace (Stafford, 2011) and it seems that members migrated from Myspace to Facebook, but there is other reasons for the failure of Myspace, mainly in terms of innovation. Myspace was performing really well at the time of News Corp’s acquisition and it barely had any competitors. However, with the rise of its first great competitor Facebook, the former leading social networking site had to confront one of its severest lacks: innovation! At the very beginning, Facebook entered a niche market, namely the one of college students. Firstly, it was available to Haravard students, then more and more universities wanted to join Facebook and today, almost everybody is using this social network, no matter if college student or not (Piskorski et al. , 2008). Today, around 600 million users enjoy keeping in touch with people all over the world via Facebook (Cauwels & Sornette, 2011). Facebook managed this great success because it was innovative. New features have been added all the time since it has been launched, hence people were involved and kept coming back as a result of new innovations such as the ‘news feed’ at that time (Stafford, 2011). While Facebook managed to be innovative all the time, Myspace failed to adapt to the market and did not add new features as Facebook did. Additionally, Myspace did not allow third party developers to create new features such as applications (e. g. Facebook – FarmVille etc. ), they rather kept everything behind closed doors. Therefore, Myspace lost the competition of controlling the market at the time between 2006 and 2008 and consequently it became boring (Stafford, 2011). Even though Myspace had certain features, they did not all work very well. For example, members were able to create their own backgrounds either themselves or they could download an existing design from many providers who specialized in creating Myspace profile designs. This feature turned into quite a mess, problems, and confusion regarding certain profiles. The whole competition resulted in a confusing mess and one could not be sure on what Myspace was focusing. Not only because of the customized user profiles but also because of some other flaws in the site’s design, Myspace was confronted with security issues. Results were spyware (Hesseldahl, 2006), phishing, and spam (Webb, Caverlee, & Pu, 2010). Another security fear was regarding the profile content. Users were concerned about trust and privacy and even law enforcement officials claimed, â€Å"MySpace is used by sexual predators to lure teenagers†(Dwyer, Hiltz, & Passerini as cited by Schrobsdorff, 2006, p. 5). The last problem I want to focus on is the revenue model. As previously mentioned, Myspace operates on revenues from advertising. Especially under the ownership of News Corp, the main focus was on generating revenue. It seemed that Rupert Murdoch solely focused on revenues and nothing else which is a great flaw for a social networking site, as it needs to focus on the onsumers. In 2006, Google pledged to pay News Corp as many as $900 million over three and a half years and in return Google was allowed to provide search services and advertising on Myspace (Piskorski et al. , 2008). For Myspace’s customer it seemed that the site was full of too much unorganized advertising, hence the website appeared unp rofessionally (James, 2009). The previously listed problems of Myspace are mainly problems of the time when Myspace lost the competition against Facebook, and reasons why Myspace is not successful anymore. With regards to the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder (2009), I will focus on the problems based on the following elements: Value Propositions, Key Partners, Revenue Streams, and Media Channels. The element of value propositions â€Å"seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs with value propositions†(Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2009, p. 16). I consider this part to be Myspace’s greatest problem regarding the issues of trust, privacy, spam, spyware, and phishing. Furthermore, the lack of innovation was one of the major problems why Myspace lost that many users who constantly want to experience something new. With its lack of good and new features as well as its unclear point of focus, Myspace was not able to deliver value which would result in customers continue to use the social network. From my personal experience, I can say that Myspace faded into obscurity which can be backed up by the low number of users now, compared to the time of 2006 when Myspace was at its peak (Snyder, Carpenter, & Slauson, 2006). I was a Myspace user around 2006 as well, when I was 15 years old. It seemed to be a meeting point for teenagers and for me it was not any different from the German social networking site ‘Schuler VZ’ except that it is international. However, as time went by, I decreasingly used Myspace as for me it always was too confusing and it could not compete with the German social network. Besides, I got spammed with advertising, random men (who were not at my age) thought it was a dating service, and it simply became boring. Therefore, I can state that Myspace’s biggest problem is that it is not valuable enough for the users. Theory Firstly, I will focus on the value propositions as all the other elements, I chose to focus on, follow up on the value propositions. When looking at value propositions, I would like to consider the three types of value propositions according to Anderson, Narus, and van Rossum (2006), namely ‘all benefits’, ‘favorable points of difference’, and ‘resonating focus’. In the case of Myspace, it certainly would not be enough to â€Å"simply list all the benefits†(Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 2) since there are too many competitors in the Internet environment that share most of the benefits and values. The ‘favorable points of difference’ approach is promising in so far that it distinguishes the valuable points that the competitors do not offer. However, I believe that Myspace does not present many highly valuable aspects over their competitors and therefore it would be most convenient to concentrate on the ‘resonating focus’. With this approach, I will focus on â€Å"the one or two points of difference [†¦] whose improvement will deliver the greatest value to the customer for the foreseeable future†(Anderson et al. , 2006, p. 4). In connection to that, I will of course need to study the greatest competitors with regards to their value propositions in order to highlight Myspace’s most valuable points of difference. Furthermore, I will need to research what customers expect from online social networking, what they value about Myspace, and what they generally find lacking in the social networking environment in order to develop ideas for a possible niche market. Additionally, for this customer value research, I will need to conduct research on focus groups with regards to problems mentioned in the previous section (safety and innovation). Furthermore, the design is an important aspect of the value propositions as well. As I previously stated, the old Myspace design was quite confusing which resulted in safety problems. Hence, a new design is needed which is unified for every user, yet attractive and which does not allow bugs. Secondly, in relation to innovation, I will need to look at the Key Partners who will be part of the re-engineering of the Media Channels as well and concerning revenues. Through Media Channels, the company can communicate with its customers and deliver the value propositions (Osterwalder et al. 2009). Especially in the online environment, awareness can be raised with the help of other key partners. For example, you can share content from one website on another. Not so long ago, Myspace introduced connection opportunities to Twitter and Facebook (Myspace introduces mashup with Facebook, 2010) and also youtube allows sharing videos on myspace. Myspace’s connections to Facebook which will al so help to generate user-specific streams according to the user’s Facebook profiles. However, Facebook for example, does not allow a connection to Myspace. Accordingly, Key Partners are needed that would help promoting Myspace. Moreover, the former revenue model which only consisted of advertising, has proven to be quite annoying for the users, hence Myspace needs Key Partners who will not only make the website more appealing but also help to make revenue. Hence, research has to be done on Key Partners who are willing to help financing Myspace as well as who would be interested to offer for example applications (which then help the Key Partners as well). As I said before, Myspace faded into obscurity. For this reason, I will also need to look at other media channels such as campaigns and marketing strategies in order to bring Mypsace back to people’s minds. In that relation, research needs to be done on what marketing strategies worked for successful social networks such as Facebook and also what media channels can help to basically re-introduce a media product like Myspace. Assumptions & Best Practices Review First of all I need to mention that Myspace decided in 2010 to focus on music and entertainment (About Myspace, 2010). However, for now I will only consider online social networking sites as websites that focus on music and entertainment are not Myspace’s greatest competitors. Of course, I will need to take Facebook into account as Myspace’s greatest competitor and as today’s most popular social network which was the most visited website in June 2011 (Smith, 2011). Facebook first started in a niche market of college students and it got awareness from the very beginning. It did not use any special advertising campaigns to become popular but the promotion was rather by word to mouth (Mitchell, 2009). The popularity has then been covered by newspaper articles and television which reported on the success (Ibid). Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook as a unique and intimate website and constantly added new features that kept the site interesting. Facebook is far more innovative than Myspace and therefore the members keep using it and promote it by word-of-mouth advertising. Similarly to Facebook, Twitter was initially successful in a niche market. At the beginning, primarily computer- and technology specialists as well as bloggers used Twitter for example to promote their blogs (How did Twitter become popular? 2009). Twitter could convince with its simplicity and real life experience. Real life experience in so far that people twittered news from certain events such as the Mumbai attacks or recently the uprisings in Tunisia as different to regular news channels (Ibid). The best practices that made Twitter and Facebook successful and popular are therefore word-to-mouth advertising and t he Internet itself. Word-to-mouth advertising only worked because of the convincing and interesting designs and usability. Both platforms are innovative, as they have been creating new features that make them enjoyable, flexible and interesting (The Success of Twitter, 2011). Those best practices worked for Myspace as well – in the beginning. However, the task now is to remake Myspace aware to people’s minds and the goal is that the users actually keep using Myspace because of the new design and value propositions. I would suggest sending a short and catchy email to the Myspace users which shortly introduces them to the new Myspace. Users might want to get to know the new Myspace and then tell people about their good experience. Additionally, since Myspace is focusing on music, an advertising campaign might help to make new bands aware of Myspace’s ability to promote their work. Facebook uses an aggressive innovation approach, meaning that it comes up with new features that users initially might not like but after a while they cannot imagine Facebook without those new features anymore. Furthermore, Facebook constantly adapts the privacy settings in order to meet the customers’ needs with regards to safety (Blodget, 2010). Innovation keeps Facebook interesting and worthwhile to continue using it. Another highlight it offers for their users are applications. Many software developers create applications for Facebook which make the site not only more interesting and entertaining but also help to generate revenues (Stone, 2007). With the help of key partners, Myspace can get help for its design as well as applications that help to make the site interesting. What is more, key partners help financing; hence Myspace would not only be dependent on advertising revenues. As users find the amount of advertising quite annoying, Myspace can focus on less but personalized advertising. Those steps would help to make Myspace more innovative and it can easier meet the users’ needs in terms of design, safety, new features that make it worth to use. Research Proposal – Method Myspace needs change! More specifically, Myspace needs a re-engineered business model. The previous statistics show that the numbers of Myspace users decline gradually. If this decline continues, the once most popular social network (Bains, 2009) will soon be almost unknown or at least unused. However, with further research on my previously stated ideas based on the problems of Myspace in relation to the Business Model, I will be able to help Myspace creating a new and innovative Business Model that will help to avoid further declining user numbers and to create competitive consistency in the environment of social networking. In order to study the value propositions carefully, I will conduct qualitative research. Only with qualitative research I will be able to gather in-depth understanding of the reasons why people do not use Myspace anymore. I can gather such information in two ways: through interviews and through an online research community. With the help of a qualitative research interview I will gather the facts as well as analyze the meaning (Kvale, 1996). As a result, I will be able to understand the values customers need as well as the reasons and problems which caused the failure of Myspace. By using an online research community, Myspace can put â€Å"the customer at the heart of [the] marketing strategy†(Simon, 2009). Such research communities allow efficient and deep qualitative research online. In such a community, members can discuss certain aspects such as new features and designs, and Myspace can adapt accordingly. Besides, a qualitative research online will probably bring more results since people rather take the time to discuss issues online. However, the qualitative Interview will also be needed because it is an additional in-depth analysis with face-to-face communication that enables immediate follow up questions and answers with high reliability. The qualitative research of both forms will be base on current or former Myspace users and also on general social network users in order to determine the general arget group’s values. Questions for both kinds of researches will for example include what they currently like about Myspace, what they do not like, why they use Myspace, or why they (stopped) using Myspace, what they generally value about Myspace, and their opinions about the competitors such as Facebook. For good measure a detailed research on the competit ors and their best practices is essential. This can be done by further online research on the competitor’s strategies in order to find out what could work for Myspace as well. Plan The following table provides an overview of the estimated time and costs for this project – subject to modifications. For now, I will conduct the research for three weeks, meaning that for example that the online community will be run for three weeks. Part| Time| Costs per hour| Costs per day| Creating online community(5 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 10 (x5)| EUR 400| Leading discussion online(10 employees)| 3 wks (120 hrs)| EUR 8 (x10)| EUR 9600| Analyzing online community (10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Developing questions for both onliny community and interview (4 employees)| 8 hrs| EUR 12 (x4)| EUR 384| Interviews (5 hrs per day)(10 interviewer)| 3 wks (75 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9000| Evaluation Interview(10 employees)| 2 wks (80 hrs)| EUR 12 (x10)| EUR 9600| Total Costs for staff:| EUR 38584| Further costs: Possible travel costs (for interviewers):ca. EUR 300 Equipment (for Interviewers – recorders etc. ):ca. EUR 400 Technical equipment for online community:ca. EUR 10000 Total Costs:ca. EUR 49284 The additional costs might not apply if the equipment already exists. All prices are including value added taxes. Reflection In this paper I laid the foundation for a re-engineering of Myspace’s Business Model. Back in 2006 and 2007 I was a member of Myspace as well. However, I never liked this social network much since it was confusing, annoying because of all the advertising and I did not feel safe using it. Overall, it did not really work out. Now I am a Facebook user and I totally forgot about Myspace. Apparently, other social network users feel the same way which can be expressed by the declining number of Myspace users. Myspace became quite unpopular, fewer and fewer people visit that site and Facebook out-competed Myspace fast. Therefore I analyzed the problems that resulted in the failure of Myspace. The main overall problem is innovation. Myspace failed to add new features in order to make the platform interesting and worthwhile to keep using it. Myspace totally faded into obscurity wherefore it is essential to re-engineer at the media channels. Also, Myspace did not allow third party developers to help designing the page and add for example applications which not only would make the network more entertaining but also help generating revenues other than advertising. Instead, members were able to design their own profiles. This feature, however, resulted in an overall confusing design and safety problems. Safety problem arose from the bad software as it was easier to install for example spyware. Myspace could not meet the values that the customers need. Aside from bugs such as spyware, spam and phishing, users experienced a great lack of trust and privacy in that online network. To sum it up, I focused on the re-engineering of the following parts of the Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2009): Value Propositions, Media Channels, Key Partners, and Revenue Streams. All parts of the business model are connected though. That is why I analyzed all parts with regards to the others. My idea is that Myspace needs to be innovative. It can do so in analyzing both the values of customers and the best practices of the competitors and then adapt accordingly. With this method, Myspace can add new feature that will surely meet the customers’ desires. This is connected with a new design and key partners. Key partners can not only help with the design but also with innovation by adding applications that make Myspace more interesting. Furthermore, key partners would create another method of generating revenues. Then, Myspace would not only depend on advertising revenues and can reduce the annoying advertising to unostentatious, user-personalized advertising. After its changes, people need to be made aware of the new Myspace. This can be done with a short and catchy email to Myspace members who will then positively experience the re-engineered Myspace and spread the word. Additionally, television and Internet advertising campaigns might help to bring Myspace to the people’s minds. I am convinced that those methods and the further research, suggested in form of qualitative interviews, qualitative online community research and qualitative research on the competitors, would help Myspace to survive the competition in the online environment of social networks as well as stop a further downfall. References About Myspace. (2010). Retrieved November 1, 2011 from Myspace http://www. myspace. com/pressroom/2010/11/myspace-introduces-mashup-with-facebook/ Anderson, J. C. , Narus, J. A. , van Rossum, W. (2006). Customer Value Propositions in Business Markets. Harvard Business Review. Arrington, M. (2011, March 23). Amazingly, MySpace’s Decline is Accelerating. Retrieved October 29, 2011 from http://techcrunch. com/2011/03/23/amazingly-myspaces-decline-is-accelerating/ Bains, L. (2009). Facebook Overtakes MySpace as Most Popular Social Networking Site. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www. switched. com/2009/01/27/facebook-overtakes-myspace-as-most-popular-social-networking-sit/ Blodget, H. (2010). Ignore The Screams–Facebook's Aggressive Approach Is Why It Will Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://articles. businessinsider. om/2010-05-17/tech/29991115_1_ceo-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-s-pr-innovation Business model re-engineering. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 27, 2011 from AMR International http://www. amrinternational. com/services/corporate_and_business_unit_strategy/business_model_re-engineering Cauwels, P. , Sornette, D. (2011). Quis pendit ipsa pretia: facebook valuation and diagnostic of a bubble based on nonlinear demographic dynamics. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from Cornell University Library http://arxiv. org/abs/1110. 1319 Dwyer, C. , Hiltz, S. , Passerini, K. (2007). Trust and Privacy Concern Within Social Networking
'Critically evaluate the concept of corporate social responsibility Essay
'Critically evaluate the concept of corporate social responsibility and assess its contribution to the framing of business eth - Essay Example 2006, p. 4). Thereby, Corporate Social Responsibility tends to be a pivotal issue for the organizations that tend to do business in a sustainable way. Though Corporate Social Responsibility is a concept that is affiliated to voluntary actions on the part of businesses, still, in the current times there has been a soaring pressure on the businesses to extend positive contributions to the societies and communities in which they operate, and at a minimal limit the negative impact of their business activities (Fall 2003, p. 205). The governments the world over have been formalizing the salient aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility, particularly those that are related to environment. One salient attribute of the Corporate Social Responsibility is the need on the part of the businesses to affiliate to the ethics prevalent in the socio-economic context in which they operate (Smith 2008, p. 183). Thereby any viable idea of Corporate Social Responsibility is complete without affiliating to business ethics. ... 110). The primary objective of a business is to garner profits for its shareholders and owners. However, the onus of generating profits does not mean that a corporation could do anything to facilitate these pecuniary motives. Therein comes in the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility and business ethics. Many a times the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility and ethics is used interchangeably (Kline 2005, p. 239). The thing that needs to be understood is that the term Corporate Social Responsibility pertains to the acceptance on the part of a business of certain salient social obligations. For instance it is not binding on the part of a business to extend employment opportunities to the physically challenged and other sidelined sections of the society. Still if a business extends employment to the physically challenged people, it constitutes the recognition of a social obligation on the part of a business and comes within the ambit of Corporate Social Responsibility. Howeve r, when one considers the concept of business ethics, things get a little confusing and difficult When it comes to business ethics, it is not merely about the recognition of certain salient social obligations on the part of a business (Joshi 2012, p. 148). Business ethics are not a concept that the businesses could adhere to on the basis of voluntary initiative, but rather they pertain to the actual conscience of a business (Marcoux 2006, p. 51). The ethical behaviour on the part of a business pertains to recognition on the part of that business as to what is good and right. Inculcation of an ethical behaviour on the part of a business pertains to a formal recognition on the part of a business as to what it can do, and what it cannot do
Monday, October 7, 2019
Funding for Military Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words
Funding for Military Psychology - Essay Example It does not come as a surprise that â€Å"700,000 children in America†have one of their parents â€Å"deployed to a war zone†. Being deployed in such a demanding profession requires great physical, mental and psychological strength. The relevance of military psychology becomes clearly expressed, and it transpires that government should provide maximum possible funds in order to support military psychology. The military profession requires the people involved to stay fit and healthy throughout their course of service, so they have to undergo severe training in order to meet the demands of the same. The training given in military comprises basic training, and other high endurance exercises and programs that are formulated with an aim to keep the personnel highly competent and fit in all terms. Along with the physical competence rendered to the troops through training, they acquire other skill sets and important qualities such as courage, tactics, etc. Different types of training need to be provided for the troops, which would make them competent to face â€Å"diverse missions, including counter-terrorism, asymmetric threats, traditional threats, reconstruction, and humanitarian assistance missions†. Highly integrated training programs that incorporate a mix of different technologies are being developed in order to prepare the soldiers for the same, and one such training program is â€Å"Live Virtual and Constructive (LVC) training†.... Highly integrated training programs that incorporate a mix of different technologies are being developed in order to prepare the soldiers for the same, and one such training program is â€Å"Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) training†that engages the troops in interactive virtual settings, which replicate real life scenarios (1). Other training programs involve â€Å"Map Exercise (MAPEX), Tactical Engagement Simulation Exercise (TESEX), Command Post Exercise (CPX), Field Training Exercise (FTX),†etc. (â€Å"Basic Standards†49). In addition to such diversified programs, the physical training that military personnel have to undergo in order to hone their combat skills are even more tough and require high levels of stamina and mental strength. Therefore, such arduous training is bound to put the troops under excessive stress, which at times they might not be able to cope with. In such cases, not only does the training fail to achieve its purpose; furthermore, it forces the military personnel to lose their sense of psychological balance. As a result, they will be unable to perform well in the warfare phases, thus putting in risk the country and the citizens. In addition to the troops being unfit to face the real world missions and jeopardizing the safety of the ones they were meant to protect, the negative results occurring due to stress caused by training further extend to other phases. For instance, it is known that the government spends a significant amount of funds in order to support such technology. So when it gives rise to negative implications, it transpires that all the â€Å"considerable effort and expense†that went behind creating and delivering such â€Å"high quality graphical, audio and haptic sensory stimuli†has gone to waste (Rizzo et al. 1).
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Individual Rights and the Law - Scots Law Essay
Individual Rights and the Law - Scots Law - Essay Example It has therefore its core topic human rights. It necessitates us therefore to define as well human rights. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines human rightsï‚ ¸ as international moral and legal norms that aspire to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal, and social abuses. They are inherently universal and therefore they transcend citizenships or nationalities. Famous of these rights are the right to life, liberty and happiness and their deprivation could not be permitted without due process of law. Unlike other laws human right focuses on the rights rather than on duties of the individuals. Other laws like criminal statutes or civil law legislations do also enumerate certain rights but the tenor of these obligations normally discusses duties, responsibilities and obligation and the consequences of their violations. Human right laws therefore focuses on the individuals as the subject of major consideration in deciding issues. In terms of criminal prosecution, for example, the law seems to treat more favourably the accused rather than the prosecution because it recognizes the rights of the accused to presumption of innocence while not mentioning more emphatically the right of the state to implement its laws. Politicisation of the judiciary seems to imply a judiciary that does not perform its function according to original design. It would give the connotation that judges will not interpret the law on the basis on what is the law but rather on what is popular or how they want it. It could also mean judges acting not as judges but politicians. It could further mean judges lacking judicial independence and holding some unholy alliance with the other branch of government which could be either the executive or the legislative. We could therefore restate the proposition into some like this: The nature of deliberating cases involving rights of the individuals for purposes of
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