Facebook Effect

Facebook effects Social network makes a big change into our life. Facebook is a new place to communicate, and entertain. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is an absolutely talented person. The creation of Facebook let us easier to communicate and share our opinion to other, and this is the reason makes Facebook becomes so popular. As the facebook is getting famous, people fall so deeply in Facebook which they spend too much time on it. Facebook has a big influence on us; we should reduce the amount of time that we wasted on it.One reason, facebook can affect the relationship between friends and family. One function of facebook is chat or message; this function replaced face to face communication or phone. Most of the teenager use chat instead of other communication’s ways, this cause them forget how to converse when face to face. As the facebook becomes more convenient for us, we apply more time on it. It may disturb the time we shared with family or someone you love.For e xample, facebook can increase jealousy in a relationship, because you can know everything by checking other person’s wall. It may makes more argues or breaks up. Another reason, facebook can indirectly change our health. With the new technology, the social network isn’t just on our computer, it also locate on our cell phone. We pay out lot of time to look at the small screen phone when we are on the bed, on transportation, and in the cafe. This behavior is so harmful that our eyes will hurt a lot.Facebook is a public environment for us to commend or communicate with other. However, some people wrote negative commend on someone status or wall, it possibly will hurt that person feeling and this is a form of mental damage. The main reason why we should reduce the time of being online on Facebook is because it can affect our education, especially children. Most of the children don’t have a good self control. Therefore they will use tons of time for chatting with fri ends, analyzing their wall and playing game on facebook.Since they spend most of the day on facebook, they will forget or procrastinate to do their homework assignment. This will drop down their grade in school. Slang is another big problem on education. While we are talking through message, we usually put slang into our sentence. This decreases our knowledge of English, and we will feel confusion while we are writing a regular essay. Facebook also contains unconstructive and harmful information, which can manipulate the children to do something wrong. Facebook predominately change our life.It is a wonderful social site where we meet new friend and entertain ourselves. Although facebook is an excellent place for us to communicate, it has several bad effects on us. Facebook can destroy our relationship between family and friend. If you stay online for too long every day, you will sense that you health will probably get worst and it will affect our grade in school too. Even though fac ebook can reduce our stress, we should reduce the time that we used on facebook In order to balance our life.

History of Matches Essay

A match is a small stick of wood or strip of cardboard with a solidified mixture of flammable chemicals deposited on one end. When that end is struck on a rough surface, the friction generates enough heat to ignite the chemicals and produce a small flame. Some matches, called strike-anywhere matches, may be ignited by striking them on any rough surface. Other matches, called safety matches, will ignite only when they are struck on a special rough surface containing certain chemicals. History The first known use of matches was in 577 during the siege of a town in northern China. Women in the town used sticks coated with a mixture of chemicals to start fires for cooking and heating, thus allowing them to conserve their limited fuel by putting the fires out between uses. The details of this technique were subsequently lost to history. It was not until 1826 that John Walker of England invented the first friction matches. Walker’s matches were ignited by drawing the heads through a folded piece of paper coated with ground glass. He began selling them in 1827, but they were difficult to light and were not a success. In 1831, Charles Sauria of France developed a match that used white phosphorus. These matches were strike-anywhere matches and were much easier to ignite. Unfortunately, they were too easy to ignite and caused many unintentional fires. White phosphorus also proved to be highly toxic. Workers in match plants who inhaled white phosphorus fumes often suffered f rom a horrible degeneration of the jawbones known as â€Å"phossy jaw.† Despite this health hazard, white phosphorus continued to be used in strike-anywhere matches until the early 1900s, when government action in the United States and Europe forced manufacturers to switch to a nontoxic chemical. In 1844 Gustaf Pasch of Sweden proposed placing some of the match’s combustion ingredients on a separate striking surface, rather than incorporating them all into the match head, as an extra precaution against accidental ignition. This idea—coupled with the discovery of less-reactive, nontoxic red phosphorus—led J. E. Lundstrom of Sweden to introduce safety matches in 1855. Although safety matches posed less of a hazard, many people still preferred the convenience of strike-anywhere matches, and both types continue to be used today. The first matchbook matches were patented in the United States by Joshua Pussey in 1892. The Diamond Match Company purchased the rights to this patent in  1894. At first, these new matches were not well accepted, but when a brewing company bought 10 million matchbooks to advertise their product, sales soared. Early match manufacturing was mainly a manual operation. Mechanization slowly took over portions of the operation until the first automatic match machine was patented by Ebenezer Beecher in 1888. Modern match manufacturing is a highly automated process using continuous-operation machines that can produce as many as 10 million matches in an eight-hour shift with only a few people to monitor the operation. Raw Materials Woods used to make matchsticks must be porous enough to absorb various chemicals, and rigid enough to withstand the bending forces encountered when the match is struck. They should also be straight-grained and easy to work, so that they may be readily cut into sticks. White pine and aspen are two common woods used for this purpose. Once the matchsticks are formed, they are soaked in ammonium phosphate, which is a fire retardant. This prevents the stick from smoldering after the match has gone out. During manufacture, the striking ends of the matchsticks are dipped in hot paraffin wax. This provides a small amount of fuel to transfer the flame from the burning chemicals on the tip to the matchstick itself. Once the paraffin burns off, the ammonium phosphate in the matchstick prevents any further combustion. The heads of strike-anywhere matches are composed of two parts, the tip and the base. The tip contains a mixture of phosphorus sesquisulfide and potassium chlorate. Phosphorus sesquisulfide is a highly reactive, non-toxic chemical used in place of white phosphorus. It is easily ignited by the heat of friction against a rough surface. The potassium chlorate supplies the oxygen needed for combustion. The tip also contains powdered glass and other inert filler material to increase the friction and control the burning rate. Animal glue is used to bind the chemicals together, and a small amount of zinc oxide may be added to the tip to give it a whitish color. The base contains many of the same materials as the tip, but has a smaller amount of phosphorus sesquisulfide. It also contains sulfur, rosin, and a small amount of paraffin wax to sustain combustion. A water-soluble dye may be added to give the base a color such as red or blue. The heads of safety matches are composed of a single part. They contain antimony trisulfide, potassium chlorate, sulfur, powdered glass, inert fillers, and animal glue. They may  also include a water-soluble dye. Antim ony trisulfide cannot be ignited by the heat of friction, even in the presence of an oxidizing agent like potassium chlorate, and it requires another source of ignition to start the combustion. That source of ignition comes from the striking surface, which is deposited on the side of the matchbox or on the back cover of the matchbook. The striking surface contains red phosphorus, powdered glass, and an adhesive such as gum arabic or urea formaldehyde. When a safety match is rubbed against the striking surface, the friction generates enough heat to convert a trace of the red phosphorus into white phosphorus. This immediately reacts with the potassium chlorate in the match head to produce enough heat to ignite the antimony trisulfide and start the combustion. Match boxes and match books are made from cardboard. The finned strips of cardboard used to make the matches in match books are called a comb. The Manufacturing Process Matches are manufactured in several stages. In the case of wooden-stick matches, the matchsticks are first cut, prepared, and moved to a storage area. When the matchsticks are needed, they are inserted into holes in a long perforated belt. The belt carries them through the rest of the process, where they are dipped into several chemical tanks, dried, and packaged in boxes. Cardboard-stick matches used in match books are processed in a similar manner. Here is a typical sequence of operations for manufacturing wooden-stick matches: Cutting the matchsticks 1 Logs of white pine or aspen are clamped in a debarking machine and slowly rotated while spinning blades cut away the outer bark of the tree. 2 The stripped logs are then cut into short lengths about 1.6 ft (0.5 m) long. Each length is placed in a peeler and rotated while a sharp, flat blade peels a long, thin sheet of wood from the outer surface of the log. This sheet is about 0.1 in (2.5 mm) thick and is called a veneer. The peeling blade moves inward toward the core of the rotating log until only a small, round post is left. This post is discarded and may be used for fuel or reduced to wood chips for use in making paper or chipboard. Stripped logs are placed in a peeler, which cuts a sheet about 0.1 in (2.5 mm) thick, called veneer, from the log. The veneer proceeds to the chopper, which cuts it into small sticks. The sticks are soaked in a dilute solution of ammonium phosphate and dried, removing splinters and crystallized solution. The matches are dumped into a feed hopper, which lines them up. A perforated conveyor belt holds them upside down while they are dipped in a series of three tanks. The matches are dried for 50-60 minutes before they are packaged. 3 The sheets of veneer are stacked and fed into a chopper. The chopper has many sharp blades that cut down through the stack to produce as many as 1,000 matchsticks in a single stroke. Treating the matchsticks 4 The cut matchsticks are dumped into a large vat filled with a dilute solution of ammonium phosphate. 5 After they have soaked for several minutes, the matchsticks are removed from the vat and placed in a large, rotating drum, like a clothes dryer. The tumbling action inside the drum dries the sticks and acts to polish and clean them of any splinters or crystallized chemical. 6 The dried sticks are then dumped into a hopper and blown through a metal duct to the storage area. In some operations the sticks are blown directly into the matchmaking facility rather than going to storage. Forming the match heads 7 The sticks are blown from the storage area to a conveyor belt that transfers them to be inserted into holes on a long, continuous, perforated steel belt. The sticks are dumped into several v-shaped feed hoppers that line them up with the holes in the perforated belt. Plungers push the matchsticks into the holes across the width of the slowly moving belt. A typical belt may have 50-100 holes spaced across its width. Any sticks that do not seat firmly into the holes fall to a catch area beneath the belt and are transferred back to the feed hoppers. 8 The perforated belt holds the matchsticks upside down and immerses the lower portion of the sticks in a bath of hot paraffin wax. After they emerge from the wax, the sticks are allowed to dry. 9 Further down the line, the matchsticks are positioned over a tray filled with a liquid solution of the match head chemicals. The tray is then momentarily raised to immerse the ends of the sticks in the solution. Several thousand sticks are coated at the same time. This cycle  repeats itself when the next batch of sticks is in position. If the matches are the strike-anywhere kind, the sticks move on to another tray filled with a solution of the tip chemicals, and the match ends are immersed in that tray, only this time not quite as deeply. This gives strike-anywhere matches their characteristic two-toned appearance. 10 After the match heads are coated, the matches must be dried very slowly or they will not light properly. The belt loops up and down several times as the matches dry for 50-60 minutes. Packaging the matches 11 The cardboard inner and outer portions of the match boxes are cut, printed, folded, and glued together in a separate area. If the box is to contain safety matches, the chemicals for the striking strip are mixed with an adhesive and are automatically applied to the outer portion of the box. 12 When the matches are dry, the belt moves them to the packaging area, where a multi-toothed wheel pushes the finished matches out of the holes in the belt. The matches fall into hoppers, which measure the proper amount of matches for each box. The matches are dumped from the hoppers into the inner portions of the cardboard match boxes, which are moving along a conveyor belt located below the hoppers. Ten or more boxes may be filled at the same time. 13 The outer portions of the match boxes move along another conveyor belt running parallel to the first belt. Both conveyors stop momentarily, and the filled inner portions are pushed into the outer portions. This cycle of filling the inner portion s and pushing them into the outer portions is repeated at a rate of about once per second. 14 The filled match boxes are moved by conveyor belt to a machine, which groups them and places them in a corrugated cardboard box for shipping. Quality Control The chemicals for each portion of the match head are weighed and measured exactly to avoid any variation in the match composition that might affect performance. Operators constantly monitor the operation and visually inspect the product at all stages of manufacture. In addition to visual inspection and other normal quality control procedures, match production requires strict attention to safety. Considering that there may be more than one million matches attached to the perforated belt at any time means that the working environment must be kept free of all sources of accidental ignition. The Future The use of matches in the United States has steadily declined in the last few decades. This decline is the result of several factors: the availability of inexpensive, disposable lighters; the decrease in the use of tobacco products by the general public; and the development of automatic lighting devices for gas-fired stoves. Of the matches that are sold, book matches far outsell wooden stick matches because of their advertising value. Worldwide, matches will continue to be in demand for the foreseeable future, although their production will probably follow the demand and migrate to other countries. Where to Learn More Books Bennett, H., ed. The Chemical Formulary, Vol. XV. Chemical Publishing Company, Inc., 1970. Periodicals Bean, M.C. â€Å"History of the Match,† Antiques and Collecting Hobbies. September, 1992, pp. 42-44. — Chris Cavette

Nashville Predators Case Essay

The Nashville Predators have been going through a seemingly endless process since entering the NHL in 1998. It did not take the Predators long to establish a successful and competitive nature among the franchise. Their first five seasons they struggled becoming a team and missed the playoffs, however, they have come together and made the playoffs every year since. The Predator’s on-ice performance was consistently among the top three teams in the league, but still faced many challenges. Although the Predator’s on-ice performance continued to mature, they still struggled with growth in ticket sales. How does a number three ranked NHL team fall to twenty-three of thirty teams in overall ticket sales? Clearly something needs to be evaluated in the management marketing strategy. According to many officials, Nashville has all the tools to generate a profitable franchise. It seems that since a team plays well that they should attract a loyal fan base. It was not this easy for the Predators as they dealt with several contracts over the years to gain one full-time owner. The team’s franchise might be undergoing new ownership once again. This puts an immense amount of stress on the management team as they have several things to prepare, for a potential new owner. The team believes that a new owner might move the Predators to a location outside of Nashville. The management team needs to come up with an efficient marketing plan/ strategy for the new owner. Re-location suggestions are among the top issues to evaluate. The team has narrowed their approach to five potential cities for the Predators, as well as the possibility of leaving them in Nashville. Hamilton, Winnipeg, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Houston were among the best-fit re-location options. Although the team needed to look at other cities, they were also determined  to prove Nashville could be a success. The management team believed that with the on-ice success and a new and exciting marketing campaign would increase the average attendance at games. Some challenges they faced along the way were mainly generating more revenue, and targeting a new clientele. NHL depends heavily on ticket revenue and less on broadcasting compared to any other professional sport. This alone tells the management team, much more focus needs to be applied toward selling tickets. While more tickets need to be sold, there is a separate approach within this strategy. The majority of NHL teams sell sixty percent of their tickets to corporations, and accommodate business suites. The Predators are generating seventy percent of ticket revenue through individual sales and only thirty percent from business packages. This is a number that needs to improve for the franchise as they look to increase rev enue. Gaining support from major corporations is always an upside for any business. Whether the team moves, or remains in Nashville, there are several key decisions that the management team must make. First off they have to establish a comprehensive strategy starting with a recommended location. Where the Predators will be best fit is a decision that must be set in stone. Once you have the location set is when the team can move into an overall strategy for the franchise. They will need to consider recommendations on promotions, pricing, and customer focus. What will the ticket prices be, and how will they obtain the brand (team) loyalty from fans? No matter what strategy they decide it must be viable and profitable. Ticket prices are directly correlated to the attendance in the building, and present a major challenge. Last but certainly not least; the team must develop a strategy for targeting new corporations among its new location. This is hockey, however, at the end of the day this is business and is about having, â€Å"a good product on the ice†. Upon further evaluation of the franchise’s relocation, an internal analysis of strengths and weaknesses helps to visualize potential. As I said before, the Nashville Predators have a good team, but things must be evaluated to understand what to and what not to stress in their marketing strategy. Nashville Predator Franchise STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES On-ice performance: achieved playoff contention every year since 2003; Ranked third of thirty teams in NHL Competitive Nature: a team that plays well and succeeds generates more awareness & fans Sommet Center: only twelve years old; over seventeen thousand in capacity Seventy luxury suites for businesses Newly Renovated Arena: updated game clock/ score board; hundreds of televisions added for better spectator views State of the art technology in Arena Majority of employees/ players have been together for a while now and know how to work together through changes As of right now they have no clear strategy Management team is â€Å"in the dark†: because the team has not confirmed whether or not they are gaining a new owner- the management team is forced to plan for multiple scenarios under new ownership; Preventing them from focusing on one effective strategy Lack of corporate interest in Predators franchise Due to the attempts/ failures of multiple ownership agreements: the franchise appears as unwanted and undesirable to outsiders Lack of customer Service Department- over five hundred thousand dollars Lack of consistency within franchise External Analysis: Customers- NHL tickets serve purely hedonic needs in the eyes of the consumers, as Sports games are a facet of the entertainment industry. One group that the NHL targets in ticket sales are fans of the sport, both diehard and casual. Diehard fans purchased season tickets regardless of winning or losing seasons or other conditions and as such they are not considered price sensitive compared to casual fans. Casual watchers of hockey perform more of a search to find the best entertainment option for their dollar and can be trickier to encourage buying multiple tickets. Based on statistical figures your average NHL fan is a male in his middle 40’s, although almost 40% of fans are women. An interesting fact is that according  to the article, NHL fans are wealthier than any other fan of a major league North American sport. Fans of the sport geographically speaking are spread out across North America, but NHL franchise attendance is highest in Canada and Northern U.S. regions. Cont ext: Political: the National Hockey League governs Major league hockey games. The NHL regulates how many games are in each season, controls where teams are located or relocated, and determines salaries for players, etc. Economic: Like any other entertainment option, success as a business depends on the customer’s amount of discretionary income. If the general economy is suffering, NHL games likely suffer in terms of ticket revenue. Social: NHL is a part of the sports entertainment industry, which continues to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry. Many in North America follow a sport one way or another and are a way to socialize with other fans. Technological: Not too many technological advances in the sport of hockey, other than to watch games while not in attendance. Company- The National Hockey League (NHL) is the governing body for professional hockey teams. The league, more than any of the other professional leagues, depends on ticket sales as a main source of revenue. According to Porter’s generic strategies, the focus of the NHL is to provide a different kind of professional sports experience at a competitive price point. Unlike football or baseball, hockey is generally not susceptible to fluctuations in ticket revenue based on weather since it is an indoor event. No other sport is played on ice so that is the NHL’s main source of competitive advantage. Collaborators- The NHL is in contract with venue leasing companies to provide the arena for the games and they are their biggest collaborators. Also contributing to the game day experiences are the firms that provide the food and beverages, manufacture the merchandising and player uniforms/equipment, security, etc. Most of these arenas aren’t built solely for hockey games so firms that design, build, and manage the ice rinks are crucial to delivering the product. Competition: Product Category Competition: NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS Generic Competition: College sports games, race tracks (of horse and car variety), lesser league/amateur league sports games, high school sports  games, heater performances, concerts, other live events, etc. Budget Competition: Movie theaters, restaurants, PPV, etc. Power of Suppliers- Low/ If we are assuming the players are the suppliers since without Them the sport wouldn’t exist. The NHL has every player on a contract and while there Are other hockey leagues they are of lesser quality and do not pay as well as in the NHL. Providers of the food/beverage, merchandising, etc. are not in control because it is easy for the NHL and the individual teams to seek other sources. Power of Buyers- High/ Potential ticket purchasers can seek other forms of entertainment that is of more value to them. Powers of Substitutes- High/ There are other lesser leagues as well as a plethora of non-professional sports that the NHL has to compete with. Power of New Entrants- Low/ Each individual sport has their own governing body that regulates the professional games. To rival the NHL there would need to be massive capital costs, economies of scale, etc. Rivalry- High/ Other professional leagues compete to attract the casual sports fans to increase ticket revenue When looking at the Nashville NHL franchise, it is important to consider the competition it has with other league teams, such as the Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Sounds. In this situation, Nashville in particular doesn’t have any other major league team but within a couple hours’ drive is the Memphis Grizzlies, an NBA team. Nashville is also a popular destination for music lovers. This aspect of the entertainment industry poses a threat to the Predators franchise. The franchise is also at a disadvantage geographically as fans of NHL is more congregated in northern regions and into Canada. The NHL desired to reach into the southeastern U.S. region but based on the performance of Nashville and other franchises as Atlanta, Carolina, and the Florida Panthers, it seems that the experiment is failing. 4. Hamilton- The target market that this city should focus on is the casual fan. With its proximity to Toronto and Buffalo, Hamilton will have a difficult time luring diehard fans since they already have their team loyalties. Casual fans aren’t as willing to travel to watch games so targeting these fans would be an advantage. The team should be positioned as the closer, more hometown team since fans in the city probably had to travel to attend NHL games. Competition could arise from its close proximity to already established NHL teams; this location option in our opinion is seen as cannibalization more than already as ticket revenue would likely cut into Toronto, Buffalo, and other Canadian teams. Winnipeg- This location should target the diehard fans in particular as it is noted that the city once held an NHL franchise and many in the city are desperate to have another team again. Positioning the team would be easy, it’s the best games, the best players, and it’s the NHL, the pinnacle of hockey. As far as competition, it seems that the team would have no significant location competition, as there are no other professional teams in the area, just NHL affiliates. Kansas City- This location should target the casual fan or entertainment seeker, as there is intense competition from other professional teams such as the NFL Chiefs, MLB Royals, and an arena football league team. The franchise would have to be positioned as something different in the city, as a different way to enjoy an intense physical sport that compares to football in that regard. Las Vegas- An NHL franchise in this city would be the only professional league team in the city, and other than competing with the gambling/dining/other entertainment options offered by the tons in the â€Å"entertainment capital of the world† would have the ability to stand out as an elite sports experience that stays year round. Las Vegas hosts all sorts of other sports events, but this would be a year round sports experience. The target market would need to be both casual and diehard sports fans as this would be the only professional sport in the city and the franchise could easily capitalize on this. Hous ton- Competition from all the major professional league franchises would make this city a challenge for the Predators. Appealing to casual fans would be important for the team, although diehard hockey fans who regularly attend Dallas Stars could attend games in Houston if they lived closer. Houston  usually doesn’t endure any harsh winters so this team could be positioned as a way to cool off and get chilly watching intense physical hockey games. After carefully reviewing all the possible candidate cities, our group decided that we would select Las Vegas as the next location for the Predators franchise. One of the main reasons why we chose this city is because it is devoid of any professional league teams already, so the franchise would be the only one in the area. The franchise could easily capitalize on this and create a niche for itself against the wide assortment of gambling and other entertainment in the city. The city is also one that is quickly growing, with a population of 1.7 million at the time of the article and a yearly growth rate of 11.5%. While seat capacity is limited, creating high demand for the NHL experience in the city would allow the franchise to potentially raise ticket prices, therefore increasing revenues and profits. Median family income is also the highest of all the U.S. candidate cities with $58,465, which could further justify charging higher ticket prices. As the â€Å"entertainment capital†, Las Vegas is a popular tourist destination in the country and the world. Having a team in this city could see casual and diehard sports fans making the trip to Las Vegas and make a complete experience out of attending an NHL game. After attending a game, fans can explore all the casinos and nightlife hotspots that make Las Vegas famous. In our opinion, Las Vegas is the most exciting prospect for an NHL team and with the potential to charge more premium ticket prices could see the franchise turn around and become profitable. Ticket Pricing: In order to determine the ticket price that the Predators should charge, assuming they move to Las Vegas, we will need to determine the fixed costs associated to running the team in this area. Fixed Costs Nashville Predators Sponsorships Player Salary 48,300,000 MGM Casino 5,000,000 Lease 1,500,000 Corporate 8,500,000 Broadcast costs 1,000,000 Total 13,500,000 Arena Operations 7,000,000 Total 57,800,000 Sponsor -13,500,000 Total FC 44,300,000 Above are the fixed costs associated with the Nashville Predators moving to Las Vegas. Broadcast costs along with lease costs were used from historical data. Total fixed costs amounted to $44,300,000 excluding sponsorships from the MGM casino and corporate historical sponsorships. Next our group chose to use the historical average prices from the Predators and the average prices from the NHL. We decided to use these prices as reference because we wanted to get a general feel as to where the Predators sit in their pricing scheme compared to the national average. From this analysis we decided that the Predators are charging too low for their ticket prices. We did not want to charge above the national average though, after the Predators move to Las Vegas they can then get a better feel for whether or not they should increase the price even more. So our group decided to charge $48.72 for regular admission and $112.10 for premium tickets. If the arena meets capacity of 19,300, this would bring in revenues of $529,175.14. We also wanted to make sure that the Predators are able to recoup the initial investment they will make. To do this we ran a break-even analysis to see how many tickets they will need to sell to cover their fixed costs. Below is our break-even analysis. Break-even Analysis Total FC 44,300,000 Ticket price /(48.72*.79)+(112.10*.21) 62.0298 Total Tickets 714172.8653 We weighted the ticket prices by their percent of interested fans in that price. Then took the fixed costs and divided them by the ticket price to come up with 714,173 tickets that must be sold in order to cover fixed costs. This is solely in ticket sales and does not include the revenue from future concessions and other revenues from the arena in Las Vegas. This number is slightly higher than the number of tickets the Predators sold last year that was 611,328. This number was extremely low compared to the league. Our group believes that our estimated 714,173 tickets is a plausible number if the Predators move to Las Vegas. Promotional and Advertising Plan: TV/Radio Promotions: TV and radio ads are aired typically on sports-related media. The viewers and listeners to these stations were males between the ages of 25 and 54. In Las Vegas the median age of residents is 34, which is right in the middle of the TV/Radio viewer age. Also Las Vegas is primarily male, coinciding with the viewers of sports radio and TV. We would hit hard in promoting the Predators though radio and TV. The demographic for this type of promotion is perfect and we believe we would be very successful using this media. Player Appearances: As the main demographic for player appearances is a younger child, we believe that this tactic can only be used for specific events that may hit the city of Las Vegas. Most likely we would have players appear at charity events, and other found raisers that are hosted in the city. This way they can get in touch with an older generation that better fits the demographic of Las Vegas. Corporate Mail Outs: We would use corporate mail outs in our strategy. As Las Vegas is already thriving in businesses that are mainly casinos, shows, and shopping, asking them for sponsorships and advertisements would be competition against our main sponsor MGM, also the hotel where the arena would be located. Fan Giveaways: Fan giveaways will be very useful in promoting the Predators. Las Vegas is a place where people come to WIN! Having giveaways for our main ticket purchasers, such as a free stay at the MGM Grand, or simply cash, would be very effective in keeping out current fans interested and satisfied while also attracting new fans with the hope of WINNING BIG! Online Advertising: Online advertising is a medium that is becoming more and more successful with the increased use of technology. As research stated, 68% of avid sports fans had used the Internet in the past 30 days. We would take full advantage of this less-costly way of promoting the Predators. The website for the Pr edators would need to be updated to coincide with the likes of the Las Vegas demographic, and the surrounding area. The site would need to be exciting and captivating as well as very easy to access. Our advertising would also have to appeal to the nation, as it would be seen on ESPN.com, TSN.ca and NHL.com, all of which are viewed nationally and internationally. Ticket Sales: With using TV/radio and Fan Giveaways as our main ways of promotion and advertising, these two mediums would be where most of the  Predators ticket sales would generate.  Cost of Plan: In order to use these two mediums to create the most hype and ticket sales, it is going to be costly. The predators would need to spend about $3.5 million and up on TV/radio advertising, in order to sell the number of tickets they need per game. If TV/radio advertising is successful then the Fan Giveaways can become less and less costly. If TV were successful then the Predators would need to spend from $0 to $500,000 to make up for the rest of ticket sales. If TV/radio advertising is less successful then they will need to spend from $750,000 to $1,000,000. If they go higher than these costs, research shows that in Las Vegas they will still attract the same amount of ticket sales as they would if the only spent $1 million. As we are not completely utilizing corporate mail outs and player appearances, combined these would cost the Predators a maximum of $200,000, but most likely the cost would be much less. As previously stated we would use online advertising. Las Vegas stays rather consistent with the number of tickets that are sold related to online advertising so the Predators would only need to spend a maximum of $700,000, after this amount, historically the same number of tickets have been sold. Below is a table that shows the maximum that the Predators would have to spend on advertising and promotion in Las Vegas. Maximum Cost of Promotion and Advertising TV/Radio 3,500,000 Giveaways 1,000,000 Online Ad 700,000 Appearances/Mail outs 200,000 Total Cost 5,400,000

Self Evaluation of Personal and Academic Skills Essay

Self Evaluation of Personal and Academic Skills - Essay Example Through this I have been able to benefit from their contributions and I have also strengthened my weak academic areas. I am excellent at managing writing skills appropriately, through the use of internet and with the assistance of my lectures ,I effectively utilize my writing and reading skills to get all my assignments done .I am also highly determined an perseverance when faced with tight deadlines. I understand that my parent have made the sacrifice of taking my to college and that my future depends on my education. So I don’t give up easily but strive until I get what I want .I know how to utilize all the sources available at the school and at home, I mostly use the internet and the library whenever I am required to read more. I know that he best consultation is from my lecturers and so I approach them for clarification in case of any difficulty. Higher education learning requires a number of skills for a student to be successful, some of these skills are research and anal ysis skills, one needs to carry out several researchers both in the on the internet, in the library and in the field. This will assist the student to solve academic and even personal problems that arise during the session. A successful student needs to have good communication skills . good communication skills enables one to work with others and leads to problem solving because no man is an island on of himself. The ability to manage tasks leads to completion of assignments given at the right time and in the correct way .A higher education students also requires to have the ability to manage oneself, through discipline, proper time management, belief in oneself and good grooming and hard work , success is likely to be achieved. Further more, applying of design and creativity, working through agendas and decision making tools are needed in Higher education learning because without them , a student may find it very difficult to work in accordance with the set guidelines (Levine & Sun, 2010). From my evaluation, I realize that I am faced with a number of gaps that may pose a challenge to achieving my academic goals. One of them is poor decision making skills, I always find it difficult to arrive at a decision and stick on it for example I may decide to undertake a certain project but if convinced otherwise, I end up going for another. I also find it difficult in working out agendas; this may be due to poor time management and lack of decisiveness. Having difficulty in working out agendas is also contributed to by low levels of creativity design and layout and lack of adequate trust in myself. Section 2 Plan of Action for Improvement of Academic Skills Every individual has a set of weaknesses in regard to achieving academic success, personally I have weaknesses in decision making, working out agendas, have belief in myself and having high level of creativity I layout and design. However, I understand that I can still work towards overcoming the challenges I face. T o fill the gaps, I plan to undertake the following actions. Decision Making To improve my decision making skills ,I will carry out the following activities I will be weighing costs versus benefits Ensure that I am relaxed when making a decision Consult with my team members and always Consider alternatives before I make a decision Working out agenda To ensure that I work out all the set agendas in a timely and orderly manner,I will practice the following Improve on networking and public relations Have great

Branding and Promotion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Branding and Promotion - Assignment Example It is the value a customer places on the brand which results in a long term association of the company and the customer. It generates both tangible and intangible benefits for the company that a brand adds to a product/service. A positive brand equity in traditional workstation markets such as research, engineering, and entertainment. The brand has been associated in this field with favorable qualities like innovation, vision, fun, and customer orientation. An image of being a company dealing with high end users. This image got further boost with the taking over of Cray Research Inc. another super computer company. Its target markets comprised of scientists, engineers, animators and graphics professionals. It is quite apparent that Silicon Graphics Inc. has not given due consideration so far to gain access to the mindset of existing and prospective customers a prerequisite for establishing the brand name. Advertising plays a critical role in building brand equity. It helps customers to differentiate a brand from competitors a brand from competitors on dimensions which are important to consumers. This Brand equity helps in stimulating growth in many parity products. SGI has long been associated with high end 'Hollywood like' products. That's indeed a big asset for SGI. But for long term sustenance the company will have to diversify to fulfill the requirements of other customers as well. SGI did try to enter this space as well, but without making any conscious efforts towards establishing a 'common man' user friendly image. Consistent and suitable media campaigns and visibility is required towards sustaining any brand equity. Ans 2: SGI realized the painful way in the year 1996-97 that everything is not fine with its business operations and brand imaging, when it started incurring losses. So the company started t take note and then accordingly set in a motion a number of short-term and long-term measures. The acquition of Cray also proved to be non-productive and company realized that the liabilities are on the rise after its acquisition. This led to parting of ways by SGI from most of the Cray business and the Cray brand to by handing over this business to Tera Computer Company on March 31, 2000. One of SGI's most glaring brand deficiencies was the under-leveraged master brand. For example the name Coca-Cola, is associated with cold-drinks, though there are over 400 products that the company produces in over 200 countries, yet the consumers measure up every product with Coca-Cola, the 'quality cold drink' at the back of their minds. Reason for the deficiency in SGI branding is the trend of ignoring the importan ce of brand equity, or perhaps this could be because of sheer overconfidence on the part of management. Otherwise how can we explain the absence of the Silicon Graphics typeface and its

Competencies English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Competencies English - Essay Example The aim of this annotated bibliography is to act as a resource on competencies for any researcher. Bobs, S. (1999). ‘Culturally competent research: an ethical perspective.’ Clin Psychol Rev. 19(1):4555. This article looks at the ethical guidelines and principles perspectives for providers on matters related to research on populations from ethnic minorities. Issues like informed consent presentation or reporting to those taking part in research, studies that are not appropriate on populations dominated by ethnic minority, researchers lacking diversity amongst themselves, and instrument assessment that are culturally insensitive are discussed in the article (Bobs, 1999). The article goes further to recommend certain criteria and responsibilities for cultural competence which include; involving the youth more in researches as concerned citizens as well as investigators, The recommendations generally address the bigger issue of failing to acknowledge persons in their differe nt cultural context. The article concludes by presenting what the ethical guidelines and principles imply on providers. The article is reliable as it fully covers cultural competence issues and goes further to offer recommendations on the same. The recommendations are detailed thus can be relied upon by any reader. Brach, C & Fraser, I. (2000). ‘Can cultural competence reduce racial and ethical health disparities? A review and conceptual model.’ Med Care Res Rev. 57(S1):181217 This article addresses a model on conceptual cultural competency that is aimed at reducing ethnic and racial disparities. The model makes use of literatures on cultural disparities and competency to develop a strong foundation so as to enable it gain assessments of validity information. The article has come up with nine main techniques on cultural competency. The techniques include; retention and recruitment policies, interpreter services, community health workers utility, traditional healers trai ning coordination, health promotion health promotion, organizational and administrative accommodation and different cultures immersion(Brach and Fraser, 2000). The article then offers explanations on how the techniques can be theoretically applied to improve health system’s ability and how the clinical offers can be used to deliver services that are appropriate on diverse populations thus improving the techniques results and at the same time check on their disparities. The article ends by challenging future researchers to focus on the evidence provided by the techniques on cultural competence on their effectiveness and how they are to be implemented. This is a problem solving article thus highly recommended for researchers on cultural competence issues. Luquis, R. & Perez, M. (2006). ‘Cultural competency among school health educators.’ Journal of Cultural Diversity. 13(4):217-22. This article was published following the American classrooms changing demographics t hat made health educators imperative while possessing the ability to offer health education. The article has responded to this situation by describing the cultural competence levels among health educators in schools and includes ways in which the educators can be able to improve their respective cultural competency. The research covered by this article indicates that educators posses cultural awareness but still suggest that more research should be conducted in the same area so as to increase the understanding of

Missouri Plan Law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Missouri Plan Law - Research Paper Example Introduction: In the United States of America, judges are selected through employing one of the three available categories which are: elections, democratic appointment and the Missouri Plan. However, a few of the fifty American States employ hybrid methods of selection for the appointment of Supreme Court judges. The selection methods have different popularities among the different states. For instance, the democratic appointment method of selection is followed by the US constitution and therefore, the nominations for federal judges are put forward by the President and are confirmed by the US Senate. The Missouri Plan for the selection of judges was adopted by Missouri in 1940 and is also known as the merit plan or Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan. (Peltason, J. W.1945). History and Spread of the Plan: The State of Missouri adopted the commission based on a unique role for the Bar in 1940 and since Missouri was the first State to adopt the commission method, it became known as the Mis souri Plan. The origin of Missouri Plan can be traced back to one of the founders of the American Judicature Society, Mr. Albert M. Kales and therefore is also known as Kales plan. In simple terms, the Missouri Plan is based on a nonpartisan commission employed for the investigation and selection of judicial judges from a list of nominees and then provides the general public with the opportunity of removing the judges from the bench. Several other States use different variations of the Missouri Plan for the selection of Supreme Court judges. Moreover, a majority of the States employ hybrids of merit plan and Democratic appointment such as the combination of unique role for the Bar and federal judge nominees being confirmed by the US Senate. Today, the most common method of selection is the elections and the second most popular method is the merit plan. (Watson, R. A., & Downing, R. G.1969). The Plan: The judiciary has a number of Progressive Era reforms, one of which is the Merit Pl an which is more commonly known as the Missouri Plan. The major aim of Missouri Plan is to free the political process from the government decision making and to let the experts perform the process of judicial selection. The experts are the lawyers who are entrusted with the job of selecting judges and bar association act as primary advocates. Therefore, the Plan attempts to shift power of selection to the Bar. (Kansas.1956). The Missouri Plan is based on two features which are as follows: i. The nominating commission submits a list of nominees from which the judges are appointed to the bench by the governor. ii. Once the judges have been appointed, at some point it becomes mandatory for them to come forward and face the public, which can then decide to remove the judges from their post through voting in an uncontested referendum. Therefore, it provides an opportunity to the general public to implement their opinion regarding the removal of appointed judges by saying yes or no. Thus, it limits the dependence of the Plan on the State and provides the general public an opportunity to implement their desires and provides them with a greater degree of independence from the government. (Watson, R. A., & Downing, R. G.1969). Advantages: i. The foremost advantage is that the selection and confirmation process is performed by experts i.e. the lawyers and the commission. The commission is well adapted for the process of assessing the qualifications of the judges as they know the law and are well informed with the preferences of the general public. I strongly believe that the method of Missouri Plan selects more qualified judges than the democratic appointment as the Plan eliminates political cronyism. Therefore, the nominating comm

Awareness of business systems methodologies appropriate to the Essay

Awareness of business systems methodologies appropriate to the analysis of complex international logistics and supply chain systems - Essay Example The first stage as given by Dong, Xu and Song (2013) in analysing a problem situation is to clearly identify the problem or opportunity. In the context of ElMesmary, Song and Dinwoodie (2014), the problem identified can be said to be issues with the strategic/tactical and operational planning problems involved in the container terminal logistics processes in Alexandria. ElMesmary, Song and Dinwoodie (2014) observed that strategic/tactical planning problems arise at the first stage of the planning process for container terminals as planners seek to tackle terminal design problems as part of the overall technical feasibility and performance. Operational planning problems have also been noted to come about when logistics processes are being taken in the container terminals (ElMesmary, Song and Dinwoodie, 2014). The second stage of using HSA in analysing problem situation has been said to involve the description of the situation in its current state via the use of diagrams and open discussion. Based on Azevedo, Ferreira, Dias and Palma. (2009), the following diagram can be used to describe the identified problem with strategic/tactical and operational planning. Based on the diagram given above, the main source of the problem can be said to come from the Alexandria container terminal, which is transmitted in the form of multimodal interfaces and IT systems. As the problem manifests, it becomes further amplified with bottlenecks in the container terminal logistics process which act as noise source. The diagram also shows that the problem identified is received by the strategic/tactical and operational planners and further dropped with the container terminal managers as destination (Kim, 2005). The third stage with the use of the HSA has been said to involve the process of describing the situation as it would ideally be. In this regard, it can be said that the strategic/tactical and operational planning was expected to

Strategic Brand Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic Brand Communication - Essay Example Building brand equity requires communication effectiveness. If the brand equity is high, consumers may be willing to process these communications more favourably (Keller, 2009). However, today companies have evolved from these stages of brand management and as per Goodyear’s model many organizations have evolved and reached the stage where brand is viewed as a policy (McEnally and De Chernatony, 1999). Brand communication has evolved from helping consumers organize their knowledge about products and services based on the mental structures enabling them to clarify their decision making. Brand communication must also be directed at employees as they are an important part of ‘performing the brand’. The Body Shop is one such company where its employees live the brand. Branding is the means to distinguish goods of one producer from another. Referring to a brand means the product or service has created certain amount of awareness, prominence and reputation in the market place (Keller, Parameswaran and Jacob, 2008, p1). Developing employees to participate in the brand and live the brand is known as internal branding. Consumers can form brand associations in a variety of ways – other than marketing activities. ... In other words, employees communicate the brand through their activities. Communication directed at employees has several dimensions. First, employees must know what they are expected to project. This implies that employees must receive messages that are consistent, frequent and in alignment with the organizational mission, vision and core values. Employees’ understanding and knowledge of the desired brand is necessary to facilitate brand communication. Employees must have the capacity to internalize the desired brand image and then reflect it to others. This suggests that the organization or the leader must first demonstrate the values. Anita Roddick’s concern for the environment manifests itself in the plan of The Body Shop (Argenti and Druckenmiller, 2004). The leader’s own personality can help shape the personality of their company’s brand. This is evident from the way that the leader created the brand image without engaging in conventional advertising . The Body Shop created a brand image without going in for conventional advertising (Keller, Parameswaran and Jacob, 2008, p57). It strongly associated with personal care and environmental concerns as it used only natural ingredients and never tested on animals. They communicated this message through advertising which helped build the brand image of an ethical company. Their environmental concerns are also communicated through packaging which is simple, refillable and recyclable. Staff at The Body Shop is always encouraged to be enthusiastic and informative about environmental issues. Their sourcing policy also communicated their brand image – they use local small producers from around the world. They engage in social action program which

Managment methodologies of the military sector compared to the Research Paper

Managment methodologies of the military sector compared to the civilian sector - Research Paper Example There are certain principles of management which must be applied both in the military and the civilian sectors in order to enhance management. In the same way, considering the different cultures realized in these two sectors, it is fundamental to note that certain principles applied in the military sector cannot really work in the civilian sector. While discipline and chain of command is highly required in the military sector, it is not really a major concern in the civilian sector. The primary focus of management in all the sectors is basically to create a balance between efficiency and effectiveness. Principles In the civilian sector, the focus is to ensure that the customers are well serviced and satisfied. In this case, the employees must be managed effectively in order to realize this goal. If employees are not satisfied, it is evident that they will not really offer the best services to the customers and this limits efficiency and effectiveness. In the military, the officers mu st keenly weigh the aspects of effectiveness and efficiency considering that military missions call for high efficiency in operations (Christiansen, 2010). The inverse relationship between effectiveness and efficiency must be understood by the managers in all the sectors. There are four principles of management that cut across both the military and the civilian sectors and should therefore be a focus. Planning Planning is essentially a continual process and includes both short term and long term plans. Goals and objectives are normally set to be achieved within a given timeframe. For instance, the preparation of the budget is a planned process and cuts across both the military and the civilian sectors. Organizations usually have their short term and long term plans which are usually formulated well in advance. In the same way, such plans are common in the military sector. For instance, the Department of Defense has a document called the Five Year Defense Plan (FYDP) which it continu ously revises (Higbee, 2010). Organizing A business or a military agency should organize itself into units or departments that are meant to address different concerns within the organization. These divisions are mostly done on the basis of functions, geographical areas, products or customers. It is highly important to ensure that everything is organized in the most effective manner in order to enhance efficiency. Leading The concept of management is essentially a process of conducting roles and duties through people. In this case, a good manager should have the ability to lead people effectively by putting the employees through the best motivational programs and ensuring they give their maximum to the organization. In the military sector, discipline is highly regarded but motivation and managerial effectiveness must always take center stage. The nature of military activities creates the need for the officers to be well motivated. Such motivations are realized through promotions, pay benefits and other forms of recognition. Controlling The aspect of controlling does not actually relate to people. Rather, it is a way of ensuring that the organization actually meets its goals and objectives as set forth in its plans. In this case, progress has to be measured in order to provide information on how any inefficiency can be addressed. In case the goals are not met, then it is important for different approaches to be applied or the goals

Organisational Structure and Design Analyses McDonald's PowerPoint Presentation

Organisational Structure and Design Analyses McDonald's - PowerPoint Presentation Example McDonald's focus on being better, not just bigger, has delivered even better restaurant experiences to the customers and superior value to shareholders. This approach has also helped its vision is to be the world's best quick service restaurant experience. "Being better" translates into greater business volume and also better margin for its operational activities. Mc Donald's is among the best known fast food restaurants around the world. In 1955, Ray Kroc opened the first franchised McDonald's restaurant in Chicago. From Chicago, McDonald has expanded to many countries around the world. One of the most stunning achievements of McDonalds is its ability to maintain its world class food quality and efficient service time across all stores. These offerings have helped McDonalds' to retain the high brand value of its stores. In 1971, the first McDonald's restaurant opened in Australia and presently there are 761 restaurants in Australia. Social Responsibility Report 2007 mentioned that there are 31000 McDonald's restaurants in 119countries. McDonald's Australia Limited is an unlisted Australian public company. It is a franchise business with above two thirds of the restaurants run by franchisees in Australia and the remainders are operated by company staff. There are about 75,000 people employed by McDonald's and its franchisees in restaurants and management offices across Australia. Slide 3 The functional structure adopted in McDonald's in Australia is a perfect fit for the scale it operates in. Large organisations require a high degree of specialization for smooth functioning(Donaldson, L. 1997, p.78). In addition, the functional structure allows employees to contribute in particular areas of expertise, transfer specialized knowledge, and benefit from economies of scale in utilizing manufacturing equipment. This set up also aids standardization that in turn helps reduce duplication and variations in systems and procedures (Giancola 2007, p.4). Besides, managers seek to protect their core activities from external influences through buffering. With bridging, managers attempt to manage their environments through various forms of negotiation, co-operation, exchange of information and other forms of reciprocity This kind of structure has created a situation of mutual involvement by the employees into the various activities or decisions of McDonalds'. Employees also get the chance to transfer his/her knowledge from one store to another. These are the encouraging factors for the employees which will ultimately increase the level of job satisfaction. Slide 4 Strength The company has wide presence in many of the countries in the world; this has helped the company to achieve benefits of economies of scale. Because McDonalds' can easily divest from one particular country where the sales are underperforming and invest into better prospective market. Due to wide diversification and presence over decades, the company has accumulated huge sum of cash reserve into its balance sheet. High brand value and effective operations also helped the compan

The Bus Strike In Singapore Essay Example for Free

The Bus Strike In Singapore Essay Fundamental lessons which we can all learn from the bus strike (Singapore) Against the backdrop of the now famous bus strike, there have been efforts undertaken by the following parties: The Singapore Government calling on all parties to voice their grievances through the appropriate channels and a flurry of measures adopted by SMRT in response to public and government sentiment. Whilst the reactions and actions undertaken after the strike are laudable, one can’t help but express concern that the underlying issues of wages, worker’s living conditions and a clear lack of communication channels between all relevant parties have surfaced only via the drastic action of a strike. Indeed, all parties involved have to clearly reflect on the events of the past week and do their utmost to prevent future occurrences of such incidents. Complacency setting in Citing how strikes would affect workforce productivity and deter potential investors, the Singapore Government has long taken a dim view towards strikes and strikes have been few and far between throughout the annals of Singapore’s history. This has and still must be the key driving policy: A zero tolerance towards illegal strikes. In an attempt to maintain the welfare of general workers in Singapore, the National Union Trade Congress, businesses and National Employer’s Federation had been established. Tripartism was vaunted as the the way to progress and to cultivate the symbiotic relationship between businesses, employers and employees. Indeed, the system of tripartism saw much success till the early 2000’s where there were troubling signs of complacency setting in and cracks slowly but surely emerging from the system. This was further compounded by the fact that there was a massive influx of foreign workers as the Government sought to open its doors to foreigners to maximize economic growth. It would be naà ¯ve to conceive that the strikes were one-off actions or actions taken by an irrational group of foreign workers. Conversely, it is clear that the issues stemming from the strike ie. low wages, poor living conditions, lack of proper communication channels between businesses and employees alongside with an inability to manage the influx of foreign workers were long drawn. Therefore, it is illustrative that complacency had long set in between the relevant parties and the event of a strike or any forms of dramatic action were only a matter of time. An overall reflection Whilst I am in unequivocal agreement that a firm stance should be undertaken against the workers for taking the law into their own hands, there must be similar punishments meted out to SMRT as well for failing to take into account the welfare of its foreign workers and to serve as a strong deterrent for businesses not to mistreat its workers. When profits should not be at all costs It has been a long accepted norm in Singapore that a company should be primarily judged on its financial performance and has a responsibility to its multitude of stakeholders for fulfilling that responsibility. Nonetheless, the profit at all costs model has come under siege and this is inherently inferred from none other than SMRT. Relationship between grow at all costs and severe ramifications Admittedly, it would be an uphill task to draw a direct co-relationship between pursuing profits at all costs and the recent spate of events that had besieged SMRT. Having said that, one can look no further than how the incidents of trains breaking down due to inadequate maintenance and the recent uproar over wages of workers seem to connote some conclusions about a continual focus on increasing profit margins each quarter. Statistics have shown that the under the tenure of then SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa, profits at SMRT had saw a steady increase quarter after quarter and everyone (from savvy investors, government and the general public) were duly impressed. However, the aftermath of the slew of incidents that have occurred (MRTs breaking down due to improper maintenance / lack of empathy for staff as evident by the strike) suggested that all was not well in the quest for grow and profit at all costs. How SMRT should not get away with a mere slap on the wrist It is indicative that all is not well at SMRT. There is a clear lack of communication between its staff, the upper echelons of the organization and a lack of distinctive and definitive direction being undertaken. Clearly, SMRT needs a wake-up call and the onus is on the Government to adopt a hardline stance against the company. Whilst some commentators have suggested heavy fines, I am of the belief that more drastic measures needs to be undertaken in the form of the government stepping in to perform the role of the company or possible suspensions in operations of the firm if the need arises. There would inevitably be some trade -offs in the form of services being affected in the short term but it would send a strong message to SMRT to step up or be replaced entirely either by the government or in the form of another private company. Aftermath of the strike In sum, the recent strike has revealed the stress points of tripartism and the relevant parties would do well to address them to prevent such a scenario from happening in the foreseeable future. With swift action being undertaken against the perpetrators of the strike, one can’t help but wonder whether SMRT should similarly be punished or be allowed to get away scot free?

Cause and Consequences of the Great Recession

Cause and Consequences of the Great Recession 1.0 Introduction There was a recession in the United States (US) at the end of 2007 (Verick and Islam 2010). McKean (2010) noted that a healthy economy will proceed into a period of high growth, slow growth or no growth. Power (1996) commented that the economy is needed to be contracting and expanding in order for the economy to be healthy. When the contracting period has last for a long period of time (such as at least two consecutive quarters of a year or 6 months in a row), the economy is considered as a recession (Arnold 2008; Brainard and Perry 2001). According to National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (2010), recession was defined as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real gross domestic product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales. According to Wang (2009), the US recession has leaded to a global financial crisis shattering businesses and consumers confidence in many countries such as in European Union, China, Japan and Asia countries. As a result, it has been named as the Great Recession which has caused financial meltdown in the US and was spread out quickly affecting almost every corner of the world (Kurki et al 2009). The great recession was seen as the worst economic downturn since the great depression that the world was in recession after World War II (Wang 2009; Verick and Islam 2010). According to economists, this episode of great recession was resulted from a sudden busting of house bubble in US, where the house bubble was caused by rapid growth of improper regulation on sub-prime mortgages (Merriam 2009; Wang 2009; Whitney 2007). This episode of great recession have proven and shown the accuracy of Greenspan prediction who was the former Federal Reserve Chairman predicting that US has one-third probability getting into recession at the end of 2007 (Torres 2007). In order to have a better understanding on the great recession, causes and consequences of this recession will be analysed at the following chapters. 2.0 Causes of the Great Recession Apparently, US was faced many severe problems including banks on the verge of bankruptcy, high record levels of public debt, a falling stock market, a plummeting dollar, frozen money markets and imminent threat of a recession (Lyons 2009; Stiglitz 2010; Taylor 2009). According to Verick and Islam (2010), the global financial crisis was greatly affected by global imbalances, perceptions of risks, interest rates, and regulation of the financial system (Figure 1). With references to the Figure 1, causes of the great recession was summarised as below: 2.1 Housing Crash US housing market are a major determinant of consumers spending and rate of economic growth (Congressional Budget Office 2007). There are various factors affecting house price to rise much faster than consumer incomes, and thus it was created overvalued assets (Eklavya 2008). Taylor (2008) noted that US house prices were raised rapidly until 2006 and experienced a fall of house prices after the boom. Figure 2 shows the trend for house price for 1991 to 2007. When house prices fall to correct the imbalance, it had a significant impact on consumers spending where people cannot remortgage to obtain extra capital for spending (Taylor 2008). 2.1.1 Subprime Mortgages Burst According to Eklavya (2008), there was no regulation of subprime mortgages where the mortgage industry was able to sell mortgages without considering whether the buyers could pay back. Global research (2009) was estimated the value of US subprime mortgages at $1.3 trillion on March 2007, but there was over 7.5 million first-lien subprime mortgages outstanding. It was because the subprime mortgage was spiked to nearly 20% of all mortgage originations during the peak of US housing bubble (Smith 2007). In figure 3, it shows that subprime mortgage was expanded significantly during the period of 2004 to 2006. The huge majority of the subprime mortgages were caused massive foreclosures, and thus it was greatly affected the institutions and independent mortgage brokers which were not covered by the Community Reinvestment Act (Pressman 2008). Thus, it was indirectly affected a slow growth or even started to fall on consumer spending and investment (Taylor 2009). 2.1.2 Low Interest Rate Economists commented that US monetary authorities had adjusted the interest rates at unprecedented levels which created a debt-finance consumption boom leading the way in boosting housing bubble (Taylor 2009; Eklavya 2008; Kurki et al 2009). Similarly, some economists argued that interest rates in the US were stayed too low for too long and even stood at just 1 per cent in 2003 and 2004 which activated the great recession (Figure 4) (Elmendorf 2007; Taylor 2009; Verick and Islam 2010). Verick and Islam (2010) criticized that the monetary policy in US was failed to tackle the overvalued asset bubble, and at the same time contributed to the rapid growth in subprime mortgages. 2.2 Credit Crunch McHugh (2007) commented that high subprime mortgage defaults in US had caused credit crunch which referred to a sudden shortage of funds resulting a decline in loans available. According to Bloom (2008), many investment banks and commercial banks were faced huge losses due to the risky mortgage loans. Therefore, banks were reluctant to lend money to anyone and even to other banks leading a shortage of funds in the money markets (Smith 2007; Verick and Islam 2010). Whalen (2007) commented that the shortage of liquidity in the finance sector had caused borrowing to be more difficult and more expensive which had leaded to a lower consumer spending and investment. 2.3 Budget Deficit and National Debt According to GAO (2009), the US national debt was stood at 65% of GDP for 2007 and it was even worst when pension liabilities were included. With such a large deficit, US government had less room for expansionary fiscal policy because demographics worked against fiscal stability and the stage of economic cycle worsened the deficit (Auerbach 2009). Kurki et al (2009) noted that the deficit has caused difficulties in attracting capital flow because Asian investors who were aware of the US deficit had slowed down the capital flow to US and contributed to devaluing dollar. Thus, it indicated that there is a fundamental imbalance between domestic production and consumption which had become a constraint for future economic growth (Auerbach 2009). 2.4 Devaluation of Dollar According to basic economic theory, a decrease in exchange rates will eventually help to increase exports and stimulate growth in the export sector (Grant and Vidler 2003). However, the depreciating dollar had contributed to cost-push inflation and declining in living standards where consumer goods were more expensive leading to lower spending power of individuals (Bloomberg 2010). Bloomberg (2010) argued that decline in dollar was resulted US to become less competitive compared to its trading partners. 3.0 Consequences of Great Recession Since US went into recession at the end of 2007, it had caused a crisis on economies across the world (Verick and Islam 2010). According to Taylor (2008), middle-incomes countries (especially in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Commomwealth of Independent States) were severely affected (Figure 5), where as low-income countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia were able to grow strongly despite the downturn (Figure 6). Verick and Islam (2010) noted that although most low-income countries have evaded from recession, these countries had experienced a slow growth in economy due to the negative implications for poverty. Lockstein (2010) argued that, in overall, the smaller and more open economies countries had been hit stronger, whereas the larger emerging economies countries could be survived by the supporting from domestic demand and government spending. It had been noted that China and India were able to recover faster from the great recession (Taylor 2009; Verick and Islam 2010). Llaudes, Salman and Chivakul (2010) commented that the great recession had caused various impacts to different countries. Thus, an analytical study on the consequences of great recession towards US and India have stated as below: 3.1 The United States According to Gulzar (2010), the great recession had caused a great impact on US labour market. Laibson (2010) noted that although government had adjusted the inflation rate causing the economy grew 2.2% in 2009 Q3, 5.6% in 2009 Q4, and 2.7% in 2010 Q1, the unemployment rate had stubbornly remained high. The unemployment rate had risen from 9.5% in June 2009 to 10.1% in October 2009, before it felt back to 9.5% in June 2010 (Laibson 2010). Altig (2010) commented that the disconnection between the demand and supply of workers which was reflected in statistics such as the hiring rate, the layoff rate, and the unemployment rate can be expressed by the Beveridge curve (Figure 7). Altig (2010) argued that, with the given average number of job opening in April and May, the unemployed were expected about 10.4 million instead of 15 million as stated in Figure 7. Some analysts have commented that the unemployment benefits policies should responsible for abnormally high unemployment rates (Altig 2010; Gulzar 2010; Verick and Islam 2010). Valletta and Kuang (2010) estimated that extended unemployment benefits may have increased between 0.4% and 1.7% of unemployment rate. Krugman (2010) argued that there is a strong tendency of high unemployment to become permanent because those who have out of work for a long enough periods have become less productive and less competitive in the job market. Ball (cited in Krugman 2010) prompted a problem that high unemployment tend to increase the level of structural unemployment, if there is a weak policy, thus inflation will increase much higher unemployment rates than before. 3.2 India During great recession, India economy was turning down because of Indian companies with big tickets dealing in the US were seeing their profits margin shrinking, and majority of Indian companies have major outsourcing deals with US (Malik and Pandit 2010). According to Alex and Kumar (2009), Indias merchandise has been exported to ASEAN (52%), followed by the EU27 (21%), and the US (13%). However, Malik and Pandit (2010) noted that the global crisis has caused the USs share felt to 11% (March 2009), which was even lower than the United Arab Emirates (13%) (Figure 8). Figure 9 shows that all of the products (except gems and jewellery) were experienced a major contraction during the great recession: petroleum and crude products have the largest contraction (about 45%), whereas agriculture and allied products contracted by 28%, engineering goods exports by 22%, chemical and related products by 9%, and textiles by only 2% (Alex and Kumar 2009). Besides, Indias financial market was hit badly from the great recession where share market was fall, rupee was weakening again dollars, and banks were faced severe cash crunch resulting in shortage of liquidity in the market (Eklavya 2008). Due to Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were the main investors for India, the investors (majority based in US and Europe) had withdrawal their money from Indian Stock Markets to meet their liabilities at their home countries (Mohanty 2009). Alex and Kumar (2009) commented that rupee was lost its strength against dollar when FIIs converted their invested money into dollars. However, India was able to recover faster from the great recession due to Indian Banks were escaped from the ill-effects of subprime mortgage crisis where major Public Sector Banks exercising extremely caution in giving loans to needy people or companies (Eklavya 2008). 4.0 Conclusion In the age of globalisation, every country is affected by the fluctuations of world economy where no country can remains isolated (Eklavya 2008). Thus, great recession has caused a vast impact to the world such as fall in demands, shortage of cash, decreasing growth rate, and high unemployment rate (Taylor 2008; Verick and Islam 2010). On the other hand, recession can help to transform country or businesss outlook for the future (Kurki et al 2009). Although the recession has turned down the growth process, it helps to generate ideas and strategies stimulating the economic growth and maintaining stability of the market in order to become more competitive in the world.

Asian Paints Marketing Strategy

Asian Paints Marketing Strategy Asian Paints is Indias largest paint company and ranked among the top ten Decorative coatings companies in the world with a turnover of INR 66.80 billion. Asian Paints along with its subsidiaries have operations in 17 countries across the world with 23 paint manufacturing facilities, servicing consumers in 65 countries through Berger International, SCIB Paints Egypt, Asian Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. Asian Paints aims to become one of the top five Decorative coatings companies world-wide by leveraging its expertise in the higher growth emerging markets. Simultaneously, the company intends to build long term value in the Industrial coatings business through alliances with established global partners. With Economic performance as objective the organization now has to develop short-term goals to reach the overall objective. These Goals are usually functional target such as production, Sales, new market develop, new product development and technology up gradation, once the goal are determined the strategies can be evolved to meet the goals. The organization is now on the way to achieve the overall objective of Economic (i) Customer Asset : The settings up Asian paints colour world, a chain of state art paint shop, is a major step towards building customer asset. At the same time company is focusing more in rural areas than urban area and continuing to provide good and quality service to the customer. (ii) Technology asset : Asian paint is one of first Indian company to go hi-tech. Asian paint has always kept its competitor at bay by constantly re-innovating its business process and system. (iii) Employee Asset : Asian paint always praise its employee for its success in the market. Company always considers employee as a biggest factor of its success. (iv) Dealer vendor relationship : Asian paint always maintain a close relationship with its dealers because company think that they play a major role in Asian paint recent success. (v) Brand Asset : Although it is operating in the commodity market but still Asian paint is investing heavily in branding. Gattu- Asian paint official mascot is very popular in India. Divisional objective: Asian paint has following division that are as follows: Decorative segment Asian paint is the leader in this segment. It is ahead that its competitor Nerolac and Berger in Decorative segment company still have certain objective for this sector that to increase it sales and to acquire maximum position in the market share in Indian paint market. Objective for decorative segment : To expanding its range in the economy segment. To strengthen its position in the emulsion segment in both exterior and interior emulsion. To continue its strategy of pricing aggression and increase it sales and to gain the market share along with a good operating margin. To focus on the rural market as company believes as it as been its objective since the beginning. To focus more on adcampaign for enhancement of their sales in urban as well as rural market. Industrial segment Asian paint second line of production deals with the industrial coating. The constraint in these segment is that it is not as successful as the decorative segment. In these sector it has to face a stiff competition from its nearest competitor Nerolac and Berger Paints. Objective for Industrial segment : To build new infrastructure in the country for Industrial coating to increase the production capacity. To develop the quality of the product with a higher technological up gradation. To increase the sales of the Industrial coating with the help of proper Ad. campaign programme. Automotive segment : Automotive is the third segment of the Asian paint. It is a product which company target for the automobile market in India as well as abroad. Objective of automotive segment : To put emphasis on continuous improvement in quality and productivity. To put emphasis on detect prevention To reduce variation and wastage in the supply chain Marketing Objective: Asian paints the leader in Indian paint Industry has a very strong marketing division. With more than 35% market share Asian paint is still growing in leaps and bounce to achieve higher targets. It is changing fundamentally with two objective in mind a huge ramp in the market share and better growth over the next three years. Previously company used to function as undifferentiated organization. But now they have divided it into three section each. And each section has its own independent support system, targets and performance parameter. Company marketing objectives are as follows: Asian paint is highly accepted in the urban sector and now the company is trying to access the rural market with low price product like Utsav targeting every customer of all income level. To increase its sales in the urban sector Asian paints today have 30 colour world located in different cities of India where any body can have the real taste of the colour. Online marketing has become an integrated part of the company and company is trying install a strong integrated for online marketing. Asian paints international unit, which have a dedicated marketing team is also targeting for a rapid growth in overseal market. Asian paint is following unlque strategy of marketing in the rural areas by using their official mascot. According to the company it feels that picture are more dominant than name. Asian paint website Asian paints com provides several information regarding the product and various other information that is being required by customer and dea Volumes and Profits : Indian paint industry is less than  ½ of the size of the Chinese paint industry by volume and less than 1/5 of the size of the US paint Industry by volume. In terms of Per capita consumption, the Indian paint industry lags behind the Pakistan and Sri Lankan markets also. Product : Paint Asian paint details with product that is (i) Decorative (ii) Industrial (iii)Automative. The product that this project will deal with will exclusively be decorative pains. Decorative Paints includes the following categories of product EXTERIOR WALLS : Asian Paints offers a range of emulsion paints for your exterior walls such as ACE, Apex, Apex Ultima, Apex Duracast and more, based on the specific demand of surface area. Interior Walls Distempers Distempers offer strong performance to the interior wall surface in terms of protection and adhesion. Tractor Acrylic Distemper, with better durability, is one of the best performing distemper made by Asian Paints. Emulsions Interior emulsions are advanced water based paints with better quality and shade range. Adhesion to wall surface, anti fungal properties and durability is more in emulsions. Enamels Enamels is a premium brand from Asian Paints, it is superior in terms of performance and gives that Perfect Finish for the walls. Competitors : In terms of gross sales we can rank the competitors of Asian paints as : Nerolac paints Berger Paints ICI Paints. In industry they are recognized as trailing firms. But with their high growth in the industry the competitors can touch or even overtake Asian paints, for that the three main competitors have different strategies. Initially one common strategy must be their mind is to increase the market share. Market Size: The market size of the Indian paints sector has been pegged at Rs 170 bn in value terms and is very fragmented. The per capita consumption of paints in India stands at 0.5 kg per annum as compared to 1.6 kgs in China and 22 kgs in the developed economies. Indias share in the world paint market is just 0.6%. The unorganised sector controls around 35% of the paint market, with the organised sector accounting for the balance. In the unorganised segment, there are about 2,000 units having small and medium sized paints manufacturing plants. Top organised players include Asian Paints (30% market share), Kansai Nerolac (20% market share), Berger Paints (19% market share) and ICI (12% market share). Decoratives: Major segments in decoratives include exterior wall paints, interior wall paints, wood finishes and enamel and ancillary products such as primers, putties etc. Decorative paints account for over 75% of the overall paint market in India. Asian Paints is the market leader in this segment. Demand for decorative paints arises from household painting, architectural and other display purposes. Demand in the festive season (September-December) is significant, as compared to other periods. This segment is price sensitive and is a higher margin business as compared to industrial segment. Industrial: Three main segments of the industrial sector include automotive coatings, powder coatings and protective coatings. Kansai Nerolac is the market leader in this segment. User industries for industrial paints include automobiles engineering and consumer durables. The industrial paints segment is far more technology intensive than the decorative segment. Customer Retention Asian Paints Limited, Indias largest paint company, has a reputation for professionalism and fast-track growth. Customers are at the core of all Asian Paints business activities. A simple but unbeatable concept of going where the customer is drives all its major initiatives. The company has an enviable reputation in the corporate world for professionalism, fast-track growth and customer-centricity. The Key Challenges addressed by the company are: A Fresh Approach to the Customer Experience  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Develop a direct link to the customer Standardize sales delivery processes used by Asian Paints Institute an online ordering and accounting system for providers Implement a real-time reporting system for employees and business partner   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Intermediary Retention Industry is characterized by the presence of intermediaries who have a very high influencing power on the purchase decisions of the consumer, especially in the urban areas. Using these intermediaries for initiating demand: The intermediaries (the painters, contractors, designers, decorators etc.) are used as a marketing arm of the company Occupy part of the intermediary space and try to sideline other intermediaries: Asian Paints has opened a service arm, which provides the services provided by the existing intermediaries in the market. Being present in different seditions of the value delivery system and having a strong brand equity in the Paints market would give AP the credibility to operate a strong service arm. The service based strategy of AP could have two different approaches AP could try to reduce the power of the intermediary by increasing the Pull for the product. The role of the influencer could be drastically reduced by increasing the power of the end-consumer. AP can achieve this by establishing a strong brand name for its brands.

Whats Love Got To Do With It? :: Biology Essays Research Papers

What's Love Got To Do With It? "What's love got to do with it? What's love, but a second hand emotion?" -Tina Turner Tina Turner, along many artists before and after her, has written songs about love, but what is love? Why do people say they see fireworks when they fall in love? Why do your knees go weak, your palms sweat, your stomach does flip-flops and you begin to stammer when you fall in love? What is it about emotions, including love that seems to effect your entire body, both mentally and physically? Everyday, people talk about feeling happy, feeling sad, feeling anxious...and so on, but what causes emotions, in particular, what causes someone to say they are in love? Yes, even a simple sentence such as "I love you" has to be encoded in a specific neurochemical process to exert its effect on the person who gets to hear it. Much of the control mechanism for our emotions rests with neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that act at the points where nerve cells connect with each other. The prevalence, or the presence or absence of specific amounts of neurotransmitters, as well as the density of receptor sites for specific neurotransmitters at nerve endings, will control to a wide extend the emotions to which we are subject (6). Pheromones are natural scents, which play an important role in sexual communication. Animals and humans release masses of biological chemicals in tears, saliva and perspiration. These aromas convey signals relating to mood, status, drive and health to the subconscious awareness of the female. The dominant male will exude more of these biological attractants than his submissive counterpart, consequently he inevitably attracts more females and enjoys more conquests. This philosophy holds well in the animal world, pheromones are consciously detected over considerable distances and serve at times in place of spoken communication. They help animals mark territory, recognize mates, and signal sexual interest. For example, female dogs in heat leave their pheromone and can attract male dogs over a mile away (5). Also, involved in chemistry are dopamine and norepinephrine, chemical cousins of amphetamines. Dopamine, a neurochemical released by PEA, makes us feel good.(1) A recent study done at Emory University shows that female voles (small rodents) choose their mates in response to dopamine being released in their brains. When injected with dopamine in a male vole's presence, the female will pick him out of a crowd later.

Odysseus :: essays research papers

Odysseus is a hero of all times thanks to Homer who wrote his story in The Odyssey. Odysseus is a hero in his on time because of all his adventures and characteristics. Homer wrote about the Trojan War, in which Odysseus took part in, in the Iliad, and about Odysseus’ long journey home in, The Odyssey. There have been theories that suggest that Homer was illiterate and could not have possibly recited poems of these lengths by memory, and that they were put together much later on and added to. However, there is evidence that a city, possible Troy, existed and was destroyed. Also there was a kingdom of Ithica which allows for a king Odysseus. Even if the King did not go to the war there was still a chance that he might have existed. In the Odyssey, Homer used a narrative structure to tell his stories. The original texts were wrote on papyrus scrolls and it is theorized that these scrolls each told a chapter in Homers plays. The modern version of The Odyssey is a combination of all these scrolls that could have existed as separate stories about Odysseus’ travels, his encounters, and how he obtained his status as a hero. Ancient Greece has always been an interest of mine. In 6th grade a teacher that I had know for my whole schooling showed a movie every week. One week we watched â€Å"Jason and the Argonaughts†. Ever since then I could never get enough Greek mythology. In freshman year of high school we read the annotated text book version of The Odyssey. Lucky for me, I transferred English classes at the semester and I was able to read The Odyssey twice. And since then Odysseus has been a hero to me. The story starts in book 9, Odysseus telling his story to the King of Phaeaica. They sacked a city then sailed away when faced with opposing force. Next, they landed on the island of the lotus-eaters. After Odysseus pried his crew away from the lotus-eaters, they landed on the island of the Cyclops. Here is where Odysseus displays all his heroic qualities. Odysseus picked twelve of the best warriors from his crew to accompany him on the visit to the Cyclops, Polyphemus, and son of the god that shakes the Earth, Poseidon. Polyphemus takes Odysseus captive and proceeds to eat his warriors for meals. Odysseus dreams up an ingenious plan.

A coffee shop

Of all places in our neighborhood, the local coffee shop located just a few steps away from my house is the coziest little nook where one can spend the night.With a stylish interior, warm and friendly atmosphere and a diverse and quiet public, it is the place to have a chat with friends or pick up a cup on the way to work. The character of the place makes it the focus of the neighborhood, the hub that binds the whole area together in a casual and intimate setting.1. InteriorWhen one walks in from a busy, hustled street, the first thing that strikes the eye is the somewhat subdued interior with its dark colors and quiet tones. The curtains on the windows keep the light out, making the inside of the shop look shady. A ray of light falls on the counter, playing on the long row of tubs with all kinds of coffee brands and types.To the left are little tables with customers seated at them, sipping their morning coffee in anticipation of a long working day. Although the furniture in the stor e is not new, it retains an elegant look thanks to its good quality, adding an impressive touch to the atmosphere.2. AtmosphereThis is the best place to get coffee in the area, and variety of coffee assortment strikes every visitor. The air is filled with an incredible number of coffee aromas mingled in an unforgettable mixture of nuances. Coffee smells infuse the air, flowing out into the street and mixing with the fresh morning air so that every passer-by even with the eyes closed can say that it is a coffee shop located in the street.The strong smell attracts the visitors into the store, making them expect excellent coffee. At the entrance, one can hear the sounds of busy work as shop assistants rush back and forward packing the coffee, brewing the drink for their clients, and pouring it into steaming cups. The sounds of talking, cups lifted off plates, and assistants working create a lively and energetic atmosphere that in itself helps those fighting with the rest of sleep wake up and brace themselves for the long working day.3. PublicThe people in the shop are from all layers of society. One can see employees from different companies hurrying to their working places, and a few housewives getting coffee for their families. Many seem to know each other and exchange greetings so that the whole place is filled with cheerful, energetic voices. This makes more noise, but since most people are speaking in a quiet manner, it is still comfortable and does not disturb the visitors. It is one of the places where people come for the atmosphere that bonds them together and helps newcomers meet people that live around.ConclusionThe little coffee shop at the corner is an excellent place to start the day, which makes it central to the neighborhood. All sorts of people living around visit it regularly to meet friends and begin their day with a cup of coffee in the circle of friends rather than alone in their kitchens. This makes it a great place and attracts the whole com munity to the area where they can take a break from their daily routines and inhale the aromatic drink with the magic awakening effect.