Formal report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Formal report - Assignment Example This study was limited to the evaluation of the effectiveness of Ace distributors’ salespeople. This study was also restricted to dealers operating in three major retail areas, including New York, Chicago, and Dallas. These dealers were selected randomly, and included those from the five leading brands of television in the country, including Todd Manufacturing Company; Apco, Incorporated: Davis Manufacturing Company; and Barr Industries, Incorporated, and Ace Manufacturing. This study may be limited through the insufficient time for doing the work. The scope of this study was wide; hence sufficient time was required for accurate completion of the study. In addition, the topic of study was wide; hence the aspect of subjectivity might have been introduced in the study, and some areas in the scope of the study might have been left out. Furthermore, this study adopted the use of questionnaires as the main data collection instrument in conducting the survey. Since questionnaires must generally be brief, areas that may have influenced effectiveness of distributors’ salespeople may not have been included in the questionnaire. The main goal of this report is to show the effectiveness of Ace distributors’ salespeople. It has become important for the company to launch investigations into the effectiveness of the salespeople, owing to the poor performance of the company in the last three years. Prior to these last three years, the company Ace Manufacturing ranked the top in all the five leading home television brands in the country. However, in the last three years, the performance of this company has dropped, as it currently ranks at position three. The sales activities of a company are key to its performance in the market. On the other hand, the salespeople involved with a company’s sales of products have a direct

(Hitchcock, Shadow of a Doubt (1942), Hitchcock, Strangers on a Train Essay

(Hitchcock, Shadow of a Doubt (1942), Hitchcock, Strangers on a Train (1951)and Hitchcock, The Lady Vanishes) - Essay Example In his career he pioneered a number of techniques that improved the quality of films in the psychological thriller and suspense genres (Bays). Over six decades, Hitchcock directed over fifty feature films both at the British cinema and in Hollywood. This does not mean that his career was smooth all the way in fact most of his first films did not do so well. According to Donald Spoto (1976), Hitchcock’s first seventeen films did not receive much recognition as they were more of historical curiosities (8). In Donald’s text he indicates that Hitchcock’s career took a leap for the better starting from 1935, which saw him produce and direct great pieces of art (Spoto 9). Throughout his career he produced a wide range of remarkable films. It would take a long time if one was to analyze all the best films by Hitchcock. However, for the purpose of this essay we get to analyze three of his best classics. This includes the 1942 Shadow of a Doubt followed by the 1951 Strang ers on a Train and the 1938 The lady vanishes. These great films were shot using unique styles that captures the viewers’ attention leading into a lot of suspense, mystery and admiration for the good work. The interesting part with Hitchcock is that for each composition and scene in the films, he knew who to work with for him to produce the best results. He went to the extent of seeking German and British technicians just to get the right image and the perfect shot. The German technicians helped him bring out unique techniques such as bring in the right â€Å"silent shrieks†, expressionist lighting, angular shadows and disturbing mirror reflections (Spoto 29). Some of his famous contributions to the film industry also include the feel of â€Å"voyeurism†; a technique where the camera’s movement imitates a person’s gaze and thus engaging the viewer more to the scenes (Bays, n. p.). Shadow of a Doubt is one of Hitchcock’s’ great masterp iece, shot in 1943 the films themes revolved around psychological thriller a genre in which most of his movies were categorized. After gaining a positive audience and a grand reception for the film all over the nation; the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Story category. In 1991, the US national Film Registry selected to be part of the Library of Congress as its theme portrayed historical and cultural significance (McDevitt and Juan 158). The movie features a grand opening image which involves a perfect synchronization scene of a couple twirling with Merry Widow Waltz in the background. Perfection in the image goes on throughout the film with other outstanding scenes such as detective strides flawlessly matching with the background music as uncle Charlie is being trailed (McLaughin 147). Shadow of a Doubt’s features such as the beautiful filming and suggestive lighting all portray the stunning advances of style and technique by Hitchcock. The director creat es amazing camera angles that form unparalleled portrayal of emotion in the characters. Using sharp editing and camera close-ups, Hitchcock gives an emphasis on Uncle Charlie’s sinister nature in the scene where Uncle Charlie and Charlotte have dinner and Charlotte behaves in an erratic manner. As a psychological thr

Rusell’s Theory of Reference Essay Example for Free

Rusell’s Theory of Reference Essay Language is very powerful. It can isolate one individual or allowed it to communicate with other people. We acquire a lot of skills and knowledge through the use of language. We used language for cultural adaptation. Some thinkers would just put it that way, accept language as part of our mundane existence, while others were engrossed on it. More than its social significance one cannot deny that language is important to the discourse of man thus some scholars put much value on the power of language in solving the puzzles in life. The structure of language became a preoccupation not just by linguistics but even by philosophy. It is the hope of philosophy in untangling the mess on the previous era. But before one would even speak of solving puzzles, s/he is already caught in the question as to what is the connection of language to the real world? Is there a world outside the rules of language? With that we begin to digest the underlying themes and issues in the development of philosophy of language. One of the issues concerning philosophers of language is, in what way can language represent the world. Moreover, do names pertains to the things themselves, as we experienced them? Is our description of the world the exact replica of the world? These are questions that not only Philosophy of language discussed but even those interested in metaphysics. If during the time of Descartes, philosophers are preoccupied with the debate between realism and idealism, in looking at the philosophy of language one can see that this debate did not die out but was transformed into a more investigative one such that scholars do not only discuss the world outside our representation of it, but also the connection between words, thoughts, meanings, reality and truth. In tracing the development of philosophy, one could conclude that philosophy undergone three stages; at first, ancient philosophers such as Parmenides and Heraclitus were concern about the world of world (or cosmos),second stage is the world of ideas, were the interest of thinkers includes, the dichotomy between the body and the mind, or of reality and ideas, and lastly is the world of language, were philosophers recognized the muddles of philosophy in the past particularly in the branch of metaphysics is due to the problems in language. How can one expressed or represent the world through language? Are the meanings we associate with the words have something to do with reality? It is in this light that logic was employed by some thinkers in trying to explain the connection of words with the thing itself. Does the word ‘chicken’ for instance pertains to something out there? Are the two thing the same or independent with each other? These will be explored in the succeeding parts focusing specifically on the theory of reference by Bertrand Russell coupled with the reaction of his protege Ludwig Wittgenstein. These two analytical philosophers became very influential that Time magazine(2003) even considered them as two of the 100 most important people of the Century. At first, the theory of reference must be clarified. What do the philosophers such as Russell mean by â€Å"reference? † Reference pertains to the relation derived from the expression and what the person used to talk about such expression (Reimer: 2003). The major question is in what way words can refer? Or what are the rules in referring? This concern about reference is also in relation to truth and meaning. Russell, considered as a descriptivist, believed in the description theory whereby proper name do â€Å"refers† because of the descriptive content associated with it by the speaker (Reimer: 2003). However he also clarified that proper names can vary from one speaker to another. For example, Peter (one person) may be called by someone as her son, and husband by another. As opposed to Frege, Russell go further in explaining that definite descriptions are not really referring expressions because they are not â€Å"logically proper names (Ibid). † In his collaboration with Whitehead, Russell developed his ideas that mathematical truths can be translated to logical truths. This reduction of Logic to Mathematics is known as Logicism. Maybe one would asked, why is there a need for this? Russell together with Whitehead wanted to provide solution in the difficulties of language which is why they look at the possibility that formal rules of logic could help solve the problem. This new tradition in Philosophy marked the attitude of a philosopher in understanding the world by knowing the opportunities and limitations impinge on us by language. Rusell became known in analytical philosophy also because of his theory of logical atomism (Klement:2005). This was derived or grew from the initial collaboration with Whitehead. According to this view, all truths are dependent upon layer of atomic facts (Ibid). He proposed that elements of certain theories be breakdown into simple forms (â€Å"atoms†). Russell’s idea also suggests that atomic propositions are logically independent with each other. Logical atomism is possible when formal logic provides the rules by which we can translate ideal language into their simple, atomic facts and put them in a meaningful context. Upon seeing Russell’s discussion, one of the greatest analytic philosopher has also something say about logic and about reference in relation to truth. The Early Wittgenstein ( He was called as such because the later Wittgenstein in the Philosophical Investigation totally abandoned his assumptions in this early writing), published his known book, Tractatus Logico-Philosopicus which became an a logical piece which explains the metaphysical world. This book was closely linked with Bertrand Russell’s philosophy because it tries to continue some of his ideas and at the same time serve as a reaction to it. The book basically address the problem of the world and language in philosophy. Wittgenstein (1922) believed that the world is represented by thought. His conception of the world is different with the logical atomists in a way that he believed it is made up of facts instead of objects. Wittgenstein’s idea of the world is unique because he considered thoughts and propositions as pictures of the world. Wittgenstein’s investigation in the Tractatus serves to find the limits of the world, thought and language (Ibid). As a consequence of this, he believed that one can only represents through meaningful propositions factual state of affairs that are capable of being pictured. Although he made it clear that the pictorial representations of the world show themselves through logical propositions but they cannot be said. Language therefore serve its function in showing or picturing this facts. Facts according to him are constructed in complex one thus making what one called the ‘world. ’ It must be said that in the Ordinary language tradition, a different Wittgenstein, proposed philosophical investigations with ordinary language and not some theory still trapped within the muddles of philosophy. Wittgenstein for instance would say, that instead of worrying yourself about the meaning of life and trying to look for some explanations (either logical or theological), one should understand how does s/he lives her/his life and is s/he happy in the process. Also in the latter Wittgenstein it was shown his theory the need for individuals to speak the same language. This was advanced in his idea on â€Å"language games’ whereby, if one would look the world, one would realized that there are various use and context of language. That an individual before engaging into the language game should first need to know the rules to be in context. This view is quiet similar to Austin’s theory in the Philosophy of Language entitled, â€Å"How to do things with Words. In as much as it is interesting to discussed the ordinary language theory in detail as part of the analytic tradition, it would be systematic to go back to the discussion of analytical philosophy in general. Going back to Russell’s theory, its contribution to analytic philosophy is that it became an offshoot for the development Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus that further lead to other strands of analytic philosophy. Based from the previous discussion one would realized why analytical philosophy is linked with philosophy of language. Some accounts also called analytical philosophy as ordinary language philosophy but not all thinkers are comfortable to used the terms interchangeably . Russell and Wittgenstein tried to solve some of the problems in philosophy by using logical analysis that would analyze the role of language to reality. The used of language will able the thinkers to solve philosophical problems. This was explicitly mentioned by Wittgenstein in the Tractatus, â€Å"the limits of my language means the limits of my world. † As an overview of the Analytical philosophy, the individual must realized that even though some philosophers adhere to the need for formal and logical analysis, others prefer to used ordinary language theory. Within the Analytic tradition there are various forms such as logical positivism, logical atomism, and ordinary language philosophy. Philosophers are even divided based on these strands. We can only hope that maybe in the future language could provide meanings that would enlighten us in our search for knowledge.

Hewlett Packard Company | Analysis

Hewlett Packard Company | Analysis Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) is one of the worlds largest information and technology (IT) companies. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939. Both of them established Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Packards garage which located in Palo Alto, California, USA. First and the foremost, HP is a worlds leading PC manufacturer. The creation of these new technologies had brings us a more meaningful impact for the community. This company had offered many products, technologies, software, solution and service for customers, small and medium size of businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises which encompass those customers in the education, government and health sectors. Besides, HP also famous in manufacturing and developing computers, data storage, networking hardware and designing software and sending service. The major product line for the company include those personal computing devices, related storage devices, enterprise servers and also a number of printers and other imaging which was related to the products and services. Moreover, the company also makes their profits by markets their products via online distribution, consumer-electronics and office-supply retailers to the household, small to medium size business and enterprise. Planning process is very important step for HP Company in order to achieve their goal. They had clarified their strength, weakness, opportunities and threat to reinforce their company as well. One of the strategies that used by the company is growth strategy. They expand their markets served and products offered by absorbed others company technologies to enhance their own products. For example, HP has added a Palm and a mobile operating which known as webOS to its electric device. These technologies had brought HP products become a much better and quality products. Therefore, HP had successfully build an extra value compare to others manufacturer because they had cooperated with the popular branded speakers company which are ALTEC LANSING and BEATS studio. Furthermore, they also used some of the competitive strategy in their company to compete their business with other organization. For example, although HP Company has many competitors such as Acer, Dell, Asus and more, but they still can survive until nowadays. One of the factors is because they have their own competitive strategy among each of their organization. Hence, this reason which had made the HP Company becomes a worldwide information and technology company. Content Definition of SWOT ANALYSIS SWOT analysis is a most useful of business analysis. SWOT analysis is an instrument for assessing an organization and its environment. SWOT analysis is a usually used technique through which managers produce a quick impression of an organizations strategic situation. SWOT analysis is the first step of planning; it helps managers to focus on key issues. A SWOT surveys and measures the influences of internal and external on the success of the subject of analysis. SWOT stands for strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T). In SWOT, strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, opportunities and threats are external factors. A good SWOT can maximize a firms strengths and opportunities; and also can minimize its weaknesses and threats. SWOT Analysis of Hewlett-Packard Company The HP or Hewlett-Packard Company is one of the biggest computer companies in the world. In 1939, it was established by William Hewlett and David Packard. Hewlett-Packard Company delivers hardware, software, solutions and services. Hewlett Packard also has a strong market position in the IT market. The biggest competitor of Hewlett-Packard Company is Dell Company. Hewlett-Packard wrested market leadership from Dell Company in the global PC market in 2006 and managed to sustain it in 2007.Higher market position in different market sections increase the brand image of the company and also offers economies of scale in attaining. The company faces intense competition across all business segments in terms of price, brand, quality, character, technology, range and distribution of their products. Strengths of HP Company One of the strengths of HP is it has a strong market position. After HP and Compaq announced to merger On September 3, 2001, HP became the worlds most big computer hardware and peripheral company all around the world. There have many benefits to HP being a large company such as leading positions in market of IT services, management software, PCs, storage and printers. Especially printer market, 40% market share of HP proofed that its domination the global printer market. This merger also helps HP made a high profit $87 Billion of Global Technology Leader. The other strength is that it provides its products and service into more than 170 countries including the undeveloped and the developed nations. In 2008 HP is acquiring EDS Inc. The next strength of HP is always having excellent products portfolio diversification. Furthermore, in this decade HP has been focused on the customer service market. HP Enterprise Customer Services provides efficient, effective services to customers all around the world. For instance HP Enterprise Customer Services having Consumer Direct Service, Customer Engagement Management Services- Contact Central, Customer Engagement Management Services- Transformation and Warranty Service. This might benefit to recruit, retain and reward customer.   Moreover, HP in recently years is performed on Environmental Programs to reduce the environment impact of its technology products. The Environmental Programs have include SmartWay, HPs Eco Highlights Labeling system, Design for Environment (DfE), HPs Planet Partners Recycler Program, HPs Hardware Return and Recycling Program, Change the World campaign, and Unlock your Energy. For instance, HPs Planet Partners Recycling Program is used to recycle printing supplies, computer equipment, batteries, and other items. Due to the program above HP have provide HPs computer take back service in some countries such as United State, Canada, Brazil, Australia, most of the Europe countries, some Asia Pacific and Latin America countries. In 2010, HP successfully manufactured over 310 million HP LaserJet and ink cartridges that contained content from their closed-loop recycling process. Furthermore, the other strength of HP is their business culture. They highlight innovation (Silicon Valleys innovation model- Top executives mingled with lower-level employees to discover fresh ideas) as a key element of its business culture and as a driver of its success. HP put more effort on research and development to design and developing products, solutions and services that foresee the market changing needs, desires, and emerging technological trends. HP Labs is one of their Corporate Investments segment. HP also spending a larger amount of financial plan on the research and development than others competitors. For instance, in fiscal 2011HP expenditures $3.3 billion for research and development. Weaknesses of HP Company One of the weaknesses of HP is high debt level. In this decade, HP has a high risk of debt level compare to the others competitive company like Dell. From the HP debt to equity ratio data shown that HP was reached the highest value 0.9292 in this July 31, 2012. Debt to equity ratio is a leverage ratio to indicate the comparative amount of shareholders equity and debt used to finance a companys property. It shows how the company has financed its property. A high debt equity ratio express that the company has been aggressive in their financing growth with debt and it results in volatile earning. HP made wrong decide on acquisition for the company. In the first decade of the millennium, HP had made some acquisitions like merger with Compaq, Mercury Interactive, Electronic Data Systems Corp and more recently, Autonomy, the enterprise software company. Since 2001 HP has been spent more than $67 billion on acquisitions, which data according to Jayson Noland, a Robert W. Baird and Company analyst. That was approximately double HP current market value of $38 billion. They buy at least a company a month, and they have struggled to get this right, Mr. Noland said. For example, in 2010 HP was purchased Palm with $1.2 billion. One year later, HP announced to close up its webOS device business which is Palms mobile operating system. Opportunities of HP Company Focusing on emerging technologies-In this modern world, Hewlett Packard Company has introduced new digital printing technologies on the part of its graphic arts offering. There is a full wireless HP Photosmart printer line-up. There are HP Indigo presses, HP Inkjet Web Press and HP Latex Inks. In 2010, Since Hewlett Packard launched this technology, theirs sales is rapidly increasing because the digital printing technologies are suitable for students or officers using. It also provides the consumer to print out the picture and information in the less time. Developed imaging and printing solutions segments- Hewlett Packard has launched more 150 products and services in the IT market. After that, Hewlett also has created some strategic to purchase competitor and introduced new products in the imaging solutions segment. The imaging and printing solutions provides consumers to print out and personalize their picture. There are industrial applications, outdoor signage and graphic arts. Hewlett Packard also purchases Tabblo, Logoworks, MacDermid and ColorSpan as their acquisitions. After they purchased the competitor, they would improve theirs products and services from the benefits of the acquisitions. The imaging and printing solutions strategy enter to the commercial markets from print services solutions to new growth opportunities in commercial printing and focusing high-value pages in some regions. Higher market position in the global-There are many competitor started to enter the IT market. In addition, Hewlett Packard started to expand theirs business to other countries, for examples, BRIC countries. They set up many contact centres in others countries because they can easy control their product lines and get closer to the consumer. In July 2008, Hewlett Packard, Intel Company and Yahoo produced a worldwide, multi-data centre, open source test bed on cloud computing study and training. Cloud computing is a new delivery model for IT services. The achievement of the projects is to remove the financial and logistical problem and build up the relationship of manufacturing, government and college. In this coming years, the growing demand for cloud computing is expected to build demand for HPs solutions. Threats of HP Company Higher competitive in the market share-The biggest competitor of Hewlett Packard is Dell. In this few years, the sales of Hewlett Packard are more than Dell. However, Hewlett Packard also kept fully to expand theirs business. Hewlett also obtain the most up to date company information available. In addition, there are also some competitors for example Toshiba, Lenova Group and Aver. This all competitor in IT market competes in terms of quality, brand, price, technology, reputation, distribution and range of product. In addition, the competitors also face competition from local companies and from generically-branded or white box manufacturers.The printing and computing markets are hyper-competitive. Some nimble competitor will offer lower prices than Hewlett Packard; it will direct affect the sales products of Hewlett Packard. Demands of Hewlett Packard decreases and Economic problem- Since many competitors enter to IT market, the sales of Hewlett Packard Company started to decrease. Shortage of the product sales will cause Hewlett Packard get low profitability. Some forecasters also predict there have a decrease in the worldwide demand for some IT products offered by Hewlett Packard Company. In addition, there are many market segments has affected by the economic recession. It also affected the information technology. Not only in the U.S has been affected, Hewlett Packard also has experienced this decline in its global markets. In 2009, worldwide spending of IT market also decreased by 4% and above. Threats of cloud computing-Cybercriminals always are the first to capture the latest internet innovation. Cloud computing also becomes their main target. The threat lies in cybercriminals ability to penetrate cloud providers webs and run bot-nets that can inflict destruction within a cloud service. So that, shared technologies mean shared risk. The greatest case of shared technologies used in cloud computing is Virtualisation technologies. It provides multiple companies to shares assets and information across a piece of hardware, thereby decrease the costs. Unfortunately, it also become a way of data can get into the wrong hand. Question A. In May, 2002, Hewlett-Packard merger with Compaq Computer Corporation to increase their asset and then on May, 2008 HP take acquisition of EDS (Electronic Data System). This acquisition leads to HP having the combined revenues of 118.4 billion US dollars in 2008 and became rank 9 in Fortune 500 in 2009. At November 2009, HP announced that they had purchase 3Com Inc. This acquisition said to be large in term of takeovers and acquisitions of technology giants to help them become one-stop series shops. After that, in 2010, HP won in a bidding war for 3PAR Inc. which their competitor declined to match. 3PAR Inc. is a manufacturer of systems and software for data storage and information management. This manufacturer helps HP develop and modify their IT products. In the same year, HP announced the buyout of Palm Inc. The Palm Inc. originally was bidding by HTC, Dell, RIM and HP. Finally, HP won the bidding by using 1.2 billion in cash and debt. This addition of Palm brings HP library of valuable patents such as the webOS operating platform and it also. This operating platform has enable HP to develop tablet devices. HP TouchPad, HP first developed tablet had launched at 1 July 2011. This TouchPad is using the webOS as the operating platform and tablet had been said that it works beautifully, and conveys far more information than the iPad 2, in the magazine of The New York Times. This tablet had brought a new challenge to Apples product. B. According to the annual financial reports of HP, their profit decline 31% in the second quarter of 2012. The decline of the profit is because of the growing of the tablet and smart phones or others mobile devices. HP has limited types or series of product and their product is less creativity due to their stability strategy. Their sales will continuous to drop if they still do not develop and launch some new products. Somehow, their main competitors Samsung electronics will replace their places in the computer industry and Greenpeaces Guide. This 2 list ranks the electronics manufacturers according to their policies on sustainability, energy and climate and green products. Samsung electronics grows rapidly and they develop their product in a very vigorous speed, for example their smart phones Galaxy S2 and SIII. Samsung has also established a prominent position in the tablet market, by release the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab. Furthermore, nowadays, the material prices becom e unstable all the times, HP would face the problem thats they need to purchase expensive material to manufacture their products. Once they using more expensive material to manufacture their product, they will be forced to mark up their products prices in order to cover back their cost as well. They would facing their market share would be decrease and their sales will be decreases also, they will not making many profit and at last they would face their company going bankrupt like Nokia now. Findings After HP merger with Compaq, HP became the world largest computer hardware and has a strong market position. This proves that the decision of merging is correct. The method HP used to make decision is known as Decision-Accelerator, which speeds up strategy implementation (i.e. execution) process. (M.Z. Deone, 2007). Decision-accelerator would emphasis on speed and efficiency. Minimizing waste and drive toward outcomes are always reviewed by the facilitators during meeting. The objective is union of ideas with least divergence instead of having deep and durable commitment. Therefore, it is suitable for those senior level or top-level manager when resolving differences and implementing large, complicated strategic initiatives. However, there are the bad side of Decision-Accelerator. It deals with hard-core decisions and involves limited creativity. Due to acquisitions with other company and improving operations in laptop PCs, Mark Hurd, the CEO of HP, need to cut down 10% of workforce. But at the end, HP did dominate the global printer market successfully.Top of ForBottom of Form HP Company has its own unique culture which is known as HP way. It is a standard of manners that emphasized innovation and most of the engineers would like to work on it. This is because HP respect and trust each individual who are working within the organization. (D.E Kimberly, 2012)Furthermore, flat management hierarchy is used by the company. By using this hierarchy, layers of middle management that give slow productivity can be eliminated and speed up the work. Employees are also allowed to decide how to their own work based on their creativity. Therefore, this culture enables HP to compete with other competitor such as Dell. In 2011, HP wiped off $3.3 billion to cover the closing up of the webOS business which is used on mobile operating system. This is because there is less customer and developer interest. WebOS was developed in about nine month and claimed that company took some shortcut from the concept to creation. According to Mr. Mercer who is recruited by Palm from Apple, fewer programmers are willing to understand webKit and most of the top talent are snatched up by Apple and Google. [1] (X.C Brian, 2012) Therefore, a detailed planning is very important for a business. A company should know the market trend and the real usage of the IT product before launching. WebOS is an operating system built on the same technology used by many web browsers. Instead of applying it on mobile, it is advised to be applied on forensic tools. Large amount of information can be extracted from the system partition of webOS devices. This information includes call logs, SMS, e-mail communications, and other Web browsin g activities. Besides, deleted items could be recovered through this operating system. (C.Eoghan, 2011) As recommendation, HP can increase their sales or profit by decreasing their advertising investments. As we known, advertising would increase their company expanses and hence they need to increase their cost for their product. When they increased their cost of the product, they need to mark up the market price to cover back the cost or they will have low profit. This is because large amounts of advertising investments will lead up with the drastic decrease in the size of the domestic market and it further increase the company dependency on the home market depend on the crisis. (Harrigan, 2001) HP would increase their risk when they mark up their marketing price because their competitor will sales out their product which having the same spec with HPs product with lower price. Somehow, they will increase their competitor fame because of the low selling price of the product. Although HP decreases the advertising investments, it is not represent that their sales would drop. They could us e some low cost advertising ways such like advertise through facebook or electronic devices. By this way, they could advertise their product and also wont increase their products cost.

Homers The Odyssey :: Analysis Odyssey

I. Preliminary Information A. The name of the book I read is The Odyssey Translated by W.H.D. Rouse. B. The author of the book is Homer. C. The name of the book's publisher is New American Library. The novel was published in New York City. D. This book was published in August 1999. The original year is not known. E. The edition of this book is Signet Classic. F. The book's translator is W.H.D. Rouse. G. This novel has 271 pages. H. This book is a work of non-fiction. II. Book's Contents A. Fiction B. Non-fiction 1. The general topic of the book is Odysseus trying to get home and people mourning over his absence for twenty years. No one in Ithaca has seen or heard from him. His wife, Penelopeia, and his son, Telemachos, are worried. Since it has been so long, every man in the city is now wooing Penelopeia. 2. The main characters in the novel, The Odyssey, are Odysseus, a man who left his home and family to go fight in Troy and never returned home for twenty years, because of a series of misfortunes. Telemachos, Odysseus's son, who finally, after twenty years, decided to sail the sea in search of anyone who may know anything about his father. Also, there is Penelopeia, Odysseus's wife, who has been waiting for him all this time. Her heart is full of pain and sorrow and all of the men are wooing her for her hand in marriage. There are also several kings who play a part in this novel. They are King Nestor, King Alcinoos, and King Menelaos. Lastly, one of the minor, but still important characters is the swineherd, whom let Odysseus stay in his home when he returned from his long and tiring journey. 3. The chief place in which the novel's actions occur is in Ithaca. Some other places in which actions take place are the Island of Aeaea, Island of the Sirens, and the Island of Helios.

Schindlers lost Essay -- essays research papers

Shindler's List Schindlers List "Memory is all we have, and when the memories are dreadful- when they hold images of the pain we have suffered or, perhaps inflicted- they are what we are try to escape" (Corliss 110). Steven Spielberg captures the audience in this critically acclaimed movie about the Holocaust. Schindlers List is a movie made to induce the mind into the unknown, the horrors of World War II. David Ansen states "Schindlers List plunges us into the nightmare of the Holocaust with newsreel-like urgency- and amazing restraint" (Newsweek 113). Spielberg brings out all emotions in recapturing this monstrous time period. Schindlers List is about Oskar Schindler, a German Nazi who uses the Jews to make money off the war. At the beginning of the movie Schindler is portrayed as a womanizer, gambler, and heavy drinker. He becomes friends with some top Nazi officials to better himself. As the movie progresses Schindler begins to produce war materials using the Jews as a labor force. As he sits back and watches the various actions of the Nazis he begins to question his morals. His accountant, Itzhak Stern, begins making a list of around 1200 Jews. These Jews were to come and work in Schindlers' factory. When Germany surrendered all of the Nazis were to be hunted. Many Jews thanked him and all of the workers wrote a letter explaining Schindlers' actions. Also, a gold ring was given to him inscribed, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire" (Talmud). Schindler said good-bye to his workers and fled. Only now the Jews are liberated to have nowhere to go and nowhere to leave. Many great directors concentrate on dialogue, scenery, and plat; however, Spielberg stresses the importance of camera angles and the effect of black and white film, scenes and characters, on viewers in Schindlers List. With his outstanding work on camera angles, Steven Spielberg holds the audience at breath while waiting for the next scene. Spielberg uses a hand held came ra to grasp the effects. David Denby explains how the use of a handheld camera is much more accurate. "The camera keeps moving [†¦] moving fast, chasing corners and up stairways [†¦]." Spielberg makes the movie look "like and advertent look of newsreel footage" (1282). Life magazine quoted Spielberg discussing the image of Amon Goeth sunbathing. A man named Raymon... ...s that there is mass murdering going on. By looking on the walls at the shadows, the sights seen are atrocious. These shadows came from the black and white color of the film. So what caused the Holocaust? Many agree the main factor was indifference. "Schindler's List is about the triumph of the human spirit over sadism and degradation, indifference and silence" (Rader 6). Oskar Schindler saved 1200 Jews. Today more than 6000 Jews are descendants of the Schindler Jews. Spielberg ends the movie with the Schindler Jews placing stones on Schindler's grave. The movie is now in color to remind the audience that there is still mourning going on for the Holocaust victims. Someone who was dedicated to recreating an awful historical event could only do this movie. Steven Spielberg, a Jew himself, never believed he could make it through the movie. He too believed that the black and white made the movie easier to bear with, and gave it a more realistic viewpoint. "The movie en ds with the final message "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire." This message is true. Spielberg has constructed this movie as an educational film, so that it may never happen again.

Alibaba: Competing in China and Beyond Essay

1. Introduction In this paper, we will talk about the most successful and famous e-commerce company in China: Alibaba Group about its competition strategies and its future moving. Alibaba Group was founded by Ma Yun (Jack) and the other 17 people in 1999 in Hangzhou. Jack wants to make the Internet become a universal, safe and reliable tool that would benefit the public. Alibaba Group now is holding by private, it has more than 70 offices in Greater China, Singapore, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, with more than 20,400 employees. 2. History and Development of Alibaba In 1999, Alibaba was formally established in Hangzhou and it financed from Softbank, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments and other U.S. investment agencies for about 25 million dollars. Three years later, Alibaba’s B2B become profitable. In 2003, China’s first personal e-commerce site Taobao was established by Alibaba, in the same time, it also published the online payment system-Alipay to support their B2B and C2C business. In 2005, Alibaba established a strategic partnership with Yahoo USA; meanwhile, it was in charge of Yahoo China. In 2007, Alibaba founded the business management software company: Ali Software, and Alibaba.com Limited IPO in  Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In 2009, Alibaba Cloud Computing established, later in 2010, Taobao Mall started an independent domain name Tmall.com and it became Alibaba’s B2C service website which is focus on quality goods sales. In 2012, Alibaba Group has completed the initial share buyback and restructure the relationsh ip with Yahoo, while, Alibaba.com Limited officially delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Chart 2.1 Overview of Alibaba Group 3. Alibaba’s competition advantages 3.1 Biggest market share of E-commerce in China We can see from the charts, till the end of 2013, Alibaba has owned the biggest market share in B2B, B2C, C2C and online-payment service. It has already became the top one e-commerce company in China. Chart 3.1.1 China B2B Market in 2013 Chart 3.1.2 China B2C Market in 2013 Source: http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/ Chart 3.1.3 China C2C Market Share Chart 3.1.4 China Online Payment Market Share Source: www.NBweekly.com & http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/ 3.2 The largest B2B, B2C and C2C website Alibaba is the world’s largest provider of online trading, and the world’s largest business forum. To December 31, 2012, the platform had around 500 million registered users and more than 2.8 million supplier storefronts, and  its websites are available in English, Simplified Chinese, Korean and other languages. It provides professional services for the global business. 3.3 The visibility is very strong Depends on its Propaganda efforts, almost all over the world have their ads now. 3.4 Better function Alibaba’s site speed, reasonable softwares, and good service attracted entrepreneurs of all ages around the world. 3.5. Others Also Alibaba had a high reputation in the Asia Pacific region and it always keep innovation, for example, in 2013 it officially published its online chat App called â€Å"LaiWang†. 4. The Movement of IPO (Initial Public Offering) 4.1 Background On March, 2014, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. announced the company will do IPO in New York Stock Exchange; the estimated time will be in quarter three of 2014. The IPO scale is considered to be between $150~200 billion (USD) (Chen, 2014). If the plan is actually executed, it will be one of the biggest IPO scales in the history. To do IPO, from the obvious perspective, it is for arranging the global market. However, it has been 15 years since Alibaba was founded in 1999, why the company decided to do IPO now? What is the reason behind and trigger this movement? It is worth to look into the meanings behind and analyze the reasons. There are two major reasons behind this huge action. One is keeping the control right inside the partnership; the other is competing with the main and biggest competitor Tencent in China. 4.2 Maintaining the control right The first reason is to maintain the control right inside the partnership. For the founder of Alibaba, the core idea of managing the firm is to keep the company culture and the innovation power. Based on this idea, he developed the special partnership structure for the firm. The special partnership structure is meaning CEO needs to be chosen from Alibaba’s partners. And, to  become the partner, the staff needs to be the core manager in the department and work in Alibaba group at least five years. The meeting of choosing partners will run one time per year, the nominee needs to get at least 75% votes from the existing partners, then he/she can become the partner. Now the boards of directors are formed by 2 seats of Alibaba, 1 seat of Softback and 2 seats of Yahoo. It is dangerous for the founder and managers that they can be replaced or take away the control right suddenly. The shareholding structure of Alibaba now is around Yahoo has 23%, Softbank has 31.9%, the founder has 7.4% and managers/other shareholders have 37.7%. According to the agreement between Yahoo  and Alibaba in 2012, if Alibaba can do IPO before in the end of 2015, then Alibaba can repurchase the half of holding shares which Yahoo takes now, also Yahoo will give up one seat in board of directors. Therefore, doing IPO is not just a simple global strategy, more with the implicit intention behind. 4.3 Rising competition The second reason is to compete with Tencent in China. Alibaba is the biggest B2B and B2C e-commerce company in China; it has leading position for past years. However, the situation has changed in recent 3~4 years, more and more users access the internet including buying goods and services via cell phones. It is the benefit access for the competitor Tencent to grab the market from Alibaba. Especially, Tencent just bought a large stake of JD.com (Gittleson, 2014). JD.com is the second biggest e-commerce site in China and in B2C market; it is also the second place right behind Alibaba. The competition intention with Alibaba is obvious. The recent competitions between two parties can refer the below Table 4.3.1. Both companies also start to make acquisitions in small areas and ready for a head-to-head competition (Gittleson, 2014). Tencent doesn’t need to worry about the money since the company did IPO right early in 2004 in Hong Kong Stock Exchange; the stock price is HK$578 on 18th, March, 2014 which is 156 times more compared to 10 years ago (Yu, 2014). Hence, Alibaba needs to find the money  support and start this† one of the most expensive competitions in online history.† said by Kim Gittleson from BBC news. Main business E-commerce platforms in B2B, B2C and C2C markets. (Taobao, TMall, Alipay) Instant message platform. (QQ, WeChat) Recent Competitions 1. During Chinese New Year, Tencent launched a mobile payment service that users can send or receive the money of red packet on line; it gave a warning to Alibaba’s Alipay (Gittleson, 2014). 2. The competition in mobile app for calling taxis (Alibaba’s Kuaidi v.s. Tencent’s Didi). The app not only can call cabs but also can tip for the ride. It is estimated that both parties pay more than $3 billion to subsidize it (Tong, 2014). 3. In the end of 2013, Alibaba launched one messaging application called â€Å"LaiWang† and tried to compete with Tencent’s â€Å"WeChat† 5. Conclusion As we can find out from the previous chapters, Alibaba is a market leader and dominance Chinese e-commerce markets over ten years. Due to its large market share, innovation power and strong website function, no one is able to challenge its leading positions. However, in recent years, internet users start to change their using ways via the booming mobile phones. It benefits another giant company Tencent to penetrate Alibaba’s existing markets. Even though Alibaba has the first-mover advantages in the market, the competition from Tencent doesn’t stop even getting aggressive. From the IPO movement of Alibaba, it can see Alibaba take this competition serious and doesn’t want to lose. Two giants battle for the leading place. The tough and expensive competition with Tencent just started. But, now Alibaba not only need to concern about the domestic competition but also need to make careful actions in global markets due to the IPO. The future of Alibaba is becoming more uncertain since the global markets are adding into the plan and the sever competition keeps going on. 6. References 1. Bidwai, S.V. (2010) Case Analysis Alibaba: Competing in China and Beyond. 2. Chen, Copper (2014) Super IPO, what’s the meaning for Alibaba (translated). Business Next. Retrieved from: http://www.bnext.com.tw/article/view/id/31942. 3. China Internet Watch 2013. For Charts 3.1.1, 3.1.2 & 3.1.4. Retrieved from: http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/. 4. Gittleson, Kim (2014) Tencent and Alibaba Battle for Internet Dominance in China. BBC News. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26540666. 5. Southern Weekly. For Charts 3.1.3. Retrieved from: http://www.NBweekly.com. 6. Tong, Frank (2014) Alibaba’s Founder Talks about Its IPO and Competition. Internet Retailer. Retrieved from: http://www.internetretailer.com/2014/03/18/alibabas-founder-talks-about-its-ipo-a nd-competition. 7. Walraven, Piet (2009) A Brief History (and Future) of Alibaba.com. TechNode. Retrieved from: http://technode.com/2009/01/22/a-brief-history-and-future-of-alibabacom/. 8. Wang, Guo-An & Lim, Yong-Taek (n.g) Research in China’s Alibaba’s Development. 9. Yu, Sophie (2014) A Tale of Two Internet Leaders: Tencent vs Alibaba. China Business. Retrieved from: http://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1452041/tale-two-internet-l eaders-tencent-vs-alibaba.