...A most impressive place I’ve ever been After seeing so many views, a place kept occupying the most in my heart, which is named after Phoenix. A county of western Hunan province on the Luxi province border , at the south of Huaihua zone, covered an area of 1759.1 k㎡. Because of the rain, it has already turned into dark when we arrived. A blast of wind firstly blowed the smell of Phoenix County, mixed with the flavor of wet earth and grass, into my nose. It refreshed me soon and took all the discomfort away. As soon as I placed my luggage, I flew out from the hotel and couldn’t wait to unveil the view any more. In the dim light, I began to observe this lovely village. Even though it was evening, the phoenix was still shining and touching. On the both side of the road, fascinating bars lined abreast. Happy laughers and cheerful voices came out, enticing smell of food drifted in the air. A range of ethnic goods displayed at the roadside stands. The Tuo River just goes across the county from the west side to the east side, separating this town into two parts. However, those two parts are connected by a special kind of bridge, called ‘hundred- step bridge’. Strictly speaking, it’s not a bridge but a construction built with hundreds of respective stones. My foot stamped down on those stones as discreet as possible. Noises continued spreading from side to side until the night was filled with boisterous scenes. Bright lights reflected upon the water, breezes swept over causing many...
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...Endeavor Agency and Y Combinator. Shoptiques revenue hit $3 million in 2014. Oliver Miao—Co-founder and CEO of Pixelberry Studios, a mobile game developer who’s had success with his company’s episodic game Surviving High School. Miao is 3-for-3 in launching games into the Top 25 Grossing on iOS platform. Self-funded, his 2 year-old company generated about $8 million this past year. Michael Votto—CEO and co-founder of Votto Vines Importing, Inc., a wine import company that started out of a delivery car in Connecticut back in 2009. Votto is an attorney and investor who, in 2013, was selected as one of Connecticut’s 40 under 40 future business leaders and in 2014 he was nominated by leading publication Wine Enthusiast as its wine industry “Innovator/Executive of the Year.” He is an angel investor and advisor to several technology start-ups, including venture-backed Dash Software. Entrepreneurs have a greater capacity for pain and discomfort than most. They can stay up later, work longer hours, stay more focused and, somehow, are able to set so much aside in deference to their dreams and visions. But there’s so much more that sets them apart. Here at Forbes we conducted video interviews with three CEOs that head firms from our 2015 list of America’s Most Promising Companies and asked them what they feel makes an entrepreneur. We spoke with Olga Vidisheva (Shoptiques Shoptiques.com), Oliver Miao (Pixelberry Studios Pixelberry Studios) and Michael Votto (Votto Vines...
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...Life cycle of Apple Inc. Core Product 10 3.3. Finance 10 3.4. Human Resource Process 11 CEO 11 4. Current Strategy 12 4.1. Business-level strategy 12 4.1.1. Differentiation strategy 12 4.1.2. Strategy to manage rivalry 14 4.2. Global Strategy 15 4.2.1. Apple’s foreign operations 15 4.2.2. Global retail stores 16 4.2.3. Brand loyal and value promotion 16 4.2.4. Acquisition strategy 16 4.2.5. Methods used by Apple in order to enter new markets 17 5. Conclusion 18 6. References 19 7. Bibliography 21 8. Appendix 22 9. Group log 25 9.1. First meeting 25 9.2. Second meeting 25 9.3. Third meeting 25 9.4. Fourth meeting 26 9.5. Fifth meeting 26 9.6. Sixth meeting 26 10. Reflection 28 Nguyen Thi Diu 28 Hany Jawad 28 He Miao 28 Hani Elyas 29 Yousaf Khan 29 Abstract Apple made several hugely successful products over years and now it has become the most famous technology company over the world. This report considers Apple’s premium brand that command the higher price as a competitive business in the context of needs-based positioning. It is needed to lower its price if Apple wants to control all the markets. This report will discuss strategies...
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...9-295-121 REV: NOVEMBER 6, 2001 Microsoft/Intuit The Decision In the fall of 1994 William Gates, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corp., was considering the possible acquisition of Intuit Corp. Intuit marketed the leading personal finance software product called Quicken. Two years earlier Gates had met with Scott Cook, chairman of Intuit, to discuss the possibility of completing an acquisition. In the interim, Cook had further consolidated Intuit’s domination of the personal financial software market with the acquisition of a firm which marketed the best-selling personal income tax preparation software called Turbo Tax, and the acquisition of a firm which provided electronic bill-payment services. Intuit was known in the software applications industry as one of the few firms that had met a challenge from Microsoft in its own market niche and won. Other firms that had once dominated their market niches in word processing programs (WordPerfect) and spreadsheet programs (Lotus), for example, had been shouldered aside by Microsoft (Exhibit 1). Many firms were being acquired as the industry consolidated. Indeed, in March 1994 Novell announced that it was acquiring privately owned WordPerfect Corp.1 (which held the second-largest share of the word processing software market), and the spreadsheet business of Borland International (Quattro Pro held the thirdlargest position in spreadsheet software) in order to put together a suite of common applications to compete more...
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...Green Economy Canada is considered an annex 1 country. It has many CDM projects around the world to help non annex 1 countries reduce greenhouse gas emission. In china, Canada is involved with various projects in different parts of the country. Canada is engaged with the very large Guangrun Hydropower CDM project located in the Jianshi County, Hubei Province of China. Along with Canada, Netherlands, Italy, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Norway and Spain are also parties involved. The project is located in the southwest corner of Hubei Province in the Jianshi County. It is home to the Enshi Tujia and Miao Minority Autonomous region. The Guangrun Hydropower project includes two small reservoirs and three hydropower stations named Hongwawu I station, Hongwawu II station and Zhamushui station. Hongwawu hydropower plant is located on the Hongwawu River, a tributary of the Zamushui River in Jianshi county. Zhamushui hydropower plant is located on the Zhamushui River which is by the upper reaches of the Guangrun River in Jianshi county. The map below shows the location of the proposed project. The Guangrun Hydropower project includes two small reservoirs with a total flooded area of 0.87 km2 and the reservoir storage capacity of 24.99 million m3. The three small hydropower stations have a total installation capacity of 28MW. The annual generation from the Guangrun Hydropower project is expected to be 89.28GWh. The hydropower stations...
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...Comparison of Writing in the Formation of its Purpose The rubbings of a Buddhist Pagoda on display at the Art Institute of Chicago require much attention in its examination; at first glance, the characters look very neat and sharp, each character with clear strokes and contained within its own space. However, upon closer examination, the alignment, character counterpoise, varied use of exposed tip and hidden tip point to the possibility in the calligrapher’s casual manner of writing. I will analyze the inscriptions of the Buddhist Pagoda in comparison to Chu Suiliang’s Yan Pagoda Prefaces to the Holy Teaching; both works of calligraphy aim to praise those disseminating Buddhist ideas and teachings. In addition, these two works are good for comparison since they had been written during the Tang dynasty . According to the descriptions in addendum by the Art Institute of Chicago, the long inscription carved into the left side of both slabs states that the family of Jia Heida commissioned this pagoda in honorable devotion to his deceased parents. The work is replete with Buddhist metaphors and allusions to the Buddha’s life, the text opening with a bleak perspective on the physical world and then praising both Buddhist teachings of spiritual redemptions and secular values of Chinese filial devoition. The inscription closes with a prayer extolling Buddhist principles. A similarity between the two works of calligraphy that stands out are the hints of...
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...Motivation in the workplace: using the right financial reward system in Indonesian public sector INTRODUCTION Indonesia is one the most populous nation in the world, which happen to sit in one the most dynamic region between Australia and Asian industrial countries like Japan, China and South Korea. With Asia and Australia nearby, Indonesia is trying to leverage its strategic position by building its economic capacity. As commonly seen in developing country, Indonesia’s public sector is seen as inadequately equipped to bolster development in Indonesia. As a way to increase its economic development, Indonesian government decided to initiate bureaucratic reform for its public employee. This bureaucratic reform is intended to improve public service, which is plagued by corruption (Wihantoro et al. 2015). It is expected that the improvement of public sector could lead to better service and good governance which in turn would improve people’s satisfaction. Despite the effort by the government of Indonesia, public service in Indonesian remains mediocre at best and there are still a lot of room for improvement in Indonesian public sector. Traditionally the pay structure for civil servant in Indonesia is using membership-based and seniority based rewards, which does not lend itself well into motivating high performing employee. The bureaucratic reform then introduced the concept of job status-based rewards combined with seniority-based rewards in which civil servant still received...
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...the substrate specificity of both compounds can be determined in cholinergic compound and the sensitivity in various cholinesterase inhibitors. George and Balasubramanian’s (1981) the aryl acylamidases and their relationship to cholinesterases in human serum, erythrocytes and liver study concluded that liver and aryl acylamidase when compared with erythrocyte aryl acylamidase was associated with acetylcholinesterase. Erythrocyte and serum aryl acylamidase illustrated some similarities in their sensitivities to amine compounds like serotonin and choline derivatives, the liver enzyme had no effect to any of these compounds. The liver aryl acylamidase differed from cholinesterase inhibitor. This is evident in other researchers work e.g. Miao et al., 2010. Human serum when compared to horse serum cholinesterase showed the differences in specificity. It showed that horse serum hydrolysis with BuCh and is more potential inhibitor (Kamarić, 1975). Similar study which was carried by Eddleston et al., (2008) who hypothesised the usefulness of admission BuChE activity, together with plasma OP concentration for predicting death with two-particular OP insectides (Kolbezen et al., 1954) concludes that plasma BuChe activity can be used to predict death when the...
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...Everest marks the border between China and Nepal), Nepal, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Laos. China is the world’s most populous country with approximately 1.35 billion people. China is a single- party state governed by the communist party which is run by President Hu Jintao. China is made up of 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities directly under the Central Government. Most of the population of China lives in the middle and lower part of the Yellow River, Yangtze River (longest river) and Pearl River valleys. In China, over 35 million people still lives in caves. Approximately 91.6 percent of Chinese people are Han. Non-Han population includes 55 ethnic minorities, of which the major groups are the Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uygur, Yi, Tujia, Mongolian, and Tibetan. The number of religious worshippers in China is estimated at approximately 100 million, most of which are Buddhism. Other religions are Taoism, Islam, and Christianity in both its Catholic and Protestant forms. There are many different languages spoken in China, including Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Minbei, Minnan, Xiang, Gan, and Hakka. The flag of China is red with five stars on the upper left side. The position of the stars on the Chinese flag represents the people’s unity under communism. The giant panda which was found near the Yangtze River is considered a Chinese national treasure that over 1,000 survive in the wild. In China, the Chinese celebrate October 1st as a National Day to honor and celebrate...
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...Mo 30.09.2013 | Case study: MNE competitive advantages | CASES Grolsch: Growing Globally Pankaj Ghemawat, Jordan Mitchell ------------------------------------------------- Top of Form DESCRIPTION Grolsch reassesses its international strategy in light of the company's recent acquisition by SABMiller, the world's second-largest brewer. Grolsch was the 21st-largest global beer brand, sold 51.5 percent of its volume in international markets, and exported to 70 countries. However, its poor profitability in international markets--four countries alone accounting for two-thirds of foreign sales--and churn of markets and distribution partners raised concerns about the company's international strategy and execution. Grolsch's 60 years of history in foreign markets provides a rich backdrop to introduce a range of international strategy topics, including performance assessment, rationale for expansion, market selection, and choice of entry mode. Questions 1) Why did Grolsch globalize, and how well has it performed internationally? 2) What are the key elements and limitations of its emphasis on adaptation, in particular? 3) What changes would you suggest to Grolsch’s historical strategy? Mo 14.10.2013 | Case study: International alliance | UTV and Disney: A Strategic Alliance (A) Atanu Adhikari, Rama Deshmukh ------------------------------------------------- Top of Form DESCRIPTION The case describes the dilemma faced by the senior vice-president of business...
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...Citations According to a recent Econsultancy/Toluna survey, 48% of UK consumers find the telephone the most frustrating customer service channel, while 44% prefer to contact firms by email (Charlton, 2011). The introduction of online agents or systems is often motivated by a company’s wish to provide cost-efficient interaction solutions, for instance, by replacing human-to-human service encounters (Salomonson, et al., 2013). Top management has to identify and allocate the management resources to enable the complaints-handling process to function effectively (Ang & Buttle, 2012). Managers should provide active feedback, including notifications about procedures, delays and decisions (George, Graham, & Lennard, 2007). Customers often switch to an alternative service provider or another firm not only because of bad service, but also because of the unacceptable responses to customers (Keaveney, 1995). References Ang, L., & Buttle, F. (2012). Complaints-handling processes and organizational benefits: An ISO 10002-based investigation. Journal of Marketing Management, 28(9/10), 1021-1042. Charlton, G. (2011, October 11). Why online customer service is important: Infographic. Retrieved from https://econsultancy.com/blog/8130-why-online- customer-service-is- important-infographic/ George, M., Graham, C., & Lennard, L. (2007, April 1). Complaint handling: Principles and best practices. Retrieved from https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/law/research/cces/documents/Complainthandling-...
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...Hmong World View and Social Structure According to Durkheim (1961), the source of what we regard as sacred or religious lies within our own image. The deities and spirits we pay respect to are but "society transfigured" for in the final analysis we only worship our society. It is society which is both the cause and the expression of religious sentiments through regular ritual representations (Aron, 1967: 53) These rights constitute beliefs enacted for the purpose of preserving a sense of belonging for the participants and maintaining them together as a group. They not only tie the members of the group to each other "but also to the past and the future generations" (Cohen, 1871: 180). Religious ideas, in the words of Bachofen (Leaf, 1979: 118), define fundamental relations in society, showing internal structures similar to the actual behaviour or the believers. The supernatural order is in general based on the social relationships of the group. It validates and regulates these relationships, thereby conserving the social orders. In this paper, I will discuss the social organisation of the Hmong of Laos and Thailand in relation to their religious beliefs in order to see if the two spheres mutually interact to maintain the broader social system. It has been said that ancestral spirits are no more than "a projection of the authority system of the living - the lineage elders elevated to a supernatural plane" (Keesing and Keesing 1971: 309). How true is this of the Hmong? I will...
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...Chinese In the beginning , the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos. The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself. After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from a long sleep. He felt suffocated, so he took up a broadax and wielded it with all his might to crack open the egg. The light, clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens, the cold, turbid matter stayed below to form earth. Pan Gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth. The heavens and the earth began to grow at a rate of ten feet per day, and Pan Gu grew along with them. After another 18 thousand years, the sky was higher, the earth thicker, and Pan Gu stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again. When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice the rolling thunder. One eye became the sun and on the moon. His body and limbs turned to five big mountains and his blood formed the roaring water. His veins became far-stretching roads and his muscles fertile land. The innumerable stars in the sky came from his hair and beard, and flowers and trees from his skin and the fine hairs on his body. His marrow turned to jade and pearls. His sweat flowed like the good rain and sweet dew that nurtured all things on earth. According to some versions of the Pan Gu legend, his tears flowed to make rivers and radiance of his eyes turned into thunder and lighting. When he was happy the sun shone...
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...International Journal of Production Research, 2014 Vol. 52, No. 16, 4820–4834, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2014.890757 Development of a multi-scale model for customer perceived value of electric vehicles Rui Miao*, Fasheng Xu, Kai Zhang and Zhibin Jiang Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China (Received 22 June 2012; accepted 23 January 2014) Electric vehicles (EVs) are now widely acknowledged as a potential ideal means of transportation in the near future in terms of environmental protection and oil crisis. The possible success of the future market for EVs is based on how much of EVs’ value can be perceived by their potential customers. Thus, research on customer perceived value (CPV) of EVs can help us, and especially EV manufacturers, understand the main factors contributing to CPV and how to design suitable EVs that can yield higher CPV. This paper first constructs a multi-scale model for the measurement of CPV based on surveys conducted at Shanghai, China. Then, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method is applied to evaluate the importance of every scale and depict the internal relations among different scales on the impact-relations map (IRM). Further, a novel version of the house of quality is created to conduct technical feasibility analysis for the improvement of each scale. Finally, market segmentation for EV industry is proposed and discussed based on the analysis...
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...EWOM Literature Review In the recent times, the internet has become an extraordinary access to a vast amount of knowledge and information and became part of everyone’s life. Furthermore, the internet has emerged as a source and channel of the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication for customers (Henning-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh & Gremler, 2004). Hennig-Thurau et al., (2004) defined eWOM as ‘any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet’ (p.39). Hospitality and Tourism Industry has also been affected by this relatively new eWOM, where former visitors or customers express their opinion on destinations and places they have visited. The purpose of this literature review is to focus on the eWOM, its impact on the Hospitality and Tourism Industry and on the potential benefits it has for businesses and destinations. This review will contain information gathered and analyzed from different peer reviewed articles and studies to support the credibility of this paper. The eWOM in contrast of the traditional WOM has different types of electronic media channels that have an impact upon interpersonal relationships. There are the synchronous type and the asynchronous type, the first one include instant messaging, chatrooms and newsgroups. While asynchronous includes blogs, emails, virtual communities and websites (techdictionary.com...
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