...Brand Communities: For the love of Brands Smack took a long look at some of the world’s top brands and found the most successful businesses all have one thing in common: a loyal following of everyday consumers. Consumers that form vibrant and loyal communities around a brand, what Smack calls Brand Communities. This white paper is designed to give you a general introduction to the Brand Community, and the benefits and philosophies of Brand Communities to your business. The Changing Consumer If you think that the introduction of the Internet into popular culture was a world changing event, you really haven’t seen anything yet. Right now, as you read this, the very fabric of the Internet is changing. Never mind the billions of web sites currently in existence. Never mind the boundless libraries of both old and cutting edge information all readily available. The Internet has become more than that, it has become a tool that facilitates the most basic of human needs: a tool for conversation. Through blogs, message boards, and sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flicker, people are now engaging in conversation with countless others. Engaging others with similar interests. Sharing opinions, photos, news, videos, and taking note of new ideas. People now have networks of friends they have never physically met, networks that surpass international boundaries, all with many shared interests like childhood buddies, music, and more. Brand Communities When looking at brands...
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...to Write a Term Paper or Thesis Michael A. Covington Artificial Intelligence Center The University of Georgia Athens, Georgia 30602 http://www.ai.uga.edu/mc Revised May 11, 2011 Abstract This is a basic style guide for writing scientific papers under my direction. It was written for internal use in the Artificial Intelligence Center. However, other science departments may find it helpful. You are encouraged to share it with colleagues. 1 What is a term paper or thesis? In the Middle Ages, in order to be admitted to a trade guild, a craftsman had to demonstrate his ability by producing a piece of work, called his masterpiece, for examination by the officers of the guild. He was then granted the title of Master of his trade. When universities were founded, they immediately emulated this practice and began to grant the degrees of Master and Doctor to people who had proved their ability to do scholarly work. A thesis or dissertation today serves the same purpose as a medieval craftsman’s masterpiece. It is proof of ability to do a certain kind of work. Specifically: • To get a doctor’s degree, you must become familiar with current scientific knowledge of your subject, add to this knowledge by making an original discovery, and then report the results in a dissertation. 1 • To get a master’s degree, it is sufficient to make a new synthesis or application of knowledge already available, and report the results in a thesis. • To pass certain courses, you must write a term paper, which...
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...Unit 1 Case Study Hua Han California InterContinental University Introduction Managerial economics serves a really important role in every company. A good economic analysis can lead a company to success such as gain better understanding of the supply and demand trend in the industry in order to make critical decisions. On the other hand, a bad economic analysis can also mislead a company to go into a completely opposite way and risking the company to bankruptcy. In this paper, I’m going to use coffee as an example to show how important economic analysis is. Write a Statement of the Problem - Discuss the issues identified and the ramification. Coffee is a brewed beverage with a distinct aroma and flavor, prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant (Mark Pendergrast, 2009). There are more than 54% of Americans who are 18 years and older drinks coffee every day. Coffee has always been a very popular marketable product. However, in 2000, coffee beans are overproduced. This broke the equilibrium between the supply and demand. There were way more coffee beans in the market than what people needed. Thus, it caused the price of the coffee beans to drop dramatically. Farmers in countries such as Angola, Honduras, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe even stopped tending their coffee trees in an effort to save on spending for fertilizer and maintenance (Keat 2009). The overproduction not only caused a lot of farmers lost their job, but also ripple affects the coffee production in...
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...CHAPTER I Introduction The computer has been in constant evolution since the middle of the 20th century. Computers are continued to get smaller in size, using less power and performing more advanced calculators. In 2007 apple released their Iphone to achieve the next goal in computing. This new type of communication tool, called smart phone, is generally referred to as a phone, which is poor labelling. A Smartphone is a handheld computer, which can place phone calls. Although the term Smartphone was first used in 1992, apple was the first company to release a Smartphone to a wider audience. This evolution is led by computer manufacturers and software companies and not handset manufacturers, which have controlled the market thus far. One competitor to apple Iphone OS is the android OS. Android originates from a small software company, acquired by Google and is now owned by open handset alliance (OHA), where Google is a member. OHA has over a hundred member companies such as mobile operators semiconductor companies handset manufacturers, software companies and commercialisation companies. Android is an emerging mobile technology still in the development phases. Early releases of the SDK have been made available to the mobile developer community to start writing applications before handsets are available on the market. Fully featured Android handsets are expected to start shipping towards the end of 2008 or early 2009. Android is a new mobile platform...
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...Final Paper I have selected the non-fiction book named ‘The Smartest Guys in the Room’ written by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. The book is based on the The Amazing rise and Scandalous fall of the Enron Corporation. Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities and service company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy in December 2, 2001, Enron employed more than 20,000 employees and was one of world’s major electricity, natural gas, communications and pulp and paper company with claimed revenues of nearly $111 Billion during the year 2000. In 1985 Kenneth Lay (the founder of Enron Corporation) merged the natural gas pipeline companies of Houston Natural gas and Internorth to form Enron. Enron was named by the Fortune magazine as ‘America’s Most Innovative Company’ for six consecutive years. Enron became the largest seller of natural gas in North America by 1992, its trading of gas contracts earned $122 Million (before interest and taxes) the second largest contributor to the company’s net income. The company’s founder Kenneth Lay helped to initiate the selling of electricity at market prices, and soon after the United States Congress approved legislation deregulating the sale of natural gas. The resulting markets made it possible for traders such as Enron to sell energy at higher prices, which significantly increased its revenue. In an attempt to achieve further growth, Enron pursued a diversification strategy. The company owned and operated a variety of...
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...aaa, A. Socio-Cultural Geography- Dubai is situated on the Persian Gulf coast of the United Arab Emirates. Apart from being a city, it also forms one of the seven emirates of the country. It is roughly at sea level (16 m or 52 ft above). The emirate of Dubai shares borders with Abu Dhabi in the south, Sharjah in the northeast, and the Sultanate of Oman in the southeast. Hatta, a minor exclave of the emirate, is surrounded on three sides by Oman and by the emirates of Ajman (in the west) and Ras Al Khaimah (in the north). The Persian Gulf borders the western coast of the emirate. Dubai is positioned at 25.2697°N 55.3095°E and covers an area of 4,114 km² (1,588 mi²), which represents a significant expansion beyond its initial 1,500 mi² designation due to land reclamation from the sea. Dubai lies directly within the Arabian Desert. However, the topography of Dubai is significantly different from that of the southern portion of the UAE in that much of Dubai's landscape is highlighted by sandy desert patterns, while gravel deserts dominate much of the southern region of the country.[1] The sand consists mostly of crushed shell and coral and is fine, clean and white. East of the city, the salt-crusted coastal plains, known as sabkha, give way to a north-south running line of dunes. Farther east, the dunes grow larger and are tinged red with iron oxide. The flat sandy desert gives way to the Western Hajar Mountains, which run alongside Dubai's border with Oman at Hatta. Dubai has no...
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...LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY TERM PAPER ON Extending UML to Support Domain Analysis SUBMITTED TO:- SUBMITTED BY:- Mr. SANDEEP SINGH AKANSHU KUMAR Reg No:-11112286 ROLL No:- A21 SECTION:- K1107 Abstract:- The process of modelling and developing commonality and variability for system families should be supported by suitable methods and notations. The object-oriented methods and their notations, which are used at present, focus on the development of a single system at a time. In this paper we analyse feature models as a representation of the common parts and variants contained in a system family, and propose using a feature diagram as a basic representation of commonality, variability and dependencies. We examine various approaches to customizing the standard modelling language UML to model system families and propose how to extend the UML for the purposes of modelling variants in object-oriented analysis and design techniques. We recommend the use of UML standard lightweight extensibility mechanisms (stereotypes combined with tagged values) without changing the UML metamodel. This enables us to join the advantages of feature models with UML and provides the traceability of a concept throughout...
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...Managing Motivation at Technocraft Lea Darrigade Ines Gyselinck Mary Sagala Benjamin Seban Intercultural Management BS 1 Christophoros Lambridis I. Introduction This report talks about the working motivational problem shown by the workers in a small factory named Technocraft, located in the South East of England. It had slowed down the company’s function in producing high-quality sound recording equipment. The problem has risen to high labor turnover and difficulties in recruiting new employees. It led George Orwell Newell, the company chairman, to hire a consultant named Helen McKiernan to figure out the sources of the problems. In order to help figuring out the problem, George Orwell told Helen about his hypothesis of the lack of motivation in workers is because company’s location which is in the below-average national unemployment are, therefore most of the women workers, who work on the wiring, had no real reason to work since they already have husbands who can earn adequate wages to fulfill living necessities. However, Helen did not want to conclude the problem there. When Helen had done her research, she found out that the workers actually enjoyed their work, but hate to work for the company. In other words, the problem that halted the working motivation in workers is the management itself. II. Forms of inefficient management that leads to the lack of working motivation. a) Uncomforting regulation on working performance In a company,...
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...Student Survival Guide On the personality spectrum my biggest dimension was the giver personality. I think that I need to learn how to put other peoples needs aside so that I can focus on my school work more. I love to help others and will always put others before myself, but when going to school in a distance learning environment that will sometimes get in the way, it is easy to put off school work for other people. I need to designate time away from my husband and children so that I can concentrate on the task at hand in my schooling. That does not mean that I need to neglect my family, I just need to also make time for myself. When doing research on the internet I need to be very careful. It is easy to get into websites that are not ones that I should be using for education research. It is difficult because there are websites like Wikipedia that look like they are credible and good for research purposes, but in fact they are not. Sites like wiki are able to be changed by anyone, allowing people to go in and change information, making it false, or adding information that is not correct in with what is. A good way to know if I am on a good website is if it is .edu, .gov, or .org. I need to make sure I am doing lots of research on any topic to make sure that I have all the facts about that topic correct. The University of Phoenix has a lot of good resources to use for research. They have a University Library that is very helpful when doing research. I can choose different...
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...that they are too short term oriented, too focused on fast returns, and that this negatively impacts their long term capital budgeting. Can you suggest a company, or industry, where this appears to be true. How? Why? Instant gratification is important in today’s society. People do not have the time in their busy lives to wait on much. Companies also focus on instant gratification and make decisions to help bring in quick returns to satisfy investors. Strong or growing earnings per share is important for investors. Some industries will make decisions that may not be long termed oriented to keep from reducing earnings per share and return on investment. A great example is General Motors. General Motors went a bit too far and had a class action suit against them. They settled in 2008 for $303 million to its shareholders. “The two-year-old class-action lawsuit stems from claims that GM issued false and misleading statements about its finances to artificially inflate the company’s stock price and debt securities “(General Motors 2005). The problem with short term orientation is that the company may take money from other areas to achieve earnings that are expected of them. This money can come from research and development or advertising and have a long term effect on the company. It is still important to keep an eye on short term gains to earn capital that the company needs to provide for its long term goals, but the company still needs to focus on long term and sustainability. ...
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...and powerful in both stability and its financial systems. However, the global crisis of 2008 cost 10 million people to loose their jobs, savings and even their homes. The unemployment rate in Iceland tripled and the government regulators who were in charge of taking care of its society allied to side of bankruptcy. In 2008, Iceland was in the brink of bankruptcy. In a scenario repeated in the United States (US) the financial regulators failed to raise the alarm or halt the reckless borrowing. What the Banks and financial institutions have done over the years has enriched themselves as companies and individuals at the expense of the greater good of other and the economy and environment as a whole, forcing high short term returns at the cost of not doing long term investment in plant, products, training and environmental protection amongst others. Instead they have used the power and influence that they have to further reduce the legal restrictions on what they and prevent any meaningful increase in regulation, permitting only window dressing laws that do little and are easily circumvented. This has given them more power and influence with which they get further concessions and so acquire more money and so on. With the financial crash in 2007 the reason why such regulation was needed became obvious, but again the financial sector used their power to prevent any meaningful reform. However acting on the suspicion that an investment is a bad one by betting against it for own financial...
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...M4 – Analyse the reasons why costs need to be controlled to budget. Introduction – for this assignment I will be analysing the advantage and disadvantage about the business that brad owns, which involves transporting business people to and from the airports using luxury cars. Furthermore I will also explain what the word budget, fixed, variable and total costs means. The main topic that I will cover is the fact that if brad does nothing to his costs than what effects will it have on the business as well as him. Explain: 1) If they are not monitored then: - Managers may not notice problems because he can’t take steps to correct the problems if he doesn’t know it exists, he won’t know if he made more adverse or more favourable. If Brad doesn’t know that he have made more adverse than he will not be able to know how much adverse he have made and on which item. If the costs are not controlled by him than he will go above his budget and he will make a loss. 2) Paste in the Eco Clothing variance analysis and explain why it may be overspent in each area of adverse variance (refer to your completed hand-out) 3) What problems might this create? - Reduced profits - problem because…. - The need to replace/better train staff - problem because…. - The need to source new material suppliers/renegotiate - problem because…. - Pressure to increase prices - problem because…. Conclusion – • Consider (and then explain) how without the budgeting process (the setting...
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...expected and a guideline for others to follow throughout their school, career and individual everyday life. Defining personal responsibility is different depending on who is asked. However, personal responsibility is being liable for the outcome of an action in a variety of capacities. Deflection and entitlement are costly on so many levels. Taking ownership of mistakes is highly important in discovering how to avoid being a victim of the “blame game”. In order to achieve this, there must be a strategy put in place to decide how to proceed in being personally responsible. There must be a list of short term goals that are easily attained. Short term goals allow an individual to solidify their commitment and achieve instant gratification while staying realistic and ethical. Long term goals, however, are achieved over a longer period of time and can be a compilation of short term goals. Hand in hand with creating strategic goals, it is necessary to utilize self discipline. Self discipline will ensure that an individual adheres to the steps required in meeting particular goals. Setting aside an allotted time to study that is conducive to learning is important to success. Create a list of deadlines for each of your assignments to ensure that each assignment is done and submitted on time. Although...
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...me, as I am currently pregnant and am working to purchase a house for our family. When reviewing the ten principles of Economics, there are several that play a major role in my decision to purchase a house. First, we as a family needed to understand that there are tradeoffs that will need to be made in order to budget in a house purchase. Frivolous spending such as eating out and purchasing various technological gadgets will have to be monitored more closely and possibly stopped altogether. Also, any old debt would need to be paid off first to make room in the budget for the new debt of the house payments. In order to understand what items are considered frivolous and what old debt is priority, we will need to develop a short and long term budget that addresses where we are currently and where we want to be, and lays out a course of action to meet those goals. Also in the budget and course of action we would need to identify the incentives of purchasing a house, as well as the consequences that can occur. For example, what are the positives of the neighborhood and schools in the area? If one or both of the income providers lost their jobs or became unable to work, what plan of action would take place? These questions and many others would have to be taken into consideration to understand the pros and cons to purchasing a...
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...Challenge Identification The primary issue to be addressed by the management team is how best to allocate company attention and capital to the possible growth opportunities in order to drive company growth and stimulate short-term financial results without sacrificing long-term growth potential. Key Decision Criteria Brannigan Foods is faced with the problem of energizing innovation and resultant company growth in a stagnating industry in which it is the market leader. Brannigan possesses a “cash-cow” in its current soup division, and must figure out a way to utilize this source of capital in order to drive growth in other sectors to ensure long-term profitability. The short-term financial goals are to increase profits by 3% over the next year, while long term goals are to stimulate growth in other areas of the Brannigan soup division’s lines of business. When considering which strategic direction to pursue with respect to possible growth strategies, Brannigan should consider shifting consumer preferences. Consumers tend to be favouring products which are perceived as being lower in sodium and healthier overall. For example, the recent growth in the Annabelle’s Foods division demonstrates that consumers are becoming more focused on a combination of healthiness and convenience. Brannigan’s should be wary when considering allocating it’s limited growth capital to initiatives such as expanding the core lines of business due to the recent negative category growth of the ready...
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