The property rights of China and America economics Research Paper

The property rights of China and America economics - Research Paper Example In the current highly competitive business environment, business entities are going to great lengths to establish and protect particular niches in the market. The main aim for this is to enhance optimal performance and maintain a desirable and economically rewarding competitive edge. On a larger scale, countries are taking initiatives to ensure that their economic development and growth maintains an upward growth. Relative measures towards the attainment of this goal are all encompassing and reflective of the social and economic trends across the globe. They range from formulation of policies and regulations that enhance economic growth to establishment of trade relations with countries whose economic performance is stable. Besides optimizing profits, the main aim of such relations includes safeguarding the overall wellbeing of the populations. From an ethical view point, the efforts of such countries are morally acceptable. This is especially because of their need to enhance the standards of living of the majority of their populations. Nonetheless, it is worth appreciating that certain initiatives have adverse impacts on the wellbeing of the global economy. This is because the negative implications undermine the economic performance of other countries. In this regard, it is worth appreciating that countries do not exist in a vacuum. Globalization trends have triggered the establishment and maintenance of relations between countries. All these are geared towards enhancing the flow of goods, people, products and information. The fact that the USA and China have had close economic ties over time cannot be overstated. The two nations have varying potentials with respect to economic production. They venture in different fields and aim at producing ideal products that would enable them to perform competitively in the global market. For this reason, America and China established viable trade as well as diplomatic relations (The United States International Trade Commission, 32). Examples of these include total US-China Trade that was signed in 1979 and Mutual-most-favored-nation treatment of 1980. Undoubtedly, these institutions enhanced economic and specifically trade operations between the two countries. With the relative viable environment, they were able to import and export products with ease. Historical evidence indicates that China has always focused on reducing the production costs and thus enhancing the purchasing power of its citizens. The US importers benefited significantly from this because they w ere able to get Chinese products at a lower price. Likewise, this enabled America to improve the living standards of its population as well as general wellbeing. This is because it was able to cut the costs that were associated with production. As a result, it provided its population with consumer products at cheaper prices. However, this had adverse impacts on the performance of local industries. In essence, it compromised local production and instead boosted the economic performance of Chinese industries form which the relative products were sourced. In addition, this practice greatly undermined the quality of products offered in the market for American consumption. This is because the raw materials employed in their production were relatively low. China has also invested significantly in the US economy. In particular, it has explored foreign direct investment and a host of other non bond investments. Thus the economic relationship between the two countries is considered to be mut ually benefiting. An evaluation of the economic wellbeing of China however indicates that it has benefited the most from the relations that it has

The Marketing Of Haier In Europe

The Marketing Of Haier In Europe Abstract In todays business world filled with kinds of opportunities, competitions and challenges, marketing is playing a more and more important role. Correspondingly, marketing strategy and marketing mix are also more and more crucial for a company to enter a certain market and to sell products, no matter it is a domestic or transnational one; meantime, they are also beneficial to take market share if used effectively. The Haier Group, with Haier Europe is a classic example that makes full use of the marketing strategy and marketing mix to achieve its marketing goals. The focus of this dissertation lay in the exploration of the marketing strategy and marketing mix of Haier Europe, of solutions to its current difficulties in launching their product portfolios there and of the implementation of its tactics in Europe. Section One Introduction As a professional tool used to analyze the market, understand customers, and present a product or a service to the potential benefits of customers thus persuading them to accept and buy it (Steinberg, 2005, p1), marketing is by no means common. In the right hands, it can be unlimited-powerful. This dissertation purposed to explore the marketing strategy and marketing mix of Haier Europe. On the base of datas collected, Haier is still struggling with many difficulties in launching their product portfolios there. In addition, it has entered the crucial strategic periodGlobal Branding. How to cope with current problems and to establish its tactics in Europe? The dissertation also aims to seek appropriate solutions to this pending issue. In terms, Haier, as a famous Chinese company incorporating in 1984 and a domestic who dare to go abroad, Haier performs remarkably in the respect of marketing. Since the 1990s, it has differentiated into related white, black and beige goods (Bell, 2008, p157). As Chinas ambassador to appliance stores worldwide, now Haier is the worlds 2nd largest white goods manufacturer making appliances under more than 90 product categories. Today, Haier is exporting its goods and selling them in more than 160 countries and regions such as North America, Europe and the Middle East etc.. After its first entering through Germany, now Haier is well-known in Europe, including United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden, where it obtained revenues of US ¼Ã¢â‚¬Å¾136m. In Europe, Haier target at the high-end market, and carried out its trilogyseeding, rooting and harvesting to create the localization of Haier brand (CRI online, 2004). The products Haier sells in Europe are refrigerators, freezers, top-load washing machines, home air conditioners, water heaters, microwave ovens, dishwashers, television sets, computers and cell phones (Haier Official Website, 2010). Even more important, having advanced through the Brand Building, Diversification and Internationalization stages, Haier has embarked on its fourth stageGlobal Branding. It makes meaningful sense to study its marketing strategy. This paper encompasses three sections with section II consisting of three sub-sections. In this paper, after some theories about marketing explained firstly, the current situation of European retail electrical equipment market will be identified, followed by a analysis about both the internal and external environmental factors facing Haier; then it will demonstrate the marketing strategy and marketing mix of Haier Europe; finally, from the perspective of a real-world business, some rational recommendations for Haier Europe will also be made. Section Two Literature Review Baker et al(1998) concluded that marketing is both a concept and a practice having important implications for the adoption and implementation of market thinking, and also an approach to exchange relations which drives and informs the strategies of every organization. Here some marketing theories, including the PEST, the Porters Five, the SWOT, the ANSOFF and Marketing Mix should provide a sound conceptual basis. There would be a lot of unexpected risks and challenges if it is carried out without a full understanding of the market. So firstly, comprehensive insights into the present condition, even the medium-to-long developing trends of an industry, say three to ten years ahead, is needed. To review and exploit the broader environment, it can draw support form a PEST analysis and the Five-Force Model. PEST typically refer to by its acronym, for the types of elements it involves: political, economic, sociocultural and technological, all of which are likely to have large or small effects on the organizations ability to achieve competitive advantages at some stage over the next few years (Sargeant and Jay, 2004, p175). This framework can be useful to forecast the changes that may have environmental influences on a firm. Some examples of changes the four subenvironments will lead to are given in Figure 2.1. However, the PEST analysis should be combined with the Five-Force Model, which analyses t he structure of an industry or market segment, from the viewpoint of its attractiveness to a player already in the industry (Faulkner and Bowman, 1995, p37). Porter(1980) depicted the five competitive forces operating in an industry and together affecting the extent of competition or the potential profitability of that industry as follows: à ¢- Competitive rivalry amongst existing firmsrepresents the competitive behaviors, which can be done using price cuts, product design, promotional campaigns or other weapons between established companies making similar products or selling them in the same market (Hill and Jones, 2009, p46). à ¢- The barriers to new entrantswhen bringing additional capacity, new firms must compete with those existing ones to hold a foothold or to gain a market share, especially when demand for the industrys products does not rise to match the increased capacity that entry has caused. à ¢- The bargaining power of buyersthey may enhance their bargaining power no matter powerful or weak (Peng, 2008, p42). à ¢- The bargaining power of suppliersto raise prices or reduce the quality of their inputs (Peng, 2008, p41). à ¢- The threat from substitute products or servicesplaying the same or the similar function as an industrys products by different means, and the threat it conceal may be downstream or indirect (Porter, 2008, 17). Political GATT Monopolies legislation Environmental protection laws Taxation policy (Foreign) trade regulations Employment law Government stability European integrationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Economic Business (or trade) cycle GNP trends Interest rates Money supply Inflation Unemployment Disposable income Energy availability and costà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Socio-cultural Population demographics Income distribution Social mobility Lifestyle changes Attitudes to work and leisure Consumerism Levels of educationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Technological Government spending on research Government and industry focus of technological effort New discoveries Speed of technology transfer Rates of obsolescerceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Figure 2.1 The PEST factors Source: Faulkner, D. and Bowman, C. (1995). Competitive Strategy. Pp.61 Another model here must be noted is the SWOT analysis, however, it has many overlapping points with the Porters Five. SWOT is a planning exercise in which managers recognize a organizations strengths(S), weaknesses(W), opportunities(O) and threats(T) to select the corporate-, business-, functional-level strategies to best position the organization (Jones and George, 2004, p151). Strengths are skills and capabilities that enable, while weaknesses hinder an organization to conceive of or implement its strengths, yet both of which it has some control over; opportunities are areas that may generate higher performance, while threats increase difficulties, and both of them are beyond the organizations control (Griffin, 2007, p67-68). Then Ansoff Matrix, a version in which strategies are often shown, is used to formulate basic product and market growth strategies,. Ansoff defines two key factors for marketingwhat is being sold and what it is sold to (Stone, 2001, p50-51). What can be inferred is that a businesss attempts to grow rely on whether it is marketing new or existing products in new or existing market (Fasnacht, 2009, p19). It gives a company four alternative actions when launching marketing (reference to Figure 2.2):. Same product, new market Market Extension Same product, same market Marketing Penetration New product, new market Diversification New product, same market Product Development Ma Figure 2.2 The Ansoff Matrix: risks increase with movement away from cuccent activities. Source: Faulkner, D. and Bowman, C. (1995). Competitive Strategy. Pp.80 à ¢- Marketing Penetration is referred to selling a existing product or increasing its existing share in the existing market to facilitate further growth; à ¢- Market Extension is a strategy to seek to extend an existing product into a new market; à ¢- Product Development aims to offer new products or modifying existing products into the existing market; à ¢- Diversification means to enter an existing market with related or unrelated products that are totally unconnected with the market, that is to say, to enter a new market (Stone, 2001, p50-51). Last, Marketing Mix to be worked out. It indicated all the parts which will be emphasized in an organizations promotional message, traditionally this has been defined in commercial marketing by the 4Ps Model (Products, Price, Promotion and Place) (Bush and Bell, 2002, p249). The Product is comprised of decisions about the products design, brand name, package and the like. The Price is concerned with both base price and various discount (Pride et al, 2009, p348). The Promotion focus on plans and programmes that drive demands, interests and actions and communicate to customers or potential ones. The Place should portray the productss intended movement to the end customers and avoid any latent conflicts or confusions (Haines, 2008, p403-404). A firm can vary its marketing mix by changing one or more of elements, for example, it may use one marketing mix to reach a particular target market and different mix to reach another, anyway, the most principle is to keep a balance across and betw een all marketing mix elements. Section Three Analysis and Discussion 3.1 Haier and European Retail Electrical Equipment Market Unlike in the US, where Haier America is in charge of all functions and sells full products portfolio under one roof. In Europe, Haier had established a bunch of different sales offices: Haier Europe Trading, based in Italy, sell Haier white goods into Europe; Haier Electronic Europe is responsible for Haier audio-video and mobile phones; Haier A/C Europe trade Haier air conditioners through separate subsidiaries located in Spain, Italy and UK (Bell, 2008, p183). Undoubtedly, this makes Haier Europes operations relatively dispersed, which scattered consumerss holistic and unified impression on it. At the same time, owing to European markets global marketing segmentation, the presence of more than 100 competitors making the appliance industry in the market is highly fragmented and highly competitive (Keegan, 2001, p191). Haier has to face the threats not only from those famous such as U.S. brands General Electric, Whirlpool and Asian Sony and Samsung etc., but also from the domestic m anufacturers like Changhong and Hisense, particularly the U.S. brands. European remains the largest buyer of American-made electrical machinery and parts (Black Enterprise, 1989, 172). However, there rarely exist comparison behaviors among the European electrical equipment consumers; in the case of some German middle-class families, they just enjoy the televisions, model and style of which are both common. So their custom that do not chase fashion form the unique features of European home appliances market (Sina, 2005). 3.1.1 External Environment Factors of Haier in Europe PEST analysis can help to develop a view of the external opportunities and threats(OT) facing Haier Europe (Henry, 2008, p61). Firstly, the political influence. No matter how multinational corporations is transnational, it can not really step over the country-of-origin issue. As far as Europeans are concerned, Haier Europe is still a Chinese company. With a series of overseas mergers and acquisitions, Haier is going toward to the internationalization, but it suffers interference from the host countries, who use government power to intervene in the foreign businesss mergers and acquisitions to domestic enterprises, or setting a variety of political obstacles to ensure the foreign players do not obtain a dominant position or abuse their market share thus protecting domestic enterprises, political and economic security (Arup, 2002, p75). For instance, both the bank and government would intervene to protect German firms from foreign takeovers (Safarian, 1993, p326). Haiers increasingly e xpanded M A make European countries shocked even panic, and they throw great difficulties in the achievement of Haiers internationalization. Secondly, as the most direct as well as the strongest category, economic affect the costs of the operation and the purchases of potential customers (Waters, 2006, p208). With uncertainty about employment prospect, many customers postponed purchasing decisions, or cut out some types of spending. Even though Kahn, the president of the IMF once said, European economy began to pick up at the end of 2009 and its economic recession will not last too long; in 2009 the global economy is expected to grow at an average rate of 3% , and the European economy at 0.2% (European Economic Rebound and Industry Raise Input, 2009). The economic slump may continue for some time, which is also a not small test to Haier. However, ongoing gratifying economic globalization and liberalization created more marketing opportunities, encouraging Haier to reap the benefits of emerging markets to achieve globalization and internationalization (Kumar, 2006, p38-39), and Haier Europe has started to increase investme nt. Meantime, the socio-cultural influence. Today every customer is driven by both the trends in society and the need to comply with the norms of various social groups to which they belong. With the advocacy of low-carbon economy in recent years, energy-saving and environmental-friendly have become important criterion to select home appliances. There have been more and more people, who are not necessarily deep green willing to allow this to influence their decision-making when buying an appliance, especially Europeans who has perceived the environmental protection as a public issue long ago and made environmental protections roots in varied areas (Wenk, 2005, p9-10), they look more favorably on green home appliances. This also urged Haier Europe to be green to meet their green demand, which become a selling point in the European market. Last but not the least, the impact of technology to home appliance industry is tremendous. Adopting new technologies or automaton for improving productivity and cost effectiveness is regarded as opportunities (Kumar, 2006, p38-39). For Haier, to defeat those competitors, a crucial is to keep up with the pace of science and grasp the most updated technology to create the most advanced products. 3.1.2 Internal Environment Factors of Haier in Europe Haiers internal strengths and weaknesses(SW) can be clarified by following the Five Force Model (Henry, 2008, p61). Haier has hard-won scale strengths (Harvard Business Review on Emerging Markets, 2008, p77), which is by no means just confined to sight and sound (Jinsheng Yi and Xian Ye, 2003, 8). They are mainly reflected in the following aspects: à ¢- Brand Strength After several decades of efforts, the reputation of Haier brand has increased significantly. In 2009, the value of Haier brand was as high as 81.2 billion (Lead, 2009). For most European consumers, Haier is their most trusted brands, which is the strongest strength of Haier. Meanwhile, its brand tend to reduce rivalry since they emphasize differentiation, and establish at least psychological switching costs for the consumers if they are to move to a different brand (Faulkner and Bowman, 1995, p42). à ¢- Products Strength Haier accounted its corporate strength in customer-tailored product and innovation speed, which will enhance its performance in future (Bell, 2008, p157). Among its various products, Haiers refrigerators and washing machines are world-class. In Europe, where quality and feature are top priorities among consumers, Haier is committed to manufacturing specific products and its tag line is Haier and Higher (McNally, 2007, p90). Haier strictly pay attention to manufacturing skills, technical progress and product quality all the time. à ¢- Service Strength Haier sets the benchmark of from in-store services to after-sales service. It is known that uniformed personnel of Haier offering on-site service will show up in less than 24 hours after a customer require services, with all necessary tools including a pair of socks not to dirty the ground of customers (Hexter et al, 2007, p137). It is Haiers intimate service that contribute to its success, which is also one of its core competitiveness. Haier has always adhere to the creed of users first and believes that brand is created, promoted, maintained and developed by high-quality service. à ¢- Channel Strength Haier was acknowledged to have the best and the most strict distribution system and sales force (Williamson, 2004, p47). Haier adopt personalized marketing according to the characteristics of different consumers. According to different channels, Haier Europe work out targeted policies and provide different support. However, Haier also has been fully aware of its weakness from early days, which can be analyzed with the Porters Five. à ¢- Competitive rivalry amongst existing firms Porter(1980) listed the the slow growth of or declining demand will create further intensification of competitiveness. It is true that the weedy recession and economic hardships the financial crisis swept inevitably overshadow European consumers attitudes, as well as their ability and willingness to consume. While the original competition in European home appliance industry has already made the rivalry intense. It can not be denied that the high-end market in Europe are still occupied by those real international brands such as Whirlpool, Panasonic etc., although Haier has always targeted at the high-end market, factly it still lack the appeal, the influence and the persuasion at local. The competition Haier face is unprecedented fierce and volatile. à ¢- The barriers to new entrants As counterparts learns more through technology, they are able to reduce costs, make better products, get more flexibility or expand their product range to suit different kinds of customers. So over time competition within the industry is likely to increase, as more entries are attracted to rush. They may try to outmanoeuvre the existing ones by cutting down prices or offering value-added features or quality or service, thus it also probably lower the overall level of profitability in the existing industry (Asch and Wolfe, 2001, p44). à ¢- The bargaining power of buyers According to Campbell(2002), the bargaining power of buyers will be accordingly more considerable if fewer they are. Now with many Europeanss consumer confidence declining, they have been more willing to buy cost-effective products but willingness to pay extra cost for a brand greatly reduced, which weakened the market competitiveness of Haier as a brand. Moreover, even though Haier Europes products are manufactured and sold in local market, most of their design work is still done in China, which may also affect the Europeans perceptions of Haiers products to a certain extent (Temporal, 2006, p89). à ¢- The bargaining power of suppliers Suppliers of Haier are those who provide inputs such as capital, material, special manpower, services and so on. Now Haier still remain highly dependent on foreign key components and technologies, such as high-performance electronic-motors, compressors, controllers and so on (Bell, 2008, p171). Lacking its own core technology, Haier is forced to rely on those suppliers offering technology and result in its bad situation. à ¢- The threat from substitute products or services Haier is a comprehensive home appliance manufacture making a wide range of products, and energy need to be put in each category, whether it is small or huge. So compared with those who specializes in just one aspect, Haiers specialization would be unavoidably challenged. What is equally important, Crum and Goldberg(1998) suggest that the threats to a focal company may derive from not only the firms giving customers equivalent alternatives, but also those applying new technology, new materials or even new methods of running a business. Despite of increasing R ¼Ã¢â‚¬  D efforts, Haiers lack of technological patent in developed markets is still serious (Bell, 2008, p171). 3.2 Marketing Strategy of Haier in Europe Haiers marketing strategy in Europe, known as a pivotal part of its internationalization strategy, aims at positioning the company as a local brand there (Wankel, 2009, p325). In the procedure of its Global Brand, Haier experienced a magnificent practice, which was also forward-looking and transformative. Any industry has its fixed period, so does the household appliances industry. After full development of competition, the space to further grow decreased sharply and the market has fell fall into a state of relative saturation. What is worse, due to currently existing homogenization among household appliances enterprises, senseless rounds of price wars overwhelmed, declining the expected profits. Now one most pressing problem facing Haier is determined by its overall strategic positioningwhether to hope the future value space of home appliances industry can slowly grow and continue to dedicate energies on it, or to further extend its industry chain to create a multi-products enterprises to avoid the natural-cycle issue of the appliance industry. This is a process that need prudent decisions-making. Combining with the Ansoff Matrix, Haiers risks and corresponding actions are discussed. As can be seen from the Figure 2.2, the lowest risk option is to continue to sell the same products into the existing market, or to attempt to grow by internal development. Unsatisfactory, the household appliance industry market has been saturated and the demand of the product obsolescent or at least decline, such a strategy may not realize acceptable results for Haier Europe. Then next options to be considered are to supply a new product to the current market, or to market the present product to a new market (Faulkner and Bowman, 1995, p80). Of course, the risk to bear will also ascend to a certain extent. In general, the above three options are most common and relatively insurance for Haier Europe. Only in few exceptional contexts should the option to market an unfamiliar product to an unfamiliar market be thought over. As the business is moving into a market which it has little even no experience in, the potential risks are excessively high. Having weighing the affordable risks an d the effects of each strategy, Haier Europe draw up the following-described marketing actions: à ¢- to penetrate the marketas the core strategy, Haier make greater marketing efforts to increase the makret share of its existing products. In accordance with the sequence from low to high, brand divided into the cheap brand, the economy brand, the standard brand, the high-performance brand, the high-quality brand and the luxury one (China Marketing, 2008, p96-98). When first entering Europe, Haier has declared its goal as to occupy the high-end market, meaning that it has abandoned the cheap and the economy brand. However, compared to the luxury goods, the appliance has no obvious features and group properties, so it still belong to the general category of consumer products; and lack particularity and competitive advantages. So for Haier who position its core business in the home appliance industry, the luxury market is not its target. Therefore, Haier has taken efforts to become a dominance in the standard, high-performance and high-qualtiy market, which is profitable enough. To root even to further consolidate and develop, on the one hand, Haier Europe sold more or increased share of its products; on the other hand, i t vigorously push the internationalization of its product design forward in Europe. Besides, whenever it is up-swing of a business cycle or recession, Haier has always focused on its core product, around which it form the products cluster; and according to the consumption power of consumers and their demands about the function, the costs etc. to modify its products. Even though having developed diversified products and began to regulate its industrial chain, Haier Europes focal product is always the refrigerator. With key energy put on this item, Haier succeed to enhance the level of product quality, reduce production costs and improve technical design standards, making up its product line gap, squeezing more market share of competitors and becoming the leader in refrigerator category in European market. à ¢- to extend market, that is, Haier try to enter all of European potential markets for its present principal line and also extend present products or service that could extend present line in present Europeans market (Reed et al, 2007, p21). When Haier began to launch its seeding stage in Europe in the end 1990s, it attempted to extend its existing products like refrigerators into this new market. To enter new international markets, unlike other Chinese companies who usually use mergers and acquisitions as a way or corporate with local well-known enterprises to access the market and the technology, Haier followed the model to extend market by building factories or sales channels (Advantage, 2010, p45). Yet Haier Europe does not blindly built its factory or channels, only after its target market fully developed, then it would consider to construct the plants. Furthermore, Haier has always been seeking to penetrate into the high-end market in Europe, trying to find more potential emerging markets to obtain more source of profits or opportunities. Haiers water heater is such a successful example. Having get cumulative advantage in European low-end market, in 2009, Haier introduced a new water heater, which effectively integ rated a number of leading technique and more concerned with the fashion and technology, marking its water heater taking the offensive to enter the European high-end market. What paid off is that its Cheong enjoy series win the 2009 Germany industry IF Awards and has become the first Chinas electric water heater to receive this award among similar products (SourceJuice, 2009). Undoubtedly, this success assure Haier to get a broader developing space and broke the unfavorable situation that Chinese household appliance business can only hold European low-end market. Apart from all these, Haiers products in Europe did not copy the design of domestic ready-made ones, but are tailored in the light of the European consumers characteristics. In 2007, Haier introduced a group of TV having various types and white shell, which was specially designed for the Europeans and in line with their sense of beauty (Sina, 2007). à ¢- to develop product, new products have been a source of fascination and excitement of a corporation as the age of mass production has began (Clark, 1991, preface), and this is true to Haier, too. When promoting the harvesting phase, on the basis of gradual maturation of European market and finished establishment of its own local sales and R ¼Ã¢â‚¬  D facilities, Haier offer new differentiated products to open up new markets. Moreover, when Haier has developed to a certain accuracy and depth in the household appliance field, its inevitable choice is to use product mix as an important tool to steady itself. It is just under this circumstance that Haier produce other home appliances such as computers and mobile phones in Europe. Unfortunately, the main source of its profit still generated from refrigerators and washing machines, but the market share of its computer and cell phone was poor for a long time. Their meager profits seriously impair Haiers competitiveness as a brand. Soon after then, Haier has turned to products improvement, products innovation and costs reduction to rise their competitiveness. à ¢- to diversify, which is contented to stabilize Haiers earnings and diversified its development. Haier has been conscious that the profit todays household appliance industry itself can get is so little that it is not sufficient to support Haier to earn extra benefits of marketing and service. So since the 1990s, Haier started to formulate a systematic and multi-dimensional industrial portfolio, which aims to expanding its business portfolio and avoiding the single cycle of appliance industry through reasonable combination of industry. Now Haier is mainly engaged in home appliances, concurrently involves a wide range of other industry like the information, the bio-pharmaceutical, the finance, the real estate and so on. In short, the trinity of local design, local production and local sales is the ultimate goal of Haiers internationalization strategy. In Europe, its emphasis lay in promoting differentiated high-end products of Haier and establishing its image as a local brand, then promoting the selling of its full line of products. 3.3 Marketing Mix of Haier in Europe Haiers marketing mix is known as the Haier Model, a model that committed to building standard international branding, which is characterized by unified and standard elements in all the marketing mix elements, in addition to all the necessary tactical adjustments (Kee, 2009, 357). To sum up, its marketing mix is distinctive. à ¢- Product Ingredientsalways being the most significant element in Haier Europes development. Haiers development objective is to create Chinas world-famous brand. In its Global Building phase, Haier has always concentrated on high-end technology, attempting to open up the European market with its high-tech products. Haiers refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and other products are all the forerunners to adopt the most advanced technology, having created one after another number one and uniqueness. With its high-tech products being introduced continuously, Haier does not only bring about new concept of fashion and consumption, but also lead a new trend of market consumption. What is more, the products philosophy that Haier always pursue is the goal to innovative is to create valuable orders. So Haier Europe has always firmly grasped product innovationthe lifeline of enterprise development and established a market-oriented product innovation, that is a Ring Product Development Mechanism, requesting product

Little Victories Build Writers :: Writing Authors Literature Essays

Little Victories Build Writers In Chapter 12 of Creating Writers, Spandel beautifully comments on page 364 that â€Å"little victories build writers,† (Spandel 2001). This statement, as short and simple as it may sound, was the underlying theme from this week’s readings, whether it entails mini-lessons on fiction, constant feedback and revision, or offering positive praise on students’ writing. It is the little corrections, little care, and the little ‘point in the right direction’ that helps students reach their potential as writers. There were so many anecdotes and examples Spandel offered her audience to demonstrate how important the quality and attitude comments are. I agree that feedback has been a booster and deterrent in my writing and I bet more than half our LLED class could concur. I especially loved the examples of negative feedback or â€Å"unconstructive feedback† that’s too general. â€Å"Be more concise, more specific, and needs work,† have been seen all too well. As educators, we must stop this! I refuse to become a teacher that students hate writing for. We must praise writers when they do well to increase their motivations and aspirations to become successful writers. I also greatly benefited from her suggestions to promote revision and student writing. Looking at a conference as a short â€Å"chat,† looking at the conference as a means to show the student you care about their writing, and using the conference for bouncing ideas off each other (one on one), are some great ideas. Peer review and peer edit are two other meaningful methods of writing assessment. I must admit, I didn’t think there was a definable difference between the two methods. I enjoyed her explanations of assigning letter grades to numeric- 6 trait grading. I was under the misconception that a 5=A, 4=B, 3=C and so on. Spandel clarified that well for me. However, I find her opinion of grading unrealistic. I feel students need competition and a goal. Sometimes it helps students if extrinsic goals compliment or spark the students’ intrinsic goals. Especially in an era of raising and testing for standards, grades are necessary and inevitable.

Indigenous People Essay

The term indigenous has caused controversy across the world as some people see it an offensive name to describe people, the name is not the only thing that has caused a controversy also the people that this name applies to. Hence there have been many definitions of this word to try and make it more euphemism. Kuper (2003) agrees that this term causes a lot of debate. He argues that however most people prefer the word indigenous because it’s more euphemism than the term native and primitive, he also points out the fact that the name of the people that are seen as indigenous have also changed. We now have for example, Saami for Lapp, Inuit for Eskimo and San for Bushman† (Kuper, 2003:389). According to Kenrick and Lewis (2004) there are four principles that should be considered when defining indigenous people which are; â€Å"priority in time, with respect to the occupation and use of a specific territory, the voluntary perpetuation of cultural distinctiveness, self identification as well as recognition by other groups and state authorities , as a distinct collectivity and an experience of subjugation, marginalization, dispossession, exclusion or discrimination† (Kenrick and Lewis, 2004:5) . Indigenous people across the world are constantly fighting for recognition, they want what is rightfully theirs that is their land they also want their culture back as they are forced to adapt to the culture of the majority. This essay will look at debates around the efforts that they have made to try and bring back their culture. â€Å"Indigenous people are constrained to present their culture in ways that reinforce the dominant society’s worldview† (Kenrick and Lewis, 2004:9). As stated above indigenous people are fighting for recognition as they are treated unfair by their governments, as a result of colonization they had to stop practicing their rituals, hunt and gather food because they were forced to adopt to the western way of doing things. Even Kuper (2003) agrees to this when He states that indigenous people â€Å"demand recognition for alternative ways if understanding the world, but ironically enough they do so in the idiom of western culture theory† (Kuper, 2003:395). An example would the Bushman of Botswana and the Abatwa people of KwaZulu-Natal. The San of Botswana were forced to move from where they were staying because according to their government they were living there illegally. They were placed in the Central Kalahari game reserve where they were not even allowed to hunt for food because it is against the law (Kuper 2003). Even â€Å"Environmentalists complained that that residents were keeping donkeys that interfered with the game and that they were engaged in poaching† (Kuper, 2003:393). They found themselves restricted by rules as to what they should and should not do; they were restricted by the law when they had to practice their rituals and culture. It became worse when the â€Å"Botswana court refused to order the government to continue to provide services to people living in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve† (Kuper, 2003: 392). They found themselves working which was something that they were not used to do. It can be argued that this change must have affected them emotionally as one now had work to support their own family. Bushman rely on each other on almost everything as sharing is one of their characteristics; they share things like Tobacco, meat and plant food that was gathered. The Botswana government was unfair and inconsiderate in a way; what happens to households where there is an elderly person who can’t look for work? Or households where people have been trying to look for work and have no luck? Because people now used money to satisfy their needs and wants they no longer depended on natural resources that they used to share, sharing what you’ve worked hard for is hard. The Bushman of KwaZulu-Natal usually known as Abatwa were facing similar problem to that of the San of Botswana. They were also restricted by law when they had to perform their rituals, especially from the provincial heritage organization called Amafa. According to Francis (2010) â€Å"Amafa has acknowledged that the Abatwa people are the descendents of the painters, but limits their access to their heritage. By dictating who could enter and when, Amafa impinged on the community and what it felt was their rights† (Francis, 2010: 48). As stated above the Abatwa people are not in control of their heritage there are people who make decisions for them regarding what is rightfully theirs. Francis (2010) states that there is a fence around the paintings and rocks that belong to the Abatwa people. He states the Abatwa people â€Å"feel ostracized from their heritage and dread future dealings with Amafa, already their general access to the rock art sites is restricted and as such they rarely visit the main caves. † (Francis, 2010: 48). The Amafa use the Abatwa heritage to attract tourists and make money, they also use them for educational tours where students studying archeology come and study those rocks (Francis, 2010) That doesn’t end there Francis (2010) also point out that their rituals are a public thing instead of private as they are people guarding them when they perform them, they are also ordered not to touch these rocks. There are also a limited number of people that must attend rituals. Despite of all the challenges that these people face they still did not given up on trying to assert their indigenous identities. An example would be again of the Abatwa people of KwaZulu-Natal. According to Francis (2010) these people are Zulu speakers who decided to â€Å"reassert a San/Bushmen ethnicity in a region where all San are supposedly extinct or fully assimilated† (Francis, 2010: 41). They live in the Drakensberg Mountains and have done so much to re-event their culture, they do that with help of archaeologists, anthropologists, they read and also their memories by remembering the pieces of their past (Francis, 2010). Since they cannot remember all the ceremonies that their ancestors use to do they came up with new ones, these ceremonies follow up â€Å"from other cultural practices and beliefs and oral memories that can be traced back six generations to a point when the ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers† (Francis, 2010:42). The most practiced ceremony that they made up is called the eland ceremony which is to honor the crossing of the dead into afterlife where they live with their ancestors (Francis, 2010). According to Francis (2010) the eland ceremony â€Å"has a central figure in San cosmology long before the advent of colonialism† (Francis, 2010:45). This ceremony shows the struggle that the Abatwa are going through in trying to reclaim their identity, as some of them have left their culture and followed the dominant ethnic group (Francis, 2010). These ceremonies that they perform are a â€Å"defiant refusal to give what is gone† (Francis, 2010:49). The Abatwa do so much to claim their identity back, they feel that regardless of what they lost the little they have is worth keeping (Francis, 2010). One of the major challenges that indigenous people have face is the fact that people expect them to behave like their fore fathers. According to Besten (2011) there has been a debate going on about how indigenous people have changed. In nowadays many of them do not practice their rituals, they do not wear their traditional clothing and they do not speak the languages of their ancestors. Besten (2011) argues that there has been a lot a stereotyping of the indigenous people, many scholars still expect them to do exactly what their ancestors were doing. He states that â€Å"Popular image suggest definite and unchanging markers of Khoe-Sanness, such a being short in stature, having yellow-brown skin, using click languages, hunting, gathering or herding and wearing clothing made from animal skins† (Besten, 2011:176). It can be argued that the fact that indigenous people have changed and adapted to western ways of doing things might have an impact on them not taken serious in trying to reassert their identities. As stated in the first part of this essay indigenous people were forced to lose their identities by adapting to the western ways of thing and according to Besten (2011) that has backfired. Besten (2011) states that indigenous people â€Å"are not likely to be taken seriously if they do not conform to, or approximate their primordialist and essentialist expectations† (Besten, 2011:179). According to Besten (2011) indigenous people who are lacking the qualities mentioned above are called fake. The above statements suggest that if indigenous people want to be recognized and taken seriously by people they must go back to their ancient ways of doing thing which is not easy as their lands and identities were taken and there are laws now that restrict them from doing their rituals. Indigenous people do not need to conform to certain labels that are put on them in order to be recognized. The media and scholars have played a major role in this stereotyping of indigenous people. â€Å"A primordalist and essential discourse about the Khoe-San has manifested itself at various sites, notably in museums, the media and school history books† (Besten, 2011: 177). In almost all museums around the world San people are projected as â€Å"Quintessential human beings of nature† (Besten, 2011: 182). They are shown with grass house, wearing animal skins or half naked children with big tummies. Besten (2011) argues that westerners longing to see Bushman led to exploitation of these people. He made an example of the Khomani people who lived in Kagga Kama how they were stereotypically presented in the media (Besten, 2011). To help market the Kagga Kama Khomani were asked to demonstrate a â€Å"vulnerable , natural hunter-gathering way of life with the help of reserve owners† (Besten, 2011:186). These people were asked to fake who they were so that they can attract tourists, they were asked to wear their traditional clothing and grass houses were built to live in (Besten, 2011). These people used the San culture for their own benefit, they portrayed them the exact same way that people expect them to be. In an effort to claim their identities and to be recognized, indigenous people have managed to take the stereotyping to their advantage. They have decided to embrace those stereotypical characteristics. In every conference or public gathering that they were invited to they would wear they traditional clothes and speak their languages. According to Besten (2011) in a conference on Oudtshoorn a Bushman who spoke ! Xun language opened and closed the ceremony with prayed He pointed the fact that this prayer not only â€Å"reflected the religiosity of conferee, but were also significant acts of cultural, linguistic and psychological affirmation† (Besten, 2011:184). Also in a conference that was held in South Africa Cultural and History Museum a Khoe-Khoe chief was wearing his eye-catching traditional clothing which was a veil and headband bearing leopard design (Besten, 2011) , telling people to take pride in their culture and origin. When Sara Baartman the Khoe-San woman whose body was displayed in a museum in France’s remain came to be buried in South Africa the Neo-inqua chief performed traditional Khoe-San ritual which included burning aloes and sprinkling water all over her coffin (Besten, 2011). The above scenarios illustrate the efforts that they have tried in claiming back their identity and how they have taken these stereotypical characteristics that people have about them and embraced them. In conclusion indigenous people have done a lot to try and reclaim their identity but it seem like their efforts are falling on deaf ears. They are not taken seriously by their government and they are expected to fit in a stereotype in order to be recognized. Their efforts are exploited and misused by their governments. They are used as tourist attraction by some people their governments are fully aware of that but they are not doing anything about it. When they want to perform their rituals they are not given privacy that they deserve not only privacy but they cannot even access their heritage. But they still do not give up, each and every day the struggle continues.

Creative Photography Essay

What are three examples of forms of music? One example of forms of music Describe each form. What is form in music? Critical Thinking Questions Music has sometimes been referred to as a â€Å"universal language. † Why has this description been applied to music? Emotions are a common feeling shared among human beings. Music communicates so many things that everyone can understand without having to speak a word . It communicates love, frustration, hatred, war, friendship, commerce, marriage, separation, unity, confusion. Music is referred to as a Universal language Do you agree or disagree with this assessment? Yes I agree Why? Music is universal it provokes the same feelings no matter what kind or style it is music cultivates everyone’s inner feelings. and thoughts Why is musical notation important? Musical nation is important What benefits do musicians and others receive from being able to write down and note aspects of a musical piece? In the first part of the module, we discussed how music is everywhere in society. What are some of the ways that we use music? How do you use music in your own life? Music can help influence the mood or feeling in a place by the way in which it is played. What is a specific example of this that you have experienced? Discuss the experience (what was the song? how was it played? how did the mood/feeling change? ). For example, you might discuss an experience at a concert, religious service, or another place where music played a part in creating the mood.

Why you sould keep a small book launch street team

Why you sould keep a small book launch street team "Keep a Small but Dedicated Street Team" - Interviewing Eliot Peper Eliot Peper is an author we've been following quite closely at Reedsy. Maybe it's because he started publishing around the same time we got started. Or maybe it's because we think alike in terms of publishing, marketing, building connections, etc.Last month, he released the last book in his "Uncommon Stock" trilogy: Exit Strategy. So we decided to interview him again to see what he had learned between his first book launch and his third one. Turns out, he's learned a lot, and is sharing a particular piece of knowledge with us: "small is beautiful"!Play the video  below to learn how Eliot was able to build a small but ultra-dedicated "street team" to launch his books (with a 70%+ conversion rate). As usual, for the lovers of the written word, we also provide a transcript of the key learnings from this interview! Today, Eliot’s third book is launching and I was one of the lucky people who got an advance copy - and it's awesome!  Eliot, why don’t you introduce yourself and talk about your trilogy?Sure - this book is called â€Å"Uncommon Stock: Exit  Strategy† from the the Uncommon series which is a tech start-up thriller which follows a college student who drops out to start a startup software company and ends up becoming embroiled in an international financial conspiracy along the way. So, people have compared it to John Grisham for tech in the sense that it's a thriller that takes place in the startup world.Yeah, I really empathize with the character and it’s an awesome book for all startup founders out there. I’d say it’s better to read that than a non-fiction book on e.g. fundraising or growing your startup. As to your book marketing, you have said that you really appreciate that your readership is small: it’s a niche. Why is that?This is the third book I’ve written and secretly, when you write a book, in the back of your head, you would love it if there was mainstream appeal. Once the creative side is done, you have to then put on a different hat: now this piece of art is becoming a product, how does it reach the marketplace and how do readers find it? When I started I tried pitching major news magazines to get coverage and doing things that took so much energy by didn’t really have much Return on Investment. But when you read blogs on how books become bestsellers, that seems like what we should be doing.For the second book, I approached it much differently. I went to Amazon reviews and left comments â€Å"Hey, I really like your review. As an Indie author this means a lot to me. If you’d like an advance copy of the next one, send me an email.† I was amazed! Over 70% of people responded and I was shocked!Now that I’m with book three, I’m thinking again. Fundamentally, Ià ¢â‚¬â„¢ve become much, much more interested in serving a few of my core readers and putting all my energy into that. That’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. I realized this is the bit that mattered, in the 99% of hot air that I blew. With me, I sent out a mailing list to a small list of people I knew who could be interested in the book. As they hadn’t opted in for a mailing list, a lot of people unsubscribed, but I was left with a core group that I could focus on.Let’s get granular†¦ how are you doing it?Firstly I wrote the book! Then I asked 16 beta readers to give me feedback and 9 people who actually gave feedback. This was whilst I was doing editing with my actual editor. Once we had a copy with multiple revisions, design, formatting into all the format, I then built a list of advance review copy readers. These readers are different: I’m not expecting advanced editorial feedback, but the goal for them is that they are fans who are excited enou gh to read the book before it launches, leave an Amazon review, catch any minor errors and be the champions of the book.I reached out to 126 people, but, critically, I sent them a very short email. I didn’t just send them an advance copy right away, I asked if they would like to be included. My hope was, if people said yes, they would  have a much higher chance of actually leaving a review. It acted as a useful filter. This was about a month before launch. I also had a separate list of friends and influencers who had some history with the books before, and who might have a larger audience to share their enthusiasm with.Even on my Facebook post, I’ve learnt something: what I found was that for the first book, my post was an announcement, with links to Amazon. This time, because it’s my dog’s birthday, I took a picture of my dog, put the three books in front of her and took a few more funny pictures, making the post more personal. The reason why my approa ch has changed is because I realized that, for the first book, I was approaching the book from my perspective. â€Å"It would be great for me if people shared my book.† Or â€Å"It would be great for me if a journalist picked it up†. So essentially it was really selfish and comes across as self-promotional.Now I think: as a user of Facebook, what posts do I like best? Really putting your audience first, before thinking about yourself, is the best way to get perspective, even in the hailstorm of personal self-doubt that is a book launch.Yes, and if you’ve got a real connection with you readers, you feel more comfortable in sharing more personal things. Thanks for your time, and congrats on getting the Uncommon Stock trilogy out there! "Really putting your audience first is the best way to get perspective" @EliotPeper #bookmarketing @ReedsyHQ The entire "Uncommon Stock" trilogy is available on Amazon! Check it out here!  How big is your "street team"? Do you agree that keeping a small audience makes it easier for the author to promote his books? Leave us your thoughts, or any questions for Elliot, in the comments below!

Health Curriculum and No Child Left Behind Act Research Paper Example

Health Curriculum and No Child Left Behind Act Research Paper Example Health Curriculum and No Child Left Behind Act Paper Health Curriculum and No Child Left Behind Act Paper The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a program enacted by the Bush administration to answer necessities of implementing bipartisan solutions to fortify the foundation of the educational system in the United States. Concepts framing the NCLB involve granting accountability to the federal, state, and local governments as well as educational institutions regarding academic performance of students, implementing programs and utilizing facilities and resources that highly contribute to learning, providing funds to the grassroots level of educational administration, and empowering parents to become involved in their children’s education. (Bush, 2008) The government is expecting that the NCLB will result to improved educational quality and standards by providing comprehensive educational programs and opportunities to disadvantaged children, focusing on improving the field of teaching, incorporating programs that promote fluency in the English language. Informing parents of educational plans and choices suited for their children, structuring educational institutions to uphold safety and wellbeing of children, increased funding for granting educational aids and other forms of assistance to underprivileged, and granting accountability to stakeholders. (Bush, 2008) The NCLB is a major contributing factor in improving the current status of education in the country. For instance, health concerns perceived by educational institutions led to the development of curricula that are framed within the context of children’s health interests. Other concerns drafted under the framework of health curricula include self-management in terms of looking out for one’s health and wellbeing, promotion of healthy choices, and teaching a variety of concepts in health education. (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 1999) All these are directed towards establishing a healthy society for enhanced living and productivity. So how can these objectives be achieved, or how can educational institutions adapt the NCLB in order to enhance the teaching of a health curriculum to students? The answer lies in synthesizing concepts of the NCLB to health curricula to formulate content adhering to health education and promotion, while at the same time considering the needs of children in terms of health services in order to maximize learning opportunities. Initially, the NCLB may be applied in constructing a health curriculum. A health curriculum is sensitive of health issues such as literacy, promotion, and application of values and practices pertaining to health and well being. NCLB in the initial stages of drafting a health curriculum is able to materialize itself by considering physical, mental, and emotional aspects of student development. The objective of NCLB is to ensure that no one gets left behind in terms of education – meaning, that all students are able to acquire necessary education within their levels. With this in mind, initial considerations should include the background of the students. To fully realize the concept of NCLB under the context of health curriculum, the curriculum itself should be designed such that the students will be able to accomplish learning objectives under it. The health curriculum should be designed such that it is sensitive to the learning needs and individual differences of the students. In addressing this primary concern, programs and activities under the health curriculum will ensure that all students will be able to grasp specific concepts within their own learning skills and capabilities as learners. Generally, the preparedness of students is being identified in all three aspects – the physical, emotional, and mental learning needs.   Considering physical needs involve asking questions such as, â€Å"are students prepared to carry out physical activities demanded by the health curriculum?† This includes monitoring physical skills and abilities in order to structure attainable and realistic kinesthetic health activities. Emotional needs include the learners’ capacity to accept and give value to health concepts as they are revealed to them. One very sensitive issue when it comes to health literacy is the concept of puberty and gender differences. In this case, teachers should gauge whether learners are ready to confront these personal and perceptive issues during the learning process. Learning needs pertaining to mental capacity involves questioning the ability of students to comprehend health concepts. Teachers should ask themselves whether students are already able to give meaning and interpret health concepts as they are. (Lewallan, 2004) Aside from considering these learning needs, teachers should also address individual differences. The rate of growth and development for each learner differs. There are fast learners and late bloomers. Some learners might be skilled in physical activities but weak in mental exercises. To address these concerns, application of the NCLB in a health curriculum is needed in order to formulate a flexible curriculum that appropriate to the learning styles and individual differences of the learners. To prove contrast, if a health curriculum is strictly standardized, aiming at a singular learning objective through same levels of learning activities and programs, say for instance practical health examinations, only those skilled physically will be able to experience success and accomplish learning objectives. How about students who are not skilled in physical examinations but exhibit excellence in mental activities? Health curricula drafted under the NCLB should be flexible to individual differences, varying learning styles, and learning needs. (Lewallan, 2004) Bush, G. W. (2008). â€Å"Foreword by President George W. Bush.† Retrieved from The White House. 09 Sep 2008. whitehouse.gov/news/reports/no-child-left-behind.html Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (1999). â€Å"Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework – October 1999.† Retrieved September 9, 2008, from Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Website: doe.mass.edu/frameworks/health/1999/core.html

Reaction Essay on Global Warming

Reaction Essay on Global Warming Reaction Essay on Global Warming The major purpose of a reaction essay is to allow the writer to carefully assess his or her feelings or thoughts concerning a given topic. With this purpose in mind, the tips on writing a good reaction paper are very simple. The obvious need is to obtain a clear understanding of the phenomenon to which one is required to react. In the process, one must evaluate his or her feelings concerning that phenomenon. This involves identifying the arguments with which one concurs, and those that he/she opposes. It is also helpful for the writer to consider whether he or she agrees with related allegations. It is a fact that the world is experiencing a significant climate change, as is evident in unpredictable weather patterns. This has led to an international discussion of global warming and its threat to future existence of life on earth. For example, it is difficult to predict each year what geographic locations will experience rainfall and to what extent. Additionally, ice caps are melting, resulting in the rise of the sea level in some low-laying land areas, many of these highly populated with people. Furthermore, for the past couple of years, world media has aired news of huge wildfires in a number of locations world-wide. Moreover, deadly heat waves are occurring more frequently. Severe storms have also been witnessed in various parts of the world, causing loss of human lives and destruction of property. In addition, severe droughts that had hitherto never been experienced are becoming commonplace in many countries. These are concrete examples that global warming is a real threat . With these concerns in mind, scientists have warned that mankind is to experience more serious consequences if immediate action is not taken to address the issue of global warming. One  incontestable fact is that global warming is presently occurring. How else can one explain the alarming rise in the earth’s temperature, if it is not because of global warming? The trend of rising temperatures is clear, at least by observing the standard surface temperature all over the world. Before the start of the millennium, the situation was relatively better than it presently is. Rainfall was pretty predictable, and surface temperature was generally lower than has been witnessed since 2000. This observation is sufficient to validate the hypothesis that global warming is bound to continue if the present patterns of human activity do not change in such a manner has to alleviate the problem. The implication is that human beings are the major cause of global warming. While governments in every nation have imposed environmental safety standards on manufactures and industries, it is regrettable that very few companies strictly observe such legislation. Industrial emissions are known to overload the atmosphere with too much carbon dioxide, which in turns traps heat, thereby driving the earth’s temperature up. Apart from industrial activities, human activities such as deforestation generate huge carbon dioxide emissions, particularly in tropical countries. Since evidence strongly indicates human beings are the cause of global warming, the inference is that human beings can slow down global warming and its damaging effects. Through collaborative efforts, the world’s nations can take immediate action to lower carbon an emission, consequently decelerating the pace at which global warming occurs. This action is of utmost urgency and importance since it determines the viability of future generations. Success in minimizing global warming can only be achieved by involving everyone. For instance, elected leaders must be put under pressure to pass necessary legislation. At the individual level, proper waste disposal must be practiced. Tips on reaction essay writing: To compose a good reaction essay on any topic, the writer needs to conduct some research on that topic. For example, if you are not fully aware of the causes and effects of global warming and how it impacts mankind, you would need to read some studies before writing a reaction essay on global warming. Otherwise, how do you know what your thoughts are on the topic? Do not forget to take notes as you read and to develop an outline for your paper. This will make the writing process go smoother and easier for you. To finalize your essay, you might read the reaction essay aloud, listening for correctness in grammar and word choice, as well as organization of ideas. Visit our essay writing service to order a custom essay on any global warming topics. will provide you with professional essay help at affordable rates.

Solar power for the state of Nevada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Solar power for the state of Nevada - Essay Example Interestingly, GIS offer a powerful way of establishing this through analysis of terrain as well as other geographical data. This project will attempt to establish the suitability of solar power for Nevada with the help of GIS. The hypothesis of this project will be "Solar energy is the most suitable option for fulfilling Nevada's power requirements" while the project will seek answer to the question "Is the use of solar energy the most suitable option for fulfilling Nevada's power requirements?†. This project will include use of ArcGIS software in modeling and analysis of geographical data. The project will also compare the suitability of solar energy with other renewable energy resources and how the use of solar option would transform Nevada. The research done is this project is expected to be useful for Nevada authorities in their attempt to seek the best alternative energy source.

Law Tort Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Law Tort - Case Study Example Keown also suffered from changes in the brain that led him to be convicted of several sexual offences later in his life. The claimant stated that as the premises had no suggestion that the fire escape was fragile, the claimant suffered his injuries because of the poor state of the premises. The NHS Trust which owned the property pointed out that Mr. Keown could be treated as a trespasser when he climbed the fire escape. Considering the danger of the state of the premises, the Trust was asked to pay a third of the damages to the claimant and the Trust appealed. The Trust placed their defence that the fire escape was not by itself dangerous and Justice Lewinson ruled that there was no reason of any danger due to the state of the premises and thus the claimant's appeal failed. The relevant cases which were cited in order to provide a judgment on this case include Donoghue v Folkestone Properties Ltd [2003] QB 1008, [2003] EWCA Civ 231 in which a young adult had dived into Folkestone harbour after midnight in mid-winter and struck his head on an underwater pile. The court ruled that there are some features within certain premises that are not inherently dangerous but which may tempt a person on the land to indulge in an activity which carries a risk of injury. In this case for Kweon, although the premises were not dangerous, his own actions seem to have caused him personal injury.

HW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

HW - Essay Example For example, will you limit your clientele, or be neutral? The quiz highlighted only some minor areas that may be uncomfortable, such as discovering sexual orientation of people, who was initially believed to be traditionally heterosexual. As such, in my professional life, I plan to manage seemingly uncomfortable situations by being holistically prepared to handle them. This means that I should have enough theoretical background on addressing sensitive issues and be emotionally, or even physically and mentally adept to respond and react accordingly. As such, I could assume a more neutral stance if I am well-equipped and prepared to handle unexpected uncomfortable situations. 3. What is your opinion on intersex and transgender athletes competing despite their differences from the norms of athletics? Is it cheating for a female with naturally very high levels of testosterone to compete with females? Is it fair to have a transgendered male to female individual compete against other females? In terms of intersex and transgender athletes competing despite their differences from the norms of athletics, I strongly believe that the law of equality and fair play should preside. This means that as long as these athletes perform and have shown competencies in their sports endeavors, the gender or sexual orientation should not be an issue. Thus, a female with naturally high levels of testosterone could compete with females, unless this factor would give unfair advantage. As such, if she has prior knowledge of this, I affirm that it should be disclosed to the sports committee prior to joining. In terms of having a transgendered male to female individual compete against other females, again, I believe that unless some factors inherent to them (transgendered male or female) would give unfair advantage, they could actually compete with other females. The sports

Assessment and Application of International Affairs Theories Essay

Assessment and Application of International Affairs Theories - Essay Example ce of international relations in the society, mainly the application of the IR theories in the aforementioned fields has immensely shaped human existence. The theoretical frameworks within the discipline assist in the explanation of the global activities/events, the identification of the most important international actors, and the different means of exertion of influence from the international platform. Moreover, the IR theories assist nations or heads of states and their foreign policy advisors during the conduction of foreign policy. There exist different IR theories that work towards the presentation of the critical events and happenings around the world. These theories assist governments in the processes of policy making, relations with other governments, and activities that occur among nations. These theories include liberalism, neo-liberalism, classical realism, constructivism, post-structuralism, Marxism, and post-modernism. These are not, however, the only IR theories. While some may be insufficient in the explanation of the aforementioned, there are theories that can be combined to offer an articulate elucidation of global events, government relations and foreign policy, and the issue of power and interaction. Among the outlined theories, liberalism, classical realism, and post structuralism are the most effective in the explanation the contemporary and past experiences in the world, and the actors that exert international influence. In addition, these theories are the most effective in offering heads of states the assistance they need in conducting foreign policy. The application of the liberalism theoretical framework of the international theory can offer an articulate explanation of the relations among governments, and major occurrences that involve decisions by the heads of states. The development of theory emanates from the society’s quest to explain the relations through the disregard of classical realism. However, emphasizes on the exploration

Port Security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Port Security - Research Paper Example In 2008, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated a total 8.17 billion tons of goods, or 80% of the global international trade to have passed through seaborne channels and ports worldwide3. However, there is no international standard for security being implemented worldwide, with port security at the mercy of the host countries4. In the United States, seaborne transportation systems are vital to the national and international commerce of the country. Approximately 95% or over $740 billion or 2 billion tons of products pass through marine ports5. As majority of commercial goods passing through maritime ports of entry, the United States Department of Homeland security recognized the necessity of ensuring that the supply chain necessary for economic activity and prosperity should not be disrupted. As economic growth relies on the supply system to provide the necessary products necessary for trade, the Department treats the supply with grave importance as it â€Å"feeds critical domestic infrastructure and support (America’s) way of life.†6 As President Barrack Obama put it, economic activity relies on the global supply system and any disruption on the system, either by natural or terrorist activities, can gravely â€Å"impact global economic growth and productivity†, thus the need to address the threats and ensure the continuous flow of supply vital to trade and the economy.7 Defence IQ defines port security as â€Å"security that refers to the defense, law and treaty enforcement, and counterterrorism activities that fall within the port and maritime domain. It includes the protection of the seaports themselves, the protection and inspection of the cargo moving through the ports, and maritime security.†8 Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the necessity of securing ports of entries came under greater attention. As the New York Times reported in an article in 2012, many terrorists

Ways in which The Internet Has changed political interactions globally Essay

Ways in which The Internet Has changed political interactions globally - Essay Example Through the internet, people have been able to interact with leaders online through social media like face book where they ask questions and the leaders respond immediately. In this way, leaders are held accountable while they also get a chance to explain their challenges to their constituents. Political parties have also used internet to raise campaign funds (Bruce and Richard 64). In the United States of America, Barrack Obama is credited to have used social media to campaign for the presidency and to raise funds. This helped him to reach so many people within a very short time contributing to his popularity and subsequent election to the presidency. In the Middle East, the president of Egypt was ousted from power as people used the social media to mobilise as many people as possible to come together and demand the resignation of President Mubarak. The social sites like Twitter were used to share information with the rest of the world including sending pictures of the situation on the ground and this made the whole world to condemn the manner in which protesters were beaten and harassed by the government. Eventually the international community joined min and demanded the resignation of the Egyptian president. The internet has therefore contributed to the growth of democracy min the global politics. Internet has also influenced global political interactions with the emergence of e-government. This has given the government a channel through which it can interact with the citizens with an intention of getting feedback and increasing citizen’s participation in decision-making. Government’s openness in doing business is therefore enhanced, as every expenditure of its revenue is questioned hence reducing chances of corruption in government transactions. Political parties have adopted, online voter registration, as they will reach many

Port Security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Port Security - Research Paper Example In 2008, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated a total 8.17 billion tons of goods, or 80% of the global international trade to have passed through seaborne channels and ports worldwide3. However, there is no international standard for security being implemented worldwide, with port security at the mercy of the host countries4. In the United States, seaborne transportation systems are vital to the national and international commerce of the country. Approximately 95% or over $740 billion or 2 billion tons of products pass through marine ports5. As majority of commercial goods passing through maritime ports of entry, the United States Department of Homeland security recognized the necessity of ensuring that the supply chain necessary for economic activity and prosperity should not be disrupted. As economic growth relies on the supply system to provide the necessary products necessary for trade, the Department treats the supply with grave importance as it â€Å"feeds critical domestic infrastructure and support (America’s) way of life.†6 As President Barrack Obama put it, economic activity relies on the global supply system and any disruption on the system, either by natural or terrorist activities, can gravely â€Å"impact global economic growth and productivity†, thus the need to address the threats and ensure the continuous flow of supply vital to trade and the economy.7 Defence IQ defines port security as â€Å"security that refers to the defense, law and treaty enforcement, and counterterrorism activities that fall within the port and maritime domain. It includes the protection of the seaports themselves, the protection and inspection of the cargo moving through the ports, and maritime security.†8 Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the necessity of securing ports of entries came under greater attention. As the New York Times reported in an article in 2012, many terrorists

Assignment 5 questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

5 questions - Assignment Example The method of collaborative inventory management or transshipment can be used to regulate the inventory level so as to face the unanticipated demands from the customers. A reduced inventory level results in non- satisfaction of the needs of the customers and it also may entail an increase in the holding cost. Transshipment helps to reduce the inventory cost and to improve excess levels of inventory. Scheduling is typically the last step in the makeover process prior to the actual output is produced.   Commonly, scheduling objectives handle tradeoffs between conflicting goals for proficient utilization of effort and equipment, inventory levels, lead time and the processing times. Efficiency is gained by a timetable that upholds high use of labor, space and equipment. The schedule also retains low inventories, which may unfortunately result in low efficiency because of shortage of material available or high setup times. Thus, a decision of tradeoff in scheduling among effectiveness and stock levels is necessary in short run. Efficiency can be increased in the long run by improving customer service, and concurrently cutting down stock by changing the production process during the time, while reducing cycle time and quality enhancement efforts. Scheduling, thus, is chiefly an activity in short-run that involves tradeoffs between differing objectives. Mohanty, R. P. & Deshmukh, S. G. (2005). Supply Chain Management Theories & Practices. Dream Tech Press. Retrieved from

An Analysis Of The Tui Group Tourism Essay

An Analysis Of The Tui Group Tourism Essay TUI a leading international leisure travel group which has over 200 different tourism brands around the world. The business activities of the TUI Group were attributed to the tourism, logistics and the former industry divisions. Objective of this report is to analyse the strategic position of TUI by applying various tools such as PESTLE, Five forces framework, SWOT and analyse and predict the future implications of its strategic capabilities using Generic strategy and Ansoffs matrix to the case study. Limitations of the tool applied are discussed with the analysis. 2.0 BACKGROUND TUI group earlier known as Hapag Touristik Union of Preussag launched itself in tourism market at the end of 1997 with the purchase of Hapag-Lloyd AG. TUI expended its business using the expansion strategy through acquisition, mergers, and investment through joint ventures all over Europe. TUI AG was spread in three sectors TUI Travel (tour operating, airlines and incoming agencies),  TUI Hotels Resorts  and the cruise ship business form the World of TUI. TUI AG holds, in addition, a financial investment in the container shipping industry. TUI in 2005 was the tour leaders with 3500 travel agencies in 17 countries with 37 incoming agencies. TUI owned more than 100 aircrafts and was the largest Hotelier in Europe with 285 hotels (Case study). Currently, the group owns 43,3 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd AG. In  the 2008 financial year  TUI AG returned a revenue of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬24.9 billion with total earnings (underlying EBITA) of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬759 million. As at 31 December 2008 the Group had 70,200 employees (TUI group, company profile). 3.0 ENVIRONEMNTAL ANALYSIS: To understand and apply the Environmental analysis on TUI it is essential to perform an internal and an external analysis. External analysis on an industry is further sub-divided in two environment macro-environment and micro-environment. In order to understand the likely impact of these environments on the tourism industry PESTEL analysis and Porters five forces is under taken for possible impacts on the industry competitive strength and advantage over competitors. 3.1 PESTLE ANALYSIS 3.1(a) POLITICAL Political factors have a moderate impact on the performance and the growth on tourism industry. Where Political instability generates negative publicity and the risk perception influences the tourists decisions which results in an unavoidable decrease in tourist arrivals (Hall and O Sullivan, 1996). On the other side Terrorism has led serious tourism crisis, and has been affecting the financial condition significantly in recent periods (Sonmez et al 1999). Terrorist attacks, the Iraq war has reflected a decline of approximately 6.6% in TUIs tourism turnover from the first six months of 2002 to the first six months of 2003 (excluding turnover contributed by Nouvelles Frontiers, which we acquired later in 2002). Health Crisis like SARS in 2003 has also had a traumatic effect on international travel (Case study). 3.1(b) ECONOMICAL Tourism is one of the growing industries, fuelling the growth and employment and has become a critical component of the world of economy. Due to Recession, a downward momentum was seen because most of the tourism operators were handicapped by the high level of fixed assets and less able to manage their airlines and hotel industry(case study). Fluctuations in fuel costs, Exchange rates and currency fluctuations, The Growth of low cost airlines has lead to economic risk in tourism industry. 3.1(c) SOCIO-CULTURE: Change in lifestyle has changed the demands of consumer; they have become more price sensitive and has increased its demand for new experiences. Consumer has developed a new attitude of WAIT AND SEE ATTITUDE (Reisinger 2009) facilitated by last minute purchase resulting in late bookings. As tourism involve movement of people to different locations which calls for cultural clashes. Tourism has also Led to commercialization of local culture, standardization of destinations and adaptation to tourist demands (coastlearn.org) 3.1(d) TECHNOLOGY Use of information technology gave a boost to tourism business for reservations and administrative operations. With the advent of the internet, tour operators can now spread out their activities and make available appropriate information, conquering new customers (Wyner, 2000). With launch of touropa.com in Germany, TUI captured a top position in European market in 2005 with a turnover of 2.6bn euro (Case study). Similarly in Island locations high-tech venue networking was adopted to attract new visitors and to communicate to tourists (The Daily Business Buzz, Nov. 2/09) 3.1(f) LEGAL Air Travel Organizers License ATOL Regulations were imposed on any person who advertises or sells air-inclusive holidays in the United Kingdom,granted by the Civil Aviation Authority. A number of TUIs businesses operating in the United Kingdom, including Thomson Holidays and Lunn Poly, hold ATOLs. There were many European and national restrictions on airline ownership which could loss of airline operating and route licenses and cause other adverse effects on tourism business. TUIs hotels and destination agencies are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the countries in which they operate and, on a periodic basis, must obtain various licenses and permits. They are subject to a broad range of labour, environmental and health and safety regulations in each jurisdiction in which they operate (Listing Memorandum, TUI group). 3.1(g) ENVIRONMENTAL: International tourism can play the role of both victim and villain when it comes to climate change(Holmes 2007 BBC news). To attain sustainability TUI is continuously improving on environmental performance, TUI focuses on ISO 14001 environmental standards. Hence TUI strongly supports the environmental protection policies like, species protection, nature protection and landscape protection. TUIs main area of concern is the efficient use of energy and climate protection. (TUI Group, environment management) 3.2 PORTERS FIVE FORCES FRAMEWORK: A firm needs to neutralise as many as possible of the five forcers in order to create competitive advantage.(Porter 1998) Porter defines five forces impacting a firms competitiveness- threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants in the industry, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, and the intensity of competition within the industry. Understanding the nature of each of these forces gives organizations the necessary insights to enable them to create the appropriate  strategies  to be successful in their market (Thurlby, 1998) . 3.2(a) Threat of New Entrants (Medium) For a new company to launch itself in the tourism industry needs a high investment and innovative ideas to sustain its presence in the highly competitive tourism market. The existing company have the capabilities of providing tailored deals on cheap prices because of their established brands and long chains of tour operator. TUI being the market leaders of tourism industry does not have much effect of threats developed by new entrants. 3.2(b) Bargaining Power of Buyers (High)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tourism industry fluctuates with the buyers changing needs. With increase in competition, buyers have a wider range of services to choose from hence the tourism industry are forced to comply with changing demands and needs of customers. As the switching cost is not too high Brand loyalty is low and with increase in purchasing power of a buyer the likelihood of travelling also increases. Buyers even eliminate the tour operators and prefer make a direct sale from suppliers (hotels, airlines ect). 3.3(c) Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Low)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   TUI uses backward integration which means it has its own suppliers; in fact TUI itself acts as its own suppliers. 3.3(d) Threat of Substitutes (High)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With the growing world of tourism there is a demand for strategic differentiation. Customers are looking for new experiences, diversified attractions around the world. The wide spread of TUI in Europe increases the threat of substitute due to growth of tourism industry in other parts of world. 3.3(e) Competitive Rivalry (medium) Tourism industry involves many competitors with an approach of performing better than the other. The competition level increases because of distribution of market based on the regional operators, privately owned, highly fragmented, and geographically marketed. Even though there was a moderate level of service differentiation, TUI has sustained the competition because of its brand and leadership in market 4.0 TUIS CURRENT POSITION AND STRATEGY: TUIs strategic goal is to create superior shareholder value by being a global leading leisure travel group providing customers with a wide choice of differentiated and flexible travel experiences to meet their changing needs. TUIs five strategic priorities for sustainable development are Embedding, Climate Change, Destinations, Our People and Our Customers (TUI Travel PLC, Strategy) . Since 1998 to 2005 main focus of TUI was on achieving cost control and differentiating its product in market. This was achieved by adopting Hybrid strategy which is a combination of differentiation, price and cost control (Campbell 2002) refer to Appendix (A). TUI creates enhancing margin quality through product differentiation by creating unique travel experiences for its customers which helps them achieve brand loyalty and competitive advantage. With controlled distribution process the cost of acquisition can be reduced and flexibility is achieved. The five key elements of TUI strategy: Expand our core tourism business Exploit synergies and cost efficiencies across our markets and products Leverage the benefits of our vertically integrated tourism model and our wide distribution network Identify new trends and exploit developments in the tourism industry Continue to grow our container shipping business Over the years TUI has maintained its position as the market leaders of tourism industry by covering all the stages of tourism value chain by owning its own travel agencies, hotels, incoming agencies, airlines and cruises (Business week 2009). It has positioned itself to be its own supplies, buyers and travel services and had become a strong example of vertical integration. Vertical growth can be accomplished by forward and backward integration. Though the vertical integration does not give 100 percent success guarantee in complete value chain, TUI has successfully build its business with selection of travel agencies in European market by having Thomas cook airlines with 100 aircrafts and owning more than 3000 travel agencies (case study). Vertical integration also helps in attracting more customers, differentiate its product and gain more power in market and gain economies of scale by reducing the coordination cost and reducing the profit margins of intermediaries (Enz 2009). Other advantages and disadvantages can be referred in Appendix (B). Major strengths on which TUI had built its leadership and its weaknesses which empowered them to overcome and maintain its position. 4.1 STRENGTHS: TUIs greatest strength is its brand recognition and fully integrated business model with wide spread distribution network to provide operational advantages. TUIs confidence is based on (i) ability to recover increases in input costs, (ii) flexible business model, (iii) delivery of merger synergies, and (iv) diversity of the Groups businesses(TUI Travel Plc, third quarter report). Appropriate strategic choices with the diverse work force and economic of scale in competitive marketing and efficient distribution has proved to be its core competence. TUIs global presence provides wide variety of holiday services and has successful container shipping business. 4.2WEAKNESS TUI Travels existing shareholder loan amounts to approximately  £900 million is the major drawback for TUI (financial times 2009). The consumers are increasingly holding off on booking holidays in order to save money in recession. Whereas limited bookings transparency (growing trend toward short-term travel bookings; uncertain earnings performance) has also effected the revenue growth of TUI. Another factor is the impact of seasonality on sustained growth and performance of nature based tourism. 5.0 CHANGING TRENDS AND TUIs FUTURE: 5.1 Key Drivers of change Beside PESTLE (Appendix (C)) it is important to identify the number of key drivers of changes which are forces likely to affect the structure of a business (Johnson et al 2005). To understand the drivers of changes in tourism industry it is required to analyse the change in consumers behaviour, lifestyle and priorities. In years to come the demographic shifts (ageing population), technology penetration, changes in work pattern, time pressure and changing modes of consumption (further destinations, greater expectations, more specialization) will make heavy impact on travel and tourism industry(Lockwood and Medlik 2002). According to Peter Long, chief executive of TUI Travel (sustainable development report 2008), Sustainability is one of the four key drivers for growth in TUI, the four main drivers for a sustainability programme for TUI Travel: Aviation and climate change Protecting destinations from the impact of climate change Protecting destinations from the impact of tourism Shifting demographics and consumer trends These aspects will analyse progress of TUI which is made towards providing holidays that cause minimal environmental impact, respect the culture and people of destinations, and offer real economic benefit to local communities. 5.2 Ansoffs Matrix According to Johnson et al. (2008) Ansoff Product/market growth can be used to analyse the implications of corporate strategy applied to look for the opportunities open to the industry. This matrix consists of four quadrants which are used to evaluate four types of strategic decision(Appendix (D)). It allows marketers to consider ways to develop the business via existing and/or new products, in existing and/or new markets. With an initial start in tourism business from end of 1997 to 1999 TUI saw a real scope of penetration of its business in German market with its existing products and aim to increase its market share. With a vision of new opportunities TUI expanded its horizons by stepping into European market in 2000 with complete dominance and strong market share with existing products in new markets by taking over Thomson travel group, Nouvelles Frontieres(France) and Fritidsresor(Scandinavia) developing its market. With time TUI focused on Product development and introduced low-cost travel airlines in 2003, setting up TUI china and then increased its cash flow by signing joint ventures in Russia. In 2005 with launch of a virtual tour operator, TUI captured the top position in tourism industry and was able to develop a successful brand Image. In 2005 TUI penetrated in most of the Europe, tourism division was subdivided into the five sectors Central Europe, Northern Europe, Western Europe, destinat ions and other tourism activities. TUI was diversifying geographically and that has helped to compensate the ups and downs of individual countries, which can be due to any macroeconomic factor. TUI has diversified geographically in Europe, India and China. They have also diversified in their business segments in logistics of container shipping department in order to achieve economies of scale. TUI opted consolidation for long term growth and global brand development to ensure cash flow from developed market in economic downturn hence TUI considered consolidation has one of their product and market strategy suggested by Johnson et al.(2008). 5.3 EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS OPPOURTUNITES Changes in emerging and fragmented markets provide greater opportunity for growth in TUI, acquisition and joint ventures can provide a platform to build stronger product portfolio. Improving TUIs local business, improving in marketing, sales and distribution can support growing demands for specialist holidays. Tour operators still have scope for consolidation by easing geopolitical tensions. Refer to Appendix (E) for more information about the opportunities and TUIs approach towards it. THREATS Protracted economic downturn has been a major threat to the tourism industry. Geopolitical uncertainties (terrorist attacks and natural calamities), operators relatively high debts, limited earning transparency of some companies and seasonal-led volatile earnings performances are some other setbacks for tourism industry. Less attention towards environment and global warming may cause a devastating impact on travel business. 6.0 LIMITATIONS OF TOOLS 6.1 PESTEL FACTORS PESTLE analysis is done to simplify the decision making process while following a strategy. PESTLE factors helps in identifying the past trend of an organisation on which future trends are identified. Practically PESTLE analysis makes it difficult for a company to analyse the entire macro-economic factor as it can be very time consuming and costly. In this fast changing environment, capturing adequate data might be difficult and capturing too much of data can cause Paralysis by analysis this predicted data might not be accurate. PESTLE does not help is finding out the level of uncertainty in an organisation. For effective results this process needs to be undertaken on regular basis. (Cipd, 2008). 6.2 PORTERS FIVE FORCE Porters five forces model works on relatively static market structure because of which it cannot explain or analyze todays dynamic changes (Recklies 2001). This model equally imply to all the competitors in an industry and this model cannot be applied in isolation where porter accepted that outcome by applying his framework were only relevant while the macro environment remained constant (Campbell et al., 2002). Five force analyses takes into consideration industry as a whole but it does not segregate different segments. The individual analysis of each of the segment can be of much assistance than industry as a whole. It even assumes that relationships with competitors, buyers and suppliers are adversarial. It oversimplifies industry value chains (Grundy, 2006) and It ignores the human resource aspect of the strategy 6.3 SWOT The SWOT analysis gives an overview of the subject but doesnt help to get the details. The categorization of some aspects as strengths or weaknesses, or as opportunities and threats is to some extent subjective. From the case study numerous strength and weaknesses were identified, but those all were a snapshot of the success and failure on TUI over all business performance. According to Mintzberg (1990) the assessment of strengths and weaknesses may be unreliable, being bound up with aspirations, biases and hopes. Moreover, Frost (2003) describes SWOTs downsides from a managers point of view as it would be difficult for a manager to identify strengths than things they see as wrong with the organization and managers tend to describe an effect as a weakness and do not get to the causes. (Zarkos et al., 2007) states, an opportunity can also be a threat for a company; hence the same problem appears in the distinction of strengths and weaknesses. 6.4 ANSOFFS MATRIX Ansoffs matrix is only focussed on growth of a company it focuses on the tangible aspects of products and services and very little attention is paid to intangible aspect like brand. Another weakness of the Ansoff Matrix approach is that it doesnt really address the issue of brand elasticity as a part of the strategic decision-making process.( pringle and field, 2008). the use of Ansoff matrix as a marketing tool may not be really useful as the matrix is critical for analysing the strategic path that the brand may be following, and does not essentially identify marketing options(Macmillan et al., 2000). 7.0 CONCLUSION In this report the strategic analysis is carried out on TUI tourism industry using various tools. Firstly, macro-environment was analysed to understand the possible impacts on the industry competitive strength and advantage over competitors and develop an appropriate strategy. On a corporate level hybrid strategy and vertical integration was discussed in support to TUIs success. Next segment of internal analysis described TUIs core competences and focussed on future trends of TUI. The analysis of this case study concluded high level of sustainable development which is inimitable. 8.0 REFERENCE LIST Campbell, D., Stonehouse, G. and Houston, B. (2002), Business Strategy: an introduction, 2nd Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann publication, Oxford, UK. Enz, A. C., (2009), Hospitality Strategic Management: Concept and Cases, 2nd Edition,    Haboken, New Jersey. Frost, A. (2003), The Use of Strategic Tools by Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: an Australasian study, Strategic Change, Volume. 12, Page: 49-62. Grundy, T. (2006), Rethinking and reinventing Michael Porters five forces model, Strategic Change, Volume. 15, Page: 213-229. Hall, C. And OSullivan, V. (1996), Tourism political stability and violence in Wahab, S. and Christopher P. C.,(2001), Tourism in the age of globalization , pp-234, Routledge. Johnsons, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (2005), Exploring Corporate Strategy, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall, UK. Johnsons, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (2008), Exploring Corporate Strategy, 8th Edition, Prentice Hall, UK. Lockwood, A. and Medlik, S., (2002), Tourism and Hospitality in the 21st Century, Butterworth Heinemann Macmillan, H. and Tampoe, M. (2000), Strategic Management, Oxford University Press. Available at: http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/ansoff.htm, Access on: 21st Oct 2009, 17.23pm. Mintzberg, H. (1990), The Design School: Reconsidering the Basic Premises of Strategic Management, Strategic Management Journal, Volume. 11, Page: 171-195. Porter, M. E,. (1985), Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. The Free Press Pringle, H. And Field, P., (2008), Brand immorality how brands can live long and prosper, Kogan page, IPA Recklies, D. (2001), Five Competitive Force (porter), Available at http://www.12manage.com/methods_porter_five_forces.html, Assessed on: 28th Oct 2009, 8.45pm. Reisinger, Y., (2009),International Tourism: Cultures and Behaviour Elsevire Ltd. Sà ¶nmez, F. S., Tarlow, P.,(1999) Tourism in Crisis: Managing the Effects of Terrorism Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 38, No. 1, 13-18 Thurlby, B., (1998), Competitive forces are also subject to change, Management Decision London Zarkos, S., Morgan, R. E. and Kouropalatis, Y. (2007), Real Options and Real Strategies, Strategic Change, Volume: 16, Page: 315-325. http://www.cipd.co.uk, (2008), PESTLE analysis, CIPD, Accessed on 3rd Nov 2009 at 15.56pm http://www.tui-group.com/uuid/68045be7dc26a80404db1d381be42f4b TUI Group Listing Memorandum, Accessed on 1st Nov 2009 at 19.24pm http://www.scribd.com/doc/17015152/TUI-Environmental-ReportTUI TUI Group Environmental report, Accessed on 5th Nov 2009 at 12.03am http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot_article.asp?ric=TUIGn.DE Business week 2009 , TUI AG(Consumer Directory sector, hotels restaurants and leisure) Accessed on 8th Nov 2009 at 13.33pm http://www.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/2009/11/02/pe-cutting-edge-technology-to-boost-tourism/ Daily business buzz, Cutting -edge technology to boost tourism 8th Nov 2009 at 22.54pm http://www.coastlearn.org/tourism/why_socioimpacts.html Coast learn, Sustainable Tourism : Socio-Culture Impact, Accessed on 6th Nov 2009 at 16.22 pm http://www.tui-group.com/en/sustainability/env_management TUI Group , Environment management and ecological sustainability, Accessed on 29th Oct 2009 at 16.16pm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7094559.stm Holmes, S., 2007 How to make tourism greener , BBC news, Accessed on 8th Nov 2009 at 23.08pm http://www.tui-group.com/en/company/profile TUI Group, company profile Accessed on 30th Oct 2009 at 09.52am www.tuitravelplc.com/tui/uploads//TUITravelQ3Results.pdf TUI Travel Plc, third quarter report 2008, Accessed on 25th Nov 2009 at 11.52am http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/258da2ca-acd0-11de-91dc-00144feabdc0.html Yuk, K. P., 2009 TUI Travel takes steps to refinance loan, Accessed on 7th Nov 2009 at 22.14pm http://sd2008.tuitravelplc.com/tui-sd/pages/aboutthisreport/datamaterialityTUI Group, sustainability report 2008, Accessed on 28th Oct 2009 at 20.22pm 9.0 APPENDIX: APPENDIX (A) Market price responsiveness Price insensitivity Price sensitivity Cost-based Strategy Differentiation Strategy Stuck in the middle strategy Hybrid strategies Appropriate strategic approach Adopted form David Campbell, George Stonehouse andBill Houuston , Business Strategy (2000), 2nd edition. APPENDIX (B) Advantages and Disadvantages of vertical Integration Advantages Disadvantages Can eliminate steps and reduce duplication 1)need for overheads to coordinate vertical integration Avoid time consuming tasks and negotiate contracts Burden of excess capacity if not at all output is used. Improve marketing or technological intelligence Obsolete process may be penetrated Can create differentiation through coordination process Reduce strategic flexibility due to being locked in a business Provide superior control of firms market environment May link to an unprofitable adjacent business Offers an increased ability to create credibility for new products. May not be potential for synergy Adopted from Enz, A. C., (2009), Hospitality Strategic Management: Concept and Cases, 2nd Edition. Appendix (C) FACTORS REASONS POLITICAL/LEGAL Political instability of developing countries Government regulations and regulatory reforms. High taxation policies of developed countries. labour, environmental and health and safety regulations ECONOMICAL Rise in disposable income in developing countries Currency fluctuation. Rise in fuel cost Emerging market. SOCIAL Changing priorities of consumers Health and safety concerns Urbanisation. Disposal income in consumer level TECHNOLOGY Use of information technologies systems for reservations Use of internet Implementation of new sales and distribution channels Enhanced flexibility ENVIRONMENT Natural calamities Global warming limitation on carbon emission Appendix D STRATEGIC DIRECTION ANSOFF MATRIX Existing Product New Product A Market Penetration Consolidation B Product Development C Market Development D Diversification Existing Market New Market Adapted from H. Ansoff, Corporate Strategy, Penguin, 1988, Chapter 6 Appendix (E) Opportunity Our goal Embedding into our core business Ensure our business decisions take into account sustainable development principles Operational impacts Minimise the negative sustainability impacts (particularly on climate change) of our day-to-day operations Supply chain management Support our supply chain in managing their sustainability impacts Choice editing Edit out the holiday options that do not meet our minimum sustainability standards Choice influencing Make it easy for customers to choose a more sustainable holiday Awareness raising Help customers appreciate the sustainability impacts of tourism, driving demand for more sustainable holidays Changing behaviour   Encourage customers to change their actions in a way that maximises the positive and minimises the negative impacts of their holiday Innovation and product development   Develop new, more sustainable experiences in response to demand   Collaborating with our industry   Share best practice with others in the tourism industry where our competitiveness is not affected   Advocacy   Use our influence responsibly and in line with our commitment to sustainable development   Putting something back   Put something back into the environment or community wherever we cannot avoid a negative impact   http://sd2008.tuitravelplc.com/tui-sd/pages/ourapproach/ourstrategy?whoareyou=addstudent=truesubmit=Submit Threat of new Entrant Innovative ideas Wide range of holiday packages Threat of substitute Worldwide tourism attractions