Financial Analysis of Mr. Joe Schmoes Performance

Financial Analysis of Mr. Joe Schmoes Performance Outline Clipboard Tablet Co. is a firm that manufactures digitized tablets for the mass market with three main products namely; X5, X6 and X7 tablets. The former VP for marketing, Mr. Joe Schmoe has been responsible for product development, RD and marketing of the company’s products.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Financial Analysis of Mr. Joe Schmoe’s Performance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As a new VP in charge of the company’s marketing department, my new task is to analyze the performance of Joe in the last 6 years on sales, profitability, product development and performance of the company’s products. In the process of conducting analysis, we will look into the organizational strategy that was used by Joe in the process of selling and marketing the products of the Clipboard Tablet Company. Study The major products that were sold by the Clipboard Tablet Company were the three tabl et models of X5, X6 and X7. The main factors and drivers that needed analysis within the sales and marketing division are outlined below: Sales The Clipboard Tablet Co. like other companies value sales as an organizational pillar, since it is on this basis that companies build on value and product development. In the last six years, the company has experienced moderate growth with sales growing to high levels in the year 2012 before a dip in revenues was witnessed. In the year 2010, the X5 and X6 tablet models were the only tablets on sale contributing to $ 465 million in sales. The following year, sales amounted to $ 927 million and this contributed to around a 99% jump in sales (Thierauf, 2011). The 2011 sales were inclusive of the revenues generated by the sale of the X7 tablet which contributed $ 30.3 million to the sales. Consequently, the year 2013 was the best for the company since sales peaked at $ 1,321 million representing a 187% growth rate over a period of 3 years. The X 5 tablet sold more than 936,000 units in the year 2010 while the X6 model sold over 517,000 units in that year. In terms of revenue and units sold, the company had the best revenues in the year 2012 and 2013 when the company sold 2.95 and 2.67 million units respectively (LaForge, 2010). The revenues of the three tablets differed in the last 6 years with X5 contributing $ 1.85 billion in sales while X6 brought in $ 2.88 billion and X7 revenue totalled $ 345 million in the last 6 years. Although, X5 brought in a lot of revenues in terms of sales, the tablet’s revenue had been declining by double digit figures in the last three years up to 2015. While, the reverse has been witnessed for the X7 tablet which sales have been on an upward trend of around 30% per annum for the last 6 years (Thierauf, 2011).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Performance The performance of the Clipboard Tablet Company will be undertaken based on the financial results, revenue and assessment against its competition. The company’s financial position has been marked by up and downs with the years 2011 and 2012 being the best for the company. In these years, the company realized profits amounting to $ 225 million and $ 386 million respectively. Moreover, the revenues in the years 2011 and 2012 grew by around 251% and 71% respectively and this shows that the company has witnessed good results generally in the last 6 years. However, the revenues of X5 and X6 tablets have been sluggish with the last two years witnessing a reduction in revenues on the two tablets. As a result, the profits of the company dipped by a margin of over 30% annually (Siddiqui, 2010). The worst performance of the company in terms of profits came from the year 2014 when the company witnessed a dip of 67% in profits. Compared to its competitors, the revenues and profits of Clipboard Tablet C ompany have been dismal in the last two years when major tablet manufacturers saw double digit growth sales and profit margins. In terms of product offering, the Clipboard tablet company had three products namely X5, X6 and X7 and these tablets were sold at $ 265, $420 and $ 195 respectively and this means that these products were targeted for the low and middle end markets alone. This is in comparison with other competitors who had tablets for the low, middle and high markets retailing at between $ 150 and $ 1,000 (Jones, 2012). Pricing The X5, X6 and X7 tablets were priced at $ 265, $420 and $ 195 respectively in the last 6 years. This pricing mode worked for the company until 2014 when the sales figures for the X5 and X7 dipped. As a result, this fixed pricing mode did not work of the company since prices should not remain static but instead it should reflect market fundamentals of production and demand (Thierauf, 2011). Although, the pricing model of Clipboard Tablet Company mig ht have been based on superiority and popularity of the products, the company should also have considered demand. The price ranges for the tablets adopted by the Clipboard Tablet Company was within one range and thus targeted certain market segment (LaForge, 2010). Product Development The Clipboard Tablet Company focussed it sales on three tablets namely X5, X6 and X7 which were developed and launched in different times. The X5 and X6 tablet were launched before 2010 while the X7 tablet was introduced into the market in the year 2011. The company maintained these three models over the 5 year period of 2011 to 2015 yet no new tablets or improved version of the old X5 and X6 tablets were launched.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Financial Analysis of Mr. Joe Schmoe’s Performance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The RD allocations of the company in most cases remained static at $ 22 million even though the compa ny witnessed growth in revenues between the periods of 2010 to 2013 (Siddiqui, 2010). As a result, the subsequent years of 2014 and 2015 the sales and popularity of the old X5 and X6 tablets dipped. Furthermore, the company maintained the capacity and development of the products with costs fixed at 33% over the 6 year period. This means that the company was not interested in developing new products since expenditure remained minimal even though the company made good profits. For instance, when the company started experiencing a dip in revenues and profits no concrete actions were taken on new product development (Jones, 2012). The company did not abolish or come up with new clone versions of the tablet and thus sales relied upon the popularity of the old versions of X5 and X6 tablets. Therefore, from our analysis on product development little was done in terms of improvement of this department by Joe Schmoe. Conclusion Under the tenure of Joe, the Clipboard Tablet Company’s p erformance soared and dipped at the same time. Joe stuck with a fixed strategy over the last six years, since the company did not expand its product line and at the same time the company spent less on RD. The technology and communications industry is a fast paced industry with quick changing trends and thus increased expenditure on RD is very important. For instance, we witness that in the periods between 2010 and 2013, the X5 and X6 tablet brands had impressive sales and profit margins. However, in the last years these tablets returned poor sales yet their product prices were maintained. Joe should have been strategic in timing and dropped the prices of the X5 and X6 prices by around 20% from the $ 265 and $ 420 which the tablets were retailing. This move would have netted the company good revenue streams while the company was in the process of launching new products. In the years 2011 and 2012 when the company witnessed high revenues and profits, it would have been wise for the co mpany to launch new tablets that would make competition in the market stiff. Moreover, due to the sustained demand and good sales of the X7 tablet, the company would have come up with a flexible pricing model that would have seen this tablet sold at premium prices to net the company more revenue (Siddiqui, 2010). The best strategy that would have been adopted by Joe was to sell the X5, X6, and X7 tablets at premium prices when the demand was high and discount new products as a means of attracting new consumers.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Therefore, the company’s performance in terms of finances would have remained positive. Moreover, more allocations should have been done on RD and product development to make the company’s products competitive in the tablet industry. References Jones, J., Heitger, D. Mowen, M. (2012). Financial Analysis, Planning Forecasting: Theory and Application. Chicago, IL: John Wiley and Sons. LaForge, R., Avila, R. Schwepker, C. (2010). Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making. New York, NY: Cengage Learning. Siddiqui, S. (2010). Managerial Economics and Financial Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Thierauf, R. (2011). Strategic Analytical Processing Systems for Business. Austin, TX: Routledge.

The Y2K Glitch and End of the Century Changes

The Y2K Glitch and End of the Century Changes While many were ready to party like it was 1999, many others predicted catastrophe at the end of the year from a small assumption made long ago when computers were first being programmed. The Y2K (Year 2000) problem came to exist culturally because of a fear that computers would fail when their clocks were meant to update to January 1, 2000. Because computers were programmed to automatically assume the date began with 19 as in 1977 and 1988, people feared that when the date turned from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000, computers would be so confused that they would shut down completely. The Age of Technology and Fear Considering how much of our everyday lives were run by computers by the end of 1999, the new year was expected to bring serious computer repercussions. Some doomsayers warned that the Y2K bug was going to end civilization as we know it. Other people worried more specifically about banks,  traffic lights, the power grid, and airports - all of which were run by computers by 1999. Even microwaves and televisions were predicted to be affected by the Y2K bug. As computer programmers madly dashed to update computers with new information, many in the public prepared themselves by storing extra cash and food supplies. Preparations for the Bug By 1997, a few years ahead of widespread panic over the Millennium problem, computer scientists were already working toward the solution. The British Standards Institute (BSI) developed a new computer standard to define conformity requirements for the Year 2000. Known as  DISC PD2000-1, the standard outlined four rules: Rule 1: No value for current date will cause any interruption in operation. Rule 2: Date-based functionality must behave consistently for dates prior to, during and after year 2000. Rule 3: In all interfaces and data storage, the century in any date must be specified either explicitly or by unambiguous algorithms or inferencing rules.   Rule 4: Year 200 must be recognized as a leap year.   Essentially, the standard understood the bug to rely on two key issues: the existing two-digit representation of dates was problematic in date processing and a misunderstanding of calculations for leap years in the Gregorian Calendar had caused the year 2000 to not be programmed as a leap year. The first problem was solved by creating new programming for dates to be entered as four-digit numbers (ex: 2000, 2001, 2002, etc.), where they were previously represented only as two (97, 98, 99, etc.). The second by amending the algorithm for calculating leap years to any year value divided by 100 is not a leap year, with the addition of excluding years which are divisible by 400, thereby making the year 2000 a leap year (as it was).   What Happened  on January 1, 2000? When the prophesied date came and computer clocks around the world updated to January 1, 2000, very little actually happened. With so much preparation and updated programming done before the change of date, the catastrophe was quelled and only a few, relatively minor millennium bug problems occurred - and even fewer were reported.

Geological Structures and Physiographic Provinces of the United States Research Paper - 1

Geological Structures and Physiographic Provinces of the United States - Research Paper Example On closer examination physiographic provinces can be subdivided into physiographic sections, each being an area inside a province basically due to geographic distribution. Every section can be separated into physiographic districts, each being an area in a local landforms section. The pacific province has a number of features which include; Olympic Mountains, Puget Trough, Klamath Mountains, Oregon Coast Mountains, Los Angeles Ranges, California Coast Ranges and the California Trough. These materials provide a diversity of soils and river nutrients that originate from them. Geology differences and formation time of these ranges influence the hydrology, geomorphology, and the biology of rivers and streams which arise in individual regions (Lew, 2004). The entire pacific province mountain system has been described having been arranged in a chain. The pacific mountain’s climate is varied compared to all other regions; the annual cycle has been consistent every year. Although, extreme interannual variation occurs, leading to long drought periods and year’s extreme runoff and high rainfall for instance El Nino events. The main distinct difference between the mountain system of the Sierra Nevada and the mountain range of Cascade is that the Sierra Nevada is a tilted fault block that rises 4,420 m which is equivalent to 14500 ft high. It also supports pine and fir trees while the Cascade is marked by several stratovolcanoes, which are relatively active. The Sierra mountain system stands alone while the Cascade Mountain Range stands to be chains of mountains. The Cascade Mountain Range is still active. The coastal plain extends down the Atlantic Ocean Eastwards from the Fall Zone. Large tidal rivers, Rappahannock, James, York and the Potomac flow southeastward to the Chesapeake Bay where they empty into Atlantic Ocean. The topography is a terraced landscapes which stair-steps down into major rivers and the

Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Film - Essay Example The developers blend the diverse features of the film effectively thereby creating a cohesive film that communicates effectively through editing. City of God is an example of a film that portrays the power of editing among other film development techniques in creating films. Editing provides an effective way for the developers of the film to infuse diversity yet achieve a degree of both cohesion and coherence in the film as the discussion below portrays. Editing refers to the process of eliminating errors. However, the definition is broader in the development of films than it is in literature. In film development, editing does not only eliminate errors but also provides the developers of the film with an opportunity to add specific features that would enhance the connection of the various scenes thereby creating a cohesive and coherent plot capable of communicating specific themes. A number of scenes in the film are studio creations while others are shot on location. The fusion between the two creates perfect blend that tells a cohesive story, one that armatures cannot tell the differences in the locations. The director of the film employed professional editors who portray their editing genius as they add effects among other editing elements to achieve the cohesive film that communicates effectively. Editing plays an integral role in the creation of the film. Such features and elements as lighting, camera shots, camera angles, music and graphics among many others help add diversity in a film. In employing such, film developers must observe such basic concepts as balance and harmony in order to create a cohesive film. The same is the case in the film, City of God. While some scenes in the film were shot from locations, others are studio creations. Creating scenes in the studio requires appropriate editing techniques in order to balance the various features. In

Benihana Company Essay Example for Free

Benihana Company Essay Helping our guests feel welcome is as important as our cooking. And it is just as great a skill. Ever striving for excellence in hospitality, it is truly our restaurant family who has built Benihanas success. Company History: Benihana, Inc. owns and licenses restaurants in the Benihana and Benihana Grill chain of Japanese dinnerhouses. The restaurants specialize in an exhibition-style of Japanese cooking called teppanyaki. Customers sit around a communal table at which a Benihana chef slices their seafood, steak, chicken, and vegetables with lightning speed, grills their meal right in front of them, and then tosses it accurately onto their plates. The restaurants are decorated with Samurai armor and valuable art, and Shoji rice paper screens partition the dining areas. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996, the company had sales of over $81 million, an all-time high. By December 1996, Benihana operated a total of 49 licensed and wholly owned restaurants in 20 states as well as in Bogota, Columbia, and Aruba, Netherlands Antilles. Early History, from Tokyo to New York The founder of Benihana, Inc. was a 25-year-old Olympic wrestler from Japan named Hiroaki Rocky Aoki. He got his start in the restaurant business by working after school in his familys coffee shop in downtown Tokyo. His mother named the family business Benihana after a red flower that survived the bombing of Tokyo during World War II. Rocky was a scrapper, defending himself in the streets and schoolyards against bigger boys. He got hooked on wrestling, became a national university champion, and earned a place on the 1960 Olympic team. Although he didnt compete because he was over his weight limit, he did fall in love with New York when the plane stopped there on the way to the Games in Rome. That fall he left Japan for the United States. In 1964, Aoki graduated from New York Community Colleges School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. During the summer he earned money driving the only ice cream truck in Harlem. The job was not easy, as he explained in an article in Management Review. Every time I robbed, I get up earlier the next day and work later to make up. Every time I lose money, I get more challenge. With that philosophy, he managed to save $10,000 during the summer, which, along with a loan, was enough to start his first restaurant, Benihana of Tokyo. Aokis concept for his new restaurant, derived from specialty restaurants he knew of in Japan, was part entertainment and part food service. He wanted to offer Americans food they were familiar with, such as chicken, steak, and shrimp, prepared in a novel setting. He chose the teppanyaki tablea stainless steel grill surrounded by a wooden eating surfacewhere customers could watch a knife-wielding, joke-telling chef prepare and serve their food. His parents and brothers came from Japan to help him get started. Unfortunately, New Yorkers equated Japanese food with raw fish and werent comfortable sitting at a table with strangers. They ignored the midtown Manhattan eatery until the restaurant critic of the New York Herald Tribune gave it a glowing review. Suddenly, everyone in New York, including the Beatles and Muhammad Ali, wanted to sit around one of Benihana of Tokyos four teppanyaki tables. Within six months after the review the restaurant had paid for itself, and Aoki quickly opened another restaurant in a larger, fancier building. The new location provided the same teppanyaki-style cooking but was decorated with valuable art, Samurai armor, heavy wooden ceiling beams brought from Japan by Aokis father, and sliding Shoji screens to provide some privacy. 1965-80: Building a Company The Benihana concept combined reasonable prices with good food, and, by preparing what was eaten right at the table, held waste to a minimum. Profits were good, and, in 1968, Aoki opened his first Benihana of Tokyo outside New York Cityin downtown Chicago. That location made $700,000 in its first year and continued to be one of the companys top earning outlets. Between 1969 and 1972, the company opened six more of its own restaurants and licensed franchisees to open another ten. In a joint venture with the Las Vegas Hilton, the company developed Benihana Village, a 38,000-square-foot complex of restaurants, bars, and other entertainment venues. In 1972, the company grossed $12 million and the Harvard Business School selected Benihana of Tokyo as a case study of an entrepreneurial success story. With business going so well, Rocky Aoki could devote time to his other interests which included racing balloons and powerboats, collecting items ranging from vintage cars to slot machines and learning backgammon. Rocky wanted to play, Joel Schwartz, the companys president, explained in a 1989 Forbes article. To help oversee the chains operations and expansion, Aoki brought in a management company, Hardwicke Cos., as a partner in 1976. The relationship lasted only four years and, in 1980, Aoki ended the partnership, paying $3.7 million to break the contract. As Rod Willis of Management Review explained in a 1986 article, He [Aoki] felt the companys management style clashed with his predominately Oriental workforce, and he wanted to maintain control over each restaurants quality. The following year Aoki settled, without admitting any guilt, a Securities and Exchange Commission charge that he had improperly traded in Hardwicke stock while serving as vice-president of Hardwicke. The 1980s: Ups and Downs To help pay off the debt incurred in the split with Hardwicke, Aoki decided to take part of the company public. He accomplished this by having Benihana of Tokyo (BOT) form Benihana National Corporation (BNC) in 1982 and then taking the latter company public the following year. Investors paid the Miami-based BNC $11 for a unit consisting of two common shares and a warrant to buy another at $6. With the $5.5 million raised by selling half a million of these units, BNC bought 11 restaurants from Aoki in exchange for 60 percent of the BNC common stock and $2.5 million to pay BOTs debt. Later in the year, BNC bought another three restaurants from BOT for $7 million. In spite of the new corporate structure, Benihana of Tokyo and Benihana National Corporation remained under the management of the same group of executives. As corporate president, Joel Schwartz continued to oversee the day to day operation of both companies. Aoki, who served as chairman of both entities, retained 51 percent of the common stock in BNC and kept about 30 restaurants in the privately held BOT. Aoki developed new concepts for the Benihana food chain but he also continued to play hard, becoming a championship-level backgammon player and setting a world record in off-shore powerboat racing. The Double Eagle V, a 400,000 cubic-foot gas balloon, displayed the Benihana logo as it became the first crewed balloon to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean, with Aoki as one of the crew members. One of Aokis new concepts was Benihana National Classics, a line of Chinese gourmet frozen foods, introduced in 1984 and sold in supermarkets. Chinese cuisine was chosen when the company found that Japanese food didnt freeze well. Within a year the Classics were the best-selling Oriental frozen foods in the United States, with sales in one quarter alone reaching more than $40 million and profits climbing to over $4 million. The companys stock took off, going as high as $21.50 in 1985. In December of that year, Restaurant and Institution magazine named Benihana of Tokyo the most popular family-style restaurant in America. At that time, Benihana of Tokyo and Benihana National together operated or franchised restaurants in 60 locations, from Seattle to New Jersey, serving a total of 25,000 customers a day. Benihana Nationals frozen food success quickly attracted the attention of major food companies. When Campbell Soup and Stouffers began offering their own lines of Oriental frozen foods, however, Benihana couldnt compete. The company lost $11 million on frozen foods between 1985 and 1987 and finally sold the business, for $4.5 million, to the small company that had been producing the dinners for them. Frozen food, however, was not Aokis only new idea. In 1985, Benihana National opened its first seafood restaurant, The Big Splash, just north of Miami. Aoki believed the sea would be the primary supplier of food in the future, and, borrowing an idea from a Malaysian fish market, came up with the concept of a seafood marketplace/restaurant. Customers could choose from hundreds of varieties of fresh seafood, decide how they wanted it cooked, and watch it being prepared. The idea was so popular initially that a second Big Splash was opened. The seafood restaurants soon experienced difficulty, however, registering losses of $2.7 million during 1987. The wide variety of options ran completely counter to the tight focus and minimal waste of the Benihana steakhouses. At the Miami location, the majority of customers were retirees who resented the high prices and preferred to eat fish they were familiar with. All we sold was salmon and red snapper, Aoki told Eric Schmukler in a March 1989 Forbes article. The company closed its Big Splash outlets in March 1988. The 1988 fiscal year was a hard one for Benihana, as the company recorded a loss of nearly $7 million. Despite the companys financial problems with Classics and Big Splash, the Benihana restaurants themselves were still popular. By the end of fiscal 1989, the publicly owned Benihana National Corp. reported profits of some $1.8 million on sales of $34 million at its 20 restaurants, with Aokis privately-held Benihana of Tokyo taking in similar revenues. 1990-94: Making a Turnaround Rocky Aoki kicked off the new decade by opening a gallery in one of the Miami Benihana restaurants to display a portion of what was becoming known in the art world as the Rocky Aoki Collection. Having spent more than a year consolidating his diverse collections, Aoki told Antiques Collecting, I think its a natural to have a gallery here. More than 90,000 people eat in this restaurant every year; why not provide them with something beautiful to look at, not to mention buy, if they so desire. In a 300-square-foot space that had been the restaurants gift shop, diners could view etchings by Icarts, lamps by Tiffany and Handel, and bronzes by Remington. The publicity about Aokis collection helped generate business for the restaurant, and overall company revenues continued to grow. Profits, however, were less than a million dollars a year, and BNC stock fell below $1 a share. Angry at the situation, some shareholders sued. As Marilyn Alva reported in a 1992 Restaurant Business article, the shareholders claimed Aoki and his management team were in a conflict of interest by managing the two companies. The complainants further maintained that Benihana management had misappropriated the assets of Benihana National Corporation, passing them through Benihana of Tokyo for their personal benefit. The shareholders, however, were ultimately unsuccessful in trying to take control of the company away from Aoki. Meanwhile, Benihana management took advantage of a health-conscious American publics growing interest in Japanese food and entertainment. With the tag line, We have been the restaurant of the 90s since the 60s, Aoki and Schwartz instituted a major advertising campaign stressing the fact that Benihana had always offered healthful food. Soon afterwards, in 1993, the Atlanta Benihana of Tokyo restaurant added an 18-seat sushi bar and 35-seat Karaoke dining room to draw more customers on weekday nights. Despite the higher labor and food costs associated with sushi, the company reported an increase in beverage sales, and a lot of sampling of the $.99 sushi pieces by people waiting to eat at the traditional teppanyaki tables. Learning from its experience a decade earlier, in 1994 Benihana National Corp. decided to get into the frozen food business again. This time, however, by entering into a licensing agreement with Campbell Soup Co., the company hooked up with a major marketer rather than trying to compete with the big names. The new product was a line of frozen stir-fry kits featuring the Benihana trademark. The dinners served six people and sold for about $8.00. As Peter McMullin, an analyst with Southeast Research Partners, told Florida Review.Net, This time the strategy makes sense because it is linking with a high profile food company to help strengthen the distribution side and offsetting the razor-thin margins of retail by manufacturing with a low cost producer like Campbell. By the end of the fiscal year, revenues were over $70 million, with profits up 41 percent to $2.4 million. 1995 and Beyond: A New Company At the beginning of 1995, Benihana National announced it would buy Aokis 21 Benihana of Tokyo restaurants on the U.S. mainland, along with the U.S. rights to the Benihana trademark, for about $6.15 million. On May 16, a newly created subsidiary, Benihana Inc., acquired the BOT restaurants and, through a merger, simultaneously acquired Benihana National. BNC shareholders received one share in the new holding company for each of their shares of Benihana National. Aoki continued to serve as chairman of the new company and Schwartz as president. Benihana Inc. now owned or licensed the 43 Benihana restaurants in the continental United States along with a franchise in Honolulu. It also had the rights to develop or license Benihana restaurants in Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands. Aoki kept private his Benihana of Tokyo restaurants in Hawaii, Britain, and Thailand. During 1995, the new company took several steps to attract more customers. Benihana introduced weekend luncheon service and, following the success in Atlanta, opened sushi bars in seven locations. The company also instituted a national Karaoke contest for its patrons. In the fall, the company opened its first smaller format unit, called the Benihana Grill, in Sacramento. At 3,800 square feet, the Grill format was less than half the size of the traditional Benihana, and enabled the company to open units in smaller locations, particularly in urban areas. Schwartz had been refining this format since 1989 as an alternative to the companys more common free-standing, special use restaurant buildings. The Benihana Grill was designed to accommodate 10 to 12 teppanyaki tables, compared to the 18 tables in the typical Benihana. Analyst Peter McMullin remarked, Initial indications are encouraging even before the grand opening. With the lower capital costs of approximately $500,000 versus a stan d-alone restaurant cost of $2 million, this could become an enormous growth vehicle for Benihana. The new hours and offerings helped increase guest counts in existing restaurants by 8.7 percent and same store sales by an average of 7.7 percent for fiscal 1996. This rise, plus the addition of the Benihana of Tokyo restaurants and the new Benihana Grill, resulted in annual revenues of over $81 million. Benihanas growth came primarily from increased traffic in its existing restaurants, and the company continued to support that strategy. Early in 1996, in an effort to gain a larger share of the ethnic market, the company launched Spanish-language television advertisements in Miami and Los Angeles. In May, Benihana kicked off a two-year, $5 million ad campaign, focusing on the entertainment value of teppanyaki cooking. We want to bring the Benihana name to a different audience, company president Joel Schwartz told Nations Restaurant News in a May 6, 1996 article. The ads show that Benihana is a place the entire family can come to and have a good timea place they will see the chef perform and flip shrimp. Individual restaurants also developed innovative marketing techniques. A visit and meal at the Benihana in Bethesda, Maryland, for example, is one of the activities in the countys social studies curriculum for third graders learning about Japan. The company did not depend entirely on its existing restaurants for growth. During 1996, it also signed leases for several more Benihana Grills and expanded its franchise operations, including restaurants in Bogota, Columbia, and Aruba, Netherlands Antilles. Benihanas track record of steady growth in same store sales, rising customer count, and profitability appeared to be continuing into the late 1990s as revenues for the first half of fiscal 1997 were up over eight percent from the year before. Further Reading: Alva, Marilyn, Very Rocky Business: Aoki Besieged by Shareholder Suits, Restaurant Business, February 10, 1992. Benihana Buying Founder Aokis Units, Nations Restaurant News, January 16, 1995, p. 14. Benihana Profits Rise 67% for First Nine Months of Fiscal 95, Nations Restaurant News, February 12, 1996, p. 12. Benihana Testing Stir-Fry Kits, Supermarket News, October 17, 1994, p. 28.

Becel Margarine Case Analysis Essay -- Business Marketing Case Becel E

Becel Margarine Case Analysis I. Executive Summary Becel needs to adjust their promotional efforts to address both a heart healthy and great tasting product, while expanding their target market to the twenty-five and above demographic. Becel’s current customers are largely empty nester households where the customers tend to be affluent with high incomes and over sixty-five years of age. By adjusting their promotional efforts to address both a heart healthy and great tasting product, Becel will be able to meet the needs of the twenty-five and above demographic. Becel’s strengths include a strong reputation as a leader in heart health and nutrition education, being the premium priced margarine, and the highest consumer loyalty of any margarine category. Among some of the weaknesses of Becel are lack of a strong presence in Western Canada, not positioned as great tasting, and a low advertising awareness. Opportunities include the consideration of health and taste when selecting margarine, selling in bulk quantity to large family households, and increased awareness of health issues. Canola Harvest positioning their margarine as the healthiest and best tasting and offering it at a lower price, competitors gaining market share at a faster rate than Becel, and regulations on the margarine category are among the threats facing Becel. Three alternatives were developed to help solve Becel’s problem. â€Å"Run Canada, Run† portrays Becel as the margarine that is geared towards a heart-healthy lifestyle. â€Å"Body by Becel† conveys how Becel can help you lose weight and stay healthy. â€Å"Now We’re Cooking with Becel† demonstrates how Becel can be used in a variety of healthy, day-to-day recipes. Innovative Solutions’ educated recommendation is â€Å"Now We’re Cooking With Becel†. This will allow Becel to expand their target market, while promoting their product as heart healthy and great tasting. By implementing this recommendation, Becel will have the opportunity to create a competitive advantage and gain market share. II. Introduction Unilever was formed in 1930 when British soap maker Lever Brothers merged with the Dutch company Margarine Unie. This merger â€Å"allowed both companies to benefit from many raw materials and resources that they had in common† (Kerin and Robertson 600). Unilever Canada is a division of the international Unilever group, headed by two paren... ... BUDGET â€Å"Now We’re Cooking With Becel.† Cos Cost of production $2000 X 2 Commercials $4,000.00 Commercial Placement Costs Food Network (11months, 14 spots/wk at $232.13 each) $142,992.08 CBC Quebec, (10 months, 10 spots/wk $200) $80,000.00 CBC Western (10 months, 10 spots/week $170 ) $68,000.00 Sponsorship of Cooking Thin television show (negotiable) $1,000,000.00 Total $1,294,992.08 Works Cited Canadian Broadcasting Corporation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  www.cbc.ca Chum Limited Media  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  www.chumlimited.com Nielsen’s Canada  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:5qd-mM60xAUJ:www.digital-adventure.com/pdf/TVLNielsens_4thQtr_BCAdult.pdf+food+network+canada+rank&hl=en Weight Watchers Canada  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  www.walmar.com Food Network Canada  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  www.foodtv.ca The world Fact book http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ca.html#Geo Information from these sources as well: http://www.hackcanada.com/canadian/other/adbusters.html  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.dietfacts.com/html/items/17014.htm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://thesoydailyclub.com/Food/becel01072003.asp http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/profiles/food_supermarkets/unilever/Unilever-profile.rtf

Jetty Rats Rite of Passage Notes

Jetty Rats is a novel set in the sass's, written by Phillip Gwynne on the 6th of February 2004. The story is primarily about three kids called Hunter, Storm and Jasmine that go through the rite of passage in which they are all confronted with at some point in their adolescent lives. Hunters only goal in life is to catch a record breaking Mallow so he could make his dad proud, sadly Hunter's dad disappeared when Hunter was eight years old whilst fishing on the rocks.Although everyone knows he's not coming jack, Hunter doesn't seem to accept it. These are the stages Hunter goes through that tell us he has gone through the Rite of Passage. The first issue that was stated is family. At the beginning of the novel Hunters dad was swept out to sea while fishing at his favorite spot on the rocks. Hunter thinks that it is Drill's fault that his dad went missing, because that day Drill was supposed to go fishing with his dad, but didn't. Drill let his dad break the rule of fishing on rocks â⠂¬Å"Thou Shall Not Fish On Your Own† which lead to his dad's disappearance.Hunter didn't accept his dad is robbery never coming back until the end of the novel when Hunter throws out his dads old rusty razes he had kept for five years and said â€Å"Bloody extraterrestrials. Must've done him ages ago† The second issue in the story is friendship. Hunters best friends, Storm and Jasmine are all very different from each other and unique In there own way. They're the group that consists of four members in Dogleg bay known as the â€Å"Jetty Rats†. First there is there Is Storm and Jasmine (The twin girls Hunter calls The Photocopies) and Hunters best friend, Miracle and of coarse, Hunter.

Flow of Gold and Silver Dbq

Chantelle DuncanMr. Richman AP world 1/22/12 DBQ on Flow of silver in mid-16th to 18th century The increasing flow of silver during the mid-16th to early 18th century had a very large impact on the economic and social parts of many countries through effect on land, trade, and value of silver. The huge influx of silver brought many economic problems in both Spain and China. Antonio Vasquez de Espinosa, a Spanish priest appears indignant at the huge amount of silver being taken and stolen from the mines in the west indies some paying no 20 % tax and/or registry fee and shipping silver out to the Philippines and china. doc 6) As shown in document 2, a Spanish scholar, named Tomas de Mercado, tells of the problems that the sudden influx of silver is causing Spain. â€Å" The streets of Manila in the Spanish territory of the Philippines could be paved with granite cobblestones brought from China†¦ in Chinese ships coming to get silver for China† De Mercado is showing anger in the amount of Asian ships coming to receive silver, the large amount of which is undoing the Spanish economy.Wang Xijue, a Ming dynasty court official reports to the emperor (document 3) that Chinese economy is declining, with cheap grain despite poor harvest â€Å"due to the scarcity of the silver coin† The government . The large amount of silver coming in created problems socially as well. Xu Dunqiu Ming, a writer, tells in an essay that seems directed at the general public, of the unfairness of dye shops in the commercial city of Hangzhou. Dye shops must now be paid with sliver from a moneylender, instead of livestock or crops.Borrowing from a money lender instead of trading animals or food is plunging china’s poorer class of people even further into debt, as well as changing the economy type of the Chinese people. (doc 5) Socially, other problems occurred as well. Greed became serious, as shown in doc 1, where Ye Chunji, a county official, says â€Å"the frugal ma n with only one bar of silver currency can have something left over, whereas the extravagant man with a thousand can still not have enough† on the topic of limiting wedding expenses. Wang Xijue in Doc 3. ells of how due to the government requiring silver though dispensing little, farmers are receiving less returns and thus less land is being cultivated. British merchant Ralph Fitch tells of his trip to the West Indies, telling of how the Portuguese use Chinese goods bought in china to trade for obscene amounts of silver in japan, which they go back to china and use to bring home luxury goods to the west indies. (doc 4) In conclusion, the huge influx of silver posed both a social and economic problem in mid-16th to 18th century in Asia and parts of Europe.

Tracing the History and Genealogy of Your Home

Tracing the History and Genealogy of Your Home Have you ever wondered about the history of your house, apartment, church or other building? When was it built? Why was it built? Who owned it? What happened to the people who lived and/or died there? Or, a favorite question as a child, does it have any secret tunnels or cubbyholes? Whether youre looking for documentation for historic status or are just plain inquisitive, tracing a propertys history and learning about the people who have lived there can be a fascinating and fulfilling project. When conducting research on buildings there are usually two types of information that people search for: Architectural facts, such as date of construction, the name of architect or builder, construction materials, and physical changes over time.Historical facts, such as information on the original owner and other residents through time, or interesting events associated with the building or area. A house history may consist of either type of research, or be a combination of both. Get to Know Your Home Begin your search by looking closely at the building for clues about its age. Look at the type of construction, the materials used in construction, the shape of the roofline, the placement of the windows, etc. These types of features may prove useful in identifying the architectural style of the building, which helps in establishing the general construction date. Walk around the property looking for obvious alterations or additions to the building as well as roadways, paths, trees, fences, and other features. It is also important to look at nearby buildings to see whether they contain similar features which will also help to date your property. Talk to relatives, friends, neighbors, even former employees - anyone who might know something about the house. Ask them not only for information about the building, but also about former owners, the land upon which the house was built, what existed at that location prior to construction of the house, and the history of the town or community. Check family letters, scrapbooks, diaries, and photo albums for possible clues. Its even possible (though not likely) that you may find an original deed or even a blueprint for the property. A thorough search of the property may also yield clues between walls, floorboards, and other forgotten areas. Old newspapers were often used as insulation between walls, while journals, clothing, and other items have been found in rooms, closets, or fireplaces that for one reason or another were sealed over. Were not recommending that you knock holes in the walls unless you are planning a restoration, but you should be aware of the many secrets which an older home or building can contain. Chain of Title Search A deed is a legal document used to transfer ownership of land and property. Examining all of the deeds concerning your home or other property is a big step toward learning more about its history. In addition to providing the names of property owners, deeds  may provide information on construction dates, changes in value and use, and even plot maps. Begin with the deed for the current owners of the property and work your way back from one deed to the next, with each deed providing details on who conveyed the property to whom. This list of property owners in succession is known as the chain of title. Though often a tedious process, a title search  is the best method for establishing a chain of ownership for a property. Begin your search for deeds by learning where they were recorded and stored for the time and place in which you are interested. Some jurisdictions are even beginning to place this information online - allowing you to search for current property information by address or owner.  Next, visit the registry of deeds (or location where deeds are recorded for your area) and use the grantee index to search for the present owner in an index of buyers. The index will provide you with a book and page where a copy of the actual deed is located. A number of county deed offices across the U.S. even provide online access to  copies of current, and sometimes historical, deeds. The free genealogy website  FamilySearch also has many historical deed records online in digital format. Digging Into Address Based Records One piece of information that you will almost always have for your home or building is the address. Therefore, once youve learned a bit about the property and looked for local clues, the next logical step is to search for documents that are based on a buildings address and location. Such documents, including property records, utility records, maps, photographs, architectural plans and more, maybe housed in the local library, historical society, local government offices, or even in private collections. Check with your local genealogy library or genealogical society for help finding the location of the following records in your specific locality. Building Permits:  Learn where building permits are kept on file for your buildings neighborhood - these may be held by local building departments, city planning departments, or even county or parish offices. Building permits for older buildings and residences may be preserved at libraries, historical societies or archives. Usually filed by street address, building permits can be especially useful when tracing a house history, often listing the original owner, architect, builder, construction cost, dimensions, materials, and date of construction. Alteration permits provide clues to the buildings physical evolution over time. On rare occasions, a building permit may also lead you to a copy of the original blueprints for your building.Utility Records:  If other means fail and the building isnt too old or rural, the date when utilities were first connected may provide a good indication of when a building was first occupied (i.e. a general construction date). The water company is oft en the best place to start as these records generally pre-date electrical, gas and sewer systems. Just remember that your home could have been built before these systems existed and, in such cases, the date of connection will not indicate the construction date. Insurance Records:  Historical insurance records, most notably fire insurance claim forms, contain information about the nature of an insured building, its contents, value and, possibly, even floor plans. For an exhaustive search, contact all insurance companies who have been active in your area for a long length of time and ask them to check their records for any policies sold for that address.  Fire insurance maps  created by Sanborn and other companies document the size and shape of buildings, locations of doors and windows, and construction materials, as well as street names and property boundaries, for both big cities and small towns. Researching the Owners Once youve explored the historical records of your home, one of the best ways to expand on the history of your home or other building is to trace its owners. A variety of standard sources exist which should help you learn who lived in the house before you, and from there it is just a matter of using a bit of genealogy research to fill in the gaps. You should have already learned the names of some of the previous occupants and, possibly, even the original owners from the chain of title search covered in part one of this article. Most archives and libraries also have pamphlets or articles available which will help you with the specifics of searching for the previous occupants of your home and learning more about their life. Some of the basic sources for tracing the owners of your home include: Phone Books City Directories:  Begin your search by letting your fingers do the walking. One of the best sources for information about the people who lived in your house are old phone books and, if you live in an urban area,  city directories. They can provide you with a timeline of former occupants, and possibly provide you with extra details such as occupations. As you search, it is important to keep in mind that your home may have had a different street number, and your street may have even had a different name. City and phone directories, in combination with  old maps, are usually the best source for these old street names and numbers. You can usually locate old phone books and city directories at local libraries and historical societies.Census Records:  Census records, depending upon the location and time period, may tell you who lived in your home or building, where they came from, how many children they had, the value of the property, and more. Census records can be e specially useful in narrowing down birth, death, and even marriage dates which, in turn, can lead to more records about the homeowners. Census records are not currently accessible beyond the early 20th century in most countries (e.g. 1911 in Great Britain, 1921 in Canada, 1940 in the U.S.) due to privacy concerns, but available records can usually be found at libraries and archives, and online for a number of countries including the  United States,  Canada, and  Great Britain. Church and Parish Records:  Local church and  parish records  can sometimes be a good source for death dates and other information about former occupants of your home. This is a more likely avenue of research in small towns where there arent a lot of churches, however.Newspapers and Obituaries:  If you are able to narrow down  a death date, then  obituaries  can provide you with a wealth of details about the former occupants of your home.  Newspapers  can also be good sources for information on births, marriages, and  town histories, especially if youre lucky enough to find one which has been indexed or digitized. You may even find an article on your home if the owner was prominent in some way. Check with the local library or historical society to learn which newspaper was in operation at the time the former owners lived in the home, and where the archives are located. The U.S. Newspaper Directory at  Chronicling America  is an excellent source for information on what U.S. newspapers were being published in a particular area at a particular time, as well as the institutions which hold copies. A growing number of  historical newspapers can also be found online. Birth, Marriage and Death Records:  Ã‚  If you are able to narrow down a date of birth, marriage or death, then you should definitely investigate vital records. Birth, marriage, and death records are available from a variety of locations, depending upon the location and time period. Information is readily available on the Internet which can point you to these records and provide you with the years they are available. The history of the homeowners is a big part of the history of a house. If youre lucky enough to track former owners all the way down to living descendants, then you may want to consider contacting them to learn more. People who have lived in the home can tell you things about it that you will never find in public records. They may also be in possession of old photos of the home or building. Approach them with care and courtesy, and they may be your best resource yet!

Global Atmospheric Circulation and Related Effects

Global Atmospheric Circulation and Related Effects Solar radiation warms the air over the equator, causing it to rise. The rising air then proceeds south and north toward the poles. From approximately 20Â ° to 30Â ° North and South latitude, the air sinks. Then, the air flows along the surface of the earth back toward the equator. Doldrums Sailors noticed the stillness of the rising (and not blowing) air near the equator and gave the region the depressing name doldrums. The doldrums, usually located between 5Â ° north and 5Â ° south of the equator, are also known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ for short. The trade winds converge in the region of the ITCZ, producing convectional storms that produce some of the worlds heaviest precipitation regions. The ITCZ moves north and south of the equator depending on the season and solar energy received. The location of the ITCZ can vary as much as 40Â ° to 45Â ° of latitude north or south of the equator based on the pattern of land and ocean. The Intertropical Convergence Zone is also known as the Equatorial Convergence Zone or Intertropical Front. Horse Latitudes Between about 30Â ° to 35Â ° north and 30Â ° to 35Â ° south of the equator lies the region known as the horse latitudes or the subtropical high. This region of subsiding dry air and high pressure results in weak winds. Tradition states that sailors gave the region of the subtropical high the name horse latitudes because ships relying on wind power stalled; fearful of running out of food and water, sailors threw their horses and cattle overboard to save on provisions. (Its a puzzle why sailors would not have eaten the animals instead of throwing them overboard.) The Oxford English Dictionary claims the origin of the term uncertain. Major deserts of the world, such as the Sahara and the Great Australian Desert, lie under the high pressure of the horse latitudes. The region is also known as the Calms of Cancer in the northern hemisphere and the Calms of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. Trade Winds Blowing from the subtropical highs or horse latitudes toward the low pressure of the ITCZ are the trade winds. Named from their ability to quickly propel trading ships across the ocean, the trade winds between about 30Â ° latitude and the equator are steady and blow about 11 to 13 miles per hour. In the Northern Hemisphere, the trade winds blow from the northeast and are known as the Northeast Trade Winds; in the Southern Hemisphere, the winds blow from the southeast and are called the Southeast Trade Winds.

Managing Change in the Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Managing Change in the Workplace - Essay Example With the advent of time, the companies have realised that they need to bring reforms within their operations so that they can meet their customers’ expectations (Mohammed & Bardai, 2012). It is mandatory requirement for the firms to give leverage to their employees in terms of decision making and experimenting with unique ideas (Zain, Ihsak & Ghani, 2009). Hence, the organisations have to refine their organisational cultures by changing their policies, procedures, rules and related business aspects to thrive in such competitive corporate environment. When a change takes place in the organisation, there is a potential of triggering both optimistic and pessimistic moods and emotions in the employee and they are dependent on a wide range of factors (Smollan & Sayers, 2009). Some of the aspects which are the determinants of such emotions are the expected outcomes’ valence, change processes which are being used, time, speed and frequency of the changes, emotional intelligence, personality of employees and leadership styles (Zajac, 2009). Hence, the organisational culture is the main determinant for generating the emotions during the change process. According to Schein (2010), the organisational culture is described as â€Å"a collection of values, customs, traditions, rules, norms, beliefs, artefacts, assumptions and structures.† By some scholars, the term ‘organisational culture’ is interchangeably used with ‘organisational climate’; but there is a difference between the two terminologies as climate is the perception of an employee about the firm’s culture (Ahmadi et al., 2012). In order to understand the organisational culture, a culture is regarded as ‘the way things are carried out in a setting’ and it basically sculpts the members’ behaviours in both covert and overt means (Valencia, Valle & Jimenez, 2010). In other words, culture is the system of shared meaning held by the group of people and

Violent video games effects on children and teenager Essay

Violent video games effects on children and teenager - Essay Example Psychologists explain that being overly exposed to violent video and computer games can be responsible for shaping violent patterns of behavior among children. It is argued that the content and plot of games is often not appropriate for the young and not mature individuals as far as it is focused on aggression and killing. Many scenes can show shootings, fights, and blood. As a result, children see pictures that can lead to alternation of their behavior, increasing frequency of violent response and decreasing their ability to take anger under control. The following is proved various studies conducted by specialists. As a whole, there is substantial ground to believe that violent games teach children to response to situations in a violent way, acting like they used to in games. Apart from that, there is a considerable concern that video games make children accustomed to seeing and participating in violence, which results in devaluation of morality and helpfulness among them. Extremely realistic scenes which are common for any modern game today are likely to lead to desensitization of young individuals. The following happens due to habituation of observing initially negative physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses that people experience when they see gore and blood. Putting it in other words, children are not perceiving violence and aggression as bad as they would normally do. Subsequently, they can hurt people without realizing the moral consequences of their actions as well as would not view helping others as a necessary action. As a whole, their overall understanding of moral values becomes distorted to the great extent. This can also lead to reduced academic performance since children will think that this is not diligence and discipline that l ead to success, but force and suppression of others, just like in a video game. Video games have already become an integral part of