A Comparison Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight - 808 Words

Brit Lit Essay I: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight As an avid recreational reader I enjoy reading books of all types, however, one of my favorite genres is fantasy. This love began in my reading of George MacDonalds Phantastes, and continued throughout the past year as I have been working my way through C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy. What is so interesting, and simply enjoyable, for me about reading Sir Gawain is that it is a more original and classic take on the typical structure and plot of a fantasy/fairytale. In the beginning you already get a general idea of how the story is going to go, yet the story has its own quirks that keep it interesting. At the start of the story the Green Knight enters the great hall and proposes his game.†¦show more content†¦Knowing that the Green Knight is a fairy endowed with mystical characteristics makes the story even more interesting; as you continue through the story you begin to wonder more and more about how Gawain would be able to survive the Green Knight’s returning blow. The story in Bertilak’s castle seems arbitrary and unnecessary until you read on and realize that it is an integral part of the story and it is the means by which the author provides Gawain with his solution. In Phantastes, MacDonald spends a lot of time telling the tale of Cosmo of Prague, which at first seems to be an interruption to the main story being told, unbeknownst to the reader, however, it is setting the stage for parts of the plot later on in the story. In the same way Sir Gawain’s time in Bertilak’s castle does the same thing. It is this mysterious structure and suspens e that makes Sir Gawain and the Green Knight such an interesting story to read. The â€Å"huzzah† moment that the reader has when Bertilak’s wife first introduces the idea of the girdle, the idea that connects this part of the story to the rest, is such a satisfying moment for the reader and provides an experience like no other. This is compounded as the reader discovers, sometimes in a frustrating manner, that some unknown test had been occurring to test the character of the hero. Sir Gawain had been honorable and noble the whole story yet his one slip up may have lead to his demise. This isShow MoreRelatedSir Gawain and the Green Knight Hunt vs. Temptation: a Comparison816 Words   |  4 PagesSir Gawain and the Green Knight is an Arthurian poem; an enchanting story of chivalry, romance and heroism. With its intricately woven details, parallels and symbols, the reader will often easily overlook these facets in a story of this caliber. Undoubtedly, the author would n ot have spent time on details that do not add to the meaning of the overall telling of the story. The three hunting scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and in parallel, the three temptations, monopolize a considerableRead MoreBeowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Comparison Essay1443 Words   |  6 Pages and the idea they symbolize. Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, two of the earliest great stories of English literature, do not disappoint the readers and present us with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, the Dragon, and the Green Knight. The two poems similarly describe the protagonists’ encounters with these unworldly characters in three patterns, Beowulf’s three great battles with the monsters and Sir Gawain three nights at the Green Knight’s castle. The progression of these three patternsRead More A Comparison of Perfection in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight1077 Words   |  5 PagesPerfection in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The heroes of both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are fighters. However, the traits they have in common are far less numerous than those that set them apart. As each of the two is dubbed perfect by his contemporaries, it should be possible to draw the picture of both the model warrior and the paragon knight by comparing Beowulf and Gawain. The first question to arise is that of leadership. In Beowulf, the hero is referredRead More A Comparison of Religion in Sir Gawain and Green Knight and Othello1623 Words   |  7 PagesRole of Religion in Sir Gawain and Othello      Ã‚   Respect for religion and government is an important part of any country, but what happens to a country when these values begin to change?   England was beginning to go through this change in 1603 when Othello was written by William Shakespeare.   Comparing the religious themes and heroes of Othello to the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which was written during the Middle English era, will demonstrate just how far England had come.   BothRead MoreComparison Between Paradise Lost and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight1021 Words   |  5 PagesThe women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Paradise Lost both had a serious impact over the men in their lives. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the host’s wife heavily influenced Sir Gawain’s thoughts and strategies through seduction, especially when she offered her girdle. The host’s wife was put there to test Sir Gawain’s loyalty, and he gave in. In Paradise Lost, Eve was beneficial to Adam in many ways. Eve provided Adam with companionship, gave Adam confidence, and also helped convinceRead MoreCompare and Contrast of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight600 Words   |  3 PagesCompare and Contrast of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Beowulf is an epic poem that was written in the Anglo-Saxon time period where only a few privileged people were able to read and write while Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is also an epic poem, was written in the Middle English time period where reading and writing was more wide-spread. While both the epic poem Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have similar protagonists, the main character of each poem also hasRead MoreEssay on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as Modern Fantasy627 Words   |  3 Pages Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as Modern Fantasy nbsp; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an unknown author in the 14th century, can be called a timeless work of poetry. It exudes a certain fantastic quality that, despite its age of over 500 years, still appeals to modern audiences. Because of this application to all eras, would it be reasonable to state that this poem could be classified with modern fantasy fiction? Because of the similarities in plot and style with so much modernRead MoreSir Gawain And The Green Knight1482 Words   |  6 PagesIn Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the protagonist, Sir Gawain, is illustrated as the imperfect hero of the tale. His documented imperfections and various flaws create a sense of irony when put into comparison with the depiction of the pentangle on his shield. The pentangle, designed by King Solomon of old as his own magical seal, symbolizes the virtues that Gawain aspires to uphold: to be faultless in his five senses, that his five fingers were never at fault, being faithful to the five woundsRead MoreSir Gawain And The Green Knight1335 Words   |  6 PagesSir Gawain: The Ironic Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale of the utmost irony in which Sir Gawain, the most loyal and courteous of all of King Arthur’s knights, fails utterly to be loyal and courteous to his king, his host, his vows, and his God. In each case, Sir Gawain not only fails to perform well, but performs particularly poorly, especially in the case of his relationship with God. Ultimately, Sir Gawain chooses magic over faith, and by doing so, shows his ironic nature as aRead MoreSir Gawain820 Words   |  4 PagesOne Tragic Defeat The poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, illustrates the perfection of a knight throughout his life. Sir Gawain the perfect knight goes on a Christmas game quest provided by the Green Knight which tempts his purity and eventually ruins the ideal knight he used to be. In the criticism, â€Å"A Psychological Interpretation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight†, the critic Stephen Manning argues that the poem centers on Gawain’s feeling of guilt. On the other hand, P. J. C. Field a

Sales Tools Free Essays

string(106) " an asterisk on the image that says Oh, they can also make a good suit when they put their mind to it’\." This is a report to understand the role of personal selling within the overall marketing strategy such as Promotion mix: personal and impersonal communication; objectives of promotional activity, push-pull strategies; integrating sales with other promotional activities; evaluating promotion; allocation of promotion budget and Understanding buyer behaviour: consumer and organisational purchase decision-making. And also this report involved the role of the sales team: definition and role of personal selling; types of selling; characteristics and have link with LEVI’S case study. After reading this report reader could understand to how to apply the principles of the selling process to a product or service such as customer-oriented approach; objective setting; preparation and rehearsal; opening remarks; techniques and personal presentation; need for identification and stimulation; presentation; product demonstration and use of visual aids; handling and pre-empting objections; techniques and proposals for negotiation; buying signals; closing techniques; post sale follow-up; record keeping; customer relationship marketing (CRM) And also reader could be able to understand the role and objectives of sales management such as, Controlling sales output: purpose and role of the sales budget; performance standards: performance against targets (financial, volume, call-rate, conversion, pioneering); appraisals; self-development plans; customer care. We will write a custom essay sample on Sales Tools or any similar topic only for you Order Now Reader also will have Be able to understand how to plan sales activity for a product or service in ways such sales settings: sales channels (retailers, wholesalers, distributors, agents multi-channel and online retailers); importance of market segmentation: business-to-business (BTB) selling; industrial selling; selling to public authorities; selling for resale; telesales; selling services; pioneering; systems selling; selling to project teams or groups international selling: role of agents and distributors; sources, selection and appointment of agents/distributors; agency contracts; training and motivating agents/distributors; use of expatriate versus local sales personnel; role, duties and characteristics of the export sales team; coping in different cultural environments; the role of ICT in communicating with an international sales team Exhibitions and trade fairs: role, types and locations of trade fairs and exhibitions; how trade fairs and exhibitions fit in with corporate strategy and objectives; setting objectives for participation in an exhibition; audience profile and measurement; qualification and follow-up of exhibition leads; evaluation of exhibition attendance; setting budgets; financial assistance or exhibition attendance etc.. to a certain extend. Table of Content Personal selling, promotion mix, buyer behaviour and the decision making process in different situations ,role of sales teams within marketing strategy Role of sales teams within marketing strategy ow sales strategies are developed in line with corporate objectives Importance of recruitment and selection procedure Role of motivation, remuneration and training in sales management Sales plan for a levi’s male cap Conclusion Bibliography Personal selling, promotion mix, buyer behaviour and the decision making process in different situations ,role of sales teams within marketing strategy Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party (e. g. , salesperson) uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships with another party (e. g. , those involved in a purchase decision) that results in both parties obtaining value. In most cases the â€Å"value† for the salesperson is realized through the financial rewards of the sale while the customer’s â€Å"value† is realized from the benefits obtained by consuming the product. However, getting a customer to purchase a product is not always the objective of personal selling. For instance, selling may be used for the purpose of simply delivering information. Marketers have at their disposal four major methods of promotion. Taken together these comprise the promotion mix. Those four promotion methods are 1. Advertising 2. Sales Promotion 3. Public Relations 4. Personal Selling So, Personal selling comes under promotional mix. That means personal selling is a part of promotional mix. In LEVI’S case also LEVI’S company might definitely use promotional mix and they can improve the promotional mix by improving personal selling that both aspects have a positive relationship. Buyer behaviour consists of activities/process followed in making any buying decision of goods as well as a service. In LEVI’S case buyer behaviour would be 1. Type One: Traditionalist – probably over 45; buys from department stores; buys polyester suits and trousers; shops with his wife. 2. Type Two: Classic Independent – a real ‘clothes horse’; 21% of the market but buys 46% of wool blend suits; shops at independent stores; has expensive tastes. 3. Type Three: Utilitarian – wears jeans for work and leisure; 26% of the market; a Levis loyalist. 4. Type Four: Trendy Casual – buys ‘designer’ high fashion labels; might buy 501’s but usually considers Levi’s too mass market; 19% of the market. 5. Type Five: Price Shopper – buys the lowest price product wherever they may be; no potential for Levi; 14% of the market. There are five types of buyer behaviours and they have different types of decision making in different situation. One thing needs to be highlighted here is that consumer behaviour does not end with purchase of goods or service, but also post purchase activities are included in consumer decision making. The below image shows the different type of buyer behaviour. Role of sales teams within marketing strategy Marketing Strategy is something that helps companies achieves Marketing objectives. Marketing objectives help achieve corporate objectives and corporate objectives aim to achieve a competitive advantage over rival organizations. Firstly, a Managing Director or senior management team, or executive board of directors (who ever is in charge) decides on overall corporate objectives. One corporate objective might be to increase sales by some percentage. In order to achieve this percentage sales team always work towards that. So the role of sales team would be work to corporate objective goals and marketing strategies. LEVI’S case study team have adopted to the marketing strategies and LEVI’S ‘ marketing team responded to this information by deciding to focus on jackets and trousers only for the launch and let suits ‘slipstream’. The Director of Consumer Marketing stated: ‘The thing that is going to overcome Levi’s image for casual only apparel is a suit made by Levi that doesn’t look like anything else we have ever made. Once that gets on the racks people will put an asterisk on the image that says Oh, they can also make a good suit when they put their mind to it’. You read "Sales Tools" in category "Papers" So sales responded according to the marketing strategies ‘Soon after this decision, salesmen started contacting retail buyers. After 4 months of selling to the trade it was clear sales targets for the range would not be met. A subsequent price reduction failed to redeem the situation and Tailored Classics achieved only 65% of its sales targets. so role of sales team would be always adopted to mass marketing strategy. ’ ow sales strategies are developed in line with corporate objectives Whenever a person wanted to develop sales strategies he/she should always should develop in line with corporate objectives, so, he/she should keep these below mentioned tips before they make sales strategies. Do you have the time and resources necessary to interact? Can you competitively position yourself to overpower the competitor? Do you have sufficient unique selling points to change the rules and do you have time to accomplish this? Do you have access to the key decision makers to do this? Can you sufficiently quantify your unique selling points to prevent price pressure? Can you neutralize the competitor’s strengths? Do you have the capacity to deliver? What would it take to make this a viable opportunity? Importance of recruitment and selection procedure The recruitment is a process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate (from within or outside of an organization) for a job opening, in a timely and cost effective manner. The recruitment process includes analysing the requirements of a job, attracting employees to that job, screening and selecting applicants, hiring, and integrating the new employee to the organization. Importance of the recruitment are listed below * Recruitment is the process which links the employers with the employees. Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost. * Help increase the success rate of selection process by decreasing number of visibly under qualified or overqualified job applicants. * Help reduce the probability that job applicants once recruited and selected will leave the organization only after a short period of time. * Meet the organizations legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce. Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates. * Increase organization and individual effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants Role of motivation, remuneration and training in sales management Motivation means Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal. Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as the * Intensity of desire or need, * Incentive or reward value of the goal, and * Expectations of the individual and of his or her peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a certain way. Role of motivation in sales management is motivate sales people towards bringing business to the organization. The most widely recognised method of attracting and retaining marketing employees is through remuneration packages. This is because a good emuneration package can have a positive effect on a person’s standard of living. Remuneration refers to money or substitutes for money. This may include wages, salaries, commissions and bonuses, incentive plans and allowances. The total value of all these items is called a remuneration package. Sales plan for a levi’s male cap A sales plan LEVI’S cap is basically should be a strategic and tactical plan for achieving market because of the higher price objectives. It should be a step-by-step and detailed process that will show how you will acquire new business for LEVI’S caps; and how you will gain more business from the existing customer base. It involves making and/or exceeding our sales quota within our sales territory how to penetrate to international business. Here are the steps to help you develop a sales plan for LEVI’S male caps: 1. Segment the target audience – The first step is to clearly identify the target markets. Who are more likely to buy LEVI’S caps. The more defined the target market, the better. Target market can be defined as high-income men ages 30-60 who loves to buy the latest electronic gadgets. If the target market is done, the next step is to prioritize the target market to ensure that resources are directed towards your key target market. Prospects are more likely to purchase if LEVI’S can talk features of male cap. 2. Cap industry – Current trends in industry, and how the business fares with these trends. LEVI’S must look at the range of similar products now available, and compare how the product stacks up to competitor products. Take a bigger picture of the industry and find out prospects. 3. Develop sales strategies – LEVI’S sales strategies must include determining how LEVI’S can reach the sales quota, how can get more sales from existing customers, and how can raise awareness in the marketplace and community about your business. Your sales strategies also involve making a decision on who is actually going to do the selling. Will you do it skills to do it? how to improve confidence and presentation skill etc†¦ 4. Think through sales plan. This is the meat of the sales plan. LEVI’S need to write down the sales strategies based on the analysis you’ve done of your business and what you can do. Will you attend trade shows or do cold calling? Will they use search engine advertising or other forms of online advertising? How they going to reach exactly to target audience? It is important that LEVI’S break down the sales strategies into quantifiable activities . 5. Measure and improve. A sales plan is not something that LEVI’S create and then hide inside the drawer. Should follow the activities and tasks outlined in sales plan. All the planning in the world is worthless if they cannot or do not implement any of it. Keep track of how they are performing vis-à  -vis sales target.. Conclusion This report have explained the role of personal selling within the overall marketing strategy such as Promotion mix: personal and impersonal communication; objectives of promotional activity, push-pull strategies; integrating sales with other promotional activities; evaluating promotion; allocation of promotion budget and Understanding buyer behaviour: consumer and organisational purchase decision-making. And also this report involved the role of the sales team: definition and role of personal selling; types of selling; characteristics and have link with LEVI’S case study. Report also explained how to plan sales activity for LEVI’S male caps in ways such sales settings: sales channels (retailers, wholesalers, distributors, agents multi-channel and online retailers); importance of market segmentation: business-to-business (BTB) selling; industrial selling; selling to public authorities; selling for resale; telesales; selling services; pioneering; systems selling; selling to project teams or groups international selling: role of agents and distributors; sources, selection and appointment of agents/distributors; agency contracts; training and motivating agents/distributors; use of expatriate versus local sales personnel; role, duties and characteristics of the export sales team; coping in different cultural environments; the role of ICT in communicating with an international sales team Exhibitions and trade fairs: role, types and locations of trade fairs and exhibitions; how trade fairs and exhibitions fit in with corporate strategy and objectives; setting objectives for participation in an exhibition; audience profile and measurement; qualification and follow-up of exhibition leads; evaluation of exhibition attendance; setting budgets; financial assistance or exhibition attendance etc.. 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Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Disuss about the Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction. Answer: Introduction The hospitality industry is a highly competitive and global industry. Hotel chains started going global as early as the 19th century and since then the race to win customer loyalty and develop a somewhat firm client base has been on. In light of the above, Stay Together hotel management has made some strategic and key decisions in winning over customers and retaining them. The main aim of these decisions is to combat the sale of hotel rooms through popular websites such as booking.com and hotels.com. By employing the services of these websites, their profits have reduced and their corporate image compromised. Due to this Stay Together hotel senior management has come up with a solution to develop and deploy their own website, and a mobile app which will be centrally managed. Complimenting these, will be some customer loyalty and corporate responsibility strategies. This report will enable them to clearly see what they should do, in order to achieve their general organizational objective of acquiring and retaining customers. The hospitality industry is very wide industry with various sectors. In various parts and cultures of the world, hospitality can have varied meanings, although it is generally and psychologically accepted by most people that the hospitality means the hotel sector. Variantsof hospitality include, but not limited, to commercial establishments such as inns, taverns, boarding houses, guest houses, lodges, hydropaths, sanatoria and holiday camps/villages (Brotherton, 2013). Tourism is also a complimentary part of the hospitality industry, popular with almost every country and race. Structure and characteristics of the hospitality industry The hospitality industry consists of two main structures, that is, the capital structure and the management structure. According to Brotherton (2013), the hospitality industry is capital intensive and requires a high, fixed investment cost. Investors in the hotel industry have several conventional ways of raising capital for start up. These include private finance, bank loan, funding from an investment company, funding from stocks and shares of a company and funding through the government. Choosing the most suitable means of funding may vary from investor to investor, depending on their unique reasons. Management arrangements include the development of hotel chains (an important feature of the hotel sector), consortium membership, franchising or management contracting. A hotel chain is a group of hotels owned by a single investor, which operates under central management which makes key decisions in its business processes. Hotel chains mostly target the international market and may have units spanning several countries or continents. A perfect example is the Marriot chain of hotels, which has over 6000 hotels and properties in 122 countries, including luxury suites, hotels and vacation clubs (Marriot, 2017). As for consortium membership, a group of hotels cooperate gain corporate benefits in order to gain revenue or cut costs. The operating principle here is that many hands make work easier. Members share responsibility and hence the workload is shared, unlike if a member was the only one running the investment. Franchising, on the other hand, enables a hotel owner to purchase a specific style of operation from a parent company, whereby the parent company retains the business format, name and proprietary rights (Brotherton, 2013). Another management approach is management contracting, whereby ownership of the investment is separated from its operation. In such situations, a hotel owner, or a potential one, incorporates an operator to run the investment for them. The operator may be experienced hoteliers and could run the establishment in a far more cost effective manner, therefore ensuring profits remain high. This could probably not have been achieved by the inexperienced investor if they were running the establishment themselves. Service delivery and customer satisfaction In any business or industry, customer satisfaction is a key ingredient to success. The hospitality industry is no exception. Customer satisfaction, with products, services and performance of operational facilities and equipment is a cornerstone of hotels corporate strategy, laying the foundation for long term sustainable success (Ejikeme, Enemuo Edward, 2016). Quality is a wholistic and long term process which focuses solely on customer satisfaction. According to Adesina and Chinono (2015), customer satisfaction is a measureof how products and services supplied by a company meets or surpasses customers expectations. This directly translates to increased profits. The driving force for customer satisfaction everywhere is value for money. The average customer seeks the best service or product at the least or desired cost. In the hospitality industry the factors which come into play include, physiological comforts, aesthetics, how the staff handle customers, cost, location and offers such as rebates and bonuses. It is for the establishment to know or anticipate what the customer wants or needs and to meet those needs in the best way possible. Trial and error over time could perfect service delivery to customers. The establishment may also take it upon themselves to find out directly from customers what exactly they want to be offered through m arket research. Through quality and accurate delivery,a loyal customer base is created with time, leading to marketing being done by word of mouth, which is free and very effective. The role of media in the hospitality industry The 20th and 21st centuries have been commonly referred to as the information age. It has seen advancement of knowledge, information and communication management tools, specifically the personal computer, the world wide web and telecommunications (telephones, fax machines and mobile phones). More recent advances have seen the emergence of technologies such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and iPads all of which give the average user the capability to handle huge amounts of information in a very fast and effecient manner by accessing, storing and distributing it at will. This has been in tandem with Moores law which states that computing power doubles every year as devices keep getting smaller. Faster, smaller, cheaper is the general direction which computing is taking. The world has become a global digital village. The hospitality industry, among many others, has seen a way of using the information revolution to achieve success in its business. Information systems are key in its operations as it improves operational efficiency and is cost effective. An information system is a set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate, store and disseminate data and information and provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective (Stair and Reynolds, 2013).Its array of uses includeknowledge management, marketing, customer services and communications. Knowledge management systems include revenue management systems, central reservation systems and global distribution systems. Customer services include website booking engine, mobile booking engine (for smart phones and tablets), search and metasearch distribution for price advertising and trip advisories (xotels, n.d). Websites are are also used for marketing purposes through corporate image promotion and brand advertising. According to a study by Verma, Stock and McCarthy (2015) of the Cornell University of Hotel Administration, many people visit an online search engine, such as Google and Bing, to check out the available choices of destinations and hotels. Afterwards, they visit brand sites and online travel agencies to get a closer look at what they are looking for and to make any necessary bookings.The study also found out that customers frequently use smartphones in three modes, that is communications based (text messages, voice mails etc.), services based (booking, housekeeping, room service, etc) and location (GIS) based (local information, attractions, directions etc.). Of the three modes, the location based mode was found to be the most popular. In contrast, recommendations by word of mouth of friends and colleagues are of first priority to potential customers. However, once they acquire the information, they are turn more to such sources as the brand website and online travel agencieswhere the y can book their room. Corporate social responsibility refers to the ethical principle that an organization should be responsible for how its behaviour might affect society and the environment (Jobber, Chadwick Ellis, 2012). A study by Singal and Rhou (2017) revealed that hotel companies with CSR practices can better attract, motivate, and retain their employees. Employees are most likely to want to work for a company with a positive image and a good reputation. They experience higher job satisfaction which in turn reduces turnover of employees. Several hospitality firms, like Marriott and Sodexo among others, have invested in proactive diversity management programs that have indirectly helped the firms reputation. The study also further revealed that some companies may reap benefits of employee engagement when they give employee contributions to charities or donate time by giving employees free time to volunteer at local non-profit organizations. CSR initiatives, therefore, become a component of an integ rated high performance work system. Conclusion The decision by Stay Together Hotel top management to develop their own brand website for booking and other services is a good business decision. Firstly, booking will be made quick and easy through onlinebooking and secondly, the website will enable customers to get a feel and look of what they have to offer and hence be able to influence their decisions in choosing their destination. The mobile booking application will also take advantage of the increase in use of smartphones, and its wide range of capabilities, by users all over the world. Information systems also enable senior management to make sound decisions by getting the right information at the right time and in the right way. This improves the overall growth and performance of the company, resulting in bigger profits. Customers always need to be made to feel special and appreciated hence the strategies employed by Stay Together Hotel management to attain customer loyalty are most likely to work, although it may take some time. Offers such as rebates and bonuses are common and have been proven to have tremendous effect. A corporate social responsibility program will also improve the corporate image of Stay Together Hotel among its already existing clientele and potential clientele. Recommendations The Stay Together may introduce a location based application for their mobile application services which will enable people to take directions, and to know the exact location of each of its units. This is helpful, especially for tourists. Making some research on customer needs from time to time will definitely be of use. Feedback mechanisms, both on line and on site are useful tools for gauging customer satisfaction in most organizations. Keeping customers needs in mind will help the company to continually improve their services and maintain quality. References Adesina, K.I, Chinono, I, "Service delivery and customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry:A study of the Divine Fountain Hotel Limited, Lagos, Nigeria". Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism(6)1 (2016): pp 1-10. DOI:10.5897/JHMT2015.0139 Borghoff, U.W, Bareschi, R, (2013). Information Technology for Knowledge Management. ISBN 3-540-63764-8, Springer-Valerg Berlin Heidelberg New York Brotherton, B. (2013). The International Hospitality Industry: Structures, characteristics and issues. Butterworth Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-5295-7 Ejikeme, J N U, O B Enemuo, and C Edward. The Role of Customer Satisfaction and Maintenance Culture in The Sustainability of Hospitality Industries inUmuahia North and South Local Government Areas ofAbia State. Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism 7.1 (2016): 1-10. Web. 10 May 2017. Jobber, David, Ellis F., (2012)Principles and practices of marketing. London, McGraw Hill companies Marriott, (2017). Marriott. Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi Stair, R., Reynolds, G., (2012). Principles of information systems. Eleventh Edition. Course technology, Cengage learning. ISBN-10:1-133-95351-4 Singal, M., Rhou, Y., (2017). Corporate social responsibility in the hospitality sector. Boston hospitality review. Retrieved from https://www.bu.edu/bhr/2017/01/27/hospitalitycsr/ Verma, R., Stock, D., McCarthy, L. (2012). Customer preferences for online, social media, and mobile innovations in the hospitality industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53(3), 183-186. Retrieved [4th May, 2017], from https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles/48/ Xotels, (2017). Hotel technology solutions. Retrieved from https://www.xotels.com/en/hotel-technology

Protecting Biodiversity through Science and Technology Essay Example

Protecting Biodiversity through Science and Technology Essay Protecting Biodiversity Through Science and Technology Heal the world; make It a better place for you and for me and the inure human race. Man can do or undo the environment. Crimes, wars, poverty, pollution ? name it, the world has it. It is a sad truth universally accepted that humans are the primary cause of these problems. It cannot be denied that human activities further uphold problems detrimental to the environment and to the whole community as well. To solve or minimize these problems, self-discipline must be everybody concern. Man knows what is right or wrong, so the right must prevail in his system. Biodiversity loss is caused by humans and their activities. Thus, man must think of ways beneficial to the conservation and protection of the environment. Let us pay off our debts to the environment. We owe our environment a lot. This can be done by merely starting at home. Lets help keep our surroundings clean always. Environmental sanitation at home will keep us free from pollution that will hinder the growth of bacteria that will affect our health. With this, we can still breathe fresh alarm and live a intended life. Technology. In one way Is harmful and causes lots of stress to the environment, thus promoting biodiversity loss. As human population increases, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation became rampant. Therefore, lets make use of technology to help save the environment and biodiversity, as a whole. Planting more trees and more crops that will help screen impurities in the air and water is one great way, for this will balance the increase in human population. We will write a custom essay sample on Protecting Biodiversity through Science and Technology specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Protecting Biodiversity through Science and Technology specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Protecting Biodiversity through Science and Technology specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Biodiversity supports almost all life forms and a number of natural ecosystem recesses. There should be awareness of what happens in the ecosystem. Man must see to it that there is ecological balance. What Is lost should be gained. What Is destroyed should be replenished. Science and technology can help save and protect biodiversity. The knowledge and ideas Imparted by science Is essential for us to know how to manage and conserve the worlds species. Science will guide us of what Is beneficial to our environment while technology, on the other hand can be beneficial If being used properly.

7 Time Management Tips for Academic Writers

7 Time Management Tips for Academic Writers Between a 12-credit course load and work assignments, the life of a student- whether part-time or full-time- can get stressful. But before you down that eleventh cup of coffee and spend yet another sleepless night trying to meet deadlines for academic writing assignments, here are seven time management tips for academic writers to make your semester less stressed.With the right kind of time management, your academic writing assignments can be less stressful. Photo by Kaylah Otto on Unsplash.#1. Establish a timeline and stick to itTheres really no way around it- academic writing requires time and preparation. This is especially true if you are in advanced undergraduate classes or graduate school. Gone are the days when you could procrastinate on a writing assignment, stay up all night the night before the due date to get it written, then still manage a good grade on the result. Its simply impossible to pull of when advanced research is involved.When youre given an assignment that will be due in one month, first determine the steps that will be involved with that assignment. For most academic writing assignments, such as essays or research papers, these steps will include:A trip to the library or online research to find sourcesTime to read through the sourcesTime to take notes and cite the sources usedTime to outline the intended direction of your writing and develop a thesis statement/argument/hypothesisTime to write the rough draftFinding an editor or second pair of eyes to look over your workTime to complete the final draftTime to complete the list of references or sources in a standard formatDepending on the scope of your assignment, locating and reading through your sources could take anywhere from an hour to several weeks, so its best to get started on this part of the academic writing assignment as quickly as possible. Some professors also place parameters on the types of sources you use or the dates they were published, which can add additional time and s tress to this part of the process.If your academic writing project is a thesis or dissertation, obviously, there are many more steps involved than the basic ones listed above. However, regardless of the assignment given, its important to plan out the steps that will be involved and establish a workable timeline that you can stick with.#2. Turn off your phone and social media accounts while writing/researchingWeve all been there- that moment when youre focused on a topic of study, or in the middle of writing, and your mind begins to move toward a deeper level of analysis. You begin to think clearly, the words flow smoother, and then suddenly†¦ding! A Facebook notification comes in and you lose it all.How much time did it take you to get to that place of focus- the place you found before the notification distracted you? Ten minutes? Maybe more? Youre now back at square one, with muddled thoughts, and a looming deadline that requires you to once again find focus.When youre in the process of researching and writing, constant interruptions can cause more delay than you realize, because its more than those few seconds of interruptions. Its the added minutes required to once again focus your thoughts on the task at hand, and often, those minutes add up to hours if enough distractions are around you. This is especially true of social media, which can end up causing you to waste time on scrolling through yet more mindless memes and cute cat photos.#3. Outline your writingWriting without outlining is like driving a train with no tracks. To achieve a cohesive, well-written essay, you need an outline that gives you a general direction to take. It will help save time in the end by ensuring that your writing moves in the right direction.The time you should spend outlining your essay is dependent on the time you have to write it. For example, if its an in-class assignment and you have an hour to write it, obviously, you shouldnt spend more than 5 to 10 minutes on the ou tline. However, if you have a month to pull together an academic essay assignment, you should spend several days creating an outline that will include all of the necessary elements the essay requires (e.g., introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion).If your academic assignment requires an abstract, your outline will be useful in writing it. The outline should contain an introduction to the problem, your thesis statement, and the points or hypotheses you plan to make. All of these will be necessary when composing your abstract.#4. Create your citations as you goAs you read through your sources and conduct research on the topic, go ahead and make a citation for each source used in the citation format your assignment requires. This is best done on note cards, placing the quote to be used on one side (along with the page number) and the full citation on the other. From this point, all that will be required is alphabetizing the sources used and typing them out in a references list. This is a great time-saving method and will cut a large chunk of time out of whats required to prepare the final draft before submitting your essay.To save even more time with citations, if while youre reading over your sources and you have access to the laptop youll be writing your paper on, go ahead and put the citations in a saved file. Some word processing programs will even put the citation in the correct format based on the citation style you choose. You can also use online resources such as Citation Machine to help with this part of the writing process.#5. Set a daily word count goal while writingAfter establishing a timeline for your academic writing assignment, you should know exactly how many days you have to work on the writing portion. Divide that amount equally by your word count requirement and make sure you reach your word count goal each day you write.For example, if your essay should be four to five pages long, double spaced and not including the citation port ion of your paper, that is approximately 1,200 to 1,500 words (300 words per page of double-spaced writing is a good estimate). If you have a week to research and turn in your assignment, set aside a day for research and gathering sources, a day for outlining and reading over sources, three days to write (with a goal of hitting 500 words a day), a day to have someone proofread and edit, then a day for you to wrap up the final draft.#6. Take breaks away from the screen and booksWhile taking breaks might seem counterproductive to saving time, it isnt. The strain of staring at small text in your source material and the bright light of a screen creates added tension that is best avoided by taking consistent breaks away from your research and writing work. Not doing so can produce headaches, blurry vision, eye strain and trouble sleeping- all of which could potentially affect your ability to work and think clearly the next day.If possible, be sure to take these breaks by going outside an d breathing in fresh air. If you cant manage to get outside for a few minutes, other healthy options are meditating, closing your eyes and listening to music, a yoga flow, and holding a plank position for several minutes to reduce stress on the lower back.When writing and researching, be sure to take these breaks by going outside and breathing in fresh air. Photo by Joshua yu on Unsplash.#7. Plan ahead for someone to check your workYou can spend days writing and preparing your academic paper, but a few misspelled words or grammar errors can end up costing you a passing grade on your work. Thats why you dont want to rely on software to check your work for errors.While your word processing program and online programs such as Grammarly might seem like a good option, particularly when youre pressed for time, evidence shows that they fail to catch even simple grammar and spelling errors.If you cant pay a professional editor to edit your work, many universities offer peer editing services in computer labs, libraries, or some other convenient spot on campus. Often, these services are free to students, but may require you to schedule an appointment in advance. If this is the option you end up taking, on the day you receive your assignment, be sure to call ahead and find out how to schedule a peer review session of your paper and leave yourself an extra day after that review to make any changes to the rough draft.However, you manage to do it, always have a second pair of eyes look over your writing before you turn it in as a final draft. Sometimes, its easy to miss even the most blatant grammar and spelling errors after focusing on one document for a long time. And no amount of research or preparation will make an essay full of typos an easy A.

Business Model of Amazon

As the economy has moved from agrarian to industrial to information age, the focus of the businessmen or the wealthy and powerful has also shifted in terms of the ways of obtaining wealth or doing business. In the agrarian age there was shortage of land which made ownership of land as the determinant of value. Powerful land barons typically accumulated vast tracts of land and coerced people who were bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord into living on and working it. As economy moved from agrarian to industrial age, physical assets owned by a firm became the determinants of value and shortage of raw-materials led the powerful industrialists to conspire to control the supply of raw materials. In this age, the market could absorb as much product as the industrialists could produce. The current era in which we live has been defined as the information age wherein relationships and intellectual capital are more important than anything else. One is not worried about physical assets anymore. Companies don’t compete with each other over superior products as they are largely commoditized rather compete increasingly on the basis of value added customer services. The economic battles of today are fought over the mind-space of consumers. In the information age power-play customers are not passive participants, in the way that land and raw materials were in the agrarian and industrial ages. In fact, according to Zang Hailing, it is the customers’ time that is in short supply, and therefore for any firm to succeed, emphasis needs to be given to the importance of reducing the customers’ time to adopt a new product. Thus, in a world where technology is changing every day and the transformation of consumers has happened from â€Å"Price Takers† to â€Å"Price Makers† as they are armed with more options and information; the companies that control more and more customer relationships will be the ones that hold the power in an industry and reap the lion’s share of the profits. E-commerce or e-business is an important tool that enables companies to reach out to the global market at low cost and provides abundant information about the consumers’ requirements and preferences easily which was not so easy earlier. Following figure is a glimpse of the promising future that the ecommerce industry holds. The US E-commerce has seen a 40% increase in the sales over the past 5 years as a percentage of the total retail sales in US. Source: http://ycharts. com Now when thinks about e-commerce, the first name that comes to everyone’s mind is that of Amazon. com. Not only most of the people have heard about it but there are many people who have actually used its services. Amazon was not only one of the few of the companies that thrived throughout the period in which many dot-com companies struggled to survive but has been constantly performing exceptionally well in terms of revenue per visitor which is one of the key parameters for any commercial website. Amazon has had one of the fastest growths in the internet’s history with revenues reaching $2, 8 billion in the first five years with Google’s revenue reaching only $15bn in the first five years. Now, just like any other traditional business in order to clearly understand an e-business one needs to have information on the following components: a) Business Strategy which determines the products and service offerings by the firm, the firms targeted customers and the firms value proposition. It also helps firms decide on the choices and the tradeoffs that the firm needs to make. b) Organizational form or structure c) Business processes which refer to the unique ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce a product or service. ) Value Chain i. e. the sequence of activities that a firm undertakes to create value, including the various steps of the supply chain but also additional activities, such as marketing, sales, and service. e) Core Competencies which are the collective learning’s of the firms and being distinctive create long term competitive advantage for the firm. From the beginning, the focus of Amazon. com has been on offering their customers compelling value. In the current report filing dated 04/13/12, Jeffrey Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. om writes â€Å"We realized that the Web was, and still is, the World Wide Wait. Therefore, we set out to offer customers something they simply could not get any other way, and began serving them with books. We brought them much more selection than was possible in a physical store (our store would now occupy 6 football fields), and presented it in a useful, easy-to-search, and easy-to-browse format in a store open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. † The Value Proposition offered by Amazon. com is â€Å"earth’s largest selection—24/7, at competitive price. † Amazon. om has continuously focused on improving the shopping experience owing to which they substantially enhanced their stores in 1997. Though they started off with books, they now offer customers gift certificates, 1-ClickSM shopping, and vastly more r eviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. The company’s stated goal was to â€Å"be Earth’s most customer centric company for three primary customer sets: consumers, sellers and developers. † It targeted its first set of customers through its initial retail model where it sold only books. It offered the perfect combination of low prices, large selection and convenience or customer experience. The digital media allowed limitless inventory, boosted customer care and allowed higher margins and hence lowest prices. In 15 years Amazon went from 1 category to 16 main categories of books. Amazon began with books and needed to grow big fast. From 1995-1998, Amazon moved from books to music and again through the same combination moved to become the biggest seller of music in just 120 days! Amazon moved on develop its own digital driven supply chain and distribution network by hiring from the expert: Wal-Mart. Amazon accelerated development through its strategy of â€Å"Build, buy, partner† a) Build: Amazon keeps on creating new categories. For example, Amazon kicked off a new service by the name MyHabit. com in May 2011 that made fashion available to consumers directly from designers and boutique brands. b) Buy: When there is a lot of competition in any area and the competitors have a strong hold, Amazon believes in buying out the incumbent. Few of the acquisitions made by Amazon include Internet Movie Database  (IMDb), Zappos (an online shoe and apparel retailer) etc. ) Partner: Amazon has also entered into a lot of merchant partnerships. It offers its technological service and ecommerce expertise to third- parties. For example in October 2011, Amazon. com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. As mentioned before as well, Amazon want to be the â€Å"wo rld’s most customer-centric† company, and so their focus is on the â€Å"Customer Service†. It ensures customer loyalty through three main approaches: a) Recurring usage b) Seamless Integration c) Lock-in The following table tells us how Amazon uses all above mentioned approaches for its both customers: Sellers and consumers. | Sellers| Consumers| Recurring Usage| a. Developed a customer base close to 615mn users that can’t be ignored by sellers b. Ensures profit through optimized and reliable technology c. Developed a trusted Brand name| a. Created an ecosystem through Kindle b. Stores user’s media library c. Offers personalization to customers d. Gives special offers everyday| Seamless Integration| a. Monitors sellers rating ratings posted by consumers and expels sellers with bad ratings b. Offers Fulfillment by Amazon service(FBA) which allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network| a. For customers, all the sellers are highly commoditized and invisible. They buy it because of the Amazons brand value b. Get benefitted by Amazon Prime and free super saver shipping| Lock-in| a. By controlling or owning the customer accounts b. High level of infrastructure development required to ensure same level of customer service as offered by Amazon| a. By providing digital content that works only on Kindle b. Amazon Prime Program which requires annual subscription| | c. | c. | Amazon developed a value chain of itself for internal appraisal so as to identify its strengths and weaknesses that would help it add value and maintain a competitive advantage. Amazon uses the value chain model from Michael Porter’s book, â€Å"Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. † The first table represents the Primary activities of Amazon which are needed to produce a product or services for the end customers. Inbound logistics| Operations| Outbound logistics| Marketing ; Sales| Service| Avoids the overhead and large amounts of inventory carrying cost because it orders the books from the distributors. Easy and fast payment systems. Online customer systems and feedback. | Operates a number of transportation hubs that they refer to as injection points. Injection point locations are located in heavily customer concentrated areas. | Customer tracking  is an Amazon stronghold through which it provides personalized customers’ exper ience| Free return policy within 30 days. Uses marketplace to increase channel and range of goods through 3rd parties and customers. Highly reduced returns to suppliers (such as unsold books and media) due to available accurate forecasting technology | Customized buyer experience| Ability to aggregate orders bound for specific locations. | Interactive shipping and parceling price calculations. Free delivery based on single transaction spends. | Price comparison of new products with used products in marketplace shops. | Efficiently gathering information about customer experiences to inform service inputs and inventory controls. | 24 hour warehouse operations to meet customer demands. |   Utilizes the capabilities of its supply chain partners to deliver orders directly to ustomers which bypass the Amazon. com internal distribution center network|   Discounts and price reductions made available with suggested product mixes. Similar products recommended to customers interactively. | Offers customers gift certificates, 1-Click SM shopping, and vastly more reviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. | The next table gives information about the various support activities performed by Amazon which help to facilitate or assist its primary activities. | Value Creation| Cost Reduction| Firm Infrastructure| Huge central customer data warehouse available to all business units. Amazon’s single technology platform with services being incrementally distributed to other worldwide locations, reduces costs by leveraging investments | Human Resource Management| Amazon. com has a great training for its employees resulting in talented, smart and hard working group. Offers employees unique benefits such as medical, paid time off and stock grants and relocation allowances and hence attract highly skilled workers| Amazon utilizes independent contractors and temporary personnel to supplement their workforce, particularly on a seasonal basis. Although Amazon has works councils and statutory employee representation obligations in certain countries, Amazon’s employees are not represented by a labor union| Technology Development| High investments in technology development (e. g. , Kindle) to best leverage digital products. Innovations such as personalized recommendations, one-click ordering, and search inside the book are all Amazon. com innovations. Highly customized software applications that support their supply chain business model. For example, Amazon. om is linked into Ingram’s systems to see Ingram inventory levels when deciding whether to use Ingram to drop ship an order to a customer | Building an IT strategy, IT infrastructure and Data Centre on Linux open source software thus reducing cost of technology development. Renting computing resources to other companies reduce total cost of ownership Using standard hardware systems from HP to reduce cost of maintenance and compatibility| Procurement| Utilize s a Sales and Operations (SOP) planning process to determine forecasts for each roduct that it stores in its distribution center inventoryUses the strategic business unit – Booksurge to keep a rich inventory of digital copies of books so as to make this readily available for customers through print-on-demand and reduce the time of delivery | Specially built distribution Centers, warehouses and fulfillment Centers to increase the speed of order processing thus avoiding transaction costs of contracting out| In addition to the business strategies the value chain components mentioned above, the success of Amazon. om can be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder chief executive officer Jeff Bezos and the strong inclination of the firm towards bringing about innovation in the business model. Let us discuss both factors one by one. Entrepreneurial Spirit of Jeff Bezos: Jeff Bezos can be regarded as the forward-looking CEO responsible for the success of Amazon. com. He has not only efficiently managed the present but through his long term vision always taken steps to create the future. The computer science and electrical engineering graduate from Princeton University moved to Seattle after resigning as a Senior Vice-President at D. E. Shaw, a Wall Street investment bank. At the time Bezos didn’t know much about the Internet but he came across a statistic that the Internet was growing at 2300%, which convinced him that it was a large growth opportunity. Without knowing anything more, he plunged into the world of e-commerce with no prior retailing experience. It was his decision to locate the company in Seattle because it had a large pool of technical talent and since it was close to one of the largest book wholesalers located in Rosenburg, Oregon. Moreover, the sales tax laws for online retailers state that one has to charge sales tax in the state in which one is incorporated. Therefore it was logical to locate in a small state. Under his guidance and logical thinking Amazon. com quickly became the leader in e-commerce. Operating 24 hours a day, the site was user-friendly and encouraged browsers to post their own reviews of books and offering discounts, personalized recommendations, and searches for out-of-print books. In June 1998 it began selling CDs, and later that year it added videos. In 1999 Bezos, looking at the future trends, added auctions to the site and invested in other virtual stores. The success of Amazon. com encouraged other retailers, including major book chains, to establish online stores. As more companies battled for Internet dollars, Bezos saw the need to diversify, and by 2005 Amazon. com offered a vast array of products, including consumer electronics, apparel, and hardware. And with the Jeff Bezos vision to make every book ever in print in any language available to the consumer in 60 seconds, Amazon launched the handheld device called Kindle in 2007. Bezos is the quintessential dot-com icon. He proved to the business world that the Internet was about more than knowledge. He proved that it is possible to overcome fears about purchasing online, to drive down transaction costs, and to build an international e-commerce business over the Internet. He had the courage to attempt something that people doubted could be done. . At the age of 35, Jeff Bezos was picked as the 1999 Time person of the year. Describing why it chose Bezos, Time magazine said, â€Å"Bezos’  vision  of the online retailing universe was so complete, his Amazon. om site so elegant and appealing that it became from Day One the point of reference for anyone who had anything to sell online. † Innovation in the Business Model: Amazon survived the dot-com bust because it had a viable and innovative  business model  built around a market-changing customer value proposition and a radical profit formula and over it has been able to sustain its position as the leader in e-commerce by bringing about continuous innovations in its business model. Let us look at some of the different dimensions wherein Amazon. om has been able to bring about business innovation. a) Offerings: By offering a handheld device dedicated to reading, Kindle, Amazon. com revolutionized the books industry. By creating a product like Kindle, the created a perfect, integrated and streamlined customer experience. b) Platform: With Amazon Web Services, Fulfillment By Amazon, and Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon is creating powerful self-service platforms that allow thousands of people to boldly experiment and accomplish things that would otherwise be impossible or impractical. ) Customers: In 2002 Amazon launched a web services platform and identified a new area of potential growth by finding another new customer—the IT community. Serving this new customer’s needs required different processes, different resources, and a different profit formulaâ€⠀in short, another  new business model. d) Customer Experience: 1-Click combined with Gift-Click and Wish List made Amazon. com the most convenient, easiest-to-use shopping destination the holiday season. Wish List allows customers to post the gifts they’d most like to receive from family and friends, while Gift-Click allows customers to send gifts easily by entering just the e-mail addresses of their recipients. e) Value Capture: By opening up its storefront to other retailers that were essentially competitors, Amazon transformed its business from direct sales to a sales-and-service model, aggregating many sellers under one virtual roof and receiving commissions from the other companies’ sales. ) Supply Chain: Fulfillment by Amazon service (FBA) by Amazon is a classic example of innovating business model through supply chain. FBA allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network and in the last quarter of 2011, shipped tens of millions of items on behalf of sellers. When sellers use FBA, their items become eligible for Amazon Prime, for Super Saver Shipping, and for Amazon returns processing and customer service. From the above discussion of Amazon’s business strategy, value chain analysis and the success factors we can conclude that Amazon has a robust Business model. Amazon’s business model fends off all the four threats. It has the costly-to-imitate financial and technological resources, it has developed protection against holdup by seamlessly vertically integrating its both the customers i. e. the sellers and the consumers. Reduced slack by locking-in the customers and the sellers and fights substitution through innovation in business model. Business Model of Amazon As the economy has moved from agrarian to industrial to information age, the focus of the businessmen or the wealthy and powerful has also shifted in terms of the ways of obtaining wealth or doing business. In the agrarian age there was shortage of land which made ownership of land as the determinant of value. Powerful land barons typically accumulated vast tracts of land and coerced people who were bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord into living on and working it. As economy moved from agrarian to industrial age, physical assets owned by a firm became the determinants of value and shortage of raw-materials led the powerful industrialists to conspire to control the supply of raw materials. In this age, the market could absorb as much product as the industrialists could produce. The current era in which we live has been defined as the information age wherein relationships and intellectual capital are more important than anything else. One is not worried about physical assets anymore. Companies don’t compete with each other over superior products as they are largely commoditized rather compete increasingly on the basis of value added customer services. The economic battles of today are fought over the mind-space of consumers. In the information age power-play customers are not passive participants, in the way that land and raw materials were in the agrarian and industrial ages. In fact, according to Zang Hailing, it is the customers’ time that is in short supply, and therefore for any firm to succeed, emphasis needs to be given to the importance of reducing the customers’ time to adopt a new product. Thus, in a world where technology is changing every day and the transformation of consumers has happened from â€Å"Price Takers† to â€Å"Price Makers† as they are armed with more options and information; the companies that control more and more customer relationships will be the ones that hold the power in an industry and reap the lion’s share of the profits. E-commerce or e-business is an important tool that enables companies to reach out to the global market at low cost and provides abundant information about the consumers’ requirements and preferences easily which was not so easy earlier. Following figure is a glimpse of the promising future that the ecommerce industry holds. The US E-commerce has seen a 40% increase in the sales over the past 5 years as a percentage of the total retail sales in US. Source: http://ycharts. com Now when thinks about e-commerce, the first name that comes to everyone’s mind is that of Amazon. com. Not only most of the people have heard about it but there are many people who have actually used its services. Amazon was not only one of the few of the companies that thrived throughout the period in which many dot-com companies struggled to survive but has been constantly performing exceptionally well in terms of revenue per visitor which is one of the key parameters for any commercial website. Amazon has had one of the fastest growths in the internet’s history with revenues reaching $2, 8 billion in the first five years with Google’s revenue reaching only $15bn in the first five years. Now, just like any other traditional business in order to clearly understand an e-business one needs to have information on the following components: a) Business Strategy which determines the products and service offerings by the firm, the firms targeted customers and the firms value proposition. It also helps firms decide on the choices and the tradeoffs that the firm needs to make. b) Organizational form or structure c) Business processes which refer to the unique ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce a product or service. ) Value Chain i. e. the sequence of activities that a firm undertakes to create value, including the various steps of the supply chain but also additional activities, such as marketing, sales, and service. e) Core Competencies which are the collective learning’s of the firms and being distinctive create long term competitive advantage for the firm. From the beginning, the focus of Amazon. com has been on offering their customers compelling value. In the current report filing dated 04/13/12, Jeffrey Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. om writes â€Å"We realized that the Web was, and still is, the World Wide Wait. Therefore, we set out to offer customers something they simply could not get any other way, and began serving them with books. We brought them much more selection than was possible in a physical store (our store would now occupy 6 football fields), and presented it in a useful, easy-to-search, and easy-to-browse format in a store open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. † The Value Proposition offered by Amazon. com is â€Å"earth’s largest selection—24/7, at competitive price. † Amazon. om has continuously focused on improving the shopping experience owing to which they substantially enhanced their stores in 1997. Though they started off with books, they now offer customers gift certificates, 1-ClickSM shopping, and vastly more r eviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. The company’s stated goal was to â€Å"be Earth’s most customer centric company for three primary customer sets: consumers, sellers and developers. † It targeted its first set of customers through its initial retail model where it sold only books. It offered the perfect combination of low prices, large selection and convenience or customer experience. The digital media allowed limitless inventory, boosted customer care and allowed higher margins and hence lowest prices. In 15 years Amazon went from 1 category to 16 main categories of books. Amazon began with books and needed to grow big fast. From 1995-1998, Amazon moved from books to music and again through the same combination moved to become the biggest seller of music in just 120 days! Amazon moved on develop its own digital driven supply chain and distribution network by hiring from the expert: Wal-Mart. Amazon accelerated development through its strategy of â€Å"Build, buy, partner† a) Build: Amazon keeps on creating new categories. For example, Amazon kicked off a new service by the name MyHabit. com in May 2011 that made fashion available to consumers directly from designers and boutique brands. b) Buy: When there is a lot of competition in any area and the competitors have a strong hold, Amazon believes in buying out the incumbent. Few of the acquisitions made by Amazon include Internet Movie Database  (IMDb), Zappos (an online shoe and apparel retailer) etc. ) Partner: Amazon has also entered into a lot of merchant partnerships. It offers its technological service and ecommerce expertise to third- parties. For example in October 2011, Amazon. com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. As mentioned before as well, Amazon want to be the â€Å"wo rld’s most customer-centric† company, and so their focus is on the â€Å"Customer Service†. It ensures customer loyalty through three main approaches: a) Recurring usage b) Seamless Integration c) Lock-in The following table tells us how Amazon uses all above mentioned approaches for its both customers: Sellers and consumers. | Sellers| Consumers| Recurring Usage| a. Developed a customer base close to 615mn users that can’t be ignored by sellers b. Ensures profit through optimized and reliable technology c. Developed a trusted Brand name| a. Created an ecosystem through Kindle b. Stores user’s media library c. Offers personalization to customers d. Gives special offers everyday| Seamless Integration| a. Monitors sellers rating ratings posted by consumers and expels sellers with bad ratings b. Offers Fulfillment by Amazon service(FBA) which allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network| a. For customers, all the sellers are highly commoditized and invisible. They buy it because of the Amazons brand value b. Get benefitted by Amazon Prime and free super saver shipping| Lock-in| a. By controlling or owning the customer accounts b. High level of infrastructure development required to ensure same level of customer service as offered by Amazon| a. By providing digital content that works only on Kindle b. Amazon Prime Program which requires annual subscription| | c. | c. | Amazon developed a value chain of itself for internal appraisal so as to identify its strengths and weaknesses that would help it add value and maintain a competitive advantage. Amazon uses the value chain model from Michael Porter’s book, â€Å"Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. † The first table represents the Primary activities of Amazon which are needed to produce a product or services for the end customers. Inbound logistics| Operations| Outbound logistics| Marketing ; Sales| Service| Avoids the overhead and large amounts of inventory carrying cost because it orders the books from the distributors. Easy and fast payment systems. Online customer systems and feedback. | Operates a number of transportation hubs that they refer to as injection points. Injection point locations are located in heavily customer concentrated areas. | Customer tracking  is an Amazon stronghold through which it provides personalized customers’ exper ience| Free return policy within 30 days. Uses marketplace to increase channel and range of goods through 3rd parties and customers. Highly reduced returns to suppliers (such as unsold books and media) due to available accurate forecasting technology | Customized buyer experience| Ability to aggregate orders bound for specific locations. | Interactive shipping and parceling price calculations. Free delivery based on single transaction spends. | Price comparison of new products with used products in marketplace shops. | Efficiently gathering information about customer experiences to inform service inputs and inventory controls. | 24 hour warehouse operations to meet customer demands. |   Utilizes the capabilities of its supply chain partners to deliver orders directly to ustomers which bypass the Amazon. com internal distribution center network|   Discounts and price reductions made available with suggested product mixes. Similar products recommended to customers interactively. | Offers customers gift certificates, 1-Click SM shopping, and vastly more reviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. | The next table gives information about the various support activities performed by Amazon which help to facilitate or assist its primary activities. | Value Creation| Cost Reduction| Firm Infrastructure| Huge central customer data warehouse available to all business units. Amazon’s single technology platform with services being incrementally distributed to other worldwide locations, reduces costs by leveraging investments | Human Resource Management| Amazon. com has a great training for its employees resulting in talented, smart and hard working group. Offers employees unique benefits such as medical, paid time off and stock grants and relocation allowances and hence attract highly skilled workers| Amazon utilizes independent contractors and temporary personnel to supplement their workforce, particularly on a seasonal basis. Although Amazon has works councils and statutory employee representation obligations in certain countries, Amazon’s employees are not represented by a labor union| Technology Development| High investments in technology development (e. g. , Kindle) to best leverage digital products. Innovations such as personalized recommendations, one-click ordering, and search inside the book are all Amazon. com innovations. Highly customized software applications that support their supply chain business model. For example, Amazon. om is linked into Ingram’s systems to see Ingram inventory levels when deciding whether to use Ingram to drop ship an order to a customer | Building an IT strategy, IT infrastructure and Data Centre on Linux open source software thus reducing cost of technology development. Renting computing resources to other companies reduce total cost of ownership Using standard hardware systems from HP to reduce cost of maintenance and compatibility| Procurement| Utilize s a Sales and Operations (SOP) planning process to determine forecasts for each roduct that it stores in its distribution center inventoryUses the strategic business unit – Booksurge to keep a rich inventory of digital copies of books so as to make this readily available for customers through print-on-demand and reduce the time of delivery | Specially built distribution Centers, warehouses and fulfillment Centers to increase the speed of order processing thus avoiding transaction costs of contracting out| In addition to the business strategies the value chain components mentioned above, the success of Amazon. om can be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder chief executive officer Jeff Bezos and the strong inclination of the firm towards bringing about innovation in the business model. Let us discuss both factors one by one. Entrepreneurial Spirit of Jeff Bezos: Jeff Bezos can be regarded as the forward-looking CEO responsible for the success of Amazon. com. He has not only efficiently managed the present but through his long term vision always taken steps to create the future. The computer science and electrical engineering graduate from Princeton University moved to Seattle after resigning as a Senior Vice-President at D. E. Shaw, a Wall Street investment bank. At the time Bezos didn’t know much about the Internet but he came across a statistic that the Internet was growing at 2300%, which convinced him that it was a large growth opportunity. Without knowing anything more, he plunged into the world of e-commerce with no prior retailing experience. It was his decision to locate the company in Seattle because it had a large pool of technical talent and since it was close to one of the largest book wholesalers located in Rosenburg, Oregon. Moreover, the sales tax laws for online retailers state that one has to charge sales tax in the state in which one is incorporated. Therefore it was logical to locate in a small state. Under his guidance and logical thinking Amazon. com quickly became the leader in e-commerce. Operating 24 hours a day, the site was user-friendly and encouraged browsers to post their own reviews of books and offering discounts, personalized recommendations, and searches for out-of-print books. In June 1998 it began selling CDs, and later that year it added videos. In 1999 Bezos, looking at the future trends, added auctions to the site and invested in other virtual stores. The success of Amazon. com encouraged other retailers, including major book chains, to establish online stores. As more companies battled for Internet dollars, Bezos saw the need to diversify, and by 2005 Amazon. com offered a vast array of products, including consumer electronics, apparel, and hardware. And with the Jeff Bezos vision to make every book ever in print in any language available to the consumer in 60 seconds, Amazon launched the handheld device called Kindle in 2007. Bezos is the quintessential dot-com icon. He proved to the business world that the Internet was about more than knowledge. He proved that it is possible to overcome fears about purchasing online, to drive down transaction costs, and to build an international e-commerce business over the Internet. He had the courage to attempt something that people doubted could be done. . At the age of 35, Jeff Bezos was picked as the 1999 Time person of the year. Describing why it chose Bezos, Time magazine said, â€Å"Bezos’  vision  of the online retailing universe was so complete, his Amazon. om site so elegant and appealing that it became from Day One the point of reference for anyone who had anything to sell online. † Innovation in the Business Model: Amazon survived the dot-com bust because it had a viable and innovative  business model  built around a market-changing customer value proposition and a radical profit formula and over it has been able to sustain its position as the leader in e-commerce by bringing about continuous innovations in its business model. Let us look at some of the different dimensions wherein Amazon. om has been able to bring about business innovation. a) Offerings: By offering a handheld device dedicated to reading, Kindle, Amazon. com revolutionized the books industry. By creating a product like Kindle, the created a perfect, integrated and streamlined customer experience. b) Platform: With Amazon Web Services, Fulfillment By Amazon, and Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon is creating powerful self-service platforms that allow thousands of people to boldly experiment and accomplish things that would otherwise be impossible or impractical. ) Customers: In 2002 Amazon launched a web services platform and identified a new area of potential growth by finding another new customer—the IT community. Serving this new customer’s needs required different processes, different resources, and a different profit formulaâ€⠀in short, another  new business model. d) Customer Experience: 1-Click combined with Gift-Click and Wish List made Amazon. com the most convenient, easiest-to-use shopping destination the holiday season. Wish List allows customers to post the gifts they’d most like to receive from family and friends, while Gift-Click allows customers to send gifts easily by entering just the e-mail addresses of their recipients. e) Value Capture: By opening up its storefront to other retailers that were essentially competitors, Amazon transformed its business from direct sales to a sales-and-service model, aggregating many sellers under one virtual roof and receiving commissions from the other companies’ sales. ) Supply Chain: Fulfillment by Amazon service (FBA) by Amazon is a classic example of innovating business model through supply chain. FBA allows third party sellers to use Amazon’s large warehouse and distribution network and in the last quarter of 2011, shipped tens of millions of items on behalf of sellers. When sellers use FBA, their items become eligible for Amazon Prime, for Super Saver Shipping, and for Amazon returns processing and customer service. From the above discussion of Amazon’s business strategy, value chain analysis and the success factors we can conclude that Amazon has a robust Business model. Amazon’s business model fends off all the four threats. It has the costly-to-imitate financial and technological resources, it has developed protection against holdup by seamlessly vertically integrating its both the customers i. e. the sellers and the consumers. Reduced slack by locking-in the customers and the sellers and fights substitution through innovation in business model.

Research -week 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research -week 6 - Essay Example The research study that I participated in online is central to addressing the question ‘how personality and emotions are related to the way people deal with situations of everyday life?’ Keeping that in mind the study examines, through the use of a series of online questionnaires, the personality, emotional disposition and individual choices. The questionnaire used a rating scale that was provided to get an indication of how accurately the participant though each statement described him. There were five possible responses to each statement from ‘very inaccurate’ (number1) to ‘very accurate’ (number 5). Example of some of the research questions was: ‘I feel comfortable around people’, ‘I have a vivid imagination’, ‘I get upset easily’ etc. The online survey highlights the fact that by participating in the research complete anonymity as the questions asked do not require identifying information. Also entering the survey will be equal to giving consent so that the information provided can be used by the researcher in his study. These two measures effectively eliminate the chances of any ethical implications compromising the validity of the research. There are many advantages of conducting the research survey online. Some of these are the ability of the researcher to obtain a large and diverse sample which increases statistical power. Also it prevents data entry errors as data is automatically coded. Lastly it reduces the cost of conducting the research. Some disadvantages are some subjects might rush through the study, it might be difficult to recruit subjects online and lastly there is also a high chance that most participants might drop out from the study or exit the survey before completing it. (Psychwiki) I do not believe an online survey is the way to gather information on my research topic of juvenile delinquency mostly because it requires the participants to be of a specific type whereas online surveys are mostly effective for a randomized diverse large sample. References: Elizabeth Austin (20110. Personality, emotions, and making choices. University of Edinburgh. Survey link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0lO5XPOkxGqPx68WUvVRIg%3d%3d Psychwiki. Internet research. Retrieved from: http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/What_are_the_advantages/disadvantages_of_doing_internet_research%3F Research Design week 6 Assignment 2 The survey aiming to analyze the meaning of sex in a relationship by asking several intimate questions would make confidentiality of critical importance for a participant. This would be a key ethical issue for the researchers, the sole importance of which can simply be realized when you look at the discomfort and unwillingness to share the answers with a third party (the professor) here for instance. By mixing the asked questions with random one’s might be an adoption to divert the participant’s attention for a while or perhaps s imply to make sure that one does not simply fill away at answers at random. This being one of the cons of conducting an online study that can be countered by simply asking questions that are linked to each other or are repeated to check the level of attention paid by the participant. The pros of an online survey might be relevant in gaining information on parents feedback in regard to their child’s ADHD. However to gain a further advantage interviews might be a lot more helpful to gouge the body language and responses by

New product development is the key to 'Apple's marketing success Coursework

New product development is the key to 'Apple's marketing success. DISCUSS - Coursework Example ounced the launch of iBooks 2 for iPad which would feature iBooks textbooks, iTunes U application for iPhone, iPad and for iPod touch (Apple Inc-a, 2012). Apple aims to bring the best experience for its customers through its product and services. The business strategy of Apple is to leverage the unique abilities of designing and developing the company’s own operating system, software and hardware in order to provide its customers with superior products and innovative designs. The company believes in innovation which is the key strategy for the success of the company; as a result, Apple invests in its research and development in order to introduce new and innovative products. Apart from its R&D, the company also invests in its marketing and advertisement as a part of Apple strategy to stay ahead of its competitors. Apple strategy also includes expansion of its distribution network to reach more clients and provide the potential customers with high quality of sales and post purc hase experience (Apple Inc, 2011, p.1). Any changes made to a product are termed as new product development. New products can be defined as products which are new to the concerned company but it’s not new in the market; there are products which are completely different from the existing product and form a good replacement; finally, products which are new, innovative and unique (Chaturvedi, et.al, 2009, p.1). Apple is known for its pioneer work strategy being one of the most innovative companies. New product development is one of the key strategies of Apple; it is through new product that the company has been able to taste success being one of the leading companies globally. Apple launches new product in the markets to stay ahead of its competitors, to continue the product life cycle, to give the customers what they need, and to enhance the strategy. According to Steve Jobs, new product lines tend to give people the products which are needed by the consumers. The company expresses its

Contract Laws Essay Example for Free

Contract Laws Essay When it comes the laws of business there are a broad range of categories and topics. A topic that we would find when studying business law is contracts. â€Å"A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more people.† (Rogers, 2012) In the world we live in learning about contract laws is very vital when entering into one. We must be aware that there is more than just on type of contract and there are several steps that both parties must follow before any contract can be legal. There are several types of contracts that individuals can enter. These types are expressed, implied, bilateral, unilateral, simple, formal and quasi contracts. An express contract are â€Å"formed by the express language of the parties—the actual words they use in their agreement—and can be either written or oral.† (Rogers, 2012) This type of contract does not have to be in writing. An expressed contract contains the offer, acceptance and consideration elements of a contract. Express contracts are usually compared to implied contracts. Implied contacts are â€Å"formed not by the express words of the parties, but rather by their actions.† (Rogers, 2012) With this type of contract the agreement is implied by actions. There are no expressed words within an implied contract. It can be either implied in fact or in law. If a contract will result in inequity or harm it will not be implied. If there is any doubt or discrepancy exists, then the court might not con clude a contractual relationship. If an implication arises that they have jointly assented to a new contract that contains the same requirements as the old agreement. Another type of contract is a bilateral contract. A bilateral contract is a† reciprocal arrangement between two parties under which both parties promise to perform an act in exchange for  the other partys act† (BusinessDictionary.com). When entering into a bilateral contract there is a joint agreement among the two parties that entails the performance of an act. The promise made by one party constitutes sufficient consideration for the promise made by the other party. It is a common contract because we enter into a bilateral contract everything we make a purchase, order or receive any kind of treatment. Bilateral contracts are compared to unilateral contract. Unilateral contract are agreements that deal with a promise that is made by only one person involved in the contract. This agreement is when there is an exchange for the performance or non-performance of an act by the other party. Only one of the contracting parties can be enforced to comply with contract. This type of contract is one-sided because only the offeror is legally bound in complying with the terms of the contract. The offeree can comply or refrain from performing the act, but he or she cannot be sued if they do not comply. If you accept an offer from a unilateral contract it cannot be achieved by making another agreement only by performance or non-performance of some particular act. An offer can be revoked until the act has been performed or there was no act completed and the date has passed. The following contract is called a simple contract. It is in no way a lawfully recorded or legitimately sealed contract, but breeches are still frequently ruled on by a judge. It â€Å"is any oral or written contract that is not required to follow a specific form, or be signed, witnessed, or sealed.† (Rogers, 2012). They are not necessarily formalized contracts and do not entail court proceedings in order to make them binding. They are simply an agreement that is among the parties involved. They are usually compared to formal contracts. Formal contract are â€Å"a written agreement between two parties that are considered to be legally binding and enforced my law† (Laws.com). They must be in writing, signed and seal by all parties entering into the contract. In order for a formal contract to be valid it must contain three elements, which are the offer, the acceptance and a payment for the services provided or goods delivered. This type of contract eliminates any uncertainty regarding its terms and conditions. It contains a preface section which is utilized to clearly define the essentials terms that are utilized within the contract. This helps in eliminating redundancy in the use of common language. It also insures substantive terms of the contract  that are described and referenced in t he contract. Quasi contracts are the last type of contract discussed in the text. Quasi contracts are not a realistic contract. â€Å"They are a remedy that a court may offer to make things fair.† (Rogers, 2012). This type of contract is implied by law. Courts will imply a fictional contract to require one party to return benefits to the other party where unjust enrichment has occurred. Unjust enrichment doctrine deals with the equality of a quasi contract. It states that no party should profit at the expense of the other without making restitution of a reasonable value. When there is no oral or written agreement, courts depend on this doctrine to provide a legal remedy for a quasi contract. A Quasi contract can be compared to an implied contract. There are two types of implied contracts. These types are Implied-in-fact and Implied-by-law. A quasi contract is considered to be an Implied-by-law. It is different from an implied-in-fact because the courts treat the former as an express written contract because of the actions and words that both parties have expressed. Even though neither party has verbally expressed the acceptance of the contract their actions might be viewed differently. A contracted can be valid and enforceable, but can also be found to be unenforceable and can be voided. In order for a contract to be valid and enforceable it must contain the five elements of a contract to be legally binding. These elements are offer, acceptance, consideration, legality and capacity. The first element of a valid contract is the offer. An offer â€Å"is an invitation for another to enter into a contract† (Rogers, 2012). Offers can be verbal or written, but must at all times be clear terms. They can be bilateral or unilateral terms. They are not legally binding. Offers can be voided is any of the individuals involved cannot or do not comply with their promise. Offers can also be voided, repealed or annulled after parties have accepted the offer, unless there is a clause where it states that revocations are not allowed. The following element is acceptance. An acceptance â€Å"is an acquiescence to enter into a contract under the terms of the offer† (Rogers, 2012). Once an offer is made the parties must agree on the terms. All parties must be willing to enter into the agreement. Acceptances can be implied or  expressed. They can be directed to all parties involved or just one person. There are times when the individual making the offer will invite the person accepting the offer by actually performing the acts that the offeror is bargaining for. This occurs when special tribulations of notification, revoking and confidence in the form of limited performance can occur. Consideration is the next element of a valid contract. A consideration is â€Å"anything of legal value that is asked for and received as the price for entering into a contract† (Rogers, 2012). For a contract to be considered to be legally binding it must be supported by a valuable consideration. For instance, a party is required to do something in exchange for the promise that was made in a benefit of value. It is what each individual in the contact provides to the other as the established value for the other’s promise. For the most part, considerations are usually a payment of money, but are not always. At times they can be a promise to do something such as a type of work in return for something. The fourth element is legality. This is â€Å"an agreement may be considered illegal if it would violate a statute; result in commission of a tort; or violate public policy.† (Rogers, 2012). In contract law, legality of purpose is required of every enforceable contract. Agreement of a social nature are presumed not to be legally binding, but with evidence can be rebutted in court. Also, any domestic agreements such as agreements created by a parent and a child are generally unenforceable on the basis of the system of law. The last element is capacity. Capacity is â€Å"the mental competency of an individual and also with special rules for people who are under legal age† (Rogers, 2012). In other words, it deals with the competence of all parties. In order for an individual to enter into a contract they must be capable to do so. All parties entering the contract have to be over the legal age, mentally capable and cannot be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If a contract is made with an individual that is under the age of 18 or 21, depending on the jurisdiction, the contract is voidable, but is legal and enforceable until or unless the individual revokes it. In the  eyes of the law, individuals under the age of 18 or 21 are deemed to be immature and naà ¯ve to enter into a contract. The individual may avoid the legal duty to perform the terms of the agreement without being liable of breach of contract. All parties must also be mentally capable of entering into a contract. If a party does not understand the nature and/or consequences of the contract when it is formed the contract can be voided. An individual that lacks the legal capacity can be declared incompetent in a court and can be appointed a legal guardian. If someone is to enter into a contract with someone who is not mentally capable the contract will be voided and there will not be any legal effects because neither party may be legally compelled to comply with the terms. Lastly, no one entering in to a contract can be intoxicated. All parties must be sober at the time of entering a contract in order for the contract to be deemed enforceable. When someone is under the influence they are not capable of knowing what they are doing and why. They might also not comprehend the terms of the contract which makes it unenforceable. A contact can appear to be legally binding because it may contain all the elements of a contract, but there are defenses to a contract that can also make a contract unenforceable and voidable. There are two types of defense to a contract, which are lack of genuine assent and lack of proper form. Genuine assent or â€Å"meeting on the minds† is a criteria utilized to determine validity of acceptance of an offer for a contract. This occurs when the acceptance of a contract is secured through improper or illegal means such as fraud, mistake, duress and undue influence. The first type of genuine assent that will be discussed is fraud. Fraud is the premeditated falsification of an essential matter of the contract. When there is an existence of fraud in a contractual proceeding it makes the contract unenforceable and can be voided by the party upon whom the deception was perpetrated. According to our text, there are two types of fraud, which are fraud in the execution and fraud in the inducement. Fraud in the execution merely occurs when one of the individuals who entered in to the contract isn’t aware that they are entering in to one. The second fraud is when both parties are aware they are entering into the contract, but one of the  parties is deceived when entering into it. The following type that can make a contract unenforceable and invalid is a mistake. A mistake is also known as a mutual mistake. When there is a mistake this means that both parties made a mistake to something that is vital to the contract. Just because one party can make a mistake doesn’t necessarily mean that the contract is voidable. In order for it to be considered as unenforceable it must have a significant effect on the exchange or bargaining development. The following factor is duress. Duress is when one party forces the other party to sign a contract. The force can be either physical or emotional pressure. When there is use of duress the contract is voidable by the party that was under duress during signing. Duress can be defined by three categories, which are actual or threatened violence to an individual, threats to an individual’s property and/or economic duress. Economic duress is the more difficult to prove because you have to establish the boundaries of acceptance behavior of this kind of pressure. Duress is sometimes compared to undue influence, but there are different. As mentioned above, duress deals with someone being pressured into signing the contract, whereas undue influence is when a party is manipulated in to signing the contract. If one party has put inequitable and inappropriate pressure on the other in the discussions leading to the signing of the contract, common law will allow duress and undue influence to allow for the terms of the contract to be set aside. Common laws are laws â€Å"made by the decisions of judges in individual cases. â€Å" (Rogers, 2012). Undue influence is easy to recognize because it can involve the parties having a fiduciary relationship or one of the members involved depends on another due to their age, illness, infirmity, etc. A fiduciary relationship is a relationship where one individual has a responsibility to act for the others benefit. When undue influence occurs the individual who is suppose to be helping the other person out is taking advantage of that person. Lastly, the second type of defense to a contract as listed above is lacks proper form. This is generally when it lacks writing. There are certain types of contracts that are required to be in writing, but at times we aren’t aware. If these types of contracts are not in writing then they  cannot be enforced. It is important to learn about contract laws. They are the foundation of our society. Since we enter into contracts on a daily bases we should be aware of these laws. Contracts can be complicated and having knowledge of the different types and what makes them enforceable or voided can really be helpful. If there were no laws on contract then the agreements we make could become impractical and unworkable. References Lewinsohn, J. L. (1914). Contract Distinguished From Quasi Contract. California Law Review, 2(3), 171. Rogers, S. (2012). Essentials of Business Law. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Smith, C. A. (2012). Contracts. http://www.west.net/~smith/contracts.htm Information regarding elements of a contract and remedies for breach. Undefined. (n.d.). Bilateral Contract. In BusinessDictionary.com. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/bilateral-contract.html. Undefined. (n.d.). Know the types of Formal Contract. In Laws.com. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://contract-law.laws.com/types-of-contracts/types-of-formal-contract.