Business Research Paper

The purpose of business research is to allow a business to set itself apart from its competitors by gathering as much information on the industry that it can and utilizing that data to create unique methodologies and business practices. Researching a business will provide information on things such as what products consumers like or do not like to buy, what the start-up costs will be, and whether any new business opportunity is viable to undertake. Researching also reveals the profitability potential of products and services and how they size up competitively with similar products available in the market. The most successful business in each industry are perfect examples of how to successfully market, advertise, and sell your products so they should always be considered. According to chapter 1 of the textbook, it does not matter whether you are a small mom & pop bakery or a large corporation like Nabisco, business research is equally important to your company. In my personal experience I have found that the company policies and procedures set forth by the upper management will directly reflect how the employees will react to their clients and impact the business. Personal Experience I have worked for fortune 500 companies such as Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner in the telecommunications industry and I have learned how each of these companies markets their products to both businesses and consumers. The breakthrough in technology of fiber optic internet and television that became available to consumers in the last ten years was a huge push for all of these companies. There are many different ways the companies got the word out to their customers. The top methods included direct mail, television commercials, email and internet marketing, billboards, radio advertisement, and direct sales at retail locations or residential campaigns. I was part of the residential campaign selling products to consumers at their homes. The money that companies would spend on advertising (usually in the millions) is relatively hard to track and is becoming less effective today. For example, direct mail campaigns have a less than 1% chance of reaching the customer. Whereas visiting a customer at their home has a better chance of influencing the customer to buy the product by learning exactly how it will benefit them and tailoring a package to fit their needs and save them money. I learned that many customers had switched to a competitor due to poor customer service, high prices in the area, or a lack of services offered. In some cases, just telling someone that new technology was now available in their area instantly piqued their interest. Every consumer is different, but everyone wants to feel like they are getting the most value for their money. That is why I would always try to offer the highest level of customer service, the best products, and the best value for the money. Many times people are willing to spend more money for the same products with a higher level of customer service. That is why fancy restaurants are popular, because the atmosphere and the customer service make it a much better experience than cooking a steak at home. So understanding your customer, your competition, and the market are all important factors in researching any business.

Interview With A Human Resource Middle Manager Essay

Employee performance appraisals are no longer novel practices in the human resource management field. According to Arthur Sherman, George Bohlander and Scott Snell, employee performance appraisals have been around since the nineteenth century and were routinely administered to federal employees in the United States (303). The activity gained considerable commendation enough to make it increasingly popular both among small and large, and public and private organizations. It was not until after World War II, however, that performance appraisal became widespread and became accepted as a regular part of organization check-up and maintenance (Bohlander). Longenecker and Goff, on the other hand, summarized the oft-cited purposes of performance appraisals in literature. As stated by them, performance appraisals are used to motivate employees, provide a basis for salary or wage dispensation, facilitate discussion regarding employee concerns, provide data for human resource decision and serve as communication tool of managers towards their employees. Performance appraisals are response to the ever more competitive pressures in the nature of employment (Murphy and Marguiles 2). There are various other functions of performance appraisals explained in literatures, yet overall, they generally refer to the fulfilment of administrative as well as development purposes. I was able to get an interview from the Middle Manager of a firm and I was able to get her opinion regarding their policies in the company and how she treats her people. She explained furthermore that she employs performance appraisal as a logical part of running their organization, and a means of appraising, developing and maximizing the knowledge and abilities of employees—the organization’s greatest wealth. It is a basic part of managing human resource in that most practitioners consider it an indispensable part of maintaining or improving organizational effectiveness. Emily McGregor, a Human Resource Deputy Manager of the _____________ stated that the main objective of their performance appraisals is to provide logical judgments so that they can back-up salary increases, promotions, transfers, and terminations. She also mentioned that performance appraisals are tools of informing a subordinated about the quality of his work and how he can improve in the areas that need change. Lastly, she emphasized that performance appraisals are venues where coaching or counselling sessions between a boss and a subordinate can take place. Those were great words, I guess, and I was awed at the keen intellect this woman possesses. During the course of the interview I was able to record the exact words she said such that I got to listen to it again and looked at how her comments were person-centered or position-centered. When one shifts from talking about the topic to talking about the person, then she is engaging in person-centered comments. These comments are more often than not, negative ones. Also, the shift can result from a most reasonable discussion into a bitter argument. Most of these focus on the word â€Å"You. † I also got to look at how she engaged in position-centered communication which emphasized rules and norms that apply regardless of whether or how others are affected by the behavior. The manager told me that she has slowly developed specific communication strategies that help in conflict management and resolution. Her early learning experiences seem to establish the more generalizable patterns she has used in later years. She states, â€Å"As I watch and hear my parents manage their own interpersonal and intrapersonal, I have slowly learned through imitation. Moreover, my conflicts are inevitable in any management methods used in these conflicts set patterns for later development. In the course of coping with these conflicts, I have reinforced certain coping styles, often on a partial reinforcement schedule. Thus, I am reinforced for compliance while others are reinforced for defiance, some for cooperation and some for the expression of hostility, some for disengagement. † Thus, she continued by saying that she confronted one of her supervisors who was not doing well with her job even after several confrontations. I told her, ‘When we hired you for this job, I was emphatic in letting you know that we are a struggling small company. If you are not successful in bringing in cash, we night as well not be able to make payroll and our other expenses. † Thus, after some time, I found out that there was no more motivated collection person than an employee who was convinced that every non-paying debtor is keeping food out of the mouths of her babies. Certainly, hiring someone to manage receivables and make sure people got paid was a fabulous way to improve cash flow. But other tricks can be used over the past years which have also achieved substantial success. For example, Ms. McGregor can be ruthless about cash management. All expenditures must be justified and â€Å"smart. † All large purchases must include some measure of bargaining or looking for the best deal. † She tells me that she would tell her people about simply denying credit. She said that as a practice they just simply deny credit on smaller orders. They were willing to lose some customers to make sure that they were fully paid. Looking closely at this interview, one is able to pinpoint the person-centered comments which she used. She comments again when she said that â€Å"If you are not successful in bringing in cash, we night as well not be able to make payroll and our other expenses. † She was actually stating a fact, but this seemed emphatic and too direct as if the person to whom she was saying it to was to blame for the small cash collections. Her other comments though, were a little bit more position-centered as he told the employee in an objective way that, â€Å"All expenditures must be justified and â€Å"smart. † All large purchases must include some measure of bargaining or looking for the best deal. † REFERENCES Longenecker, Clinton and Nick Nykodym. â€Å"Public Sector Performance Appraisal Effectiveness:A Case Study. †Public Personnel Management. 25(1996) Longenecker, Clinton and Stephen Goff. â€Å"Performance Appraisal Effectiveness: A Matter of Perspective. †Management Journal. 57(1992) Murphy, Terrence and Joyce Margulies. â€Å"Performance Appraisals. † ABA Employment law Section. Proc. Of Equal Employment Opportunity Committee Mid-Winter Meeting. 24-27 Mar 2004.

Economic of Industry

Despite the different degree of competitions and the level of development in the market across the various types of industries, most firms are continuously and consistently looking for ways and opportunities to enhance their ability to grow or even to just maintain sustainability and survival in the industry. Firms carry out diversification such as developing new lines and products, joint ventures and acquiring firms in unrelated lines of business, to improve on their corporate efficiency and benefits of the shareholder. For example, if a firm’s business focuses on seasonal products such as selling heating equipment, sales will do well during the autumn and winter months. However, to ensure the firm’s survival and maintain its business during the summer, it will need to carry out diversification such as establishing new product lines (i. e. Air conditioners). Therefore, firms diversify to achieve economies of scales and scope, to economize on transaction costs, improving shareholder’s diversification by reducing risks, as well as identifying undervalued firms. This paper will look at the different advantages and drawbacks of diversification as well as their economic validity. Diversification for Economies of Scales and Scopes It has been said that when a firm is able to achieve economies of scale, the production levels becomes more efficient as the number of goods being produced increases. With the increase in production levels, firms will then able to lower their average cost per unit as the fixed cost are able to spread out over a large number of goods. For large firms, this will be a great advantage to them as it allows these firms to be able to gain access to a larger market. Furthermore with a lower average cost in production, they will be able to position their products at a more cheaply and affordable pricing in the market, giving firms a competitive advantage as well as it sits greatly for the consumer. A good example of such company would be Wal-Mart WMT. Being a dominant player in the retailing industry as well as the sheer size of the company, Wal-Mart has great efficiencies at keeping costs low as the company has tremendous bargaining power with its suppliers. This allows Wal-Mart to be able to retail their products at a heaper price as well as having inexpensive distributions. However, it has been said that diversifying for economies of scales has an adverse effect on the smaller to medium size firms as it raises cost instead. It is generally true if the concept is viewed narrowly but small firms nowadays has managed to find ways to create opportunities to achieve economies of scales such as buying services, sharing risks and scaling through tech nology. Most small firms rather engaged services from a larger company as opposed to doing the job in-house to cut cost. Therefore any organizations servicing these smaller businesses (i. e. payroll services) are view as an â€Å"economies of scale† from the perspective of the small firms. Economies of Scopes on the other hand has a similar concept as economies of scales but refers more to firms that are able to lower their average cost by developing and producing or providing two or more products in their businesses. This means that a given level of production cost of each product line by a firm is much lower as compared to the given output level of a single product each produced by a combination of separate firms. An example of a company that uses economies of scope at its advantage would be Daiso. Daiso produced and retail hundreds of products from foods to house cleaning materials which allow them to offer standardization in their product’s pricings. With higher demands and production level as well as a lower average cost achieved through economies of scales, it definitely does help for firms to diversify so as to maximise their profit margins. Economizing on transaction costs Transaction costs in economics are unavoidable by firms and are usually incurred when making economic transactions such as buying or making products. Transaction cost complicates coordination as well as affecting the firms’ profit and loss. It reduces profit margin and a high transaction cost over time may result in firms having to face huge losses. For example, for a firm to produce a product it will need to carry out R&D and obtain information from different kind of sources which cost money. Therefore to reduce or economize the transaction costs, firms diversify by carrying out merger and acquisition. For example, in order to expand its revenue stream, Dell Inc, an American multinational computer technology corporation has decided to extend its target market to the gaming industry by creating a new line of product of gaming PCs. However, it requires Dell to carry out R&D to obtain and search for relevant information on the product and the target market and all this accumulates as transaction costs. Therefore to avoid incurring high transaction cost, Dell Inc. ad decided to acquire Alienware, a manufacturer of high-end gaming PCs in 2006. In conclusion, firm diversifying to economize transaction cost is viable and valid in the economic market as it helps to reduce cost thus improving the profit margin for the firms. Internal Capital Markets Internal Capital Markets of diversified firms allows firms to properly allocate its resources according to how its best use. It creat es efficiencies and increases firm’s control of funds which allows easier monitoring and lowers the monitoring costs as well as reducing chances of fraud. In addition, internal capital market allows firm to have informational advantage to make the necessary changes and allocation to its resources when it is being used improperly. For example; if the cost of issuing shares at a bargain price to the old shareholders outweigh project’s net profit value, the firm may decide to forgo NPV project which in return result in an underinvestment problem. However through internal capital market, diversified firms are able to allocate resources more efficiently and diminish the underinvestment problems. Internal capital market however may cause firms more harm than good. As established by Stulz (1990), diversification may engender influence costs and result in cross-subsidisation where some diversified firms tend to underinvest in high-performing projects and overinvest in the lower ones. This may have adverse impact on firm’s return and profitability as a firm allocating too many resources on a segment that relatively had less investment opportunities is unconditionally leaving some of the better projects in other segments underinvested which may bring in more profits to the firm. Shareholder’s diversification Diversifying helps to reduce firm’s risk and smooth out its earnings stream. However, most shareholders do not benefit from this as they are able to diversify their portfolio at near zero cost through investing in many different options. However, there is a fraction of shareholders whom are unable to carry out diversification on their own. They are usually the owners of firms whom investments are largely based on their own business and are the leasing shareholder of the firm. Due to this, the shareholders are unable to carry out proper portfolio diversification and therefore rely and benefit greatly from the risk reductions carried out by firms. For example, a firm developing new lines of businesses internally reduce its risk of failing as it streams of revenue are being segregated and relied on different channels. If one was to fail, there will be other means of business for the firm to recoup its losses and streaming in revenue. With this, the firm shareholders’ risks are being indirectly reduced as well. Identifying undervalued Firm Undervalued firm’s assets and potential earning power are usually inadequately reflected in its stock price. This means these firms are actually worth more than what is being expected of them in the market. Therefore, other firms whom are able to recognize this mispricing diversify and acquire these undervalued firms and benefits from the acquisition by gaining the differences between the value and purchased price as surplus. For example, General Electronics has over the years been carrying out acquisition and diversifies its business which allows stability in its earnings. However, identifying undervalued firm is not easy and some firm acquisition can bring more harm the benefits to a company. Furthermore, public firms traded in reasonably efficient markets may have their valuation surplus quickly eliminated by the premiums paid on market prices. Therefore, it is more viable in the economics to carry out acquisitions in less efficient markets or acquire private businesses. Conclusion In conclusion, though diversification come with a cost for firms and may be difficult to be carried out in some cases, I do believe that it is valid in economics as it greatly benefit firms in reducing risk and widen its revenue stream which in returns increases profit margins. Therefore, firms should see diversification as a viable option in expanding its business.

Vietnam War & Films Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Vietnam War & Films - Essay Example Rambo, a United States’ veteran from the Vietnam War, comes back to America and finds out that â€Å"for him nothing is as it used to be before the war† (Anderegg, p. 83, 1991). On a journey on the lookout for a military friend, he notices problem with a small city sheriff. Rambo is at first harassed by the sheriff and detained on fake blames of vagrancy. He works impulsively, overcomes all the protectors and escapes. Rambo has been working in a labor camp detention center when his former commander visits him and offers the opportunity to be freed from detention, but on condition of him going into Vietnam to look for American prisoners of war. Rambo meets an American civil servant who is in command of the operation and he informs Rambo that the American community is requiring information regarding the prisoners of war and they would like a skilled commando to step in and search for them. Rambo received the notice that he should only take pictures of the prisoners of war and not to save them, nor is he to involve in any opponent armed forces. Rambo unwillingly gives consent and he is subsequently told that a representative of the American government will be present to receive him in the ruthless situations of Vietnam. America has modified its perceptions about the Vietnam War and veterans of that war. By the year 1977, no one even likes to speak regarding Vietnam. From 1977 until 1980, a ‘whole bunch’ of actually excellent films on the subject of Vietnam War was released, and all of a sudden, it was justifiable. At the moment, it is acceptable to be a Vietnam veteran. Two of the early movies that cause the alteration in opinion were ‘Missing in Action’ and ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’. ‘Platoon’ was the earliest of five key movies concentrating on the personal account of veterans about warfare's incidents. That was a year of self-assessment as well as understanding of history. It was a straightforward public acceptance of defeat during a 20 years old combat. Platoon (1986) and Full Metal Jacket (1987) symbolize a number of of the most excellent Vietnam films and each of them criticized the war from a special point of view. The proliferation of th ese films overlapped with the administration of Ronald Reagan, a Cold Warrior determined to finish the confrontation with the USSR. Vietnam films may have been aggravated by the need to remind Americans of the pointlessness of battles like Vietnam that started as a result of hopeless apprehensions of socialist growth. Nevertheless, most Americans during the 1980s had place Vietnam behind them, concentrating on creating nationwide as well as individual prosperity. Rambo arrives at the Vietnam soldiers’ camp, and in opposition to his briefing, he locates American captives there and releases one of them from a temporary crucifixion. Subsequent to his break out, the camp's Soviets, as well as Vietnamese soldiers are sent to try to find him. Rambo gathers his weapons, and by means of guerilla fighting approaches, is able to destroy a huge number of opponent military forces. He continues to a small rival camp and annihilates it along with quite a lot of vehicles. The movies that fo llowed near the beginning of 1980s created a mythic Vietnam: the revenge movies about

Regarding Teslas direct to consumer expansion into China via opening PowerPoint Presentation

Regarding Teslas direct to consumer expansion into China via opening 12 new stores - PowerPoint Presentation Example We shall be using search research instruments like questionnaires which will have clearly defined questions. Other tools of collecting data to be applied include observation. All areas of the study will be defined before the collection of data. If we are successful the study will be able to copied or proven by future researchers. As well, it can be used to foretell future outcomes and investigate causal outcomes. According to University of Southern California Online Library for a research paper to be effective there are some rules that need following. For starters, the methodology must be reliable so that its results are not questioned. Secondly, it is imperative that readers be aware of how data being presented to them was gathered. This will give them confidence in knowing that the data is varied. A researcher must justify why they chose one methodology over another (libguides.usc.edu) Accepted standards of data collection must be applied if a methodology such as a questionnaire is used this is to make sure that the respondents were given ample time and space to answer. In deciding the research method it’s important to keep the end goal in mind this will help determine factors such as sample size. Problems incurred in the period of data collection must be accessed and with this the outcome of the final project

Homicide - Black males age 17-25 Research Paper

Homicide - Black males age 17-25 - Research Paper Example In history, premeditated or deliberate killing of an individual by another was termed as Felonious homicide which is related to murder. The biggest percentage of homicide committed in the United States is done by victims’ intimate partners. In the recent years, the overall rate of homicide in the US has been reported to remain constant. However the there has been an increased homicide among young black males aged between 17 and 25. Generally between 1999 and 2005 homicides rate in the US remained at around six deaths per one million people as suggested by Anderton, Barrett and Bogue (1997). However there was an increase in 2001 as a result of terrorist attacks which happened during this period. Homicide committed by the use of the gun occurred mostly around metropolitan areas. Homicide rates increased in the past one decade in most of the US cities with some experiencing around one thousand homicide per one million people. This situation was experienced in Richmond and Washing ton in 1994 among the black males aged between 18 and 24. In the subsequent years the homicide levels in the same age range in Washington, Richmond and New Orleans were twice those of other cities. The prevalence of homicide in metropolitan areas of the US in 2005 was twice that in non-metropolitan areas. ... Trait Theory Trait theory is a theory which explains matters of crime with regard to the individual. It was developed by Lonnie Athens explaining how parents or peer brutalization in childhood results to violent crimes later in life. In trait theory, the psychological perspective focuses on behavioral, personality and cognitive processes related to homicide. Individuals at the o age of 17-25 are associated with a lot of emotions which account a lot to their behavior and decision making. In United States this can be seen in the black males at this age group and it is attributed to their increased incidence of homicide. Personality disorders may result from brutality in adulthood and according to trait theory. This is because such disorders affect the way the individual perceives others in the society and above all how to react in pressure. For instance a child brought up in a society where there is a lot of crime he may end up committing crimes. This dictates why black males at the ag e of 17-25 in the United States due are likely to engage in homicide. This is associated with terrorist incidences which have affected the country leading to young individuals engaged in war. Trait theory also upholds homicide especially in United States, due to the children’s early age exposure to guns according to Levinson (2002). In United States due to development, possessing a gun it is not big deal which perceived as an item for solving conflicts. In connection with this, at the age of 17 to 25 individuals are said to be anxious in facing reality. As a result, as learned in childhood individuals at this age especially male as they are said to be more aggressive may engage homicides in solving conflicts. Personal traits such as social isolation and aggression also commuting to

The evolution of writing and reading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The evolution of writing and reading - Essay Example The earliest form it was developed out of pictographic symbols of objects, which we call pictographic writing. These Egyptians and Mesopotamians pictograms were just mere representations of the objects drawn, reading these symbols was only recognizing the representations of the objects. However, pictographic writing was independently developed in China during 1500 B.C. Later on, this form of writing slowly developed into ideograms (Gaur 16). Ideographic writing system is more of an abstract representation rather than a clear picture of objects. Unlike the earlier system, pictogram, ideograms represented images that had conventional meanings (Daniels and Bright 12). For instance, with the pictographic system, a picture of a star meant a star in the sky while in the ideographic system, a picture of a starry sky meant darkness because stars were normally seen at night. This development in the history of writing could be taken as an improvement in the development of the human intellect. When our ancestors invented writing, it was only a mere representation of objects but since the emergence of the ideographic writing system, they began thinking beyond what they saw. The earliest development of ideograms was in the East during the Bronze Age between 2500 B.C. and the first century B.C. During this development, experts found out that unlike the earlier form pictogram when our ancestors used their hands to draw symbols, they began using a wedged-shaped object in imprinting their writings in soft clay tablets (Daniels and Bright 15). In regards to the development of the human intellect that was shown through the emergence of ideographic writing that housed objects' abstract meaning, the use of a stylus was another notch higher than the earlier â€Å"handprint† style. This innovation showed progress in terms of how our ancestors before wanted to leave a more concrete proof of development in writing. â€Å"Sacred writing† or better known as the Egyptian hie roglyphic was the combination of the two earlier writing systems plus their sounds. Looking at in from today, the chronological order of our progress in writing seemed to be a systematic process of the development in the human brain. We may ask the reason behind it being not in a different order. Is this a natural way of development, considering that we, of course, learned sounds first before images? According to archeologists, anthropologists and other scientists, images were easier to express in writing than sounds even if oral communication was a natural instinct (Stuart 33). Another development in writing is logogram, which is the further progress towards figures. This form's graphemes represented words and was best known from the Japanese and Chinese systems. If we notice, this system is more complex than the other earlier forms of writing, which means that the human intellect again, indeed progressed. The emergence of the logogram can be seen as the basis of the modern alphabe t that we use today. How it has Changed? The emergence of technology surely made a big difference in our ways. Machines, automobiles, washing machines, computers, and the likes, seriously made a big impact in changing the lives of the people enslaved to them. The electronic mail or better known as email for instance, sends mails to other people across the globe in a snap. Unlike before, after the alphabet was invented, we used to write in scrolls and