Meaning of Life Essay

We ask ourselves everyday if our life has meaning. We view our lives and others’ lives in different ways. I agree with life being viewed as a game, and life as learning is adding meaning to our life. I disagree with life having no meaning at all. Every human being views life differently and believes your life is influenced by different ideas and lessons. Life as a game creates a theory that we can’t just take our lives too seriously or else we won’t be happy and feel as if we have fulfilled our lives and/or our purpose on earth. In our textbook it says if you believe your life is a game, you must pick the type of game you wish to play in your life. You can play games that are purely for fun, for superiority, social, hurting your opponents, or to help others. If you pick to have your game of life to be played just for fun then this could possibly be the happiest way to play your game of life. When being able to play a game for fun it excludes the worry of being judged and having to conquer other opponents to become the â€Å"winner† in your game of life. Your opponents could be your friends, family, co-workers, peers, mentors throughout your life and this could make you a miserable person if they turn their backs on you, or fight against your game of life. If we pick to play our life in a game to hurt our opponents then do we decide who our opponent is? Our opponents could be people in our lives who we do not like. They could become our friends and family and if we disagree, then do they become an opponent to us because we don’t see eye to eye? There are so many different ways you could pick to play your game of life. And only you can pick your game, but others around us do influence our choice of what we choose for a game. We don’t want to pick a game to which we are setting ourselves up to become targeted as a â€Å"loser†. We all want to be the â€Å"winner†. I believe in our game of life we should be able to choose if we are going to be the â€Å"winner† in our game of life and who the â€Å"losers† will be. Or should everyone be a winner? Some games in particular could cause chaos in our lives. If we choose to play our life as a competitive game then this could end up giving us enemies, and then what is life really about when you have people against you. In a competitive game it is hard to see the ending outcome of the game, so it is always a gamble to what your life or even the next day might bring. When you don’t know what the next day will bring, does the rules in your game of life change? It is possible when playing a game, the rules will change and new ones can be created and taken away. As little kids playing games, when they don’t like a rule, or merely forget a rule, this changes the game. And these changes affect the outcome of your ending result. Unfortunately I think the rules of your game can change because you learn new things and new technology comes out every day. Life as learning is something we all are introduced to throughout our lives. But do we pay attention to the things life is trying to teach us? Our textbook refers to having a bad experience and turning it into a situation we can learn from. I think we take all situations we are put into and get some kind of lesson or moral meaning out of it. If you view life in different ways then it could change how you react to your life lessons and the idea you should get out of the story. I believe we should all try everything once if it is presented to us and it is morally right. If you can’t live your life to the fullest, then are you actually learning everything you can from your life? Do we encounter things in our life because we should learn from them? Is life supposed to have flaws so we can become a better person and make ourselves better prepared for the next time the problem arises? We can ask ourselves all theses questions and if we listen to the ending result and want to understand then we will take something out of the issue as a life learning situation. But can we shut the ideas and ending decisions out, and ignore the life lesson? I think that each and every event that happens in our life was presented to us to teach us a new life lesson and prepare us better for the next time if it comes up in our life again. These life lessons can hurt us but if life was perfect all the time, then when faced with a flaw in our life we wouldn’t know how to respond and cope with the problem. Some people in life can’t face their flaws of life and walk away or give up. People might do this because they can’t deal with the pain and suffering they believe they are being faced with. With the two philosophies above I do agree that our life is a game, and life is learning. We pick what we want to believe and understand. And in our life we play a game where we can pick the â€Å"winners† and â€Å"losers†. We believe that we make the ending decision in our life and pick what our life stories and experiences actually mean. When we are surprised with conflict and a sudden problem, we might not be able to control our life until we can understand what is going on. And if we take time to understand, then aren’t we still controlling our life? We could always walk away and ignore the new problem. The idea I disagree with the most is life has no meaning at all. Albert Camus said in his book The Myth of Sisyphus that â€Å"the absurd had become a widespread sensibility in our times. † He also relates life having no meaning at all to atheism. If there is no external meaning, then he believes there is no point in life. If life had no meaning then wouldn’t we careless about our future and live for that moment. If life has no meaning then would we be in school trying to receive a quality education? Albert Camus believes that most humans are frightened by the idea of living on earth with no purpose to life. And this allows humans to create a purpose to live. In our textbook it states a quote from his book, â€Å"The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of it own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. † This to me means that when you are asked to conquer something that is impossible for you to accomplish, then it is the worse thing that would happen in your life. This makes you feel like you have failed at what god has asked you to do. I believe we all have a meaningful life. Each and every one of us affects someone in the world, either if it’s a positive way or sometimes in a negative way. We won’t always realize our affect on others unless it is pointed out to us. As we discussed in class, a drug addict might share his story, and affect children and teenagers and show them the life they lived and how they are now. I think as a teacher you add meaning to your life by teaching others about a variety of topics in life and history. The question does life have a meaning is worth answering. Each and every one of us has our own opinion of life and if it has meaning. We truly can’t look up the definition in the dictionary and believe that is what life is. We need to look at our personal situations, as well as experiences to see how it molds our view of what life means. The definition of life from The American College Dictionary states â€Å"a corresponding state, existence, or principle of existence conceived as belonging to the soul. † This to me means that as long as we have a presence on earth they have life on earth. This definition isn’t the only one about life; we create our own meaning which is molded to our life. If life is just about existence, then life may have no meaning. We are here on earth to impact people in same way and form. If we are here just for existence then we aren’t living life. In reality I think life can be looked at in many different ways and there is not just one definition. Is their just one definition and would this change the way we live our lives? Would we be different people than who we are today? Life is a special thing, and we can view our life in different perspectives. As mentioned in my paper we can view life as a game, as learning, and life can have no meaning at all. I don’t agree with all the ways we can view our life, but each and every one of us can pick our own way to view life. For me I agree with the fact that life is a game. We pick if we want to play a game for fun, or to be the king of the world. The way we decide to play our life game determines who we are as a person and it helps affect the mood we are in. I also believe life as learning. In life we are given many different life lessons. And what we take from these life lessons is teaching us life. If we don’t take the time to learn, then our life isn’t complete. Or we at least aren’t living our life to the fullest. I disagree with the fact that our life has no meaning. We make our having meaning, and if we don’t put meaning in our life, then it will be meaningless. You might view your life as meaningless, and to others your life could be filled with meaning. Your view of your life can be different than the way others view your life. Life can have many different meanings and can affect our lives in different ways. In the end we choose what our life will be, and how we will live our life. No one else can choose how you should live your life. In the end it is your choice and your choice alone. We can be influenced by others, but they can’t make the final decisions.

How to Make Camias Prunes and Soap Essay

Procedure: To make candied kamias, begin by sorting fruits according to size and eliminating the spoiled or damaged ones. 1. Weigh and wash the fruits.  2. Soak them overnight in lime solution (one tablespoon lime per one liter of water). This process will firm up the fruits. Again, wash thoroughly in running water to remove lime. 3. Blanch fruits in boiling water for three to five minutes and drain. 4. Prick the bottom part of kamias with a fine toothpick and press each fruit lightly to remove some of the fruit juice. 5. Prepare syrup (2 parts sugar to one part water), boil it and strain. 6. Add the kamias to the syrup and boil them for five minutes and soak overnight. 7. Remove the fruits and add one cup sugar to the syrup and boil. Then add kamias again and heat for five minutes. 8. Soak the fruits overnight. 9. The following day, remove fruits and add some more sugar to the syrup. Then, add kamias again and boil for five minutes. 10. Allow to cool; drain and weigh. 11. Arrange kamias on a tray and dry in the solar dryer. 12. After drying, weigh again and pack in plastic bags and seal. Materials: * 1 glass Caustic Soda (NaOH) * 3 glasses water * 5 glasses cooking oil * 1/2 glass juice or extract Procedure: 1. Prepare the materials and the utensils needed. 2. Measure 1 glass of caustic soda and 3 glasses of water and pour into a plastic pail. 3. Mix well by stirring continuously using a wooden ladle or bamboo stick. Use only one direction in mixing the mixture. Stir until the caustic soda is dissolved. 4. Pour 5 glasses cooking oil into the mixture. 5. Continue stirring until a consistency of a condensed milk is achieved and add 1/2 glass of juice or extract. 6. Pour the soap mixture into desired plastic molders. Set aside and let it cool to harden. 7. After 4-5 hours,  remove the soap from the molder. 8. Allow 30 days of ageing before packing. Label the soaps. Indications: * Kamias – fruit extract or juice (bleaching soap) * Calamansi – fruit extract or juice (bleaching soap) * Cucumber – fruit extract or juice (moisturizer) * Papaya – extract from fresh leaves (bleaching/moisturizer) * Radish – extract from the stem (moisturizer) Reminder: * Caustic Soda can harm the skin upon contact. Wash immediately with vinegar or anything sour and then wash it with soap and water. * Caustic Soda is harmful to health and so, make the necessary precaution. Use mask and gloves to protect your body. Directions 1. In a wide bowl, crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don’t bother with processing, and just refrigerate. 2. To test for jelling Place three plates in a freezer†¦ after about 10 minutes of boiling place a tsp of the liquid of the jam onto the cold plate. Return to freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate†¦ if it doesn’t try to run back together (if you can make a line through it with your finger) it’s ready to be canned!

Forensic Psychology and Criminal Investigation Essay - 6

Forensic Psychology and Criminal Investigation - Essay Example Research indicates that people with low IQ when subjected to environmental factors tend to be at greater risk of behavioural problems than people with normal IQ (Jones, 2007). When dealing with people experiencing learning or developmental disorders, it must be kept in mind that their relation of events and causes may be either exaggerated or underreported given their psychological limitations. Similarly, such people may also withhold information from the investigative process feeling that this information may be irrelevant (Gillberg, 2002). On the other hand, there is also the chance that people with learning and developmental disorders may not be good at communication due to their minimal socialisation which would limit their effective communication through the investigative process. Other people with learning and developmental disorders may be easily pressured into producing false testimonies (Murphy, 2003). Such people may provide false accounts since they do not possess adequate coping mechanisms and so the simplest way to deflect the stress of an investigation would be to produce a false testimony. Consequently, the investigative process may be derailed or misled based on the testimony of an individual suffering from learning or developmental disorders (Young, 2005). Asperger’s syndrome (AS) has positively been identified in the case of offenders to cause problems such as egocentrism, low empathy and impulsivity leading to hurdles in the investigative process (Murphy, 2007). In a similar manner other disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are known to cause problems in the investigative process due to difficult social relations, substance abuse, obsessive behaviours etc. on the part of the person being investigated (Gudjonsson, 2003). Another allied problem is the change in facial expressions in the case of individuals suffering

Research paper about famous photographer Ansel Adams

About famous photographer Ansel Adams - Research Paper Example He started school in 1908 but he was a poor student. He started to hate going to school. In 1915, his father took him out from school and had him home-schooled. During that time, Charles bought his son a pass to the Panama Pacific International Exposition. This Exposition had exhibits on science, arts, machinery and photography. That was the first time young Ansel encountered photography as a form of art. There were three prints exhibited by the great photographer Edward Weston – whom he would collaborate much later in a group project and will become a great friend. His unconventional education opened the doors for young Ansel: He became interested in piano and began to teach himself how to play. He was a serious student of music, and recognizing this, his father hired a piano tutor for Ansel. Her name was Marie Butler and she tutored Ansel for three years. At this point, Ansel was seriously considering becoming a concert pianist. In 1916, Ansel’s family took a trip to Yosemite and on this trip, his father gave him a camera. This trip made him interested in photography as a result. â€Å"With his camera, a Kodak Box Brownie, Ansel’s life as a photographer began – an interest which was to endure for the rest of his life. With his first attempts at committing the magic of Yosemite to film, he demonstrated the beginnings of an immense talent which was to make him a world-class photographer† (1). Ansel was then persuaded to attend school again and he did. He went to Mrs. Kate Wilkins’ private school. He graduated from eighth grade in 1917 at Mrs. Wilkins’ school. His graduation marked the end of his academic career. He continued to pursue piano and music, as well as his new passion – photography – after graduation. Like the way he taught himself piano, he began teaching himself the basic principles of photography. Then he got a job working part-time for a photo finisher in San Francisco, Fred Dittman. T his is where Ansel had his first darkroom experience. Will Dassonville, a neighbor, was a technician and manufacturer of photographic papers. â€Å"It was Will Dassonville who was Ansel’s true inspiration and who brought his attention the true extent to which photography could be developed into an art form.† (2) This picture is called The Tetons – Snake River. This iconic picture is taken at the Yosemite Park and is probably one of the most famous photographs that inspired environmentalism in America. Many photographers agree that Ansel Adams made a huge impact in photography that you can actually denote the history of photography into before Ansel Adams and after Ansel Adams. It has been said that before Ansel Adams, photography is not taken seriously, and was not considered an art form. The photographers then used extreme manipulations on their photographs to make them resemble paintings. However, Ansel came to the scene declaring â€Å"photography is poetry of the real† and eschewed manipulations. He practiced the value of â€Å"pure photography† using only light, shutter speed and other simple manipulations of the camera. Ansel clung to the large format camera even if the point and shoot ones were readily available. Because of his beautiful pictures of nature, Ansel changed how photography was seen (it is now art) and has influenced America about how to take care of their environment. Because of him, King’

American Imperialism and American Democracy Article

American Imperialism and American Democracy - Article Example The case of American regional imperialism is perhaps most evident when it comes to Latin America. Of course it remains quite obvious that American governments have always had a role to play in international politics even though they had been warned by their greatest leader not to interfere in the matters of other nations. Buschini (2000) notes the American influence over the Middle East as well as Latin America and notes that in historical terms, â€Å"Between the end of the Spanish-American War and the dawn of the Great Depression, the United States sent troops to Latin American countries thirty-two times (Buschini, 2000, Pg. 1)†. The consequences for such actions both home and abroad only became clear when the changes to the Latin American politics became evident. For the American people, intervention and the idea of sending soldiers to fight and die in a foreign land had to be given some explanation. This explanation came from the Monroe Doctrine as it was fed to the public by Roosevelt and other presidents who did not see imperialism as imperialism. In fact, American intervention was seen as necessary, a positive force for change and the American people were taught to see themselves as liberators as well as the protectors of democracy (Kinzer, 2006). As a consequence of having imperialist policies, America was made out in the media to be the defender of civilization in a world which was full of chronic wrongdoing and mischief done by others. The nobility of the American government was essentially a myth fed to the people and many of them gladly accepted it as fact. In this manner, even in a democratic society, a government which was hesitant to intervene in the matters of other nations would be seen as lacking the courage to make strong decisions (Kinzer, 2006). For governments willing to intervene, the idea of bringing democratic values to other

Scenario question Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Scenario question - Coursework Example A number of ways will be employed in identifying the leaking liquefied compressed gas. The first way is by checking the cylinder for any stamps or labels that will help in identifying the gas (Compressed Gas Association, 2003, p. 25). The color of the container may be used to identify the gas although this is not the surest way of identifying the compressed gas because colors vary from supplier to the other. The other way is to check out labels and signs posted on the container of the compressed gas. The smell of the gas will also aid in identifying the gas. Since the said gas is flammable and toxic as well as poisonous, the radius of the initial isolation zone will have to be wide enough so that the leakage can be contained without posing massive danger to the nearby living things particularly animals and humans. This will be determined depending on the magnitude of the leakage, day or night conditions and the type and nature of the gas. The leakage will definitely lead to a large spill and in this case the radius will be 0.6 km day or 2.2km at night (Compressed Gas Association, 2003, p. 33). These safety precautionary routes will form the basis of handling this response; that is in responding to this gas leakage, the identification of the gas will have to be ascertained after which the initial isolation radius will be determined. Another very important aspect in this response is the type of personal protective equipments to be used. Before any action is taken, nose mask or gas mask that covers the entire face, eye goggles and hand gloves are the foremost PPEs that one will need to put on when assessing the safe response in containing the leakage (Compressed Gas Association, 2003, p. 46). The nature and type of the gas will also guide in the process of determining other important PPEs to be used. Therefore, the PPEs required for this response are; gas mask masks, eye goggles, helmet, hand gloves, safety boots, and

Brand Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Brand Management - Essay Example For the marketing program investment, NB is positioned as the best fit for athletes and people who want shoes that represent their fitness goals. NB concentrates on manufacturing shoes with diverse widths because it believes that a large fit enhances footwear performance. The brand is also known for the benefits of comfort, performance, and quality of fits and soles (Ryan 2008). The commodification is manufacturing for quality. NB is involved in international business; it sells products all over the world. Furthermore, employee relations are regarded as satisfactory, because the executive management is dedicated to responding to internal stakeholder needs (Baker 1999). For customer mindset, awareness is high, but not as high as for market leaders, such as Nike and Reebok-Adidas, when sales are considered. See Table 1 for Comparative Data on Major Athletic Footwear and Apparel Companies, 2004. NB also has good associate relations. NB imports finished soles and raw materials from Asian suppliers. The uppers would then be made and connected to soles in the U.S. almost seventy percent of NB’s domestic product is called â€Å"sourced upper.† For sourced-upper shoes, NB will import finished uppers and soles from Asia and will conclude the assembly at the American factories. Three warehouses in Skowhegan and Lawrence hold approximately $9 million (or 4 and half weeks) worth of raw materials inventory (Bowen, Huckman, and Knoop 2002, C-383). It can take 10 to 12 weeks for the shoes to arrive at Lawrence and Ontario (order to deliver lead time) (Bowen et al. 2002, C-383). The lead time has also been lessened, due to the efforts of NB to develop ordering and synchronization processes between the company and the suppliers. The management also strategically located the manufacturing plants near distributors and stores (Bruce, Daly, and Towers 2004; Jin 2004). Table 1: Comparative Data on Major Athletic Footwear and Apparel Companies, 2004 Company Worldwide Sa les Footwear Sales Total Assets Net Income Employees Nike 13,739.7 7,299.7 8,793.6 1,211.6 26,000 Adidas-Salomon 8,057.0 3,384.0 6,015.8 402.3 17,023 Reebok 3,785.3 2,430.3 2,440.6 192.4 9,100 Puma 1,903.3 1,065.8 1,263.1 320.0 3,910 New Balance 1,500.0 NA NA NA 2,600 Fila 955.2 NA NA -85.0 2,300 Vans 330.2 NA NA -30.0 1,890 Source: Bowen, Huckman, and Knoop (2006, C374) The attitudes of the company represent good work ethics and social responsibility. NB actively supports societal marketing. Some of its products use natural materials. NB also energetically donates to charity and other organizations. It has a New Balance Foundation that tackles child obesity, as well as other cultural and environmental concerns (New Balance 2011). Studies also showed that New Balance has loyal customers, because they appreciate the performance of its products and the grassroots marketing approach of the company (Datamonitor 2008). The main marketing promotions of NB are word-of-mouth and PR through de-emphasizing the importance of celebrity endorsements (Datamonitor 2008). Price premiums of NB are pricing for value. New Balance has different prices for its products, but mostly it charges premium pricing for its athletic apparel and footwear. Customers are not that price elastic. NB enjoys a market share of 8 to 12% market share (Bowen et al. 2002, C-384). Expansion success is high, since NB has strong brand equity. Cost savings is also good, because of the strategic supply chain management of NB

Resume and Application Letter Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Resume and Application Letter Writing - Essay Example The essay "Resume and Application Letter Writing" is a consolidation of ideas presented by the students during the online interaction on the resume and application writing. The author of this report has provided additional information to fill in the gaps in the report to make it more comprehensive and relevant to the readers. The resume or application letter does not grab the attention of the employer in the first 10 seconds that application will probably go into the trash. As it is, writing an attention grabbing resume is a must. Effective resumes are interesting, brief, concise and to the point. Well written resumes and application letters are very important to create a positive first impression on the prospective employer and get that precious interview appointment. There were three basic resume formats discussed by the group online. These resume formats are (a) chronological format, (b) functional format and (c) combination format. The chronological resume which outlines the appl icant’s job experiences in a reverse chronological order is the most widely used resume format. Technically, the reverse chronological resume illustrates the candidate’s career growth in the past years and capitalizes on the experience gained by the applicant through his or her previous work. Many employers prefer to review this type of resume for the following reasons, they are more familiar with this type of resume, the chronological resume is easier to understand and it highlights the career growth and stability of the applicant.

McDonald Case study Essay Example for Free

McDonald Case study Essay Comparing with other competitors in the catering industry, McDonald’s has developed into one the giant and most famous fast food restaurants in the world. At present time, McDonald’s is the world’s largest food service retailers offering services to customers, in the same time they are keeping opening new shops all over the world every day. However, even though their business is keeping increasing, but they also met some negative messages from consumers or other parties, such as their products is not unhealthy, food they provided will cause obesity to the childhood. From relative estimation, it shows that obesity condition and the qty of those overweight children have been increasing rapidly throughout the world. More seriously, childhood obesity rate in the country of Australia is the highest in the world. From this consideration, it is much necessary to analysis relationship between the fast food and the obesity. Here, I will take the example of McDonald’s to research in detail 2.0 Analysis of case (McDonald fast food) There are lots of people will be consumed in McDonald’s., roughly, there are more than 30 million customers will be served in McDonald’s restaurants around the world. Accordingly, McDonald also achieved great success, especially comparing with other not so famous similar competitors. But due to fast food’s unique style of business, such as: their unique food ingredients, material used and cooking method, people think fast food will be the main cause for the obesity, typically for children, because they like the taste of such fast food a lot and consumed a lot too. In Australia, according to the study, there are about 25% of children in Australia are obese or overweight nowadays, while that was just 5% in the 1960s. The study from Australia’s Child Youth Help shows that the overweight preschoolers aged four years rose from 3.2% for boys and 3.5% for girls, to 4.1% for boys and 5.8% for girls in 2002. Also according to many scholars and nutritionist’s reflection, it is not hard to know that the fast food provided will be the main reason for causing childhood obesity. Since obesity has lots of negative effect to the health of the people, and especially for childhood, comparing with normal adults, childhood will be the focus for parents or relative health institute to pay attention on. As relative research shows that fast food will generate relative higher fats etc, so becomes one of the main causes of getting child fat. For McDonald, due to their significant achievement, together with their multi-advertisement, makes people, child is more familiar with them, on the contrary, this type of condition also makes McDonald become the target of complaints of childhood obesity. 2.1 Questions 1: McDonald relationship with childhood obesity Due to the cause of the obesity, McDonald’s relationship with child and parents becomes much tight. There are lots of people complain this giant food seller, because they have provided to many fast food to children, which cause them failed to be healthfully growing. In which, their variety type advertisement also become the target for people to blame. Because advertisement will bring good feeling and positive to the consumer, especially when child get to know the advertisement, they will be much easily to be attracted by the contents, therefore, they will be much easily tend to take such advertising food. In the meantime, since they are short of the knowledge to judge and get to know more detail of the products, is it  good, or will it bring bad effect to health once eats. So in the way, McDonald’s advertisement becomes the target of people’s blaming. As far as I am concerned, it is not doubt that McDonald will hold the direct responsibility, because they are the food providers, and they are the persuader to make children like their food by advertisement. But in the meantime, children’s parents shall also have the responsibility. Normally when the child go in to the McDonald’s shop, they will accompanied by their parents or elder person, at this point, when the children do not have the knowledge and the ability to tell the negative of the fast food, their older accompanier shall point out in time, also shall provide necessary guide in selecting the food. 2.2 Questions 2. The impact of McDonald’s marketing Advertisement will bring lots of effect to consumers, and for McDonald’s marketing because most of their advertisement contents will be designed by professional, who will be able to make the contents of the advertisement will be much attracting to their consumer, and when they target children, normally, the effect of the advertisement will work. Also they will design relative program to present their products to consumers. 2.2.1 Impact of McDonald’s marketing on individual consumers It is well-known the principle of the treatment to the people in McDonald’s that people are the key to the success of McDonald’s. To individual consumers, McDonald’s celebrate the children’s birthday with them. The parties are fun, Hassie-free and make for great memories to give an impressive and unforgettable experience for each of the individual customers in it. Customers can choose from two great-value packages, each offering games, entertainment and meals, and with more than 200 committed birthday party restaurants Australia-wide, there are plenty of nearby locations to choose from. Additionally, there is online booking for the convenience of the customers, which is even easier to give the little customers a party they’ll love. 2.2.2 Impact of McDonald’s marketing on other business and society Apart from the great favorable impact of McDonald’s to the individual consumers, McDonald’s itself also shed indispensable impact on other business and society as a whole. There are 267 franchisees and 9,000 suppliers serving as business partners in McDonald’s Australia alone (McDonald’s Australia Corporate Responsibility Sustainability Report 2010). Therefore, the great sales in McDonald’s will no doubt generate vast increase to the sales of those business partners to a large extent. 2.3 Question 3: Social marketing’s influence to children Social marketing will contribute and affect a lot to the consumer through variety type of approaches, and it can be clearly known from the example of McDonald. The great success of McDonald’s is basically because of its establishment and implication of its responsibility to do what’s right. To better carry out this responsibility, McDonald’s takes several measures as the societal marketing listing below: (1) Productive strategy of high quality products. The quality of the products is the life thread of an enterprise. From this consideration, McDonald’s places this to the first of the other four criteria. (2) Price strategy of reasonable price. To be successful in the furious competition of fast food industry, McDonald’s implicates the marketing strategy of low price and national uniform price. (3) Service strategy of clean and speedy service. The cleaning of the food in McDonald’s has closed connection with the health of the customers, especially that of the children’s. While clean and speedy service provides convenience for the necessity of busy customers. Promotional strategy oriented with ads. The promotional strategy in McDonald’s is rather simple but quite effective, mainly with the strategy of ads publicity to create sensational effects. (5) Cultural strategy of accustoming to the local culture. McDonald’s maintains its own style of diet and also adapts to the local culture to invent food of the traditional distinguishing features (Nestle Jacobson, 2000). Through the measures above, McDonald try to widely present their products as top as possible to the consumers, also their products will be accompanied with good service which will greatly influence the consumption intendance and habit of their customer, in which children are also the most part, therefore children will naturally like to eating in McDonald. 2.4 Question 4. Opinion of advertising for kids and other solutions for childhood obesity in Australia 2.4.1 Problems of advertising for kids The advertisements of McDonald’s are always aimed at interesting more customers, especially to the little children. McDonald’s enticing their children customers to want its food by applying free toy giveaways. The ads of McDonald’s are both in TV or other publications produce various attractive pictures and images to entice the children to it from their visual to their gustatory sense. 2.4.2 Other solutions to solve childhood obesity To solve childhood obesity, several strategies are decided as followed: More focus must be placed on the group prevention rather than the individual treatment and instruction. In order to change the diet and behavior in the family, it is critical whether to depend on the family and the society. The effect of the individual instruction such as the fat farm and summer camps will be very limit without the long term support from the society and school (Allison Webe, 2003). School must be the major part of the prevention of childhood obesity. The government must make no efforts to control childhood obesity. How to cooperate with the food industry is one of the parts of the strategies (Berg,Buechner Parham,2003). 2.5 Trend of the fast food industry in Australia The fast food industry in Australia has achieved its great success in recent years. The social and industrial status of fast food industry has been gradually established and become more important. The scales of both the industry and the enterprises are increasingly broadening, and the quality and standard are improving evidently. In a word, the development of fast food industry is limitless in the long run. All around Australia, fast food is not simply a commodity; it is also a representation of â€Å"the West† or â€Å"American†. If it wants to help explain its attraction, McDonald’s should innovate its quality as well as the foods themselves to match the advance  demand of the society. Australian business environment was so complicated that foreigners could not hope to survive on their own, in such circumstance, only those enterprise matching with the consumer requirement will be survive. On the whole, Australian consumers treat â€Å"fast food† restaurants as leisure centers and tend to stay longer than do most Americans. In the meantime, other type food, like rice is more than a simple grain; it is imbued with symbolic meanings and is perceived as sacred by many Australians. The style of food does not fit easily into the existing Australian food system, so McDonald’s, if can operated in a more healthy way for their food by improving step by step in innovation, it can be easier to be accepted. 3.0 Conclusion In conclusion, McDonald’s is believed the giant of the fast food industry. It has achieved great success in its sales and the fame all over the world. However, together with its great success, McDonald’s also creates serious problems to the society, in specific the childhood obesity. It is estimated that the prevalence of obesity and overweight children has been increasing rapidly throughout the world. And the rates of the childhood obesity in the country of Australia are the highest in the world. Its beginning relates to the starts of a new political era, on in which local interests challenge the authoritarian rule of the Nationalist Parethy, in this way, the Golden Arches arrive just as Australia reaches takeoff as a major player in the global electronics and computer markets. To many consumers in Australia, McDonald’s meant something the leisure and easy, and people prefer it. So in order to advance their business, but in the same time, not to bring the negative side to the consumer, especially children, it is part of McDonald’s responsibility to take care of their products, trying best to find good method or innovation to catch the problem of causing serious state of childhood obesity, that is certain measures are in great need to be taken to solve or affiliate the situation. It is also believed that with better responsibility taken, and with correct marketing, trying to stick the principle of â€Å"right goods is the base of good marketing†, then the fast food industry will be successful forever. References: Allison,D.B. Weber,M.T(2003). Treatment and prevention of obesity: what works, what doesn’t work, and what might work. Lipids Berg,F., Buechner J. Parham E. (2003). Guidelines for childhood obesity prevention programs: promoting healthy weight in children. Nutr Educ Ebhav McDonald’s Australia Corporate Responsibility Sustainability Report 2010 Nestle,M. Jacobson,M.F(2000). Halting the obesity epidemic: a public health policy approach. Public Health Rep

the business model of Apples itunes

the business model of Apples itunes Evaluate the business model of Apples itunes. In particular you should address:- 1. To what extent can the itunes business model be described as an ecosystem and what is the role of IT in enabling the collaboration between Apple, its economic partners and consumers? 2. How does itunes compare with competitors? 3. What new technologies could disrupt the current market by enabling a new form of business model? Introduction Business model in a basic sense deals with the method of doing business in order to generate revenues by which a company sustains itself in the competitive market place ( (Rappa, 2009).According to (Amberg Manuela) analysis on music industries, there are lots of media websites and companies following different business models fallen prey to file sharing tools and peer-peer networks which allow consumers to illegally copy and share the content for free. As a consequence , companies like Apple iTunes and Sony Connect have come up with internet based business models based on pay-per-download and dependent on the technology of the supplier for whom long-term customer relations are very crucial and customers are allowed to use the digital media content particularly with regard to technology of the supplier thus getting advantage and benefitting from selling hardware components because the offer of digital media content advances it. These business models replace the traditional business m odels which are generally based on selling physical media.This paper shows the fair understanding of Apple iTunes business model for its dominance over the current music market and tries to describe the business model with respect to ecosystem and compares iTunes with its key competitors in the market. The biological term ecosystem in this paper refers to the IT ecosystem. (Iansiti Richards, 2005) describes IT ecosystem as network of organizations that drives the creation, innovation and delivery of Information Technology products and services. According to (Cusumano, 2008) the term ‘Platform, is defined as â€Å" Foundation product or key technology in a system like the PC or a web enabled cell phone and should have relatively open technical interfaces and easily licensing terms in order to encourage other firms to contribute complementary product and services. So this can be accounted to an ecosystem around the platform and the platform becomes more valuable when the exter nal entities creative more innovations around it. This should cause more users to adopt the platform and more complementors to join the network. iTunes as an ecosystem Online music hit a new milestone after Apple computer,Inc.(Apple) launched the iTunes application in January 2001 follwed by launch of 1st generation iPod and 2 years later online music store in April of 2003.The two businesses, the production of MP3 players and the online music shops were initially considered as different units and after the invention of new hardware iPod these two businesses were merged. iTunes is a software designed with an intuitive and user friendly interface and iPod is an hardware designed with an eye on fashion. These two together helped Apple to enter and succeed in the music player market infact actually cross promoting the iPod hardware device. Because of their service and innovation Apple retained to grow in the online music field in a better way when compared to its key competitors like Dell, Sony and Samsung( (Li Chang). According to (Schonfeld, 2009) statistics, iTunes have now sold 6 billion songs and 10 million different tracks are now available on iTunes. iTunes is software and iPod is hardware as said by (Li Chang) are two different business units and Apple conjucts these two different products into one new business model. Using ecology to analyze this model(iPod and iTunes) it has set a nice example for ecotone between two species to drive the music industry into new ecosystem. A strong platform is apparent from the combination of both the software and the hardware. The below shows the evolution of new ecosystem with combination of two stand-alone ecosystems. ‘Most companies today inhabit ecosystemsloose networks of suppliers, distributors, and outsourcers; makers of related products or services; providers of relevant technology; and other organizations that affect, and are affected by, the creation and delivery of a companys own offering†¦.. as said by (Iansiti Levien, 2004) shows how business industry can be closely compared to biological ecosystem. Like every individual in the biological ecosystem every organization in the business ecosystem shares the fate of the network as a whole regardless of that members apparent strengths. Comparing this with the Apple business, iPod is not really an innovative technology by itself but the company creates a new ecotone for digital music where all the hardware(iPods) and software(iTunes) are related to it enhances its platform. According to (Koster, 2007) There is a continuous decline in the traditional sale of music sources like retail music stores and the on-going music industries ar e restructuring themselves by merging with other partners to face the loss of revenues and to adopt with the new business strategies and models in the music industry to compete with the counterparts. Even in the digital music world today, legitimate music downloading is continuously changing. Initial music sites have very strong limitations on access catalogs of music, on what could be done with the downloaded music, number of copies, time limits, where to copy. Though Apple iTunes works on this model, it is successful in negotiating a very large music catalog from the four labels from its music site. He says that one large advantage and success for Apple is because of its hardware device iPod where normally music is stored and playback. The revenues from iPods sales continue to grow after the introduction of iTunes. Though Apple had gotten permission from four majors to store their music on its website for consumers to download by promising the copyright protection authority DRM, i t is now planning to get away with DRM because they make the downloaded or recorded music very cumbersome for the consumer. This is evident from (Johnson, 2009) article on web which says By the end of the quarter all 10 million songs will be DRM free in iTunes and iTunes plus, said Phil Schiller, Apples senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. The blog witten by (Vitalari, 2009) clearly examines at the 21st century business model adopted by Apple to become successful in the market. He believes that business platforms are the root cause for cumulative business performance. Apples competitive business platforms is the main drive for innovations like community formation, mass collaboration, social networking, ecosystems, real time analytics, transparency etc. The iPhone App store was launched in July 2008 and today iTunes store is a total set of all forms of the digital media including music, games, software application, podcasts and video assets . As his explanation, the driving factors for Apple success and points out that the effective business platforms have few key ingredients:  · iPods, iphones are not just products instead they represent individual business platforms and they create an ecosystem surrounding the product which means they create a common understanding for business transactions, technical specifications, interface standards and requirements. With the iPhone this includes all of the sub-contracted manufacturers, but more importantly it includes iTunes, the app store and app developers.This results in creating a transparency which enables and facilitates hundreds of participants to collaborate asynchronously and independently.  · This leads directly to the second point, which is that the business platform then helps to generate untold business analytics for the platforms owner.This is because of the elements of the business platform are networked and generates valuable information about the product, ecosystem and participants. Apple used this analytics to fix, improve and enhance the product and finally delighting the customers.  · This in turn creates a community of practice surrounding the business platform, as the collaborators learn how to make better things. IT in enabling collaboration with partners and consumers As a cofounder of Apple, Steve Jobss vision was to create new and different products to consumers and his notion of â€Å"one person-one computer became visionary responsible for Apples reputation for innovation and mission became changing the world by bringing the computers to masses (Richard D Vohr, 1998).Apple came back with reinvention of personal computer with Macintosh in 1980 after igniting the computer industry revolution with inventing Apple II and it is commited to bring the best computing experience to all the fields starting from students, educators, professionals and consumers all around the globe with its innovative software hardware and internet offerings. This Apples mission statements indicates it focuses on innovation and personal computing experience( (Pearlson Saunders, 2009). Apple From 1987-1997 the company suffered due to some major internal problems which affected the strategic leadership and its operations but after Steve Jobss second turn as CEO, company fixed operational problems and regains its innovative leadership dramatically. Few changes like manufacturing outsourcing and improving inventory became straight forward matching Dell, the industry leader.It moved to open industry standards rather than proprietary hardware interfaces that it had maintained for 15 years and thus in a minor way Apples product strategy became more open( (West Mace, 2007).As per ( (Apple Computer, 2006) Apple derives its competitive advantage again by its innovation giving iPod as an example. Apple entered the market with iPod in 2001and by end of fourth quarter of fiscal year 2005, iPods sales gained 33% of the total revenues. The factors which are accountable to their success and uniqueness are its computers based on its own operating system, which enabled further area of innovation.Its Mac OS operating system focuses on more simplicity and seen as graphically sophisticated. (West Mace, 2007)Recent trends have seen increasing strategy convergence be tween Apple and Microsoft .For its video game business, similar to its rivals Sony and Nintendo Microsoft buys the processor but designs its own hardware and software without licensing them to others.Meanwhile ‘Zune, Microsofts music players try to compete successfully to attain equality with Apples iPod. This shows Apple pursued a vertically integrated strategy in its music business. Vertical strategy is single firms controlling the entire platform. Apple leveraging its Macintosh installed base to establish iTunes music store and building iPod business on top of that and now iPhone business shows its expansion into adjacent markets and this loyal installed base makes any company easier to branch into a related market and this becomes a lesson for the other companies and Apple aims at satisfying the costumer not just upgrading the costumers what they have today like the other companies do. When ATT decided to make offer to iTunes many other mobile industries criticized it for making too many concessions to Apple. Due to this offer ATT gets benefit from Apple in two ways , one is Apple increases the average monthly bills for the customers who switch from ATT to iPhone and the second one is it causes existing people to switch from existing carriers to ATT as its the exclusive carrier for iPhone( (The Apple iPhone:Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry, 2008). Digital Record Management systems are uses to encrypt the data does not allow illegal or non authorization download of music and currently there are two main formats used for protect downloading of music. One is fairplay and the other is WMA. Fairplay is Apples proprietary technology where it secure the data encrypted in AAC( Advanced Audi Coding) format. WMA is Microsofts Windows media audio video encoding platform. iPods can play only those stuff which are secured through fairplay format and Apple has refuse to lincense this fairplay to other retailers and so it is difficult for iPod users to download music from other retailers other than iTunes music store. But recently Realnetworks in US came up with a package which allows iPod users resident in US to play secures music from Realnetworkss music store Rhapsody. Apple got furious with this and accused Realnetworks of ‘Hacker tactics and Ethics and reported to investigating on that for violating the intellectual rights. If apple is capable of putting an end to such violations then the indispensability of fairplay could be established( (The iTunes music store: does competition law hold the key to closed shop?, 2004) According to insights into IDCs lifesciences by (Swenson Golden, 2005) Apple products are getting attracted by the life science researchers who actually migrated from linux and unix platforms because of the dual nature of Mac OS and its estimated historically that the life scientists have been twice or thrice more likely than the average computer user to Apples Mac platform as client computer thus representing attractive market for Apple. It has announced about its collaboration with airlines which includes Air France, Continental, Delta, United and KLM to integrate the in flight entertainment systems with iPod and taking the current entertainment provided in these airlines to a next level for better travel experience( (Apple_Partners_with_Airlines_for_iPod_Integration, 2006). Sets Apple as an interesting example for not being an open source model in its business strategies but is thought b of being a highly proprietary company from its earlier years. Now it has jumped into open sou rce and have started projects both inside and outside its corporate firewalls. Apples OS X was a open source because it was based on Darwin. Its developer website said that Apples open source projects let key developers to customize and enhance Apple software and through this open source models it allows Apple engineers to collaborate with open source community to come up with better and more reliable products (Goldman Gabriel, 2005). On September 2007, Apple and Starbucks announced their collaboration on Apple letting costumers at Starbucks wirelessly browsing, previewing, buying and downloading music from iTunes music stores at Starbucks on their iPods enhancing Starbucks retail coffee experience by helping customers with discovering new music instantly (Rothman, 2007). These examples shows how Apple is spreading the digital media revolution with its technologically profound products. Apple believes in fully integrated and completely digital learning environment which makes conte nts to move from from application to another and easy to collaborate and share ideas. Integration even reduces the burden of technology challenge. So Apples IT team rather than spending time and money on how to get things working feels it worthwhile to dedicate the same on providing capabilities, innovations and resources for its institution (Everything Apple means everything just works). iTunes and Competitors: The majors competitors for Apple are Google and Microsoft Corporation and other competitors include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, Samsung Electronics, Sony and Toshiba. Apple is designing software and hardware systems that delivers a greater user experience. Google is giving away operating systems to companies that license windows mobile today. Microsoft needs to think about their business models to compete in such a race where it probably has to decide whether it wants to compete in devices or operating systems and doing both is again at a risk which requires business models that are outside its core competencies( (The Apple iPhone:Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry, 2008). There is a partial collision between Apple and RIM in smartphone business in which Apples device is a entertainment centric whereas RIMs product is a communication centric.Though each company is growing into each others space Apple is got the advantage because infrastructure establishment would be too large for RIM and beside that RIMs image is all wrong for that instead it is much better to defend and grow its market by adding more features and types of business communications to Blackberry. Comparing it with Nokia, Nokias challenges are more about challenges. They sell hundred of millions handsets every year at low costs. But without it, Nokia will be really hard pressed to match with the iPhones user experiences. Competitors such as Diamond multimedia, with its Rio brand portable media players were successful in the market until Apple displaced them and all the credits for such a domination goes to the business model of the company by offerings users a seamless music experience by combining its iPod devices with iTunes and online iTunes store. Users were taken away by its value proposition and Apple had to negotiate deals with the major record companies to establish the worlds largest online music library, there giving the twist for the company to earn most of its revenue s by selling iPods while using the integration with the on online music store to protect itself from the competitors( (Osterwalder Yves, 2009).Smartphone users are going to increase in number in the next few years increasing in the PC functionalities supporting data services and voice and this is going to drive smartphone markets and Apple launching the iPhone which meets most of the required functionalities made it to third position in the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2008. As there is rapid change in the technology there is introduction of new products with competitive prices, features and performance characteristics by all the competitors and out of all, mobile communication industry highly competitive with well funded and experienced competitors. For example in 2009, Nokia launched a new online media store in competition to Apple and this has resulted in price erosion which is now threatening to lessen the market share of the company( (DATAMONITOR, 2009). What new technologies could disrupt the current market by enabling a new form of business model. Apple has become the leader in the music world revolution and it justifies for its closed source system, keeping its digital music platform proprietary making it incompatible by other system by saying that it was the main reason in convincing its music labels and artists allowing them to sell their songs through iTunes assuring that those would not be pirated. But many analysts claim that that closed system was the reason for its previous failure in the computer business and Microsoft gained the masses with their open systems and now that is being seen as a gamble in this highly cometetive technology world (Williard, 2005). According to survey done by Rubicon Consulting Inc on the Apple iPhone users shows that about 43 percent of the iPhone users feels that the device would be more elegant if there is a physical change to the iPhone by adding adding a keyboard or a keypad either by making the device smaller or larger and about 40 percent of the users complain about the browser proble ms and the notably with those using Adobe flash and this shows that mobile data devices has always been segmented and its impossible for any single hardware design to please everyone. This could be an opportunity to Apple to increase its share by serving those customers by giving more importance to value propositions for their products which is again a part of business model and at the same time its an opportunity for its competitors to steal that share by addressing segments Apple failed in( (The Apple iPhone:Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry, 2008). Apple corporation itself has many problems but loss of competitive differentiation due to its Enterprise sytem is not counted in that because of its strong brand and its distinct operating system. For many of the other computer manufacturers cost and service are more vital for their differentiation than their products but for Apple this seems to be a unusual case says (Davenport, 1998). ‘Disruptive Business Models are emblematic of our generation. Yet they remain poorly understood, even as they transform competitive landscapes across industries (Osterwalder Yves, 2009). Conclusion: According to Sankar Dhinu, Apples senior manager of Emerging Technology, to be competitive in worlds high tech industry, one should make use of the facilities like available economic advantage of the manufacturing and distribution and Apple success goes with its interaction with dozens of trading partners , starting from resellers to distributors and OEM manufacturers which in turn helped it to form a global supply chain. Due to increased competition Apple is also facing many pressures and already working towards less limitation and freer access of digital music. Thus majors themselves are getting involved in those changes and Apples CEO Steve Jobs has called for an end to DRM because they make use of downloaded and recorded music very inconvenient and cumbersome for the consumer.( (Koster, 2007) Biblography: Amberg, M., Manuela, S. ANALYSIS OF E-BUSINESS MODELS FOR DIGITAL MEDIA . (2006). Apple Computer. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Apple_Partners_with_Airlines_for_iPod_Integration. (2006, November 14). Retrieved December 1, 2009, from www.digg.com: http://digg.com/apple/Apple_Partners_with_Airlines_for_iPod_Integration Cusumano, M. (2008). Technology Strategy and Management, The Puzzle of Apple. DATAMONITOR. (2009). Apple Inc. Company Profile. Davenport, T. H. (1998). Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System. Harvard Business Review OnPoint . Everything Apple means everything just works. (n.d.). Retrieved december 1, 2009, from www.images.apple.com: http://images.apple.com/education/leaders-administrators/the-apple-ecosystem.html Goldman, R., Gabriel, R. P. (2005). INNOVATION HAPPENS EVERYWHERE. In R. Goldman, R. P. Gabriel, Open source as business strategy (pp. 3-5). San Francisco: Morgan kaufmann. Iansiti, M., Levien, R. (2004). Strategy as Ecolgy. Harvard Business review. Iansiti, M., Richards, G. L. (2005). Information Technology Ecosystem Health and Performance. Johnson, B. (2009, January 6). Apple drops DRM copy protection from millions of iTunes songs. Retrieved from www.gaurdian.co.uk: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/06/apple-drops-itunes-copy-protection Koster, A. (2007). Music Industry: Toward A New Business Model? Journal of Business and Economic Research . Li, Y.-R., Chang, Y. Is the success of iPod Purely Accidental or Inevitable A Business Ecolgy Perspective. Osterwalder, A., Yves, P. (2009). Business Model Generation. Self Published. Pearlson, k. E., Saunders, C. S. (2009). Strategic management of Information Systems. In k. E. Pearlson, C. S. Saunders, Strategic management of Information Systems (p. 25). John Wiley and sons. Rappa, M. (2009). BUSINESS MODELS ON THE WEB. MANAGNG THE DIGITAL ENTERPRISE . Richard D, F., Vohr, J. (1998). APPLE COMPUTER, INC. Rothman, W. (2007, september 5). Apple partners with Starbucks for free WiFi Access to iTunes Music Store. Retrieved december 1, 2009, from www.gizmodo.com: http://gizmodo.com/296696/apple-partners-with-starbucks-for-free-wi+fi-access-to-itunes-music-store Schonfeld, E. (2009, January 6). iTunes sells 6 billions songs , and other fun stats from the Philnote. Retrieved from www.techcrunch.com: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/06/itunes-sells-6-billion-songs-and-other-fun-stats-from-the-philnote/ Swenson, M., Golden, J. B. (2005). Apple and Life science research : Enabling Technologies. Life Science Insights, an IDC company. (2008). The Apple iPhone:Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry. (2004). The iTunes music store: does competition law hold the key to closed shop? Vitalari, N. (2009, August 10). Apple and the Rise of Competitive Business Platforms What Other Companies Must Know. Retrieved from www.wikinomics.com: http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/10/apple-and-the-rise-of-competitive-business-platforms-what-other-companies-must-know/ West, J., Mace, M. (2007). ENTERING A MATURE INDUSTRY THROUGH INNOVATION: APPLES IPHONE STRATEGY. Williard, C. (2005). Apple worms its way into the music industry.

Toyota Motor Vehicles: SWOT Analysis

Toyota Motor Vehicles: SWOT Analysis Toyota Motor Vehicles Background Toyota Motor Corporation is a famous Japanese multinational corporation, and is considered the worlds second largest automaker of automobiles. The founder of Toyota is Kiichiro Toyoda, who born in 1894, and the son of Sakichi Toyoda, who was popular in the invention of the automatic loom. Toyota motors became a mainstay of Japan economy 1n 1960. And it get great growth in this time. And the annual sale of TMC in Japan was about one million dollar I 1962 Introduction Toyota Motor Corporation, being a multinational is the worlds largest automaker in terms of sales volume. As of 2008, Toyota employs approximately 316,000 people around the world in comparison to second ranked automaker General Motors 266,000 employees. The company is mainly engaged in automobile business and financial business. In end of 1989, Toyota started its manufacturing in Europe by having two main manufacturing plants working in UK. It provides all ranges of cars from mini vehicles to big trucks. Toyota Philosophy Toyotas management philosophy has evolved from the companys origins and has been reflected in the terms Lean Manufacturing and Just In Time Production, which it was instrumental in developing. The Toyota Way has four components: 1) Long-term thinking as a basis for management decisions, 2) a process for problem-solving, 3) adding value to the organization by developing its people, and 4) recognizing that continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning. They deals in wide range of cars like: Avensis Previa Dyna CBU Camry Coaster Land cruiser Prado Fortuner Toyota Motors main competitors: General Motors (GM): It was the worlds largest selling vehicle producer but their market shares were decline in the 80s and mid 90s. Ford: It was the second largest motor car selling and profit making company in the world right behind the GM Company. Chrysler: It was the third main competitor of Toyota. The company was almost gone bankrupt during the 80s but their government support their company and saved them. Main Body SWOT Analysis (S)trengths One of the main biggest strengths of Toyota is the JUST IN TIME concept. Just in Time spirit implies to the two opposing forces of providing fast and flexible response, and yet building mechanisms and systems that are efficient and waste-free. The concept is to provide the right product and information, at the right time, in the right amount, in the right manner, while maintaining high standards of efficiency and cost control. JIT has resulted in ZERO inventory and enormous saving in the cost. The company has recorded a strapping financial performance in recent years. Toyota Motors revenues increased at a compound annual growth rate of 11.1% during 2004-08.The Company also had witnessed a considerable increase in profitability. During 2004-08, the average operating profit margin and net profit margin of the company stood at 9.1% and 6.5%, respectively. The strong financial performance of the company has contributed to its market domination. This, in turn, enhances investors confidence in the company for investment. Toyota is one of the top leading automotive brands in the world. In the annual ranking of top 100 global brands by BusinessWeek and Interbrand in 2008, Toyota figured in the sixth position. According to the survey, Toyotas brand value has increased by 6%, to reach $34.1 billion in 2008. In addition, it is the highest ranking automotive brand name in the world. It is ranked well ahead of its competitors like Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Ford, Hyundai, Porsche and Nissan. For instance, in the same period, Ford has been faced with a number of troubles, including a failure to meet its goals for SUV mileage gains or to exploit its well-regarded Escape hybrid; subsequently, the brand value of Ford fell by 12%, to $7.9 billion in 2008. Toyotas luxury car, Lexus, also has an independent ranking in the top 100 global brands. The brand value of Lexus was around $3.6 billion, with a ranking of 90. Some of the other popular product brands of the company include Corolla, Camry, Sienna, Prius and Scion. The companys strong brand image gives it considerable competitive advantage and helps the company to register higher sales growth in domestic, as well as in international markets. In 2003 Toyota has beaten its rival Ford into third spot, to become the Worlds second largest carmaker with 6.78 million units. The company is still behind rivals General Motors with 8.59 million units in the same period. Its strong industry position is based upon a number of factors including a diversified product range, highly targeted marketing and a commitment to turn manufacturing and quality. The company makes a large range of vehicles for both private customers and commercial organizations, from the small Yaris to large trucks. The company uses marketing techniques to identify and satisfy customer needs. Its brand is a household name. The company also maximizes profit through efficient manufacturing approaches (e.g. Total Quality Management). (W)eaknesses Usually big setup faces problems during oversupply as in it the company need to make sure that it is the models that consumers want. Toyota markets most of its products in the US and in Japan due to which they are always exposed to fluctuating economic and political conditions. Perhaps that is the reason that now the company is beginning to shift its attentions to the emerging Chinese market. Toyota Motor provides pension benefits and other post-retirement health and life insurance benefits to employees. During the Year 2008, the company incurred post retirement benefit expenses of approximately $709.1m. The company also paid a total of approximately $671.5m for the post retirement benefit plans during 2007. Furthermore, by the end of March 2008, the companys projected pension and post-retirement benefit obligations stood at approximately $14,865.9m as compared to the planned assets of approximately $11,256.4m, resulting into an unfunded status of approximately $3,609.5m. Sizeable unfunded post retirement benefits would force the company to make periodic cash contributions towards bridging the gap between post retirement benefits obligations and planned assets, which would reduce cash available for growth plans. The company needs to keep producing the cars in order to retain its operational efficiency. Car plants represent a huge investment in expensive fixed costs, as well as the high costs of training and retaining labor. So if the car market experiences a down turn, the company could see over capacity. If on the other hand the car market experiences an upturn, then the company may miss out on potential sales due to under capacity i.e. it takes time to accommodate. This is a typical problem with high volume car manufacturing companies. (O)pportunities Worldwide demand for light hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) is estimated to reach 4.0 million units by 2015. Rising energy costs and increased emissions regulations are likely to increase the demand for HEVs, as hybrid engines are more fuel efficient and less polluting than conventional gasoline and diesel engines. The primary markets for HEVs will be within Triad countries (the US, Western Europe and Japan), although the quickly growing Chinese market is also expected to experience relatively strong demand for these fuel efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles. Toyota Motor Company is keen to capitalize on the growing demand for hybrid electric vehicles. The company has spent a large amount of money for the development of hybrid vehicles over the years. The accumulative total of Toyota Motors hybrid vehicle sales reached 1.5 million in June 2008. Furthermore, the company plans to expand its hybrid lineup and achieve annual sales of one million hybrid vehicles by early 2010. For this, the company plans to introduce demand-creating products. The company also launched models such as the Prius and LS600h hybrids at the 2008 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, held at the new China International Exhibition Center in Beijing. The companys emphasis on hybrid technology will enable it to capitalize on the positive market trends in this segment to enhance its market position Lexus and Toyota now have a reputation for manufacturing environmentally friendly vehicles. Lexus has RX 400h hybrid, and Toyota has it Prius. Both are based upon advance technologies developed by the organization. Such moves can only firm up Toyotas interest and investment in hybrid RD. Toyota Motor has launched several new models in year 008. For example, in April 2008, Toyota Company has displayed a total of 50 concept vehicles at the 2008 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition. The company has launched its models including the compactYaris, the new Vios and Lexus LX570 SUV, along with concept cars such as the iQ compact and the personal mobility vehicle ‘i-REAL. The company also displayed models such as the Prius and LS600h hybrids and the GOA (Global Outstanding Assessment) collision-safety body represented by a Camry and Crown models. Besides helping to garner additional revenues, new models will also help the company to revamp its aging model line up Toyota is going to target the urban youth market. The company has launched its new Aygo, which is targeted at the streetwise youth market and captures (or attempts to) the nature of dance and DJ culture in a very competitive segment. The vehicle itself is a unique one. Convertible, with models extending at their rear! The narrow segment is notorious for it narrows margins and difficulties for branding. (T)hreats The worldwide automotive market is highly competitive. Toyota Motor Company is facing tough competition from other automotive manufacturers in its various markets. The competition among various auto players is likely to exaggerate in light of continuing globalization and consolidation in the worldwide automotive industry. The factors affecting competition include product quality and features, the amount of time required for innovation and development, pricing, reliability, safety, fuel economy, customer service and financing terms. Increased competition may lead the company to lower vehicle unit sales and increased inventory, which may result in a further downward price pressure and can negatively affect the companys financial condition and results of operations. The European Union (EU) Commission and the EU Parliament have adopted a directive that establishes increasingly stringent emission standards for passenger and light commercial vehicles for model years 2005 and thereafter. Under the directive, manufacturers will be responsible for the emission performance of these vehicles for five years or 100,000 kilometers, whichever occurs first. A more stringent Emission standard (EURO 5) is also on the table of the EU legislative bodies and is likely to be effective from 2009. This will create more tough competition to work in EU as they would require more to concentrate on quality which will increase their cost and will lead to increase in prices by which the other competitors in the area would take advantage as their home land? As with any other car manufacturer, Toyota is facing great deal of competitive rivalry in the car market. Competition is increasing almost on the daily basis, with new entrants coming into the market from China, South Korea and new plants in Eastern Europe. The company is also exposed to any movement in the price of raw materials such as rubber, steel and fuel. The key economies in the Pacific, the US and Europe is also experiencing slowdowns. These economic factors are potential threats for Toyota. PEST Analysis (P)olitical Toyota had a lot of help from the local government, including tax breaks. The company is likewise linked closely to the policies ofgovernments, the earnings of banks. Toyota is currently dominated by little more than a handful of firms, each wielding colossal financial, emotional and political power. The companys approach to dealing with political institutions has not always been brilliant. It tends to be good on technical issues, although it has not always fully presented the longer-term options, in order to make the choices and their implications clear. Toyota is expected to sell Indiana and its assets to the world. (E)conomic For much of the developed world, Toyota Company is a pillar company in auto mobile business, a flag of economic progress. The Toyota Company has been a core company, a unique economic phenomenon, which has dominated the twentieth century. However, the automobile industry including the Toyota now suffers from a series of structural schisms and has become riddled with contradictions and economic discontinuities. For the capital markets and the finance sector, it has lost a lot of its significance, as a result of ever declining profits and stagnant sales. The proliferation of products means that it has become hopelessly wasteful of economic resources. While all these and more sound like a very gloomy assessment of such a vast economic phenomenon, the industry is not in the end despondent. A different future is possible for the industry, a highly desirable one. (S)ocial and Cultural Toyotas ability to bring to market world-class vehicles depends, in large part, on the craftsmanship and hard work. As part of the development in automotive industry, the Toyota Company actually affects the society as a whole. It employs millions of people directly, tens of millions indirectly. Its products have transformed society, bringing undreamed-of levels of mobility, changing the ways people live and work. The social value of the additional mobility that this industry brings involves the value of the people being able to commute over longer distances easily, among many others. There are, on the other hand, particular social issues to address in many developing countries, often those that are the result of an undertone of religious faith. Toyota company has the role to play in helping develop the mobility of such countries and it can be achieved at an acceptable social cost of the country is prepared to learn the necessary lessons from those who have traveled this route before it, and to make the necessary investments. (T)echnology In 1994, the Toyota Company had given its employees the challenge to bring up with new technological change in cars. The car for the 21st century. For this purpose a special team was developed to make the car. This team was named as G21 team. In 1997; Toyotas G21 team made a car which is both fuel efficient and environment friendly as well. They made a hybrid car named as Prius. This car was a major success in Japan at that time. Till that time Toyota hasnt introduced this technology outside Japan. In 2001 Toyota introduces hybrid cars worldwide. Hybrid car can be run on engine or battery or both. The production of first hybrid car in Europe was started in 2010. Success of hybrid car can be shown by the fact that over 3,000,000 cars were sold worldwide. There are different models of hybrid cars had been made so far which are as follows, NHW10 Model (1997-2000) NHW11 Model (2001-2003) NHW20 Model (2004-2009) NHW30 Model (2009-till present) Recommendations Toyota is being one of the top motor vehicle producers in the world still needs to do a lot more improvements regarding their quality and services by taking seriously the consumer complaints Since last few months the company is facing some quality issues which need to be rectify soon because some researchers are also pointing out these which is creating a bad impact for the company and its market share. Toyota also had added some experts containing both consumers and experts. They had been recommended by their union back in Japan to review their quality but they are not directly affiliated with the Toyota Company. They also need to review these members and had to directly affiliate them with Toyota. Toyotas main hazard in their success had been their big recall of its cars all over the world. The company had failed to identify and solve this issue and this can create big impact in their sales and perception of their customers while purchasing car. So they need to rectify and solve this problem quickly so that the image of the company can be retained. Moreover they also should make a proper consumer profile on their website as well. This will enable them to easily identify its consumers and make the strategy for marketing according to that. The company had used social media like face book and twitter for the consumers. It is the demand of the time of these days but the problem is that they are not making good use of it. Their participation through these is almost zero. If they improve on that participation and make it more active then that will help the company a lot and can be a good marketing source as well.

Essay --

I will attempt to outline below the key issues whether or not a multinational company is able to maximise its competitive advantage by controlling its own supply chain. Introduction There are many multinational companies which operate on such a high level worldwide such as Walmart, a multinational company is basically a corporation that is known to be registered in more than one country or that functions in different operations within a couple of countries. Multinational companies may consist of function between both procedures of selling goods or providing a service within different countries or continents. â€Å"Multinational companies, many of them extremely big, are today the most powerful agents of innovation† (Mattes, J. 2010) Production patterns have been known to drastically change significantly within the current economic globalisation. Many large multinational companies are known to compete against each other in there markets due to the increasing development of globalisation in the economy of countries. Many characteristics are mainly formed the implementation of supply chain management. A supply chain is basically the network which has been created amongst different companies producing, distributing or handling a specific product. In detail the supply chain takes upon the steps to get goods or services from the supplier to the customer. It is very important that supply chain management is composed correctly for multinational companies; most companies will strive to have an enhanced supply chain as it will normally tend to translate efficiently in lowering the costs for a company. â€Å"It is now apparent that the supply chain is the main artery of all businesses† (Poirier, C. C. 1999) Poirier stated how important the supply ch... ...bility and eliminated all the uncontrolled factors of staff shortage. When Walmart deliver its inventory it is known as customers by the distribution centres, cross docking is something what Walmart use very cleverly as this technique allows to reduce costs of handling operations and cutting down any storage of an inventory. â€Å"Walmart’s supply chain management has over 40 distribution centres† (Batten, L. 2008). Techniques implied by Walmart allowed them to take orders placed by stores and promoting them to ties they may already have with manufacturers, which would then give the chance for manufacturers to agree to their services they have proposed of refuse as there may be a non-availability of the goods at a certain time period. The result of this cross ducking allowed eradicating the warehousing process, and operates on demand chain rather than the supply chain Essay -- I will attempt to outline below the key issues whether or not a multinational company is able to maximise its competitive advantage by controlling its own supply chain. Introduction There are many multinational companies which operate on such a high level worldwide such as Walmart, a multinational company is basically a corporation that is known to be registered in more than one country or that functions in different operations within a couple of countries. Multinational companies may consist of function between both procedures of selling goods or providing a service within different countries or continents. â€Å"Multinational companies, many of them extremely big, are today the most powerful agents of innovation† (Mattes, J. 2010) Production patterns have been known to drastically change significantly within the current economic globalisation. Many large multinational companies are known to compete against each other in there markets due to the increasing development of globalisation in the economy of countries. Many characteristics are mainly formed the implementation of supply chain management. A supply chain is basically the network which has been created amongst different companies producing, distributing or handling a specific product. In detail the supply chain takes upon the steps to get goods or services from the supplier to the customer. It is very important that supply chain management is composed correctly for multinational companies; most companies will strive to have an enhanced supply chain as it will normally tend to translate efficiently in lowering the costs for a company. â€Å"It is now apparent that the supply chain is the main artery of all businesses† (Poirier, C. C. 1999) Poirier stated how important the supply ch... ...bility and eliminated all the uncontrolled factors of staff shortage. When Walmart deliver its inventory it is known as customers by the distribution centres, cross docking is something what Walmart use very cleverly as this technique allows to reduce costs of handling operations and cutting down any storage of an inventory. â€Å"Walmart’s supply chain management has over 40 distribution centres† (Batten, L. 2008). Techniques implied by Walmart allowed them to take orders placed by stores and promoting them to ties they may already have with manufacturers, which would then give the chance for manufacturers to agree to their services they have proposed of refuse as there may be a non-availability of the goods at a certain time period. The result of this cross ducking allowed eradicating the warehousing process, and operates on demand chain rather than the supply chain

Odyssey :: essays research papers

In today’s eclectic society, everybody’s heroes are different. However, during the era Homers The Odyssey was created all heroes had same characteristics Heroes were the people who saved people, they were courageous wise and had fighting spirit Odysseus, the main character in Homers epic poem was clever brave and a great strategist Although he has these strengths, he has some negative qualities, but most of his heroic qualities still hold true today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Odysseus possesses heroic qualities, such as bravery, wisdom, a strategic thinking and honorable Most of the story in The Odyssey is told by Odysseus, so we can say from his narration that he is eloquent Book 9 shows Odysseus positive and negative qualities When he escapes from Cyclops cave he showed that he was brave and a great strategist When he poked Cyclops eye with pike of olive, he decided not to kill him because if he killed Cyclops, he would not be able to get out of the cave. This also shows he was wise and able to think about the situation before doing anything Another example that shows that he is brave that he went to the Hades, which was a feared by many. By his eloquence and cleverness Odysseus could get Nausicaa to assist him, and his devotion to his wife makes him so able He showed sensitivity when he met his mother and when he heard the song of the Trojan War. However, Odysseus qualities are not considered heroic today are his impulsiveness, arro gance, and curiosity He struggle with these points Odysseus went to Cyclops cave because he was curious but didn’t think what may happen next When Odysseus was able to escape from Cyclops cave, he yelled to Cyclops identifying himself because of his pride That made Cyclops so angry that he prayed to his father Poseidon to destroy Odysseus The result of that is Odysseus companions all died before Odysseus could return home. If he didn’t reveal his name to Cyclops, maybe his companions wouldn’t died. Even though he has negative characteristics it shows Odysseus is just a human He is not a god or a perfect man.

The Uniform Commercial Code

The Uniform Commercial Code By Wesley Shropshire Abstract The Uniform Commercial Code has many requirements and laws that govern it not only in trading within our country but also in trading internationally. It has been brought into question if we as a nation need to make some serious changes or update some of the laws when it comes to trading internationally. If we leave it like it is then many problems can arise and make most big business discouraged or even stop trading internationally altogether. With this being the case it makes it very hard when deciding what the effect the U. C. C. as on international commerce and there will be many factors brought up on to which side it leans toward. The Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), a comprehensive code addressing most aspects of commercial law, is generally viewed as one of the most important developments in American law. The UCC text and draft revisions are written by experts in commercial law and submitted as drafts for approval to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (now referred to as the Uniform Law Commissioners), in collaboration with the American Law Institute. (Uniform Commercial Code, (n. . ). Attorneys, which are the Commissioners include federal and state judges also including law professors and legislators, are able to practice law throughout the U. S. These organizations decide and meet on whether to send drafts back for revision or if they should endorse them. Most of the time it does not involve only one revision but after deciding to endorse them the states are forced to adopt these rules by the Uniform Law Commissioners. Since the Uniform Commercial Code, which is a model code, does not always have jurisdiction in a legal effect unless the legislatures as statutes enact them. Domestic transaction† means a transaction other than an international transaction. â€Å"International transaction† means a transaction that bears a reasonable relation to a country other than the United States. (UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, (n. d). Computers and technology has grown rapidly over the past fifteen years, and this has enhanced the growth of financial markets globally which has led to around the clock trading in foreign exchange, financial instruments, and securities. Services and goods in international trade have also grown in speed and volume.Since the growth and change in technology settlements of payments in these transactions has sped up how fast they can receive these payments. Because of this money is being moved around the world faster than ever before. The economic significance of national boundaries to large corporations and financial institutions is being reduced. These trends in transactions, payments, and transnational operation of corporations have led to commercial pressure for greater certainty and uniformity in the law governing international transactions. (The Effect of Uniform Commercial Code, (n. . ). In thes e international transactions you have to worry about more jurisdiction laws taking place. Rules of private international laws will be the deciding factor into which jurisdiction laws that will be enforced. When it comes to commercial interests many are against this grey area of unknown and look for certainty in which legal rules in these international transactions to reduce and correctly measure the legal risks they may be taking. They also are pushing for the unvarying of these rules throughout jurisdictions in order to lower compliance costs.Because of the pressure for more uniformity and certainty in international transactions and the legal rules they are governed by, the private international law rules are being added to too bring together the legal rules at hand in international conventions to be foreseen across the nations. There has been little to no attention paid to what these international laws represent and I think and the United States should make it a part of their laws . With this being said pressure is rising on responsibilities of state and federal governments to fit these international developments and should deserve more attention than what they are receiving.The Uniform Commercial Code will reach a point where the process will need to be revised and when it takes place it will put these processes to the test. Because of failure in the enactment process there has been a lot of doubt on the uniform law process and its vitality, and this has caused even more doubt that changes can be made on an international level. If the United States ratified all existing conventions and implemented those treaties on a federal level, a good portion of the Uniform Commercial Code would be preempted (Amelia H. Boss, (n. d. The Future of the Uniform Commercial Code Process in an Increasingly International World), and if this happened the Uniform Commercial Code as a whole would be brought into serious questioning. References Uniform Commercial Code, (n. d. ) Retr ieved from http://law. duke. edu UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, (n. d) Retrieved from http://www. law. cornell. edu The Effect of Uniform Commercial Code, (n. d. ) Retrieved from http://digitalcommons. lmu. edu Amelia H. Boss, (n. d. ) The Future of the Uniform Commercial Code Process in an Increasingly International World

Total Quality in Fast Food

Total Quality in Fast Food MGT 449 2011 Total Quality in Fast Food In the world of fast food restaurants product and service quality are what make or break a chain. Both Wendy’s and McDonald’s have spent years and millions of dollars to get the level of quality that they produce just right. The key to the success of both of these fast food giants is total quality management. While they both may share some marketplaces, they both use different processes to get the results that they are looking for. Wendy’s currently operates in North America while McDonald’s operates on a global scale. While both of these companies provide their customers with a wonderful fast food experience, they do not always use the same procedures to test and market new products. Wendy’s and McDonald’s are known very well in the United States and Canada. One only has to see a girl with bright red braids or hear the phrase â€Å"I’m lovin’ it† to suddenly start to crave food from either of these fast food giants. We are well versed in the menu options available at both chains and many of us could recite several of the menu options off the top of our head. The menu at both chains is very carefully researched and tested so as to make sure that each menu item will produce the best possible profit for the customer while delivering the quality that we have come to associate with each company. The big difference between the two companies lies in the markets that they work in. The Wendy’s chain is a North American chain located throughout the United States, Canada, and recently in Mexico. The market that they are working with is somewhat similar, although allowing for some regional differences between the three countries. McDonald’s, however, works on a world wide scale. They deal with dozens of different markets which each require their own market research and testing because the culture or dietary needs of those countries is very different from those of other areas of the world. When Wendy’s decides to create a new product they take into consideration the customer that they will be marketing to. Currently menu items in all three countries are fairly similar without much variation between them. All three countries offer the same burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, fries, and of course the ever present frosty. By only operating in one region of the world, Wendy’s is able to test market a product in the United States and if that testing goes favorably then it is marketed in all three countries. A prime example of this sort of testing was Wendy’s new fries. Wendy’s research showed that they were often passed over for other fast food choices because of their lackluster french fries. Wendy’s knew that having a better fry would entice customers to choose Wendy’s over their competitors, which would boost sales figures. Wendy’s started in their test kitchens determining what would make a better fry. After deciding on a skin-on fry seasoned with sea salt Wendy’s then began test marketing their new fry. After it was determined that the new fry was a much more favorable alternative to their old soggy version Wendy’s began its advertising campaign. In order to ensure that the fries were a success Wendy’s spent nearly 79%, or $17. 7 million, of its measured-media spend pushing fries, compared to spending $26. 9 million for all products in the same month according to Morrison, 2011. This strategy worked and has helped Wendy’s to improve their sales over the past year since the new fries were launched. It is also part of Wendy’s practices total quality. Wendy’s continues to offer consistently appealing new products in order to compete with their peers. By introducing new items with tried and true menu options and maintaining the quality product that Wendy’s has come to be known for, they are able to maintain a strong presence within the quick-service restaurant industry. McDonald’s, on the other hand, needs to have a different approach to their menu items. At this time you will find a McDonald’s restaurant in more than 119 countries on six continents. This means that their test marketing must be regionally specific. Each region of the world must create and test products taking into account dietary and taste differences around the world. An example of this rationality of products is the Indian menu. Cows are considered sacred in India. Therefore, the menu in India does not offer any beef products. McDonald’s has swapped out the beef patties in the popular Big Mac with chicken in order to work within the dietary needs of the Indian population. They also offer a veggie burger and several fish options. India is not the only country where McDonald’s offers what would be considered strange fare by customers in the United States. From shrimp burgers in Asian markets to beer being served in parts of Europe, McDonald’s has reworked its core menu to include items that are familiar to the local population while still being able to produce their product in approximately one minute. Speed of service and menu items, which have become old favorites for consumers, are two elements of McDonald’s total quality strategy. Another example of McDonald’s use of total quality is the use of what are referred to by Beth Kowitt (2011) as platforms. An example of a platform is chicken where McNuggets are the product. By focusing on platforms and then branching off of them McDonald’s is able to stick to a base menu that always works and then tweak the item in a more creative way without losing the original integrity of the product. This has proved a very successful strategy for McDonald’s and it is one that they will continue to use far into the future. Both Wendy’s and McDonald’s serve the quick-service restaurant consumer. They both do market research and product roll-outs, but their strategy for these roll-outs is different because of the different markets that they work with. Being a national company means that Wendy’s is able to product test on a smaller scale within one area, where McDonald’s must test within each region of the world that it operates in. Even though their approach to marketing may be different, both companies still practice total quality within their organizations. Both companies are striving to be the top in their market, and using total quality strategies will help them to both stay competitive with each other in North America. References Goetsch, D. L. , & Davis, S. B. (2010). Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to total quality (6th ed. . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Kowitt, B. (2011). WHY McDONALD'S WINS IN ANY ECONOMY. Fortune, 164(4), 70-78. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. MORRISON, M. (2011). FOR WENDY'S, THE PROOF'S IN THE POTATOES AS FANCYFRIES LAUNCH DECLARED A SUCCESS. Advertising Age, 82(13), 5-20. Retrievedfrom EBSCOhost. Reich, A. Z. , McCleary, K. W. , Tepanon, Y. , ; Weav er, P. A. (2005). The Impact of Productand Service Quality on Brand Loyalty: An Exploratory Investigation of Quick-ServiceRestaurants. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 8(3), 35-53. doi:10. 13O0/J369v08n03-04