Citizen Kane Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Citizen Kane - Essay Example Citizen Kane, the movie employs a number of production features and elements thereby achieving effectiveness of communication as envisioned by the director. The director of the employs such elements as light, costume and characterization among others effectively thereby developing an appropriate context that best represents the society at the time. Produced in 1948 soon after the second world war, the film addresses themes relevant not only to the primary audience but also to other subsequent audiences including the communication 240 class, a feature that portrays the ability of the director to develop and communicate concepts effectively.Citizen Kane is yet another masterpiece in which the director employs different special film effects to earn effective communication. The director employs appropriate transitions from one scene to another thereby developing effective links through the different themes. Additionally, the director employs different camera angles and shots to reveal re lative details of the scenes, as he deems necessary. He does not use light only to illuminate his scenes but also to communicate, different aspects of the scene are lit differently with shadow balancing in order to achieve efficiency of communication. Such camera movements as tilting and panning help reveal detail in the different scenes. Italian neorealism refers to a movement in the film production characterized by using nonprofessional actors and setting the film contexts in poor neighborhoods. The bicycle film exhibits this throughout the story line as a poor father searching for his bicycle in a post war Rome.Relative film appeal arises from the level of professionalism that director employs in the development of the film and the issues that the film addresses. A film like Bicycle thieves may have limited appeal since it does not employ professionalism and addresses themes unfamiliar to the contemporary film audience unlike citizen Kane that the director strives to incorporate as many film production elements and professionalism as possible.The Birth of a Nation addresses realistic themes professionally; the director employs such features as dramatization and enabling characterization to help depict the ideas in the storyline. The effective creation of the film lies on the director’s ability to employ suc h elements as transitions, camera movement, shots, and angles to help provide detail (Mamer 33).The two films by Martin McDonagh appeared repetitive as the director employs the same stylistic features of production similarly. The lack of originality in the creation of the film thus denies them efficacy.Quentin Tarantino is a great producer who understood the business in film; he addresses themes that sell and does so effectively. His ability to infuse the violence in systematic storyline is artistic; furthermore, he uses diverse film production techniques to result in original masterpieces.

Career Choices Essay Example for Free

Career Choices Essay Introduction Making the perfect career choice is a lifetime decision that will have a lasting impression on your life and the life of your future family. As we all grow up in life we hear from our parents and mentor’s that if you decide to choose a career that you dislike, you can spend a life time living a miserable lifestyle and your career will have a short life span. In vice-versa, if you find something that you love to do in life and you are  able to make that into a long lasting career. It will seem like you have never worked one day in your life. Throughout time, many working class individuals have chosen to pursue educations in careers that will lead to a future living a stable lifestyle but it is not what their true passions are in life. So they are stuck doing something that they hate in life just because they have to work in order to provide a sufficient lifestyle for themselves and family. Another critical aspect that you must take into consideration when making a career choice is to make a valid consideration on whether you can grow inside of the career decision you make or will you remain static performing one position for the rest of your life. The reason why a lot of individuals choose to go to college is because they are stuck in a dead end job that has no momentum to further gain a promotion or advance in pay. In my opinion, entrepreneurship should be every individual’s long term goal in life. The ultimate decision making factor in choosing a career and working for a prominent company is to get the working experience making mistakes under another companies supervision, so when you begin to start your own company you will already have the experience to make smart business decisions and know how to make your company prosperous. Even though there are a lot of great career choices out there in the world, I believe that a career in either health and wellness or software engineering would be the best fit for me because they will give me the opportunity to grow, both fields are very challenging, and they both will give me the opportunity to prosper and own a private company. 1 The Importance of Having A Software Engineering Technical Career Since the late 1940’s the software engineering field has been growing rapidly as a challenging and profound profession for a lot of software students that would like to inquire skills that helps to maximize the quality and create database software. Since this time excellent software programmers have found ways to improve these components by increasing their speed, security, usability, cost, testability, size, readability, and stability. Engineers have developed business software that have changed the world and has adapted this same concept onto many home computers so consumers can have the same usability as larger corporations from the comfort of their own laptop computer. Computer innovation has evolved greatly since the 1940’s with higher advanced platforms that are able to integrate businesses with consumers easier, through the invention of the World Wide Web. Laptop computers along with tablets have created an easier and more efficient way to access the internet with access to public networks that can be routed from any major hotel or fast food restaurant, and mobile phone technology that has been designed by Mac and Android allow consumers to stay connected to the world from the comfort of a palm sized device. It takes a very talented array of programmers to design these devices and with the world of technology at the forefront of driving innovation; this career field is here to stay. With stability also come growth and business opportunities for talented engineers to step up and continue driving this career field to unknown places. Opportunity For Growth Recently CNN money came out with an article titled â€Å"Best Jobs in America† which had a detailed listing of the top 100 careers in America with great pay and growth potential. It was not a surprise to see software architects at the top of the list at number 1 with a 10 year job growth forecast of 34% beating out other leading career opportunities such as physician assistants coming in at number 2, and management consultant coming in at number 3. CNN has stated, 2 â€Å"Like architects who design buildings, they create the blueprints for software engineers to follow and pitch in with programming too. Plus, architects are often called on to work with customers and product managers, and they serve as a link between a companys tech and business staffs† (CNN Money, 2010). Making this a well-diversified career field where you get the opportunity to work inside a comfortable office setting but also visit customers at their facilities and help out with customer service issues at remote locations. Along with the exceptional growth potential this career path shares, it also can create amazing entry level financial stability as well as stated in figure 1 below: 10th%| 25th%| 75th%| 90th%| As you advance your experience and expertise in the software engineering career field, programmers have the option to choose a specific craft such as a technical support engineer, C++ software engineer, or lead software engineer where your average annual income can range from $63,000 upwards to $120,000 a year easily based on an individual’s knowledge. The Challenge Even though ultimate career stability along with a great compensation plan and benefits sounds great from the outside looking in we must also understand that with great opportunities also comes a great challenge. Programming in laments terms can be contributed to learning a second language such as 3 Spanish. It takes a lot of dedicated time to perfecting this skill along with training. Depending on your decided expertise there may be a ton of syntax and logical instructions that you have to learn in order to program effectively and unfortunately most of this time is spent outside a classroom or job setting really learning the craft at home on an individual’s personal time. But in a more positive perspective a lot of these languages such as Java, C#, and Visual Basic derive from the parent language of C++ so if you are able to get a great concept for this computing language the others will come fairly efficient for beginning programmers. Another positive aspect to this career field is since there are such high demands for these positions a lot of companies offer entry level programming positions offered to developers that have no experience so this will give individuals the opportunity to work under mid and senior level technicians to learn the ropes. A lot of individuals stray away from challenge, growth, and hard work but this is a career field that awards individuals for hard work, and gives techs the opportunity to learn a new aspect of the business every single day which makes this career field interesting. Below in figure 2 is a progression  chart that shows the career path a software engineer should take in order to become great at their craft and make a nice 6 figure income. Progression chart| A career progression chart generally resembles the one below. It may vary from company to company. | Role| Years of experience| Trainee software engineer| 0-1| Software engineer| 1-2| Senior software engineer| 2-4| System analyst| 3-5| Project leader| 5-8| Figure 2 ExpressComputerOnline.Com career roadmap for software engineers 4 Building A Business One could only imagine that one day a company that was started in your parents garage would evolve and become a multi-billion dollar company that has millions of dedicated customers, and releases innovative products that changes the world every year. Well this is not a dream anymore; it has actually been a reality for major companies such as Google, Apple, and Macintosh which have all started out of garages. The biggest disadvantage the many software developers face when building their own business is they do not have a lot of business experience, but with help from outsourcing agencies such as fog creek which specializes in the development and startup of technology companies they state that â€Å"if you have an innovative product that can compete for market share versus other companies all you have to do is market, sale, price, and hire exceptionally well† (Fog Creek Software, 2011). Which is not an easy process but if you are able to do it effectively your business will have a fair chance of competing in a vastly competitive marketplace. How A Health And Wellness Career Will Create A Great Business Career Individual health and wellness have been in the forefront of the world for many decades now being led by activist groups and government agencies  initiating â€Å"Go Green† marketing campaigns and household tax credits for individuals and homeowners who convert their lifestyles to a more healthy and energy efficient environment. CNN states that health and wellness physicians â€Å"Perform routine care such as physicals and tests, counseling patients, and even prescribing medication, all under a doctors supervision. Todays doctor shortage will only worsen as boomers age and health care reform brings more patients into the system, creating a huge need for this field† (CNN Money, 2010). 5 So even with an aging population this will continue to be a career path that will always be in high demand. Opportunity For Growth On the CNN money web article that was published earlier in the year physician’s assistants that also are in health and wellness practices partake in the number 2 position with a 39% 10 year annual growth forecast. Even though going green and living health is not new in the minds of many Americans a lot of individuals have not accepted the lifestyle thus living in an unhealthy environment. Statistics have shown that just in woman alone â€Å"Recent national data show that 82.1 percent of Black women and 75.7 percent of Hispanic women are overweight or obese compared to 59.5 percent of White women (Ogden, 2012).† This shows that there is still a lot of room for growth in this industry and still barriers to break down before this money making opportunity really explodes. In college classrooms instructors have put a major emphasis on students teaching their patients how their living environments vastly effect there personal health and living an unhealthy personal lifestyle will have a vastly negative effect on their health. With more educators out there pushing the idea and government agencies pushing the effort there is a ton of room for growth in this industry. Health and wellness physicians make a pretty comfortable lifestyle as represented below in figure 3, and it is also pretty fulfilling knowing that you are changing individual lives by helping them improve their health. The Challenge With any career field that is rewarding and has a tremendous opportunity for growth there are some challenges and risk that must be taken into consideration. Just like with the software engineering career path there is a journey that needs to be taken before you have the appropriate authority to recommend patients for certain treatments and products. There was an article posted in the New England Journal by Michael Porter which makes an argument that states, â€Å"By shifting our focus on value, simply defined as quality divided by cost, we can lower costs and improve quality (Porter, 2011)†. So in order to make this a rewarding career path, consumers would have to switch their focus as well which makes this a difficult path to choose. Education will not be a hard factor to fulfill because there are tons of institutions that offer individuals certification opportunities and there was an article on livestrong.com that supports health and wellness professionals that states, â€Å"If you have a passion for health and wellness, sharing your interest can enrich the lives of others as well. College majors in kinesiology or exercise science can teach skills for exercise and wellness careers but may not be required to obtain certifications (Case, 2011).† 7 Building A Business Building a Health and Wellness Company may not be easy but if we are able to get it off the ground and running it does offer a tremendous reward and fulfillment knowing that you are offering individuals great products and services that will change their lives by allowing them to live a healthier fulfilling lifestyle. There are even lots of companies out there in the market today which assist business minded individuals such as Melaleuca in helping individuals start their own health and wellness companies. They provide products along with customer service to those who are small companies and need outsourcing to get started. This helps break down a lot of barriers and makes the transition into entrepreneurship a lot easier. Conclusion Developing a career in software engineering or health and wellness can be very growth orientated, lucrative, and rewarding careers that both give back to the community. Even though there are a lot of great career choices out there in the world, I believe that a career in either health and wellness or software engineering would be the best fit for me because they will give me the opportunity to grow, both fields are very challenging, and they both will give me the opportunity to prosper and own a private company. I was always told in my life that as you begin to mature in life an individual should always have three forms of income coming in which first is a primary income which results from a regular steady job. The second is an alternate income which may result from a part time job or secondary business. While the last form of revenue may result from investing or savings income. My final career choice decision is to pursue software engineering as my primary income since I have dedicated so much time and effort towards learning the craft, and pursuing my bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems will help me get a great entry level position with a great starting pay. Plus I have a passion for innovation and enjoy the challenge of learning something new every day. Second, I also have a passion for helping others and with the sales background that I currently have it would be an excellent opportunity for me to build a business starting a secondary health and wellness company selling health certified products to homeowners that wish to live a healthy and clean lifestyle. References Case, H. (2011, June 14). Exercise wellness careers. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/325785-exercise-wellness-careers/ CNN Money. (2010). Best jobs in America. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2010/snapshots/1.html CNN Money. (2010). Best jobs in America. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2010/snapshots/2.html Fog Creek Software. (2011, June 12). Building great software companies. Retrieved from http://www.fogcreek.com/guide/ Ogden, C. (2012, January 10). Overweight and obesity in the u.s. Retrieved from http://frac.org/initiatives/hunger-and-obesity/obesity-in-the-us/ Porter, M. (2011, March 6). The value proposition for health care. Retrieved from http://cfplt.com/the-value-proposition-for-healthcare-a-challenge-for-physician-leadership/

Personal Reflection On A Core Business Skills Module Education Essay

Personal Reflection On A Core Business Skills Module Education Essay The Core Business skills is a module that explores a number of quality tools that will help us to look at our core skills in the business field and identify areas where we could improve. At the beginning of this module, I used to leave my life as normal with few skills that I have learned from my parents, for example the Communication skills and Team working skills, but even it was not enough to communicate or to work with whomever. Communication skills and team working skills are the closest skills; team working can not occur if there is no communication. Since our childhood, our parents push us to get in touch with people of our ages. At beginning, it is never easy seeing the quarrels that happen with our friends in the youngest ages while playing together, but these skills get developed in growing older. I also had an experience of team working during few years when I used to play football in a club, and as we know this sport is not played individually, but in a team, and I had learned a lot during this experience. It is sure that we learn a lot from our parents and the activities in our childhood, but studying complements the path our parents put us on to build our future in order to get the objective of having a good life later on. I have also learned during my past years some important skills that our module covers, such as Numeracy skills and Information Skills. However, they were not as important as we studied during this semester. Numeracy skills are taught in increasing levels since the youngest ages, starting from the primary school until we get our degree at the university, but before, it was just numbers and relations that I learned and that dont stand for anything real. On what concerns the information skills, I have learned a few about it during the high school and I increased my level on it during the foundation year I have done last year at the university. Other skills that are closer to the communication skills which are the effective learning skills, and they are also close to the personal and career development skills as well. The effective learning skills are the ones I learned trough some experiences, but for what concerns the personal and career development skills I did know nothing about them until I discovered them during this module. What this module has changed on my life? Regarding the six transferable skills that I have learned during this module, I notice that I have made a big improvement on these skills that help me now to be more efficient on getting my objectives either on my personal or professional life. Since more than one year ago, I work and I study simultaneously, and things that I learned during this module brought me to a higher level that I was not expecting from myself. I will introduce my job in few words and describe how what I got from the Core Business Skills module changed the way I was doing it. So, I work as Electronic Dance Music producer with many professional record labels worldwide, and this started just by passion at the beginning until I have been discovered by one of the most famous deejays in South America, and then I had a proposal to sign my song on his own record label located in Buenos Aires in Argentina, here was my first professional experience and I was afraid of getting ripped off because I did not know how to deal with the contract and I did not even negotiate it. However, I kept balancing between what I study and my work and I acquired more experiences practicing what I study on my professional life. Edwin H. Friedman said about communication that The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choices words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech. (1) So, the communication skills are very important on my daily work, now due to what I learned, I started knowing how to negotiate my contracts with the other record labels for each song I make, and this fact contributes on making more profit and also to advertise my artwork and letting people buy what I make. This course also helped me to learn how to make formal letters to communicate with the record labels and producers worldwide as well as this will serve me later on my professional life as future manager. Now as Im still a student I do use it only on my music affaire and my personal life with my family and friends. Also I would mention that as a student and future manager, I highly improved my skills on making presentations in front of the audience. On what concerns the effective learning skills on my personal and professional life, now I can know what I should improve on my life, on my studies or on my musical skills. Before, on my studies, I was kind of lost when the exams were approaching, it usually happened to me to be confused on what to prioritize and what to leave for the last, but now I got this level of knowing prioritizing the most important things after identifying them. Same thing on my life out of studies and on my professional life as well, now I can identify on what I could improve to make better songs in the future, I can manage myself to improve my personal and my student life to get best results, and eventually, now I know what I want to be, what I want to be later on, and how to get my goal. On my professional life, I also use the skills I learned about the team working knowing that my job consists on composing and producing songs, sign them on record labels then advertising them as much as possible to get profit out of them, even if advertising is the main work of the record labels. Also, it plays a vital role on my personal life. As I said at the beginning, team working is taught by our parents and our society at the first before starting classes, but whatever is the level that we get from these lasts, the school teaches us more about them. We work in teams at home, we play sport in teams and also at the school and the university we work for some projects given for our studies in teams or either preparing for our exams we mostly work in teams. TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. Working in teams is essential on the business life, either working for our own or others companies, these skills consist mainly on sharing tasks and ideas in a project work, and th is technique is more efficient than working alone. Numeracy skills stand for budgeting, numeracy functions and computations, dates and time, parenting and health related numeracy. These skills on budgeting or money management and banking serve to count money, make change, calculate services charges, save money and invest it too, and these are generally skills that our module covers adding to the numeracy functions and computations skills that we learned in the past from the primary school until the high school. Dates and time skills are used to some basic things in life as using a calendar, fill in time sheets or writing the date as well as the parenting and health related numeracy skills to read directions and dosage on medicines bottles, read thermometers or to understand a report card. All these numeracy skills are important and very useful on whomevers daily life for either managers, farmers or whatever we can be. During this module I leaned the most of the important numeracy skills for business management field, and this regardi ng the decision threes to analyze and get the best solution to do not make loss on business and take the best decision. The information skills are vital for all the successful professionals. These skills help us to become more efficient. Here are some techniques that help us to develop our information skills. The first one is how to take notes effectively, and this is a good tool to record and organize the information, the second one is to fully absorb the written information to assimilate and understand the written information quickly and effectively. Reading strategies is also a technique to read faster by thinking what to read, while the technique of keeping the information fresh in our minds helps to keep what we learned alive in our minds. There is also a technique which is learning in a way that suits us and this will not only help us on developing the ways we can learn, but we will be able to make what we do so the others can learn efficiently from us. Making learning an enjoyable experience is for me the best way to learn efficiently because if we love what we do we get good results, and this is what is helping me a lot on my music producer career, even all the results that I got from my productions I still dont consider this as a job but just as my main passion and I keep learning day after day. Same thing on my studies, there are some topics that I enjoy and I can be successful on them, but once I dont love one topic, I know that I will have problems within it. The personal and career development skills are the ones I really enjoyed during this module. These skills are mainly keys for everyones life. To know our own strengths that we already have and we might build on, our weaknesses that we could reduce or otherwise work around, our opportunities that are related to our chances and that we can exploit better than the others, or even our threads that we need to be aware of them and to avoid them is a simple analysis that allows us to know who really we are and to avoid stress. I also learned how to manage my time and the basic ideas of control in this module, and all these skills have changed my personal and professional life and help me to gain more confidence on myself and to keep improving on my life in general. What should I develop again on my transferable skills? All the skills that I got from the Core Business Skills module are not skills related only to the business field, but to our life in general and help to improve the way we are living it. Bill Clinton, the forty second U.S President (1993-2001) said: Today, many companies are reporting that their number one constraint on growth is the inability to hire workers with the necessary skills. (2) From what Bill Clinton said, companies have a lack of workers with the necessary skills, and they do their best to overcome this problem, but people with the necessary skills are not enough to satisfy every companys need. To participate on the growth of our society, we should all have some basic skills which when we develop them, we get a higher level of confidence and abilities. Personally, even the improvement that I have done during this module, I still have to improve all the skills to get my personal objective. We know that the sky is the limit for what concerns learning the skills, and we can improve them more and more day after day. My skills on communication are not enough, because if I start communicating with professional people I could not be at the same level as them, but with the practice and time I can develop my skills and reach the level required by the professional world. Also, I still have many problems when it comes to the numeracy skills on business; the decision tree for example seems to me easy, I can get the tree, but not the calculation, I usually get lost on applying the relations and calculating numbers. The information skills, and the personal and career development skills, I think we can develop them more within the next modules and experiences. I got a lot of benefits from this module, it has changed my life, now I see things in a professional way and this is the best way to reach out the objectives that we set on our life. Now that I learned also these skills I set new goals to my life and I will try to achieve them all, or at least the majority. People with goals mostly succeed because they already know where they are going. I also believe in Willis Reeds quote that says: Go for the moon. If you dont get it, you will still be heading for a star.

Humor in Dickens Tale of Two Cities :: essays research papers

A Tale of Two Cities Frequently in literature, humor is added in scenes to make them more interesting and more appealing to readers. Often times underneath the humorous covers lay a much more serious principle. Charles Dickens does exactly this in A Tale of Two Cities, by making slight comedy of issues such as democracy, the lower class, and spousal abuse. In A Tale of Two Cities, the actions of Jerry Cruncher, while essentially very humorless, may seem peculiarly funny to some people. The events that occur in chapter one of book two, concerning Mrs. Cruncher, is an appropriate example of this idea. In this scene, Jerry Cruncher yells at his wife because he thinks she was praying against him. To start with, because of this accusations obvious ridiculousness, it strikes readers as comical. One may even argue that he didn’t actually believe this, but maybe he was just bored and finds joy in harassing his wife. To say such silly things out of boredom also may hit someone as amusing. What generally makes this scene humorous is that Cruncher is so unjustified in yelling at his wife for such an absurd thing, and furthermore, he lacks any real evidence that she was doing what he accuses her of doing. While this scene may seem like a comical one, with a silly husband, it is really calling attention to verbal abuse to wives. It is palpable that Cruncher has no respect whatsoever for his wife. At the time of this book, this was a common situation so either people did not notice the seriousness because of the humor that is masking it, or it was an every day happenning for them. When Cruncher wakes up to find Mrs Cruncher praying (in reality praying for him), he reacts by throwing a muddy shoe at her. This notion may also seem like a funny one to readers. Because the idea of somebody getting hit in the head by a muddy shoe can be humorous, if used in an appropriate situation, such as a TV show or a movie, it may also seem funny in this scene. The realness of the situation can be easily overlooked. When Dickens adds these unexplainable events, it may strike some as funny because his actions are so unjustified and random.

Air India 5

2012 Flying Too Low: Air India 2009 & Beyond External Environment Analysis Group 10 Strategy analysis begins with an analysis of the forces that shape the competition in the industry in which a company is based. An important factor of the analysis is External environment analysis. The essential purpose of this analysis is to identify the opportunities and threats in the organization operating environment that will affect how it pursues its mission. Analysis the industry environment requires an assessment of the competitive structure of the company’s industry. It also requires analysis of the nature, stage, dynamics and history of the industry. Here, while analyzing the external environment of Air India according to the information presented in the case, we will concentrate on Porter Five Forces Model, PEST Analysis of the Air India, opportunity and threats to Air India. Finally, we will quantify all our analysis factors to come to a conclusion. Porter’s 5 forces model: Porter's five forces analysis is a framework for industry analysis and business strategy development formed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry profitability. An â€Å"unattractive† industry is one in which the combination of these five forces acts to drive down overall profitability. Three of Porter's five forces refer to competition from external sources. The remainders are internal threats. Porter referred to these forces as the micro environment, to contrast it with the more general term macro environment. They consist of those forces close to a company that affect its ability to serve its customers and make a profit. A clear example of this is the airline industry. As an industry, profitability is low and yet individual companies, by applying unique business models, have been able to make a return in excess of the industry average. We will see how these five factors are working for Air India. I. Rivalry among existing competitors: 1. Competition in domestic and international routes * On domestic front, private airlines like Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines * On international front, major competition was from companies like Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airlines, Qatar Airlines and new entrants like JA 2. Better performance by competitors 3. Rapid increase in market share of competitors 4. Poaching of employees by competitors II. Threat of new entrants: 1. Possibility of liberalization of Aviation Industry will weaken the entry barriers and thereby will lead to increase in number of new entrants 2. Business was very lucrative to attract new entrants 3. Consistent and rapid growth of demand for airlines offering scope for profitable business and low cost carriers 4. Examples GoAIR, IndigoAir, Paramount Airways, SpiceJet III. Threat from substitution: Road and rail services posing a major threat by offering cheaper, reliable, convenient services. Travel. In case of higher Air ticket fares, Air India could lose potential customers to Rival airlines and Indian Railways. The possibility of loss of market share to Indian railways further increases by the fact that over a period of time the rail ticket fares have marginally varied compared to significant variation in air ticket fares. IV. Bargaining power of suppliers: 1. Slow nature of aircraft sales, because the high value order placed by the industry can take several years to be delivered. 2. Labour unions are suppliers who have significant power. The performance and flexibility of the entire industry depends heavily on labour unions. 3. Aviation fuel is a commodity and its prices are decided by market forces and existing geopolitical factors such as OPEC. At times, oil producing nations at the behest of OPEC manipulate oil production target in order to keep the prices of crude to suit their profit intentions. High cost of fuel accounts for about 35% of the total cost and increasing cost is a threat to the company’s profits. 4. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) is a major cost component for the Airlines in India. It is about 40% of the operating cost of the domestic carriers V. Bargaining power of buyers: The bargaining power of buyers refers to the amount of pressure customers can place on a business, thus, affecting its prices, volume and profit potential. Various airlines are competing for the same customer, which also results in strengthening the buyer power. Hence, the bargaining power of customers in the airline industry is very high since they are price sensitive and search for the best deals available. Customers are price sensitive. Many new players who are Low Cost Carriers attract these travelers by offering them low fares and those that are convenience oriented by providing them with frequent flights. While choosing which airline to fly with, customers enjoy switching costs through frequent flyer programs created by some airlines. PEST Analysis: PEST analysis stands for â€Å"Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis† and describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. Some analysts added Legal and Environmental and rearranged the mnemonic to PESTLE. It is a part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic analysis and gives an overview of the different macro environmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. * Political factors are how and to what degree a government intervenes in the industry or firm. Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labour law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, government policies and political stability. Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions. * Social factors include the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company operates. * Technological factors include technological aspects such as R;D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change. They can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Furthermore, technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation. In case of Air India, the analysis of external environment is as follows: Having done the required analysis, now let us quantify the opportunity and threats. 1| Poor control over decision making| T| 2| Drop in oil prices*| O| 3| heavy control and interference of government| O| 4| worsening service image| T| 5| Labour union| T| 6| inclination of society towards low cost travel| T| | global recession| T| 8| significant air traffic growth over a period of time| O| 9| restriction on FDI in Indian aviation industry| O| 10| Mergers among competitors| T| 11| possibility of opening of aviation market and privatization| T| 12| interest burden of new aircraft orders| T| 13| company's image perceived as public carrier| T| 14| near monopoly among Indian players in international routes| O| 15| over capaci ty of industry| T| 16| poaching of pilots from competitors| T| 17| declining debt equity ratio| T| 18| changes in ground handling policy| T| 19| agency problem| T| Here ‘T’ indicates Threat and ‘O’ indicates Opportunity Assigning the weightage to the important factors, in the sense of their importance in analyzing external environment and using rating scale of 1 to 5 where 3 indicates average favorableness of the external environment, we get- As the quantified average of all the external environment factors is coming slightly below average, we conclude that, the current external environment is not favorable to Air India but, it can work on its decision making process and improvement of service image as an immediate measure.

Free Essays on The Cotton Club

The Roaring Twenties were a time of excess, sexual exploration by women, and a time when jazz music started to develop. It's a decade that wealthy, white Americans are drawn back to, because it's here that they start to see themselves becoming recognizably careless and socially free. â€Å"Americans were speeding up, moving out, buying more, having fun, and dreaming bigger† (Miller). The Cotton Club was an integral part of the Twenties and personified what this period of time stood for. It became a place for gangsters to sell their bootlegged beer during prohibition, a home for jazz music, and a precursor to the Harlem Renaissance, a period of profound growth and change in black literature and music. â€Å"Harlem was not so much a place as a state of mind, the cultural metaphor for black America itself† (Rhapsodies). â€Å"As well as being a crucible for new musical styles, The Cotton Club can also be seen as a lightning rod for Harlem history† (Wolfe). Started by heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson at the corner of 42nd Street and Lenox Avenue, it was originally called Club De Lux. Failure of the club resulted in the selling of it in 1923 to gangster Owney Madden who dubbed it The Cotton Club. Madden had been searching for a Harlem location to sell his Madden’s #1 Beer. â€Å"The name was chosen in order to invoke thoughts of a stylish plantation environment† (Cotton). To further this implication, all performers were black and, for the most part, all attendees were white. During prohibition it was often to find many clubs that were established with the central purpose of providing alcohol to the public. The Cotton club became the most popular club in not only Harlem, but also all of New York. It provided the â€Å"coolest† environment, best cuisine, and many up and coming jazz musicians. â€Å"Only the wealthiest, most influential, famous and notorious people went there, or were allowed in† (Cotton). Being that the club’s main purpose... Free Essays on The Cotton Club Free Essays on The Cotton Club The Roaring Twenties were a time of excess, sexual exploration by women, and a time when jazz music started to develop. It's a decade that wealthy, white Americans are drawn back to, because it's here that they start to see themselves becoming recognizably careless and socially free. â€Å"Americans were speeding up, moving out, buying more, having fun, and dreaming bigger† (Miller). The Cotton Club was an integral part of the Twenties and personified what this period of time stood for. It became a place for gangsters to sell their bootlegged beer during prohibition, a home for jazz music, and a precursor to the Harlem Renaissance, a period of profound growth and change in black literature and music. â€Å"Harlem was not so much a place as a state of mind, the cultural metaphor for black America itself† (Rhapsodies). â€Å"As well as being a crucible for new musical styles, The Cotton Club can also be seen as a lightning rod for Harlem history† (Wolfe). Started by heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson at the corner of 42nd Street and Lenox Avenue, it was originally called Club De Lux. Failure of the club resulted in the selling of it in 1923 to gangster Owney Madden who dubbed it The Cotton Club. Madden had been searching for a Harlem location to sell his Madden’s #1 Beer. â€Å"The name was chosen in order to invoke thoughts of a stylish plantation environment† (Cotton). To further this implication, all performers were black and, for the most part, all attendees were white. During prohibition it was often to find many clubs that were established with the central purpose of providing alcohol to the public. The Cotton club became the most popular club in not only Harlem, but also all of New York. It provided the â€Å"coolest† environment, best cuisine, and many up and coming jazz musicians. â€Å"Only the wealthiest, most influential, famous and notorious people went there, or were allowed in† (Cotton). Being that the club’s main purpose...