Influential People Essay

In my life, I have had many various influential people, but I would have to say that my Mother has made the biggest impact of all. Most everything that I am today is a outcome of inspirations and instances I have established from my Mother. She has made so many different opportunities presented to me, without which I do not know where I would be. I find my Mother to be a very inspiring person; the reasons for this are infinite. My Mom has been through multiple hardships over the course of her life and throughout it all she has become an exceptionally strong, loving, and wise person. This fact alone amazes me and when compounded with the fact that my Mother, among it all, still manages to have a quick, clever, and upbeat sense of humor I am left fascinated. The things I have learned and continue to learn from my Mother are endless; she has taught me all of the founding principles of my life and for that I am eternally thankful. Though my Mother and I have many discussions on various subjects, within whom I learn many different things, I believe that many of the things I learn from her are discovered and observed from example. This summer would be an instance. Together, we faced many hardships that really pulled and tugged on our relationship. We worked through possibly one of the hardest things a mother could ever go through. It not only brought us closer together, but it made me realize how much she loves me, and how she is always going to be there for me. It is common knowledge that not everyone is perfect, even heroes, and in realizing this I know that I although I wish to be like my Mother in most ways I do not in all. This realization may be one of the most important things I have learned, my Mother has taught me to base my decisions in life not solely on the examples and actions of others but simply on what I gather and learn from the examples and actions of others. In other words, she has taught me not to follow blindly but to make my own decisions based on what I think is important. My relationship with my Mother is something that I treasure above everything else in my life. We are able to play and joke like young children and have serious in depth conversations on some of life hardest subject like mature adults. The various levels that my Mother can reach me on astound me and I think that it is what makes our relationship truly special and what makes her such a wonderful influence.

Airline Economics Essay

The purpose of this note is to provide background to the study of the airline industry by briefly discussing four important economic aspects of the industry: (1) the nature and measurement of airline costs; (2) economies of scope and hub-and-spoke networks; (3) the relationship between yields and market characteristics; and (4) the S-curve effect. The Appendix to this note contains a glossary of key terms used throughout the discussion. Airline Costs Airline costs fall into three broad categories: flight sensitive costs which vary with the number of flights the airline offers. These include the costs associated with crews, aircraft servicing, and fuel. Once the airline sets its schedule, these costs are fixed. traffic-sensitive costs which vary with the number of passengers. These include the costs associated with items such as ticketing agents and food. Airlines plan their expenditures on these items in anticipation of the level of traffic, but in the short run, these costs are also fixed. fixed overhead costs which include general and administrative expenses, costs associated with marketing and advertising, and interest expenses. The largest category of costs is flight-sensitive. An important point about an airline’s cost structure, and a key to understanding the nature of competition in the industry, is that once an airline has set its schedule, nearly all of its costs are fixed and thus cannot be avoided. Because it is better to generate cash flow to cover some fixed costs, as opposed to none at all, an airline will be willing to fly passengers at prices far below its average total cost. This implies that the incidence of price wars during periods of low demand is likely to be greater in this industry than in most. There are two alternative measures of an airline’s average (or, equivalently, unit) costs: cost per available seat mile (ASM) cost per revenue passenger mile (RPM) Cost per ASM is an airline’s operating costs divided by the total number of seat-miles it flies. (An available seat mile is one seat flown one mile.) It is essentially the cost per unit of capacity. Cost per RPM is the airline’s operating costs divided by the number of revenue-passenger miles it flies. (A revenue passenger mile is one passenger flown one mile.) It is essentially the cost per unit of actual output. These two measures are related by the formula: Cost per RPM = cost per ASM ( load factor where load factor is the fraction of seats an airline fills on its flights. In the end, it is cost per RPM that an airline must worry about, for it must cover its cost per RPM to make a profit. Airlines differ greatly in both their costs per ASM and costs per RPM. For example, in 1992 Southwest had a cost per ASM of 7.00 cents, while USAir had a cost per ASM of 10.90 cents. Similarly, Delta had a cost per RPM of 15.33 cents while American had a cost per RPM of 13.81. Differences across airlines in cost per ASM reflect differences in: 1) average length of flights (cost per ASM declines with distance). 2) fleet composition (cost per ASM is smaller with bigger planes). 3) input prices, especially wage rates. 4) input productivity, especially labor. 5) overall operating efficiency. Differences across airlines in cost per RPM reflect differences in cost per ASM plus differences in load factor. Two airlines might have very similar costs per ASM, but quite different costs per RPM because of differences in load factor. For example, in 1992 USAir and United’s cost per ASM differed by less than 2 cents (USAir 10.90, United 9.30), but their costs per RPM differed by nearly 5 cents (USAir 18.54, United 13.80) because of USAir’s lower overall load factor (USAir .59, United .67) Economies of Scope and Hub-and-Spoke Networks Economies of scope play an important role in shaping the structure of the U.S. airline industry. The source of economies of scope in the airline industry is the hub-and-spoke network. In hub-and-spoke network, an airline flies passengers from a set of â€Å"spoke† cities through a central â€Å"hub,† where passengers then change planes and fly from the hub to their outbound destinations. Thus, a passenger traveling from, say, Omaha to Louisville on American Airlines would board an American flight from Omaha to Chicago, change planes, and then fly from Chicago to Louisville. In general, economies of scope occur when a multiproduct firm can produce given quantities of products at a lower total cost than the total cost of producing these same quantities in separate firms. If â€Å"quantity† can be aggregated into a common measure, this definition is equivalent to saying that a firm producing many products will have a lower average cost than a firm producing just a few products. In the airline industry, it makes economic sense to think about individual origin-destination pairs (e.g., St. Louis to New Orleans, St. Louis to Houston, etc.) as distinct products. Viewed in this way, economies of scope would exist if an airline’s cost per RPM is lower the more origin-destination pairs its serves. To understand how hub-and-spoke networks give rise to economies of scope, it is first necessary to explain economies of density. Economies of density are essentially economies of scale along a given route, i.e., reductions in average cost as traffic volume on the route increases. Economies of density occur because of two factors: (1) spreading flight sensitive fixed costs and (2) economies of aircraft size. As an airline’s traffic volume  increases, it can fill a larger fraction of seats on a given type of aircraft and thus increase its load factor. The airline’s total costs increase only slightly as it carries more passengers because traffic-sensitive costs are small in relation to flight-sensitive fixed costs. As a result, the airline’s cost per RPM falls as flight-sensitive fixed costs are spread over a larger traffic volume. As traffic volume on the route gets even larger, it becomes worthwhile to substitute larger aircraft (e.g., 300 seat Boeing 767s) for smaller aircraft (e.g., 150 seat Boeing 737s). A key aspect of this substitution is that the 300 seat aircraft flown a given distance at a given load factor is less than twice as costly as the 150 seat aircraft flown the same distance at the same load factor. The reason is that doubling the number of seats and passengers on a plane does not require doubling the number of pilots or flight attendants or the amount of fuel. Economies of scope emerge from the interplay of economies of density and the properties of a hub-and-spoke network. To see how, consider an origin-destination pair – say, Indianapolis to Chicago – with a modest amount of traffic. An airline serving only this route would use small planes, and even then, would probably operate with a low load factor. But now consider an airline serving a hub-and-spoke network, with the hub at Chicago. If this airline offered flights between Indianapolis and Chicago, it would not only draw passengers who want to travel from Indianapolis to Chicago, but it would also draw passengers from traveling from Indianapolis to all other points accessible from Chicago in the network (e.g., Los Angeles or San Francisco). An airline that includes the Indianapolis-Chicago route as part of a larger hub-and-spoke network can operate larger aircraft at higher load factors than an airline serving only Indianapolis-Chicago. As a result, it can benefit from economies of density to achieve a lower cost per RPM along the Indianapolis-Chicago route. In addition, the traffic between Indianapolis and the other spoke cities that will fly through Chicago will increase load factors and lower costs per RPM on all of the spoke routes in the network. The overall effect: an airline that serves Indianapolis-Chicago as part of a hub-and-spoke network will have lower costs per RPM than an airline that only serves  Indianapolis-Chicago. This is precisely what is meant by economies of scope. Relation Between Airline Yields and Market Characteristics An airline’s yield is the amount of revenue it collects per revenue passenger mile. It is essentially a measure of the average airline fares, adjusting for differences in distances between different origins and destinations. Airline yields are strongly affected by the characteristics of the particular origin-destination market being served. In particular, there are two important relationships: Shorter distance markets (e.g., New York-Pittsburgh) tend to have higher yields than longer distance markets (e.g., New York-Denver). Controlling for differences in the number of competitors, flights between smaller markets tend to have higher yields than flights between larger markets. The reasons for relationship 1) are summarized in Figure 1. shorter distance higher cost per RPMlower load factor higher cost per RPM higher yield Figure 1 Cost per ASM generally falls as distance increases. This is because, say, doubling trip mileage does not require doubling key inputs such as fuel or labor. Thus, shorter flights have higher cost per ASM than longer flights, and airlines must achieve higher yields to cover these higher costs. In addition, shorter distance flights generally have lower load factors than longer distance flights, which implies a higher cost per RPM for shorter distance flights, again requiring higher yields. Why are load factors lower for shorter flights? The reasons has to do with the greater substitution  possibilities that consumers have in short-distance markets (e.g., car of train travel are more viable options). In short –distance markets, we would therefore expect that some fraction of time-sensitive travelers (e.g., vacationers) would travel on these alternative modes, so short distance flights would have a higher proportion of time-sensitive travelers (e.g., business persons) than longer distance flights. Competitive pressures thus force airlines to offer more frequent flight schedules in short-distance markets, which leads to lower load factors. The reason for relationship 2) has to do with the economies of density discussed earlier. Smaller markets will have lower traffic volumes, and airlines will generally operate smaller aircraft at lower load factors, increasing costs per RPM and yields. The S-Curve Effect The S-curve effect refers to a phenomenon whereby a dominant carrier’s market share (share of RPM) in a particular origin-destination market tends to be greater than the carrier’s share of capacity (share of ASM). Thus, for example, if United offers 70% of the seats flown between Denver and San Francisco, and Continental flies the remaining 30%, then the S-curve effect says that United’s share of the actual traffic in this market will be greater than 70% and Continental’s will be less than 30%. This translates into an S-shaped relationship between â€Å"share of capacity† and â€Å"market share,† as shown in Figure 2. The S-curve effects stems from two sources. First, an airline with a greater share of capacity in a market is likely to have greater visibility in that market, so passengers are likely to contact it first. Second, an airline with a greater capacity share is likely to have more frequent – and thus more convenient – departures. This, too, works to boost its share of the actual traffic. The S-curve phenomenon makes capacity an important competitive weapon in the rivalry among airlines. An airline with the financial resources to purchase  aircraft and airport gates to achieve a dominant capacity share on key routes is likely to win the fight for market share. This suggests that, in general, it will be very difficult for a small carrier to challenge a dominant carrier at a hub airport, unless the small carrier can achieve significant cost advantages unrelated to scale. The history of competition in the post-deregulation airline industry seems to bear this out.

The Concept of Administration and Organization

THE CONCEPT OF ADMINISTRATION AND ORGANIZATION A: WHAT IS ADMINISTRATION First definition: â€Å"Administration can be defined as the activities of groups cooperating to accomplish common goals†. There are particular key elements of administration. Cooperative: the word cooperative is the first key element in this definition. Human activity is cooperative if it has the effects that would be absent if the cooperation did not take place. * Group Activity: Administration includes activities of more than one individual. * The term ‘cooperative’ is defined in terms of the results of the human activity.When two men together roll a stone which neither of them could roll alone they are cooperating. * Thus the essence of administration is the utilization of cooperative action for the accomplishment of common goals. * Common goal: the second key element of the above definition is the goal or purpose. * It is the common goal which encourages members to come together. Coopera tion among members is possible when they share a common goal. The idea of goal is central to the concept of administration in the sense that if there was not a goal, the members of the group would not come together and cooperate with each other. Without the formulation of an objective or goal, no one within the group would know what to do and they would not get involved in any activity. * When someone determines the objective and the group is formed, than the group members will start to think about what they can do for the accomplishment of that objective. * Second Definition: In another definition, administration is defined as â€Å"an activity or process mainly concerned with the means for carrying out prescribed ends†. * Here, again in this definition the accomplishment of a specific goal is an important element of the administration. This definition indicates that administration is mainly concerned with the means that are necessary for the accomplishment of pre-determined goals. * It seems that a new element is introduced, that is the concept of means. Means: The means are the ways by which something is done or obtained * A division of labor is necessary among the members of the group to accomplish a common goal. * There is also a need for an authority structure to control and coordinate the activities of the individuals involved. ** Division of labor and authority structure are means (among others) for carrying out prescribed ends. Cooperation and any other method is also a means used in the administration. * Any new definition of administration may introduce some other elements or concepts but in essence they would be concerned with cooperative activity in the accomplishment of desired goals. Third definition: According to Waldo, for example, â€Å"Administration is a type of cooperative human effort that has a huge degree of rationality†. * Any new definition of administration may introduce some other elements or concepts but in essence th ey would be concerned with cooperative activity in the accomplishment of desired goals.Third definition: According to Waldo, for example, â€Å"Administration is a type of cooperative human effort that has a huge degree of rationality†. * Here, ‘rational action’ is introduced as a new element of administration but still cooperation is accepted as a necessary element of administration. * In Waldo’s definition, rational action is defined as actions correctly calculated to realize the given desired goals with minimum loss to the realization of other desired goals. B: What is Organization? ) Amitai Etzioni defines organization as â€Å"social units (or human groupings) deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek specific goals’. This definition implies that the basic elements of organizations are individuals. Thus the first key element of organization refers to the grouping of individuals. * The second element of organization is that they are in tentionally constructed for accomplishing specific objectives. * The third element is the concept of goals. Organizations are established for the accomplishment of certain goals.

Srucial part of job Essay

And here the other job of the sales team will kick in because they have to go around to talk with the retail establishment, big and small, in the cities they are operating, which will require an extended travel as sometimes they have to cover the outskirts of the city as well as the outlying regions. There is a huge competition to get space in the crowded shelves of retailers that will have to be convinced that the product is worth their recommendation and meets all the legal requirements to be sold for the public, which is part of the job of the sales team to furnish proof and explanation. This is also a very crucial part of their job, although at times it could be done through the distributors. However, the smaller retailers that are not chain stores might have to be approached individually or it might be the job of the distributors to convince them to carry the new product that should attract many buyers because of what it is offering, which is not only unique but functional foods are new even for the general food market that is catering for the adult buyers. After doing that, the particular brand depending on its popularity might start to sell itself, where distributors and retailers would want to put it in their stock and on their shelves because it is selling well, and when that point is reached the sales team could say their job is partially done, but they can still search for new locations and retailers in the same regions or in other regions. The conclusion is the baby food market is a highly regulated market and it is similar to the pharmaceutical market where manufacturers do not have a direct access to the buyers and users of their products, because of the sensitive nature of what is involved, which is the life of young children whose growth could be harmed irreversibly if they are not given what they exactly need for their normal growth from the beginning. Even if there is no outright opposition to the existence of the breast milk substitutes, the authorities and other concerned groups would have preferred if mothers start using it between four and five months, but since that might not be possible because of the nature of the life of the mothers themselves who could be working outside of the home, which will result in their being time strapped, and instead of preparing food for their children at home it will be easier for them to pick the substitutes form the various stores and mix the feeding process with their own breast-feeding since it is proven to be vital for the children. Similarly, the existence of the breast milk substitutes will become handy for children whose mothers cannot breast-feed them for various reasons that were mentioned earlier, and in their case the breast milk substitute will come close to breast milk and they will grow up healthy as there are sources that are saying even if people simply wanted to believe that breast milk is better for the child and it will create some kind of bondage between mother and child, in reality the substitutes are proven scientifically to be as good as the breast milk if not better. Therefore, any company that is selling baby food, which has a global market of close to $21 billion a year will have to go over many hurdles to put the substitute on the hands of the mothers that will use it to feed their baby properly and everyone will be benefited at the end of the day. [10] REFERENCE 1. Nestle in Northern Europe. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. nestle. se/neobuilder/200108091943_6622_3b72cbb9544e1. html 2. Baby Food Business Assessment. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www.researchandmarkets. com/reports/3492 3. Baby Food Industry Lobbies WHO. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. bmj. com/cji/content/full/321/7273/1411 4. The Ecologist. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. theecologist. org/archive_detail. asp? 5. International Code. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. ibfan. org/english/resource/who/fullcode. html 6. Nestles Market War. HighBeam Encyclopedia. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. encyclopedia. com/doc/1G1-131934511. html 7. Breast Feeding. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. geocities. com/HotSprings/spa/3156/code. htm 8. Health Workers and the Baby Food Industry. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. bmj. com/cji/content/full/312/7046/1556 9. Nestle Public Relation Machine Exposed. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. babymilkaction. org/boycott/prmachine. html 10. Health-Conscious-Drive-Baby-Food-Market-Growth. Retrieved from the Web on April 5, 2007. www. rncos. com/Press_Release/Health-Conscious-Drive-Baby-Food-Market-Growth-July. htmÃ'Ž

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

Strategic Management Theories - Essay Example Strategic management theorists have over the years developed various tools to help managers in formulating strategies for organisational success. These include the SWOT analysis, Ansoffs matrix, PESTLE, and Porters five forces among others. These tools assess the threats and opportunities as well as the strengths and weaknesses for the firm and enable it to capitalise on them. The Porters five forces and the generic strategies have been widely used by companies to assess the attractiveness of the industry and their competitive position hence are able to formulate strategies to gain competitive advantage in the industry. The five forces include: competitor rivalry, threat of close substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and threat of new entrants. The five forces will be used in this paper to assess the competitive position of the UK fire service and the strategies employed by the company. Rivalry in the industry is more apparent where are there are exi sting businesses and threat of entry and exit is high. Firms compete on price, new products, technology, advertisements and on customer service. According to Porter (1998) rivalry results from slow growth within the industry, high fixed costs, lack of differentiation, diverse competitors, and equally balance companies among others. Intense rivalry has a great impact on price and profitability of the firm especially if there are close substitute products in the industry. The UK fire service is a parastatal which operates under separate legislation and administrative arrangements of devolved governments of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) is funded and governed by the fire authority. There are various fire brigades in each country under local authorities but in North Ireland, there is only one statutory corporation funded by department of health, social services and public safety (UK Fire Service, 2012). As such, there are no strong com petitors in the fire industry since most services are offered for free by the government. However, there are competitors such as DDA fire ltd which is the largest private fire service in UK offering specialist fire and safety, high profile health and safety consultancy and sales services to private sector (DDA, 2012). Some of the FRS in UK include: fire fire and rescue services in Scotland, Strathclyde with 111 fire stations strategically placed in Scotland, NIFRS in N.Ireland with 68 stations and the London FRS under the fire authority. There is no intense rivalry in the industry hence it is attractive for investment. Another force as portrayed by porter is the bargaining power of suppliers in the industry which has an effect on prices and quality of products. According to Porter (1998) a high bargaining power is achieved when there are few companies or suppliers in the industry. It also occurs when there are no close substitutes such that even if the suppliers offered high prices, the industry would still take it since there is no option. If the product is essential in the industry, the suppliers may also have power over it. The suppliers can also threaten to integrate forward hence becoming a threat to the industry. However, De Wit and Meyer (2010) argue that forming the right strategy can alter the power of

Social Thought and Social Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social Thought and Social Change - Essay Example 6). For Enlightened thinkers, the desirable direction and final destination they aim for is a place where everyone lives in â€Å"a perfectly happy existence,† free from religious control, aristocratic discrimination and monarchical oppression (Bury 1920, p. 6). This idea is oftentimes criticised by modern thinkers as a naive belief in man’s capability for achieving perfection (Israel 2001, p. 3). However, Israel (2001, pp. 3-4) argues that â€Å"Enlightenment progress breathed a vivid awareness of the great difficulty of spreading toleration, curbing religious fanaticism, and otherwise ameliorating human organization, orderliness, and the general state of health.† Concurrently, even though famous Enlightened thinkers have opposing ideas about how to go about achieving progress, it cannot be denied that they share the same principles and morals. For instance, while Voltaire did not believe in the notion of equality and moved to educate and enlighten aristocrats i nto bettering the world, Rousseau detested them and lobbied for equality through revolution. However, both detested the Church and absolute monarchy and sought to change the status quo (Brians 2000). It is unquestionable, then, that the Enlightenment—though ripe with strife and conflicting ideas—moved towards the same destination; and that is, the achievement of progress through positive societal changes. The Enlightenment symbolizes civilisation’s actual forward movement towards a desirable direction. It is progress personified. Both supporters and critics of the Enlightenment and even opposing Enlightened thinkers show that its end-all and be-all is achieving progress through reason—progress that aims to create a better society at a time when religious tyranny and absolute monarchy and aristocracy ruled the world. II. Stages of History and Revolution Karl Marx views human history as a series of stages wherein man struggles to deal with and control the e conomic benefits of the resources of the world in order to achieve power and position (Weiner 2008, p. 42; Cohen 2004, p. 23). â€Å"The growth of human power is the central process of history. The need for that growth explains why there is history† (p. 23). Hence, Marx evaluates history as the process of man’s struggle for control over the developing system of production (Shaw 1978, p. 152). Marx (1904, p. 28) states the first stage of history as primitive communism where goods and property are shared and the means of production include hunting and gathering; the second stage is slave society where a class society based on private ownership is established (pp. 285-286); third is feudalism (p. 216); fourth is capitalism (p. 19); fifth is socialism (p. 10); and the final stage is pure communism exhibited through a classless society and the abolition of private ownership (Marx and Engels 1858 qtd. in Schumaker 2010, p. 46). This is a history of class struggle, as â€Å" new forms of society arise appropriate to the new forms of production when the new classes win power† (McCarthy 1995). It can be seen here how each historical stage moves on to the next only with the destruction of a socio-economic system through the uprising of the lower classes. For instance, feudalism evolved into capitalism after the landed aristocrats was challenged by craftsmen and merchants (Bowen 2011).

Unit 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Unit 8 - Essay Example Police officers are now using most of their resources and time for training in readiness for future possible terrorist attacks. The police are also gathering information and intelligence needed to prevent and stop terrorist attacks. The police’s responsibility of emergency response to terrorism takes precedence over other duties (Delattre 2006). Disagreements have emerged following the 2001 terrorist attacks. One of such disagreements is how much information and intelligence should federal agencies share with the police and state. The point of sharing information results from the fact that the FBI holds their information too much. Criminal information and intelligence must be shared across jurisdictions and agencies in the country. It results from the fact that information sharing is crucial in effecting antiterrorism. Police officers interact with the society that enables them to exchange information and gather intelligence. The intelligence and information gathered is important to other agencies including the FBI (Delattre 2006). While still in their line of duty, police officers are required to exhibit the recommended law enforcement behaviours in fighting terrorism and maintaining personal liberties. Disagreements have arisen on how the police ought to operate when collecting intelligence on terrorism. While part of their function is protecting civil liberty, there is rising criticism on how terrorism suspects should be handled. There are disagreements on the use of force in gathering information related to terrorism activities. Using force means that the police will torture individuals while gathering information. Using torture while interrogating people and suspects are wrong as the officers will be acting against their basic responsibility of upholding the people’s personal liberties (Delattre, 2006). Antiterrorism cannot be tackled by the Federal single handed. The federal requires assistance from the police and other law