There are several reasons older students have a difficult time Essay

There are several reasons older students have a difficult time adjusting to online classes - Essay Example I luckily found another job recently that pays me more than the last one and additionally, the duty hours are reduced. I shall be free three hours earlier than when I used to be in the last job. Therefore, I would be able to dedicate more time to my studies. Also, I have recently undergone an eye operation and my eye-sight is improved to the extent that I do not find it difficult to concentrate upon something for long periods of time. Besides, I am so moved by my last disqualification that I am determined to do better this time. I would like to avail this opportunity to convey to the Dean that continuous three hour lecture causes a lot of hindrance in the maintenance of interest necessary for the studies. However, it becomes far more difficult for students with a weak eye-sight to concentrate upon the screen for such a long period of time continuously. Hence, there is a need to increase the number of lectures while shortening the duration of individual lectures. In addition to that, assignments should be more technical and less comprehensive because lengthy assignments are difficult to adjust in the busy schedule of working

Paths out of homelessness in chicago Research Paper

Paths out of homelessness in chicago - Research Paper Example These activities result in the migration of the population from rural to urban areas. This fact have caused the uncontrollable expansion of cities, this expansion has caused many environmental and social problems (Nese et al, 115). Locations in cities have a high level of accommodation and it holds the concentration of economic interests and activities. These structures are supported by transport systems. The larger the urban area the greater would be complexity and the potential of disturbances it is not carefully managed (McDonald et al, 342). One of the most important transport problems take place when the transport systems cannot satisfy the requirements of urban mobility for a variety of reasons, Urban productivity is entirely dependent on the transport system to move the goods and labour to multiple destinations. The highly considerable transport problems are traffic congestion and parking difficulties, this issue is the one of the most highly notable issue of the urban areas in the country. In order to analyze and carefully understand the transport system in the urban areas of the country the SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities Threats) is needed and helpful to build key strategic to resolve issues and achieve the goals. It is the most recognizable and reliable tool for check and analysis of the overall strategic position of the business and its environment. The purpose of this analysis is to identify the strategies that will create a model for the firm specific business. The model will best support an organization’s resources and capabilities to the requirements of the environment in which the firm operates. To be precise and brief, this analysis helps for evaluating the internal limitations and potential and the likely opportunities and threats from the external environment. This analysis views all the positive and negative factors inside and

The Information Technology in Business Organizations Essay

The Information Technology in Business Organizations - Essay Example TESCO is a multinational which has worked for many different things. Because of its existence in the market for many years, it has been seen that TESCO has been able to create a brand image which the customers love. â€Å"Tesco operates 923 stores and employs 240,000 people, giving us access to a population of 260 million across our nine markets. Over the past five years, we have expanded from our traditional UK supermarket base into new countries, products and services, including a major non-food business, personal finance and internet shopping. The increasing scale and internationalization of our sales and purchasing operations make a significant contribution to our efficiency and profitability, as we progress towards our long-term goal of becoming a truly international retailer† (Global Sources).Tesco is a company which has its ventures throughout the world. The revenue that it is able to generate from its retails has helped Tesco to grab the third position globally. Tesco started as a small grocery store in 1919 by Jack Cohen which turned out into a huge venture in 1924. Tesco opened its first store in Burn Oak, Edgware, Middlesex in the year 1929. In 1947, it was introduced into the London Stock Exchange and made public and this floatation started the great success story of Tesco plc which has now emerged as one of the tops most renowned supermarket chain is not just the United Kingdom but the entire world. The first supermarket under the name of Tesco was opened in 1956 in Maldon.... This section provides an overview about the efficiency of IT for Tesco’s overall operations and business strategies. The fourth section provides the results of the research carried out in order to study the implications of IT on Tesco’s business operations. This section also provides realistic measures and some recommendations to improve the current IT integration in company’s activities. The last section provides a brief conclusion about the report findings and summarizes the main points of the report. This section gives an independent opinion generated from the information collected. It provides a personal opinion about the alignment techniques of Tesco and summarizes the impact of IT on Tesco’s overall efficiency in terms of operations, performance and stakeholders’ satisfaction. Tesco Supermarket TESCO is a multinational which has worked for many different things. Because of its existence in the market for many years it has been seen that TESCO has been able to create a brand image which the customers love. â€Å"Tesco operates 923 stores and employs 240,000 people, giving us access to a population of 260 million across our nine markets. Over the past five years, we have expanded from our traditional UK supermarket base into new countries, products and services, including a major non-food business, personal finance and internet shopping. The increasing scale and internationalization of our sales and purchasing operations makes a significant contribution to our efficiency and profitability, as we progress towards our long-term goal of becoming a truly international retailer† (Global Sources). Tesco is a company which has its ventures throughout the

Organisational Behaviour AEGON Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organisational Behaviour AEGON - Assignment Example This was carried out through a launch of new products in the UK that were innovative and they captured the different financial status of the customers. Every customer, therefore, had a product they could associate with and which they could afford. The brand promotion was also carried out through changing the name of their other companies to include the name AEGON in them such as was the case for AEGON Scottish Equitable. The brand promotion also involved endorsing a British female athlete as a way to create a closer association with the same people it was trying to promote their products to. Internal forces for change The most important internal forces of change that AEGON undertook were to develop its workforce. They developed the skills of its workers to match the needs of the customers. This way, the employees were well equipped to handle the customers’ needs as well as the new products that were developed. The organization in the other successful nations such as in the US is renowned for its employees that are experts, innovative and have good communication skills. This was what the organization wanted its UK-based employees to be renowned for as another way to attract more customers hence increasing their skills. AEGON could not expect to make any changes externally without having to change their culture which was making them fail to get established in the UK in the first place. Culture change involved the employees and managers changing their attitude, behavior, values as well as belief.

Famine, Affluence, and Morality Essay Example for Free

Famine, Affluence, and Morality Essay In Peter Singer’s 1972 article titled â€Å"Famine, Affluence and Morality†, he suggests that wealthy nations have an ethical duty to contribute much more than they do to other nations who are suffering through a natural disaster, extreme poverty, famine or other issues. In this paper, I will describe Singers objective and give his argument with regards to this issue. I will describe three counter-arguments to Singer’s view which he addresses, and after that reveal Singer’s reactions to those counterarguments. I will explain Singer’s idea of marginal utility and also differentiate how it pertains to his argument. I will compare how the ideas of duty and charity alter in his suggested world. To conclude, I will provide my own position in response to Singer’s argument. The primary objective of Singer’s article is to express that we as people have the capacity to assist those in dire need as it is our moral duty to do so. He uses the disaster in East Bengal as an example. â€Å"Continuous poverty, a cyclone, and a civil war have turned a minimum of 9 million people into abandoned refugees; nonetheless, its not beyond the capability of the wealthier countries to provide sufficient help to decrease further suffering to very small proportions (Singer 1972). He thinks that theres no reason at all for individuals to suffer if other people have the ability to assist and prevent it from happening or getting worse. It’s our moral responsibility to modify our way of living so as to achieve this important objective. They are overcrowded, hungry, dehydrated and need medical attention. Singer believes that we have the resources to decrease the suffering and pain yet we disregard the problem and do nothing at all, which can be immoral. We should modify our opinions of morality so as to develop a dedication to helping people in dire need. Singer provides counter-arguments in his work which I will talk about here. He offers his readers a scenario which involves a drowning kid and a witness. Most people would try to save the kid since its the â€Å"right† action to take. Singer proposes that this duty happens since lots of people know that a drowning kid is considered very bad and outweighs the fact they you have to get your clothes muddy and wet. The counter-argument in this situation proposes that because I am not the only individual seeing this event, why is it my duty to do something positive about it? Why must it be my ethical responsibility to assist this kid in case nobody else is doing anything regarding it? Singer explains, â€Å"In case its in our power to avoid something bad from occurring, without thereby compromising anything of comparable moral significance, we should, morally, to do it (1972). † He thinks that we are able to do whats right however we should decide to do whats right even when everybody else decides not to. Singer also touches on whether our moral responsibilities must be restricted to distance. The counter-argument in this instance proposes that because these suffering people are so far away, why is it my moral responsibility to help them instead of using it in my own area? According to Singer, â€Å"It makes no ethical difference whether the individual I can assist is a neighbors kid 10 yards from me or a Bengali whose name I shall never know, 10,000 miles away (pg. 232). † Its still our moral obligation to do whats right. Is it morally appropriate to discriminate against a suffering individual just due to their distance? Singer suggests, â€Å"In case we accept any rule of impartiality, universalizability, equality, or whatever, we cant discriminate against somebody just because he is far away from us (or we are far off from him) (pg. 232)†. A person’s distance must not restrict our moral duties. Singer believes that everybody must give when its required. Many people are not contributing, so how much must I give without making myself or my loved ones worse off? The counter-argument here is whether to give more than can cause financial stuggle. He discusses the probability of contributing to the point of marginal utility. As Singer states â€Å"Because the situation seems to be that not many people are likely to give considerable sums, it makes sense that I and everybody else in similar conditions must give as much as possible, that is, at least up to the level at which by giving more one would start to cause acute suffering for oneself and one’s dependents-perhaps even beyond this level to the stage of marginal utility, at which by giving more one would cause oneself and one’s loved ones just as much suffering as one would prevent in Bengal† (pg. 234). To conclude, we all must give as much as possible so long as it doesnt cause us to suffer in the process. Singer proposes that responsibility and charity is our ethical duty. We â€Å"ought† to assist unknown people in need of assistance if we are capable to and that it would be morally incorrect not to contribute. We must put on our old clothes instead of purchasing new ones just for the simple truth that you want to be well dressed. Duty and charity change in this future world since in this era, many people wont give up certain luxuries so as to give to other people. Most people are selfish and would prefer to indulge in the finer matters in life rather than worry about contributing their hard earned bucks to other people in need of assistance. Individually, I support Singer’s point for many reasons. I do think that we must assist people in need when we are capable of doing so as long as it does not cause us to suffer financially. I agree that a few luxuries must be overlooked if it implies that a life can be saved. In case we were suffering or in an identical condition, would we wish or expect assistance? I agree that its the correct thing to do morally. I dont believe that we must discriminate against a suffering person simply because that individual isnt in our society. The life of an individual is invaluable and must come first of all. To conclude, Singer’s primary point is that it is our moral obligation to assist other people in times of need with regards to medical care, food, shelter or reconstruction. I agree that we must contribute our money and time to assist other people if it doesnt create a bad impact on our own lives. In this era, lots of people are selfish as well as greedy and dont usually stop to take into consideration other people in need of assistance. People need to understand that there are lots of people around suffering and may ultimately pass away if they dont get the assistance they need as well as deserve. I agree that it is our moral duty to assist any person in urgent need even when its an individual thousands of miles away.

Virgin Media Business Strategy

Virgin Media Business Strategy This report is a study of Virgin Media Inc and the business strategies that define the company. The analysis was an attempt to correlate the theories that define the business strategies of a company and the practical approach taken by Virgin Media in those areas. So we have performed a study of the Marketing Mix of Virgin Media and based on our findings a SWOT Analysis of Virgin Media. From the results of the SWOT analysis we have drawn our conclusions of what Virgin Media has to focus on in the future and predict the path that they should take. Virgin Media: A First Look Virgin Media is a leading name in the communication and entertainment sector providing a â€Å"quad play† of services consisting of broadband, television, mobile and fixed line telephone. The company was founded by Sir Richard Branson and has James Mooney as the company chairperson and Neil Berkett as chief executive officer of the firm. It has established itself as UKs leading media and communication provider and has built its large business through constant innovation, successful diversification and competitive product design using a future proof strong communication network. Virgin Medias three main operating segments Cable Mobile Content The cable segment offers broadband Internet, television and fixed-line telephone services under the Virgin Media brand to residential customers in U.K. In the mobile segment Virgin Mobile has teamed up with T-Mobile by purchasing airtime from T-Mobile and branding it under the Virgin Mobile brand name. The content segment includes eight genre-based entertainment channels, including Virgin1, Living, Bravo, Trouble, Challenge and Challenge Jackpot. The content segment also oversees the companys interest in the UKTV television channels through joint ventures with BBC Worldwide. There is also the Video On Demand services and the website services that provide movies, TV shows and news to the customers. History of Virgin Media In March 2006 NTL and Telewest which were UKs leading cable companies merged together to become the provider of UKs leading triple-play services. Later in July 2006 the merged company acquired Virgin Mobile providing the first quadruple-play offer of TV, internet and fixed and mobile telephony services from a single operator. Finally in February 2007 the combined companies were rebranded and launched as Virgin Media. Virgin Media has rebranded Ntl:Telewest, the companys business Internet Service Provider (ISP), as Virgin Media Business. Virgin Media is the largest privately built network in the UK, with 330 Ethernet PoPs and over 38,000 street cabinets across the country. Virgin Media Inc. Is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange (VMED) Track Record Virgin offers ultrafast internet access of up to 50Mb to just over half of all homes in UK. Virgin Media has one of UKs most advanced TV on demand services and was the first TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer.(#CITATION) .It is the second largest provider of pay TV, was the first to launch a high definition TV service and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country. Virgin Media has also announced that it would be launching 100 Meg broadband services by the end of December 2010. â€Å"We are expanding our trials of a 200Mb broadband service and are planning the commercial launch of a 100Mb service later this year. The development of our next generation TV platform is progressing well and we are confident it will provide the UKs most accessible, comprehensive and seamless home entertainment experience. â€Å", Says Neil Burkett CEO of Virgin Media. Virgin medias performance in the stock market has improved over the last year. Its share price fell in the beginning of 2008 but remained stable during the recession period. Stock price have been rising from the fourth quarter after the company announced its successful Q4 results for the year 2009 .This shows that company has gained the trust of the investors. Technology Virgin Media is one of the largest residential broadband providers in the UK using a unique fiber optic cable network. It is the first company in UK to offer Broadband, Telephone, and TV through its fiber optic cable network. The fiber optic cable is made of glass and it delivers vast amounts of information at the speed of light whereas other providers use copper wires to deliver information, which is much slower than optical fibers. The fiber optic network gives the customer all the benefits of next generation telecoms: It helps to reduce costs through voice and data convergence It quickly transfer large volumes of data Helps to centralize and secure your data storage Instantly implement disaster recovery plans Key Facts about Virgin Media Revenue: 3.8 Billion (GBP) Employees: 10939 Marketing Orientation The aim of a Market oriented company is to satisfy the customer needs and requirements and to align their products and services to the demands of the customers. A typical marketing orientation model is shown below. A market oriented company tries to continuously improve customer satisfaction. To deliver superior customer value they pay close attention to service, both before and after sales. The concept of market orientation is built on three pillars of: Customer focus Coordinated marketing Profitability. An organizations capabilities to develop an orientation towards each of these three pillars depend on the internal structure and culture. Virgin Media follows a market orientation strategy in which the company is concerned about the customers requirements and needs. It pays attention to what its customer needs and delivers the information accordingly. Also due to high competition amongst various service providers Virgin Media also follows Sales orientation in which the company pays attention to the s of sales as well. Virgin Media has put together 3 strategic priorities in its â€Å"Manifesto†: Engaging our people Growing our business Fixing the fundamentals Virgin media has created a broad portfolio that can be tailored to enables its marketers to meet customer requirements. Product diversification within a single business allows it to be one step ahead of its competitors. Virgin Media believes in continuously interacting with its customers, either on day-to-day basis or in one of their stores, during a home installation or on the phone with one of Virgin Medias agents. Virgin Media uses a management tool called â€Å"Net Promoter† to monitor and measure the customer feedback. This helps the company to improve their performance by analyzing the feedback and suggestions from its customers. Show below are statistics of Virgin Medias customers and the number of customers added in 2009. Competitive advantage Competitive advantage is termed as â€Å"The achievement of superior performance through differentiation to provide superior customer value or by managing achieve lowest delivered cost† (Jobber, D., (2009), Principles and practice of marketing, 914) UK has become a highly competitive market for the telecom sector. With the government pushing for improved broadband services for everyone (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8012848.stm) Broadband speed offered by service providers has gone from up 14.4 kbps to 50 mbps. There is a cutthroat competition in the broadband sector with more than 20 companies serving 61.4 million population of UK. (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1352). Due to this intense competition major market players like BT, Virgin media and Sky have almost similar packages offered to their customers while playing to their strengths in different market segments. Sky offers the most number of channels than any other service provider in UK and hence sky subscribers tend to be those who prefer their superior television services whereas Virgin media advertises its superior broadband network and hence its subscribers are normally those who use internet more. BT has more customer base due to its economical packages (Table 1). Services offered 2 Comparison of the basic packages offered by BT, Sky and Virgin Media * Package information taken from * http://allyours.virginmedia.com/?buspart=Portal_HP_topnav_1_1 * http://www.sky.com/shop/bundles-offers/popular-bundles/ * http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayCategory.do?categoryId=CON-BT-BUNDLE-Is_intcid=con_intban_overview_packages_home In HDTV section Sky seems doing far better than Virgin media. They have positioned well in HD TV market. Virgins video on demand service is highly acclaimed by the viewers (750m views in 2009, 50% rise over previous year). Bravo, a pay channel of Virgin media has acquired exclusive rights of the US block buster series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Despite this Sky added 172,000 customers in the fourth quarter and Virgin media added only 34,200 new subscribers. Due to the uniqueness of services offered by sky Virgin media seems is lagging behind in the race when it comes to TV channels. In order to study the competitive advantage a company has over its competitors, Porter, M. E. (1998) suggested the five forces model. Analysis of Five forces for Virgin Media: Entry barriers: Entry into the telecom industry is primarily determined by the high cost of the fixed assets. There are significant costs to be incurred like the cost of establishing the network, operating costs of the network and associated infrastructural costs. Virgin media has spent billions of pounds just to lay the optic fiber cable network required. Acquiring telecast rights for sporting events, TV shows etc. is also a key entry barrier determinant as the competition for the rights normally increases the price, making it harder for new entrants. BT a significant competitor and running on an aging copper based network is finding it hard to convince its investors to develop infrastructure after incurring current losses in excess of  £7b. The telecom industry is an extremely competitive market where key market players try to make profits through sales volumes and not price. So for an entrant into the market the initial return on investment will be low and market expectations for generating profits in the long run are low as well. The market is also highly competitive and any product or service is immediately replicated by the competitors. For example BT has offered a 40 mbps broadband service to compete directly with Virgin Medias 50 mbps broadband service. There is a significantly high cost for advertisement as the competition is with established brands with significant brand recall. The telecommunication service is a vital and intensely used and hence customers demand high quality of service. Service complaints are investigated by OfCom, UKs independent regulator of the telecommunications industry and hefty fines are placed on service providers for poor service quality. All these factors combined reduce the number of new entrants into the telecommunications sector. Rivalry determinants: Due to the presence of significant market players like SKY and BT, there is intense competition in the telecom industry. Increase reliance on internet has increase customer expectations and dominant market players frequently reduce prices to attract more customers. There is hence a reduction in overall profitability and investments are hence done cautiously. Key market players have strong brand names and hence significant brand loyalty. Competing brands have their unique strengths making it difficult for users to switch networks. Sky network offer premium television content and hence retain its customers even though Virgin Media has a superior high speed internet network. Customers also find it easier to take all the bundled services from a single provider due to advantages like ease of payment and discounts on bundled deals. High switching costs hence make it increasing difficult for Virgin Media to increase its market share. Supplier power: To develop a cost leadership advantage one really needs to control supplier power. This is one big determinant of economies of scale. As there are many competitors in the telecom sector, suppliers tend to demand higher prices for the services in od force the company to provide better deals. The supplier may refuse to work with the company if their demands are not met and provide its services to a competitor. For example Sky charges a high wholesale price to its competitors like Virgin Media to permit them to display their premium offerings like sports. Since Sky has all the associated broadcasting rights and Sports channels are in great demand by the UK consumer, Virgin media and BT have no choice but to pay more for the content. Owing to this fact Sky has become a dominant force in the Television sector as its competitors are not able to match its prices. Threat of substitutes: There are players like Sky and BT in the bundled services market segment and O2, Vodafone Talk-talk etc. in individual service market segment. All of them offer comparatively similar services at very competitive prices. Due to this it is difficult for a new customer to choose a service. The choice may then be made instantaneously and based on current need. For example a sports fan when choosing a new service may immediately go for the Sky network without much consideration to the quality of the other networks. Existing customers may also be tempted to switch networks due to economic or service based needs. Virgin Media could lose an existing customer to BT which offers more economical bundle packages and with the upcoming sports events like the football world cup and London Olympics it could lose customers to the Sky network as well. Also in order to reduce network congestion during peak hours, Virgin Media throttles the network speed and this has irked some of its internet users. If a rival service makes a claim that it does not perform such a speed check on the network, users may switch to the rival network. Buyer power: Every service provider in the telecom sector aims at minimizing its churn rate (rate at which a customer leaves the service).Hence the customer enjoys a greater degree of bargaining power. Service providers tend to offer discounts and cheaper rates to ensure that they do not lose customers. Virgin media may be forced to renegotiate deals with the customers in order to minimise this risk. Five forces analysis though tells us about the microenvironment of the business, it is not enough to gain competitive advantage. A firm can get competitive advantage by developing strategies to create value to customer. Michael Porter suggests that company can either differentiate their product or service by, Differentiating their product offering or Managing lowest delivered cost. Competitive strategy options model Virgin media has adopted a Differentiation leader strategy and utilises this in its advertising campaigns. Virgin Media advertisement campaigns focus on the fact that it is UKs fastest network and that it offers premium content on its Video on demand services. In a survey conducted by Ofcom Virgin media broadband speed was found to be highest in all the service providers. Traffic on Broadband Network affect Speeds In order to create differentiated or lowest cost position it is important to understand the value chain of a company. Value chain analysis provides a holistic view of the company. It provides a framework for understanding the nature and location of the skills and resources that provide a basis for competitive advantage. Activities of a company are grouped into two Primary activities that generate a profit margin for the company Support activities that facilitate the primary activities The goal of a company is to ensure that the primary activities are performed efficiently so that the costs incurred from the primary activities and support activities remain lower than the price paid by the customer for the service provided, thereby granting a profit margin to the company. Virgin Medias Value chain: An analysis. Inbound Logistics: Virgin media has tie ups with BBC, ITV and Television show broadcaster to deliver their content on its network. Having settled their disputes with Sky network regarding television content Virgin media now has a tie up agreement with Sky network for their premium television content like Sky sports, Sky one etc. However the wholesale broadcaster fee of Sky Network is high causing a significant increase in costs for Virgin media. But Virgin media does not have to depend on a third party service provider for network and related logistics because it has its own superior network and in house facilities for network management. Hence it has a significant reduction in network costs. Operations and Service: Company is rated for its internet speed and its VOD service. This indicates that they have good operations throughout the UK. Their Web support chat window appears as soon as a net user starts browsing website. The response to queries was quick and informative when tried online. BT also has similar service however it was less prompt than Virgin media. They also have their support through social networking sites like Twitter and Face book. Virgin gives all options to pay bills. Outbound logistics: Virgin media gives installation and maintenance service to all its customers. Customer can opt for e bill or a normal hard copy. When order for new connection is placed it is completed within 7 working days. Any new subscription to any of their service is completed on the same day. Because Sky is a dish network, customers are required to take permission from the societies which can cause annoyance to the customers. This gives competitive advantage as Virgin service can be obtained through BT cable. Marketing and sales: Company is strongly advertising on internet and television. They are using social networking sites aggressively for their advertising. They have completely understood the need of the segment they are targeting and marketing their broadband speed as their customer winning strategy. Company also believes that calling the customers may spoil the image of company hence they have strict rules for calling customers. Procurement: Virgin has established a code of conduct for its suppliers. Best part is that company focuses on environment and labor issues when purchasing decisions are made. Technology development: With fibre technology Virgin media become UKs second largest telecom service provider company. They are unique in the market. Company is testing 100mbps broadband speed and will be operational by 2011. They are also trialing 200 mbps broadband. Company also have technologies to support web based learning and automated hospital care; with which they are ambitious to capture the market. Human resource management: Virgin media recently axed 2200 jobs due to economic slowdown. This will have a profound effect on its image in the employees. Company seems emphasizing more on employment cuts for cost effectiveness which will affect the morale of the employees. For cutting costs Virgin Media has outsourced some of its operations like billing and front end calling. This will benefit them in reduce expenses and increase efficiency. http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2205297/virgin-signs-network-contract Firm infrastructure: Virgin media is operating in telecom market with its giant network. They have 186,000 km nationwide fibre-optic network worth  £13 billion. They also have 157 telephone switches. Their infrastructure can support 70,000 calls/minute. 35% of the UKs broadband traffic is handled by Virgin media. This works as an entry barrier for new entrants in the telecom market. Suggestions: With sound technology and infrastructure virgin media has lot of opportunities to spread its network in the rural areas. Company can improve its internal customer relationship and boost the morale of the employees. There is higher scope of improving the logistics in terms of new connections being completed within 48 hours and compete Sky network. They can also improve their billing system by offering payment through set top box. Virgin Medias Marketing Mix: An Analysis Marketing Mix: Marketing Mix is defined as â€Å"The tactical tools that marketers use to implement their strategies† (Kotler 2008: 202). The four basic factors that we analyse the marketing mix on are Product Price Place Promotion For a successful marketing strategy, one needs to come at the equilibrium of above four tools. Product â€Å"A product is anything that is capable of satisfying customer needs†, (Jobber,D 5th edition :326 ). Virgin media has four main products in its portfolio. Television Broadband Landline Mobile Virgin Medias product portfolio is built up of intangible products making the post purchase services offered to the customers like customer services, help lines and value added content an important aspect of the Augmented Virgin Media Product. Virgin Media distinguish its product from other competitors like Sky and BT by using special feature like optic fibre cable and forms a total product. The core product can be differentiated in many ways Customers can be reached by applying following marketing mix:- Functionality: Virgin medias network is fibre optic network that provided support for high bandwidth and is unique in comparison to its competitors like BT and Sky who are still dependent on Copper based data transfer networks. This has helped Virgin media to gain customers attention as customer focus is now on high speed internet. Brand: â€Å"A brand is created by augmenting a core product with values that makes the product unique and distinguishes it from the competitors†(Jobber 2007: 334). â€Å"To achieve high sales, you need a powerful Brand Name behind it , which ultimately retains their customers through† brand loyalty(Jobber 2007: 334). Having an established brand name normally puts a business in a secure position in the competitive market as customers tend to focus on perceived brand value through the strong brand name. This enables retention of even the price conscious customers due to the loyalty created with the brand. Virgin media has Customer Based Brand Equity which is defined as â€Å"The differential effect that brand knowledge has on customer response to the marketing of the product† (Jobber 2007: 332). The Virgin Group started by Sir Richard Branson has a significant market presence in various sectors due to a varied range of products like Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines. This provides a positive impact in the market as a first time customer will associate Virgin Media with the brand values and market value of the Virgin Group. Managing the Product Mix Positioning and Repositioning: Positioning â€Å"A products position is the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes the place the product occupies in the minds relative to the competitive products.† Virgin media operates in three segments in the B2C segment. Cable segment Data Content Mobile Segment In the cable segment Virgin media occupies the position of a Market leader because of its future proof fibre optic cable network that has won it the â€Å"Fastest home broadband Award â€Å"for their 50 MB broadband services. Due to its superior network Virgin Media is able to differentially position themselves against their competitors like BT and SKY In the Data Content Segment. Virgin media occupies the position of a market In the mobile segment Virgin media is playing catch up to most other providers like O2 and 3 Mobile services. It currently has an agreement with T Mobile for use of its airtime under the brand of Virgin Media. Repositioning In Feb 2010 Virgin Media rebranded NTL/Telewest as Virgin Media Business. The rebranding came as Virgin media stepped up its effort to capture market share from BT which is the dominant operator in the B2B market segment. By rebranding the name the Virgin Media family is able to use the Virgin Brand name and improve its marketing capability. As Richard Branson has quoted â€Å"Good progress with network development leaves Virgin Media Business well positioned to expand its offer out to smaller corporates.† http://www.telecomseurope.net/content/virgin-media-branson-means-business Market Positioning Of Virgin Media: Ansoff Matrix analysis â€Å"The emphasis on product portfolio analysis is managing an existing set of products in such a way as to maximize their strengths. But companies also need to look to new products and markets for future growth. A useful way of looking at growth opportunities is the Ansoff Matrix.† Existing Market: Existing Product: The Market Penetration Strategy is used when a company attempts to capture market share by launching its own version of an existing product. Focus then is placed on aggressive advertising and promotions Virgin Media had applied this strategy to capture market share from BT when it launched its broadband services. It emphasised on advertisement campaigns and cheaper package deals to capture customers from Sky. Existing Market: New Product: The Product development strategy is used when a company attempts to launch a new product in an established market catering to its existing customer base. Virgin Media has proposed to launch its 100 mbps broadband service as an upgraded product to its customers to improve on its existing portfolio offerings New Market: Existing Product: The Market development strategy is used when a company attempts to target a new market with an existing product. Virgin media launched its broadband services with a fixed focus on home customers. Utilising its existing network and operational services it has re-launched its B2C arm as Virgin Media Business in order to capture market share from BT. New Market: New Product: The Diversification strategy where a company launches new products in new markets where it had no market presence at all. While Virgin Media was a diversification strategy of Virgin group there is no product or strategy currently utilised by Virgin Media to justify this approach. The intense competitive nature of the business also makes it riskier for the company to attempt such diversification at this point of time. Stages of PLC for Virgin Media: Product development: When an established company enters in the market with new product with new design and development, the sales are zero. Virgin media has not disclosed any information about a product in this stage and typically this information would be secret as the telecommunication industry is highly competitive. Introduction: When a new product is introduced in an established market, the profit would be very less and the cost of introduction of the product would be very high , also it will lead to a small growth in sales. Virgin Media has launched its 100 mbps Broadband service as test service in Coventry on a test basis. Growth: When the new product is accepted in the market company starts making the profit , this period of acceptance and the profit would fall into ‘Growth of the PLC graph. Virgin medias VOD services fall in the Growth sector as it has recorded a 50 % growth in 2009. Maturity: When the product captures the majority of its market customers, slowdown the sales growth. There is decline in the Profit level because of increasing marketing costs in order to remain competitive. Virgin Media 20Mb Broadband being second popular choice has reached its maturity stage and there is a slow growth in the number of new customers. Hence Virgin Media has launched its 100 mbps broadband service in order to return the broadband segment into the growth. Decline Stage: When a product performs poorly and there is a reduction in sales it is known as the decline stage. Currently in our assessment Virgin Media does not have any product that is in the decline stage. BCG Matrix of Virgin Media The BCG Growth- Share Matrix is designed by leading management consultancy Boston consulting Group (BCG) which allows drawing the portfolio in 2X2 diagram and thus analysing the product. The BCG matrix gives guidelines for setting strategic objectives on the cash flow and categorized as. Stars: Build sales/ Market shares Problem children: Build selectively Cash Cows: Hold sales or/and market shares Dogs : Harvest or focus on defendable niche After analysing Virgin Media products the portfolio of the product can be drawn as follows 50MB Broadband,VOD Broadband+Landline+Mobile+TV Mobile Services 50Mb Broadband is a STAR because that has been awarded the fastest Home broadband .Virgin Media being the first Quad play player in the market they got positive response from their customers, thats why TV, Broadband , landline and mobile Services as a bundle falls in CASH COW. Mobile Services has got fierce competition in the market thats why virgin Mobile Services falls in DOG sector. Promotion â€Å"Promotion means activities that communicate the merits of the products and persuade the target customers to buy it†. (Armstrong and Kotler 2009: 84) Promotions help to influence customers purchase behavior. Promotion also keeps people informed and educated about the product. Advertising plays an important role in Virgin Medias Marketing Strategy. Virgin Media uses different means to educate and inform the customers about their products like television, pamphlets distribution, hoardings, internet, direct marketing and newspapers. Elements of Promotion: Direct Marketing: In Direct Marketing there is a direct communication with individual or group consumers either by internet, mail, email, fax, telephone etc. Direct marketing is useful to communicate directly with the potential buyers avoiding any intermediaries. Virgin Media does their direct marketing through call centers, sales representative, internet or distributing the pamphlets. Advertising: â€Å"Any paid form of non-personal communication of ideas or products in the prime media.† (Jobber D. and Fahy J. Foundation of Marketing 2nd Edition 2006:225). Virgin Media follows the product oriented advertiser strategy. This strategy involves highlighting the product features, services, price through various advertising channels such as television, internet, magazines, e-marketing etc. Virgin Media advertisements have been controversial due to the nature of their claims.A campaign Truth Lies and Broadband was subject of an ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) inquiry due to the complaints from its competito

The Terminal Tale of Today Will Be A Quiet Day :: Today Will Be a Quiet Day Essays

The Terminal Tale of Today Will Be A Quiet Day  Ã‚        Ã‚   After reading "Today Will Be A Quiet Day" by Amy Hemple, I had an eerie feeling that something bad was going on behind the scenes. I feel that the father has a terminal disease and he wants to happily live out the last few days of his life. I think that there is conclusive evidence that "Today Will Be A Quiet Day" is not a happy story, but in fact a sad one. First of all, death plays a huge role in this story. Death is brought up so many times in this story one can only conclude that there is some kind of foreshadowing going on. For example, the very first line of the story deals with disaster and death. In the first paragraph the boy talks about what would happen if an earthquake occurred while they were on the bridge. He says, "I think if the quake hit now the bridge would collapse and the ramps would be left" (1202). At the end of the first page the father remembers a boy who went to his son’s school who committed suicide. Another part of death in this story is the mention of the family dog that was put to sleep five years ago for biting a little girl. The daughter had always thought that the dog had gone to live in the mountains, but when she finds out that the dog was put to sleep, she gets all upset about her loss. Even the joke about the guillotine that the girl tells involves death. All of these examples are h ints that there is a death in the near future. The fact that the mother is not mentioned throughout the whole story implies that she is no longer around to take care of the children. The father, then, makes little hints about his departure such as, "Who will ever adopt you if you don’t mind your manners" (1204). Although, this may have been a joke it is far too serious to let go. This is a serious sign of a fatal illness. Yet another sign of fatality is the mention of the tombstone, and this is tied directly, and significantly, to the title of the story.