How does the relative distance traveled by food products impact the Research Paper

How does the relative distance traveled by food products impact the price of those food products - Research Paper Example The research includes related literature. David Kault stated: â€Å"When it is not feasible to measure all the individuals in which we are interested, we measure a selection of them. Usually the selection is a small or infinitesimal fraction of the number of individuals in which we are interested. In the case of women's heights, we would measure a small selection of women. The statistical term used here is that we take a ‘sample’ from the population†. Patrick Westhoff emphasized the cost of transportation is one important factor affecting food prices of competing products. For example, soybeans that are harvested in Illinois are priced lower than imported European soybeans because it is cheaper to ship the soybeans through the Mississippi river compared to shipping the soybeans through the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. From 2004 to 2006, soybeans were sold at an average of $202 per metric ton in the markets central Illinois. On the other hand, the soybeans t hat were imported from Netherlands were sold at the higher $261 per metric ton in Illinois. The difference in the food price per metric ton is due to the increase in the transportation fuel prices. In addition, Moshe Milevsky reiterated fuel costs directly affect the prices of food products. In high income nations, including the United States, the consumer’s average food money is allocated for the reimbursement of the store’s expenses.... The three competing food stores are Wal-Mart food store, Netgrocer food store, and Netfoodex.Com food store. Research assignment The research includes related literature. David Kault (Kault, 2003) stated: â€Å"When it is not feasible to measure all the individuals in which we are interested, we measure a selection of them. Usually the selection is a small or infinitesimal fraction of the number of individuals in which we are interested. In the case of women's heights, we would measure a small selection of women. The statistical term used here is that we take a ‘sample’ from the population†. Patrick Westhoff (Westhoff, 2010) emphasized the cost of transportation is one important factor affecting food prices of competing products. For example, soybeans that are harvested in Illinois are priced lower than imported European soybeans because it is cheaper to ship the soybeans through the Mississippi river compared to shipping the soybeans through the wide expanse of t he Atlantic Ocean. From 2004 to 2006, soybeans were sold at an average of $202 per metric ton in the markets central Illinois. On the other hand, the soybeans that were imported from Netherlands were sold at the higher $261 per metric ton in Illinois. The difference in the food price per metric ton is due to the increase in the transportation fuel prices. In addition, Moshe Milevsky (2010) reiterated fuel costs directly affect the prices of food products. In high income nations, including the United States, the consumer’s average food money is allocated for the reimbursement of the store’s expenses. The expenses include the cost of transporting the goods from the farm to the entity’s store

Christmas card making Essay Example for Free

Christmas card making Essay What I would like to achieve by making Christmas cards with a group of 3-4 children at a time, is to see how and what they think Christmas is all about, their creative side and if the can write their own names at the bottom of their card. The learning intentions for each child are to either write their own name without help or copy it from another piece of paper. Again in this activity the children will have to learn to share the equipment. Fridrich Frebel believed and emphasised that creative play was important part of a Childs worlds and growing up, he also thought physical play, song and rhymes was a symbolism, and best developed though play. Aim: To get all the children who do a card to try to write their name inside. What the children will learn: The children today will learn how to write their name correctly, I dont think they will remember all of how to do it but next time they need to write it they will find it easier. What I will learn: I should learn to help and supervise children properly and to help understand what they should and shouldnt being doing at this age and weather or not they understand the way I am asking them to do an activity for me. What happened? I choose three random children who were wondering around not doing any other activity. I choose two girls and a boy, to come sit at a table, first of all their put on aprons the table already had glue and card on it with scissors and glitter pens the children did not understand straight away what I wanted them to do I sat down and tried to explain luckily I had bring in one that I had did at home with my brother who is their age. The two girls KL and CW knew what I wanted them to try and do I even said can you do your name inside when you have finished. This time I didnt have an early years practitioner with me but one of them came over to see if I was okay. The Stephanie Jewell 3rd January 2005 boy I had asked to do a card didnt want to he found some thing else he anted to do, so one of the early years practitioner gave me another boy DK as he needs help with his name. I gave them red card and folded it KL wanted hers folded twice so I did as it was her Christmas card. The children took their time at making the outside of the card about 20 minutes later I said is anyone nearly finished? they all stopped their work and said Yes but they was not, so I told them to carry on then a couple minutes later DK finished the front so I wrote the inside for him and asked if he can do his name e but he was very aliment that he could not do it so I wrote it on a bit of paper to copy and he tried really hard but we only got half of it done as he got a little upset because he didnt want to do it. The two girls finished as well as are older they started to write letters inside but they didnt make any words but I thought that was really good bas they were trying. They both wrote their names and kisses, the children letters were back to front or upside but you can tell what their name was. Evaluation: The activity of making cards with the children went better then I excepted as the children didnt argue with each other and wanted to speak to me one after another instead of shouting and screaming. I thought I explained what to do well as the two girls that I choose to do this got on with the work straight away and didnt really need my help until the end with the writing of their names. The child who didnt want to do card making made me feel as if I was doing some thing wrong but he didnt take in ant activities that day. The children left their cards to dry and the next day we put them into envelopes and they took them home. I would like to carry it out again if possible as I enjoyed myself as I was helping and watching them does it. If you were to carry out this activity then I would say have no more then two children at a time that way you can give them almost your full attention and this way the children tend not to want to talk over each other as there are only two of them sitting on a table. The children did learn how to do their names correctly even though DK got upset as he didnt want to write his even though I kept encouraging him to Stephanie Jewell 3rd January 2005 try. I think I should have spoke more about Christmas and how a time for giving and why we give out cards to people. I put down a mat on the table as the children was working with glue, and glitter what make a lot of mess in the hands of 3, 4 year olds. The children put on aprons to protect their clothing which was a good idea, they did make a lot of mess with the glitter pens and didnt know when to stop putting on to the card I had to keep telling them it was enough but they some times didnt listen. The cutting of paper made mess around the table. But all of the mess made was easily cleared up within minutes and all the children had to do is wash their hands. I didnt realise the children would take as long as they did to make the cards and even writing their name took longer then expected, I gave myself half and hour when I should have allowed an hour to do this kind of activity. When the children sit down they took a little while to get started. The planning I did for both the activities were helpful I did follow both the plans I think the planning is good to have but on the day it all depends on the children weather or not they want to do it or if they are going to muck about for you, the best part about the planning is to see if you can complete the learning intentions you set for the children and knowing what equipment ids needed before hand in case its any thing that they wouldnt have usually.

Analysis for Expansion of Starbucks

Analysis for Expansion of Starbucks Introduction: The history of Starbucks starts in Seattle in 1971.Three friends Jerry, Zev Siegal, and Gordon Bowker who all had a passion for fresh coffee, opened a small shop and began selling fresh roasted , gourmet coffee beans and the brewing and roasting accessories .The company did well, but things began to change in 80s. First Zev Seigal sold out in 1980.Yet at that time, Starbucks was largest roaster in Washington with six retail outlets. In 1981 a plastics salesmen noticed the, number of drip-brewing thermoses that Starbucks was buying from Hammerplast, the manufacturer that he represented. A brief history of Starbucks: Starbucks has always been the place to find the worlds best coffees. But in 1971, you would have had to travel all the way to out first-and at that time, only store in Seattles first Pike Place Market. 1970s : The first Starbucks opens. The name comes from Herman Melvilles Moby Dick, a classic American novel about the 19th century whaling industry. The seafaring name seems to be appropriate for a store that imports the worlds finest coffees to the cold, thirsty people of Seattle . 1980s: Howard Schultz joins Starbucks in 1982. While on a business trip in Italy, he visits Milans famous espresso bars. Impressed with their popularity and culture, he sees their potential in Seattle. Hes right after trying lattes and mochas, Seattle becomes coffee-crazy 1990s: The demand for great coffee allows Starbucks to expand beyond Seattle, first to the United States, then further a field. After becoming one of the first companies to offer stock options to its part-time employees, Starbucks becomes a publicly traded company. 2000s: The Starbucks phenomena continues. At the time of writing Starbucks has more than 15,000 locations across the globe. In addition to our excellent coffees and espresso drinks, people now enjoy Tazo tea and Frappuccino and ice blended beverages. Howard Schultz: In 1982 Baldwin hired Schultz as a new head of marketing and shortly thereafter sent him to Milan to attend an international housewares show in Italy. Schultz went to Verona and had his first cafe latte. But he observed something more important than the coffee. The cafe patrons were chatting and otherwise enjoying themselves while sipping their coffees in the elegant surroundings. It was an aha moment as inspiration struck. A great idea : Schultz describes that moment as epiphany, why not create community gathering places like the great coffee house of Italy in the united States? Could the old world meet the new world? If it succeeded , it would be marketing genius. By 1983 the marketing manager had a vision of recreating the magic of romance behind the Italian coffee bar and wanted to test out the concept of selling the espresso by the cup. II Giornale and Starbucks go their separate ways : When Starbucks coffee is opened its sixth store in downtown Seattle, the coffee was a hit , it was an immediate success. Schults, however branched out on his own and opened a coffee house named Italys largest newspaper , The Daily or II Giornale., Two months later , the new store was serving more than 700 customers a day , and it was selling 300 percent more than the Starbucks locations. Sell out : This is my company now. In 1987 the owners of Starbucks coffee company decided to sell their coffee business , along with the name, to a group of local investors for $3.7 million. Schultz raised the money by convincing investors of his vision that they could 125 outlets in the next five years. He also changed the II Giornale bare- breasted mermaid logo into a more socially acceptable figure. The company name changed from II Giornale to Starbucks, and finally he converted the six existing Starbucks, roasting shops into elegant , comfortable coffee houses. The era of growth : Starbucks coffee history was just beginning to take shape. Starting from a base of 17 store in 1987, the company expanded rapidly to other cities: Vancouver, Portland and Chicago. By 1991 Starbucks has also expanded into the mail-order catalogue business and licensed airport stores and further into the state of California. In1992 the company went public, and after the intial offering of public Starbucks continued to grow at a phenomenal pace that no one had ever seen in the coffee world before. By 1997 the number of Starbucks coffee stores grew tenfold, with location in United States, Japan, Singapore. Other business extension : Not satisfied enough with just a store house coffee, Starbucks expanded several other products and brand extensions. Offering Starbucks coffee on United Airlines flights Selling premium teas through Starbucks own Tazo company. Using the internet to offer the people the option to purchase Starbucks coffee online. Distributing whole bean and ground coffee to supermarkets. Producing premium coffee ice cream wit Dreyers. Selling CDs in Starbucks retail stores. The Starbucks shows how the once small regional roaster, selling coffee beans, became an international corporation with with more than 9000 locations in 34 countries serving 20 million customers or more a week. In fiscal 2004 , Starbucks reached a record 1,344 stores worldwide. 2. Objectives And vision: Commitment to safety and customer service. Low unit cost. Strong branding. Strong corporate culture. To increase the loyalty with the average customer visiting the company at least twice a week . By the year 2011 the consumer under thirty years of age should account for 35% of total sales. Increase in the target market without detracting from older consumers. To become the preferred coffee house established for the age group of the under thirties. To increase the net profit margin to 12.5 %. To increase the profit level by 15% per annum over the next ten years. Mission Statement: Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow 3. Features Of Starbucks : Instant Coffee: This is not instant coffee as you know it .this is a rich , flavourful Starbucks coffee in an instant . Starbucks had found a way to offer a truly great cup of coffee that u can prepare by just adding water. Other instant coffees taste flat and lifeless. Its made with the highest quality, ethically sourced 100% Arabica beans. The magic is in a proprietary, all natural process that we spent years perfecting. We micro grind the coffee in a way that preserves all of their essential oils and flavour. No other company takes this step, and it makes all the difference. Sales And Expansion: Starbucks always choose beautiful location and atmospehere where people can enjoy their coffee. It opened its first locations outside Seattle waterfront station in Vancouver, British Colombia and Chicago, Illinois, that same year. At the time of its initial public offering on the stock market in 1992, Starbucks has grown to 165 outlets. International Expansion: Starbucks is serving for all the coffee lovers in many countries in the world. Currently Starbucks is present in more than 55 countries across the globe. Fair Trade: In 2000, the company introduced a line of fair trade products of the approximately 136,000 metric tons (300 million pounds) of coffee Starbucks purchased in 2006, about 6 percent was certified as fair trade. 4. Marketing Strategy Of Starbucks: Starbuckss marketing strategy involves positioning the local Starbucks outlet as a third place(besides home and work) to spent time, and the stores are designed to make this easy and comfortable. The cafe section of the store is often outfitted with comfortable stuffed chair. There are ample electrical outlets providing free electricity patrons using or charging their portable music devices or laptop computers. Most stores in U.S and some other markets also have wireless internet access (although this access is not free, as it is in some independent coffee shops). The company is noted for its non-smoking policy at all it outlets, despite its prediction that this would never succeed in markets such as Germany, where there are otherwise few restrictions on smoking. Outlets in Vienna and Mexico city, which have smoking rooms separated by double doors from coffee shop itself, are the closest company has come to making an exception. According to the company, the smoking ban is to ensure that the coffee aroma is not adulterated. The company also asks its employees to refrain from wearing strong perfumes for similar reasons. Starbucks generally does not prohibit smoking in outside seating areas. Starbucks generally does not offer promotional prices on its products. It has a reputation for having pricey drinks, though as of early 2006 Dunkin doughnuts charged even more for a large cup of coffee ($1.95 vs. $1.80 at Starbucks). In late 2006, Starbucks announced that it would raise prices by $0.05 USD, at the beginning of new fiscal year, October 2, 2006. 5. SWOT Analysis: Strengths Revenue targets: Starbucks corporation is a very profitable organisation, earning in excess of $600 million in 2004. The company generated revenue of more than $5000 million in the same year. Brand Awareness: It is a global coffee brand built upon a reputation for fine products and services. It has more than 10000 cafes in almost 55 countries. Leading company: Starbucks was one of the top Fortune Top 100 companies to work for in 2005. The company is respected employer that values its work force. Strong Ethics and Mission: The company has strong ethical values and mission statements as follows, Starbucks is committed to a role of environmental leadership in all facets of our business Locations: Starbucks coffee shops locations are at convenient places like library, shopping malls and etc. Weakness Pricing: Pricing of Starbucks are higher as compared to the competitors. Business spreading: The organisation has a strong presence in the United States of America with more than three quarters of their cafes located in the home market. It is often argued that they need to look for a portfolio of countries, in order to spread business risk. Lack of internal focus: Starbucks lacks in internal focus as its focuses too much on its expansion. Control on stores: Starbucks have less control on stores outside the U.S, and also ever increasing number of competitors in the market. Dependant on retail market: The organisation is dependant on a main competitive advantage, the retail of coffee. This could make them slow to diversify into other sectors should need the arise. Opportunities Added opportunity: Starbucks are very good at taking advantage of opportunities. In 2004 the company created a CD-burning service in their Santa Monica (California USA) cafe with Hewlett Packard, where customers create a own music CD. Fair Trade Products: New products and services that can be retailed in their cafes, such as fair trade products. Market penetration: Entry into Asian market like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and also this market penetration is done even in several International countries. Global Expansion: The Company has the opportunity to expand its global operations. New markets for coffee such as India and the Pacific Rim nations beginning to emerge. Co-Branding: Co-branding with other manufacturers of food and drink, and brand franchising to manufacturers of other goods and services both have potential. Threats Coffee cost: Starbucks are exposed to rises in the cost of coffee and dairy products. Customers Choice: Who knows if the market for will grow and stay in favour with customers, or weather another type of beverage or leisure activity replace coffee in future? Copy cat brands: Since its conception in Pike Place market, Seattle in 1971, Starbucks success has lead to market entry of many competitors and copy cat brands that pose to potential threats. Coffee pricing: Starbucks have variation in coffee prices in developing countries Security: Security risk at crowded places can also be one of the major threat. 8. Porters Five Forces The food or beverage industry is one of the growing industries today. A company need to analyse both macro and micro-environmental factors. Porters five forces ,model helps the companies to have an edge over rival companies and help to better understand the current market. Porters five forces are the internal factors that have a direct impact on the current market and helps to affectively compete in the market place. The threat of intensity of industry rivalry The threat of the entry of new competitors The threat of substitute products or services The bargaining power of Suppliers. The bargaining power of customers (buyers) The threat of intensity of industrial rivalry: Small speciality coffee shop chains and independent coffee shops Costa, Nero in Europe; Caribou coffee, Van Houtte, Peets Coffee and Tea company in Canada and USA. McDonalds McCoffee Dunkin Donuts Nestle? The threat of new competitors: Starbucks has a very strong brand name which is built over a period of time. Any new competitor into coffee business need to invest lot of money for advertising and marketing to get set in the market. Economies of scale high economies of scale are required to compete with the already established companies. Distribution channels the top retailers have established powerful global distribution channels. Well known brand names and difficult distribution. The threat of substitute products or services: Choosing less expensive alternatives than the luxury coffee that Starbucks offers. Other substitutes of the coffee are the caffeinated soft drinks. The bargaining power of suppliers: Fair Trade. It ensures that the coffee farmers would be paid fairly for their crops Increasing number of speciality coffee buyers. Supply and price can be affected by multiple factors in producing countries, including weather, political and economic conditions. The company buys coffee using fixed-price and price to be fixed purchase commitments, depending on the market conditions, to secure and adequate supply of quality green coffee. Expansion: The Starbukcs will have power on its suppliers by how much the Starbucks expansion is done The bargaining power of buyers: Buyers play a significant role in the Porters forces and this scenario has a great advantage. Buyers are the individual consumers who do not buy large quantites and do not have any influence over the price. Presence of substitutes. No switching costs. High risk of backward integration. 7. Marketing Mix Strategy The Starbucks brand, marketing mix is kept value with very good upshot. The steadiness of the product goes well with its price for very good products, the place are known as beign very comforting for customers apart from if the free way is next door. The atmosphere is so peaceful for customers. The product, price, place, promotion show evenness in the reputation of being a clean and upmarket coffee shop. Price: The amount of money a buyer must give to the seller for a specific quantity of the product is the price of that product and usually consumers use this as an indicator of quality (Dalrymple parsons, 1986). Price and quality determines the value of the product. When launched, Starbucks was expensive and was positioned in accordance with that. They always tried to deliver the high value promised to the consumers. They bought the quality beans, gave effective and efficient training staffs, and moreover, made an atmosphere to enjoy coffee, meet fellow people and take a break from the busy life. These all justify and their pricing and show how price supported their positioning. Product: Starbucks tried to positioned themselves as a premium product in the coffee industry by creating a high standard, introducing innovative products and providing excellent service. Schultz knew how perishable the coffee was and they take care on coffee control, and hence carefully they monitored each step of coffee production. Usage of non-fat milk and introduction of Frappuccuino made a significant presence in the balance sheet of Starbucks. Moreover, they provided seasonal offerings such as strawberry and cream Frappuccuino in summer and ginger bread latte in Christmas, were introduced. Gradually food items such as cookies, pastries, salads, sandwiches made they way into the stores. Place: Distribution channels link the organisations product or service to its consumers; and in a producer consumer channel, as in the case of Starbucks maintaining personal relationship with the customers in significant (Brassington pettitt 2000). As demand grew, these store clusters made them able to manage the increase traffic and to keep their competitive position. In the same way they took care about the service provided in the stores. Howard Schultz aimed to unlock the romance and mystery of coffee in coffee bars, and he knew how important the role of baristas in achieving that. Baristas experience in engage the customers was the heart of Starbucks experience. Thus they differentiated in the market by constantly providing higher quality service. Promotion: All marketing activities that attempt to stimulate buyer action or sales of a product can be considered as a promotion (Shrimp, 1977). Starbucks used to organise a big community event prior to the opening of its stores. Artworks are designed to boast the each citys personality and it was used on commuter and T-shirts. They also recruit local ambassadors from new partners and to customers to promote their brand. They dint use advertising but they used those funds for acquiring key locations. Starbucks tried to establish a national dominance before other speciality coffee bars into the picture. 8. PESTLE Analysis: PESTLE analysis stands for Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental analysis. PESTLE analysis provide macro-environmental factors that a company has to tale into consideration. It is useful as strategic tool for understanding maket growth or decline, business position and direction for operations. Legal and Political factor: The factors that include the stability of country in which Starbucks purchases its coffee and other raw goods. Coffee is grown in some pretty dicey areas. Also they proclaim to be environmental friendly, so they have to cosider how to protect the brand aspect in everything they do form increasing the shade of share grown and organic coffee, for providing a living wage that makes it to individual farmers, to have production techniques with low pollution rates. Right now, Starbucks has two action suits pending since 2001. The law suits entitled Carr Vs Starbucks and shields Vs Starbucks are challenging the status of Starbucks California store managers and assistant managers as exempt employees under California wage and hour laws. Starbucks also only imports all their coffee beans, so possibly threats could include a change in import laws. The change in the status as far as imports could greatly affect numerous areas of production for the company. For example if it cost more to import or the process is made more difficult the result could ultimately change in price, which would affect the level of consumption for Starbucks coffee. Economic factors: Economic factors are an important aspects that concerns the nature and direction of the economy in which the firm operates. Since the relative affluence of various market segments will affect the consumption patterns, companies must take this into consideration when planning its strategy. The companys net revenue increased from $1.3 billion fiscal 1998 to $ 1.7 billion in fiscal 1999 due primarily to the companys store expansion program and comparable store sale increases. As a part of its expansion strategy of clustering store in existing markets, Starbucks has experienced a certain level of cannibalization has been justified by incremental sales and return on new store investments. This cannibalization, as well as increased competition and other factors, may continue to put downwards pressure on the companys comparable store sales growth in future periods (www.Starbucks.com). Social Factors As a result from the economic factors Starbucks closely following their objectives, the company has installed a list of principles that further outline the companys willingness to make sure that its affect on the environment is as positive as possible. These principle are stated as: Understanding of environmental issues and sharing information with our partners. Developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change. Instilling environmental responsibility as a corporate value. Measuring and monitoring each our progress for each project. Encouraging all partners to share in our mission. Recognizing that fiscal responsibility is essential to our environmental future. The importance of these guidelines is further illustrated by the companys mission to show leadership towards environmental issues. Starbucks does not just rest on its laurels, it demonstrates through participating and organising activities such as neighbourhood clean-ups. Further examples of the companys action towards friendliness include the recycling and reusing of resources in order to enhance the lives of the people around the world (www.Starbucks.com). This illustrates the integrity of the company as they can sometimes sacrifice the opportunities if they dont follow the company stands for. In addition to the waste reduction, Starbucks also aims to reduce energy usage and once again demonstrates this by doing energy audits and then using the result to change store design or procedures so that they save as much as energy possible. Technological factor: Starbucks has developed a web-site that allows its customers to buy speciality items and coffee directly through internet. Consumers can also research products, look up current financial info, current Starbucks store location and also see answers to some of the sites most frequently asked questions. Coffee in Starbucks is made with 4 special but simple fundamental steps, firstly, use the right proportion of the coffee to water. Second the brewing process is short: third, use flesh, cold water heated to just off the boil; fourth, use fleshy ground coffee. Customers besides having coffee and flesh food in the shop. Starbucks also provides to go service and bottled which have different tastes like hazel nut, mocha, vanilla, caramel, etc. All those beverages are flesh food are handcrafted and may be customized. Environmental Factors: Starbucks has a wide range of business activity. These activities help company to use numerous channels of product distribution. With the company operating in many locations worldwide environmental factor plays a major role in marketing decisions. Each distribution channel affected differently and the companys flexibility in the marketing plan allows the company to adjust their strategies to meet the needs of the environmental factors. Starbucks provides a work environment treating others with respect and dignity. The company embraces diversity as an essential component in the way Starbucks does business. Starbucks believe that the company should enthusiastically satisfied customers all the time and contribute positive to our communities and our environmental and recognise that profitability is essential to our future success (Starbucks.com, 2008). Starbucks owns and operates its own facilities, warehouses and retail stores giving the company control of product design, shipping and receiving. The companys strategy is to sell premium products and pricing the products as high as the market will allow. Starbucks brand awareness is very important and by introducing new products developing new distribution channels. Starbucks is one of the leading company in sales of coffee and coffee products in the domestic and global markets. The companys management policies have allowed Starbucks to grow and prosper as an organisation. 9. Ansoff Matrix Ansoff matrix allows companies to explore ways to grow business with existing products or services and new products in existing and/or new markets. This helps companies decide what action should be taken. Ansoff matrix has four combinations: Market Penetration Product development Market development Diversification Market penetration: Market penetration is done when a company penetrates a market with the current products. It is important to know that the market penetration strategy begins with the existing consumers of the organisation. Market development: This occurs when the market you are analysing make some sort of change or advancement. Using the Starbucks example, market development has occurred over the past couple of years as customers are becoming more health conscious. Preferences are moving toward different types of teas/drinks and customers are demanding more healthy alternatives. These factors have aided to market development, with different franchise popping up, such as Argos tea, which become direct competitor to Starbucks. Product Development: In response to the market development mentioned above, Starbucks is introducing new product developments in order to compete with companies aiming to offer customers more health conscience drink options. Enter the new product, Skinny lattes and low fat/calorie syrups at Starbucks. Diversification: Due to the saturation of U.S. coffee market, and the decreasing of their gross profit margin, Starbucks has started to move from having a concentrated business strategy to a diversification strategy. Starbucks has realised that once a market matures that it is too risky to b concentrated, and we agree that they should keep diversifying their business product lines in an effort to stay profitable, and competitive. They should diversify into products such as candy, bagels, and other food related products. Conclusion Starbucks has been increasing its debt every year, and at a pace that is faster than their assets are growing. This is why we chose the firm to slow down its expansion and its focus more on marketing their products. In such a saturated market as the one that they are in Starbucks needs to focus on increasing consumer awareness and to decrease debt as much as possible. In closing we believe that Starbucks can become even more profitable if they slow down their expansion and concentrate on the stores that they already have open. Starbucks, its brand and products are at the maturity stage of product life cycle(PLC). Change in a more and more competitive market is essential The Perfect Blend will give Starbucks a new, unique and future oriented brand image. (www.docstoc.com) 9. Starbucks Future: Name president for European operations Mark McKeon will be responsible for strategic entry and growth into Europe. Plans to open at least 400 stores during 2000. Enhancing information systems Starbucks submitted plans to build or renovate at least 10 stores around the world. These store are designed or redesigned around green building principles. This puts Starbucks in line to meet its mandate to have all new stores be LEED certificate by the end of the year. The company began converting all lights in its stores to LED technology in 2010. Starbucks estimates that 1,000 stores have undergone the lighting retrofit. The company expects this change significantly reduce its energy consumption. Starbucks bought enough renewable energy certificates to have 25% of its electricity generated by clean energy sources. The company has a goal having a 50% of electricity produced by renewable energy in 2010. 10. Recommendations Revamp the employee reward system Large percentage of staff are under the age of twenty. Benefits package focuses on medical, dental, and vision care, as well as employee stock options. Outside of hourly wage, and semiannual raises, there are few monetary rewards. Tighten focus on creating the Third Place environment. Site has a very high employee turnover rate Manager Promoted to a another site in hopes of improving their poor performance Site has very poor handicapped accessibility Conditions of restroom in each of our visits was poor and no baby changing area. Focus Profitability Measures On More Than Just Staffing Store is underperforming some high margin product segments Too high focus on minimizing direct labour as a key to achieve profitability Focus on high-margin items and profitable add-on sales By increasing pastry sales by 33%, store would realise a $16K increase in contribution.

The Ancient Regime :: essays research papers

The Ancient Regime The Old Regime took place during the fifteen hundreds and are conflicted by the enlightenment in the middle seventeen hundreds. The Old Regime thoughts and ways are different politically and economically then the enlightenment world. The Old Regime thoughts are based upon God and the church. The people believed that God was the ruler of everything and God was what makes things happen and work. People of these times had no concepts of science or reason. People believed that things happened because God made them happen. If you had thoughts that were different than that you had to answer to the church and there could be serious penalties to pay. During the period of the Old Regime, there was no other governing other than the church, which caused serious conflicts for the monarchies of this time because there was a constant battle over the power of the people, and who was going to rule over them. The church had the entire rule and the kings of these times would have to discuss with and go through the churches before they could make any decisions. The reason that they had given so much power to the church was out of fear. The thrown was afraid of making God angry so they would do anything in their power to keep God and the church satisfied. One way of making sure God was happy was to give the power to the church, this included money or taxes that were collected. Women's role in society was hardly important to the people of these times. Women in this time were not thought about very highly. They were thought of and treated as property. Women had it hard in these times, because men were so intent on their superiority over the women. There were hardly any times that women were rulers. In the late fifteen hundreds a man named Francois Hotman wrote Francogallia which is his best known work. In this work he discusses women and how he thought of them. He implied that they were not fit to be rulers or even contribute to the thrown. He discusses some of his occurrences with women rulers and how they all seemed to demolish what they had been given, and every thing ended up in destruction including their thrown. Religion was a very serious subject in this time, since everything revolved around God and the church religion was the largest part of people's lives.

Berlin Conference Essay

The Berlin Conference is a conference that was held in Berlin in an effort to reach and agreement among European nations regarding the distribution of goods and free trade in Central African Territories. The Berlin Conference had the greatest political imperial impact during the 19th centuries because the conference was where all of the European countries decide which pieces of Africa each European nation would get and this resulted in many new changes for Africa both positive and negative. The Berlin Conference had a political impact on the division of Africa by the European nations. â€Å"One of the main goals of the Berlin Conference was to secure free trade in the Congo Region.†(Finkelman, 1998). During the conference no African representatives were invited. Africans were considered to be uncivilized, so they were not included. â€Å"Thinking that Belgium would be easier to influence than the more powerful Great Britain, France, or Portugal, Bismarck backed up IAC’s (International Association of the Congo)†. (Stock, 2013) other countries eventually came to an understanding and the IAC got control of many miles of land of the Congo River Basin. The General Act, which was signed at the Berlin Conference, which secured access to the Niger and Congo rivers for all nations. â€Å"The basis of the General Act had the intentions to abolish the slave trade and insure Africa’s native population kept their morals† (Leopold II, 1890) and comf ort along with health, which was an extremely positive intention. Other consequences from the Berlin Conference were the economic impact over the division of Africa. Even though the â€Å"Berlin Act was greatly concerned with free trade, mainly in liquor between the European Nations, it is generally recognized as the first time the European nations formally recognized any sort of duty to Africans.† (Finkelman, 1998). Even though Atlantic slave trade was essentially extinguished, slaves continued to be traded in Africa and exported to Arabia. The Berlin Act explained that they  would have abolished slave trade to improve the conditions of their health and well-being. The Berlin Act also provided that â€Å"Trading in slaves is forbidden in conformity with the principles of the international law as recognized by the Signatory Powers.† (Stock, 2013) Nevertheless, this did not accommodate any provisions for enforcement. Therefore the Berlin Act has an insufficient impact or absolutely no impact on the slave trade in Africa. Although, ev en with their choice of what to trade, the trading industry boomed which is a positive impact on Europeans only. Other than the slave trade many goods were distributed abroad such as cloth, iron, copper, shells, jewelry, ivory, spices, and many more which had a positive impact on the economy due to many new things being discovered and traded. The economic and political impact unintentionally influenced the social impact of Africa due to the European and Africans coming together. Most Africans did not benefit from interacting with the Europeans. â€Å"Europeans were discriminative against the Africans because of their dark skin color† (Finkelman, 1998), leading to the Africans becoming the slaves of the Europeans in the Americas. â€Å"The Europeans benefitted from the use of Africans† (Stock, 2013), being their slaves because they are receiving labor without having to pay for it. With the coming together of nations there was great tension and racism between the two because of the skin color and many more reasons. In conclusion the Berlin Conference has the greatest political impact during the 19th centuries on the division of Africa by the European Nations. The division of Africa led to slave trade and loss of culture. The Europeans took over Africa and made it their own by having free labor by transporting Africans around the world to work. The Berlin Conference had good intentions by abolishing slave trade but it unintentionally led to many bad things effecting Africans but benefiting the Europeans.

Bringing Bias into the Light Essay Example

Bringing Bias into the Light Essay Example Bringing Bias into the Light Essay Bringing Bias into the Light Essay Essay Topic: The Breadwinner In the first part of this article it talks about a strong woman named Jennifer Allan and how she embraces her womanhood and breaks the stereotypical notion of women being houses wives. She got a degree from Harvard Kennedy School and has served as an HER consultant to Fortune 500 companies and is leading diversity efforts for PricewaterhouseCoppers ALP. She is doing very well for a Vivian but even with all her accomplishments Jennifer still associates women with families and men with careers. This is known by the Implicit Associate Test she took. Jennifer goes on to say she was eased in a family where her father was the breadwinner and her mother stayed at home. Cabmen Hire explains that having these ideas doesnt make you a bad person just normal and after you accept that it will be easier to look at things differently. The article also talks about skin color, gender and age being the only things considered biases, but there are a lot more Including height and weight, introversion and extroversion, martial and parental status, disability status, foreign accents, where someone attends college, and hobbies and extracurricular activities. All of those characteristics and many there can influence how people treat you and who gets hired for what job. None Are Immune In this section of the article there is a discussion of the fact that no one is immune to biases and lists the number of biases that people that have taken the TAT test have had. Some are just flat out ridiculous. The reason the TAT was created was to give people the realization that they are making unconscious judgments even though they are trained not to, for example HER professionals and recruiters. When the article mentions married men, single women, people with a southern accent the biases came to mind and it astonished me that I thought that way as well. Having these hidden biases can have legal repercussions and are dangerous for employees and employers if they are not handled right away. Millions of dollars of suits have been filed against companies for disparate impact and biases. Retraining Your Brain In this section Hire talks about what she did at the Royal Bank of Canada to retrain people on biases. Since 2013 1,000 people from corporations, academia, government, and diversity advocacy have attended the hidden bias training. The bank also has internal social media platforms that allow employees to talk about unconscious biases. This training has helped a lot of high up executives and recognize the biases they commit daily and correct them. Allan now even sends reminders to her managers to be on guard for prototype bias and affinity bias. There is also a suggestion to conduct blind reviews of resumes and see the outcome. For Smaller HER Shops This last section discusses what smaller companies can do to train their employees to watch out for theses biases. What one HER director did was create questions for her employees to see that it was more important to see the company and culture fit rather than allowing managers to ask biased questions. Janet Harding a director of cultural awareness uses role playing to train her employees at a hospital in Maryland. This goes to show that no matter how big the company there are always options of training for biases to not only protect the company but also the current and future employees. 2. I took the gender TAT test and I was a little surprised but the results but the way the test was set up made it seem as if they expected you to make a mistake. I took a gender communication class last semester and learned about many biases and how men and women see each other and themselves ND I learned a lot of about my definition of gender. I also took a diversity and cross cultural management class that helped me remove a lot of biases had and hope to better the way I see people. 3. The statistic that surprised me most from the article was that 7% of salaries for blonde women are higher than women that are brunette and redheads. To me the idea of hair color affecting how much anyone gets paid is just stupid. Someones hair color should never affect the amount of money they get paid period.