Strategic implementation plan for Apple Inc Research Paper

Strategic implementation plan for Apple Inc - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that the strategy implementation is a fundamental task in turning the mission and vision of a company into reality. The implementation process of a strategy encompasses a series of actions and tasks which ultimately established the intended change within the organization. However, in order to successfully implement a plan, the resources required as well as the time frame required need to be identified appropriately. Apart from the identification of resources and time, it is also important to define or set a parameter on the basis of which the implementation process will be monitored. Apple is arguably one of the most flourishing companies of the world and has one of the most noteworthy brand names of the modern era. The new product launch of the company is an awaited event across the globe and customers have high anticipations from the products of the company. Furthermore, the financial performance of the company is also exemplary. However, the success of the company can be attributed to two main factors; the presence of innovation in every division the company and the visionary leadership of Steve Jobs. The company headquartered at California, USA operates in almost every part of the world. As of 2013, the company had 408 retail outlets spread across 14 countries of the world. The competitors of the company are Samsung, LG, Nokia, Panasonic and Sharp to name a few. The company targets only higher income group and as a result of that, the market size of the company is limited.... It is believed that the company will be able to tap that segment of consumers in the market who give high priority to the after sales service of a product (Binder & Witt, 2011). As mentioned earlier the company has been losing significant sales volume due to poor after sales service. Therefore in order to get rid of this, the company proposes to develop an online service platform where the products will be serviced. In this platform, any kind of software related issues will be resolved by the company itself and the user do not have to physically visit the store or service centre. The users need to connect their phone to the network and need to give the access of the phone. The service engineers on the other side will gain control of the phone through remote access and will be able to make the necessary modifications and restorations. However development and implementation plan is a complex task and requires time and resources. Functional Tactics The functional tactics undertaken by a company plays a critical role in the implementation process of a strategy. The first and foremost concern pertaining to the implementation process of any strategy in the organization is to convert the current strategies into actions throughout the entire organization. The functional tactics in this context is principally responsible for identifying the specific and immediate action that the company must take so as to ensure proper implementation of the business strategy. In this context, the objectives of the company are to implement an online service platform and in order to implement it the following are the financial tactics or the immediate action that the company needs to take. The first task and

Diabetes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Diabetes - Essay Example On the other hand, Type-2 diabetes, formerly called adult onset diabetes, occurs when the body does not make enough insulin or cannot use the insulin it makes effectively (ndep.nih.gov). Cases of diabetes have been reported with an ever increasing magnitude within the last two decade. This is in fact the single reason why many researchers have focussed their studies on probable causes of this deadly condition and how it can be minimized. According to the National Diabetes Statistics report, 2014, 29.1 million people or 9.3% of the U.S population have diabetes (cdc.gov). Fast facts of 2012 on Diabetes reports that of all ages, 21.0 million people are diagnosed and 8.1 million or 27.8% are undiagnosed (cdc.gov). However, the Epidemiologic estimation methods reports from various data systems of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention use surveys, fasting glucose or haemoglobin A1C levels, and self-report among survey respondents and by diagnostic codes were used to diagnosis diabetes vary in who they identified as having diabetes or pre-diabetes (cdc.gov). Generally, increased public awareness of the conditions through campaigns as well as enhanced screening hav e all contributed to making diabetes appear as though it is an epidemic. There are several descriptive epidemiological factors that can be considered when it comes to accounting for the differences in diabetes occurrence. One of these factors relates to lifestyle and brings together aspects such as eating habits and physical activities. Essentially, diabetes is linked with consumption of food products with high sugar contents. This has the effect of overpowering the gland responsible for the production of insulin which regulates blood sugar. The case is further worsened when the concerned individual hardly engages in physical activities. It may be argued that white collar jobs that leave people with little time for exercise is increasingly becoming a factor for the high cases of

Competition And Market Power Economics Essay

Competition And Market Power Economics Essay For a long period of time, De Beers has been successfully raising consumer demand for diamonds. The company is famous for its monopolistic policies during the last century, when it used its leading position to control the international diamond market. De Beers had a number of methods to ensure its control in the market: thus, it joined some independent manufacturers to its single channel monopoly, it pushed the manufacturers who refused to join the cartel out of the market by overfilling the market with diamonds, it bought and stored the diamonds of other producers in order to regulate the prices (De Beers Company). Pure monopoly means the conditions in the market, when only one company produces and sells a product that has no substitutes. The market access is limited and the company has complete control over prices. Thus, in pure monopoly, the market is dominated by a big enterprise-monopolist fully controlling the prices. Establishment of extremely high prices is restrained by the risks of a fall or a lack of consumer demand. Monopolist assesses demand and sets the price at a level that ensures the greatest return on investment (Larue, Gervais Pouliot, 2008). Monopolies are also public utilities, the services of which are used by any business. The existence of natural monopolies is justified by the fact that they best meet the public interest. In rural areas, such monopolies can be companies supplying agricultural machinery, chemical fertilizer, seed and breeder farms, businesses that provide repair services. The main features of monopoly are as follows (Larue, Gervais Pouliot, 2008): There is only one firm in the market, which affects the prices, adjusting the proposal; There are no identical products in the market; Controlling the market of raw materials in the industry, the company-monopoly excludes the emergence of new producers. Thus, the market of pure monopoly is the market of one seller. Most frequently, these are the governmental organizations, with the state monopoly able to solve various problems through pricing policies: To set a price below the cost for socially important goods to maintain their standard of living; To set a price covering the costs or providing a good income; To set a high price to reduce consumption. Returning to De Beers Company, for the last decade it has been undergoing changes turning into a more reliable company. A number of factors led to the necessity for transformation in the De Beers model (De Beers Company). In 2004 the company was declared guilty according to the 1994 accusation that De Beers had merged with General Electric to control the price of industrial diamonds; the company paid $10 million to the United States Department of Justice. Contemporary diamond industry is noticeably differs from that of the last decade, as it is now a complicated and continuously developing geopolitical notion. Today, apart from De Beers, the most important players in the diamond business are the African producer countries (e.g., Botswana and Namibia), Rio Tinto, Lev Leviev, BHP Billiton, Alrosa, Harry Winston, etc (De Beers Company). 3. Monopolistic Competition Luxury Watch Industry: Go to http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/05/watches/source/1.htm (Retrieved May 17, 2010). This is an interesting article on luxury watches. Click on the slide show in the upper right window (check out the prices!). Are these three firms participating in a monopolistically competitive market? What characteristics of the good make the market monopolistically competitive? Explain. A recent study by the Luxury Institute has determined the watches that are considered by the wealthy consumers to be the best out of the top 17 ultra luxury watch producers: Franck Muller, Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Breguet, though Rolex and Cartier were most famous brands. Nowadays, even not so well-known watchmakers take an equal part in monopolistic competition with the world leaders (Business Week, 2010). The market with monopolistic competition is characterized by the following features (Yomogida, 2010): The presence of multiple buyers and sellers (the market consists of a large number of independent companies and customers), the number of which doesnà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t exceed the one present in pure competition. Low barriers for the entry into the industry. This does not mean that it is easy to start a monopolistically competitive firm; such difficulties as problems with registration, patents and licenses are still present. To survive in the market in the long run, monopolistically competitive firms need to produce diverse, differentiated products, which differ from that is offered by competing firms. Moreover, products may differ from one another by one or several properties (e.g. chemical composition of watches); Buyers and sellers are perfectly informed about market conditions; Predominantly non-price competition; advertising of products is very important for the development. Companies of this type have a negative slope of the demand curve. In monopolistic competition, the output is set at the level of profit maximization (marginal revenue equals marginal cost). However, when deciding on the establishment of prices for products, a monopolistic competitor acts like a monopolist: the price for the goods is set at the highest possible level, i.e. at the level of the demand curve for products. Just as at the market of perfect competition, in monopolistic competition the firm relies on the value of the average total costs, deciding whether to remain in the industry or leave the market. Thus, if the company continued to suffer losses, it means that the average total production costs exceed the established price per unit, and the firm will leave the market in the long run. It should be noted that, since the monopolistic competitor is dynamic in the decision-making, it cannot effectively allocate resources, which leads to inefficiency of such firms in the long run. It is practically impossible to have a positive profit at the market of monopolistic competition in the long term (Yomogida, 2010). 4. Oligopoly The OPEC Oil Cartel Go to www.opec.org (Retrieved May 17, 2010). What are the organizations stated goals, which countries are members, and when was it founded? Is it normal for them to be successful in keeping oil prices high, or have they faced difficulties in keeping the cartel united in the past? The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an international intergovernmental organization (also called a cartel), established by oil-producing powers and including 12 countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador and Angola. The aim of OPEC is to coordinate and develop a common policy with regard to oil production among members of the organization, maintaining stable oil prices, providing a stable supply of oil to consumers, and benefit from the investments in the oil industry (OPEC). OPEC members control about 2/3 of world oil reserves. Their share in the world oil makes 40%, or nearly the half of the world oil exports. At different periods of its history, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries controlled from 25% to 60% of oil production in industrial countries (Hansen Lindholt, 2008). At the same time, the cartel represents a very unstable structure, based on collusion in order to establish a monopoly price in the market, which can be unsatisfactory for some members of the cartel; this finally leads to the violation of the cartel agreement. At first glance, the similarity of the cartel and monopoly is obvious. But the cartel very rarely (in contrast to the monopoly), controls the entire market, because the policy has to deal with non-cartelized enterprises. In addition, the cartel members have quite a powerful temptation to cheat their partners, reducing prices or actively promoting their product, which creates the conditions for the capture of the market (Hansen Lindholt, 2008). Failure to fully and consistently use the cartel for the interaction of oligopolistic firms is forcing them to conduct secret economic policy in price changes and in the delineation of the spheres of influence. Such cooperation may manifest itself in the form of price rigidity or leadership in price formation, and through special organizations such as patent pools. The rigidity of prices is the oligopolistic practice, when, even with changes in costs or demand, an organization is not inclined to change prices, believing that if it has to raise the price, others will follow, which will lead to loss of market share. In this way, the cartel stays away from changing prices due to the fear to unleash the war of prices. Leadership in prices means the practice, when the formation of prices for the product is focused on the prices set by the leader often dominant in this industry. This demonstrates the kind of implicit collusion, although its presence is usually not proven (BÃÆ' ¶ckem, 2004). Patent pools represent an agreement on specialization and cooperation of production, and the consortium the union of firms to conduct joint scientific research and joint construction of large investment projects. Both of these organizations perform cartel functions and are the basis for the organization of conspiracy to divide the market. Thus, the oligopoly is characterized by three features: there are two or more competing firms in the industry, so that the industry is not monopolized (OPEC and Russia relation); demand curve has a falling character, so the industry does not have rules of free competition; at least one large organization operates in the industry, any action of which causes a reaction of competitors (OPEC oligopolistic practices), so that there is no monopolistic competition (BÃÆ' ¶ckem, 2004).

Music Therapy and Depression Essay -- Music Therapy and Mood Disorders

Introduction There are many studies that show how music therapy helps people with mood disorders. People with depression can benefit from music therapy because through music therapy they can lessen the symptoms of depression. In the studies and cases that will be mentioned we can see that music therapy is effective through methods like group therapy. It is shown that people with depression that go through music therapy are affected in a positive way. Overview of Mood Disorders Mood disorders are a class of behavioral-emotional disorders labeled by disruption in mood. Examples of this are depression or extreme elation. Some people may experience periods of depression or elation but this doesn’t mean they have a mood disorder. Mood disorders are defined around different episode. Episodes are periods of time where someone will show signs of different symptoms that reflect a change from how they were before (Davis, Gfeller, Thaut, 2008). If someone is having a depressive episode and this last for a long period of time they may be experiencing depression. Depression is marked by persistent depressed mood, changes in appetite or weight, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating and changes in sleep patterns. These symptoms can develop at a very difficult time in someone’s life and continue beyond a normal period of mourning. People can become depressed because of a difficult life event or some can become depressed for no reason at all (Symptoms of Depression, 2005-2013). Some ask â€Å"what is the difference between bipolar disorder and depression†. Bipolar disorder is also known as manic depression. The answer to this is that depression does not have manic episodes like bipolar disorder does. Bipolar changes between manic ... ...ic therapy. Works Cited Albornoz, Y. (2011). The effects of group improvisational music therapy on depression in adolescents and adults with substance abuse: a randomized controlled trial. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 20(3), 208-244. Grohol, J. (n.d.). What’s the Difference Between Bipolar Disorder and Depression?. Psych Central. Psych Central.com. Web. 7 December 2014. http://psychcentral.com/lib/whats-the-difference-between-bipolar-disorder-and-depression/000906 Meadows, A. N. (2011). Developments in music therapy practice case study perspectives. Gilsum: Barcelona Publishers. Werner, P. D., Swope, A. J., & Heide, F. J. (2009). Ethnicity, Music Experience, and Depression. Journal of Music Therapy, 46(4), 339-358. Viega, Micheal (2014). Systematic Process [Powerpoint Slides]. Viega, Micheal (2014). Some Basics [Powerpoint Slides].

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Satire

Mark twain is one of the best writers to use satire in his novels. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author puts in a lot of angry and bemused satire. In this essay I will tell you some bemused satires and angry satire that the author uses. I will also tell you what I think it means. â€Å"Oh yes this is a wonderful government, wonderful why looky here, there was a free nigger there from Ohio†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ( The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Pg. 32). Pap said this right after he saw a free African American walking by. Pap also says â€Å"He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shinest hat; and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got as fine clothes as what he had†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (pg. 32). He says this after he visited Huck. So what is Mark Twain trying to tell us here? I think he is trying to tell us that the people hate to see a slave walking freely, with better clothes then they have. The white people hate to see a black man living a better life then the white people. He is also mocking on how the northern states have outlawed slavery, and how the southern states couldn’t do anything about it. This is angry satire because mark twain is angry at the people and the people and the government. Tom and Huck found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and they both got 6 thousand dollars apiece from it. Huck at that time lived with the widow but he didn’t like it so he ran away. The author stated â€Å"But tom sawyer, he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable†(pg. 3). I think that Mark Twain is saying that when we were kids we were silly. The author says â€Å"Now says Ben Rogers, what’s the line of business of this gang? Nothing only robbery and murder, Tom said†(pg. 11). Mark Twain is trying to tell us that when we were kids we were stupid and had a big imagination. This is a bemused type of satire because it is funny how the kids acted. So far I have told you some of the author’s bemused and angry satires. I have also told you what I think these Quotes mean. Now that you have seen them, the author used a lot more good ones in the novel. Now it is your turn to try to find satire quotes in the novel.

Music Role of a Composer Essay

A person who creates the music the music we listen to by writing a piece of music for theatre, radio, film, TV and computer games where music is needed is known as composer. Composing of music has played a vital role in the lives of composers making others to be considered as princes of music like Josquin and Palestrina yet others had unique styles of composing their music. The roles of a composer are to create music by creating situations in which sounds will basically be. A composer has to devise strategies to ensure coordination of elements of performers set into motion. This is achieved by ensuring that proper notation of music has been done in order to accurately direct musicians. The task of a composer is to write an original piece of music fitting for a specific mission after which the composition will then be performed by musicians. The music composed might be having lyrics or just instrumental. Furthermore, it can be either in the form of country, classical jazz or even folk. The work of composer improved a great deal between 900 to 1820. in the 900’s, composers used to create music in that there is a solo singer and choirs or more probably in an Organum style . In the process of change, music styles became more complex and multiple parts were used for different instruments and this help to bring harmony. The recorder, lute and the invention of printing press that brought about standardization of musical notation. Later the Organum was modified into the modern harmony of today by use of a figured bass to accompany a melody. The introduction of keyboard in equal temperament enabled different keys to be used without alteration. Finally, during the classical period, the composers fostered for loyalty or nobility of the time. The composers of the time were offered with creative tools to build many accredited pieces of music given that the concept of music was abstract and detached allowing them to explore the music industry. Josquin Desprez (1440-1521) was the master of composing in his time . He created his music with careful words which were of marvelous simplicity and sophistication. Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) was the instrumentals in bringing into being the romantic music era. These two men brought about great change in the musical industry and meaning to composers without fear of experimenting. References Fulcher, J. The Composer as an Intellectual. Music and Ideology in France 1914-1940. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005 Smith J. & Carlson B. The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence. Crossway, 1995