13 Kick-Ass Tips for Writing Fantasy Fiction

13 Kick-Ass Tips for Writing Fantasy Fiction 13 Kick-Ass Tips For Writing Fantasy From Professional Fantasy Editors Has there ever been a better time to be writing fantasy? Where once it was a fringe genre, now fantasy is everywhere in pop culture, from Harry Potter to the memes surrounding Jon Snow.There’s also never been a more exciting time to write fantasy. The genre is changing daily, as authors such as Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, and Patrick Rothfuss continue to interpret, subvert, and stretch it to attain new pinnacles. What’s more, the public can't seem to get enough of it, proving that there is a market for fantasy - and it’s a big one.So, if you’re an author, where can you find a place for yourself in today’s talent-rich terrain?In our search for the finest writing tips in the realm, we spoke to seven of the top fantasy editors on our marketplace. They’ve worked with George R.R. Martin, James Dashner, Brandon Sanderson, and many more of the brilliant authors who are re-defining the genre. Here’s what they said.1. Identify your marketIf y ou don’t know your market, you’ve already made a mistake, says Erin Young, an agent for Dystel Goderich Bourret, which represents authors such as James Dashner of Maze Runner fame.â€Å"Oh, my market is fantasy,† you might say, waving your monthly subscription of Imagination And Me. But is your story steampunk, urban, or grimdark fantasy? Is it for children or  young adults? Are there elves or tech? Is it set in the modern world, or is it a re-imagining of an alternate past? Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, for instance, doesn’t target Discworld’s readers, and no-one would instinctively group Harry Potter and Stephen King's The Dark Tower in the same category. Castle Ruins, art by Jeff Brown.â€Å"You’re absorbing ideas. You're absorbing grammar. You're absorbing sentence structure and rhythm and prose,† she says. â€Å"Read books with description or dialogue you admire. Read the books that are classics- they are classics for a reason- and read the books that are bestsellers and read the books that are award winners. Read and read and read, and you'll start to see your own writing improve.†To take specific action, Nieveen suggests picking the 10 books that you most admire. Then, it's just a matter of re-reading them and noting strengths in their plot, dialogue, characters, and scene structure.  Learn from the best - and then go forth and tilt the arena again yourself.What are your tips for writing fantasy? Leave them in the comments below. You can also check out our list of the 100 best fantasy series ever  for inspiration!

Common App 2017-18 How to Write a Great College Application Essay

Common App 2017-18 How to Write a Great College Application Essay After a year of stability, the Common Application essay prompts have changed again – I think for the better – based on surveys of 5000 teachers, students, counselors and colleges. This year brings some wording changes and a brand new prompt – and an old, previously discarded question that has been brought back to life. Significantly, the now â€Å"old† Common App prompts have not changed a lot – which makes sense since 90% of survey respondents reported that the prompts already worked well. Ideally, the new ones will work even better. Let’s take a look at the 2017-18 Common App prompts: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.  This prompt has not changed, and I think that’s a good thing. Many college applicants have some aspect of their lives that’s meaningful and important enough to share with the admissions committee. This question provides a welcome opportunity to do so. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced a challenge, setback or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Obstacles we encounter† and â€Å"a challenge, setback or failure† replaced the previous â€Å"failures† and â€Å"failure.†Ah, this prompt is so much less confronting, and so much more welcoming, to students who do not consider that they have â€Å"failed† but certainly have faced challenges in their lives. Not everyone is too evolved to see failure as an opportunity. And why require a failure to give students the opportunity to write about lessons learned? I like this change. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?â€Å"Questioned† was added to â€Å"challenged†; â€Å"prompted you to act† was replaced with â€Å"your thinking†: and â€Å"Would you make the same decision again?† was replaced by â€Å"What was the outcome?†I like this change because, while few youngsters have gone against the grain in a meaningful way, many of them have had thoughts that go against a belief or idea. The new prompt does not require students to have taken huge risks or to be activists. It just requires them to have opinions. Furthermore, they do not have to answer a yes or no question about whether they would take the same action in the future. Why require students to fortune tell like that? Instead, they can talk about what happened and naturally examine their role in that outcome. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.  This was a completely new prompt two years ago, and it provides an exciting opportunity for students to display their intellectual prowess or emotional intelligence. No changes for next year! Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization, that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. This is a fairly old prompt with a fresh take. Interestingly, I predicted that it would be deleted or changed significantly last time I wrote about the Common App prompts, as I saw the danger of clichà ©d answers talking about Bar Mitzvahs and Eagle Scout projects.Here’s what changed: The words â€Å"formal or informal† were deleted, and the word â€Å"realization† was added. Even more significantly, instead of asking about something that â€Å"marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family,† the prompt now asks for students to delve into their own growth and understanding of themselves, their relationships and the world.Both changes reveal admissions committees’ clear preference for introspection and self-understanding. I’ve been saying for years that the com mittees want to see self-awareness and a focus on personal growth, and this preference could not be clearer than from the changes in this essay question. Describe a topic, idea or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?  This brand new prompt is another opportunity for applicants to explain how their brains work, what makes them tick, and how they explore their intellectual interests. I believe it’s a way for the admissions committee to discover how engaged a student would be in both intellectual and extra-curricular pursuits. It will be a great option for any students with passion and curiosity! Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.  While there was a â€Å"topic of your choice† essay question in the past, it did not suggest submitting an essay the student has already written! This choice fascinates and scares me. With the emphasis in all the other questions on sharing so personally, why open things up to essays on Huckleberry Finn? Why give this easy out to students who can just slap an essay into the box that they wrote for an English class? I bet this question in its current form won’t last long.Also interestingly, when the â€Å"topic of your choice† question was eliminated, there was very little complaint. But after a couple of years, people want it back. We’ll see what the feedback is in the future. It doesn’t really seem necessary, as the instructions to the Common App encourage students to use the prompts to write about anything they want:â€Å"What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response.† As Scott Anderson, Senior Director for Access and Education at The Common Application, points out in The Common App Essay Prompts Are Changing. Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter, there’s really only one question in the Common App Essay: â€Å"Write an essay on a topic of your choice.† The Common App Essay has provided you direction, and your job is to take it and create your story. If your child is applying to college and wants support on writing a great response to the Common Application Essay questions, contact The Essay Expert. Remember, approximately 26% of all college applicants hire an admissions consultant, and your child is in the same pool as they are. You might also enjoy some of my other articles about college essays and admissions.

E-Commerce Cyber Marketing Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

E-Commerce Cyber Marketing Strategies - Essay Example Internet has become of the most phenomenon technological factor to most modern organizations, tapping the cost-effectiveness and affordability of the factor to achieve their objectives and goals (Krishnamurthy, 2006). As such, the internet has ingrained itself in the modern commerce and trade. Moreover, despite its rapid growth, analysts expect the internet to growth and advance further. The central goal of most organizations is to realize future threats and opportunities, and accordingly design a strategy. Commoditization of the internet has led to the development and evolution of electronic commerce, or E-commerce as commonly known (Hanson, 2000). Essentially, E-commerce refers to the concept of selling and buying services and products over computer networks or the internet. It incorporates technologies such as internet marketing, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, inventory management, systems, electronic data interchange, online transaction processing, and automatic data collection systems. E-commerce has led to the revolution of traditional marketing concepts, initiating strategies to enhance marketing strategies referred to as network marketing (Miletsky, 2000). This paper seeks to discuss and analyze four main E-commerce cyber marketing strategies: viral marketing, online advertising, permission electronic mail marketing, and search engine man agement and optimization. The paper also provides an analysis of their pros and cons, as well as a comprehensive comparison of the strategies. Lastly, the paper provides a decision-making criterion for selecting the best strategy. In marketing strategies, the most important factor to consider is to shorten the distance between consumption and production as well as reduce the lengthy circulation of commodities through numerous links. As such, the internet provides an ideal marketing platform, allowing consumers and producers to conclude their transaction in a click of a mouse button. This is the foundation of cyber marketing. Essentially, marketing is the communication between firms and customers with the intention of persuading the customer to purchase the goods and services of the firm. The increasing growth and popularity of the internet makes it an ideal target for marketing, supported by other significant factors such as cost effectiveness, reliability, speed, and accessibility (Bhusry, 2005). Consequently, marketers have come up with innovative strategies to tap the potential opportunity of E-commerce cyber marketing, including viral marketing, online advertising, permission electronic mail marketing, and search engine optimization. Viral Marketing Viral marketing essentially refers to the online word-of-mouth advertising. In this marketing concept, the firm provides something interesting that encourages others to spread marketing information about the product or service, cost effectively and quickly without much effort from the firm. Consequently, this potentially creates an exponential growth in the effect and visibility of the marketing message (Bhusry, 2005). In other words, the message spreads like a common cold virus form one person to the other. Cyber virus marketing is a very effective marketing strategy, and a successful campaign may present an opportunity of obtaining thousands of new every year. A prime example of a phenomenon viral marketing s trategy is Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com), the first provider of free E-mail services (Krishnamurthy, 2006). The firm began offering free accounts, attaching a

Summery of key business arguments for and against diversity Essay

Summery of key business arguments for and against diversity - Essay Example This paper seeks to provide arguments for diversity in the workplace, in addition, to arguments against diversity. An organization can increase revenue by improving the diversity of its team, which in turn improves decision-making and problem solving. Diverse teams have a richer and broader base of experience, which they can draw on, to solve organizational issues and problems. The presence of views from the minority can create a higher level of critical analysis of implications and assumptions in decision-making (Thiederman 1). Additionally, it also provides for an increase of alternatives from which the team can choose. Problem resolution benefits from a diverse workforce with dependency on manager who is diversity-competent and utilizes key behaviors of diversity management. A properly trained and managed diverse team is more successful in resolving work-related difficulties than homogenous teams. However, diversity does not work out if this diversity is not utilized effectively (Thiederman 1). Diversity also increases the ability of an organization to be innovative and creative (Jackson 1). These skills are best used in quality improvement, process re-engineering, advertising, and introduction of new products. Diversity can also help where an organization is serving a diverse customer base. For example, if an organization is serving Hispanic and Black consumers, then a diverse workforce will be better equipped to handle them on a personal level. Allied Sinai is a perfect example of this as they successfully negotiated the sale of wheels to China East Airlines, with the success put down to the presence of Americans of Chinese origin on their sales team (Jackson 1). However, diversity does have its drawbacks. Diversity can act as an impediment to effective communication, which, in turn, can dampen the cohesiveness and productivity of small, work teams (Mayhew 1). Spending time together can act, as a gradual way of breaking down these barriers to

The various market entry strategies Essay Example for Free

The various market entry strategies Essay Research Objectives: This research is undertaken to identify, analyze and evaluate the various market entry strategies in global markets. Specifically, the research will examine exporting, franchising, acquisition, merger, wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures. Furthermore, the research will also analyze entry strategies implemented by a number of multinational corporations operating in different industries. Finally, the research will conclude with the factors that need to be examined and investigated before entering a global market. General Introduction: Multinational firms deciding how to enter or operate in a global market must carefully and precisely take into consideration many critical factors including the local business environment in addition to the firm’s own core competencies. An entry mode is defined by Wild Wild (2012) as â€Å"the institutional arrangement by which a firm gets its products, technologies, human skills, or other resources into a market.† (Wild Wild, 2012, p.358) Wheleen Hunger (2010) stated that research had indicated that growing globally is linked with the organization’s profitability. This means that firm’s who are looking for ways to increase their long-term profitability, are now looking for profitable and appropriate markets to offer their products and or services. A firm can select from a number of strategic options the most appropriate method for entering a global market or establishing production plans in another nation. Zekiri Angelova (2011) argued that Firms that want to internationalize must decide on a fitting mode of entry into a foreign market in order to make the best use of their resources. â€Å"The age of globalization has both facilitated and necessitated businesses to move towards the internationalization of organizations of all sizes.† (Wood and Robertson, as cited in Zekiri Angelova, 2011, p.573). There are many different modes of entering into foreign markets. Each mode has its strengths and weaknesses in general terms. However, Zekiri (2011) explained that each single multinational firm would be more attracted to a type mode depending on their backgrounds, nature of the company, strategic objectives as well as the resources. In many cases, there are many obstacles that companies have to meet while deciding to enter other markets, for example; safety, environmental, packaging, labeling, patents, trademarks and copyrights, are factors that businesses depend on being successful. Moreover, It should be stated that the local business environment in terms of political, technological, legal, environmental, and cultural factors should be deeply studied to assess the attractiveness of the target market. This argument is also supported by Zekiri Angelova (2011) as he stated â€Å"it is difficult to understand the business environment in a country without studying the current politic al system and institutions, government policies, and a variety of data and other information on the country’s economy.† (Zekiri, 2011, p.573) Kotler Armstrong (2008) as well as Chung Enderwich (2001) explained that some of the benefits associated with operating on international basis are the increased profits and sales growth, the chances of achieving both economies of scale and location economies. Zekiri Angelova (2011) also added that many firms are operating on international basis for better opportunities and profit potential in emerging markets such as (India, China, Brazil and Russia) As globalization now is fostering international operations as nations are being more open to trade and foreign investment opportunities. Global Market Entry Strategies: Advantages and Disadvantages Exporting: According to many researchers including Wheleen Hunger (2010), Kotler Armstrong (2009), and Chung Enderwich (2011) exporting is one of the most basic and simplest entry strategies as it minimizes the risk and experiment with a specific product. Shaver (2009) defined exporting as â€Å"the production of goods at home that are sold in foreign markets.† (Shaver, 2009, p.1047) in other words, products are shipped from the home country to other countries for marketing. Wheleen Hunger (2010) stated that the company could either choose to handle all critical functions itself or could contract these functions to export management companies. The main benefits of exporting are its simplicity and low cost of investment and risk. Consequently, exporting could be seen as the first entry method used by organizations in order to obtain knowledge of the foreign market. Other advantages of exporting are increased utilization of the domestic plant, thus using idle capacity and reducing unit costs through economies of scale. Exporting also helps in diversifying markets, which reduces the company’s exposure to domestic demand instability. On the other hand, the disadvantages of exporting include high transportation fees trade barriers, tariffs, quotas, and problems with local agents. In addition, exporters have lower control of distribution and local agents. Moreover, Shaver (2009) noted that companies engaging in exporting could face the potential risk of exchange rate fluctuations, and could be subject to custom duties and taxes in the importing counties. Zekiri Angelova (2011) although exporting costs are relatively low compared with the other entry methods, to enter and develop these markets exporters usually incur costs to gain exposure, set up sales and distribution networks, and attract customers. Furthermore, cultural barriers could forces companies to modify or redesign their products including labeling and packaging for the purpose of meeting consumers’ preferences/tastes and local requirements. From on own point of view, which was not discussed by any of the previous authors and researchers, is that exporting is hindering a firm’s ability to quickly respond to the changing needs of target consumers. Franchising: Franchising is one of the global entry modes that has been widely used as a quick method of global expansion, most notably by multinational fast food and retail chains such as (KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks). According to Wheleen Hunger (2010), under a franchising agreement, the franchiser offers rights to another party to open a retail store using the franchiser’s name and operating system. In other words, by the payment of a royalty fee, the franchisee will obtain the major business know-how via an agreement with the franchiser. Franchising is most commonly used in a number of American service industries, such as McDonald’s, KFC, and Starbucks etc. from an own point of view, franchisers are constantly demonstrating their ability to adapt and modify their product offering to suit local tastes and preferences. This is especially true in McDonald’s, which offers different menus in different nations. McDonald’s brand is still internationally consistent, but service staff and menu choices can be modified to local needs. According to Roland Berger Tata strategic management group (2009) McDonald’s in India was able to create localized products where it did not serve hamburger meals as some religions in India prohibits the consuming meat. Instead McDonald’s served vegetarian and chicken meals that gained the favorability of most Indian consumers. Holmes (2003) stated a major disadvantage associated with entering global markets via franchisee agreements. Firstly, he stated that franchisers might find it difficult to manage a large number of franchisees in a variety of national markets. The major issue in franchisee agreements is that product and service quality in addition to promotional messages among franchisees will not be consistent or similar from one market to another. Another major disadvantage discussed by Wild Wild (2012) is franchisees can experience a loss of organizational flexibility in franchising agreements. â€Å"Franchise contracts can restrict their strategic and tactical options and they may even be forced to promote products by the franchiser’s other division. Dahlstrom, Duncan, Ramsay, Amburgey (2004) explained that when PepsiCo used to own the global fast-food chains Pizza Hut and KFC, it used to force franchisees to sell its beverages to their consumers which gained the criticism of many franch isees worldwide. Acquisitions: As Wheleen Hunger (2010) explained a fast way used by heavy multinational corporations in different industries to operate into a desired and profitable global market is through â€Å"purchasing another company already operating in that area.† One of the benefits that he clearly discussed is the synergistic benefits could be acquired if the firm acquires another company having strong complementary product lines and a good distribution network. Lahovnik (2011) argued that acquisitions have been the most popular growth strategy for decades in the US economy. He explained that the 1990s and 2000s also featured a markedly increased volume of European mergers and acquisitions. Economic growth, deregulation and the development of the common European economy accelerated the acquisition process in EU countries. He also noted that the number of acquisitions has also risen in economies in transition. Horizontal acquisitions are the most popular and most frequently pursued acquisition type. From the strategic perspective, the key questions are whether and how an acquirer will restructure the company, and how this will contribute to the acquired company’s competitive advantage. For instance, According to UPI (2012) Boeing is continuing to advance its defense logistics support portfolio with the acquisition of California Company Miro Technologies, a Boeing supplier. UPI (2012) further explains that Miro was a privately held software company specializing in enterprise asset and supply chain management; maintenance, repair and overhaul services; and performance-based logistics management. It will become part of Boeings Global Services and Support business within Boeing Defense, Space and Security. Boeings services and logistics business has grown significantly in recent years and Miro has been a trusted technology partner during that time. (Parasida, as cited in UPI, 2012) Specifically, the acquisition expands GSS product offerings for linking and fusing data from existing systems to improve mission readiness and to reduce sustainment costs. Some of the major advantages that acquisitions provide to multi-national firms are the following. First, Riley (2012) stated that firms could have quick access to resources both physical and human as well as potential skills and competencies. Secondly, economies of scale could be achieved which helps spread the risk through wider range of products and greater geographical spread. However, from an own point of view, the main drawback of acquiring other companies from a different nation is the clash of cultures. From instance, when Wal-Mart decided to enter the European market through Germany it acquired two `German retailers however, the two acquired companies had a totally different corporate culture which prohibited Wal-Mart from integrating its corporate culture into the newly acquired companies. Therefore, from an own point of Wal-Mart’s entry in the German market through acquisition could have been more successful if Wal-Mart carefully studied the various German retailers and appropriately chose a profitable German retailer that is characterized with a culture that is not highly differentiated from Wal-Mart’s corporate culture and can be integrated easily into Wal-Mart’s. Also the acquired companies should have given Wal-Mart a unique opportunity to effectively compete with the aggressive competition in the Retailing industry and offer a unique and innovative value proposition that is not offered by others. Mergers: According to Investopedia (2010) In the pure sense of the term, a merger happens when two firms, often of about the same size, agree to go forward as a single new company rather than remain separately owned and operated. This kind of action is more precisely referred to as a merger of equals. Both companies stocks are surrendered and new company stock is issued in its place. For example, both Daimler-Benz and Chrysler ceased to exist when the two firms merged, and a new company, DaimlerChrysler, was created. Schamotter (2012) stated that the mergers could benefit both companies in various ways. Firstly, A merged company can reduce many of its expenses. Budgets for things like marketing might be shared, while the new, larger company enjoys greater purchasing power, which lowers the costs of raw materials and other necessities. More often than not, a merger results in staff layoffs as positions become redundant in the new single entity. Merged companies can also share office space and eliminate duplicate manufacturing facilities. Secondly, Schamattor (2012) explains that by merging, the new company is theoretically provided with access to more customers. This is true if the individual companies had been demonstrably successful in separate markets, as opposed to roughly equally competing in the same one. For example, according to the BBC, the merger of the German automaker Daimler Benz with the American automaker Chrysler Corp. allowed the new company, Daimler Benz, to access markets in both Europe and North America. Merged companies can offer a greater range of products and services. Because these may be complimentary, the merged company may be able to capture more consumers than they would as individual entities. Moreover, the research firmly believes that merged companies can access a diversified set of intellectual capital through different human skills and competencies that could be used as a platform from conti nuous innovation and new product development. On the contrary, mergers could harm both companies if a clash of culture does exist. Just like acquisitions, a firm merging with another firm from a different culture could lead to decline in the firm’s performance, unsatisfied employees, and more importantly loss of shareholder’s value and decline in the market performance. These arguments are supported by both Wild Wild (2012) and Chung Enderwich (2011) as they both argued that lack of cross-cultural competence is the barrier to an effective and long-term mergers. Joint Ventures: In some situations or circumstances, many multinational firms prefer to share ownership of an operation rather than complete ownership. Joint ventures differs from mergers in the sense that in joint ventures â€Å"a separate company is created and jointly owned by two or more independent entities to achieve a common business goal. The partners could be private firms, government agencies, or public companies (companies owned by the government). For example, BP was forced according to the law in Egypt to form a joint venture with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has made our joint venture, GUPCO, an industry leader and one of the largest oil and gas operations in the entire region. Moreover, BP Egypt has another joint venture with United Gas Derivatives Company (UGDC), owns and operates the largest natural gas liquids (NGL) plant in Egypt. Wild Wild (2012) discussed some of the advantages of joint ventures. First, they argued that companies do rely on joint ventures to reduce risk. In other words, a company can use a joint venture to learn about the local business environment before operating solely. Secondly, they argued that companies can use joint ventures to penetrate international markets that are other wise off limits. Some governments do design and implement laws that force foreign companies to share ownership with domestic firms. Finally, â€Å"a company can gain access to another company’s international distribution networks through the use of joint ventures.† (Worley Worley, 2012, p.374) Among the disadvantages of joint ventures, conflict of ownership might arise between the two parties. Also Worley Worley (2012) added that conflict can also arise from disagreements over how future investments and profits are to be shared. Secondly, they are stated that loss of control over a joint venture’s operations can also result when the local government is a partner in the venture. Where governments could decide to nationalize the company and takes full ownership of the venture. Conclusion: To conclude, the choice of the entry mode has many important strategic implications for a firm’s long-term operations. Firms do spend a large sum of money and devote much of their time in determining the most efficient and effective way to enter the desired global market. From an own point of view, which is also supported by the work of Worley Worley (2012), Zekiri Angelova (2011) and Kotler Armstrong (2008) one of the critical activities that needs to be conducted before the entry choice is to analyze and evaluate both the opportunities and threats present in the local business environment of the host country. The culture, which is the set of values, beliefs and norms greatly differ from one country to another and could negatively or positively influence the firm’s performance. Wal-Mart’s failure in Germany was the result of the lack of intercultural competence. The political and legal environment could serve as an opportunity or threat for a specific firm. For example, political instability in a target market increases the risk of investment. Certain import regulations such as high tariffs, or low quota limits can discourage a firm to export its products to this country. Also local content requirements by governments could force multinational corporations to use local resources which might not be meeting the quality standards. Bibliography: 1- Wild, J Wild, K. (2012). â€Å"International business: the challenges of globalization.† (6th ed.). London: Pearson Education 2- Wheleen, T. Hunger, D. (2010). â€Å"Strategic management and business policy†. (12th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education 3- Kotler, P. Armstrong, G. (2008). â€Å"Principles of marketing.† (12th ed.). New Jersey: Peasron Education 4- Shaver, J. (2011). The benefits of geographic sales diversification: how exporting facilitates capital investment. Strategic Management Journal, 1046-1060. Retrieved from Ebscohost research database. 5- Zekiri, J. Angelova, B. (2011). Factors that influence entry mode choice in foreign markets. European Journal of Social Science, 4(22), 572-584. Retrieved from Ebscohost research database. 6- Roland Berger Tata Strategic Management Group. (2009). India: opportunities challenges. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=2ved=0CDcQFjABurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rolandberger.de% 2Fmedia%2Fpdf%2FRoland_Berger_India_Opportunities_20090706.pdfei=dj2-ULGmGczFswbcuIG4Dgusg=AFQjCNEwgEyYvYOggC_So6o_Mfx5S_CooQsig2=yoLcEuhmRXeawISVMaXBEg 7- Lahovnik, M. (2011). Strategic fit between business strategies in the post-acquisition period and acquisition performance. Retrieved from 8- Dahlstrom, R. Ramsay, R. Duncan, J. Amburgey, T. (2004). Cases in strategic-systems auditing. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=1ved=0CC8QFjAAurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbusiness.illinois.edu%2Fkpmg-uiuccases%2Fcases%2Ftricon%2FTricon.pdfei=mD6-UNzEKozAtAb-kYH4DQusg=AFQj

Intuitions Role in the Giant Spectrum Essay -- its effect on everyday/w

A tingling sensation in the air erupts. The body stops mid stride as the physical alarm bell goes off, awareness about every little thing resonates as an operation plays out that doesn’t require any conscious thinking, it just happens. It is the feeling that sprouts up in the presence of someone or something that just does not feel right. That discrete nudge to the brain, that ignites a gut feeling. Intuition. With intuitional decision-making there is no need for conscious reasoning as intuition takes over ones judgment capabilities. It is then that the question of intuitions role in our everyday judgment, comes about. In a multitude of case studies involving the latter question, researchers inquire about the effect of intuition upon everyday judgment calls in life and the work field. â€Å"Think before acting!† From the time a child is born they are unknowingly told to think with their head before making a detrimental decision. â€Å"Our culture is replete with cognitive maxims like "look before you leap" and "think before you act" that suggest that one's impulses or intuitions tend to be deeply flawed† (Lieberman 109). There is this essential ideal that intuitional based thinking leads to â€Å"Suboptimal† decision making; of less than the highest standard or quality of thinking (Lieberman, 109). When this thinking process takes place there is a lack in the logical structure of informational processing in the neurological system. In terms of economics, there is no weighing of the cost and benefits of certain deliberations. Psychologists, Betsch and Glà ¶ckner, call this process â€Å"recognition heuristic† (Betsch and Glà ¶ckner 279). The idea, that people make decisions based upon recognition; when they are familiar with something they know, that o... ...d UP, 1998. Print. Betsch, Tilmann, and Andreas Glà ¶ckner. "Intuition in Judgment and Decision Making: Extensive Thinking Without Effort." Psychological Inquiry 21.4 (2010): 279-94. Web. Campbell, Elizabeth Rose. Intuitive Astrology: Follow Your Best Instincts to Become Who You Always Intended to Be. New York: Ballantine, 2003. Print. Hogarth, Robin M. "Chapter 6/On the Learning of Intuition." Educating Intuition. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2001. N. pag. Print. Klein, Gary A. Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at What You Do. New York: Currency/Doubleday, 2003. Print. Lieberman, Matthew D. "Intuition: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Approach." Psychological Bulletin 126.1 (2000): 109-37. Web. Simon, H.A. (1987). Making management decisions: the role of intuition and emotion, Academy of Management Executive, 1: 57-64.

Amazon analysis Essay

1. Introduction Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 (Amazon, n.d.) and the website went online on July 16, 1995 (Webley, 2010). Amazon has its headquarter in Seattle, Washington and several offices on all continents. (Amazon, n.d.) At the beginning Amazon sold only books and after a period of development they expanded into a wider range of products such as multimedia products, household items, toys, clothing, jewellery, sporting goods and grocery (Amazon, n.d.). In the following the business strategy of Amazon is analysed in regard to a theoretical background. First of all, Amazon’s strategy is examined in terms of Porter’s Five Forces and Generic Strategies. Moreover, Amazon’s internationalisation strategy is examined including the obstacles they might face in their development process and how those can be overcome. Furthermore, economic theory is used to evaluate the aspects of market power and competition. 2. Analysis of Amazon 2.1. Amazon in Porter’s frameworks 2.1.1. Porter’s Five Forces It can be recommended to organisations to analyse the environment they operate in. This can be done on several levels such as the macro-environment, industry, competitors and the organisation itself. When analysing the industry the model of Porter’s Five Forces is an appropriate tool. It includes the five competitive forces threat of entry, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and competitive rivalry. Figure 1: The five forces framework (Tanbots, n.d.) Threat of entry describes the level of barriers that need to be overcome by new entrants in an industry. The typical barriers are (Johnson, Whittington, & Scholes, 2011): Scale and experience Access to supply and distribution channels Expected retaliation Legislation or government action Differentiation In the case of Amazon the barrier scale and experience is the most significant. Amazon is the largest online retailer (Netonomy.NET, 2013). As a consequence they operate on a very large scale which results in economies of scale and other cost advantages. For a new entrant it would be very difficult to achieve this from scratch as this would requires large amounts of investment. As a new competitor in this sector does not have those cost advantages it is very likely that they have to charge higher prices. Amazon is in business for almost 18 years now which is comparable long for any online company. During this time they were able to build up a lot of valuable experience which is likely to be reflected in their cost curve as well. â€Å"A substitute performs the same or a similar function as an industry’s product by a different means.† (Porter, The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, 2008) The threat of a substitute is high when it offers an attractive price-perf ormance ratio and when the buyer’s switching costs are low. (Porter, The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, 2008) Switching costs are very low because it does not make a difference to the customer where they buy their books, music downloads or kitchen appliances just to name a few. The product is either the same or very  similar. So customers have the free choice where they want to purchase their products. However, there might be high emotional switching costs as customers built up a high loyalty in the past. Amazon makes use of this with their Kindle for example. There are many e-book readers available but when a customer purchases the Kindle they are also going to purchase their e-books from Amazon because then switching costs would be high as they would need a different e-book reader. This is a mean for Amazon to counteract the threat of substitutes. Suppliers can put pressure on companies by either reducing the quality of the good or service or by raising prices. The bargaining power of suppliers is high when one or more of several key elements are given such as the industry is dominated by only a few suppliers, the product is unique or differentiated and the industry is not an important customer of the supplier. (Porter, How competitive forces shape strategy, 1979) In the case of Amazon the bargaining po wer of suppliers is limited. On the one hand the power of suppliers is high because Amazon depends from their suppliers in the sense that books for example are usually not offered by a large number of different publishing companies. The same is true for the multimedia sector. So those suppliers could increase prices. On the other hand with Amazon being the largest online retailer it is a major customer of the industry. Publishing companies for example cannot risk to lose Amazon as a customer. Customers can pressure the companies to reduce prices, increase quality of the product or service and play competitors off against each other if they have a high bargaining power. (Porter, How competitive forces shape strategy, 1979) The key issue in the case of Amazon is that most of their products are standard and undifferentiated. As a lot of competitors in the online market as well as in the high street sector offer the same or very similar products customers can easily play competitors off against each other or demand lower prices. Due to those facts customers have a fairly high bargaining power. Rivalry among existing competitors is very high as Amazon has not only to compete with other online shops but also with high street retailers. Amazon offers a wide range of products and they are faced with different competitors across their product categories. There is only one factor that differentiates Amazon from the other retailers which is that Amazon offers such an immense range of products. 2.1.2. Generic Strategies Companies can develop a competitive advantage either in having lower costs than competitors or by product differentiation so that customers are willing to pay higher prices for that unique characteristic. The strategies that are developed to achieve this can either focus on the broad or narrow scope. (Johnson, Whittington, & Scholes, 2011) Figure 2: Generic Competitive Strategies (Burgeen, 2013) With Amazon being the largest online retailing company it is clear that they focus on the broad scale and try to target as many customers as possible. The two possible strategies to develop a competitive advantage are therefore cost leadership or differentiation. Most of the goods and services that are sold by Amazon are standardised and undifferentiated. As Amazon does not produce the goods they sell it is not possible to develop a competitive advantage in terms of a differentiation strategy. As Amazon operates on such a large scale which makes it possible to achieve economies of scale and with some degree of bargaining power towards their suppliers it is quite obvious that cost leadership most likely to be the strategy that Amazon pursues that the moment. However, Amazon is always seeking to develop something unique mostly in the area of customer service. At the moment, they are developing a drone that could deliver small packages to the customers in 30 minutes or less (Amazon, n.d.). This unique service is a mean of differentiation to other online stores for which customers are certainly willing to pay a higher price. This strategy of cost leadership and developing new unique features can ensure that Amazon maintains their competitive advantage. 2.2. Modes of entry The selection of transactional corporation of entry modes was impacted by a variety of integrated factors. These multinational firms have the advantages of technology, scale and fund to entry a new market and area (Chan et al., 1992), for the party to accept, these multinational companies not only promote the development of economic and technology, but also bring a lot of employment opportunities for these new market. And at the same time, for the party of multinational companies which will extend a new area, and scale for their business, fuse with the local technology habit and culture can also  make the company become more diversified, bring more benefit for the company. Like the Amazon, which include 3 subsidiary corporations respectively are Alexa Internet, A9 and Internet Movie Database, IMDB. And its development strategy is vigorously develop enterprise diversification, make it more competitive and better integrated into the international market. In the theory of entry model, there have several points which respectively are Licensing or franchising, Joint venture, and Wholly owned subsidiary. 2.2.1. Licensing or franchising For the part of licensing or franchising, which means the franchise owners in the form of the contract, franchisees are allowed to be paid for the use of its name, trademark, proprietary technology, operational and management experience to carry out commercial activities. Since Amazon as an E-commerce sale platform and already involved with a number of product areas, then which can cooperate with other product firms, especially when they entry a new country of market, collaborate with the local enterprise and brand which was known by native is the fastest way to fit in these market, and also these Products manufacturer named amazon’s name will lead to better development. But the barrier of licensing or franchising is also exists, for example, these franchise and franchisee business ideas and products form may not conform to the principle of amazon’s brand, then these differences about management idea may be will bring conflicts and contradictions to each other. Then in order to prevent problem like this happened, Amazon on the aspect of international development should make full of investigation and examination before cooperation when they prepare to into a new market of country to avoid these problems. 2.2.2. Joint venture At the part of Joint venture, when an enterprise prepare to entry a new market, shall make a research about the condition of this industry in this market, whether have the condition for the development or already over-saturated. So how to competition with local enterprise, how to be accepted by native and how to stand out are the most important problems that Amazon should be consider, and with the object of joint venture may also produce interest on the friction. But through joint venture will save lots of cost and time on the part of adjustment period, Amazon can use a certain  technology, experience and talent which come from the object of cooperation. Reduce the risk caused by the poor preparation, distribute respective benefits at the same time, and also can draw appropriate management experience and local development, lay the foundation for the next market. 2.2.3. Wholly owned subsidiary In addition to Licensing or franchising, Joint venture, there is a better way of freedom to control which is Wholly owned subsidiary. It refers to a subsidiary fully owned or controlled by only one parent company, and there are exist two ways to set up subsidiary: first is set up a new firm from the beginning and construct a new set of production equipment; second is purchase an existing firm and its equipment. So Amazon should also develop like the other transactional corporations, through after a long period of survey and investigation about the condition of development in this area, through the acquisition of local companies or set up a new subsidiary to complete the integration with the local market, for example, amazon used to announced a $75 million deal to buy â€Å"joyo.com†, will be for amazon joyo, under a wholly owned subsidiary in China(Wang, 2012), which rely on the strong platform and group advantage of Amazon, so in the management and operational funds aspects w ithout having worry. But the through this way will spent a huge of money, then Amazon should planning in this aspect prudently, comprehensive estimation its operating situation and development prospect. Establish a wholly owned subsidiary of the company also need to take a lot of resources, so the risk what faced by Amazon may be high. One of source of risk is the target market of political or social uncertain or instability, and some risks like these may cause harm on company material property and personal safety when it become more serious, as long as fully understand the targets market of customer before they entering, the parent company will decrease these risks. 3. Individualized Pricing 3.1. Analysis of individualized pricing With the advent of online retailers and comparison sites, product price becomes more transparent for consumers. In order to effectively promote products in sales, enterprises must develop effective strategies of pricing  for the market, such as individualized pricing. In the age of electronic commerce, production can be product personalized service. So the individualized pricing also appears. Individualized pricing let consumers to choose the individualized products they wanted and pay the price. Although personalized pricing can enhance profits largely, many companies still hesitate that customers will feel the individualized pricing is unfair. There is a case about ‘Amazon’, which is an online shopping company. In 2000, customers have found that Amazon charge different prices to different people. For the some one DVD, the price to new customer is lower than that to old customers by four dollars. Amazon’s explanation is that this is a random discount for differ ent customers. Based on customer’s response to discount, company re-measures the price of products for each customer. From the result, the customer feels that they buy more frequently, the price become lower. This makes regular customers satisfied. It is obvious that the company want to compete with other opponents by using the strategy of individualized pricing. Today, customers can compare the products from different stores. Then, they can buy the necessary goods online at a lower price. In recent years, the only way to ensure efficient pricing is to use a dynamic way such as the individualized pricing. This means that retailers need to understand the value of customers and how to obtain the loyalty of customers. By analysis the situation of market and customers, the companies can make the efficient price of products to absorb consumers. Due to most retailers heavily dependent on competitive prices, they try to keep the same price or slightly lower prices than that of competitors. The companies can obtain higher market share. But some companies abuse the market power, they dominate market by reducing product’s price. This behavior will be prohibited by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which is a non-for-profit and non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom. It enforces both consumer protection and competition law. Therefore the individualized pricing has both advantages and disadvantages. It depends on how the companies use this method. Appropriately using of individualized pricing can promote activeness of market. If individualized pricing is excessive, it will become the abuse of market power. The OFT acts as the UK’s economic regular. 3.2. Government’s role Government has played a leading role in maintaining fair competition in the internal market of retailing sector, which requires competitors competition of fair, just, open, equal and orderly with rivals, then which means to follow the principle of fair competition, and the principle of fair competition, so follow the survival of the fittest, for the country of internal aspect, the government always played the role to maintain market fair competition, the enterprise operation and so on. But also in some other special circumstances, like in order to protect domestic industries then form a monopoly to resist the invasion of foreign industry, using economic and legal means to create condition for the internal retail enterprise in market competition, at the same time, promoting its development abroad when it has sufficient capacity. Competition on the international market, when excessive foreign enterprise brand occupies a certain market share of the product, the government should implement the corresponding protection measures to cultivate the local retail brands, this can better promote the healthy development of domestic enterprises. Government can make laws or raise taxes in order to limit the foreign-owned enterprise to enter the local market, but in taking measures should be multi-faceted and carefully implemented. Excessive restrictions could cut competition consciousness between local businesses moreover can form local monopoly enterprises, but if the limit of foreign-owned enterprise is not enough, it may only effect the resource and product flow in the market environment. EU retail and wholesale industry annual output value accounted for 11% of EU GDP, providing nearly 30 million jobs, accounting for 15% of total EU employment. Enhance the competitiveness of the retail industry is essential to ensure the European Union’s economic growth and employment, so in addition to developing their own factors of each local enterprise, the government should vigorously developing its regulation function to balance the market competitiveness and create a good market environment for each of the retail enterprise’s development. 4. Conclusion Amazon as the one of most largest and popular e-commerce should select which way of entry modes cautiously when they development internalization strategy. Fully do the preparation before entry a new market, through  authorization, the establishment of joint ventures or subsidiaries gradually penetrated into new markets. The model of future business will be global. Amazon operates in a very competitive environment as there is a high level of rivalry among competitors such as other online stores and high street shops. Additionally, there is a high threat of substitutes as well as high bargaining power of buyers. However, Amazon recognized that being the cost leader does not ensure having a competitive advantage in the future. This is why they try to develop new features in the sector of online stores in order to be able to add something unique to their mainly standardized products. This is their mean to maintain their position as the world’s leading online store. Due to the price of products has a strong influence on customers, price has become the key to ensure business and customer loyalty. Individualized pricing becomes more popular. Undoubtedly, some retail providers can establish the customer loyalty and obtain more profit. But the using of individualized pricing still needs to be supervised. Otherwise, it will cause the abuse of market power. So this is the significance of OFT and government. 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