Television and violence

Business Models Essays

Business Models Essays Business Models Essay Business Models Essay Cost per call: Per 3 minutes: 55 As can be seen, the price of using the substitute is relatively lower than the mobile handset; hence this factor also works in favor of the fixed landlines market. AS of 1999, Market Share of Landlines: 60. 38/ (exhibit 1) Growth rate of Landlines: 1. 5% From the market share it can be gauged that the customers of the fixed landlines were satisfied with the performance of the fixed landlines and it was exhibiting slow and steady growth. Substitutes like Pager and internet communication wasnt high at the moment. Bargaining power of suppliers: Since, the suppliers are government supplying spectrum and also because spectrum is a rare natural asset, bargaining power of supplier is high. Due to strong factors like lobbying by corporate and other government regulations, the bargaining power of supplier of spectrum, the government would always remain strong. The other suppliers, which are the manufacturing partners, also have high bargaining power as the carrier operators dont have their own manufacturing operations and hence rely on these suppliers big time. Bargaining power of buyers: Many network providers (5 in number) give the buyers enough opportunity to switch twine operators making their bargaining power high The telecoms business by the end of 1999, became a highly volume dependent business. Also, there was a huge decline in Average Revenue Per User (ARPA) of the customers which also meant the operators had to fight on volumes. This definitely made the bargaining power if buyers high. Threat of new entrants: High capital expenditures meant the entrants had to have deep pockets before entering the industry. Deregulation of the industry was done at a fast pace which lead to a large number of foreign carriers, and competition increased many times. But as mentioned, the market was soon moving towards saturation due to maturity which could hence see lower new entrants in the future but for the time, the threat of new entrants could be considered high due to enormous growth opportunity. 2 3 Intensity of rivalry: The structure of competition Dotcom 50%, 13% Did, DID 8%, J Phone 14% Tuck 7%. Hence, implying higher rivalry since the competition structure is concentrated and not fragmented. The structure of industry costs Industries with high fixed costs encourage competitors to fill unused capacity by price cutting. Cape/Sales ratio is 25% implying high fixed cost component which leads to higher competition intensity. Degree of differentiation Since the telecoms services are standardized, the degree of differentiation is less thereby suggesting a higher rivalry intensity. Switching costs rivalry is increased where buyers have low switching costs I. E. There is a low cost associated with the decision to buy a product from an alternative supplier Exit barriers here barriers to leaving an industry are high then competitors tend to exhibit greater rivalry. Overall, analyzing the industry forces, one can easily see the wireless telecoms industry is not attractive at the time of the launch of the I-mode services. 4 Q (a) How did Dotcom create distinct value at low cost? Dotcom created distinct value by the following strategic choices which they made: Active partnering with handset manufacturers and information providers lead them to create a Win-win partnership network. They shared the technology and know with partners to help them stay ahead of competition. Dotcom adopted c-HTML for its new service, which is compact version of HTML. Displayed on the new Dotcom service. For subscription only websites, Dotcom collected fees as part of its monthly bill. It saved transaction cost and time to customer. Deregulation has lead to entry of many equipment manufacturers. It resulted into high competition among them and low cost. Unlike mobile services, charges were based on amount of data transmitted, rather than time of usage. Dotcom didnt purchase content providers but accredited official websites and mobile phones to be used with new service. Buying content providers could have imposed more fixed cost on Dotcom. They had secondary sources of revenue like advertisements on on mode. They could therefore provide services to customers at subsidized rates. Further the advertisement business attracted addition content providers to the network. They had an established distribution network which they used to deliver mode phones and services at small marginal costs. All these choices lead Dotcom to differentiate itself sufficiently from its competitors and lead to higher WET of the customers hence creating value. Q (B) How did Dotcom Combine the strength of Mobile Phone and PC Internet? Dotcom combined the strength of mobiles (Portability) and PC Internet (Information on web) in I -Mode. Dotcom collaborated with Sun Microsystems developing a new application that allowed Video games and financial services on I-mode. Both PCs as well as mobile phones. Moreover, I-mode was launched at a time when most telecoms operators were focusing on technology races and price competition over voice based wireless devices. Regular mobile telephony had reached a high level of sophistication, but it offered few data based services such as e-mail, news and games and transaction capabilities. The I-mode succeeded in bringing together the key features of both these industries and hence created unique utility. Q(C) How did the value curve of Dotcom Differ from Mobile phone and Internet? Value Curve for mobile phones and PC internet: Value Price Youth Focus Customized service Ease of use Voice call and video telephony Penetration rate Access to internet (games, email, news etc) 70 50 20 10 Mobile Phone Low High Not available PC Internet Available Mobile Fig: value curves 5 Difference between I-mode dotcom value curve and those above: The value curves of the general mobile phone and the PC internet are shown graphically above. BY combining the key advantages of the two industries of cell phone and PC internet, the Dotcom, with its I-mode service, created a totally different value curve for itself. For the a small premium of 25% more than regular phones, the users could buy mode handsets. It gave the users access to I-mode network through a monthly rental and access to subscription sites by extra fees. The value curve of the I-mode dotcom handsets would the best features of both mobiles and PC internet, although the price would be higher than the mobile phones due to extra fees. It has high ease of use, youth focus and customized service, making it the best value curve available at the time. The prices set for the content sites were benchmarks against weekly magazines most Japanese pick up, hence the customers loud shift from magazines to the online content service, leading to no extra cost to them actually. Q) How did Dotcom make profits out of its I-Mode services? We have explained this answer in two ways, first by explaining the business model of Dotcom I-mode and second by the Blue Ocean Idea Index. Blue Ocean Idea Index BOO Index Utility Cost Adoption Dotcom I-Mode ANT Doctors I-mode was launched in Japan at a time when most telecoms operators were focused on voice based wireless devices. I-Mode was launched to offer the Internet on cell phones. The I-mode service brought together the key advantages of he cell phone industry and the PC internet industry. This created unique and superior buyer utility. The services offered by the I-mode were made available at a price which was accessible to the mass of buyers. The various fees/charges involved were in a zone where it reached the masses quickly. ANT Dotcom also worked hard to obtain the capabilities needed to deliver the service within its cost target in order to turn a profit. By creating a good partnership network with its manufacturing partners, the company achieved its target costs. Also, collaborative arrangements with key foreign partners reduced developmental costs. Finally, a special team was created with young people and a new head was given mandate and autonomy and the team head held open discussions with the team members on how to create the new market for mobile 6 data communications. All this created a favorable corporate environment for the adoption of I-mode. As explained above, the I-mode service passed all four criteria on the BOO index, hence it was able to capture market and generate huge revenues and profits Business Model of Dotcom I-mode 7 Dotcom made several strategic choices to help it create and capture value to make refits out of I-mode project. The strategic choice lead to important consequences which lead to more tangible results and created a value loop leading to more profits. The important choice of accreditation of official websites and phones to be used with the new service lead to high volumes of customers and which lead to more content which lead to more customers and this formed a virtuous circle. The choice of autonomous team made of young employees and appointment of a new dynamic head of the team lead to more innovation which lead to a better product, leading to an increase in the WET of the customers. The choice of using widely adopted technologies lead to easy flow and conversion of data which lead to more easy partnering with content providers and hence lower costs to them. Partnerships with Sun and Simian lead to lower development costs and faster launch time leading to more reliability, eventually leading to more volumes and higher profits. Electronic concierge along with many other choices led to easy to use products, which lead to higher acceptability among the customers and hence higher volumes and higher pay for the customers and hence higher revenues and profits. 8

Are Economic Sanctions A Humane Alternative To War or Are They Simply Essay

Are Economic Sanctions A Humane Alternative To War or Are They Simply a Tool of Coercion - Essay Example Some sanctions, such as that placed upon South Africa during the 1980's, have proven very successful; others, for example the one waged upon Cuba by the United States, have proved to be singularly unproductive and even harmful to the sanctioning nation. In between these poles are examples such as that of Iraq, where various kinds of sanctions were tried over the years before war finally ended the impasse. These three examples are also interesting because each represents a different kind of sanctioning body. International, unilateral, and consumer bodies were involved in Iraq, Cuba and South Africa respectively. As well as considering the role each group plays in creating and developing the sanctions, it is also necessary to consider whether economic sanctions actually prevent military action, whether they help or hinder regime change, and whether there are any better alternatives to the current system of economic sanctions, with specific reference to 'Smart' or targeted sanctions. Wikipedia also notes that: "Economic sanctions are frequently retaliatory in nature". Some consider that there are three general policy objectives which make the application of economic sanctions useful. The national security objectives also can be applied to international security, such as that enforced by the UN. Clearly, the first two categories are the most well known, but nations may impose sanctions for economic situations, sometimes in connection with the WTO. The question of who approves and enforces these sanctions also makes a considerable difference when examining the impact of sanctions upon all of the countries involved, and why, is also relevant. Countries usually apply economic sanctions as a diplomatic measure between condemning a certain regime and taking military action: It has become almost a diplomatic necessity to level sanctions prior to military intervention to show that all other options have been exhausted. (Slate.com) It is therefore clear that some economic sanctions are put in place as an appeasement measure to other countries before invasion takes place. Economic sanctions are popular because they offer what appears to be a proportional response to challenges in which the interests at stake are less than vitalthey thus satisfy a domestic political need to do something and reinforce a commitment. (Haass) There is no unanimous opinion on why sanctions are a valid way of controlling another country's government. While the late Pope was firmly opposed to the use of sanctions, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops considered sanctions to be a "Non-military alternative to the terrible options of war or indifference" (usaengage). Whether

Marine Finance and Insurance - Coursework 3 Essay

Marine Finance and Insurance - Coursework 3 - Essay Example In this particular case, no tax rate is given. 7Capital investment appraisal or capital budgeting is primarily concerned with incremental cash flows therefore depreciation should be added back to arrive at the projected cash flow from operations, because there is no actual cash outflow for depreciation (Brigham, et al, 1999). 3The discounted cash flows are the resulting cash flows after applying the cost of capital which is 14% or , projected cash flow during the year/ (1.14)t, where t represents the time or nth year, 1 is constant, and .14 or 14% is Tower’s cost of capital. To illustrate: Discounted Cash Flow for the first year is computed as: 2,890,000.00/ (1.14)1. For the second year, it is, 6,370,000.00/ (1.14)2, and so on until the sixth year. We will use the discounted cash flows in calculating the discounted payback period and the profitability index or PI (Gapenski, et al, 1999). Regular Payback Method. This method of appraising investment tells the number of operating years needed to recover the initial investment or cash outlay. It is the number of years required until the accumulated cash inflows will equal to the amount of the initial investment. The exact payback period is computed using the formula: Payback = Year before full recovery + (Unrecovered Cost at the start of Year/Cash Flow during the Year). If the capital is recovered within the shortest possible time, then this is good for the company (Brigham et al 1999). If the payback period is less than the companys required payback period for the investment, the proposal is accepted, otherwise it is rejected. However, this method does not consider significant cash flows or profit after the payback period. Therefore, this could not be a sound basis for deciding on the profitability of the investment (Bucklery 1996). For Towers, it will take 3 years before full recovery of proposed investment, total accumulated inflows

American Colonies Political Science Research Paper

American Colonies Political Science - Research Paper Example The American Revolution started in the latter half of the 18th century and spanned a total of ten years from 1775-1785. It was a political revolution which resulted in the merging of the thirteen North American British colonies to form the United States of America. The upheaval and political unrest sparked by the series of high taxes imposed by the British, lack of colonial representation in the British government and the enforcement of illegitimate Laws, were some of the reasons why England never would have held onto the United States1. Overview of British Empire: The British Empire at its peak was the most influential and massive empire in world history, at one time it was designated as a global power. The extensiveness of the empire can be estimated from the fact that it was referred to as ‘the empire On which the sun never sets’. This was because the Empire spanned an extensive area around the globe which ensured that at any given time at least one of the colonies ha d the sun shining on it. The European age of discovery, characterized by global expeditions of Spain and Portugal, resulted in the formation of British Empire. Many historians believe that by 1921, the British were ruling a population of over 550 million people, which accounts for about quarter of the world’s population. ... ion to rule quarter of the world and they were merely looking for appropriate places to send their convicts to, searching for gold and trying to establish trade relations. However, during the process of attaining these objectives, British soon discovered that they rule approximately quarter of the Earth’s land area. By 1970, the extensive British Empire also consisted of thirteen American colonies extending from Georgia to New Hampshire.2 American Revolution: The British would never have been able to hold on to its colonies especially the American colonies even if it really wanted to because of many reasons such as the lack of elected representation in the British Parliament. The colonial rule research helped me identify the major problems Britain was facing while it was governing America. The era of American Revolution started in the year 1763, and coincided with the British victory at the French and Indian War. The British victory eliminated the threat which the American col onies had from the French military forces. Soon after the War ended, British Parliament expressed the desire to increase the amount of money that the colonies were paying for protection. Therefore, British imposed a series of high taxes and certain other Laws in an attempt to strengthen its authority on the colonies. Ironically, these attempts proved to be the precursors for political upheaval and unrest. On the other hand, American colonies lacked representation in the government which inevitably led to insecurity among the Americans. Many colonists believed that their right and interests as Englishmen were violated by the enforcement of a series of illegitimate Laws. By 1772, hatred against the governing British Parliament had prevailed to the extent that colonists began to form Committees of

Muffin Break Marketing plan and Financial considerations

Muffin Break Marketing plan and Financial considerations Muffin Break will begin its operations as on January 2010 under the corporation named Tea-stores Inc. This would be a start-up bakery and coffee retail establishment which would be located on MM Alam road. Muffin Break would be offering coffee from various countries and there would be array of pastry products available, these would attract a strong customer base and offer the residents of Lahore a variety in tastes. Muffin Break aim to be a strong player in the restaurant industry of Lahore, this would be due to the experience of the owners and due to the low competition in the market. Muffin Break would be offering its products at a competitive price to meet the demands of the middle-to-higher income residents of Lahore, especially students who seem to be a large target market for restaurants. The Company Tea Stores Incorporated has its headquarters in Karachi. Its equally owned and managed by four partners. Ms Saniya Malik has extensive in sales and marketing, Ms Hajra brings experience in finance, Ms Benish has been the HR manager in several well established multinationals and would be using her experience for the management of the company and Ms Saba has been a culinary expert and has all the know-how of how food items should be presented. Products and Services offered Muffin Break offers a broad range of snacks and drinks for its target market. There would be a wide array of coffee and espresso products, using coffee beans from various countries such as Brazil and Columbia. There would be fresh bakery and pastry products that would be made at all times of the day. Since were aiming for youngsters there would also be various salads available for the youngsters and diet conscious people to select. Some of the primary products would be hotdogs that will be regular, foot-long hot-dogs and barbeque sauce served on specialty home made buns. Muffin Break would also be offering side dishes and deserts such as coleslaw, French fries, Onion Rings, potato chips and cookies. MARKET ANALYSIS The cafà © and restaurant industry in Pakistan has been experiencing a rapid growth. The increased awareness amongst the urban population for a cuisine that has various cultures blended in it, it has made it compulsory for any cafà © to offer the best taste from various countries. Muffin Break wants to establish a large regular customer base, and will therefore concentrate its business and marketing on local residents which for now would be the Lahori population, which will be the dominant target market. This will establish a healthy, consistent revenue base to ensure stability of the business that has just started its operations. In addition, the student traffic is expected to comprise approximately 35% of the revenues. High visibility and competitive products that have a variety of tastes, ingredients, side orders etc and service are critical to capture this segment of the market. Marketing Plan Muffin Break would be using a variety of methods to advertise this includes direct mailings, flyers, mailer coupons, and door hanger menus. Initially, their planning to offer students a discount card this would increase the sales their generating from students. Muffin Break plans to use an innovative customer survey card/ visitor log this would help it in maintaining a database of its customers and this would eventually help in generating a mailing list. Keeping its student target market in mind, Muffin Break is also planning to sponsor events organized in universities such as Lums, LSE, BNU and UCL. This would also give the cafà © a medium to distribute its door hang menus so that there is increased awareness about the new cafà © thats opened in Lahore. V. Financial Considerations Muffin Break plans to open its business with a Rs. 5,000,000/- capital. A capital of Rs4,000,000/- would be raised by the partners, and the remaining Rs 1,000,000/- would be raised by borrowing a loan from the Bank of Punjab. All the four partners would be investing an equal sum of capital which in this case would be Rs1,000,000 per partner. The loan being taken from Bank of Punjab would be under its Karobar Barhaou loan products available, an interest rate of 10% annual would be charged on the loan that would be paid in 3 years. Payments for this loan are set by the bank at Rs110,000 that has to be paid quarterly [4 payments in 1 year]. This would provide Muffin Break with its initial start up capital, which is highly crucial. One of the partners uncles restaurants had just closed down in MM Alam and now Muffin Break would be using this premise for its cafà ©, although it does need immediate renovation which would be included in the start-up expenditure. Muffin Break anticipates in its first year an annual sales of Rs 4,910,000, followed by sales of Rs 5,670,000 and the third year sales would be Rs 6,550,000. As far as breakeven is concerned there are high chances that Muffin Break breaks even in the fourth month of its operations as its sales would be rising steadily. Profits would be approximately Rs 130,000 at the end of year 1, Rs 360,000 at the end of the year 2 and Rs 460,000 for the year ended 3. Assumption: The initial start up revenue expenditure has been accounted in the balance sheet under the heading of current assets. The long term asset that Muffin Break has to immediately purchase is a generator, so that its high quality customer service does not get hindered by any electicity shortages. This has been accounted for the 3 years since Muffin Breaks inception in its fixed assets. Sales Forecast Muffin Break is in its initial few years hoping to generate most of its sales from its different from the rest hotdogs that would have the student market craving for more. The next area it seeks to penetrate is the coffee segment, and the cafà © wants its own people to make the coffee which is why no coffee machine would be bought. Assumption: The prices herein have been set using market analysis the cafà © that have been used for this forecast are: CTC, Jammin Java, Hotspot, Espresso and Gloria Jeans. Cost of sales have been assumed 15.63% which is again as per the market analysis. HR Expenditure Since Muffin Break wants to stand out from the rest of the cafà ©s its ensuring that it has the best and educated servers, chefs that have great expertise and credibility would be hired, thus a great amount of investment would be made in hiring the right type of people for Muffin Break. Assumption: Here we have specifically used only the estimates of Gloria Jeans, that works a lot on its customer service. These are the annual HR expenditure. An interest rate of 10% has been charged by the Bank of Punjab. The tax rate prevailing on restaurants in Pakistan are 12%. It can be seen that over the years Muffin Breaks sales are steadily growing, although this is couples with the increase in Total operating Expenses. Muffin Break has received a loan of Rs 1,000,000 from the Bank of Punjab. The interest rate charged is 10% although a payment of Rs 110,000 has to be made in every quarterly payment, this includes both the principal repayment as well as the interest payment. This loan would be according to Muffin Breaks estimations be paid by 2.75 years even though the bank has offered a 3 years period. Pro-forma Cash Flow Statement The cash receipts are mainly generated from the sales of the restaurant. The cash flow expenditure is based on the cost of goods sold. The only fixed asset for which there has been an investing activity is the purchase of a generator. The cash flow principal payment on a loan is the summation of four quarterly principal payments. The cash figure has been calculated in the cash flow statement The owners capital would be the same throughout the years, unless theres an investment made. The retained earnings: these include the profits that have been invested by the Parent Company Tea-stores Incorporated The other current assets estimate has been assumed using the market analysis. NPV ANALYSIS The NPV analysis has been used to show the feasibility of this cafà ©, whether the bank or other prospective investors should invest in it. It shows the present vales of the future cash flows, for this NPV estimation has been done using the WACC. The Wacc has been found using the Capm Model. Since the NPV has turned out positive this project should be taken, as it promises high profitability. An IRR calculation also suggested the internal rate of return of this project was highly positive that makes it a highly lucrative investment.

Walden - The American Economy :: Thoreau Walden Essays

Walden - The American Economy When the American people think of the word economy; money and the government often come to mind. In Greek Eco means the household and Nomy means to manage something. So why do American's tend to think of money and ownership when they think of the word "Economy?" Are Americans mearly living a career or are they living some other narrowly focused routine? Is a worthwhile lifestyle being lived? In Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau describes what is wrong with the American culture and society and how solitude can make the human pure. Thoreau sets out to build a house in the woods to try and demonstrate that every person can live a simple life. When he begins his stay at Walden Pond he only has an ax that he has borrowed. His house is built and he moves in on July 4, 1845 (420).. He becomes very familiar with nature and his surroundings and less familiar with the humane society. According to Moss, "He views the ponds as pure, sacred wells and as places for spirtual renewal" (421). He feels that the soal needs to be cleansed in order to discover the real meaning of life and be able to enjoy it. Too many people are content with the surface of life and merely following tradition. Thoreau wants people to look deeper into nature. Throughout Throreau's stay at Walden Pond, he encourages America to take a deeper look at life. Thoreau begins his essay with an explanation of exactly why he went to stay at Walen Pond. Joyce Moss writes, "He went out to live in the wilderness by himself- to demonstrate that it is possible to