Thursday, October 31, 2019

Philosophy of David Hume in response to Rene Descartes Essay

Philosophy of David Hume in response to Rene Descartes - Essay Example On the contrary, Hume responds by demonstrating his philosophy on empiricism whereby an a posteriori knowledge is required apart from analytical endeavor for such theory posits that matters of fact in the world may only be ascertained by perceiving through the senses. In the light of an empirical attempt for one to obtain certainty with truths that may be contingent, Hume necessitates engagement with observations wherein an observer becomes capable of designating philosophical connections with contiguity and identity of objects. Hume holds suspicion on Descartes’ belief on pure reasoning on the basis of arguing that causes and effects are physically adjacent in space so â€Å"the causal inference must be grounded in experience, not in any intuitive knowledge of ‘essences’†. If causes exist in reality, according to Hume, no reasoning can It is basically indispensable for Hume that humans understand how they are led to the factual goal by having resolutions to it sought through sensory experiences that are external or extrinsic by nature. Hume claims: â€Å"Even after we have experience of the operations of cause and effect, our conclusions from that experience are not founded on reasoning† that is why causal beliefs may not be treated an a priori for perceptions by sense establish a strong basis around a contingent truth that relies heavily on ‘matters of fact’ which are directly observed. Kant, nevertheless, argues â€Å"Have courage to use your own reason† in his attempt to address lack of enlightenment during his time for enlightenment in a man pertains to a state when the latter has overcome or emerged above his immature self. It is claimed that beyond man’s immaturity, there exists sufficient capacity to understand in the absence of external guiding principle and in this propos ition, the immaturity of an individual is considered to be imposed upon oneself and

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Designing a Rewards System Essay Example for Free

Designing a Rewards System Essay When designing a rewards system within an organization there are several factors. First, look at the organization and focus on what matters most for that particular organization. Then focus in on the employees and what needs they have in particular. After breaking down the focus, you can move forward into creating a rewards system that not only fits but also everyone benefits from. † Reward management is concerned with the strategies, policies and processes required to ensure that the value of people and the contribution they make to achieving organizational, departmental and team goals is recognized and rewarded. It is about the design, implementation and maintenance of reward systems (interrelated reward processes, practices and procedures) that aim to satisfy the needs of both the organization and its stakeholders and to operate fairly, equitably and consistently. † (Armstrong, 2010) Look at the organization. What does the organization promote or goals it is working toward? Next, make sure the needs of the organization are being met. â€Å"Currently, many organisations are implementing or planning to implement, reward and/or recognition programmes believing that these will help bring about the desired cultural change. In some organisations, large amounts of money are being invested in these types of activities and some managers are required specifically to set aside a certain amount from their budgets for this purpose. † (Milne, 2007) If they are not met focus on creating a rewards system to include meeting the goals that at the moment are not being satisfied. Now to look at the employees and what they need. What will motivate them to perform better work? What is the age range within the organization so we can focus on what will better serve that population? After looking into the age check their work progress and see where there needs to be more and focus on setting up goals to get that area where it needs to be. â€Å"Recognizing employees for a job well done isn’t superfluous or magnanimous. It’s necessary. † (Zemke, 1988) â€Å"There was a study done with four groups that answered a questionnaire with twenty-five factors as to what would motivate them to work hard on their job. From the four groups only nine of the twenty-five factors were selected. The nine factors that were selected by these four groups are: 1. Respect for me as a person . Good Pay 3. Chance to turn out quality work 4. Chance for promotion 5. Opportunity to do interesting work 6. Feeling my job is important 7. Being told by my boss when I do a good job 8. Opportunity for self-development and improvement 9. Large amount of freedom on the job† (Kettner, 2002) All nine of these focus on how to build up the confidence of the employee and all owing them to know how well they are doing. Treating the employee like a person and not a machine is very important because it gives the employee a feeling of self and knowing it’s ok to be who you are as a person. This makes them comfortable to be there on the job. Providing good [ay is also very important because it shows the employee that you care and are rewarding them for their hard work while on the job. It also will make the employee want to stay with the organization because they do not need to go elsewhere. Giving the employee a chance to do the best quality work for the organization will give them a sense of pride in their job. If the employee knows that, there is a chance for them to be promoted through the organization they will work hard to be considered for promotion. Being able to do interesting work will keep the employee coming back because they are able to do different things which makes the job more interesting because they are not consistently performing the exact same job daily which will also make them feel that their job is important. Everyone loves being told good job! So as a boss, make sure you are informing your employees how well they are doing. Offer to the employee ways they can grow as people whether it is education or exercise. Giving them the opportunity for more development or just some improvement, they will be appreciative. Giving the employees freedom makes them more independent and lets them know that the organization trusts them to perform their job the way it is supposed to be done without someone standing over them constantly. After gathering this information, we can move forward with creating our own rewards system. First, we would create a chart showing the work and the progress being made. Then with that chart, incentives can be created for the employees to get to top of the list by making the most progress. In addition, incentives will be created for those that make the lowest amount of mistakes while performing their job function. This gives the employees some freedom to work hard on getting their performance up. Incentives will be in place for attendance also. Competitive pay will be based off performance and attendance. The better your performance is the better bonus and pay raise you will get. Your attendance will also affect your bonuses and pay raises. Keep your attendance up and consistent and you will be able to gain better pay bonuses. With bettering attendance and performance there will be opportunities for growth within the organization. The starting pay will be marginally based on experience and education. It will be fair and equitable to every employee. After setting up the chart with performance and attendance based incentives we can focus on creating a fair and free workplace for the employees. Set up the management center so they are accessible to the employees for guidance. The management system will also be in place for overviewing the employees from a distance without taking away from the employees ability to work as an individual. The management system will also be able to delegate tasks out to the employees that are performing at a faster or more effective rate. This will also allow the employees to be treated as individuals and not as a singular group. Next we would set up a system for growth and development that would include furthering your education and health needs. We work to offer help and assistance to other now we need to help and assist our employees. For education we will offer education breaks where you will be reimbursed for half of the amount spent on your college courses and supplies. This will allow the employee to re-enter school without fear of inability to pay. The stipulation will be that we will only reimburse as long as the course taken he employee completes and passes the course. The employee will be required to submit the final grade for the class and the receipt for the payment of the course and the supplies needed for the course. Next there will be a gym facility placed within the workplace that is available for the employees use before and after work and also during lunch or breaks. With offering the employee open use of a gym without having to pay will give them the help of not spending a lot of money on a gym membership that they may not be able to use regularly. It will also give them flexibility to use the gym whenever they want to without fear of it closing before they can get there to workout. With this rewards system in place every aspect of the employee and organizational needs are being met. The organization is running efficiently and effectively with each employee working hard to reach the incentive goals. The employees are working in an environment where they are comfortable and know they have every option available to them with movement and growth within the organization.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Factors Affecting Organisational Environment

Factors Affecting Organisational Environment One of the factors that affects organization-environment relationships is environmental change and complexity. The environment can be described along two dimensions which are its degree of change and its degree of homogeneity. The degree of change is the extent to which the environment is relatively stable or relatively dynamic. The degree of homogeneity of the environment is relatively simple (with some elements, a small portion) or complex (multi-element, much segmentation). These two aspects interact to determine the uncertainty facing the organization. The least environmental uncertainty is faced by organizations with stable and simple environments. The degree of homogeneity and the degree of change combine to create uncertainty for organizations. For example, a simple and stable environment creates the least uncertainty, and a complex and dynamic environment creates the most uncertainty. The University of Manchester provides exceptional learning environments which are highly int eractive online learning tools with our high quality, face to face teaching to provide all the students with a richer learning experience. The University of Manchester committed to creating contemporary, technology-rich and learning specs that bring students into the heart of a required learning experience through their investment in their campus and facilities. And they have the largest collection of books electronic resources of any UK university, and extensive coverage of Wi-Fi on campus. The university library is one of the largest and best-resourced in the UK. With more than four millions books, it also provides a collection of electronic resources unrivalled by any other British university. Professional library stuff provides every student with a full introduction to services, resources and how to make the most of them, and are also on hand throughout your time at the university to provide advice, training and help whenever you need it. And of course, if you have any special needs, facilities and help are provided here too. Manchesters IT provision is constantly growing and being updated to satisfy the rigorous de mands of the most computer-literate of students. But even if youve never graduated beyond a games console, theres no cause for concern.    The University provides guidance, training and support to help you keep abreast of the latest computer programmes and electronic information resources. When you become a student at Manchester, you will be registered for email, file storage and internet access. Computer clusters pepper the campus, many within individual Schools and halls of residence. The biggest computer clusters are located in the main Library and George Kenyon Building. Several of these clusters are open 24 hours a day. More powerful workstations are available to support specialist research applications. Organizations with dynamic but simple environment generally face a moderate degree of uncertainty. Examples of organizations functioning in such environments include music producers (catering faces relatively few competitors (diesel, Lee, and Wrangler), has few suppliers and few regulators and uses limited distribution channels. This relatively simple task environment, but also changes very rapidly as competitors a djust prices and styles, changing consumer tastes and new fabrics become available. Another combination of factors is one of stability and complexity. Toyota, Honda and Nissan face these basic conditions. After all, they must interact with consumer groups, regulators, suppliers and competitors. However, occurs quite slowly in the automobile industry. It is just like how the University of Manchester used the same concept of the environmental change and complexity. The second point of how environments affect organizations is competitive forces. Competitive forces is forces in the marketing environment or educational environment that are based on competition among customers and compete with other firms. As the organization looks out at its business environment, competition is a critical factor. Who is buying goods and services and who is providing them to those customers? Are there many competitors or are there just a few? Maybe none. Knowing what competitive forces exist helps an orga nization develop strategic planning to attract customers. As for the university, the university has a very high-quality research profile. In the first national assessment of higher education research since the universitys founding, the 2008  Research Assessment Exercise, the University of Manchester came 3rd in terms of research power after Cambridge and Oxford and 6th for grade point average quality (8th when including specialist institutions).    Accordingly, Manchester enjoys the largest amount of research funding behind Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial  (these five universities being informally referred to as the golden diamond of research-intensive UK institutions). Manchester also has a particularly strong presence in terms of funding from the three main UK research councils,   EPSRC, MRC  and  BBSRC, being ranked 3rd, 7th  and 1st  respectively. In addition, the university is also one of the richest in the UK in terms of income and interest from endowments: at a recent rank, it was placed at 3rd place behind Oxbridge. Historically, Manchester has been linked with high scientific achievement: the university and its constituent former institutions combined had  25 Nobel Laureates  among their students and staff, the third largest number of any single university in the United Kingdom behind  Oxford  and  Cambridge; in fact, excluding Oxbridge, Manchester has graduated more  Nobel laureates  than any othe r university in the UK. Furthermore, according to an academic poll two of the top ten discoveries by university academics and researchers were made at the University (namely the first working computer and the contraceptive pill). The university currently employs 4 Nobel Prize winners amongst its staff, more than any other in the UK. The 2009  THE-QS World University Rankings  found Manchester overall 26th in the world and 5th by employer reviews by receiving a maximum 100% rating which the university has retained since 2008. The separate 2010  QS World University Rankings  (in 2010  Times Higher Education World University Rankings  and  QS World University Rankings  parted ways to produce separate rankings) found that Manchester had slipped to 30th in the world. The  Academic Ranking of World Universities  2008 published by the Institute of Higher Education of  Shanghai Jiao Tong University  ranked Manchester 5th in the UK, 6th in Europe and 40th in the world . After several years of steady progress, Manchester fell back in 2009 to 41st in the world and 7th in Europe, falling back further to 44th in the world and 9th in Europe in 2010. Excluding US universities, Manchester is ranked 13th and 11th in the world for 2009 by THES and ARWU respectively. According to the ARWU rankings, the university is ranked 9th in Europe for natural sciences and 4th in engineering. Similarly the  HEEACT  2009 rankings for scientific performance place Manchester 5th in Europe for engineering, 8th for natural sciences  and 3rd for social sciences. And finally THES ranks Manchester 6th in Europe for technology, 10th for life sciences  and 7th for social sciences. More recently a survey by the Times Higher Education Supplement has shown that Manchester is placed 6th in Europe in the area of Psychology Psychiatry. According to a further ranking by SCImago Research Group Manchester is ranked 8th in Europe amongst higher education institutions in terms of sheer research output. In terms of research impact, a further ranking places Manchester 6th in Europe. According to the High Fliers Research Limiteds survey, University of Manchester students are being targeted by more top recruiters for graduate vacancies than any other UK university students for three consecutive years (2007-2009). Furthermore, the university has been ranked joint 20th in the world for 2009 according to the Professional Ranking of World Universities. Its main compilation criterion is the number of Chief Executive Officers (or number 1 executive equivalent) which are among the 500 leading worldwide companies as measured by revenue who studied in each university. The ranking places the University only behind Oxford nationally. Manchester is ranked 5th among British universities according to a popularity ranking which is based on the degree of traffic that a universitys website attracts. Also, a further report places Manchester among the top 20 universities outside the US. At a recent ranking undertaken by the Guardian, Manchester is placed 5th in the UK in internation al reputation behind the usual four: Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial. However, while as a rule world rankings (such as the ARWU, THES and HEEACT) typically place the university within the top 10 in Europe, national studies are less complimentary; The Times Good University Guide 2011 ranked Manchester 30th out of 113 Universities in the UK, The Complete University Guide2011 in association with The Independent placed it at 31st out of 115 universities whilst The Guardian University Guide 2011 ranked Manchester at 51st out of 118 universities in the UK. This apparent paradox is mainly a reflection of the different ranking methodologies employed by each listing: global rankings focus on research and international prestige, whereas national rankings are largely based on teaching and the student experience. The last point on how environments affect organizations is environmental turbulence. Environmental turbulence refers to the amount of change and complexity in the environment of a company. The greater the amount of change in environmental factors, such as technology and governmental regulations, and the greater the number of environmental factors that must be considered, the higher the level of environmental turbulence. For many reasons, environmental volatility and instability have been increasing for the past 100 years. Although often experience unexpected changes and upheavals, the five could still compete for the review and evaluation system, and development plans to address these issues.   At the same time, despite the changes in the environment or the occasional long-wave instability is not the most common form of the organization warned, there may be some form of crisis. One of the crisis is to get the attention of managers in recent years is workplace violence-situations in which disgruntled workers or former workers assault other employees, resulting often in injury and sometimes in death. The recession began in 2009 and concerns about the H1N1 (swine) flu virus in 2009 are other recent examples. The impact of crisis affects the organizations in different ways, and some organizations have developed crisis plans and teams. For example, during the H1N1 virus scare in 2009, one investigation reported that only 27 per cent of all United States employers had their plans for dealing with such a potential health crisis. In view of numerous problems, difficulties, and the environment in an organization, how should the organization adapt? Clearly, each organization must assess its own unique situation and adapt according to the wisdom of its senior management. Organizations attempt to their environments. The most common methods are information management; strategic response; mergers, acquisitions, and alliances; organization design and flexibility; direct influence; and social responsibility. One way in which organizations adapt to their environments is through information management. Information management  (IM) is the collection and management of  information  from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in or a right to that information.   Management  means the organization of and control over the structure, processing and delivery of information. Throughout the 1970s this was largely limited to files, file maintenance, and the  life cycle management  of paper-based files, other media and records. With the proliferation of information technology starting in the 1970s, the job of information management took on a new light, and also began to include the field of  Data mainte nance. No longer was information management a simple job that could be performed by almost anyone. An understanding of the technology involved and the theory behind it became necessary. As information storage shifted to electronic means, this became more and more difficult. By the late 1990s when information was regularly disseminated across computer networks and by other electronic means, network managers, in a sense, became information managers. Those individuals found themselves tasked with increasingly complex tasks, hardware and software. With the latest tools available, information management has become a powerful resource and a large expense for many organizations. In short, information management entails organizing, retrieving, acquiring and maintaining information. It is closely related to and overlapping with the practice of Data Management. Other than information management, there is another way that an organization adapts to its environments is through a strategic respon se. If the market is growing rapidly as a company, the firm may decide to invest even more heavily in products and services for that market. Similarly, if the market is shrinking or without the possibility of reasonable growth, the company may decide to cut back. A related strategic approach that some organizations use to adapt to their environments involves mergers, acquisitions, and alliances. A merger is the combining of two or more companies, generally by offering the stockholders of one company securities in the acquiring company in exchange for the surrender of their stock. An  acquisition, also known as a  takeover  or a  buyout, is the buying of one company (the target) by another. Consolidation is when two companies combine together to form a new company altogether. An acquisition may be private or public, depending on whether the acquiree or merging company is or isnt listed in public markets. An acquisition may be  friendly  or hostile. Whether a purchase is p erceived as a friendly or hostile depends on how it is communicated to and received by the target companys board of directors, employees and shareholders. It is quite normal though for MA deal communications to take place in a so-called confidentiality bubble whereby information flows are restricted due to confidentiality agreements (Harwood, 2005). In the case of a friendly transaction, the companies cooperate in negotiations; in the case of a hostile deal, the takeover target is unwilling to be bought or the targets  board  has no prior knowledge of the offer. Hostile acquisitions can, and often do, turn friendly at the end, as the acquirer secures the endorsement of the transaction from the board of the acquired company. This usually requires an improvement in the terms of the offer. Acquisition usually refers to a purchase of a smaller firm by a larger one. Sometimes, however, a smaller firm will acquire management control of a larger or longer established company and keep i ts name for the combined entity. This is known as a  reverse takeover. Another type of acquisition is a reverse merger, a deal that enables a private company to get publicly listed in a short time period. A  reverse merger  occurs when a private company that has strong prospects and is eager to raise financing buys a publicly listed shell company, usually one with no business and limited assets.    Achieving acquisition success has proven to be very difficult, while various studies have shown that 50% of acquisitions were unsuccessful. The acquisition process is very complex, with many dimensions influencing its outcome. A  business alliance  is an agreement between businesses, usually motivated by cost reduction and improved service for the customer. Alliances are often bounded by a single agreement with equitable risk and opportunity share for all parties involved and are typically managed by an integrated project team. An example of this is  code sharing  in airline alliances. An organization may also adapt to environmental conditions by incorporating flexibility in its structural design. For example, a company in an uncertain business environment, relatively low levels may choose to use many of the basic rules, regulations and standard operating procedures of the design. The latter sometimes referred to as an organic design, is considerably more flexible and allow t he organization to respond quickly to environmental change. Organizations are not necessarily helpless in the face of their environments. In fact, many organizations are able to directly influence their environments in many different types of ways. The organization also influences their customers by creating new users for a product, stealing customers away from competitors, and also convincing customers that they need something more new and updated. Another way that an organization adapts to its environments is through social responsibility. Social responsibility  is the principle that companies should contribute to the welfare of society and not be solely devoted to maximizing profits. This responsibility can be negative, meaning there is an exemption from blame or liability, or it can be positive, meaning there is a responsibility to act beneficently (proactive stance). Specifically, social responsibility is the set of obligations an organization has to protect and enhance the societal context in which it functions. A number of organizations recognize that in all three areas of responsibility, every effort to meet each of them, while others emphasize only one or two areas of social responsibility. And a few acknowledge no social responsibility at all. In addition, the views of social responsibility vary in different countries.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Chromium :: essays research papers

One of the most controversial supplements on the market is chromium. In the body, its natural functions consist of potentiating the activity of insulin and influencing lipid and protein metabolism. It may also be involved in the formation of glycogen in muscle tissue and facilitate the transport of amino acids to the muscles. Chromium can also affect cholesterol metabolism (Williams, 262). There are different claims to this mineral’s benefits, but the most common ones are muscle building, and fat burning. Although it is a big seller in the industry, does it really work? The main users of chromium at one point were body builders. chromium was marketed at first with the promise of building more muscle mass. Unfortunately, it failed to produce results as a muscle builder, and then was introduced as a fat burner. Those who were dieting and some long distance runners interested in holding low weights began to use the supplement and still do today. Although it is advertised as a fat burner, an article in a 1995 issue of the Journal of Sports Medicine and Fitness described an experiment that proved otherwise. A double blind study was conducted among healthy Navy personnel (79 men, 16 women). Participants took one capsule of either chromium picolinate or a placebo per day during a 16-week experiment. Subjects met for a minimum of 3 times/week for 30 minutes of aerobic exercise. The chromium group failed to show any greater reduction in body fat, or gains in muscle mass than that of the placebo group. Therefore, the results showed chromium supplements to be â€Å"ineffective in enhancing body fat reduction† (Trent, Linda K., 273). Trent’s experiment was not the only one to prove Chromium’s inadequacies. In 1993, Melissa A. Hallmark et al proved Chromium to be a useless supplement that was only excreted when ingested in excess. In Hallmark’s experiment, sixteen untrained males (23 years old +/- 4) were studied to examine the effects of Chromium supplementation when used during a 12-week training schedule of resistance exercise. The men trained 3 times/week and food records were kept. The results showed that there was no significant difference in muscle gain or weight loss between the placebo group and those who ingested chromium with their diets other than the amount of Chromium excreted. Lacking results have proven chromium as a fat burner to be yet another wait loss quackery Dr. John Vincent at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa has also proven that chromium supplements such as chromium picolinate may even cause cancer.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Air France Internet Marketing

Air France‘s Case You have just been hired by Rob Griffin to help him better understand the effectiveness of Air France’s online sponsored search efforts. He has requested answers to the following questions: 1. Please calculate the effectiveness of each of Air France’s marketing campaigns across the 7 different publishers categories (3 points). Publishers| Avg. Cost per clicks| Tot. Clicks| Media Costs| Tot. Bookings| Tot. Revenue| Net Revenue| Net Rev per Cost | Avg. of Sales per Click %| Avg. of Trans. Conv. %| Yahoo-US| 2| 45,598 | $46,198| 662 | $882,289| $836,091| 18| 1. 5%| 183%| MSN-Global| 2. 15| 11,217 | $12,160| 129 | $145,524| $133,364| 11| 1. 15%| 113%| MSN-US| 2. 87| 10,808 | $16,098| 140 | $181,550| $165,451| 10| 1. 30%| 73%| Google-Global| 2. 22| 72,895 | $120,947| 797 | $929,550| $808,603| 7| 1. 09%| 43%| Google-US| 2. 38| 192,109 | $353,641| 1,550 | $1,745,482| $1,391,841| 4| 0. 81%| 41%|Overture-Global| 0. 8| 60,899 | $64,296| 372 | $430,085| $36 5,789| 6| 0. 61%| 24%| Overture-US| 0. 76| 119,323 | $141,976| 289 | $347,433| $205,457| 1| 0. 24%| 9%| Grand Total| 1. 9| 512,849 | $755,316| 3,939 | $4,661,913| $3,906,597| 5| 0. 77%| 57%| Based on the data above, we can see that: a. Yahoo-US leads for the most effective marketing campaign among 7 publishers based on the total net revenue per cost, Yahoo-US got the biggest value, 18, it means that every $1 that Air France spent they will receive $18 from their investment. The average of transaction conversion and average of sales per click of Yahoo-US also leads amongst the other publishers. b. Google-US got the biggest of total net revenue from the marketing campaign, almost US$1. million, and also had the biggest total booking number.But our opinion is, Google US did not do the marketing very effective, the money for the media costs that they spent are the biggest amongst the other publishers, and the total net revenue per cost ratio is only 4. c. Overture-US is the most ineffec tive in doing Air France marketing campaign, even though the average costs per click of Overture-US is the lowest, but the total clicks is the highest, it ranked the second highest amongst the other publishers, so it makes media cost of Overture-US igh and the total booking from the clicks is not in a good value, so we think that Overture-US have to improve their its campaign of Air France. 2. Should Media Contacts recommend the same exact strategy for Air France across all search engine publishers? Or would it be more effective to tailor each publisher strategy to maximize ROI (Please provide support for your answer) (3 points) . From our analysis with the data provided by DoubleClick. Inc. , publishers have their own strong point to focus on in order to maximize their net revenue and tailor strategy for each publisher will be the best option.Below, we will explain publisher’s performance in term of the following points: * Campaign All of the publishers earn lot of revenues from their â€Å"Air France Branded† campaign with modest click charges on average of $1. 82 and maximum clicks of 106,153 from Google-US, while â€Å"Business Class† campaign is not really productive to gain revenue as publishers lose money on this campaign. Click charges for â€Å"Business Class† campaign is ranged between $3. 76 (Yahoo-US) and $5. 39 (MSN-US) per click. Geo Targeted local search campaign has potential in using Google-US service.For example, In New York City, Google-US can get total of 3,167 clicks with 1. 39% transaction conversion rate. Compare with â€Å"Paris & France Term† campaign, it only gets 0. 35% transaction conversion rate with 29,039 clicks. In Contrast, Yahoo revenue for its Geo Target campaign is very low and loses money in 10 out of 13 cities in US. * Keyword Keywords that consist of â€Å"Air France† word are convincingly gaining more revenues than other keywords across all publishers. Google-US earns from th e â€Å"Air France brand†, but losing money on bidding European cities keyword like â€Å"Lyon†, â€Å"Bordeaux†, andâ€Å"Rome†.The use of phrase keywords also contributes to number of bookings like the phrase â€Å"DC to France Sale† which have the highest conversion rate compare to others. Different with Google, Yahoo has moderately earned more income from the words of city such as Florence, Paris and Rome. This may be resulted from the difference search methods that Yahoo mainly focuses on web contents keywords. Overture more likely to gain revenue in words that relate with cities in eastern part of Europe like Athens, Tunis, Amman. Overture loses money on broad unspecific words.Thus, Overture should focus on the exact keywords which have connection with flight and travel to eastern part of Europe. MSN-US and MSN-Global costs mainly derived from phrase keywords except â€Å"Air France Brand† keywords. For example, phrase keyword of †Å"travel to France† generates moderate number of 346 clicks, but none of the clicks succeed in sales conversion. Another example is â€Å"flights to Paris†, other publishers succeed in booking of positive net revenue with the keywords, while MSN-US and MSN-Global lose money. * Broad and focus keyword Broad keyword usually gains many clicks from the campaigns.By analyzing publishers’ performance data, we concluded that Yahoo-US, Overture-Global, MSN-US and MSN-Global are publishers that have strength in broad campaign keywords. Number of clicks for broad keywords represents minimum 90% of total clicks and generates higher transaction conversion rate than focus keywords. Google-US and Google-Global also have a huge clicks gained from broad keyword campaigns on the average of 74% and gain more revenues than focus keywords, but the transaction conversion rate is lower than that of their campaign have.Although broad keywords gain many clicks for its ads, it doesn†™t guarantee the increase of sales. 3. Based on your analyses, who do you feel are the most appropriate target customers upon whom Air France should focus their acquisition efforts (again, please provide clear justification for your answer) (2 points) Due to several reason related to market modification and AirFrance partnership, we can support that Business customer segment would be the most important target market.Indeed, because of the development of new low fare companies, the value proposition among the competition changed and gave another offer to the consumers. Ryanair by providing cheap price ticket attracted an important part of the price sensitive customers who use to travel with previous oligopolistic offer with higher price. The business customers are less sensitive to the price, because of less changing (except in case of travelling budget restriction), contracts and promotion with big companies. Ryanair, Irish company, was focused on intern European flight, taking ca re of 26 different destinations.According to Exhibit1, AirFrance first market was Europe thenit was followed by the North American Market. The mix of price sensitive loss market and intern European market loss pushed AirFrance to work more on its flight between Europe and other continent (Transcontinental flights). International and Transcontinental travelers are highly interesting target market. Therefore it is also important to specify this segment. Indeed, it should be the higher class, service and security sensitive customers.AirFrance provides a premium service compared to the competition. Based on our analysis, there is no or few people outside of USA (Google Global: Europe, Asia, Africa) making AirFrance generating net income for European keywords (Greece, Florence, Paris). The American providers, Yahoo-US and Google-US, are the biggest revenue generator compared to Global (Yahoo-Global and Google-Global), by the same time Appendix 1 shows that American customers are not pric e sensitive and will generate less profits for â€Å"cheapâ€Å" keywords.The partnership with L’Avion for business travelers between Paris and Newark (NewYork) was a logical result of the AirFrance marketing situation. Through customer base, AirFrance kept a stable business customer amount and lost a significant part of its price sensitive customers who finally shifted to other low-fareairlines. Appendix 1 Publisher Name| Avg. Cost per clicks2| Tot. Clicks| Media Costs| Tot. Bookings| Tot. Revenue| Tot. Net Revenue| Tot. Net Rev per Cost | Google – US| $2. 45 | 10479| $24,104. 59 | 33| $25,287| $1,182. 06| 0 | Google – Global| $2. 43 | 3465| $7,052. 0 | 20| $19,180| $12,127. 35| 2 | Overture – Global| $0. 72 | 1892| $1,538. 15 | 10| $15,207| $13,669. 20| 9 | Yahoo – US| $2. 33 | 1474| $3,786. 91 | 7| $7,057| $3,269. 79| 1 | Overture – US| $0. 78 | 6883| $6,774. 70 | 9| $10,230| $3,455. 05| 1 | MSN – Global| $3. 46 | 50| $174. 87 | 0| $0| -$174. 87| (1)| MSN – US| $4. 25 | 77| $252. 69 | 0| $0| -$252. 69| (1)| Grand Total| $2. 09 | 24320| $43,684. 81 | 79| $76,961| $33,275. 89| 1 | 4. Based on your answer to Question 3, what B2B acquisition partners would your team recommend that Air France consider? 2 points) Based on our group analysis there are 3 types of B2B acquisition partners that Air France should consider doing partnership with which are Yahoo-US, L’Avion. First partner, Yahoo-US, based on our group analysis from question 1 out result shows that Yahoo-US has the highest return on investment (ROI), the lowest cost per click and the lowest cost per booking. This is a good choice for Air France to engage in partnership in order to get the best ROI while at the same time minimize their costs in ads.Not only that Air France can get a lot of ROI back but they also have a high possibility in getting more sales from the click of users. Therefore our group recommended Yahoo-US for Air France to c onsider. Second partner, L’Avion, as of our target customer from question number three our group focus on business travelers. L’Avion only provides business-class service between Paris International Airport and Newark International Airport. This can be link to with Ryanair partnership because as our group mentions before that Ryanair has not yet a flight to USA where Air France is offering this route.By partnering with each other, both Air France and Ryanair can enjoy their profit from these group of business travelers which Ryanair already have a lot of loyalty customer with them. For example, if the customer from Ryanair wants to fly to United State they can use Air France service where profits can be shared between these two Airlines. Therefore, as our group has mention above, we believed that by partnership with these B2B business would eventually increase benefit and contributes to gain good market growth with good profit toward Air France and its partnership comp anies.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Funny Female Monologue From How to Kiss a Girl

Funny Female Monologue From 'How to Kiss a Girl' The following monologue is from a one-act comedy How to Kiss a Girl by Wade Bradford. This one-act play is  a silly, sketch-styled play about a young man named Ken who desperately wants to know how to behave on a date, and even more desperately wants to figure out how and when he should make his move and kiss a girl for the very first time. Monologue Background In order to learn, he enlists the help of his highly advanced smartphone, Minerva. The Minerva device downloads tons of audio instructional information, crafted from centuries of information. not all of the advice, however, is useful to todays typical teen. Unfortunately, Ken is too clueless to realize, and he ends up downloading relationship advice from the 1950s, pre-Civil War America, and even Pilgrims and Pirates. Belle is one of the Audio Advice characters, and while Kens date is wolfing down her spaghetti and slurping ice tea like its going out of style, the refined Southern Belle teaches Ken how to read subtle signs from a proper lady. Much of this monologue involves the old fashioned art of fan language, so the actress performing the art should have an elegant fan to flutter during her scene. The Monologue BELLE: When you arrive at her doorstep, be prepared for a grand entrance. Stand courteously at the doorway, breathlessly awaiting her presence. Drink her in. You are mesmerized. Walk in a half circle around her, never breaking your gaze. And still breathless. Place your left hand behind your back, lift your hat with your right hand, and bow. (Pause.) And now you may breathe. Make certain that you have already prepared a charming compliment, do so in advance to avoid being tongue-tied. Tell her she looks as plump and pretty as a sweet Georgia peach. As radiant and glorious as the days before the civil war. That she makes your heart fire faster than a Gatling Gun. Begin your romantic adventure by extending your elbow so that the lady might take your arm. As you escort her to the carriage, be mindful of any mud puddles that may happen to be in your path. Instead of walking around the watery obstacle, remove your jacket, drape it to the ground, and insist that this lovely plump peach wal k upon the jacket as not to soil her pretty shoes. That is chivalry. As you ride together in the carriage, you might be wondering as to what is going through the mind of this delicate young flower. You may be tempted to talk of idle things, such as the weather, but I find it best if a gentleman sticks to the subject at hand, which is mainly the beauty of the young lady in his midst. This time, select a specific physical feature to complement. Preferably, something above her neckline. I suggest you compliment her eyes, lips, chin, and even perhaps her earlobes if you are feeling particularly bold this evening. Avoid making comments about a womans nose. Even kind words will make her self conscious. But you will notice, as the carriage ride continues, the lady speaks very little, yet she says much. (Produces a fan.) To discover the secrets of her feminine mind, simply observe the subtle signals she gives you with the movements of her fan. If the lady holds the fan with her left hand and places it in front of her face, then she is desir ous of your acquaintance. However, if she twirls her fan in her right hand, like so, then she wants to speak with you in private. Dropping the fan curtly means she simply wants to be friends, but if she presents her fan to you, shut closed thusly, she is asking: Do you love me? Now, this one is most important, so I hope you are paying attention. If the lovely lady presses a half-opened fan to her lips, that means, young man, that she wants to kiss you. Now, watch her closely: What message is she trying to convey to you? Note: This monologue could obviously be performed by one person. However, it could be further developed with a total of three performers. One actress delivering the monologue, while two other performers act out the scene being described.