Environmetal policy and Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Environmetal policy and Law - Essay Example It must not be situated within an aquifer, a public water supply (any closer than 1,000 feet), within a one hundred year flood plain, underground mines, within channels, ravines, or steep topography that has unstable slope, and within woody draws. Also to be taken consideration is the fact that the designated area must not be near any habitats for endangered or threatened species of plant, fish, or wildlife (North Dakota Department of Health, 2006). 5. A leachate pond will be established so as to collect the liquid that will be produced by the wastes. This structure is essential in collecting chemicals that may possibly contaminate the water table. 7. Landfill cells will be established as the need arises or as gradually as possible, to avoid any waste material hazards that may arise out of the certain cell. A cell is established by excavating and lining the area with clay and plastic liners. It is only at this point where waste materials can be disposed in the area. Meanwhile, landfill cells could also be established by carefully removing the top soil and subsoil for final reclamation purposes. Windbreaks or tree planting establishment could also be utilised so as to prevent any prevailing wind destructions that may hamper operations. Remediation measures will be done if it has been deemed necessary based from constant monitoring, assessment, and evaluation of landfill activities. Before dumping the waste materials in the landfill area, there is a need to properly segregate materials that are suitable and not suitable for waste disposal (Division of Environmental Management, 1996). Suitable materials for disposal includes: demolition wastes, asphalt and rubble, wood, bricks, concrete, uncontaminated soil, rocks, excavated materials, green wastes, tree stumps, fencing materials, and other uncontaminated biodegradable materials. On the other

Earth Sociology Essay Example for Free

Earth Sociology Essay The author of the book entitled Down to Earth Sociology focused his writings on conceptual issues regarding the social interactions of the people in everyday life including the aspect of understanding the individual experiences in the society and the analysis of the different dominant social cultures. The selections of the said book also emphasizes the different significant themes of the modern sociology including sociological analysis of the concept of gender, power, politics, sports, religion, racial tensions, crimes, poverty, homelessness, and the global outlook of economic capitalism. In this book, the author Henslin presented his ideas and analysis in the same scientific manner and process that is being implemented by the contemporary sociologist of the modern age. Through this, the book has able to critically analyze and present every intricate detail that is involved in the sociological research as guided by the main concept of the hypothesis. The book presented its views in relation to the present hypothetical concepts and theories in trying to explain and interpret the different social phenomena in the modern civilization. Included in the book of Henslin are detailed discussions of the different sociological theories that are guiding the research and development pursuit of the said field. These sociological theories are defined to have been developed at multiple levels, ranging from large theory to highly definite and explicit small-scale ones. Rather than thinking of one theory being excellent to the other theories it is more beneficial as well as informative to view these different theories as correlation with each other. One of the sociological theories on how to explain different phenomena that has been elaborated is the Structural-Functionalism, which is defined as a sociological theory that pertains on how to explain several social institutions as a means to be able to satisfy or fulfill the individual’s biological means. Another theory that has been discussed in Henslin’s book is the Conflict theory that is explained as a sociological theory that points out that society is not about unity or universal agreement but rather this theory is all about competition. According to this theory, society consists of different individuals who are competing for the limited supply of resources. An example of this conflict is in the Legislative branch of the United States Government wherein men are still viewed as more powerful and superior over women when it comes to the politics. As an effect, women’s privileges to express their opinions and ideas are still significantly limited. In this situation, it is clearly stated that there is a clash or conflict between genders, which also illustrate the obvious concept of inequality between men and women. Aside from the ones previously mentioned, another theory that was discussed by Henslin is the Symbolic Interactionalism that is discussed as a sociological approach on how to understand the proximity or relationship between human and society. The basic idea of Symbolic Interactionalism is that human action and interaction are only by means of exchanging substantial communications and symbols. Based on this theory, humans and lower forms of animals are different from each other because lower form of animals can easily respond to the environment while the human being has the capability to interrupt this process. In addition, lower forms of animals do not have the capability in conceiving different alternative responses to gestures unlike human beings they can easily grasp different gestures. Another theory is the Role Theory; this pertains to the different roles represented by an individual in their everyday lives such as the father, secretary, or friend. For instance, most people their notion or representations of secretary include: answering phone calls, making and managing appointments, filling different paper works, and typing memorandums. These different roles of a secretary could not be expected of professional basketball player. Basically, every individual have different personalities and roles in the society. In addition, the book entitled Down to earth sociology by James M. Henslin focused on real life situation in which all the readers can surely relate. Henslin’s book is indeed user friendly, entertaining to read and indeed valuable because it talks about actual life situations and social phenomenon. The sociological perspectives that is generally employed in the book enables the people to look below the surface of social life and examine different factors that shape our behavior, attitudes, and culture as well as our beliefs in life. Bibliography Henslin, J. M. (2005). Down to Earth Sociology. The Free Press, New York, USA. 13th Edition, Pages 281-296. ISBN 0743267605. Von Der Haar, Christine M. (2005). Social Psychology: A Sociological Perspective. Prentice Hall, USA. ISBN: 0130809837.

An Analysis Of The Savoy Hotel

An Analysis Of The Savoy Hotel The Savoy hotel is a luxurious hotel in the heart of Britain, which is located on the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London. In 1989, the hotel opened by impresario Richard DOyly Carte. It was the first Savoy Group of hotels and restaurants, which introducing electric lights in all over the hotels, electric lifts, bathrooms including expensive furnitures, hot and cold water facilities and many other innovations. The hotel became most successful venture for Cartes. Its bands Savoy Orphans and Savoy Havana Band became famous with entertainers included George Gershwin, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Noel Coward. They have some famous guests as well, which included Edward VII, Enrico Caruso, Charlie Chaplin, Harry Truman, Judy Garland, Babe Ruth, Laurence Olivier, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, The Beatles and many more. In 2005, The Savoy Hotel was sold out and is now managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. It has been called Londons most famous hotel (Prynn J. 2009). They are most prestigious and opulent hotel including 268 rooms and there is panoramic view of Themes River across the hotel. In 2007, The Savoy Hotel was close down for their extensive refurbishment, which budgeted was about  £100 million. The hotel conducted a sale of 3,000 items of its famous furnishings and memorabilia. (Davis M. 2007) In 2010, The Savoy hotel was reopened their business and providing good quality service. The ownership and management of the Hotel with The Berkeley, The Claridges, and The Connaught remain unchanged The Savoy Hotel 2| Page 1. Situation Analysis 1.1 Analyse the roles of public, private and voluntary sectors in tourism and hospitality? The public sector in tourism and hospitality industry plays important role in the development of small businesses. This sector is highly important in micro sector development of the industry. The services of public sector of the tourism and hospitality industry include strategic directions that are important for the overall coherent development of the industry (Teo, 2003). The private sector of the tourism and hospitality industry plays important role in the active and passive development of the industry. This sector plays important role for transforming money from one country to the other. This sector is highly important for the economic development of tourism and hospitality industry (Teo, 2003). The third sector of tourism and hospitality industry is voluntary tourism which refers to paid activities such as formal businesses (Teo, 2003). This sector play role in terms of local communities such as difficulties regarding resident involvement. 1.2 Evaluate a range of different tourism and hospitality sectors and the organization that operate within them The tourism and hospitality industry is very broad industry which also includes service sectors such as restaurants, logging, event management, theme parks, transportations and other additional fields. The tourism and hospitality industry accounts for several billions across the world which depends on the disposal income of customers to facilitate them in leisure time. On the other hand, hospitality sector of the tourism and hospitality industry such as hotel, restaurant and other groups may also be included. The Savoy Hotel 3| Page On the whole, the tourism and hospitality industry can be divided into eight major segments. These are: Accommodation Events and Conferences Adventure Tourism and Recreation Tourism Services Attractions Transportation Food and Beverage Travel Trade Analyze stakeholders roles within tourism and hospitality industry The individuals, organizations or groups that have interest or stake in an organization are termed as stakeholders. Practices of organizations can have long lasting impact on the interests of stakeholders. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the interests of stakeholders. In tourism and hospitality industry, the organizations or individuals who have put capital or efforts in the establishment or development of the industry can be referred to stakeholders of the industry. In addition to this, different stakeholders in private and public sector organizations in tourism and hospitality industry can exist (Belinda, 2008). Businesses in tourism, government and communities can have stake in the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourists cannot be considered as actual stakeholders of the tourism and hospitality industry because they do not make significant money through this industry. On the other hand, they can influence the practices of the tourism and hospitality industry because they are involved in the industry from different aspects. Some of the stakeholders of the Savoy Hotel are as follows: The Savoy Hotel 4| Page Government: The most important stakeholder of the Savoy Hotel is government because policies and regulations of the tourism and hospitality industry are shaped by the government. In context of overall tourism and hospitality industry, government influences the practices of organizations in following respects (Belinda, 2008): By consultation with the private sector and other communities, it plans the policies of the tourism industry It ensures that the organizations in tourism and hospitality industry follow the planned policies and regulations It provides support in financial terms and guidance to the companies in tourism and hospitality industry It ensures that stability and law and order situation of the country for attracting tourists Industrialists: Industrialists are also very important stakeholders of the Savoy Hotel. Industrialists include travel agencies, organizations in the industry, and transport agencies. The organizations in the tourism and hospitality industry include hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers. The practices of all these organizations can affect the operations of the tourism and hospitality industry, as a whole. Industrialists can have following interests in the tourism and hospitality industry: To make investment in the tourism and hospitality industry To market their products and services in different organizations in tourism and hospitality industry such as hotels, restaurants and shopping centers To influence the companies for promoting their products and services The Savoy Hotel 5| Page Customers/tourists: Customers or tourists are also important stakeholders in the Savoy Hotel. This group of stakeholders demands value, quality and high customer care. These are the major source of money for the organizations operating in the tourism and hospitality industry (Belinda, 2008). Employees: Employees are the internal stakeholders of the Savoy Hotel. They have high level interest in the internal policies of the tourism and hospitality industry. They demand quality work environment, job security, compensation and truthful communication in the organizations (Belinda, 2008). Local Communities: In Savoy Hotel, local communities are important stakeholders. This is because they attract tourists and impact on their intentions of visiting a particular place. They can have stake in the tourism and hospitality industry in terms of job security, environment protection, promotion of local products and services and promotion of local culture and values. 1.4 Analyze the nature of changes to the structure of tourism industry over last 15 years? Over the last fifteen years, several changes have occurred in the Savoy Hotel.These changes may include: change in oil prices which led to changes in charges of fuel in airlines Increased capacity of aviation on different routes which attract tourists to the tourism and hospitality industry The Savoy Hotel 6| Page low international airfares and cheap packages of travel with discounts which attract tourists towards the tourism and hospitality industry Trends in consumer demographics which change the behavior of customers for tourism law and order situation in different countries Terrorism factor which reduces the tourism in certain countries On the whole, trends in demographics of customers impact the consumer behavior in the tourism and hospitality industry. It is important for the Savoy Hotel in the tourism and hospitality industry to make important steps regarding strategic management relevant to these changes. Organizations should make relevant policies to attract customers. Marketing Report 2.1 Analyse issues around sustainability and sustainable development in tourism and apply management strategies accordingly The sustainable issues in the Savoy Hotel refer to the environment protection. It is important for the hotel to apply certain policies regarding these issues to resolve the problems and disagreements. In the global context, the sustainability issues are very important. Organizations need to develop relevant strategies regarding the sustainable development. On the long term basis, organizations need to develop local as well as global strategies for attracting customers and ensuring sustainable development. The Savoy Hotel 7| Page This is because of integration of sustainable issues across the world. There are many issues in local context which may impact the sustainability in global aspects. Therefore, hotel should integrate their local and global strategies for ensuring sustainability in global tourism and hospitality industry. 2.2 Evaluate certain ways in which tourism can be managed in a sustainable way with reference to given examples There are three major ways through which sustainability issues in global tourism and hospitality industry. These are: Resource based tradition: In this method limitations to growth in hospitality industry are evaluated in resource context Activity based tradition: This refers to the transformation of hospitality industry on dynamic activities Community based tradition: This refers to the integration of resources and activities in the hospitality industry 2.3 Apply principles of corporate social responsibility to a chosen tourism business The corporate social responsibility refers to the commitment of the business to ethical and economic development. In Savoy Hotel, corporate social responsibility issues are highly important. These issues relate to the health and safety conditions. Moreover, commitment towards employees, customers and shareholders are also included in this context (Bhattacharya, 2011). The Savoy Hotel needs to be commitment towards environment in broad sense to fulfill its responsibility towards society. The Savoy Hotel 8| Page On the whole, Savoy Hotel needs to show its responsibility towards following sectors: Workplace Community Marketplace Environment Market Research 3.1 Apply PESTLE analysis to describe the main trends in global tourism industry A business tool that evaluates the different factors of external environment of an organization is termed as PESTEL analysis. This tool analyzes the political, environmental, social, technological, legal and economic perspectives of the environment in which organizations operate. In perspective of tourism and hospitality industry, this tool determines that whether the industry is suitable or not for investment (Miriam, 2011). The PESTEL analysis of global tourism and hospitality industry is as follows: Political Factors Political factors refer to the extent to which government impacts the operations of the organizations in the tourism and hospitality industry. The important political factors such as health protection laws, tax rates, law and order situation and political stability can influence the Savoy Hotel in the tourism and hospitality industry. In the global context, political situation in the Middle East can impact the tourism. Moreover, in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, where terrorism threats are high, tourism and hospitality industry is declining. The Savoy Hotel 9| Page Economic Factors Economic factors can also the operations of the tourism and hospitality industry. These factors can influence the revenues and expenses of the hotels operating in the tourism and hospitality industry. The prices of products, raw materials and inflation can impact the industry. Rates of interest and exchange rates can also influence the hotel as well. Financial downturn in the world decreased the purchasing power of the customers and tourists. In this way, overall revenues of the Savoy Hotel were impacted in that financial crisis. Social Factors Social factors may have long lasting impact on the practices of organizations in the tourism and hospitality industry. Health conscious behavior of customers may impact their purchasing behavior in the hotels and restaurant segment of the tourism and hospitality industry (Butler, 2004). Culture and religious practices of people in a particular country may also impact the practices of the Savoy Hotel in tourism and hospitality industry. Technological Factors Technological practices impact the demand and supply factors in the tourism and hospitality industry. Technological efficiency in the tourism and hospitality industry may enhance the demand. If the food technology is efficient in the tourism and hospitality industry, organizations in the restaurants and hotels can have high demand from customers. Organizations can prepare food quickly to meet the demand. Technology may also impact the relationship of hotels with the customers. Efficient technologies can impact customer relationship management in the Savoy Hotel. The Savoy Hotel 10| Page Environmental Issues There are several environmental factors which influence the practices of hotels in tourism and hospitality industry. Packaging decisions are the major considerations in the tourism and hospitality industry. The practices of organizations in the tourism and hospitality industry which cause pollution may impact the image of the organizations in global context. Global warming, climatic conditions in different regions can also influence the practices of Savoy Hotel in tourism and hospitality industry. Legal Issues There are many legal issues which impact the policies of tourism and hospitality industry. Rules and regulations regarding food practices can impact the hotels in restaurant sector of the tourism and hospitality industry. Laws regarding operating business in a foreign country can also impact the operations of hotel in the tourism and hospitality industry. 3.2 Distinguish between the elements of macro and micro environment The macro environment of an organization is a broad environment which aims at the investigation of major issues. This environment is basically refers to PESTEL environment analysis that allows the researchers to focus at the factors which impact a business in external and broad environment context. These factors may include economic, social, technological, political, environmental and legal factors. These factors impact the hotel in different contexts. It is very important for the hotel to adapt to these factors in an effective manner. The results of PESTEL analysis allow the organization to see the factors where its strengths can be capitalized. The Savoy Hotel 11| Page Micro environment refers to a small environment which aims at investigation of a research problem in a small perspective. This environment refers to new patterns of organizations. This environment may include internal and small external environment of an organization. Internal environment may include employees and management. On the other hand, external environment may include suppliers, customers, and competitors. Both types of environment are highly important for the hotels to see their effectiveness for the operations of the business. 3.3 Analyze the effects of macro and micro environmental factors on tourism organization Political factors: Improvement in the trade barriers and opening of new tourism avenues can enhance the scope of Sovay Hotel for tourism (McKercher, 1993) Economic factors: Low bargaining power of customers and clients reduce the tourism revenues of Savoy Hotel. Environmental factors: high concerns of environment such as pollution influence the Savoy Hotel to meld its practices in environment friendly mode Legal factors: Laws and regulations in tourism industry impact the Sovay Hotel to mold its practices according to laws Social factors: behaviors of customers towards healthy food impacts the policies of Sovay Hotel to offer healthy food to customers Technological factors: improvement in technologies and transportation influence the Sovay Hotel to reframe its practices for attracting customers and tourists. The Savoy Hotel 12| Page Sustainability Corporate Social Responsibility 4.1 Evaluate the stages of market research process Defining the Problem or Need: The first stage of the market research process is defining the problem or need. Before conducting the market research, the Savoy Hotel in the tourism and hospitality industry need to identify the main problem or need of the research. They need to conduct investigation to discuss the need of conducting research and define the problems of the organizations. This stage defines the problems or issues that prevail in the organizations and hinder its performance. In order to find the solution of the problems, research is conducted. Deciding the researcher After defining the problem or need of the research in the hotel, the next stage is to decide about the researcher who will conduct the research to resolve the prevailing issues. This stage refers to the formulation of analytical framework or methodology for conducting the research. The researcher creates case studies of the hotel to make exact framework for the research. Deciding the methodology After defining problem and researcher, the next step is to decide about the methodology of the research. This stage refers to the exploration of different methodologies and frameworks for conducting research. These frameworks may include interview, survey or secondary data. It is very important to decide appropriate methodology relevant to the need of the market research. Relevant methodology aims at finding exact solution of the prevailing problems of the organizations (Baker, 2000). The Savoy Hotel 13| Page There can be qualitative or qualitative methodology for conducting the research. In qualitative methods, discussions are conducted with the relevant members for finding the solution of the prevailing problems. Qualitative methodology refers to the investigation of the problems in theoretical manner. On the other hand, quantitative methodology aims at finding the solution f research problems in quantitative terms. This methodology aims at investigating the research problems in numeric terms. Survey is the best tool for conducting quantitative research. There is another methodology which is used to conduct market research. This methodology is mix f qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Many researchers suggest that mixed methodology is effective for finding the justified and logical answers of research questions. Data Collection Process After deciding the research methodology and researcher, the next stage is the data collection process. At this stage, research design is produced for the research. This stage defines the appropriate framework through which research is planned. Aims and objectives of the research are defined at this stage of market research (Saunders et al., 2009). This stage defines that what type of data is to be included in the research. Basically, there are two types of data i.e. primary and secondary. Primary data is the data which does not exists in the earlier records. This type of data is collected for the first time. This data is the most fresh and recent data. Researchers need this data to find the solution of problems. The advantages of this type of data are low biasness, relevance and logical results of research problems. On the other hand, secondary data is the data which exists in the earlier records. This type of data exists in the books, articles and other data bases. Researchers inclu de this data in the research to investigate the issues in theoretical terms. In order to investigate the research problem through secondary data, researchers study existing theories and models regarding the problem. The Savoy Hotel 14| Page This data is easy to collect. There are specific tools for collecting primary and secondary data. In order to collect primary data, survey, interview, focus group discussions or observations are used. On the other hand, secondary data can be collected through books, articles, newspapers and reports. Whatever the data is, the important consideration is to adopt relevant data tool which can investigate the research problem in effective manner. Data Analysis After collection of data, the next stage is to analyze data to find the answers if research questions in an effective manner. At this stage, data analysis techniques are discussed and decided. Data analysis must be relevant to the aims and objectives and research methodology. If data analysis technique is irrelevant to research methodology, justified and logical answers of research question cannot be obtained. Before analyzing data, it is important to present data in tables and appropriate transcripts so that reader can get deep insight of the research. Data analysis must be very effective so that relevant individuals can get benefits from the research findings. If analysis is not appropriate, management cannot get benefit from the market research to decide the solution of problems prevailing in the organizations. Conclusion and Presenting the Report The last stage of market research process is presentation of data and conclusion. This stage is highly important for the researchers as well as for management who are responsible for deriving answers of research questions. It is very important for the researchers to present the findings in an effective manner so that management can take decisions regarding the prevailing problems in the organization. The researcher needs to communicate the findings of the research in an effective manner. The Savoy Hotel 15| Page In market research, management does not take interest in the details of the research process but takes high interest in the findings and conclusion. This is because management has to take decisions regarding prevailing organizational problems. Therefore, if findings are not presented logically and effectively, managements effectiveness in decision making is impact. It is very important for the researcher to present logical and justified recommendations regarding the research problems so that management can take help in decision making. 4.2 Provide a justified proposal for a suitable market research plan for a given organization For the Savoy Hotel, following research plan is proposed in the following stages: Aim and Objectives Data Collection Data Analysis Results and Conclusion Recommendations In analyzing services provided by Savoy hotel elegant dà ©cor services with stylish Italian architecture for key attraction has been provided. The Florence atmosphere with classic marble and mosaic bathrooms with enjoyable and exhilarating experience attracts customers all around. 4.3 Understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative research and evaluate when each might be appropriate Qualitative research is basically exploratory research which aims at obtaining reasons, motivations and opinions regarding the research questions. This type of research is conducted through development of hypothesis in quantitative terms (Saunders et al., 2009). The Savoy Hotel 16| Page This research is used to discover the thoughts, trends and opinions regarding a particular research problem. Qualitative research methods investigate a particular problem in theoretical terms; there are different methods which are used to conduct qualitative research. These methods may include semi structured interviews, observations and focus group discussions. In order to conduct qualitative research, small research sample is selected from the entire population. On the other hand, quantitative research codifies the research problem through numerical data which can be converted into appropriate statistics. This research method is applied in market research to identify the attitudes, behaviors, opinions and suggestions in quantitative terms. The aim of this type of research is to generalize the results on a large sample (Russ and Preskill, 2001). Quantitative research is used to uncover the aims and objectives of the research in quantitative terms. There are several methods through which quantitative research can be conducted. These methods may include surveys, face to face interviews, website interceptors and online polls. This type of research focuses on quantities and numeric for finding the solution of research problems. On the basis of statistics and numeric analysis, quantitative research finds the answers of research questions. On the other hand, qualitative research focuses on qualities such as behaviors and attitudes in real manner. The results of qualitative research are presented theoretically rather than numerically (Russ and Preskill, 2001). Quantitative research is applied at the scenarios where aim is to generalize the result on a large population. On the other hand, qualitative research methods are applied on the scenarios where aim is to discover problem in an organizational setting and find solution of problems. The Savoy Hotel 17| Page 4.4 Evaluate different research methodologies based upon a given scenario There are different types of research methodologies which are implemented on particular scenarios. Each research methodology focuses on particular aims and objectives (Saunders et al., 2009). Some of the research methodologies are as follows: Quaitative research This is first type of qualitative research methodology which refers to investigation of the research problem in theoretical terms. This type of research methodology aims at investigation of research problem in words. In social sciences, qualitative research is conducted. This type of research is conducted in a natural setting so that researchers can get deep insight of the research problem. Quantitative research The second type of research methodology is quantitative research which is used to determine the relationship between different factors. The nature of relationship is quantitative. Mixed research Mixed methodology refers to mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. This type of research methodology is recommended by the researchers for finding logical and justified answers of research questions. Action research This research model refers to studying a particular problem and accomplishing its aims at the same time (Saunders et al, 2009). The Savoy Hotel 18| Page Conclusion Recommendation Explain each of the 7PS and apply them to a chosen organization Product: The Sovay hotel offers services to customers with hotel, restaurants and accommodation service that manage business activities in effective manner. Hotels Restaurants Spas Amigo BocconiRistorante Browns Hotel Browns Lincontro Charles hotel Augustine HIX Mayfair Hotel De Russie Verdura Golf and Spa Verdura Golf and Spa Verdura Golf Spa Resort Rocco Forte hotel Parioli The Balmoral Villa Kennedy Rocco Forte Hotel Hotel Astoria Astoria Gusto Rocco Forte hotel The Savoy Hotel 19| Page Price: The price of room, suites and halls varies with consumer demand. The Edwardian Elegance Suite package 785  £ Every ones an original winter offer 300 £ Savoy festive package 395 £ Savoy Splendor 295 £ Savoy Suite Treat 775 £ Sundays at the Savoy package 250 £ Bed breakfast package 305 £ Cabaret Theatre package 540 £ Impression package 495 £ The Savoy element package 825 £ Top hat theatre package 465 £ The variance in prices in accordance with consumer demand present effective ways of accommodation, theatre package, dinner manage global event and meeting solution. The Savoy Hotel 20| Page Placement: The strategies regarding placement are as follows: Savoy family Suite One king and two twin beds Junior Suite One king bed Deluxe Junior Suite One king bed Savoy Suite One king or one queen bed River view junior suite One king bed Edwardian Suite One Queen bed Art Deco Suite One king bed Art Deco two bedroom suite One king bed River view deluxe suite One king bed Personality Suite One king bed Personality Art Deco Suite One king bed Promotion: 24 hour Butler service, tea and coffee service, Audio i-pod service, unpacking service of arrival, fresh flower, daily news paper , magazine selection, leather desk manage to gather effective promotion services. In perspective of consumer demand dining , meetings and activities were offered. Global event and meeting solutions relevant to prestigious revenue services, divine dances with family oriented, personal or signature packages entertain customers. The Savoy Hotel 21| Page Fairmont Gold Guests, honor bar, relaxing comfort , continental breakfast services were offered Family travel Mayan, Hawaiian culture with resort, games and museum attractions were offered Fairmont Golf Luxury, lodging and property facility for elegant accommodation Fairmont gift cards Award winning restaurants, denomination and currency spas Celebration life Favorable places for positive celebration of life experience Physical Evidence: The services of hot

Essay --

Andrew Almeida Huck Finn Self Reliance This quote from Lauren Oliver speaks volumes on the mindset of Huck FinnÍ ¾ â€Å"I’d rather die my way than live yours.† Huck Finn is a young kid growing up in at a very chaotic time in America. Many ideas and bias are either forced upon him or he has no help but experiencing. Rather than putting up with this Huck decides he would be better off on his own as opposed to trying to adapt to everyone else's standards. Living by himself lead to many more challenges and opposing forces than a kid of only 13 should have to be faced with. This lead to Huck being more mature than other kids his age because he had to constantly rely on himself to solve his problems and come up with his own morales on what is right and wrong without the guidance from others.Along with how this changed Huck as a person for better or worse. Huck Finn is a very independent character. Being without a father figure and parents of any kind leads him to have to grow up by himself. In doing so creating a character who is able to react and make decisions to help himself get out of the mess he or his friends have gotten him into. Huck at such a young age is forced to look for jim to guidance on the river but Jim is no more educated than Huck is. This leads to Huck having to not only lead himself but also try and take a leadership role to get Jim to safety. A great example of where Huck is able to take his fate into his own hands by making an elaborate tale is when he is on shore dressed as a girl. He is caught in a lie but instead of risking the fate of Jim he thinks quick and saysÍ ¾Ã¢â‚¬  I told her my father and mother was dead, and the law had bound me out to a mean old farmer in the country thirty mile back from the river, and he treated... ...hing because he is able to do it all himself. Nobody at that time period in the south was willing to help him so he simply did what was right with no caution as to whether not people would judge him Í ¾"Well, I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it. Honest INJUN, I will. People would call me a lowdown Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum—but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell, and I ain't agoing back there, anyways. So, now, le's know all about it." (8.52, 8.53). This self reliance and separation from society is what allows Huck to be more accepting of new ideas and ultimately is what makes this story takes place in the first place. Without Huck’s self reliance none of this ever would have been possible and Huck would have most likely never left the small town with his drunk deadbeat father and slave owning Miss.Watson and Miss.Douglas.

Barnes and Noble Case Study

Management Project 10th of december 2010 History In 1873, Charles Barnes opened a book-printing business in the USA. The first bookstore was set up by his son, William, in partnership with G. Clifford Noble, in 1917 in New York and it is the advent of Barnes and Noble. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, the bookstore was moved to its current location on Fifth Avenue. Barnes & Noble was acquired by Leonard Riggio in 1971, who oversaw the growth of the business. Leonard Riggio, the company's chairman, began his bookselling career while attending New York University in the early 1960s.Working as a clerk in the university bookstore, he became convinced that he could do a better job serving students,  and he opened a competing store of his own. With a small investment, Mr. Riggio established the Student Book Exchange (SBX) in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1965. The store quickly became one of New York’s finest bookstores, known for its knowledgeable staff, wide se lection and great service. In 1974, Barnes & Noble became the first bookstore to advertise on television.In 1975, the company became the first bookseller in America to discount books, by selling New York Times best-selling titles at 40% off the publishers’ list price. During the 1970s and 1980s, Barnes & Noble opened smaller discount stores, which were eventually phased out in favor of larger stores. They also began to publish their own books to be sold to mail-order customers, enabling them mail-order to reach new customers nationwide through mail-order catalogues. In 1979 Barnes & Noble acquired a chain of retail stores called Bookmasters, and then bought up Marboro Books Inc. , a remainder company with discount retail outlets.Barnes & Noble continued to expand throughout the 1980s, and in 1987, the company made its largest acquisition when it purchased B. Dalton Bookseller from Dayton Hudson. This acquisition of 797 retail bookstores thrust the company onto the national sc ene, making Barnes & Noble a nationwide retailer overnight and the second-largest bookseller in America. The company also acquired Doubleday Book Shops from the Bertelsmann Company and the rights to the Scribner’s bookstore trade name from Macmillan. Barnes & Noble purchased BookStop, a company operating discount book superstores in Texas, in 1989.This acquisition gave the company key insights into the ingredients behind a successful superstore strategy, from real estate to operations to marketing and merchandising. In the late 1980s, Barnes & Noble tested selling books online in an early generation venue called Trintex, a joint venture with IBM. In the early 1990s, the company refined its superstore concept and established the modern generation of Barnes & Noble superstores, which today represent over 96 percent of their retail sales. Barnes & Noble became a publicly traded company in 1993, listed in New York Stock Exchange.In the mid-1990s, it sold books on CompuServe and l ater opened a full-fledged book superstore on America Online in March 1997. Before Barnes & Noble created its web site, it sold books directly to customers through mail-order catalogs. It first began selling books online in the late 1980s, but the company’s website was not launched until May 1997. According to the site, it now carries over 1 million titles, as well as a vast selection of music CDs and DVDs. (5) In the beginning of the millenium the company has made two acquisitions that expanded its publishing capability. * In 2001, Barnes & Noble purchased SparkNotes. om, a leading study aids website, offering free online access to literature notes and more than 1,000 study guides on everything from literature to chemistry to computer science. SparkNotes converted its top study guides into print publications, and they have rapidly become bestsellers. * In 2003, Barnes & Noble purchased Sterling Publishing. For 60 years, Sterling has been one of the world's leading publishers of non-fiction books. Sterling strives to publish high-quality books that educate, entertain and enrich the lives of their readers. In March 2009, Barnes ; Noble acquired Fictionwise, a leader in the eBook marketplace.Headquartered in New Jersey, Fictionwise was founded in 2000 by Steve and Scott Pendergrast. In July 2009, Barnes ; Noble launched the world's largest eBookstore as  part of its overall digital strategy. In October 2009, Barnes & Noble introduced Nookâ„ ¢, the world’s most advanced eBook Reader. It was awarded as the Best New Gadget of 2009 in January 2010. Institutional structure Stakeholders A stakeholder is defined as â€Å"an individual or group with an interest in the success of an organization in delivering intended results and maintaining the viability of the organization's products and services. Analyzing the economic interactions of Barnes ; Noble closely, it can be seen that there is a great variety of internal as well as external stakeholders t aking part in the economic and financial decision making of the company as a whole. Internal core stakeholders of Barnes ; Noble first of all include its 40,000 nationwide employees, which contribute to the economic functioning of the company by their direct interaction with customers in Barnes ; Noble’s 720 stores and 636 college bookstores.Also they are likely to contribute directly with their ideas, creativity and expertise. Their expectancies can be identified as job security, financial compensation of their contributions in terms of a salary, esteem, pensions, extended involvement in profit and a health care insurance, as well as a pleasant working atmosphere. Further internal core stakeholders of Barnes ; Noble, who are vital for its business making through their contributions of not only risk capital, but also of ideas and control, are its various shareholders.The expected reward of shareholders concerns capital gain in terms of dividends or a rising stock price, which usually is obtained through sustainable economic growth and a reasonable business strategy of Barnes ; Noble. Besides internal stakeholders, there are also many external forces and groups which indirectly influence the decision making of Barnes ; Noble. Especially competitors play an important role, as their decision-making might directly influence or initiate changes concerning Barnes ; Noble’ operating markets.Besides its fundamental core business, which concerns selling books through its 720 local bookstores in all 50 States of the USA, Barnes ; Noble’s online appearance, www. barnesandnoble. com, has gained on importance over the last years. Especially this sector is highly competitive as big players such as Amazon. com Inc. dominate the market. Possible interactions amongst competitors concern eventual collaborations in innovation. Another absolutely important group with respect of Barnes ; Noble’s stakeholders are its clients. Their contributions to the c ompany concern not nly purchases but also loyalty and most importantly feedback, which can be used to adjust Barnes ; Noble’s business plan depending on consumer preferences. The expectations of customers include quality, special offers and, in case of the book market Barnes ; Noble operates in, a broad variety of books available directly on demand. In a more general sense, also the American government takes part in Barnes ; Noble, as it ensures a fair competition in the market through regulations and a framework of rules which has to be accepted by not only Barnes ; Noble but also by all its competitors.Rewards, which are expected by the government, include tax payments, employment, and economic growth. Also banks are part of Barnes ; Noble’ shareholders, as they provide loan capital upon request as well as advisory in exchange for interest and mortgages. However, as Barnes ; Noble rents most of its stores, there has not been any significant need of loan capitals over the last decades. Ownership Structure The ownership structure of Barnes ; Noble is determined and ranked by the amounts of shares owned by a certain individual or group.The assembly of shareholders is therefore the most important event in terms of power and decision making for Barnes ; Noble, as it is symbolizes the top entity in the hierarchy of power distribution. First of all, 49% of the total available Barnes ; Noble’s shares are in the possession of Insiders and the Top-5-Percent Owners. The most significant position, equivalent to 27. 8% of the total distributed shares, is held by Barnes ; Noble’s chairman Leonard Riggio, as it can be seen in the underneath graph. Also the American business magnate Ronald Burkle is heavily invested in Barnes ; Noble with roughly 18. % of Barnes ; Noble shares in the possession of his Investment firm Yacaipa Cos. Another 49% of total Barnes ; Noble’s shares are held by Institutional ; Mutual Fund Owners, such as Aletheia R esearch ; Management Inc. which holds 15 % on Barnes ; Noble as seen in the underneath graph. The total number of Institutions holding Barnes ; Noble’s shares was 161 in June 2010. Governance Structure and its Mechanism Barnes ; Noble governance structure is equivalent to the standard American governance model: the assembly of shareholders elects the board of directors.Then, it is the task of the board of directors to successfully control Barnes ; Noble’s top managers (the executive committee) according to the expectations and conclusions of the shareholders and the board of directors. Therefore, the top managers are the ones who effectively control the daily business of Barnes ; Noble and who give feedback to upper entities upon developments. The underneath model summarizes the simple interconnection of Barnes ; Noble’s managerial entities: Assembly of Shareholders Board of Directors Top Managers Members of the Board of Directors Barnes ; Noble can be seen in t he underneath diagram:It can be seen that the chairman Leonard Riggio together with his son Stephen Riggio, controls the Board of Directors, whereas William J. Lynch, /as the CEO, is in charge of the executive committee of Barnes ; Noble. The members who are listed as â€Å"Director† are so called independent directors, who worked for other companies over the last years and who contribute mainly with their experience to the overall decision making. The power within the Executive Committee is distributed between three major committees, which are dealing with different areas of Barnes ; Noble economic functioning: The Audit Committee, which is in charge of assuring the integrity and reliability of the ? nancial records and the protection of assets though internal control as well as the external control through an annual independent report of BDO Seidman. -The Nominating Committee, which controls the composition of the members through recommending and selecting qualified individ uals to the full board in order to elect them as new members. -The Corporate Governance Committee, dealing with the overall economic efficiency of Barnes ; Noble, as well as with the distribution of rewards for employees.Core Institutional Goals Core institutional goals of Barnes ; Noble describe the overall strategy of the Board of Directors, to be carried out by the Executive Board. Primarily, Barnes ; Noble wants to become the biggest bookseller in the United States and therefore increase its market share. Also Barnes ; Noble wants to expand its product line by not only focusing on book sales, but also by successfully selling its eBook Reader Nook. Even though the expansion on international markets was already under discussion, this is not yet part of its core objectives.Also Barnes ; Noble wants to invest in restructuring its stores in order to make the stay at a Barnes ; Noble Book Store an experience and thus increase its loyal customer base. Interaction of Elements The interc onnection of the mentioned elements is vital for the understanding of the functioning of not only Barnes ; Noble but of every company. Metaphorically it can well be compared to the mechanism of a automatic watch – if one element is missing or separated from the others, the whole mechanism will not work.Despite their different contributions and expectations, all stakeholders together form the base of the company Barnes ; Noble. Essentially it is the interaction of provided capital, a business plan and employees, which forms the first preliminary framework of a company. However, power within a company has to be distributed, as only a structured hierarchy amongst employees ensures an efficient functioning of all sectors. Therefore a governance structure has to be developed in order to distribute tasks effectively.In order to be able to plan ahead and give investors an outlook in the potential future, institutional goals have to be stated. Thus, all these core elements are absolu tely vital for not only Barnes ; Noble but for all companies in order to successfully compete in their market environment. Institutional Components influencing the Financial Performance Having analyzed the ownership structure of Barnes ; Noble, it can be seen that Leonard Riggios amount of shares owned combined with Ronald Burkles proportion of shares together sum up to almost 50 % of the total shares in the market.Therefore the entire governance structure mechanism is heavily dependent on their, eventually subjective, opinions, which makes the mechanism inefficient. Even though this is a very particular observation, I personally think it might be of significant importance, as the poor performance of the organization in my opinion is mainly due to a lack of innovation. As the founder and chairman Riggio is said to be a very conservative shareholder, he might hinder Barnes ; Noble to modernize as well as to eventually readjust its institutional goals.Corporate strategy The Companyâ⠂¬â„¢s principal business is the sale of trade books (generally hardcover and paperback consumer titles, mass market paperbacks, children’s books, eBooks and other digital content, eReaders and related accessories, bargain books, magazines, gifts, cafe products and services, music and movies direct to customers through its bookstores or through its subsidiary Barnes ; Noble. com.In October 2009, Barnes ; Noble also launched NOOKâ„ ¢, the Company’s proprietary eReader that the firm considers the world’s most advanced eBook reader, because â€Å"it features groundbreaking lending technology, a color touchscreen and lets readers download books in seconds†. In addition Barnes ; Noble has expanded its approach to bookselling and the products it offers through its self-publishing program and through its Sterling Publishing and through the acquisition of SparkNotes.The company publishes over 500 titles annually, under a variety of imprints including Sterling, Sterling Children’s Books and Barnes ; Noble Classics. In 2009, the Company also acquired Fictionwise, Inc. (Fictionwise), a leader in the eBook marketplace, enabling the launch of one of the company’s eBookstore. Finally, as a result of the acquisition of B;N College (2009), the Company sells textbooks and course-related materials, emblematic apparel and gifts, trade books, school and dorm supplies, and convenience and cafe items on college and university campuses.B;N College sales account for approximately 14% of the Company’s fiscal 2010 sales. Products and Services Because Barnes ; Noble retail business is very complex, a deeper analysis is crucial to understand its main features: Since 1997 Barnes ; Noble has started redesigning its position in the business from a store-based model to a multichannel model centered in internet and digital commerce by launching its website barnesandnoble. om, but the biggest step forward has been done in July 2009 with the o pening of its Ebookstore and digital newsstand, which now allows customers to purchase over one million eBooks, electronic newspapers and magazines. Barnes ; Noble’s eBookstore is available on a wide range of digital platforms, including iPadâ„ ¢, iPhone , iPod touch and several smartphones, as well as most laptops or desktop computers. In Barnes ; Noble retail stores the company offers a huge selection of books, ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 titles.Complementing this extensive on-site selection, all Barnes ; Noble stores provide customers with access to the millions of books available to online shoppers at Barnes ; Noble. com while offering an option to have the book sent to the store or shipped directly to the customer. The online channel also offers the supplemental opportunity to buy not only common hard covers but also out-of-print, rare and used books. Moreover, many of the Barnes ; Noble stores have music/DVD/BluRay departments that typically stock over 20,000 titl es.The Company’s DVD and BluRay selection is focused on foreign films, documentaries and episodic TV shows. The music selection is focused on classical music, opera, jazz, blues and pop rock. The music department features RedDotNet, an advanced listening station technology that is connected to the Company’s online electronic music catalog and enables customers to listen to any compact disc in the store, sampling up to 300,000 music titles using scanner technology.In every store it is also possible to find an Home ; Gift section that offers items for the office and electronics and also Toys ; Games and PC ; Video Games departments with a selection of thousands of titles as well as consoles, accessories and strategy guides. Many stores are also have some cafes inside that offer costumers Starbucks beverages, and other products such as candies and sandwiches. Although the cafes are owned and operated by Barnes ; Noble, servers follow Starbucks' standards in beverage prepa ration.From 2004 all the stores offer a free Wi-Fi access using the AT&T FreedomLink network. Horizontal and Vertical Boundaries: While the company has a complete control on sales and hence has never franchised its retail stores, it has anyway signed many different trading agreements with third parties concerning purchases of most of the products sold, manufacturing, logistics and IT complements with the objective to reduce its operating costs. Below the most important are enlisted: NOOKâ„ ¢, the Company’s eBook reader, and other Company products are manufactured by a third-party manufacturer outside the United States and Barnes & Noble relies on components provided from a number of different manufacturers both within and outside the United States. Many of these manufacturers are concentrated in geographic areas outside the United States.. Barnes & Noble relies also on third-party digital content and applications. * The company is provided with national freight distributio n, including trucking services by Argix Direct Inc. The company’s B&N Retail segment purchases physical books from over 1,700 publishers and over 50 wholesalers or distributors. Barnes & Noble also acquires rights to distribute digital content from publishers and distributes the content on Barnes & Noble. com. * The company uses Intel-based server technology in a fully redundant configuration to power its website, which is hosted in two locations. At these locations, the company maintains computers that store its web pages in electronic form and transmits them to requesting users (known as hosting).The Company utilizes two hosting locations. One location is hosted internally by the company and the other is maintained by a third-party hosting vendor. Instead, the company decided to invest in the purchasing of two huge distribution centers: one in Monroe Township, New Jersey, which ships merchandise to stores throughout the country and to online customers and one in Reno, Nevad a, which is used to facilitate distribution to stores and online customers in the western United States.The company also owns another distribution center capacity for facilitating sales by Sterling Publishing to third parties. This investment has clearly enabled the company to source an increasingly larger percentage of its inventory through its own distribution centers, resulting in increased direct buying from publishers rather than wholesalers. Greater volume through the company’s own distribution centers makes it possible to lower distribution costs per unit, to increase both inventory turns and product margins.This has also led to improved just-in-time deliveries to stores and the ability to offer â€Å"Fast&Free Delivery† through its website and for in-store orders placed by customers for home delivery. The improvement in technologies and the changes in culture and society are making books obsolete goods whose demand is getting lower and lower, this reality force d an institution in book retailing like Barnes and Noble to change its strategy and to concentrate in new markets such as e-books production and selling as well as e-book readers manufacturing.This change in the course of action also drove the company to transform its superstores into community centers that host the most important social events as well as to turn into a multichannel distribution company by strengthening its position in the e-commerce industry. These improvements have made Barnes & Noble the only enterprise that nowadays offers readers the option of store visits, e-Commerce, and digital delivery of books to Barnes & Noble-branded devices or other devices of their choosing.The company also makes big effort in marketing and merchandising campaigns in order to drive traffic to both its stores and website: at the center of this program is Barnes & Noble. com, which receives over 450 million visits annually and most of all leverages the power of the Barnes & Noble brand b y offering online customers a premier destination for all the products sold by the company. In this way, Barnes & Noble. com serves as both the Company’s direct-to-home delivery service and as an important broadcast channel and advertising medium for the Barnes & Noble brand.Geographical scope From the point of view of the geographical scope, the aim of B&N has always been to collocate its retail stores and its college stores only in the USA in order to gain the leadership in the book-retailing market of the country. The firm has reached its goal thanks to its huge number of retail stores (720 located in all the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and 637 college stores) and has still no plans to open its stores anywhere else. Concerning the e-commerce B&N hasn’t instead created any geographical boundaries: in the USA b&n. om has a consolidated power that is still overcome just by Amazon. com whereas in Europe the firm is trying to gain shares in the market especia lly through a joint venture created in October, 1998, with the German publishing giant Bertelsmann AG. The purposes of this venture are mainly two: Bertelsmann wants to compete with Amazon. com in the U. S, while Barnes & Noble expects its partnership with Bertelsmann to help it expand into European markets. Organizational structure David Deason V. P. of Development Barnes & Noble, Inc.Chris Troia Chief Information Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc. Alan Kahn President of Barnes & Noble Publishing Group Leonard Riggio Founder and Chairman Barnes & Noble, Inc. William F. Duffy Executive V. P. of Distribution and Logistics Barnes & Noble, Inc. . Allen Lindstrom Control Allen W. Lindstrom V. P. , Corporate Controller Barnes & Noble, Inc. William J. Lynch Chief Executive Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc. Andy Milevoj Manager of Investor Relations Joseph LombardiChief Financial Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc Jaime Carey Chief Merchandising Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc. Mary Ellen Keating Senior V. P. o f Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Barnes & Noble, Inc. Stephen Riggio Vice Chairman Barnes & Noble, Inc. Mitchell S. Klipper Chief Executive Officer Barnes & Noble Retail Group Barnes & Noble, Inc. Michelle Smith V. P. of Human Resources Barnes & Noble, Inc. Mark Bottini V. P. and Director of Stores Barnes & Noble, Inc. Marcus E. Leaver President Sterling PublishingThere are no direct information about the organizational structure of the firm, but by looking at the chart it is quite clear that the company is divided in several functions that deal with both the two main operating segments: B&N Retail and B&N College; anyway the Company board of directors has decided to treat these two businesses as independent from one another, considering the manner in which the business is managed (focusing on the financial information distributed) and the manner in which its chief operating decision maker interacts with other members of management.The company has seasoned management te ams for its digital business and retail stores, including those for real estate, merchandising and store operations. According to its main strategy, the Company management team employs exclusively highly skilled professional with both media expertise and supply chain management skills in order to guarantee a positive customer’s experience regardless the preference for either physical or digital products.Field management includes regional directors and district managers supervising multiple store locations: Each store generally employs a store manager, two assistant store managers, a cafe manager and approximately 50 full and part-time booksellers. Many Barnes & Noble stores also employ a full-time community relations manager.Field management for all of the company’s bookstores, including regional directors, district managers and store managers, participate in an incentive program tied to store productivity. The company believes that the compensation of its field manage ment is competitive with that offered by other specialty retailers of comparable size. Store managers participate in annual merchandising conferences, and district managers participate in semi-annual training and merchandising conferences.Store managers are generally responsible for training other booksellers and employees in accordance with detailed procedures and guidelines prescribed by the Company utilizing a blended learning approach, including on-the job training, e-learning, facilitator-led training and training aids available at each bookstore and for adjusting the buyers’ selection to the interests, lifestyle and demands of the store’s local customers.Organizational Culture Since its foundation, the Firm has been trying to reach mainly one aim: to make its stores centers and active parts of the community life, places where people can meet, interact with the others, feel at ease and share their common passion for books.To achieve this goal the Company firstly h as built imposing bookstores in highly visible areas open seven days a week, secondly has focused on creating a warm and cozy environment with ample public spaces, comfortable settings, including lounge chairs and reading tables, a cafe, public restrooms and also children playgrounds, thirdly has added a calendar of ongoing events, including author appearances and children’s activities and also supports communities through efforts on behalf of local non-profit organizations that focus on literacy, the arts or K-12 education.As well as its stores, also the website reflects the efforts made by the company to offer a pleasant shopping experience: it is easy to browse thanks to a clear site map and a useful search bar and moreover is it organized in order to show to the visitors all the ranges of products and most of all the special offers. It is common knowledge that the artifacts are the direct expressions of some values that every company considers crucial and strives to teach to all the employees, from just a superficial analysis of the firm some of them appear quiet clearly: firstly the importance of quality and customers’ satisfaction.But what is considered absolutely vital for the effectiveness of the firm’s performance it’s both the collaboration among colleagues that can be maintained and strengthened by respecting, supporting and helping each other and the alignment with Barnes and Noble commitment and ethics. As it has already been said, the company has always believed that by concentrating its efforts on becoming a community institution and by satisfying in every aspect the customers it would encourage customer loyalty, word-of-mouth publicity and media coverage and it would have a successful and effective performance.This strategy has clearly worked and hence allowed the firm not to bother too much on competitors’ strategies and become anyway a leader in the book retailing market and one of the most powerful firms in the e-Commerce field. It is evident that the stores haven’t been created to be considered Just as dealers: the relationship that the customers establish with the company is rather more complex: per excellence books- buyers are hesitant, but in B&N stores they have the chance not only to be helped by highly skilled booksellers but also to feel at ease in special relax areas where they can peruse a book over some coffee.Also analyzing the company strategy in the e-Commerce field, the satisfaction of the customer is still the unique priority. The exploitation of the well furnished distribution centers through fast deliveries to all the USA guarantees an standoffish online service. Punctuality and fast delivery made Barnes & Nobles a leader in the e-Commerce. Competitive strategy Barnes & Noble competes in the book selling industry. The industry can be examined by using the five basic competitive forces.The threat of new entrants depends on the barriers to entry and the threat o f retaliation. There is low capital requirement for the industry, because the books can also be sold online, but the economies of scale is significantly high, because of its large inventories and diverse selection capacity. The book selling industry is a highly competitive market. The company has to compete with e-Commerce businesses (Amazon. com, Apple), mass merchandisers such as Wal- Mart, growing market for electronic books and digital distribution of book content.Additionally, it has to face a challenge because of specialty retail stores, furthermore, it competes with large bookstores such as Borders and Book-A-Million, as well as smaller bookstores such as Waldenbooks. That is why, the threat of retaliation in the book selling industry is low, because the profitability in the industry is already low due to intense competition. Legal restrictions are low for the e-commerce business and brand loyalty is also low for the industry. All of these factors approve that the barriers to entry for the book selling industry is low.The suppliers for Barnes&Noble are the third party manufacturers located outside the United States who are the producers of the books and store leasers. The threat of integration for the book manufacturers is low, so their barganing power can not be high also depending on their quantity. Besides, all of Barnes&Noble’s retail stores which are leased premises effects profitability in a very essential way. Its profitability depends on the company’s ability to find the optimum point for its store lease portfolio. number of retail store, store locations, lease terms &conditions). On the other hand the customers’volume of purchase is not that high, but the availability of information is pretty high especially for the Internet. Consequently the bargaining power of customers is high. There are no substitutes for real books except e-books, but Barnes & Noble also exists in that business. Barnes & Noble retail stores primarily c ompete on the store experience, quality of shopping and the price and availability of the products.Barnes & Noble’s most powerful competitor is Amazon. com. Amazon. com is the firm that dominates in the online book selling market, as well as web shopping. It has many advantages over Barnes&Noble, such as easy access and a highly secure information system. Also it has a book recommendation system which keeps the information of every customer by collaborative filtering and recommends books depending on the customer’s previous purchases. Unlike Barnes&Noble, Amazon. com does not have a physical bookstore.The firm has a very small inventory, but Barnes&Noble has to have a large inventory to provide a variety of selection to satisfy customers and it has to pay to the distributor within (at most) 3 months after the purchase which means that the firm has to carry the cost of the inventory for up to four months. This situation creates a disadvantage for Barnes&Noble, against i ts strong competitor Amazon. com. On the other hand, having many stores can be an advantage, because it reduces the advertising expenses of the firm.Only online book seller Amazon. com, has to advertise by links from other web sites and it has to have an advanced information technology which can offer individualized recommendations for the customers, billing and shipping systems. Barnes&Noble’s information system is worse than Amazon. com’s but it also has brick and mortar stores which can never face any technical problems that can lock up all of its sales for a period of time. Therefore, these stores have both advantages and disadvantages for the company.Another specialty that Barnes&Noble has is related to its horizontal boundaries. It majorly sells books but it also sells DVDs, toys, games and music albums. Therefore it does not have a narrow horizontal boundary. So just like Amazon. com it also has to compete with eBay, which is a very popular online auction site. As it can be understood from Amazon. com’s features, it has the market dominance, with the contribution of being the first one in the online book selling market. Still, Barnes&Noble has an advantage over Amazon. om, because Barnes&Noble is a profitable company unlike Amazon. com. It does not have high marketing expenses, because it markets its merchandise by creating a nice atmosphere and opening a coffee shop inside the stores, letting customers have a nice experience which increases their willingness to buy. Nevertheless, Barnes&Noble has to compete with â€Å"Borders† which is an international book and music retailer located in United States. Barnes&Noble is the largest bookstore chain in the US, but it still increases the concentration of the industry.One of the main competitive disadvantages of Barnes&Noble is its high overhead expenses and high cost of production, because the company has more than 1000 stores and 40,000 employees. (Amazon. com has only 7600 emplo yees, and 1600 of them are for book sales) On the other hand, its size allows it to offer some discounts to its customers and lets it have highly diverse selections, which also means that high economies of scale is an important factor for the companies in this industry.Therefore, another effective competitive strategy of Barnes&Noble is its nationwide discount pricing strategy. The current pricing is 30% off publishers’ suggested retail prices for hardcover bestsellers and 20% off select feature titles in departments such as children’s books and computer books. The Barnes & Noble Member Program offers members greater discounts. For an annual fee of $25, members receive discounts of 40% off publishers’ suggested retail prices on hardcover bestsellers, 20% off adult hardcovers, and 10% off on almost all other merchandise.These discounts are available to members for purchases made at Barnes&Noble stores. Barnes&Noble. com implemented an â€Å"everyday low pricingà ¢â‚¬  model that provides a single, low price for each item site wide for members and non members and enables the Company to offer better value to its customers. Members also receive free express shipping on eligible purchases made on Barnes&Noble. com. In addition, members receive exclusive offers and promotions via direct mail and email. Consequently, the switching cost of the industry gets higher.Barnes&Noble’s online customer base is a lot lower than Amazon. com’s. Therefore it developed or copied some strategies to overcome this dominance. For example, it made a deal with Microsoft to become â€Å"the exclusive book seller† for the book shopping category on the MSN network, which is an imitation strategy, because also Amazon. com has a similar agreement with Microsoft. Also, it sold 50% of its shares to the German Publisher Bertelsmann AG, right after Amazon. com’s similar partnership with it. Barnes&Noble’s main purpose was to grow into Euro pean markets.Besides, Barnes&Noble started to move into other markets such as the sales of dvds, toys and music albums, after Amazon. com. Amazon. com, manages to sell a lot in these areas with no profit, because of its high advertising expenses. So it is pretty useless for Barnes&Noble to copy this strategy of Amazon. com. Since Amazon. com has the dominance for the online book selling industry, only a few consumers prefer Barnes&Noble on its new market, unless it does not make any differentiations about it. Also this situation, prevents both companies to have a significant brand recognition.To sum up, Barnes&Noble, uses the Wal- Mart strategy to compete in this industry, which includes huge stores, low prices and a sophisticated technology to track its inventory and get rid of the undemanded products from its supply, but this situation can not actually help the firm to raise its profit, because an innovation is needed in this kind of a highly competitive industry. The company need s essential differentiation. Another copycat like strategy of Barnes&Noble was to create Nook (which looks like an imitation of Amazon. om’s Kindle). But this time there was a difference about this copying strategy, the company created an additional e-book software for PC, Mac and iPad and its own content library. With this strategy the company has vertically integrated. (only by a single layer which is content) Moreover, Barnes&Noble, sells content and makes its platform available to IREX and Plastic Logic devices’ users. This stack strategy, brings additional revenue to the firm and also makes the company’s options unavailable for its competitors.Unfortunately, this strategy is not good enough for the firm to dominate in the market, because scale, efficiency and little differentiations is not enough for a market with many competitors. The increased competition is likely to reduce Barnes&Noble’s sales and profits Finances Consolidated balance sheet of Ba rnes & Noble Inc. (2010-05-01) (in thousands of USD) Assets| Current Assets| Cash And Cash Equivalents| 60,965| Short Term Investments | -| Net Receivables | 106,576| Inventory | 1,370,111|Other Current Assets | 181,825| Total Current Assets | 1,719,477| Property, Plant and Equipment | 812,034| Goodwill | 528,541| Intangible Assets | 580,962| Accumulated Amortization | -| Other Assets | 64,672| Deferred Long Term Asset Charges    | -| Total Assets | 3,705,686| Liabilities| Current Liabilities| Accounts Payable | 1,624,408| Short/Current Long Term Debt | 100,000| Total Current Liabilities | 1,724,408| Long Term Loans | 260,400| Other Liabilities | 505,903|Deferred Long Term Liability Charges | 311,607| Minority Interest | 1,550| Total Liabilities | 2,803,868| Stockholders' Equity| Issued Common Stock  Ã‚  ($0. 01 per share)| 89| Retained Earnings | 681,082| Treasury Stock | -1,052,356| Capital Surplus | 1,286,215| Other Stockholder Equity | -13,212| Total Stockholder Equity | 901 ,818| Total Liabilities + Equity| 3,705,686| Consolidated Income Statement of Barnes ; Noble Inc. (2009/05/02 – 2010/05/01) (in thousands of USD) Total Revenue| 5,810,564| Cost of Revenue| 4,133,819|Gross Profit| 1,676,745| Operating Expenses| Research Development| -| Selling General and Administrative| 1,392,207| Non Recurring| 3,518| Depreciation and Amortization| 207,774| Earnings Before Interest And Taxes| 73,246| Interest Expense| 28,237| Income Before Tax| 45,009| Income Tax Expense| 8,365| Net Income| 36,644| Preferred Stock And Other Adjustments| -| Net Income Applicable To Common Shares| 36,644| Barnes;Noble Inc. financial ratios of the latest annual report (2009/05/02 – 2010/05/01) Return on equity| 4. 06%| Return on total assets| 1. 1%| Return on sales| 0. 77%| Asset turnover| 1. 57| Current ratio| 0. 99| Quick ratio| 0. 2| Debt/equity ratio*| 2. 2| Interest cover| 1. 29| Cost of capital| 1. 42%| *debt = long term loans + current liabilities Barnes;Noble Inc . financial performance evaluation The profitability of Barnes;Noble Inc. is very and despite it is mainly competing in the retailing business ROE = 4. 06% is unacceptable comparing to the average 5-year ROE=10. 5%. The same tendency can be seen looking at the ROTA which is 2. 7 times lower than the 5-year average.Company‘s profit margin is even below 1% and this means that Barnes;Noble does not manage to earn enough money but at least they are able to cover all their expenses on time without losses. Low profitability ratios as well as asset turnover can be partly explained that market was facing a sharp decline, which was caused by global financial crisis and even though it did not cause the reduction in sales which actually increased but made larger costs (i. e. interests) which increased more than sales and caused some financial problems for the company.Barnes;Noble Inc. current ratio is almost 1 and this theoretically allows for the company to cover all their short term fi nancial operations but quick ratio is very low (only 0. 2) and this means that company has much inventory which is about 80% of current assets. This means that company could possibly improve its‘ profitability ratios by increasing sales of the inventory but since Barnes;Noble is in the shrinking market which cannot buy all the goods it is almost impossible to reduce high inventory significantly.Turning to Barnes;Noble Inc. financial strength ratios situation is a bit better. Company‘s debt/ratio (2. 2) looks quite normal and we can deduce that it exploits all the available financial resources to keep its‘ sustainability as well as possible. On the other hand, interest cover is particularly low (only 1. 29) and since company is facing the shrinking market this can cause trouble in the near future and lead to negative net earnings. On of the factors which allows Barnes;Noble Inc. o have positive net earnings is low cost of capital and this means that average interest rate is 1. 42% and is lower than return on the risk capital. In overall, Barnes;Noble Inc. financial results are not very pleasant and acceptable since company is facing decreasin market there is not much it could do in order to improve its‘ situation: firstly, it should try to reduce their administrative expenses, maybe close less than the average profitable which generates higher costs.Secondly, it could try to reduce inventory by lowering prices but as I have mentioned before it is a very dfficult task to acomplish since it is facing shrinking market. Finally, it could try to use their cash which even though does not count much of current assets but this could allow company to pay at least part of their debt and increase its‘ liquidity in the short run. Bibliography http://www. google. com/finance http://www. barnesandnobleinc. com/ http://www. fundinguniverse. com/ www. barnesandnoble. com www. maths. tcd. ie/~nora/FT351-3/CS. pdf www. ichnet. org/glossary. htm

Guide on Business Studies Essay Writing Write Extensively and Neatly

Guide on Business Studies Essay Writing Write Extensively and Neatly Business matters is a central pillar of today’s globalized society a person has to solve various issues and make decisions. With the economic progress, the importance of knowledge on Business has become much more crucial in relation to the past era. This is a digital era, and the presence of top 10 richest companies in the world in 2018 means that people are interested in studying Business from all angles. Business Studies is a subject that involves knowledge from different fields like Sociology, Political Science, Psychology, Mathematics, Statistics, and Law. Sounds difficult to get a grasp on all these aspects in a written form? This article is designed to improve your Business Studies essay writing skills immensely. In what way? You just read all the information given here, then you’ll know all ins and outs of Business Studies essay writing. The List of 10 Business Topics from Our Business Studies Experts To be excellent in essay writing on Business, you should be aware of topics that will guarantee you success. How to choose effective business topics? It’s a childs play. What does every child choose to play with? Anything that interests you. Within Business Studies, there is a variety of topics you can write an essay on. Find anything that is interesting to you personally. Even if you are more interested in a topic than the others (for example, your professor), it isn’t the worst way of starting to protect your interests as a potential researcher. Moreover, you will be able to reveal your own potential more if a topic is an area of your interest than you’ll try to work on a particular topic chosen by your instructor’s restriction. Anything that leads to significant discoveries. If your efforts to write a good business essay don’t pay any dividends, will you be totally satisfied? Moreover, neither you or your educator wouldn’t be glad to achieve the common results that got by someone from another university previously. You should explore a business topic that will cross new boundaries in the area. Going to work on the topic, ‘The Amount of Apple’s Business: Its Long-Term or Short-Term Evaluation’? Think twice whether you will be able to open new findings as the most are written about the success of this really outstanding company. Anything that is insightful. As every researcher needs to establish himself/herself as a scientist of great insight and creativity, you should stick to the same strategy give insight into your Business topic area on a full scale. Show in your Business essay writing that you understand a topic is really like. For that reason, you need to distinguish between broad and narrow essay topics. Compare the following topics: ‘Business in the 21st Century’ and ‘The Features of Business Development in the 21st Century: Its Weaknesses at Every Stage’. Find a general topic? So, don’t forget to include the information that will make your essay topic more specific and provide you with a clue of what and how to write. For a field like business, the following 10 essay topics correspond to the criteria and even more. Just look at them, and choose anything new, interesting and educational for yourself. The Value on Leadership or Other Qualitative Aspects of a Business Company; 10 Remedies for the Breach of Contract: How Are They Effective for Business Today; Global Economic Activities: Their Impact on Running a Small and Large Business Company; Top 12 Business Models Existing Today: The Perspectives of Their Further Usage; 7 Individual’s Actions Applied to Business Ethics and Unethical Business Practices; Business Policy Makers: Who Works in the Field of Business Management and Entrepreneurship; Strategic Decisions in a Fast-Growing and Networked World: Determinants and Effects; What Should Every Entrepreneur Know about a Startup Algorithm?; The Sources of Motivation Among Business Workers: Material Support or Words of Encouragement; The Nature of Business Competition: What Makes Customers Decide? The Detailed Business Essay Writing Guide Based on the ‘Empire-Building’ Dealing with Business Studies, you can’t go without such a concept as ‘empire-building’. According to Investopedia, it is an attempt to increase the individual’s or corporations power and influence. Let’s imagine you are an ‘empire builder’ of your business essay you’ll intend to grow your business essay’s power. What should you do in such a responsible role? Firstly, you’d better divide the whole writing process into segments pre-writing, writing, and post-writing. Secondly, you should take into consideration all our business studies essay tips at each writing stage. Thirdly, you can make practice your essay writing by trying to write as many essays as possible according to business essays written by our professionals. 3 Pre-Writing Tips Being at the prewriting stage, you come up with some ideas for an essay before you begin writing. You will find it easier to write a business studies essay if you: Brainstorm. This word literally contains 2 words ‘brain’ and ‘storm’. It means that you need to cause a storm for your brain. Get all your thoughts and ideas out of your head. Sometimes, you can be at loss of giving fresh ideas. Therefore, it is no shame if you address someone’s works to develop your own brilliant ideas by adding a few details. Freewrite. Now, it’s time to get all your thoughts out on paper in full. Freewriting is similar to brainstorming, but you expand all the points with the help of new details. Writing complete sentences doesn’t mean to pay too much attention to grammar, punctuation, and the like everything that can distract your concentration should be far from your mind while freewriting. Use mind mapping. There is such a useful technique for extremely visual learners. According to the Forbes’ article, there are some variations in the speed and manner of how people learn new information. But we all obtain more information through our eyes than in any other way. A mind mapping diagram has a central word in a circle, with all associated words around. 4 Writing Tips for Business Studies Essay Now that you have chosen a business topic and gathered the essay ideas, you must start writing it. Keep in mind that college/university essays are more formulaic than you might think. In fact, it can be as simple as twice two makes four only if you follow all our tips. Create a thesis statement. What is the point of your business essay? Look at your outline or diagram and answer this question. Include a topic and point of an essay in a thesis statement. For example, if you were writing about the leadership styles and their impact on business performance, an appropriate thesis statement would be, â€Å"The leadership styles affect the business performance either positively or negatively according to the individual strategic vision.† Write a body of an essay. The main part of your essay is aimed at analyzing, arguing, explaining or describing your topic depending on the type of essay you write. Develop an introduction. When the thesis and body of your essay are written, it is much easier to write an introduction as you need to show the focus of the whole essay in several sentences. Write the information that ties in with your thesis statement, which will be included as the last sentence of your introduction. Conclude your essay logically. Eventually, you’ve come to the closure of your essay topic. Sum up the ideas mentioned in the business essay in 4-5 strong sentences without presenting any new information. In this way, you are supposed to reinforce your thesis statement with the help of essential conclusions. 2 Post-Writing Tips Polish your written essay. Remember that good essay writing does not happen by accident. Even if you are an experienced author of many pieces of writing, you are recommended to look through your business essay again and again. You should be 100% sure that it is worth to be submitted. What to pay attention to? Fix a format of essay writing. In your initial essay instructions, every educator states in what format is required to write APA, MLA, Harvard, etc. Your task is to edit your business essay by taking into consideration some stylistic peculiarities. The differences start appearing at the beginning when you need to deal with a title page, then a bibliography page and so on. Moreover, the correct citing sources of information in the body of your essay is a very important aspect of academic writing. Therefore, you defend yourself against allegations of plagiarism. Besides, there are some academic formatting conventions so that every reader can identify the materials that lead to some particular conclusions. If you find this article useful for your own business essay writing, our professional team is glad. If you feel uncertain about some points, it will be better to apply our essay writing service. Our skilled writers will be happy to help you.

Irelands Repeal Movement

Ireland's Repeal Movement The Repeal Movement was a political campaign spearheaded by Irish statesman Daniel OConnell in the early 1840s. The goal was to break political ties with Britain by repealing the Act of Union, legislation passed in 1800. The campaign to repeal the Act of Union was considerably different than OConnells earlier great political movement, the Catholic Emancipation movement of the 1820s. In the intervening decades, the literacy rate of the Irish people had increased, and an influx of new newspapers and magazines helped to communicate OConnells message and mobilize the populace. OConnells repeal campaign ultimately failed, and Ireland would not break free from British rule until the 20th century. But the movement was remarkable as it enlisted millions of Irish people in a political cause, and some aspects of it, such as the famed Monster Meetings, demonstrated that the majority of Irelands population could gather behind the cause. Background of the Repeal Movement The Irish people had been opposed to the Act of Union since its passage in 1800, but it wasnt until the late 1830s that the beginnings of an organized effort to repeal it took shape. The goal, of course, was to strive for self-government for Ireland and a break with Britain. Daniel OConnell organized the Loyal National Repeal Association in 1840. The association was well-organized with various departments, and members paid dues and were issued membership cards. When a Tory (conservative) government came into power in 1841, it appeared obvious that the Repeal Association would not be able to achieve its goals through traditional parliamentary votes. OConnell and his followers began to think of other methods, and the idea of holding enormous meetings and involving as many people as possible seemed like the best approach. The Mass Movement During a period of about six months in 1843, the Repeal Association held a series of enormous gatherings in the east, west, and south of Ireland (support for repeal was not popular in the northern province of Ulster). There had been large meetings in Ireland before, such as anti-temperance rallies led by the Irish priest Father Theobald Matthew. But Ireland, and probably the world, had never seen anything like OConnells Monster Meetings.   It is unclear exactly how many people attended the various rallies, as partisans on both sides of the political divide claimed different totals. But its clear that tens of thousands attended some of the meetings. It was even claimed that some crowds numbered a million people, though that number has always been viewed skeptically. More than 30 large Repeal Association meetings were held, often at sites associated with Irish history and mythology. One idea was so instilled in the common people a connection to Irelands romantic past. It can be argued that the goal of connecting people to the past was accomplished, and the large meetings were worthwhile achievements for that alone. The Meetings In the Press As the meetings began to be held across Ireland in the summer of 1843 news reports circulated describing the remarkable events. The star speaker of the day, of course, would be OConnell. And his arrival in a locality would generally consist of a large procession. The enormous gathering at racecourse in Ennis, in County Clare, in the west of Ireland, on June 15, 1843, was described in a news report which was carried across the ocean by the steamship Caledonia. The Baltimore Sun published the account on its front page of July 20, 1843. The crowd at Ennis was described: Mr. OConnell had a demonstration at Ennis, for the county of Clare, on Thursday, the 15th ult., and the meeting is described as more numerous than any that preceded it- the numbers are stated at 700,000! including about 6,000 horsemen; the cavalcade of cars extended from Ennis to Newmarket- six miles. The preparations for his reception were most elaborate; at the entrance to the town whole trees were plants, with triumphal arches across the road, mottoes, and devices. The Baltimore Sun article also referred to a large meeting held on a Sunday which featured an outdoor mass held before OConnell and others spoke of political matters: A meeting was held at Athlone on Sunday- from 50,000 to 400,000, many of them women- and one writer says that 100 priests were on the ground. The gathering took place at Summerhill. Before it, mass was said in the open air, for the benefit of those who had left their distant homes too soon to attend morning service. News reports appearing in American newspapers noted that 25,000 British troops had been stationed in Ireland in expectation of an uprising. And to American readers, at least, Ireland appeared on the verge of a rebellion. The End of Repeal Despite the popularity of the large meetings, which mean the majority of Irish people may have been directly touched by OConnells message, the Repeal Association eventually faded away. In large part, the goal was simply unattainable as the British population, and British politicians, were not sympathetic to Irish freedom. And, Daniel OConnell, in the 1840s, was elderly. As his health faded the movement faltered, and his death seemed to mark the end of the push for repeal. OConnells son tried to keep the movement going, but he did not have the political skills or magnetic personality of his father. The legacy of the Repeal Movement is mixed. Though the movement itself failed, it kept alive the quest for Irish self-government. It was the last great political movement to affect Ireland before the horrific years of the Great Famine. And it inspired younger revolutionaries, who would go on to be involved with Young Ireland and the Fenian Movement.

How to Manage Your Blog the CoSchedule Way - CoSchedule

How to Manage Your Blog the Way Running a high-traffic blog isn’t easy. It takes a lot of persistence to build and retain a loyal audience. Just getting started can feel like pushing a boulder up a mountain. Then, once your blog does start to grow, the day-to-day work of managing content and deadlines only becomes more challenging. So, how do you do it? That’s a question we get asked a lot, and there’s no short and simple answer. However, we can share our own strategies and processes we use to manage our own blog. In this post, we’ll let you in on how we successfully manage a blog that receives over one million page views a month. How to Manage Your Blog the WayStart By Getting Your Ideation Process Together Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s good that they’re so cheap and plentiful though. You’re going to need a lot of them to keep your content calendar full. You don’t want just any ideas though. You want tons of ideas for blog posts you know people will want to read. Now, getting those kinds of ideas  is easier said than done. Sure, everyone has ideas. Ideas are also completely worthless until you put them into practice and see what they can do. But, when you’re under pressure, generating ideas worth acting on can be tough without a solid process in place. Here at , we use what we call our 30-minute brainstorming process. It’s broken down into three phases: Ideation. Get your team together and spend ten minutes writing down every idea you can think of. Scoring. Spend another ten minutes scoring each idea on a three-point scale. Three’s are ideas you just have to publish. Two’s are average. One’s are duds. Winner optimization. This is where you take every post that everyone agreed was a three, and ask yourselves, â€Å"Which of these ideas should we go with?† By the time you’re done, you’ll have around a month’s worth of ideas for your blog. Run this process once a month, and could  spend just six hours a year on brainstorming. That’s what we call efficiency. Once you’ve got your ideas down, put them straight on your content calendar. That way, they won’t get lost. You’ll also quickly have a plan in place for what you’ll write, and when. Recommended Reading: The Best 30-Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Planning Out Themes Sometimes, if we need content on a specific area or topic, we’ll go into our brainstorming meetings with a particular theme in mind. This can help keep the meeting focused and structured while making sure we end up with the content we need. Some examples of themes might include: Posts on how to complete particular tasks Posts that appeal to particular segments of our audience Posts that target readers at certain skill levels Posts around certain seasonal themes A theme just needs to be a batch of content that’s all wrapped around one core topic. These are just some ideas you can borrow, but you can certainly think of more. Adding Additional Content Beyond our core educational blog posts, we also have the following types of posts: Feature announcements Event announcements Company news Webinar and demo recap videos When we know that a feature is launching, we add complementary posts to the calendar right away. The same goes for demos and webinars that we have planned. That way, we’re able to keep everything orderly and organized. Recommended Reading: 5 Minute Tip: Organize Your Calendar With s Content Types Assigning Content to Team Members Once we’ve got all our ideas on the calendar, the next step is to figure out who will write them. We save a lot of time on this process by pre-determining who will write particular types of posts. Here’s how we have things broken down: Posts about our product fall on our Product Marketers Educational how-to posts fall on our Blog Manager (yo, that’s me) or Content Marketers Anything that helps show to use falls on our Customer Success team Posts about our culture and philosophies fall on whoever is best suited to write them (sometimes that’s a marketer, and sometimes that’s our CEO and co-founder, Garrett Moon) As you can see, content isn’t just the responsibility of one single content team. Instead, we assign content to the person most qualified to write a particular type of piece. That helps us maintain a high publishing volume while adding more voices and perspectives to our blog. Content isnt just the responsibility of one single team.Keeping Ideas Organized We have a two-pronged approach to keeping our content calendar organized: Certain types of blog posts always publish on certain days of the week All our blog posts are color-coded by category The keys here are simplicity and consistency. Here’s a quick look at our publishing schedule: Mondays: Content and Social Media Category Posts Tuesdays: Product Promotion Posts, New Podcast Episodes Wednesdays: Content and Social Media Category Posts Thursdays: Product Demo Videos and Culture Posts Fridays: Content and Social Media Category Posts We’ll add other things in from time to time, but this weekly schedule stays mostly consistent week to week. We then color-code posts like this: Gray: Content and Social Media Category Posts Purple: Product Posts Magenta: Culture Posts Teal: Product Demo Videos Blue: Podcast Episodes That’s all there is to it. Keeping these two things straight helps prevent our calendar from descending into chaos (and ensure that I don’t lose my mind). Heres how to prevent your #content #calendar from descending into chaos.Managing Guest Writers That covers how we handle blog content internally. What about managing guest authors, though?  Weve got a process for that, too. Create a Detailed Write For Us Page It’s frustrating for editors and blog managers to get pitches that fail to follow simple directions. One way to get ahead of this problem to write a detailed Write For Us page. For an example, here’s ours. Be sure to include: Your style standards. This includes how you want documents formatted. You might even consider providing readers with a content template to follow. How you want posts delivered to you. Google Docs? Microsoft Word? Whatever your preference is, let people know. Your policy on linking. Can guest authors include links back to their own content? Whether or not you’ll respond to every pitch. In the interest of saving time, we only respond to pitches we accept. If you follow a similar approach, give people a time frame on how quickly you’ll get back to them. Which topics you’re looking for. You might also want to specify topics you won’t cover, too. How long you’d like posts to be. Give people a range. Whether or not you’ll accept pre-written posts. This will save you and your writers a lot of time. Managing guest writers on your blog? Here are some tips to manage your process.Determine How Pitches Should Be Submitted Our Write For Us page includes a link to a simple Google Form for prospective writers to pitch us through. If you receive a high volume of pitches, submission management software like Submittable  might be a better option. It isn’t free, but their prices are reasonable, and their service offers several benefits: It lets writers know when you’re reviewing their pitch (and whether they’ve been accepted or rejected). It keeps all your pitches organized in one place. It has a more professional look and feel. Another option is to set up a specific email address for submissions and include a link on your Write For Us page. Whichever approach you go with, make sure you ask for the following information: Name Email Address Company / Job Title Links to Previous Work Target Keyword (Optional) Blog Post Idea Summary Prospective Blog Post Outline (Optional) Time Required to Write We’ve found that asking guest authors to provide a target keyword and outline up front helps save a ton of time in the long run. It also shows us whether or not a writer really knows what they want to cover before we accept their pitch. In turn, that can cut down on editing time later. Asking how long they’ll spend writing their post also helps us set clear deadlines. You don’t have time to twiddle your thumbs nor hound writers when their posts don’t show up. Hold them accountable for getting stuff done on time. Hold guest writers accountable for getting stuff done on time.Set Your Acceptance Criteria We have certain standards for our blog that determine which content we’ll accept. For us, guest blog posts must be: Actionable. If a post tells readers what to do, it should show them how to do it, too. Comprehensive. No details should be omitted. Readers should be able to read one post and come away with an in-depth understanding of that topic. Keyword-driven. We don’t overly stress keywords, but there should be a thoughtful strategy behind the keywords a post targets. Topical. All posts must focus on a topic our core audience is interested in. If a pitch doesn’t convey the end result will meet all four of these pillars, it goes in the trash and we move on. Ruthless efficiency wins the day and ensures we only publish the best content we can. Recommended Reading: How to Write a Pitch Email That Will Get Your Guest Post Accepted Determine what successful content looks like to you and accept nothing less. If you consistently deliver quality content, your audience will reward you with their attention, and more reputable writers will want to work with you. Editing Guest Content Determine upfront how much editing you’ll do on guest content. Some editors and blog managers like to offer writers extensive feedback to help them improve their skills and work. Others prefer to handle edits on their own. Whichever approach you choose, we recommend using collaborative writing tools (like Google Docs or the cloud-based version of Microsoft Word) for easy real-time editing. It makes passing along edits and suggestions much easier than emailing documents back and forth. How Will You Manage Your Blog? That covers our blog management process from start to finish. Do you have any questions or tips you’d like to add? Leave us a comment below and help get the conversation started. How to Manage Your Blog the Way Running a high-traffic blog isn’t easy. It takes a lot of persistence to build and retain a loyal audience. Just getting started can feel like pushing a boulder up a mountain. Then, once your blog does start to grow, the day-to-day work of managing content and deadlines only becomes more challenging. So, how do you do it? That’s a question we get asked a lot, and there’s no short and simple answer. However, we can share our own strategies and processes we use to manage our own blog. In this post, we’ll let you in on how we successfully manage a blog that receives over one million page views a month. How to Manage Your Blog the WayStart By Getting Your Ideation Process Together Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s good that they’re so cheap and plentiful though. You’re going to need a lot of them to keep your content calendar full. You don’t want just any ideas though. You want tons of ideas for blog posts you know people will want to read. Now, getting those kinds of ideas  is easier said than done. Sure, everyone has ideas. Ideas are also completely worthless until you put them into practice and see what they can do. But, when you’re under pressure, generating ideas worth acting on can be tough without a solid process in place. Here at , we use what we call our 30-minute brainstorming process. It’s broken down into three phases: Ideation. Get your team together and spend ten minutes writing down every idea you can think of. Scoring. Spend another ten minutes scoring each idea on a three-point scale. Three’s are ideas you just have to publish. Two’s are average. One’s are duds. Winner optimization. This is where you take every post that everyone agreed was a three, and ask yourselves, â€Å"Which of these ideas should we go with?† By the time you’re done, you’ll have around a month’s worth of ideas for your blog. Run this process once a month, and could  spend just six hours a year on brainstorming. That’s what we call efficiency. Once you’ve got your ideas down, put them straight on your content calendar. That way, they won’t get lost. You’ll also quickly have a plan in place for what you’ll write, and when. Recommended Reading: The Best 30-Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Planning Out Themes Sometimes, if we need content on a specific area or topic, we’ll go into our brainstorming meetings with a particular theme in mind. This can help keep the meeting focused and structured while making sure we end up with the content we need. Some examples of themes might include: Posts on how to complete particular tasks Posts that appeal to particular segments of our audience Posts that target readers at certain skill levels Posts around certain seasonal themes A theme just needs to be a batch of content that’s all wrapped around one core topic. These are just some ideas you can borrow, but you can certainly think of more. Adding Additional Content Beyond our core educational blog posts, we also have the following types of posts: Feature announcements Event announcements Company news Webinar and demo recap videos When we know that a feature is launching, we add complementary posts to the calendar right away. The same goes for demos and webinars that we have planned. That way, we’re able to keep everything orderly and organized. Recommended Reading: 5 Minute Tip: Organize Your Calendar With s Content Types Assigning Content to Team Members Once we’ve got all our ideas on the calendar, the next step is to figure out who will write them. We save a lot of time on this process by pre-determining who will write particular types of posts. Here’s how we have things broken down: Posts about our product fall on our Product Marketers Educational how-to posts fall on our Blog Manager (yo, that’s me) or Content Marketers Anything that helps show to use falls on our Customer Success team Posts about our culture and philosophies fall on whoever is best suited to write them (sometimes that’s a marketer, and sometimes that’s our CEO and co-founder, Garrett Moon) As you can see, content isn’t just the responsibility of one single content team. Instead, we assign content to the person most qualified to write a particular type of piece. That helps us maintain a high publishing volume while adding more voices and perspectives to our blog. Content isnt just the responsibility of one single team.Keeping Ideas Organized We have a two-pronged approach to keeping our content calendar organized: Certain types of blog posts always publish on certain days of the week All our blog posts are color-coded by category The keys here are simplicity and consistency. Here’s a quick look at our publishing schedule: Mondays: Content and Social Media Category Posts Tuesdays: Product Promotion Posts, New Podcast Episodes Wednesdays: Content and Social Media Category Posts Thursdays: Product Demo Videos and Culture Posts Fridays: Content and Social Media Category Posts We’ll add other things in from time to time, but this weekly schedule stays mostly consistent week to week. We then color-code posts like this: Gray: Content and Social Media Category Posts Purple: Product Posts Magenta: Culture Posts Teal: Product Demo Videos Blue: Podcast Episodes That’s all there is to it. Keeping these two things straight helps prevent our calendar from descending into chaos (and ensure that I don’t lose my mind). Heres how to prevent your #content #calendar from descending into chaos.Managing Guest Writers That covers how we handle blog content internally. What about managing guest authors, though?  Weve got a process for that, too. Create a Detailed Write For Us Page It’s frustrating for editors and blog managers to get pitches that fail to follow simple directions. One way to get ahead of this problem to write a detailed Write For Us page. For an example, here’s ours. Be sure to include: Your style standards. This includes how you want documents formatted. You might even consider providing readers with a content template to follow. How you want posts delivered to you. Google Docs? Microsoft Word? Whatever your preference is, let people know. Your policy on linking. Can guest authors include links back to their own content? Whether or not you’ll respond to every pitch. In the interest of saving time, we only respond to pitches we accept. If you follow a similar approach, give people a time frame on how quickly you’ll get back to them. Which topics you’re looking for. You might also want to specify topics you won’t cover, too. How long you’d like posts to be. Give people a range. Whether or not you’ll accept pre-written posts. This will save you and your writers a lot of time. Managing guest writers on your blog? Here are some tips to manage your process.Determine How Pitches Should Be Submitted Our Write For Us page includes a link to a simple Google Form for prospective writers to pitch us through. If you receive a high volume of pitches, submission management software like Submittable  might be a better option. It isn’t free, but their prices are reasonable, and their service offers several benefits: It lets writers know when you’re reviewing their pitch (and whether they’ve been accepted or rejected). It keeps all your pitches organized in one place. It has a more professional look and feel. Another option is to set up a specific email address for submissions and include a link on your Write For Us page. Whichever approach you go with, make sure you ask for the following information: Name Email Address Company / Job Title Links to Previous Work Target Keyword (Optional) Blog Post Idea Summary Prospective Blog Post Outline (Optional) Time Required to Write We’ve found that asking guest authors to provide a target keyword and outline up front helps save a ton of time in the long run. It also shows us whether or not a writer really knows what they want to cover before we accept their pitch. In turn, that can cut down on editing time later. Asking how long they’ll spend writing their post also helps us set clear deadlines. You don’t have time to twiddle your thumbs nor hound writers when their posts don’t show up. Hold them accountable for getting stuff done on time. Hold guest writers accountable for getting stuff done on time.Set Your Acceptance Criteria We have certain standards for our blog that determine which content we’ll accept. For us, guest blog posts must be: Actionable. If a post tells readers what to do, it should show them how to do it, too. Comprehensive. No details should be omitted. Readers should be able to read one post and come away with an in-depth understanding of that topic. Keyword-driven. We don’t overly stress keywords, but there should be a thoughtful strategy behind the keywords a post targets. Topical. All posts must focus on a topic our core audience is interested in. If a pitch doesn’t convey the end result will meet all four of these pillars, it goes in the trash and we move on. Ruthless efficiency wins the day and ensures we only publish the best content we can. Recommended Reading: How to Write a Pitch Email That Will Get Your Guest Post Accepted Determine what successful content looks like to you and accept nothing less. If you consistently deliver quality content, your audience will reward you with their attention, and more reputable writers will want to work with you. Editing Guest Content Determine upfront how much editing you’ll do on guest content. Some editors and blog managers like to offer writers extensive feedback to help them improve their skills and work. Others prefer to handle edits on their own. Whichever approach you choose, we recommend using collaborative writing tools (like Google Docs or the cloud-based version of Microsoft Word) for easy real-time editing. It makes passing along edits and suggestions much easier than emailing documents back and forth. How Will You Manage Your Blog? That covers our blog management process from start to finish. Do you have any questions or tips you’d like to add? 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