Strategic Staffing Handbook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategic Staffing Handbook - Essay Example Rather, expanding the traditional approach, it principally turns the existing staff members from being reactive to a proactive nature. It actually complies with the just-in-time supply chain management with regard to the operational process that mainly involves the management of the talent supply in order to ensure right people in appropriate position at right time (Bechet, 2008). Strategic Staffing handbook is theoretically regarded as a medium that provides the employees with detail information of the organization as well as the employment terms. Strategic Staffing handbook usually entails polices, rules and the procedures being operated within the organization. It also entails the details of the employment contract. It frames an important Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) tool within any organization providing the entire internal scenario of the organizations’ operations and its prevailing policies and procedures. Hence, it is vital for the staff to go through the staffing handbook with great care as the staffing handbook not only gives details about the assigned roles along with the responsibilities of the employees, but also intends to discuss about the company’s human resource quality. It provides an insight on the job analysis segment and the approaches to the process of the job analysis consequently. Apart from this, the handboo k also provided an overview about the employment details. Strategic staffing for our company reflects about the process, which has been into application in order to identify the implications of the selected staff members. The application of the strategic staffing principally addresses the impacts of staffing on our company’s business strategies along with the advanced plan. Apart from this, our company also implements the notions of strategic staffing in order to gain ideas about the prevailing issues that reflect about the gap or surplus with regard to

Gender, Culture, and Globalization Essay Example for Free

Gender, Culture, and Globalization Essay In the Western world, the cause of feminism enabled women to obtain higher education and participate in the economic sector as the equals of men. However, one question that continues to be of interest to modern scholars is: how far have women truly come globally? Not only in Western democracies, but in developing nations located in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. For example, in the Philippines, many women support their families by working abroad as domestics and health care providers, which allegedly fracture family dynamics of many Filipino homes. While migrant fathers supporting families is seen as par for the course, migrant mothers are blamed for the destruction of Filipino society in the media. â€Å"These reports tend to vilify migrant mothers, suggesting that their children face more profound problems than do those of migrant fathers† (Ehrenreich Hochschild, 40). In the Middle East and North Africa, the economic opportunities of women are even more restricted. Many of the popular interpretations of Islam prohibit women from working altogether, but in Egypt, women are allowed to seek employment. However, it is usually restricted to the largely unskilled service sector considered to be below the dignity of men. â€Å"This is reflected in the very low rates of wage employment in the private sector, continued high unemployment rates for educated females, and a large gender wage gap in the private sector† (Doumato Posusney, 121). In the United States, racism is still a potent force preventing the economic advancement of minority women, especially with the dismantling of affirmative action in many states. Still, those making the hiring decisions tend to be overwhelmingly white, and even though many claim to not carry racist/sexist sentiments, research has shown that they have made decisions deleterious to minority women because of stereotypes (Mutari Figart, 183). Works Cited Doumato, Eleanor Abdella and Marsha Pripstein Posusney. Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East: Gender, Economy and Society. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003 Ehrenreich, Barbara and Arlie Russell Hochschild. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003 Mutari, Ellen and Deborah M. Figart. Woman and the Economy: A Reader. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. , 2003

Netflix And Blockbuster Battle For Market Leadership Marketing Essay

Netflix And Blockbuster Battle For Market Leadership Marketing Essay Movie retail industry includes such companies that rent DVDs, Blu-ray discs and even video games which are usable on home-based electronic equipment (Espedido Julian, 2010). Many companies are participants in this lucrative business and they include such companies as Wal-Mart, Netflix, Blockbuster, Intelliflix, Redbox and GameZnFlix among others. Both Netflix and Blockbuster companies are presently the leaders in the rental movie industry and therefore the major rivals in the rental movie industry. As to Blockbuster, it has a quite lengthy convention in the business. The Blockbuster has existed since the year 1985, even as Netflix entered its 12th anniversary this year. This gives Blockbuster an edge of existence over its close competitor Netflix. This paper intends to critically provide an in depth analysis for Arthur Thompsons case study entitled Competition in the Movie Rental Industry in 2008: Netflix and Blockbuster Battle for Market Leadership. It will comb thoroughly issues li ke the trends which affect either negatively or positively the movie rental industry with utmost reference to Netflix and Blockbuster in respect to their fight for the market headship, scrutinize in detail the competitive movie rental industry environment, and by extension give detailed discussion on the use of both the SWOT as well as reasonable scorecard to evaluate Netflixs battle strategy for market leadership on the whole. Dominant Business and Economic Characteristics of Movie Rental Industry: The video rental industry (formally known as home entertainment or leisure) is actually an economic segment duly involved with the development, marketing and sale of movie as well as other computer games. It includes such video games as consoles, game software, mobile games, handheld devices as well as online games. In recent years, the movie industry of has been experiencing exponential growth. The growth has been such that it is expected even to further leap-frog in the near and far future (Espedido Julian, 2010). According to Espedido Julian (2010), the industrys dominant economic features include 1) Market bulk and growth pace More than $35 billion was spent on video games consoles, game software etc. Industry is expected to have more than $51 billion sale by 2010. 2) Numbers of rivals The two main contenders are Netflix and Blockbuster. 3) The extent of competitive challenge Global presence with regional focus is required for companys competitive long term success. 4) Numbers of buyers around 250 to 300 million people globally did watch movies and nearly the same number did play video games in the year 2007. There is for instance, an estimated average age of those actively involved in the video games. The estimated age has actually jumped to 33 years in 2005, and about 25 percent of video gamers were in excess of age 50. 5) The extent of product discrimination The bigger the extent of differentiation, the further the competitive advantage. 6) Product innovation merchandise innovation plays noteworthy role in capturing the market share and to take competitive advantage in the market. And finally, pace of technological advancement Newly sophisticated technology advancement does plays a crucial role in entertainment industry particularly with due regard to movie rental industry. The emergence for instance of internet services have made it quite easier for Netflixs founder, Reed Hastings who did become aware of the demand for online renting of movies way back in the year 1997. Without hesitation, he began the vibrant online movie rental business indeed to a large scale. Netflix became successful, and it did not take long before he began to bring in the reimbursements of someone elses idea. Competition: In the movie rental industry, there has been an intense competition between two major business rivals; Netflix and Blockbuster. The competition in the movie rental industry has been so frighteningly fierce for the precedent few years that it has been termed by many opinion leaders as unhealthy business wise. Netflix and Blockbuster are actually the current leaders in the booming rental movie industry and by extension and to that effect the major rivals. The Blockbuster has been in the business for long, in fact, since 1985 on the other hand, Netflix only entered its 12th existence year this year. Actually the founder, Reed Hastings did establish Netflix in the year 1997. Nevertheless, at the moment, Netflix appears to lead the market in terms of market acquisition. Netflix which is largely viewed as a newcomer does have around 9.6 million online customers who have subscribed to their services. In comparison, Blockbuster has just slightly more than 3 million online subscribers despite its longer years of existence. In the United States of America, there are other online movie rental companies which include companies such as Intelliflix, Redbox and GameZnFlix. However, GameZnFlix and Redbox do not serve the locals most of the time. Instead they more often than not target Asian markets. Additionally, Wal-Mart also did attempt to spawn profits in the movie rental industry but sooner was outrun in the business by Netflix. These days Wal-Mart merely possesses an advertising contract with Netflix in the industry. Online Service General Idea: Both the Netflix and Blockbuster entire right of entry are online movie rental services. This implies that one can look through their records and place movies or even a favorite program in ones queue. A customer or a member is permitted to maintain a DVD so long as she/he so wants and there also exist no outstanding dates or even late charges. The operation is such that once a movie had been seen it is wrapped in an envelope and immediately sent back to either Netflix or Blockbuster. So responsive are the movie rental companies such that as soon as a movie sent back is received, the next movie to be sent in the stand in line will duly be sent to the customer or member. Indeed, Both Netflix and Blockbuster do have many different strategies from which to choose. The possible options are two-fold and they include limited rentals and unlimited rentals. In its infinite DVD rental option, Netflix does offer eight (8) strategies. The costs normally vary from about $10 for a movie at a parti cular time to around $50 for 8 movies. On the other hand, Blockbuster has four (4) different schemes which fall between $10 and $24. As regards limited rentals, Netflix normally offer two (2) DVDs per month for about $6 or four (4) DVDs for a period of one month for about $12.however, with reference to limited rentals, a Blockbuster member is able to get two (2) DVDs for the equivalent value as their market challengers or four (4) DVDs for about $8 only. Netflix has more continuous entertainment flow merits. Netflix utilizes technological advancement than no other company. For example if an individual is a member of Netflix, it is highly possible movies are watched from the individuals website at the same time as the person is waiting to obtain the subsequent movies from the list. This benefit is only to be had to Netflix customers. Nonetheless, Blockbuster also has certain incentives to their customers. It normally let a rental customer to turn back a watched movie physically. On f urther advancement to outdo each other, Netflix more often than not sends a new show within a day, whereas it takes Blockbuster around two to three days to deliver a new movie. Netflix is really sophisticated in this business. It does offer a wider assortment of movies as compared to its biggest competitors and even a rare expediency of watching shows online. Further still, they are also faster on matters shipping. With regard to technological use, Blockbuster only lets a member arrange and order movies online. Their movies are also largely obtainable in their stores. As a result, they lack online movie watching services. However, Blockbuster does give a rare chance to its customers to acquire as much as double shows given that their in store rental services is free with a Total Access Pass. The Forces Driving Movie Rental Industry: Several forces do propel the movie rental industry especially with regard to the performance of one of the market leaders, the Netflix, and they include such forces as i) Market Features-The industry was in actual market maturity stage previous to the application and utilization of the Internet technology as a medium of distribution. Netflix did capitalize and subsequently utilized the Internet sophistication to gain huge market share by offering customers and members with direct movie download accessibility and undeviating shipments to their home. Â   As earlier stated, Netflix was and for that matter still remain a market leader that realized the first potential of the market which did exist for Internet movie rentals. Â  According to Espedido Julian (2010) they did make the product less complex for the consumer to acquire by eliminating unnecessary hassle that existed before and in lieu provided accelerated delivery. ii) Profit Margins of the Industry- the gross profit of Netfli x did shoot up from $8 million in the year 2000 to around $419.6 million in the year 2007. Â  it was an indication that Netflix was proficient and capable of capitalizing on the existing market trends which affect the entire movie rental industry. Netflix market entrance was quite successful and this contributed to their fast growth and expansive market share acquisition. iii) Competition Intensity- when Netflix was entering movie retail industry, the industry then was operating as an oligopoly as Blockbuster did control a major market share. Â   Netflix was amazingly able to compete against the then well established Blockbuster by effectively and efficiently using the Internet technology and the policy of one day delivery distribution channels were its central competitive advantage over Blockbuster and other allied companies in the market that was largely oligopoly. iv) Variations in Demand-Movie demand appears to be somewhat consistent. Â   Nevertheless, more and more customers seem to be too conventional. They are reminiscent of the idea of requesting for the DVDs off the Internet. v) Capital and Technological Requirements- A huge amount of initial capital is duly required to start the business of movie rentals and in turn obtain any momentous share of the market since fees that must be paid is quite exorbitant. Compare Netflix and Blockbusters competitive strategies: Both Netflix and Blockbuster have employed diverse strategies, plans and schemes to gain more market share as well as revenues as they can. They have before engaged in business tussles. Both the companies have actually been involved in price battle, each lowering its operation cost compared to the cost charged by their rival (Thompson, et al. 2010). This strategy however, popular with many competing companies does work advantageously to consumers since the consumers get the same kind of services for a smaller amount of money they pay. The CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings strategies is to reach about 20 million customers by the year 2012. Netflix therefore puts a great deal of anxiety on Blockbuster compelling them to change something in their strategy and future plans. In fact, up till about two years ago, Blockbuster was charging for their services late fees for failure to return on time DVDs back (Thompson, et al. 2010). The company henceforth changed their strategy and no longer char ge late fees any more. Netflix has very aggressive strategies. They have been purchasing privileges to autonomous films. This plan will permit Netflix to rent or even sell DVDs or movies in the theatres. In so doing, Netflix gambles and attempts to make more cash on movies which Hollywood never considers. It duly works in their favor since only 30 percent of Netflixs rentals are new releases (Thompson, et al. 2010). Advantages/Disadvantages of Two Rivals Advantages of Netflix: Netflix provides more advantages to its customers. According to Roth, Daniel (2009) their customers do watch more than 7000 movies online as a member. Their website also makes recommendations based on your previous ratings. Further, their website keeps track of movies rented. Moreover, they have a large selection of special interest DVDs. Finally, they avail to their customers a 2 week free trial. Disadvantages of Netflix: Netflix have numerous merits. However, they also have few demerits. For instance, they show poor customer service. Their services subject customers into a long wait for new releases. Advantages of Blockbuster Total Access: Blockbuster as a market rival to Netflix has merits too. They offer 2 free video/game in store monthly rentals to their members. Their members also enjoy privilege to return online order to any local Blockbuster store and this is very convenient to customers (Roth, Daniel, 2009). In addition, their customers pay a paltry $9.99 for the first month of subscription. Disadvantages of Blockbuster Total Access: Nevertheless, Blockbuster also has disadvantages. For that case, their customers are barred from returning rented Movies by mail. Finally, their consumers are conditioned to have 2 separate accounts in order to rent in store and online (Blockbuster, 2008). A Complete SWOT for Netflix: The founders of Netflix were Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. This was way back in the year 1997. They both viewed the business as a blend of customary video store as well as a subscription or payment cable TV services. Since April 1998, Netflix has been offering DVD owners an expedient as well as a cost effectual alternative to rent movies. Netflix has been operating as an internet based rental movie subscription services provider particularly for formatted movies of digital video disc (DVD). Its website provided its members to not only surf its catalogue of shows without difficulties, but also offered clips of movies which customers could afford to rent. Its prime mission is to offer versatile services which can help its members pick and obtain rental movies with an absolute gratification. Netflixs founders were very intelligent. They were able to foresee the positive potential of technological trend of the digital video disc player market jointly with the fast growth of internet access. Netflix as a result placed itself immediately in the internet DVD rental business. Their main focus was on those Americans who love movies, can access the internet, owns a DVD player or possess PCs or have DVD-ROM. Unsatisfied customers with the rule of the game of the other local movie rental companies preferred the online stores which was offered principally by Netflix. The online stores did cover scores of demographics. Summary From the point of view of the user, there is bound to occur varied preferences towards one service. It mostly relies on individual needs of a service member. For instance, versed with technological advancement will more likely favor Netflix, whilst a family living at home and is close to a Blockbuster store would prefer its services. Relying on the observation above, it is adequate to say that Netflix is more than able to be steps ahead of Blockbuster because they do not incur overbearing overhead cost of possessing its stores as well as storing all DVDs.

Questions Frequently Asked Concerning the Purchase of a Website :: Sell Websites Buy Websites

Questions Frequently Asked Concerning the Purchase of a Website Reprinted with permission of VotanWeb.com What are the key motivators for people to buy a website? Before making a decision to purchase a website, a buyer should understand his or her objectives to make sure those objectives can be met by purchasing a particular website. Surveys of people purchasing websites reveal similar responses. Surprisingly, making money is not at the top of the list. Here is a list of the typical answers, in their order of importance: I want to control my own destiny. I would be happier if I worked for myself. My current work does not take advantage of my skills and abilities. I want to make a lot of money. Should I start my own website or buy an existing website? An existing website has a historical track record (good or bad) which can be used to evaluate the website. An existing website has usually shown there is demand for its products or services, and it should have, among other things, detailed financial records. Sometimes, a seller of a website will agree to help to train a new owner. These are important factors because many websites tend to fail during the early stage of their development. On the other hand, there can also be disadvantages to buying an existing website. A buyer will be assuming an established website culture and infrastructure which may make implementing changes more difficult. Also buyers will generally have to pay a premium for an existing website. What should I be looking for in a website? A buyer should only consider a website he or she will feel comfortable owning and operating. The time and effort which will be required is an important consideration as is how much the buyer can afford to pay for the website. The amount of cash the buyer needs to regularly take out of the website is very important, especially if the website is to be the buyer's only source of income. Because many experts believe you should not purchase a website unless you can make it better, it is helpful if a buyer has some definite ideas on how to improve the purchased website. Can I obtain financing to help me buy a website? The availability of outside financing will depend upon the asset base of the website, its operating history, collateral availability and projected cash flow - the same issues considered in all business lending.

Mo Yan’s the Garlic Ballads: Saga of Suffering and Solitude Essay

They are, instead, people with their own shortcomings and prejudices, and by understanding that, Mo Yan shows the true power of an artist–rather than stoop for the easy message, he dives into the actuality of his characters to make them empathic and flawed, and allow us to root for them and cringe when we realize that they simply don’t have the wisdom to always act correctly. When it comes to the plight of the farmer and the destitute, Mo Yan has experience in spades. The Garlic Ballads tells the tale of a group of Chinese peasants whose lives are dependent upon selling their garlic crop; when harvests exceed governmental estimates, officials curb the amount of garlic that can be brought to market, setting off a violent chain of events. Against this backdrop, Mo weaves presents three stories: that of two lovers, which dominates the novel, as well as a familial conflict and the relationship between two friends. Howard Goldblatt’s translation is so good as to make the reader mistake this for an English novel; the prose is nearly flawless. Set in rural China, The Garlic Ballads explores the misfortune of ordinary Chinese farmers during the post revolutionary period. The very title which focuses on the word ‘Ballads’ reveals that it is a love story in particular spiced by magic realism. The harrowing experiences make the stuff of the novel. The small dramas of the Gao and Yang families, set against a slightly larger but nonetheless miniscule backdrop of rural corruption gets steadily deeper as it progresses, illuminating the paradoxes of modern China and the unchanging demands of love, family, and duty. There are also other heterogeneous elements – an arranged marriage, a botched directive from central agricultural planners, a drunk driver with government connections. All are woven into a coherent whole through the poetic vision of Mo Yan who easily peddles in realism. This novel which focuses on the aftermath of an uprising a tragic story which depicts both a very specific time and place and sheds light onto basic human truths. The people of Paradise County have been encouraged, if not ordered, to grow garlic, and so garlic has infused itself into every aspect of the people’s lives–their breath reeks of it, their celebrations tainted with it. But the governing officials of Paradise County are out to grab up every copper they can, and so out come the taxes for traveling the roads to the co-op warehouses, the penalties, the closures, and one day the garlic farmers have had enough and act out against the officials making their lives so full of hardship. The government retaliates, and Mo focuses on some of the victims. First, there is Gao Yang, who suffers enough with a blind daughter and a new son soon to be born, but he is beaten and brought to jail. One who escapes at first is Gao Ma, a former soldier who longs to marry Jinjun, whose family have agreed to marry her to someone else, but Gao Ma and Jinjun do not take the alternate marriage lightly, and trouble ensues from there. Jinjun’s mother, Fourth Aunt of the Fang family, is also sought after in the police hunt since she won’t stay quiet about her husband being run over by a government official, and the lives of these peasants intertwine through the courses of love and justice. The Fang family is cruel to both Jinjun and Gao Ma as they try to reject the lovers’ vow to be married, and Gao Yang suffers humiliation and torment from his cellmates. Fourthly we have the character of the Aunt who appears to be tyrannical at home, but in jail she becomes a different creature altogether. At times, she is bawdy and scatological, at other times heart-breaking and lyrical. Thus through the characters, Mo Yan gives us the entirety of the human spectrum in his novel. The main story in The Garlic Ballads details the tragic love story of Gao Ma and Fang Jinju. This story is told in parallel with the life of Gao Yang and some other stories. All are inter-related. The background is a Chinese village in the mid 1980s. The details make it frightfully real. The central focus in the book is however on an invasion and trashing by an angry mob of the local governmental offices. We do not see this event occur until the end of the book, yet it colors every moment in the lives of the Fang and Gao families of Paradise County. It is understandable that the Beijing government would suppress a novel that shows most of its local officials to be bloated satraps and its policement to be little better than thugs, applying cattle prods to their prisoners and beating them mercilessly. Equally villainous, however, are the Fang family, who force their daughter to marry an old man in a three-in-one arranged marriage that guarantees that their crippled eldest son also gets a bride. In a grisly scene, the marriage deal finally goes through after both the daughter and her fiance commit suicide: Their bodies are dug up, their remains are mixed together, and they are re-interred in a single coffin. The full picture of alternating hopelessness and rebellion emerges slowly and tragically, and the disparate elements weave together into an elegant and moving whole. The Swedish Academy which selects Mo as the recipient of the Nobel Prize praised his ‘hallucinatory realism’ saying that along with his other writings, Sorghum, The Big Breasts and Wide Hips, The Garlic Ballads ‘merges folk tales, history and the contemporary’. Mo in his writings mingled fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives and thus created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Although Mo is the writer of eleven novels and a hundred of short stories, The Garlic Ballads seems to be his masterpiece. Born in 1955 to parents who were farmers, Mo Yan – a pseudonym for Guan Moye; the pen name means â€Å"don’t speak† – grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in north-eastern China. The cultural revolution forced him to leave school at 12, and he went to work in the fields, completing his education in the army. He writes about the peasantry, about life in the countryside, about people struggling to survive, struggling for their dignity, sometimes winning but most of the time losing . Arundhati Roy’s A God of small Things is graphic and captivating, but seen from that perspective, The Garlic Ballads is ten imes more so. The novel depicts simple people living in hard times, in very helpless circumstances. Basically there was no way out, and people could only console themselves that their lives were `fated’. â€Å"I think writers write for their consciences, they write for their own true audiences, for their souls,† Mo said in an interview with  China Daily. â€Å"No person writes to win awards. † Today the best reward in literature comes to him. In fact he is the first Chinese writer to win this reward in Literature. The Garlic Ballads seems to have gained prominence no less than Marquez’s 100 years of Solitude.

Comparing Writing Styles of Faulkner and Gilman essays

Comparing Writing Styles of Faulkner and Gilman essays I. Writing instructors often tell people to write what they know. When Faulkner wrote A Rose for Miss Emily, he was familiar with the Deep South and its attitudes toward women. When Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wall-Paper, she was familiar with societys beliefs at the time about whether women should have intellectual pursuits. Although the two stories are told differently, each author has produced a story about a woman who was emotionally unstable, and each story has been colored by the beliefs at the time regarding women. II. Faulkner grew up in the Deep South, and presumably, heard many tales about the Civil War. In his story, he drew on those experiences to create a quietly chilling picture a womans declining years. He hides the history of her life in the history of the town and of the house in which Miss Emily lived. For instance, he shows how time has passed her by describing the gas station on the corner of her street where a cotton gin had once stood. Because the story has a narrator, we can only infer what Miss Emilys life was like, and her descent into madness is only revealed after her death. III. The Yellow Wallpaper is written in first person, giving the reader a clear look into the mind of a woman as she descends into insanity. The protagonist of Gilmans story, who is never called by name, is kept in a large attic room because her husband, a doctor, believes it will help cure her. Although she loves to write, she has to write furtively and secretly because her husband believes that such intellectually taxing activities will only make her worse. It becomes clear to the reader that it is the incessant boredom that is aggravating the womans condition. The first person narrative approach creates an interesting presentation because we see the story only through the womans eyes, and it becomes apparent that her understanding ...