Types of Bill of Lading

Types of Bill Of  Lading There are two types of Bill of Lading (B/L) on the basis of Receipt of cargo:- 1. Shipped on Board B/L: Cargo is on board the vessel, It confirms the buyer that cargo is actually shipped. 2. Received for Shipment B/L:   Shipping Company confirms having received the goods for shipment by the vessel mentioned therein. When the goods later loaded on the vessel, a supplementary clause may be inserted in B/L, if it’s not already negotiated: â€Å"Actual shipped on Board† – On (Date) and is signed by Shipping agent or Shipping Company Type of Bill of Lading on the Basis of Trade Parties Involved 1.House Bill of Lading: Issued by Freight Forwarder or Agent having MTO License from DGFT, Ministry of Shipping. 2. Master Bill of Lading: Issued by Shipping or Agent having MTO (Ministry of Transportation) License from DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade), Ministry of Shipping. Types of Bill of Lading on the basis of Voyage 1. Direct B/L: It co vers transportation on one and same vessel from POL to POD i. e. , shipment on vessels offering direct calls from port to port. 2. Through B/L: It covers transportation with transshipment, Inland transportation involved at origin port or destination or at both the sides.Throughput B/L usually show â€Å"transshipment at carriers’ expense but at consignee’s risk† Types of bills of lading on the basis of beneficiaries: – 1. Bill of Lading â€Å"To Order†: B/L is drawn on order of the shipper, the consignee or bank can be endorsed in favor of another person who may be the final receiver or an intermediate beneficiary. Commonly used in commercial transaction 2. Bill of Lading â€Å"To Bearer†: Bearer of bill of lading can obtain delivery of goods. There is no endorsement of bank or Consignee is required on the same. Types of Bill of Lading on the basis of reservation by the carrier 1.Clean Bill of Lading: If there is no clause or comment by the carrier in the bill of lading than it shall be considered as clear B/L. 2. Clause Bill of Lading: If any clause or comment mentioned than it would be clause bill of Lading. For e. g. , â€Å"Dented Drums† Other Types of Bill of Lading * Inland bill of lading * Ocean bill of lading * Air waybill An inland bill of lading is a document that establishes an agreement between a shipper and a transportation company for the transportation of goods. It is used to lay out the terms for transporting items overland to the exporter’s international transportation company.An ocean bill of lading is a document that provides terms between an exporter and international carrier for the shipment of goods to a foreign location overseas. An air waybill is a bill of lading that establishes terms of flights for the transportation of goods both domestically and internationally. This document also serves as a receipt for the shipper, proving the carrier’s acceptance of the shipperâ€℠¢s goods and agreement to carry those goods to a specific airport. Essentially, an air waybill is a type of through bill of lading.This is because air waybills may cover both international and domestic transportation of goods. By contrast, ocean shipments require both inland and ocean bills of lading. Inland bills of lading are necessary for the domestic transportation of goods and ocean bills of lading are necessary for the international  carriage  of goods. Therefore, through bills of lading may not be used for ocean shipments. Inland and ocean bills of lading may be negotiable or non-negotiable. If the bill of lading is non-negotiable, the transportation carrier is required to provide delivery only to the consignee named in the document.If the bill of lading is negotiable, the person with ownership of the bill of lading has the right of ownership of the goods and the right to re-route the shipment. Air cargo Air cargo shipment is most common and practical way of receiving you r orders on time and cost saving. If your orders volume is 100 kilos plus then air cargo is the best. Receive your order starting from one week to 10 days. Air cargo will deliver the order in specified airport so that the customer or their handling agent should collect it. Shipments by Air CouriersShipment using courier services are the best for relatively smaller orders and samples as they deliver the orders in 4 to 6 days at your doorstep. Nepal Mithila Women Handicraft uses most Reliable couriers like  Ã‚  DHL/ARAMEX/FEDEX/TNT/UPS or SYKNET because they are easier to work with due to their fast and home delivery. These courier companies have expensive rates for the smaller packets but if the orders are more than 25 kilos, the approximate shipping would be US$ 8 to $14 per kilo (depending on the volume and the destination).These courier companies will act as your custom agent to release the goods and delivers the packets at your home. The courier companies does not charge you fo r their own services at the custom BUT if there is custom duties applies on the orders, then thy will reimburse the money from the customer later at the orders delivery time. Labels: Each article will be fixed with label showing made in  Nepal, material composition, washing instructions, size etc. as appropriate. We follow buyers' instruction in case of bulk consignment. Documentations:We prepare the following documentation work from the company and authorized sectors of  Nepal's government for the customs purpose AIR WAYBILL, GSP OR FORM A, INVOICE, PACKING LIST, CERTIFICATE OF ORIGIN and other essential documentations to release the shipment from the customs Terms: Air Freight FSC- Fuel surcharge, applicable only at certain times Interline- One airline to another ULD  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Unit load device, an airline container SCR- Specific commodity rate GCR- General commodity rate MAWB- Master air waybill, freight forwarder to freight forwarder air waybill HAWB- House air waybill, shi pper to consignee air waybillIATA- Governing body for international air transportation Ground Freight B-train- 2-20ft. trailers being pulled by one tractor LTL- Less than a truckload FTL  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Full truckload CWT  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Per hundred pounds PUP- 20ft. trailer T/L  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Trailer Load Dimensional Freight- Subject to 10# per cubic ft. Calculations: Calculate Kilograms to Pounds kgs x 2. 2= pounds (#) Calculate Pounds to Kilograms Pounds ? 2. 2= kgs Dimensional weight L†xW†xH† ? 366= kgs L†xW†xH† ? 166= pounds Six Steps to Dealing with Customer Complaints At some point, everyone in business has to deal with an upset customer.The challenge is to handle the situation in a way that leaves the customer thinking you operate a great company. If you’re lucky, you can even encourage him or her to serve as a passionate advocate for your brand. When it comes down to it, many customers don't even bother to complain. They simply leave and buy from your competitors. Research suggests that up to 80 percent of customers who leave were, in fact, â€Å"satisfied† with the original company. Obviously, customer satisfaction is not enough. Businesses nowadays need to positively delight customers if they want to earn their loyalty.It may seem counter-intuitive, but a business owner’s ability to effectively deal with customer complaints provides a great opportunity to turn dissatisfied customers into active promoters of the business. Here are some customer-oriented tips I’ve learned while working in the business coaching business:1. Listen carefully to what the customer has to say, and let them finish. Don't get defensive. The customer is not attacking you personally; he or she has a problem and is upset. Repeat back what you are hearing to show that you have listened. 2. Ask questions in a caring and concerned manner.The more information you can get from the customer, the better you will understand his or her perspective. I’ve learned it’s easier to ask questions than to jump to conclusions. 3. Put yourself in their shoes. As a business owner, your goal is to solve the problem, not argue. The customer needs to feel like you’re on his or her side and that you empathize with the situation. 4. Apologize without blaming. When a customer senses that you are sincerely sorry, it usually diffuses the situation. Don't blame another person or department. Just say, â€Å"I'm sorry about that. †5. Ask the customer, â€Å"What would be an acceptable solution to you? Whether or not the customer knows what a good solution would be, I’ve found it’s best to propose one or more solutions to alleviate his or her pain. Become a partner with the customer in solving the problem. 6. Solve the problem, or find someone who can solve it— quickly! Research indicates that customers prefer the person they are speaking with to instantly solve their problem. When comp laints are moved up the chain of command, they become more expensive to handle and only add to the customer's frustration. There is no getting around customer complaints, regardless of your industry.However, by employing these steps and taking the time to review the issue with the customer, you can turn challenges into something constructive. | 10 Tips for dealing with customer complaints Dealing with customer complaints effectively can improve customer retention and help your company gain a reputation for providing good service. Our panel of experts shares their top tips to ensure complaints don’t turn into disasters. 1. Acknowledge their anger and apologise Whilst you are listening to them, make a note (mentally or written down) of the main points of their grievance.Once they are finished, thank them for their comments, acknowledge their anger and apologise. 2. Reassure the customer Use the notes you made whilst listening to demonstrate that you have a secure grasp on the p roblem by giving them a precis of what they have just told you. Mirror some of their (less colourful! ) language, keep your tone measured and calm and ask a closed question at the end to check you have a full understanding. By now, the customer should at least be ready to let you help them. Assure them that is exactly what you’re going to do and explain he realistic options you have available to you. If the customer wants something that simply is not possible, apologise, give reasons why this is not an available option and then tell them what you can do for them. 3. Act Finally, once you have explained what you are going to do to resolve the customer’s problem, do it. Follow it through and ensure that what you promised is delivered. Hopefully, by this point, you will have a happy customer who will return to your company, not to mention a happy agent whose days are a little less stressful! 4. Make it easy to speak to a live agentCommunicate the ease and accessibility of reaching live agents in channels of the customer’s choosing, and prepare and empower your employees to provide first-contact resolution. Most customers who say it is hard to deal with a company said it was because their issue was not resolved the first time they contacted them for service. Self-service certainly has its time and place, but when issues are complex or frustrating, customers want (and demand) access to live agents. In fact, preference for live web chat has grown in the last year. 5. Aggressively promote the fact that you want feedbackYou want to know when you get it wrong. And, make it easy for customers to contact you and get immediate access to empowered and empathetic agents. If customers can’t find a convenient way to give feedback, they may just defect to another company without saying a word. 6. Use proactive communication Let the customer know about an issue first and connect them to an agent. Almost all customers say it is appropriate for a compa ny they do business with to proactively contact them. However, companies must be sensitive to the reasons and channels they employ, as the vast majority of customers are not open to anything and everything.You only get one chance, so don’t burn the bridge by not providing the best agent and technology-based experiences your customers want and expect. 7. Empathize with the customer The first thing you need to think about when dealing with complaints is how you would feel if you were the one making the complaint. Empathy and understanding are paramount to giving good customer service whether it is in sales, customer service or customer complaints departments. Allow the customer to vent their feelings and then remind them that you are here to help them and will do everything in your power to resolve the issue.This gives them the feeling that you see them as more than just a number on a system and can act to calm the customer down especially if it is a difficult or challenging si tuation. The fact that you are offering to help them goes a long way to calming them down initially and if you can minimise passing them from department to department this will also help them to remain calm and listen to any options you put forward. Base the discussions with the customer on facts, don’t let emotion drive the conversation. Ian Jensen, Team Manager, RESPONSE  (www. response-uk. co. uk) 8.Make sure you act on social media Social media is becoming the vehicle of choice for customers, frustrated by poor customer service. But these complaints can be amplified very loudly – particularly on Twitter. Start by listening to the social media channels. Once you understand what is being said it is time to intervene. This can also be by social media – particularly to try and find out a customer’s phone number – but would probably be better if it is by a proactive follow up call. If this is done in a timely fashion it can go a long way to diffus e any frustration the customer is feeling. 9.A complaint is an opportunity for the business to learn and grow As a business, every complaint should be treated as serious and the customer with a small ‘expression of dissatisfaction’ should be given the same courtesy as someone whose complaint is huge. Remember to be a ‘goodwill’ company. Be thankful that your customer is voicing their problem, but realise that they may still use your competition the next time they need your product or service. You may not gain their future loyalty, but use the situation they bring up to minimise it happening again. 10. Act on the new knowledge you haveOne of the most important factors in complaint handling is to demonstrate that the company has acknowledged the complaint for the future. Don’t stop at telling them that feedback such as theirs helps you to grow as a company – make it feel real by telling them how you will be raising this issue with the customer s ervices manager so that (where possible) this is 1) resolved 2) not repeated with other customers. Finally, after the complaint has been dealt with and is coming to a close, advise them that you hope that this recent situation hasn’t adversely affected their long term relationship with you as a company.Reiterate that you hope the compensation you are offering may go some way to restoring their faith in the company / product or service. Listen  carefully to the customer. Know and understand the complaint  of the customer and never interrupt him or her. Remember that they want to be heard and let the customer release any emotional irritation before saying anything. This could make the customer feel that you are listening and acknowledging the feelings carefully. Empathize with the customer. Repeat the complaint and confirm to signify that you got it correctly.Thank the customer for bringing the problem to your attention for  better customer service  of the company. Apol ogize. Reasonable and unreasonable  complaints  are valued by the customer that needs proper attention or  customer service. Apologize for the inconvenience that complain may have affected the customer. Explain the reasons or the company’s side politely. No matter how angry the customer is, try to remain calm and patient while you address the complain properly. Have a clear  answer  and give data if necessary to support your explanation. Take responsibility for action.Let the customer feel that the complain will be taken into action. Explain what action you will take to correct the problem. Commit to give feedback as soon as possible preferably with a given date to assure the customer that the complain will be handled immediately. End the conversation by asking the customer for other things that you may be of service aside from the complain. 5 GOLDEN RULES If you are in a business, you will eventually have to interact with disgruntled customers and the way you handl e the issue is the way you are going to be known in the market.Make no mistake here – a disgruntled client will always create a large damaging ripple for your image. Carry on like this and very soon you will be known as the company with the worst customer service. You cannot afford this or you will lose business sooner than later. Hence, you need to learn how to handle a complaint effectively. Here are the rules for handling  customer complaints  that will promote your business better than any advertisement: Respond instantly  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ when a customer complains, respond instantly.The more they wait, the more they get frustrated and hence, would be more inclined to be unreasonable. Do not wait for their irritation to escalate to anger. Respond to their complaint message immediately. Believe that customer’s complaint is genuine  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ one of the worst steps of counteraction a company can give is implying that the customer is dishonest or unrealistic. Tell the client that you believe their complaint is genuine and you are trying your best to see what can be done to help. Apologize for the pain they feel not for the mistake  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ the mistake is not always yours.However, the complaining individual is genuinely aggrieved. Apologize to the customer for the pain they have experienced. Saying sorry for their (customer’s) discomfort is not the same as saying sorry for a mistake that your company has done. However, when you say sorry genuinely, the customer is more often than not already pacified and ready to listen to you with an open mind. Do your best  to meet their expectations  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ one of the most important rules for  handling customer complaints  is showing that you are doing your best to help.You will find that the majority of people are reasonable in their expectations. Just knowing that you are making all the effort to help them will often open the door to negotiations on how to resolve the problem towards mutua l benefit. If it is your mistake, overcompensate  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ there will be instances when the customer is right. The service/ product/ experience/ was bad. If you are guilty of any such thing, the rules for handling  customer complaints  say that you acknowledge, apologize and immediately over compensate the aggrieved client.In this way, you are eliminating a  disgruntled customer  and appointing a free goodwill ambassador for your brand; for this customer will not stop praising you after that. CASE STUDY ANSWERS Divide the answer into 5 parts: 1. Define the Problem Describe the problem in the workplace. What is involved in making it a problem? 2. Analyze the Problem Tell about how you collected information for analyzing data: the process you utilized for extracting maximum information from the facts. 3. Generate possible SolutionsExplain the factors you took for making a decision: how did you get to the root cause of the problem? How did you identify the likely causes of pr oblem? How did you generate a number of possible solutions? 4. Select the best Solution(s) and course of actions Describe the actions you took: why did you choose these actions? What were the results you expected to achieve? Describe how you organized ideas into process flow and common theme and the way you monitor result. Don’t forget the risk management factors. 5. Lesson learned What did you get? What was going right? What do you learn from that experience?

Galapagos Island Essay

Galapagos island is located at the Pacific Ocean placed along the equator which is about 1,000 km from the coast of South America. It is composed of 13 main islands, 6 small islands and â€Å"107 islets and rocks. † A province of Ecuador, Galapagos islands’ capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno which is mostly inhabited by an estimated 18,000 people. Some of the islands were formerly active volcanoes but some are still active (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). Biodiversity in Galapagos Island Galapagos Island’s seclusion and controlled population contributed to its rich and extensive biodiversity. Because of these factors, the pace of evolutionary changes have accelerated that resulted to diversification and the formation of new species called speciation. The geographical isolation of the island wherein the â€Å"archipelago is isolated from the continent, the islands from each other by different distances, and the habitat types by their climatic differences,† aided in the promotion of different evolutionary tracks resulting to varying terrain, vegetation, animal and plant life between every islands (Charles Darwin Foundation, 2006, â€Å"Galapagos Land Ecosystems†). Vegetation in Galapagos is influenced by land habitat and climate but is â€Å"strongly zoned by altitude. † There are four vegetations zones in Galapagos namely: Littoral Zone which is affected by the salt spray alongside the coast; Dry Zone has the biggest scope in the island; Transition Zone is a vegetation of woodland; and Humidi Zone is characterized by highland grasslands and Miconia scrub (Charles Darwin Foundation, 2006, â€Å"Galapagos Land Ecosystems†). A variety of animal and plant life also forms the abundant biodiversity of Galapagos. There are many animals living in the island, in which most of them roam freely because of the absence of predators. Reptiles, terrestrial mammals, birds and fishes are all endemic creatures and consider Galapagos as their home (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). One of the famous specie in this island is a giant pre-historic tortoise called Lonesome George. Galapagos tortoises are part of the species â€Å"Geochelone elephantopus. † These animals have undergone fourteen forms depending on their location at the Galapagos. But bad news for Lonesome George, if experts cant’ produce or obtain a mate for him soon, his species will become extinct. In addition, a wide array of animals have gained popularity within and outside the islands including the marine turtle, marine and land iguanas, lava lizards and others (Galapaguide, â€Å"Galapagos Animals†). Meanwhile, plant life is also as diverse and one of a kind as the animal life. There are many theories on how vegetation started in Galapagos. One possible scenario is when spores and seeds were transported by the wind or through the â€Å"feet, plummage and digestive system of migratory birds† or probably because of the force of the marine current (Galapagos Voyage, â€Å"Galapagos Island Animal, Flora & Fauna†). Depending on the vegetation, various species of plants, flowers and trees are present in every island. Some can only be solely found in Galapagos such as passion flower, tomato, guava and cotton. Numerous plant species have changed into an assortment of endemic species which scientists explained as ‘adaptive radiation’ (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). All of these species though diverse have a symbiotic relationship with each other. Galapagos’ rare but exquisite ecosystem had produced a lavish and fertile marine, aquatic, terrestrial, avian and flora and fauna life all over the islands. Furthermore, the distinctiveness and the detachment of the islands from the hustle and bustle of civilization gave Galapagos a unique feature that it can clearly claim for its own. No other place in the world comes close to being as diverse and extraordinary as the Galapagos islands. Conservation and Preservation of Galapagos Island Galapagos Island is one of the best kept secrets of the world. Its captivating beauty and enigmatic charm have lured numerous people ranging from tourists, scientists, fishermen and others. Because of this, the Galapagos have been put on the list of sites that are in danger by the World Heritage. The influx of humans in the islands have caused a domino effect that have immensely affected the plant and animal life and the whole ecosystem as well (People & the Planet, 2007, â€Å"Galapagos Islands put on danger list†). The ecological degradation is caused by the development trends that are in contrasts with the conservation efforts in the islands. Three main factors that affected Galapagos’ ecology were the growth in human population, increase of transportation from the main island to Galapagos and the intensified fishing (Bensted-Smith, 1999, â€Å"A Biodiversity Vision for the Galapagos Islands†) . The â€Å"accelerating cycle of economic and population growth pushed by external markets† have elevated the danger to local biodiversity. The increase in demand for â€Å"tourism and marine resources† have caused the emergence of invasive species, too much harvesting of marine life, and pollution. As a consequence, the islands have suffered from social, economical and political stresses due to the amplified desire to use Galapagos’ natural wealth and public services. This was manifested because of tourism mismanagement in the islands. Tourism brought economic growth, however, Galapagos being a fragile ecosystem, was not able to adapt to the changes causing major damages in the biodiversity (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). Human intrusion to the delicate biodiversity of Galapagos is very much evident in the modern age but civil groups and the government are drafting efforts to ensure that most or all of forms of life in the islands are conserved and preserved. The presence of marine reserves and the Galapagos national park are the initial drives to protect the endemic species and the pristine environment (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Issues in Galapagos†). More so, the Ecuadorian government have set up significant initiatives the following: 1) migration to the islands was regulated; 2) quarantine inspection system was installed; 3) public funds for ecoparks were increased; and 4) additional monetary support were yielded for conservation projects (Bensted-Smith, 1999, â€Å"A Biodiversity Vision for the Galapagos Islands†). To further the enterprise for preservation and conservation, there should be numerous researches to be conducted regarding social and biological sciences to help intensify the information drive on Galapagos biodiversity. Through this, environmental awareness will be increase thus reducing the possibility of disruption of the ecosystem. Also, there should be local and national agencies that would consolidate all conservation forces in the islands and ensure its effective management . Another solution would be putting up â€Å"sustainable and equitable businesses† to make sure that humans don’t abuse the natural resources and Galapagos’ ecology (Galapagos Conservation Trust, 2008, â€Å"Explore Galapagos†). Meanwhile collective efforts are very powerful in conserving and preserving, however as an individual, you can also contribute by donating to institutions that help foster the growth of Galapagos biodiversity. Also, in today’s technological era, you could use the internet to raise awareness about the environmental problems plaguing Galapagos to awaken the senses of millions and millions of people all over the world. Another contribution for the advancement of conservation and preservation is by joining organizations whose objectives are to save the animal and plant life of Galapagos. Galapagos island is indeed a place where all living species exist in peace but the constant threat of human intervention can increase the possibility of Galapagos having a tragic death. If things will not be controlled and modulated, this pristine archipelago will soon be extinct. The existence of endemic plants and centuries old animals in Galapagos are the most crucial elements that can’t be replaced and renewed once they have been exterminated. These environmental gems are the key to future development of other living organisms. Without them, things will not be the same and we would be depriving future generations the chance to experience and study these unique and bountiful ecosystem. So to prevent this from happening, we must start within ourselves by promoting and practicing preservation and conservation of our natural resources and this will have a chain effect wherein every living being would experience existing in a sustainable environment. References Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands. (2006). Galapagos Land Ecosystems. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. darwinfoundation. org/en/galapagos/land Bensted-Smith, R. (Ed). 2002. A biodiversity vision for the Galapagos Islands. CDF: Galapagos. Galapaguide. Galapagos Animals. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. galapaguide. com/islas_galapagos_fauna. htm Galapagos Conservation Trust. (2008). Explore Galapagos. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. gct. org/intro. html Galapagos Conservation Trust. (2008). Issues in Galapagos. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. gct. org/issues. html Galapagos Voyage. Galapagos Island Animal, Flora & Fauna. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://www. galapagosvoyage. com/page_content. asp? id_page=149 People & the Planet. (2007, July 07). Galapagos Islands put on danger list. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from http://peopleandplanet. net/doc. php? id=3061

Challenges to The Walt Disney Company

Challenges to The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company Strategic Issues First Strategic Issue Walt Disney has experienced various strategic issues, and their strategic approaches have led to success. Its strategic management has identified the fact that their competitors could take advantage of the strategic weaknesses and pull the company behind in terms of market position. Although the issues are limited in such a successful company, they deserve maximum attention, as it is possible for them to act as threats towards the future welfare of the entire business. From a quick SWOT analysis, Disney’s strengths are diversity and the surplus cash it attains from its business operations. Its weaknesses include the two strategic issues it is recently facing, its opportunities are expansion possibilities, and its threats include stiff competition. One of these strategic issues that Walt Disney has been facing is the loss of a good number of subscribers in the ESPN. Recently, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network of Disney is holding fewer consumers as compared to the past years when the company began. The major reason leading to this shift of customers to other internet programs that offer similar services is the fact that watching sports with Disney has turned out to be more expensive as compared to watching the same sports in other internet platforms. Its historical market position, which was high at that time, had been attained through appealing to customers regarding prices. When it is specifically about sports, there are different types of customers. Both adults and youths across the globe have high interests in sports. However, the youths appear to have more time to invest in the sports as compared to the time adults invest. Therefore, the larger portion of customers consists of young people, who in most cases are jobless or flexible in terms their jobs. It is a fact that with their flexibility regarding careers, the youth does not earn a lot of money, meaning the y will always take advantage of companies that deliver services at the least cost possible. When Disney was affordable, it appealed to the two categories of customers successfully by ensuring that it is the most affordable platform in the world. However, when the internet-based competitors found a way of broadcasting sports at lower prices and others free, Disney did not pay attention to the matching of these standards. For this reason, it lost the youths mostly to other companies. Losing its portion of youths to the competitors is a great issue, which, were it not for other strengths that exist in the business, would have caused the downfall of Disney as an international company. Second Strategic Issue The second strategic challenge that Disney is facing in the presence of its competitors is vitality in the market. Disney is dealing with entertainment, which is all about the preferences and tastes of customers. This dealing is capable of easily leading to its downfall if the c ompany’s management does not focus on the strategic approaches of satisfying the customers’ thirst in terms of what they have a passion for but does not exist in the market. In case the product exists already, it is the duty of the company to modify it and make it more interesting to the customers without altering the likes but scraping the dislikes. With this sensitivity, Disney has faced criticism every time it has a new release in the market as much as it faces motivating response. Bearing in mind that the two types of responses are from customers that the company takes as a duty to please, making changes to attract a larger portion of motivating customers than critics has been an all-time operational goal that may or may never be achieved. It becomes worse when during its evaluation, Disney realizes a loss of positive claims having turned to critics. This is always a clear message from the public that the company has made an unpleasant release and if they take it f or a trend, their market position will be at stake. This is how hard it is for Disney to maintain a good market position having concentrated on the customers’ taste and preferences alone. Other factors such as the cost of services make the situation worse than it already is. These two strategic issues only need to be attended to with the right approach in order to make the company’s future bright (Rukstad & Collis, 2009). Alternative Causes of Action Reduced Quality To address the above strategic issues and realize the best course of action, it is important that attention is afforded to the nature of the issues. This can be achieved through a value chain analysis that helps to indicate the company’s operational strategy and goals. The loss of Entertainment Sports Program Network subscribers must have been brought about by a faulty strategy in the organization’s way of setting its standards. To solve this, the company can buy the cheaper systems ado pted by competitors. When other internet service providers decided to engage in innovative ways of lowering their prices, the company did not embrace this idea, as it looked out for maintenance of quality. As a matter of fact, the internet services providers decided to adopt new and cheaper facilities that enhanced this reduction of prices to reach out to the customers whom in their opinion, watching sports had become expensive. While doing this, the first and most essential side effect they were likely to experience is the reduction of quality. Reduced Prices The company can as well alter their operations in a way to slightly reduce their prices and maintain quality at the same time. As much these services were to be availed to customers at a reduced cost, they were also to be displayed at lower qualities as compared to those displayed by Disney. In this case, the market of the ESPN was split into two. There is the lower quality of services available for those that prioritize the amount of money spent on entertainment, and the other sector of the market generates high quality of services for people who do not mind spending a fortune for the sake of quality. With this division, it means that Disney is not ready to compromise its quality of output in order to lower prices and accommodate more customers. This is how it ended up with a limited number of customers as compared to its competitors providing services through various internet platforms. Reducing prices with maintained quality will help to maintain the current customers and to bring back those that it lost to competitors. Stable Products Thirdly, the fact that Disney deals with mainly entertaining products is the main cause of the fact that it is faced with a strategic issue of dealing with customers’ tastes and preferences. In its market, Disney has a chance of securing its competitive advantage through dealing with motivational and educative films more than the entertaining movies. An educative product is easier to deal with in the sense that it will have nothing to do with the judgment of the customers, and the success will all depend on the effort of the company towards gathering as much knowledge in its products as possible. This way, it is possible to predict the responses of customers to its new releases. Additionally, these types of products will maintain the types of customers that the company is appealing to, bearing in mind that the youths would embrace guidance and the adults too will help respond positively to pieces of advice offered concerning their business and social lives. Just to make the point clear, it is for a fact that Disney has invested partly in these sectors, but the entertainment has taken a better part of its products. This has not only subjected it to the risk of customers’ responses based on their personal tastes and interests but also on the parental force against time wastage. Their cartoon products, for instance, are found to be excessively attractive to the children to the extent that they fail to attend to other demands such as academic works. This creates a force between the cartoon products and parents as they push the children to balance all aspects of life. On the contrary, parents also utilize the products in making promises and rewarding children whenever they want them to engage in or maintain good conduct. An example is a case where the children are motivated to work harder and perform better in class in order to be allowed to watch cartoon during their holidays. All it needs to do is buy facilities that will accommodate this type of production. This would make their output stable, predictable and more profiting. All the above alternatives can be implemented in Disney to stimulate its line of business (Rukstad & Collis, 2009). Recommendations Evaluation The alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of th eir services is a possible approach for the ESPN issue. This will allow them to avail the same quality of services to customers at an affordable price. This means that they will be appealing to both the customers that value quality more than cost and those that are out there negotiating for lower prices. In this situation, they will have attained competition perfection in the sense that competitors that offer services at lower prices as Disney does will not be providing as high quality as that of Disney. On this note, Disney can be boosted by other secondary factors such as making sure that there is a constant flow of game displays throughout the season. This means that they will be displaying sports events even when the companies with the poor quality of facilities will be facing breakdowns for one reason or another. Disney will be the home for customers who are not ready for interrupted sessions while watching matches. However, if Disney decides to follow suit as its competitors a nd produce low-quality products, it will be faced with the con of losing customers who value quality. These qualities of attraction will not only help Disney to retain its current customers but also bring back the youth it has lost as potential customers. This way, the current position of the company in the market will be maintained, and the opportunity to expand will have been utilized to make Disney’s future more promising. As its only con, Disney will experience an added cost of operating. This is why, on a personal level, I would recommend the alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of their services as an approach for the ESPN issue. If the cartoons and other entertainment films do not appear to be interesting to customers as the company expects it, there will be a decline of the income, as the customers will not purchase the product. The worst con of it is the fact that previews that are displayed before the release of the product may lead to customers shying away from the product early enough. The advantageous purpose of these previews is to help the company predict the performance of the product in the market before it is released. The response of customers may help to detect the problem awaiting the release of a new product, but it will not help in offering a solution for the problem. Therefore, although the company will avoid tampering with its good historic reputation, it will not have evaded losses as the product has already been produced, making this alternative not good enough. This is an indication that there is not short cut towards evading this instability other than engaging in more products that will promote positional security in the market. Hence, to curb the second strategic issue, I would recommend that Disney takes advantage of its stability in the market to seize the opportunity of expansion through dealing with the products that it has not dealt with before. Feasibility On the other hand, if Disney decides to embrace the cheap facilities like competitors have one to tamper with quality only for the sake of prices, they will end up losing customers that value quality, which is the major con of this alternative. Secondly, they will have performed below their operational standards of consistently maintaining the high quality of its products. The only advantage of this alternative is the fact that it will earn back its lost customers who value cheap products. The fact that the disadvantages exceed the advantages, in this case, makes this alternative not feasible. The alternative of displaying previews does not help to find solutions for the instability of products. This means that the act will not have delivered the major expectation, thus, making it not feasible. Implementation Disney should make plans to reduce the cost of running and lower the prices of their high-quality goods. This will help the company to reach out to the customers who do not watch Disney sports because of the high prices. Secondly, it should begin to take steps towards embracing other types of products in the market in order to attain stability. Since one of the strengths of Disney Company is that it always has a substantial flow of capital, this means it has the capability to indulge in the line of other products as heftily as it has done with entertainment. Therefore, all that Disney’s management requires is to make decisions based on the expansion strategies that concentrate on this mission as an operational goal. Offering other genres of films and movies will allow the company to attain stability in terms of its market position. Attracting the entire market with motivational and educative products is easier than the entertainment form of attraction. References Rukstad, M. G. & Collis, D. (2009). The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King . Brighton: Harvard Business School.

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Situational Analysis for Massive Incorporated - Essay Example Profit. As with any business organization, Massive opts to generate profit from its products and services. This is to ensure that the business has enough funds to finance its operational costs and other projects. Clients. Being a pioneer in the market, the company aims to understand its client needs in order to deliver maximum satisfaction. Massive seeks to give a new source of revenue to developers, provide a new venue for advertisers to promote their products, and enhance the gaming experience of gamers through in-game advertisements. Leadership. As rivalry heats up in the in-game advertising industry, Massive wants to be ahead in the competition. The company seeks to become the number one choice of advertisers by gaining a strong foothold in the market. Leadership can be measured by looking at Massive's market share relative to its competitors. Massive Incorporated is a player in the in-game advertising industry. This industry is primarily responsible for the placement of ads in video games in different platforms. This industry is a response to the declining television viewing as males aged 18-34 spend more time playing games. This age group which represents a huge proportion of the global market is one of the highly sought demographic segments by advertisers. However, as they turn to video games for recreation, advertisers need to find a way to incorporate advertisements during playtime. Though Massive pioneered in-game advertising, business organizations have been very quick to realize the potential profit gain from this segment. Together with Massive, Double Fusion and IGA Worldwide captures the largest market shares. Some smaller start-ups and players in the video game industry are also taking the challenge of in-game advertising. Yankee Group reports that there are about 112 million people aged 13 and above in the United States participating in some form of electronic gaming. It is forecasted that the number will grow to 148 million in 2008. These gaming activities are being conducted on four specific platforms like consoles, personal computers, handhelds and mobile devices (Shields, 2005). Despite the rapid growth of the video gaming industry, it also faces numerous challenges. It should be noted that customers now demand the creation of video games which have more sophisticated story lines and graphic improvements. This has resulted to higher production costs as well as longer production time. On the other hand, the average commercial life of a video game has significantly dropped to less than one year. With the increasing competition among industry players, companies are launching new strategies to attract

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Design an Alternative Interface - Essay Example First of all, the interface should ensure that all key characteristics are among the inclusions in the design. These are the ten principles of interface design. This is in reference to discussions in â€Å"Hierarchical Task Analysis,† by Shepherd. There are ten key principles for the design of a user interface. Heuristics refers to these principles because of their nature in reference to usability guidelines. Below is a list of these general principles (Buxton, 2007). 6. Recognition rather than recalling – the designer does not require the user to remember information in different sections of the dialogue. The instructions should also be visible enough for easy comprehension. 8. Minimalist and aesthetic design – dialogues should avoid unnecessary information. All units of information compete for relevant units of information in dialogues, as the relative visibility diminishes. The following is an illustration of the appearance of the design. It includes implementation of the information above. It should provide the user with different applications which enables them access sufficient information. One of the characteristics of the new interface is it enhances sharing of data; the book by the name â€Å"Hierarchical Task Analysis† has further illustrations. This capability should have no limits as it will ensure the promotion all over the world. User will feel changes as the limitation of the current interface are solved in the new interface. This capability will be impacted by an account so that; senders can always drop the data for the receivers to download at their own disposal (Shneiderman, 1998). The interface should have the capabilities of analyzing weather changes. This is because areas like California suffer highly depending on daily activities, which rely on weather; this is in reference to, Human Computer Interaction. The interface should perform this task by automatically, detecting location through time zones (Buxton, 2007). The

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Best Performing Director - William Craig Fugate - Assignment Example In 2004, for instance, he staged the largest federal disaster response when the country encountered at least three hurricanes including the Wilma, Dennis and Katrina. Because of the impact of the hurricanes, most of the coastal stages were under the aid of Emergency Management Assistance Compact. This was the time Fugate showed his stewardship. After the Katrina crisis, Fugate took the information from the casualties to determine their eligibility for any compensation. Those whose information was vague were not immediately compensated. He tapped the historical information from those who were employed to verify their credentials and ensure that there was a real home there. Although they were dealing with several people, Fugate mobilized his team with the help of technology. By the time Fugate was nominated to head FEMA in 2009, the agency had already been battered by the previous leaders. Michael Brown had driven the agency into a punch-line due to his decision that depicted his incompetence during the hurricane Katrina of 2005 (U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency , 2006). With his outstanding performance of over ten years as an emergency manager, Fugate was promoted as a director having shown high competence. He was exposed to emergency services at his tender age after his parents died. Having garnered the best experience, he excelled very well in his career. He faced a lot of challenges that prepared him to lead FEMA. Initially, the agency had lost it reputation when Mr. Brown failed in his leadership leading to loss of property and lives during the 2005 hurricanes of Katrina. His appointment was therefore to restore the lost ‘glory’. This was his designed role for his appointment by President Obam a. As the director, Fugate promulgated the ‘entire community’ strategy towards emergency management by emphasizing and enhancing cooperation with all the government levels, including state, federal, local and tribal.     

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