Robin Hood Strategy Essay Example for Free

Robin Hood Strategy Essay Please find my summary for the pre-assignment tasks in this memo. The assignment was to read three chapters of Robert M. Grant’s â€Å"Contemporary strategy analysis, read two articles and answer the mentioned questions: Mini-case: Robin Hood. Does Robin Hood require a new strategy? What should Robin Hoods strategy be? Why? To start with, let’s give a bit of a background for Robin Hood and his band of Merrymen. The organizational structure of the Merrymen is a typical top-down management, with Robin Hood as the leader and a few lieutenants reporting to him working in intelligence, discipline, finances and provisioning. The growing organization and Robin Hood’s personal vendetta are the basis for many of the problems the Merrymen are facing. Merrymen’s strategy is simple: take from the rich and give to the poor, which differentiates the group from its major competition who does the opposite, making Robin Hood’s â€Å"customers† love the product they have to offer. Therefore one could say that Merrymen’s competitive approach is based on differentiation. What has made them successful so far? It has all started with Robin Hood’s unique leadership skills, Robin is a very strong and appealing leader. The organization would not have been born without him. What makes Merrymen succeed today is their vast resources (they have scale) and talent (unique expertise in robbing people). Another factor is quick knowledge transfer for the new recruits, transferring the robbing skills to newly joined members and getting them to be productive quickly after onboarding. Their image/brand is such an attractive one that they are not facing major challenges in recruiting new people. Word of mouth carries the message quickly and there are lots of potential new comers joining the Merrymen. The work force is low cost, all they pretty much need is food and shelter. One of the major weaknesses is Robin’s personal grudge with the sheriff. It is a key risk for the leader potentially not being able to see the big picture and focus on what is good for the whole organization. Even though this seemed to be the starting point for the organization to be formed the goals for the organization are now much bigger and the strategy must evolve accordingly. It is not uncommon that the strength of an organization is also their weakness. In order to build scale, Merrymen had to change their recruitment strategy. Merrymen used to be quite picky in selecting the candidates but now they are welcoming almost anyone to join. This has led to several challenges, one of them being that they are exceeding the resources for food that the nearby forest provides leading them to spend lots of time and energy in risky ventures looking for food and having to use their finances to purchase food. The second issue is the change in recruitment policy which has led to a decline in discipline and vigilance. Naturally the space is becoming an issue as well as the group expands continuously. The financials are hit also because of looting becoming more challenging. The merchants who previously traveled the woods are now avoiding them, keeping the Merrymen from looting their goods leading Robin Hood wondering what can their new funding strategy be, could it be taxation? Should they take a huge risk and try to free King Richard, risking the fact that they might go against not just one sheriff and his men but also Prince John and his army? Recommendations for the Merrymen I would not recommend Merrymen to do major changes to the current strategy, such as freeing King Richard or trying to kill the sheriff. Merrymen should continue building on their strengths and the focus should be in executing better and starting with changing their recruitment and training policies. They shouldn’t recruit just anyone but focus in acquiring talent. If food is an issue they should recruit skilled farmers and start building a self-sufficient ecosystem to the woods, as it used to be. Their organization has also grown rapidly and seems that a re-org would be needed. They will need more structure and better management to their org to bring back the discipline and to ensure successful execution. They should introduce more specialized teams with their own leaders (such as farmers, special ops, archers etc. ) and focus more on better training and knowledge sharing inside the more specialized teams. Their financials are going down and that has to be fixed by saving money (potentially letting some of the Merrymen go? ) and going where the money is i. e looting further away from the forests, creating new â€Å"sites† for the Merrymen in different woods might be a good idea to ensure continuous cash flow. To manage the external threats they must invest into spying what the sheriff is up to and where the next raids might be happening. To conclude: don’t change the strategy, keep calm and improve the execution. Case Study: Husky Injection Molding Systems. Why has Husky enjoyed greater profit margins than its competitors? Is Huskys profitability currently threatened? The primary reason for Husky’s success is the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) industry niche and focusing to it at the right time, exactly when soft drink makers started to use plastic bottles and here Husky had the first mover advantage. Husky was clearly a differentiator and innovator in this market. Husky provided its customers with the complete and comprehensive manufacturing solutions by producing both products and services. The products were innovative, long lasting and efficient. Husky also provided its customers a worldwide professional service to ensure the customers get the best out of the products. Husky managed to make competitors entry to the market very challenging for a long time because of their high performing products and excellent service. Now the challenges faced are the shortage of resin and new entries coming to compete in the market. The shortage of PET resin has led to decreasing demand for injection molding systems hurting Husky’s business. This is likely a temporary situation as resin makers are increasing their capacity. It’s also good to note that all companies in the same business are facing this same challenge. The main challenge is the new competitors trying to make an entry to the PET preform business. These are low-cost competitors who apparently are able to modify â€Å"mainstream machines to suit the preform application† as the article says. The competitors will be an attractive option for customers who focus more in lowering costs. The new competitors will threaten Husky’s profitability and it is clear that they need to react to it, perhaps by trying to produce different sorts of machines : both for the customers interested in low cost but at the same time keep producing the high performance machines. Producing high performance machines would be important to build the brand and would help selling the low costs machines as well, comparable situation to mobile phones business where many vendors produce high end devices to build the brand while they actually make the money from cheaper products that are sold in masses.

B&B Hotel Life Cycle Essay Example for Free

BB Hotel Life Cycle Essay Bed and Breakfasts Hotels were established in Europe many years back. The majority of travelers that frequented BB’s in the 1800’s were pioneers, miners, 49’ers seeking gold or professionals traveling from one area to another. Most BB’s offered an accommodation for the night along with a breakfast in the morning which many hungry travelers took advantage of before setting off on the next leg of their journey. As more inns, lodges and hotels were built in the 1900’s, BB’s were seen as an affordable accommodation for people traveling through small towns or in areas that weren’t heavily developed. In the later half of the 20th century, BB’s enjoyed a renaissance in popularity, as many college students and young adults spent time visiting Europe. Most of these travelers spent time in small BB type of pensions or private residences and came back to the states to either open their own BB’s or sought them out as affordable accommodation options. They introduced in the U. S. in the mid to late 1960s. It is estimated that there are in excess 30,000 BBs at this time that represents a jump from only 2,000 in the late 1970s. The concept is now very mature average number of rooms per property has increase dramatically, occupancy rates are up, and national, state, and regional associations are setting standards. There are even a myriad of newsletters, travel publications and guide books available. Today, BB’s offer a warm and cozy alternative to the corporate hotel or motel. Most BB’s pride themselves on being privately owned and operated, as well as offering accommodations in quaint and cozy homes in locations that offer historical, leisure or small town attractions. Current stage The Bed Breakfast and Hostel Accommodations industry is in the mature phase of its life cycle The industry, however, is relatively new, having grown significantly since the early- to mid-1980s. Overall, the industry is still evolving and matching the varying (and growing) needs of various segments of the domestic and international tourism market. The industry has developed its own niche in the accommodations industry based on specific market needs and demand. Over the 10 years to 2017, industry value added, which measures an industry’s contribution to GDP, will grow at an annual rate of 1. % per year, compared to GDP growth over the same period of 1. 9%. The industry is still in a long-term mature phase, despite recent slow growth or contraction due to increased geopolitical tension from terrorist attacks and the declines in travel demand in response to the Great Recession. Over the ten years to 2017, industry value added (IVA), which measures an industry’s contribution to GDP, is expected to grow 1. 4% per year, while GDP is expected to grow 1. 8% per year. The Bed and Breakfast and Hostel Accommodations industry has fought declining demand over the past few years. With the onset of the recession, all forms of travel accommodation experienced revenue drops as consumers became more concerned about finances and made cutbacks on luxuries, including travel. From 2007 to 2017, domestic trips will increase 1. 1% to 758. 4 million. However, over the same period, international visitor arrivals will rise from 56. 0 million to 86. 2 million, or 4. 4% per year, after a slump from late 2007 to 2009. Overall, however, each of the major industry components displayed an upward trend over this period that was roughly in line with GDP growth. Future industry growth will increasingly correspond with rising global income, particularly in countries in East Asia and South America and an increasing propensity to travel internationally. Increasing incomes and the aging of the population are also expected to lead to significant growth in the domestic market. On the other hand, within the key industry segments, the Tourism industry will continue to display slow growth due to strong competition from internet-based, direct booking products. Lead time require for products The bed and breakfast (BB) segment covers a variety of types of establishments and makes 69. % of industry revenue. Homestay, farm stay or host homes, where guests share rooms and facilities with owners, are included within this segment. There are also home BBs, which provide a secondary source of revenue to the owner’s primary income and can be homes with four of five rooms converted to provide BB services to guests. BB inns or hotels are usually established as businesses to provide primary financial support for owner/operators. Breakfast is the only meal served to guests and the establishment can provide accommodations for between four and 0 guests. Quite often these are used for small weddings or business meetings. On the other hand, country inns are established as businesses with owners actively involved in its daily operations, and have between six and 30 rooms. They operate as a lodging place and have a restaurant with a liquor license. The accommodations may include lodging, dinner and breakfast included in the room rate. However, compare to other regular hotel, BB hotel need less ac tivities. It is need a short time to prepare new product, it’s easier for owners to improve it.

Chapter two homework

Chapter two homework Chapter Two Homework 1. What are some typical technical goals for organizations today? Scalability, availability, Performance, Security, Usability, manageability, adaptability, affordability. 2. What does availability mean? Its can be expressed as a percent uptime per year, month, week, day, or hour compared to the total time in that period. It does also be expressed as a mean time between failure (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR). 3. If a network is up for 835 hours in five weeks, what is the availability? In the week = 24 x 7 = 168 hour in one week So, 168 x 5 = 840 hour So the availability is 835 / 840 = 0.994 x 100 = 99.4 % 4. Using the five nines availability, what is the down time in second per four weeks? One weeks in second = 60 x 60 x 24 x 7 = 604800 second 4 Weeks = 604800 x 4 = 2419200 second Availability = 1 0.99999 = 0.000001 second So the downtime is 0.000001 * 2419200 = 24.192 second. 5. What does the term hot-swapping means, and what the reasons for using it? 6. A customer requires 99.999% availability, how would you carry out maintenance for such a network? Assume that hot-swapping is not possible 7. What are the typical bit error rate BER of a fiber link copper link? 8. If a load is 115kbps where a packet switch needs to transmit it over an ISDN circuit (128kbps), what is the utilization? How many packets in the queue? Utilization = 115/128 = 0.898% Average number of packets in queue = (0.898) / 1-0.898) = 8,804 Packets 9. How do bandwidth and throughput differ? Bandwidth: is a data carrying capacity of a circuit, usually specified in bits per second Throughput is the quantity of error free data transmitted per unit of time, usually specified in packets per second 10. How can one improve network efficiency? More the packet is larger more the efficiency of the network will be. 11. What are the security threats if a network device is compromised? Data flowing through the network can be intercepted, analyzed, altered, or deleted, compromising integrity and confidentiality. Additional, related network services, which rely on trust among network devices, can be compromised. For example, bad routing data or incorrect authentication information could be injected into the network. User passwords can be compromised and used for further intrusions and perhaps to reach out and attack other networks. The configuration of the device can be altered to allow connections that shouldnt be allowed or to disallow connections that should be allowed. 12. What tradeoffs may be necessary in order to improve network efficiency? Implementing good throughput for one application might cause delay problems for another application. The cause of the efficiency of the (network) throughput is the packet size, so if one application have large packet size to make it efficiency the other packet for another application may dont have capacity on the network. 13. Redundancy is not one of the network goals, what is meant by redundancy? Explain to what network goal is related and why? Redundancy means adding duplicate links or devices to a network to avoid downtime. Redundancy is linked to Availability, but redundancy is not a network goal, but redundant network topologies are becoming more and more significant for many networks design client who want to make certain business continuity after a major fault or disaster.

Strategic Management of McDonalds Essay -- Business, Case Study, solu

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION The main problem from McDonald's case, McDonald's Polishing the Golden Arches, is how to classify McDonald's strategy through Plan to Win into one of the five generic competitive strategies. Before we solve this main problem, we should determine the chief economic and business characteristics, the five forces analysis, and also the driving forces of the fast-food industry. After that we identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats by using SWOT analysis. Finally, we classify McDonald's strategy into one of the five generic competitive strategies. ANALYSIS The chief economic and business characteristics of the fast-food industry In 2003 sales for the U.S. consumer food-service market totaled approximately $408 billion. For the sandwich segment, the top 30 sandwich chains had U.S. system wide sales of approximately $64 billion. Future growth in the sandwich segment was expected to be only around 2 percent annually for the foreseeable future. McDonald's and Burger King were the earliest and most aggressive hamburger chains to begin to expand internationally. The products of the various sandwich chains in U.S. were strongly differentiated, continuously follow the trends that are changed all the time. The five forces analysis and the driving forces of the fast-food industry By using the Porter's five forces model of competition, we identify rivalry among fast-food chains and buyers as the strong forces that make the competition in fast-food industry more and more tighten. In general, McDonald and its main competitors (Burger King Corporation, Wendy's International, Inc., Hardee's, and Jack in the Box) are active in making fresh moves to improve their market standing and bus... ...simultaneously by making the restaurants more efficient to increase the speed of service and emphasizing hospitality, accuracy, and cleanliness with new training and incentives programs worldwide. 2) Leadership marketing McDonald should maintain "I'm lovin' it" all the time and treat it more than a marketing campaign in order to deliver a global brand message through advertising, packaging, and restaurant experiences. This can be used for shaping McDonald's employees attitude in serving the customers. 3) Innovation McDonald must make a lot of innovation in order to satisfy its customers and win the competition because successful innovation can strengthen the market position of the innovating companies. For example, by featuring a variety of Value, Premium, and wholesome menu offerings, McDonald can deliver the right products at the right price for its customers.

The Transformation from Student to Teacher :: Education Teaching Classroom Teachers Essays

The Transformation from Student to Teacher Is there a transformation from student to teacher? The nature of a student is learning to develop skills to help them with there everyday problems. Later on in their schooling they will start to develop more advanced skills. Skills which will be used to help other students perform tasks to help the community, such as building bridges, teaching, networking an office building, and so on. After you have mastered a major role in society and can perform its task flawlessly you begin to teach others the same knowledge which you have acquired. One reason is because you have performed in that duty long enough to teach others how to do it properly and the precise ways, but at the same time you are still a student. Mainly because the world today has increased its standards, and increased the safety laws. During your term of teaching, your methods are becoming extinct and you are forced to increase your knowledge of newer ways and safer ways so your students will have the newest and most up to date knowledge of the subject. Some of the greatest are also the greatest students. My science teacher throughout high school was one of my favorite teachers. She knew how to bring her knowledge to life. Throughout high school I always chose one of her science classes. She had been teaching for at least fifteen years before I was ever a student of hers, and she was still a student in college. She was working on her doctrine in Physics. She was a very smart teacher and she played a big role in myself wanting to be a teacher. If it was not for education the world would be out of order and unorganized, which makes it difficult for everyone. If it were not for teachers being able to overcome the obstacles and having the nature of helping others, the world would be over run with ignorance and total chaos. As a teacher I would use a number of different philosophies if the classroom.

Leadership in Braveheart Essay -- Leader Leading Braveheart Essays

Leadership in "Braveheart" In today's rapidly changing world, leadership is necessary to keep up with the competition. In the extract from the film â€Å"Braveheart†, William Wallace demonstrated many leadership techniques that helped his army prevail as an underdog. Many of the techniques Wallace used are prevalent in modern day business leaders as well. By stepping up in a leadership role, Wallace gained the respect of the entire army even though he was not the man that was put in charge. One of the main things that Wallace did was lead through his actions. By stepping up to the front line, it showed his troops that he was not scared and this attitude was imitated by the rest of the troops. In the present day business world, an effective leader hears what others have to say and helps them with their issues. This is just what Wallace did. In the short extract of â€Å"Braveheart† Wallace showed what was necessary to be a successful leader. There are many lessons that should be gained from watching William Wallace. First, no matter what the situation was, he was very calm and composed. He was very calm when speaking with the head of the opposing army and very composed while his army was being charged at by opposing forces, even though they were obviously much outnumbered. Another characteristic of how Wallace displayed leadership was his confidence and sense of humor throughout the entire scene. He ordered his troops to pull their pants down and â€Å"moon† the English in the middle of a war standoff. I think that this was a very good technique to loosen up the troops and make them more comfortable and confident. Also his confidence was very apparent throughout the war. He told his army that they would lose some lives but in the end they would recover their freedom. The army saw his confidence and in turn , they became more confident about victory as well. Other techniques Wallace used were being inspirational, motivational and patriotic. Before the war started, most of the troops were very uneasy and started to turn around and head home. Wallace came to the front of them, got their attention and made a very inspiring speech that fired them up and turned there attention back to the task at hand. The Scottish army was ready to turn back and concede their freedom to the English. Wallace showed patriotism by painting his face blue for the Scottish flag and encouraged h... ...man and the maker of the Model T Ford car. He said, â€Å"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.† William Wallace was never interested in money or fame. He stood up for what he thought was the right thing, and encouraged his followers to do the same. â€Å"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently†, says Ford. Ford knew that he would not succeed at all times but if he learned from his mistakes and tried again, he would eventually win. Wallace had the same mentality. He knew that his army would lose some of their troops during the battle, but if they were victorious, they would learn from there loses and grow strong again. There are many leadership lessons that William Wallace exposed in this short extract of â€Å"Braveheart†. These examples of leadership are very important in being a successful leader in the modern day business world as well. By standing strong in adversity, Wallace got the attention of his army and inspired them into battle. Wallace acts as a great guide of how businessmen should effectively lead their employees today.

Discuss Chaucers poetic methods Essay

Discuss Chaucer’s poetic methods in presenting evil in the pardoner’s prologue and tale in the light of this comment.  In Chaucer’s time, the nature of evil related to any committing of the 7 deadly sins, consisting of greed, pride, blasphemy, sloth, avarice, wrath, lust and envy. The pardoner’s prologue and tale is comprised of many of these sins, the pardoner himself demonstrating the majority. Other characters, such as the 3 rioters also embody many of these sins. This essay will explore these characters as well as their evil natures and formulate an opinion how Chaucer presents evil in the pardoner’s prologue and tale. The pardoner’s evil nature is initiated from his physical description in the general prologue. He is described as having hair as yelow as wex and hood we wered noon – a description immediately illustrating him as a rule breaker, as for most clergymen it was assumed they would cover their hair. In addition to this, he is described as having such glaryng eyen. In the medieval times, this amounted to the suggestion of evil; therefore, Chaucer has constructed the pardoner in such a way to ambiguously imply he may be somewhat evil. Critics, such as Spearing, have noted that the pardoner’s repellent outer appearance reflects his inner corruption. The description of his fake relics, such as the sayle that saint peter hadde and oure lady veyl are used to demonstrate his evil intentions; taking advantage of the peasants’ good faith by tricking them into buying fake relics, that are nothing more than pigges bones. From the onset, Chaucer has incorporated the theme of evil within the pardoner and has maintained this throughout the prologue and tale. The prologue outlines the pardoner’s admittance to his evil nature, and suggests he may even be proud of this. He boldly states that his sermons are constructed around the well-known Latin biblical phrase, radix malorum est cupiditas – loosely translated as ‘greed is the root of all evil’. The missing word omnium from this is used to demonstrate his lack of biblical knowledge, which is emphasised by the repititon of this phrase throughout. In medieval times, it was common and often expected, for members of the church to know and practice in Latin. The pardoner admits to using pieces of Latin to saffron my predicacioun. This cooking imagery may suggest that he only uses Latin to reinforce his false position, and therefore highlighting his evil nature, and may relate to the sin of gluttony as he is referencing food, again reinforcing the evilness of his character. The pardoner states in the prologue, in the form of a confession, that he preche of no thyng but for coveityse. The repetition of this ironic language along with the shocking imagery that is portrayed through his rhetorical question will I live in poverte willfully? and his admittance to taking money from the povereste widye in the village paints an evil picture of the pardoner who is merely driven by greed. Some critics, such as Georgianna believe in the historical school of thought, and note that the pardoner is merely a vehicle for the substantial embodiment of the church’s abusement. It has been suggested and argued amongst several other critics that Chaucer had no other motive when constructing the pardoner’s character other than to criticize and highlight the wrongdoings of the medieval church. Many fake pardoner’s lived amongst the medieval audience, and carried out the same evil methods as the pardoner, all for the same motive; greed. As a result of this, anticlericalism grew popular amongst the peasant’s very quickly. Therefore, it can be suggested that the pardoner’s character was constructed in such a way to shine light on his evil nature and to draw parallels with the medieval church. The pardoner’s tale is a sermon against four particular sins; gluttony, blasphemy, gambling and drinking. He talks at length of each of these particular sins, giving biblical examples that he has twisted to his benefit, such as Adam and also his wyfe who were dryven for that vice. The pardoner is suggesting that gluttony was the downfall of Adam and Eve, when in fact it was temptation. To sermonize against drinking is massively ironic as the pardoner has admitted to needing a draughte before being able to think of a moral tale to tell the pilgrims – irony in itself seeing as he should not have to think about a tale of morality. The fact that the pardoner is guilty of committing the very sins he preaches about only adds to his evil nature. Many critics, such as Ruth Nevo, suggest that the pardoner is a character in his own tale that he tells. The novelle that the Pardoner tells the pilgrims consist of three rioters. He begins by stating the setting of the three men; in the develes temple – metaphorical for a tavern. The three rioters are established as sinners from the very beginning, already being guilty of committing two of the seven deadly sins; drinking and blaspheming. The repeated suggestion of a brotherhood and addressing each other as brethren has underlying irony as each rioter is ultimately killed by each other’s greed. It has been suggested that as the rioters are not named, and therefore are nt personally addressed, that they have been constructed to suggest the embodiment of sin. Their deaths are quick and do not have much effect; instead, the focus is on the sins that they do commit. This stresses that their evil natures are what caused their own deaths. However, it can be argued that although the pardoner presents evil in the pardoner’s prologue and tale, the fact that he acknowledges this suggests he is fully aware of his evil nature. Koff suggests that the pardoner is not so much evil as he is bold. This can be argued to an extent, as he does admit to being a ful vicious man, yet states that a morale tale yet I yew telle kan. This can be portrayed as being ironic, as he is fully aware of his evil nature, yet still believes that he can preach against the sins he so readily admits to committing. In addition to this, Chaucer does incorporate some good nature into the novelle in the form of the old man. It has long been questioned as to whether he is the personification of death himself, and therefore cannot die, or whether he is merely an instrument used to emphasise the evil nature of the three rioters. His addressing of the three rioters as sires in comparison to the rude greetings of the rioters compares and relates age and innocence; the old man may have been faithful during his lifetime and therefore God will not take his life. In contrast, the young sinful rioters quickly come to their death through their own lack of faith. To conclude, I believe that a ‘sinister exploration of evil’ is truly presented in the pardoner’s prologue and tale. Chaucer uses characterization of the pardoner and three rioters to present how corrupt medieval society was, as well as how readily sins were committed. The pardoner’s simile of as dooth a dowve sittynge on a berne to describe how he sees himself is used as an antithesis of his own character; as a dove carries religious connotations of peace and purity; the opposite to what the pardoner is. Despite infiltrating some holy and pure characters, such as the Old man, he only further emphasises the lack of good in the other characters. Overall, Chaucer constructs the prologue and tale in such a way to present several layers of evil in the Canterbury tales.