Social Work Case Study Essay - 1581 Words

Ms. Apple is a 45 year old African American woman who has been a widow for about 4 years. Ms. Apple has three children, whose ages range from 5-12 years old. Ms. Apple has been struggling to keep her family afloat since the death of her husband. Ms. Apple convinced herself that she would not require the extra assistance. However, she realized in attempting to provide alone has not only become very strenuous, but also quite costly. Expenses have become overwhelming for Ms. Apple to maintain, since her husband took care of the finances and was the breadwinner for the family. Ms. Apple has minimal education as she is able to read and write at grade school level. Ms. Apple also has never been employed as she was a home maker. At this†¦show more content†¦According to Jansson, (2009), the confidence of the African American women became more prevalent than the Caucasian women, as they took initiative in developing crucial programs for their fellow peers. The womenâ€⠄¢s effective efforts included programs such as providing education and vocational skills to the women (Jansson, 2009). The efforts were demonstrated by the significantly large number of members in the society (Jansson, 2009). The Charity Organization Society was recognized for attempting to rationalize and systemize philanthropy (Oyen, 2006). The Charity Organization Society cut relief costs and cut able bodied individuals from relief. The Charity Organization Society wanted to pass a clear message that relief was not a right, but an act of charity. Also, the society recruited volunteers who were white upper class females known as the Friendly Visitors. The purpose of the friendly visitors was to provide motivation and encourage the destitute. The organization was primarily run by white men who believed the poor were in need of upper class role models. According to Schram and Mandell (1997), â€Å"The roots of social work were nurtured by two major wellsprings: the Charit y Organization Societies (COSs), from which pioneered group work, community and social change, advocacy, and the all-around societal gadfly. The COS first began in England, expanding later to larger cities in the UnitesShow MoreRelatedThe Social Work Case Study2703 Words   |  11 PagesRunning Head: SOCIAL WORK CASE STUDY 1 SOCIAL WORK CASE STUDY 2 SOCIAL WORK CASE STUDY Name Institution Date Client System John Marcel aged 47 and his wife Alexia aged 39 have been one of my most fascinating neighbors for about fifteen years. The couple has five children, of whom two were in college, one in high-school, andRead MoreCase Study in Social Work Practice2105 Words   |  9 Pagesidentify a case I have been involved in and have continuously had to assess whilst on placement. It will refer to a child who will be identified as A. A is a young carer and has only recently returned home after being removed from his mothers care due to her having a substance abuse problem and mental health concerns. I will link the legal framework that was relevant to this case study and describe actions taken. 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Joseph (1983) discussed how this ethical model â€Å"suggests a structure and a systematic process for inquiry into ethical issues that emerge in clinical practice and its organizational contexts.† Dilemma in Context Practice Setting TheRead MoreCase Study Management For Decades Throughout Social Work817 Words   |  4 Pagesin case management for decades throughout social work. Crisis intervention is just one form of interventions out of thirteen. Clinical case management involves 13 distinct activities, including engagement of the patient, assessment, planning, linkage with resources, consultation with families, collaboration with psychiatrists, patient psycheducation, and crisis intervention (Kanter, 1989). Even though Crisis management may have not been the correct invention for every situation in social work isRead MoreCase Study on Ethics and Dual Relationships in Social Work Essay1050 Words   |  5 PagesEthics Case Study: Juan S. The social worker in this case study worked at the ABC Children’s Wellness Center. An ESL teacher at a local elementary school referred Juan S. to her. Juan came to the center with his mother, Silvia. Before seeing Juan and his mother, the social worker called the ESL teacher who referred Juan to her to discuss the case. The teacher reported that Juan was showing little interest in classroom activities or his peers, and always seemed exhausted. He was irritable andRead MoreSocial Work Case Study- How I Applied Social Work Skills through Sessions with Mother and Son2562 Words   |  11 PagesIntroduction Being aware of oneself as a social worker is imperative if one plans to be an effective and competent social worker. There will be many incidents and situations social workers may chance upon in their professional work, which may present some difficulty concerning the next step to take in working with a client. Being aware is the first step. Background Information The family subset that will be explored in this paper is a mother and a son dyad that I worked with in my internshipRead MoreEssay Case Study: Effective Managerial Leadership1205 Words   |  5 PagesCase Study: Effective Managerial Leadership The successful implementation of a public policy to solve a social problem will greatly depend on the abilities of a public administrator. Furthermore, numerous case studies can show examples of how a successful public agency administrator can achieve goals through dedication and commitment. The following discussion will present a thorough analysis of main political, social, and economic forces that affected Dr. Gayle in establishing legislation to fightRead MoreEssay about Research Methodology Report1448 Words   |  6 Pagesof this report is to demonstrate a grounded understanding in three research methodologies and how I will apply each one in regards to my own project. Firstly I’ll investigate the advantages of an Instrumental Case Study, looking at how it proliferates, rather than narrows a given field of study. Secondly I will delve into Symbolic Interactionism referring to some influential figures involved within this methodology, as well as providing an example in r egards to my own topic. Finally I will clarifyRead MoreAttitudes Toward Interprofessional Collaboration Changed After Attending The Mentoring Program1215 Words   |  5 PagesThe purpose of their study was to examine whether attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration held by medical, social worker, and nursing students changed after completing an interprofessional curriculum. To determine whether students’ attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration changed after attending the mentoring program a pretest and posttest design was used. To measure the attitude toward nurses and nursing services the Jefferson School of Attitudes Toward Physician-nurse Collaboration

Ronald Reagan s Economic Policies - 2199 Words

Although he was a generally controversial president, Ronald Reagan’s policy decisions to stimulate economic prosperity, known as Reaganomics, were legitimately beneficial to the United States of America. First, in order to substantiate the success of Reagan’s economic policy decisions one must first grasp the varying levels of importance for each aspect of his plan. As Reagan’s policies were substantial decisions that defined his presidency and alienated an entire population of more economically liberal people, it makes sense that an understanding of his emphasis on certain decisions would lead to a more persuasive argument. Next, the negation of well formed and logical criticisms of Reagan’s economic policies also lend to the support of their benefits and success. Acknowledging a sensible counterargument and addressing specific points of critical analysis serves to further enhance the argument for the success of Reagan’s decisions. Furthermor e, strong economic growth and the curbing of federal domestic power reinforce the accomplishments of Reaganomics. Though the U.S. did see economic growth, Reaganomics was not purely an economic plan, as cuts in government power, not including the military, benefitted the average American citizen. Moreover, Ronald Reagan’s economic decisions regarding Soviet foreign policy were also extremely beneficial to the United States. The tough decisions to further the national deficit proved a worthy sacrifice in pressuring the collapseShow MoreRelatedThe Legacy Of Ronald Wilson Reagan1432 Words   |  6 Pageshome front against the use and spread of drugs. To many all around the world , this man would become the savior of America. Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 to Jack and Nelle Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. The Reagan family moved to Dixon in 1920, where Ronald excelled in high school, earning an athletic scholarship to Eureka College. Ronald majored in economics and sociology without knowing how useful this decision would be in 1981. After graduating from Eureka in 1932 he got a jobRead MoreThe Life And Career Of Ronald Reagan1686 Words   |  7 Pages The Life and Career of Ronald Reagan Colorado State University – Global Campus HST 300 Jared Faurschou Introduction Ronald Wilson Reagan, elected as the 40th President of the United States of America in 1980. Became one of the most beloved and revered President in modern times. He’s most known for bringing the end to the Cold War and helping bring an end to major communist activities in the world. There were several of Reagan’s policies that had an impact on ending the Cold War. InRead MoreIs Ronald Reagan Under or Overrated as a President? Essay675 Words   |  3 Pages Is Ronald Reagan overrated or underrated as a president? Born Ronald Wilson Reagan on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. He was an actor for 30 years before he became involved in politics. He starred in more than 50 movies. Along with acting, he was also a radio sportscaster. He served as the 33rd Governor of California. He was married to Jane Wyman from 1940 to 1949. He married Nancy Davis in 1952. President Ronald Reagan was our 40th president of the United States. He came intoRead MoreThe Anti Epidemic Of Hiv / Aids909 Words   |  4 Pagessocial, economic and political life during the 1980s, characterized by the policies of President Ronald Reagan who took office in 1981. Often remembered for its materialism and consumerism, the decade also saw the rise of the â€Å"yuppie,† an explosion of blockbuster movies and the emergence of cable networks like MTV, which introduced the music video and launched the careers of many iconic artists, this lead to a rise in drug abuse, crime aggravated by illegal drugs while overcrowding America s prisonsRead MoreRonald Reagan Essay1145 Words   |  5 PagesIn presidency, character is everything. Born on February 6, 1911, Ronald Reagan, â€Å"Dutch,† never knew that he would grow up to be famous. He served two terms as governor of California, but before that he starred in Hollywood films. Originally a liberal Democrat, Reaga n ran for the U.S. presidency as a conservative Republican and won, his term beginning in 1980. Ronald Reagan became the oldest President elected when he took office as the 40th President of the United States. He was also the first URead MoreRonald Reag As Government Expands, Liberty Contracts Essay1628 Words   |  7 PagesEthan Martin Martin 1 Mrs. Langerot English 4 October 14, 2015 Ronald Wilson Reagan â€Å"As government expands, liberty contracts(Ronald Reagan Quotes). Those who know anything about Modern Politics in the United States know that Ronald Reagan is the poster child and founder of today s Conservatism. Today s Conservatism is at its core a hybrid between the Conservatism of Theodore Roosevelt and that of the Libertarianism of Thomas Jefferson. Libertarians believe that theRead MoreRonald Reagan and Economic Policies1030 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ Ronald Reagan and Economic Policies History 145 Jennifer Moore Ronald Reagan, President of the United States from 1981 through 1989, created economic policies throughout his presidency that aimed to pull the United States out of a recession. His policies, called Reaganomics, reduced government spending and reduced tax rates in order to foster economic growth. Reagan also appointed many conservative judges to the Supreme Court and federal courts in order to shift ideologiesRead MoreThe Significance of Ronald Reagans Tax Reform Act of 1986979 Words   |  4 Pagesassesses the significance of Ronald Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of 1986 in the overall decrease of unemployment levels during the last year of his presidency, 1989. 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Nau company Free Essays

string(231) " only reached half of its funding goal, the first Ana store penned in Boulder, Colorado, in January 2007, with three more successful store openings following during the year in Adulating, Oregon; Chicago; and Bellevue, Washington\." Ana Innovating for Social Consciousness By Alex Claws Can a for-profit enterprise succeed if its main innovation is valuing social consciousness as much as shareholder returns? The question is particularly relevant in a time of high gas prices and a growing sense that our current consumption of natural resources is simply unsustainable. The founders of Ana, a fledgling retail outerwear company, believed the answer to this question to be a resounding mimes. Built with an unprecedented level of environmental, social, and human-rights unconsciousness, by April 2008 Ana was an underground success on the West Coast, opening five stores and a website selling critically acclaimed clothing collections. We will write a custom essay sample on Nau company or any similar topic only for you Order Now Then, at the beginning of May, Nan’s board of directors voted to shut down the company. Viewed through Insight’s lenses, Nan’s promise becomes clear-?along with the perils that led to its downfall. Ana had a reasonable business model built around a well-defined Job-to-be-done. But as will become clear, Ana didn’t follow an emergent strategy. And Nan’s management discovered that a business model that looks good on paper doesn’t always translate into immediate profits. Ultimately, a lack of careful execution and a push for quick expansion doomed Nan’s first incarnation. But the story of Ana is still unfolding. Ana 2. 0 is currently underway, and that venture appears to have a better chance of success. The Launch Ana (Maori for â€Å"welcome†) began with the dream of Eric Reynolds, an outdoor enthusiast entrepreneur, co-founder (in 1974) of outerwear brand Marmot, and subscriber to the belief that a single individual can have an impact on the world. In the summer of 2003, Reynolds conceived of Ana, a sustainable clothing company that would donate a significant portion of its revenue to nonprofit organizations. Specifically, Reynolds envisioned customers presented with a unique question at point-of-sale: â€Å"To which organization should ‘my five percent’ go? † By giving five percent of its revenue to nonprofits, Ana would break new ground. (For comparison, the most generous corporations give away one percent of revenue, with the average corporation giving less than . 05 percent. ) In the summer of 2004, Reynolds began recruiting a management team. In 2005, he hired a number of individuals away from Patagonia, a firm commonly considered a leader in outerwear, social consciousness, ND charitable giving. Chris Van Dyke (son of actor Dick Van Dyke), an ex-Nikkei employee 1 and ex-Patagonia vice president of branding and marketing, was hired as CEO. Mark Calibrating, a successful Patagonia designer, Joined Ana as lead designer. Patagonians director of marketing, Ian Yells, Joined as vice president of marketing. Nan’s commitment to sustainability framed the constraints within which Calibrating worked as he designed Nan’s clothing collection. Calibrating avoided any materials that weren’t renewable or recyclable while seeking a balance between performance, sustainability, and style. As a result, nearly all of the 30 fabrics utilized in Nan’s clothing collection were custom materials developed specifically for Ana. The fabrics -?made from corn, recycled plastic bottles, 100 percent organic wool, and recycled synthetics-?set a new standard for sustainability. Nan’s clothing creation process led to a number of innovations, including the elimination of solvent-based adhesives. The efforts of Calibrating and his team were rewarded-?Nan’s first collection received critical praise from such disparate sources as Men’s Vogue and Rock and Ice magazines. One downside: The fabric choices greatly constrained the range of colors possible, resulting in mostly drab hues. Nan’s custom fabrics also required that customers pay a substantial premium for their clothing, but Nan’s management team did not see this as a problem for its target customer segments: the affluent â€Å"multidimensional outdoor athlete,† the â€Å"new activist,† and â€Å"creative. The Ana team expected that their customers’ passion for sustainability would overcome any price resistance. Nan’s commitment to sustainability was enforced as carefully in its stores as in its clothing. The company eschewed traditional 4,000-square-foot retail stores for a 2,000-square-foot â€Å"Webfoot† concept. The store spaces were long and narrow, design ed purposefully with limited space for inventory that would be restocked twice weekly. Ana also offered customers a 10 percent discount and free shipping if they were willing to try clothing in the store, and then purchase it online. Assembled from a modular, prefabricated design, each store featured energy-saving lighting and leveraged materials such as reclaimed timber, toxin-free fiberboard, and recycled resin (for mannequins). Customers were offered a choice of 12 carefully selected environmental, social, and humanitarian nonprofit organizations, and five percent of the purchase price was donated to the chosen group. Nan’s values extended to its real estate leasing strategy as well-?Ana only leased store space that was LED-certified (LED certification indicates environmental- and health-consciousness standards). The company also set a minimum age limit for the workers at its overseas material suppliers. Nan’s principles included the constraint that the highest-paid worker within the company could only earn a maximum of 12 mimes the lowest-paid employee’s salary. Finally, Ana did not invest in marketing or public relations beyond a series of websites, choosing instead to rely on word-of- mouth, a more â€Å"sustainable† form of marketing in the eyes of Yells and his team. While Ana managed to be remarkably consistent in the infusion of its values into its processes, one of the key factors in its eventual downfall was that the company had a difficult time securing financing. At least one investor’s legal counsel balked at a contract clause that placed the â€Å"needs of society’ equal to the â€Å"needs of shareholders,† but Ana held firm. 2 Nan’s business plan called for it to earn more than $250 million in revenue in 2010 and to achieve profitability in 2009 or 2010, figures based on opening four stores in 2007, 20 stores in 2008, and 150 stores by 2010. To build the necessary momentum toward these goals, Ana needed at least $51 million in funding. By the end of 2006, Ana had raised $24 million, largely from â€Å"super angels,† individual investors who included the chairman of Seagate Technology, Steve Lucid, and Stephen Gomez, Nan’s chairman and a former Nikkei corporate vice president. Despite the fact that Ana had only reached half of its funding goal, the first Ana store penned in Boulder, Colorado, in January 2007, with three more successful store openings following during the year in Adulating, Oregon; Chicago; and Bellevue, Washington. You read "Nau company" in category "Papers" Ana completed its first year of operation in 2007 with 92 employees, four clothing collections, and four stores. In March 2008, Ana donated $223,000 to its 12 nonprofit organizations, implying 2007 sales of around $4. 5 million. In mid-April, Ana opened its fifth store in Los Angels. In late April 2008, despite raising an additional $10 million in funding, Ana announced that it would scale back its store- peeing plans to a total of five in 2008, down from an already-reduced projection of 10. Finally, on May 1, Nan’s board of directors voted to â€Å"wind down its business operations,† citing â€Å"insurmountable financial obstacles. † All inventory was liquidated at 50 percent off and the stores were closed. Post-mortem interviews with Nan’s executives suggest that the company was approximately $5 million to $10 million short of the funds needed to sustain its operations and open additional stores towards its goal of profitability. In the days following the decision, many customers commented on Nan’s blob, expressing sadness, frustration, and anger and questioning why Ana had failed. Ana: The Post-Mortem Looking at Ana through Insight’s business model innovation framework and a number of Insight lenses offers insight into how Ana developed such a devoted following as well as how the management team might have been able to ensure a brighter future for their company. Insight believes that business model innovation is one of the most powerful ways for organizations to achieve new growth. By carefully adjusting business model components-?the customer value proposition (the offering itself), the profit system (how the company creates value for itself), key resources (the critical things required to deliver on the value proposition), and key processes (how the company organizes and acts to deliver on the value proposition) -?organizations can build the type of competitive advantage necessary to create truly transformation growth. Nan’s business model looked good-?on paper, at least. But Nan’s impatient push for profits made it hard to really validate whether the business model would in fact work, and shut all opportunities for learning. Ana pulled the customer value proposition lever expertly. The company created potently positive solutions to a number of emotional, social, and functional Jobs-to- be-done. The sustainability of Nan’s operations and products set a new standard of satisfaction for the emotional Job â€Å"Feel good about 3 the environmental and social consciousness of my clothing. Nan’s clothing also satisfied the social Job â€Å"Convey to others that I prioritize the sustainability of my clothing over its color and flash. † And, as lauded by Rock and Ice magazine, Nan’s clothing also satisfied myriad functional Jobs related to comfort and technical performance. Since its sustainable materials carried up to a 20-percent price premium over more commercially available materials, Ana had to pass the premium along t o customers. But Nan’s management team was correct in assuming that the high quality and the redeeming social and environmental value of its clothing Justified that premium in the eyes of customers -?as long as the economy was robust enough that sufficient customers could afford it. And Ana broke new ground with its â€Å"Webfoot† stores by implementing a retail business model that required lower capital and operational expenditures than a traditional retail store model. But there was a significant downside to Nan’s profit-system choices. Insight recommends that new ventures â€Å"be patient for growth, impatient for profit. † Nan’s management expected the company to have 150 stores in operation by 2010, but did not expect profitability until 2009 at the earliest. Growth was thus essential to profitability, creating a significant risk of failure if the company could not reach its early-stage funding goals. Insight also recommends that new ventures pursue an emergent strategy, to take small steps by conducting inexpensive tests of its key assumptions about the new racket. When the test results are in, the venture can analyze the results, adjust its strategy accordingly, and then conduct additional tests. This careful approach helps new ventures optimize for success while avoiding huge, potentially fatal resource commitments. In Nan’s case, an emergent strategy might have enabled the firm to consume its funding more slowly while developing an optimal strategy. Instead, the team decided to go straight to launching full Webfoot’s rather than testing the clothing line in a department store or opening a single, test-store concept. The root cause for the failure of Ana 1. 0 seems to have been that Nan’s business strategy and some of its business model decisions proved questionable. By following a more careful, emergent strategy and by focusing on profitability before growth, Nan’s executives might have been able to strike a better balance between vision and execution. Ana 2. 0: On June 24, 2008, Nan’s fortunes turned around. Horny Toad Activities, a Santa Barbara-based lifestyle clothing company, stepped in to buy Nan’s assets with the goal of re-launching a modified version of Ana by late summer. While â€Å"Ana 2. † Is gust beginning to emerge, early signs suggest that the re-launch will follow a strategy more closely aligned to that which Insight would recommend for success. Horny Toad creates and sells men’s and women’s lifestyle and outerwear clothing. Horny Toad’s tagging, â€Å"every day is an adventure,† introduces a humorous, irreverent, so cially-conscious approach that lies at the core of everything the company does. Indeed, Horny Toad and Ana have much in common. Horny Toad’s stated commitment to â€Å"lightening its environmental footprint† and to 4 supporting both the community and organizations that improve the world immediately suggest synergies. Much as Ana showcased the organizations chosen for customer contributions, the Horny Toad website highlights its support for causes ranging from helping adults with developmental disabilities to supporting clean energy, with a wide range of other environmental and community-activist organizations in between. However, in contrast to Nan’s commitment to sell its clothing solely through a growing number of its own stores, Horny Toad has only two stores and sells its clothing in a wide variety of online and brick-and-mortar retailers. In addition to a store in Freeport, Maine, Horny Toad runs the â€Å"Lizard Lounge† in Portland, Oregon, complete with music, wireless access, coffee, and ping-pong. Horny Toad clothing has been lauded for its hip funkiness by print publications and blobs alike. Recognizing the similarities between Ana and Horny Toad, Horny Toad felt that it would support its motto â€Å"do well by doing good† by purchasing Nan’s assets and hiring its leadership to help re-launch the clothing line. In addition to providing financial support, Horny Toad will sell Ana clothing in the Lizard Lounge and, in a break from Nan’s original treated, through other retailers as well. And, with Horny Toad’s support, a percentage of Ana sales will continue to go to worthy non-profits. According to Nan’s â€Å"Thought Kitchen† blob, shortly after the relationship was finalized Ana leadership began working to resurrect relationships with company partners and to put together a Fall/Holiday clothing collection in time for October availability. While the Ana clothing line will continue to deliver on the â€Å"Beauty, Performance, and Sustainability’ commitment through the use of environmentally friendly and socially conscious trials and methods, a quote from Nan’s website gets to the heart of why Ana 2. May very well succeed while 1. 0 failed: â€Å"As we move forward with the re-launch of Ana, you’ll definitely recognize us, but we intend to do some things differently†¦ We’re going to start small and grow the business organically in relationship to the demand for our product. We’ll continue to sell our prod uct at Ana. Com, but we’re also going to partner with select retailers who share our common goals. We will not be operating our own retail stores, at least not in the near term†¦ So stay tuned. We’re coming back. Smaller and a little wiser, our ambitions tempered a bit by the experience, but our passions most definitely intact. Ana 2. G’s strategy will most likely enable the brand to focus more closely on identifying the product, marketing, and channel mix that appeals most to customers, without worrying about the pressures of rapid expansion. Particularly in a new venture, vision and passion tempered by patience and pragmatism is the way to go. This approach is also particularly appropriate in these tough economic times. Satisfying social and emotional Jobs-to-be-done around environmental friendliness ND social consciousness may be enough to earn significant premiums for clothing in a strong economy. However, during an economic downturn, financial reality frequently wins out as consumers prioritize value over the satisfaction of some social and emotional Jobs. 5 For example, since the economy began to sour, Whole Foods Market has seen some of its consumers move their food spending to more budget-friendly alternatives. Whole Foods has responded by shifting its marketing strategy from a focus on quality and environmental friendliness to an emphasis on discounts, store brands, and reduce value as it attempts to keep its customers. Even if Ana 1. 0 had received enough funding earlier in 2008 to continue operations, economic conditions would likely have pushed the enterprise to the breaking point, as has happened with many other fledgling clothing boutiques. When Ana 1. 0 launched, its management team made an impressive commitment to the company’s values, taking steps such as tracing the wool used in its clothing back to the sheep to ensure that they were well-treated and implementing a â€Å"sustainable† word-of-mouth marketing strategy. To launch the new Ana, it is clear that the team as had to compromise on some of its values, such as the control provided by company-owned storefronts, a grassroots-only marketing effort, and potentially the level of contribution to nonprofits. In the end, however, the Ana 2. 0 strategy, with the help of Horny Toad, may be the key to enabling the company’s sustainable operation. Making their operations as sustainable as their values will help ensure that Ana is able to be a force for good in the world for a long time to come. For more information: http://www. Ana. Com/coming-this-fall. HTML (Accessed 8/29/08, 1 :41 pm) http:// www. Gibbousness. Com/CGI-bin/magma/article. Pl? Articled=30412; http:// gratifiers. Com/content/fullest/? Acid=50781 6 Innovator’s Insight In Need of an Innovation Fill-up By Stephen Hunker Recent news that Consulship’s will be selling all 600 of its U. S. Service stations for $800 million comes as little surprise. Oil companies are facing extraordinarily attractive investment opportunities in exploration and production, and the service station business has been tightly squeezed between rising wholesale costs, inability to pass along those cost increases, and falling demand as driving declines. Clearly the station’s buyer-?closely held Peterson Fuel-?sees it differently. We do too. In our view, Peterson Fuel is buying cheap assets with lots of innovation headroom. While â€Å"stick to your knitting† is a popular business maxim, it is of course common to find diversified businesses. There are several reasons diversification can make sense: ; If the new business can share costs and customers with the core business-? in this case, owning both enterprises can provide scale economies, improve distribution, create a better buying experience, and other advantages. This is why many European parameters have service stations outside their doors, for example. ; If the new business provides a useful hedge against a core with volatile returns but a need for consistent investment. This explains why many pharmaceutical firms own over-the-counter consumer healthcare brands. ; By diversifying, a firm can hold on to a seemingly unrelated business because it sees substantial headroom for growth and a right to triumph in that arena. This is one reason News Corporation bought Namespace. Historically, oil companies owned service stations for each of these reasons. The end nonuser drove demand, and having direct access to that consumer allowed firms to exercise some control over demand levels while also gaining precise information about what products were demanded where. Profits from service stations could offset volatility in exploration and production. Also, the advent of convenience stores at service stations created a new high-margin business. Each of these Justifications for integration now seems threatened by changes such as improved information technology, more efficient capital markets, and communication of the service station experience. With supermarket-owned service stations now coming to the United States, oil companies face new competitors who may even sell gasoline at a loss in order to drive traffic into their stores. In the I-J, pressure from supermarkets is a factor leading to the net closure of 600 service stations per year. The service station business is looking much less attractive than it used to. So, what might Peterson Fuel be thinking? We imagine two major Justifications for the investment. First, if oil prices decline, the profit margins on service stations may rise, and Peterson will have bought valuable assets for a song. Second, there may be much more innovation headroom in this business than oil companies have traditionally assumed. For instance, Fullness Media International offers local news, weather, and sports on screens at pumps at a few hundred stations. Fullness pays the retailer and shows ads to this highly captive audience. Shell is experimenting with fuel pumps that are activated simply by a swipe of a fingerprint. Dutch inventors have created a robotic arm that finds a car’s fuel cap, unscrews it, and automatically pumps gas. Regional fuel retailer Sheets differentiates itself through premium coffee and made- o-order sandwiches. Another retailer, Valier, is piloting 5,000-square-foot convenience stores with fully nonwhite of the space dedicated to fresh food and other perishables. Oil companies would be well-served by thinking through how well the jobs of their customers are getting done, and whether they can De-commoditized the service station business through new propositions or re-definition of the competitive set. Looking through this lens, we can imagine how a mother could prefer a certain service station because it offers very fast, targeted entertainment for bored children n the back seat, or how a senior might prefer one with very brightly lit displays. The advent of electric- and fuel-cell-powered vehicles opens further possibilities for using service station real estate in new ways. Look at how Best Buy reconciled what an electronics retailer could be, and how it escaped industry communication in the process. While Wall-Mart and others cut prices ruthlessly, Best Buy rolled out Geek Squad-?a service tightly integrated with its retailing business that addressed a wide swath of unsatisfied Jobs its customers faced post-sale. It also became a place to try new videotapes. The store is even trying to become a hub for musicians buying electric guitars and other gear. In the process, the company increased revenue 92 percent over five years, almost entirely through internally generated growth. It turned out that electronics retailing wasn’t a commodity business at all. Sometimes a dog business is Just a dog business. MM spun off its floppy disk and magnetic tape business in 1996, and that turned out to be a smart move. But we find it hard to believe that there is little room for profitable innovation in a retail business that hundreds of millions consumers have to visit on a regular basis. When the finance people come knocking, looking to sell downtrodden assets and invest the proceeds in high-flying businesses, lock the doors for a bit. The business may indeed have few prospects. On the other hand, it may support the core business in many oblique but important ways, and it may have far more innovation headroom left to exploit. – â€Å"Consulship’s Will Sell Its Company-owned Service Stations†, by Brett Clayton, Houston Chronicle, August 27, 2008 (http://www. Chronic. Com/disk/story. Ml/business/energy/5969574. HTML) 8 â€Å"Finding the Right Job for your Product†, by Clayton Christensen, Scott Anthony, Gerald Brewster and Denies Meetinghouse, Sloan Management Review, Spring 2007 (http://www. Insight. Com/innovation_resources/research. HTML? Id=167) 9 Innovators’ Update A Good Start for Amazon AMP Amazon’s digital music store keeps sailing on the winds of industry changes Insight #98 from October 2007, â€Å"Handicapping Amazo n’s Low-Cost Music Store,† suggested that Amazon might find the results of its then newly launched music download store disappointing. What has happened since? By Renee Hopkins Callahan When Amazon launched its Amazon AMP online music download store in September 007, we were skeptical. At the time, Apple had sold more than 100 million pods and tunes had a lock on the online music market. Amazon AMP planned to sell music free of Digital Rights Management (DORM) protection-?a limited supply, since at the time only one of the four major music labels had agreed to make its music available without DORM protection. Amazon AMP seemed unlikely to succeed with a business model focused on undercutting tunes on price, selling songs for 89 cents instead of 99 cents. We were right that the low-cost strategy would not put much of a dent in the popularity of Tunes. Yet circumstances in the year since its launch have helped Amazon refine its strategy and offer a preview of possible success. According to NYPD Group research released in late July, tunes remains on top of the music retail pack. It is the largest music retailer in the world and it sells at least 90 percent of digital downloads in the U. S. However, the same research showed that Amazon AMP has grown to be the fourth-largest retailer of music in the U. S. , behind tunes, Walter, and Best Buy. That puts Amazon AMP in second place for online music download sales. And while here’s still a huge gap in volume between tunes and Amazon AMP-?with Amazon’s share of the market in single digits-?Amazon is in the game. However, Amazon hasn’t accomplished that by stealing tunes customers. Russ Cropping, an entertainment industry analyst for NYPD, said in an April 2008 report that only about 10 percent of Amazon AMP customers used to be tunes users, with the other 90 percent likely to be people who had been using other services or were new to digital downloading. Amazon AMP attracts young adults age 18 to 25, while tunes’ strongest demographic is teens age 13 to 17, another April 2008 study said. Amazon has likely benefited from winds of change blowing in the music industry. A number of analysts have speculated that the industry sees Amazon as an ally in an effort to break Apple’s dominance in digital music. It would seem counterintuitive that the music industry would want to bypass its richest retail channel. But some of Apple’s practices cut profits for the major labels. In late August, the Wall Street Journal reported on a growing trend in the music business: labels deliberately withholding some of their music from tunes. The article cites several cases in which albums were either not made available on Tunes or were pulled. Why? While consumers strongly prefer purchasing music by song, music label executives, managers and even some artists dislike the tunes policy that requires that music be made available by the song as well 10 as by the album, because profit margins for single-song sales aren’t nearly as good as the margins for album sales. Meanwhile, Amazon AMP lets labels sell music the way they want to. If a label wishes to make an artist’s work available only by the album, Amazon AMP allows it. Some of the music that the labels have been withholding from tunes is ending up on Amazon AMP. The DORM issue has worked to Amazon’s benefit as well. Apple’s tunes has historically sold Deteriorated downloads. Such encoding means that songs downloaded on tunes cannot be played on other AMP devices. Apple has worked to persuade the major labels to drop DORM, though it still seeks to keep tunes the only source of song downloads for the pod. At the time that Amazon AMP launched, only MIME, one of the four major music labels, had announced it would drop DORM protection on its music. By early January 2008, a few months after Amazon AMP launched, the three other major labels-universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMW- dropped DORM. That meant their music could be made available on Amazon AMP, which does not use DORM, and which features free software that delivers a customer’s AMP file directly to their tunes library. Meanwhile, according to a May 30 Macdonald magazine story, â€Å"Sony, Universal, and Warner continue to withhold the unencumbered tracks from Apple, choosing instead to back tuner’s rivals. † Amazon may have more surprises up its virtual sleeve. In late July, Fortune magazine reported that Amazon was in talks with Namespace about becoming the social networking giant’s download store partner hen it rolls out its highly anticipated Joint venture with Universal, Warner Music and Sony BMW in September. If the deal goes through, it puts Amazon in a good position to continue nipping at Apple’s heels. According to the Fortune report, Namespace plans to let its 120 million users stream entire songs before downloading them. That potentially changes the convenience trade-off for the Namespace customers in Amazon’s favor, because they would be able to buy a song and get it into their computer’s music manager, even tunes, with one click using Amazon’s software. Those who wanted to use tunes would have to leave Namespace and physically go to Tunes to accomplish the same end. Clearly, we underestimated the desire of other companies to develop a reasonable Number Two to Apple, a position that Amazon AMP seems to have grown into in the last year. If Amazon can figure out more ways to capitalize on its toehold position in the digital music business, How to cite Nau company, Papers

Economic Demand and Supply Analysis †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Questions: 1.Why is it important to consider the price elasticity of demand of your product when setting the price you are going to charge? 2.Explain the difference between comparative advantage an absolute advantage? Answers: 1. Demand for a product is usually highly responsive to a change in its price. This responsiveness is captured by price elasticity of demand. Price elasticity is calculated as a percentage change in quantity demand in response to a change in price. Now, response of demand to price is not uniform. It depends on several factors. These factors include nature of the product, availability of substitutes, income of the people and others (Baumol Blinder, 2015). Since, elasticity measure responsiveness of demand to its price this plays an important role in pricing decision. Sellers should set its price keeping in mind elastic response of the demand for the product. If demand is highly elastic as in case of luxury items, then charging a high price lead to a loss of business because people are able to reduce their demand largely. With availability of substitutes products demand, become more flexible. In this situation, producers should not set a high price. For goods having high elasticity, too high price harm the business by reducing demand and sellers should set a low price (Varian, 2014). Therefore, knowledge about demand elasticity helps the firm to take decision on price. This helps firms to rightly plan their marketing strategy and fulfill revenue goal. Even after setting price producers sometimes, need to revise for either increasing their revenue or capturing a greater market share. With complete information about elasticity, producers can optimally decide how much price increase or decrease is needed to achieve set revenue target. 2. In international trade, a country usually exports the good in which it has an advantage over another country and imports the good in which the country has disadvantage in production. This advantage or disadvantage is determined using the concept of absolute ad comparative advantage. Adam Smith gives the theory of absolute advantage. A country is said to have an absolute advantage in producing one good if it enjoys absolute cost benefit. On the other hand, comparative advantage is determined based on opportunity cost that is what amount of other goods needs to be sacrificed to produce a particular good (Levchenko Zhang, 2016). There are situations where two countries have absolute advantage in both goods. Then it becomes difficult to decide the trade relation. To resolve this issue David Ricardo gives the theory of comparative advantage. Trade based on absolute advantage cannot be mutually beneficial always. In times of comparative advantage, trade is always beneficial for both the nation. In contrast to absolute advantage overall output level is also considered under comparative advantage. In computing absolute advantage, absolute cost is important while for comparative advantage opportunity cost is used. Countries generally specialize and export goods in which it has a comparative advantage. The idea of comparative advantage dominates that of absolute advantage as it more efficiently determines countries production capacity more efficiently (Yang Ng, 2015). Comparative advantage analyzes gains from trade more intensively and provides a bigger rationale for trade than absolute advantage. Today international trade theory is mostly based on comparative advantage theory. References Baumol, W. J., Blinder, A. S. (2015). Microeconomics: Principles and policy. Cengage Learning. Levchenko, A. A., Zhang, J. (2016). The evolution of comparative advantage: Measurement and welfare implications.Journal of Monetary Economics,78, 96-111. Varian, H. R. (2014).Intermediate microeconomics with calculus: a modern approach. WW Norton Company. Yang, X., Ng, Y. K. (2015).Specialization and economic organization: A new classicalmicroeconomic framework (Vol. 215). Elsevier.