Innovation and competition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Innovation and competition - Essay Example For instance, the insurance industry is highly competitive thereby necessitating the need to have great marketing techniques among other skills in order to gain competitive advantage over the competitors. Focusing on two of the main insurance companies in the United States, Geico and State Farm Insurance, using VRIO analysis gives a clearer picture of how to gain competitive advantage in highly competitive sectors such as insurance. Several approaches can be used to attain an efficient marketing strategy. Some of the commonly used approaches include blue ocean strategy, porter’s five forces model, and advertising. The blue ocean strategy is deeply dependent on innovation and discovery of new consumer demands that are not yet explored. The blue ocean strategy focusses on improving the current market, for instance, by combining two or more closely related demands. In addition, it is highly dependent on the quality while still maintaining low costs of the products and services offered. The less valued products and services are replaced by the highly valued and demanded ones thereby raising the standards of the market and making it stronger. For example, the State Farm has many subsidiaries that offer great insurance services that range from fire, casualty, and mutual insurance among others. However, despite the increasingly many subsidiaries, State Farm has been able to fully satisfy it clients thereby creating unlimited loyalty. Additionally, Geico offers full time response service hence satisfying the customers fully. Moreover, Geico offers low rates to military personnel and government worker s which is arguably different from what some of the other insurance companies do. As a result, Geico has greatly grown over the recent surpassing some of the great insurance companies such as Allstate. According to a report by SNL, GEICO made $4.89 billion through direct premiums based on the third quarter of 2013 whereas Allstate

From Britain Colony to American Satellite Essay

From Britain Colony to American Satellite - Essay Example Over the years, there have been numerous studies that have tried to examine the issue of Australia’s dependency on the prevailing power of capitalist America. Although most of the studies have dwelt on the nation’s economics and political economy, there are other studies that have sought to examine the culture, media and beliefs. Ideally, the concept of dependence in Australia’s foreign relations though most obvious in the political and military association with the United States, has also had a central economic and cultural angle. Although there are still those who disagree with this opinion, there is no denying that America’s values, organizations and policies reign not only in Australia’s external behavior but its economic and political sphere. While some analysts were reluctant to view America as imperialist or Australia as a satellite, most of the liberal minds agreed that these two terms defined the bilateral relationship of these two nations after the Vietnam War. This has been examined especially in the light of how Australia’s sovereignty and national identity have been infiltrated. From the mid 1980’s, Australia has bettered its relations with other Asian nations and has found it even harder to break the constitutional ties with Britain. This development has lessened the scholarly claims to this fact but the popular imagination still lingers. In essence, from the Australian mass media, the country is viewed as a ‘satellite community’ of the cosmopolitan United States.

Successful people Essay Example for Free

Successful people Essay Failure is not what sets us apart from the successful individuals around us, but it is how we see and what we do about this failure that makes us outshine them. I finished high school in a public school, but I have never seen this as a deduction from my character or my knowledge. However scarce resources were back then, I managed to perform well. It was not until I was in college when I had my first encounter with failure. I only passed one course, out of the five that I was taking. This made me question my own belief system and how I managed the academic aspect of my life. I know that at one point I did something unacceptable to my own standards. Once I have realized my gaffe I was willing to make up for it. As I tried to recuperate from my letdown, it dawned on me that one of my teachers embarrassed me in front of the whole class and questioned my ability and the lack thereof, leaving me with feelings of resentment. Instead of being supportive and encouraging me, she did the opposite. I have always had the assumption that educators educate children, not make them feel inferior to them because of the numerical measurement of their abilities. Educators are not only teaching concepts, they teach life. And what she taught me was that I did not have what it takes to be better. This is when I realized that I wanted to change what she does, and I wanted to be that change. I deem that I can become a better educator than her, especially to the underserved students because I understand what they go through and I empathize, not pull them down more. I will be able to see from their viewpoint because I grew up in a place like this and can relate to them by utilizing my familiarity with the culture and my personal experiences as a means of teaching. This realization, along with my lifelong passion to share my knowledge and experiences, has led me to the dream of becoming a teacher. If I can show these students my passion for education through a context that they can understand, I can help change their lives. My own failure made me realize why education is vital to everybody. It teaches about life and about the failures that we get to encounter along the way and how to remain standing even after all that’s happened. I worked hard when I was in high school, not because I am underserved, but because I know there’s much more to life than just being caught in a place like this, knowing that I could do better. A lot of these children think that they do not warrant a beautiful future ahead, because of where they came from. But, I can be the example of that beautiful future, I struggled, I was victorious, I went downhill, but I was strong enough to get back on track again. If I can, so can them.

Narrowcasting Is A Term Media Essay

Narrowcasting Is A Term Media Essay Narrowcasting is a term which means it spreading information or signal to a particular audience. It usually used by radio or television. In old time people use broadcasting to disseminate information to general public but now narrowcasting is more preferable because it can narrow media messages at specific segments of the public. Narrowcasting, in other word which is called niche marketing, through proprietary equipment and encryption it become easier to reach target audiences. The examples of narrowcasting are cable television, satellite radio and internet. We have chosen Astro as the example of narrowcasting in Malaysia. All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator also called as Astro is a Malaysia direct broadcast satellite (DBS) Pay TV service. Astro service was launched on 1 June 1996. It owned and operated by Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad, a leading integrated consumer media entertainment group in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Astro is used to transmit satellite television and radio to the households in Malaysia and Brunei. Astro has provided 156 TV channels, including 68 Astro-created and branded channels and 22 HD channels. Household with Direct-To-Home satellite TV, Internet Protocol television (IPTV) and Over-The-Top platforms (OTT) can enjoy this service. Pay TV as mentioned just now is a kind of linear broadcast channel which only available for customer who paying an additional subscription fee. People are allowed to select particular channels and watch it on their television for a fee. Astro has become media preference for advertisers due to the media message can be spread out more a ccurately to target audiences. Discussion Astro subscribers can access to hundreds of channels worldwide through Astro channel. Astro channel has the ability to receive and send broadcast signals using satellite technology, this increases the possibilities of gaining access to channels from other countries like HBO, ESPN, CNN and so on, audience will not restricted to the channels on cable network and they can expose to more worldwide information. For example, during football match and Olympic season, Astro will open a lot of sport channels like Astro Super Sport, Astro Super Sport 2 and 3, Astro Arena and so on. Astro subscribers can enjoy the different live matches with high-quality audio and picture. They able to know the updated live score of the team they supported. Besides watching on the television screen, Astro subscribers also able to watch live football matches through smartphone, tablet or computer through Astro On-The Go web. For those viewers who cant watch the program on time, this is good news for them, they c an watch the live matches through their smartphone or tablet. Advertising on narrowcasting is effective, marketing experts are often interested in narrowcast media as a commercial advertising tool, since access to such content implies exposure to a specific and clearly defined prospective consumer audience. Advertisers can better target by identifying particular demographics viewing such programs their markets. For example if the energy drink company Red Bull wanted to target 18-25 year old action sport athletes, they can purchase commercial time on sports channel of Astro like ABOS, thus making their message more valuable by marketing to a concentrated audience. In this advanced digital era, most of the people having at least one smart technology device in their living lifestyle. Smart mobile devices have become the most basic device that people using every day. To bring a non-stop entertainment for Astro valued customers, Astro has introduced a new service for them which is Astro-On-The- Go. Astro-On-The-Go provides an application for Android devices, Astro customers just need to install this application from Android market, and so they can enjoy by watching Astro channels at anywhere or anytime. There are four main features of this innovative service. It provides 19 Astro channels for subscribers. When you feel boring at somewhere else, Astro-On-The-Go can bring a lot of entertainment for you. You will be able to watch latest news, educational and entertainment programs to pass the time. Secondly subscribers are may catch out the programs they missed. Astro-On-The-Go has given a chance for them to choose the program from their TV subscript ion package. Third, Pay per View service is available for subscribers to select TV program from a library on anytime. Lastly, subscribers are able to watch live events regardless of where they are. They are never missing out any live sport, live concert or others live events by using Astro-On-The-Go service. In addition, Astro-On-The-Go has bringing advantages for advertisers. Because of smart mobile device could be one of the device that people attached the most in daily life, advertisers can spread out their messages to target audiences easier and more effectively. There are number of gain of Astro channel however, miss are also there. The only miss of Astro is weather distraction. Due to the reason of Astro channel works on digital signals, weather is playing a very important factor for its operation. When bad weather is happening, it could interrupt the signal of receiving Astro channel. Viewers will loss the connection and thus they are going to miss out their TV programs. Satellite dish are located at outdoors, it becomes susceptible to malfunction as a result of weather conditions like snow, very strong winds and lightning. Medium (Astro) Audience Message Message ` Audience Medium (Astro) Feedback There is a relationship between Astro channel, message and its audience. Astro disseminate the message or information to the audience through different channels. For example, Astro channels consist of different categories like entertainment channel, news channel, knowledge channel, HD channel, music channel, sports channel, premium channel, kids channel and radio channel. Through these different types of channels, audience can receive the latest information of entertainment, news, music, sports. For example, for news, audiences are able to know the latest news or information through CNN or BBC which are worldwide. Audiences are able to know the latest news from other country instead of only the news of their own country. For entertainment, audience can get to watch the latest Hong Kong drama through Astro On Demand. Besides for those audience who love to watch English movies can watch their favourite English movies through HBO. All the Astro subscribers are active audience. Active audience is the one that who actively engages with the text, they do not simply accept every media message. They will question what they see and develop their own interpretation of a media product based on their life experiences, education, family and cultural influences. Audience become gatekeepers and decides on what they want to know. For example, Astro subscribers will choose the channel they are interest and pay for it. Besides that, audience can look for further sources of information from their friends, families, through internet, books, and so on instead of only depends on the information sources from television. They can also stop consuming particular media content by simply switch the television off. This will prevent channel hopping. Audience and Astro are having two-way communication. The audiences will also giving feedback to the medium which is Astro. For example, Astro subscribers can make a complaint through Astro hotline if there is any problem faces. This feedback is useful for Astro to improve their services in the future. In addition, the act of Astro subscribers vote for their favourite candidates in Astro Talent Quest singing competition through mobile phone short message service (SMS) shows that they are having two-way communication. This can help to improve the interaction between Astro and its audience.

The Theories of Albert Bandura Essay -- Behaviorism Behavioral Psychol

The Theories of Albert Bandura Albert Bandura was influenced by behaviorism while at the University of Iowa studying for his PhD in the early 1950s, he developed his own theories called reciprocal determinism, he believed that not only does the environment influence behavior, but behavior influences the environment, or to put it in his own words ’the world and a persons behavior cause each other‘. Bandura is often considered a ‘father’ of the cognitive movement, he looked at personality as three things that interact, the environment, behaviour and the person’s psychological processes. The psychological processes consisted of language and the ability to use our minds imagery. It was really at this stage in his life that he moved from being a behaviourist and became a cognitivist. Bandura carried out hundreds of studies but the ones that stand out more to me than any others, are the Bobo doll (a inflatable doll of Bobo the clown, with a weight in the bottom so it will stand back up when you hit it) studies. (Bandura Ross and Ross 1961) Bandura made a film of one of his female students being aggressive in actions and words towards a Bobo doll. This film was then shown to kindergarten children, who were then left to play with a Bobo doll, a lot of the children proceeded to imitate the aggressive behaviour towards the Bobo doll, they had witnessed the student carrying out. To counter criticisms that the children are just doing what comes naturally, as Bobo dolls were designed to be hit, he made another film of the woman beating up a real clown, when this was shown to children and then they were left in a room with a live... ...rcial and buy that particular product. Bandura’ s Social Learning Theory also has an important role in the study of aggression and criminal behaviour. To control aggression, he believed ‘family members and the mass media should provide positive role models for their children and the general public’ (Bandura, 1976). This statement is what influenced me to read about social learning theory, and Bandura in particular. Bibliography Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggressions through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-582 Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press. Bandura, A., & Ribes-Inesta, Emilio. (1976). Analysis of Delinquency and Aggression. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, INC: New Jersey

Information Warfare Essay -- essays research papers

As we entered the third wave, we traded in our pens and notebooks, for keyboards and CPU’s. A simple wire connected from a phoneline to a modem to your CPU, brings the whole world into your hands. And you into the worlds hand as well. Political realism is defined as doing what is necessary for survival. One must depend on themselves, because no one else will look out for them. Information Warfare has become a massly used tactic by individuals as well as companies looking out for their own survival, in a world of commerce, and politics. Information Warfare is an innovative and dangerous new way to harm your opponents. When one thinks of warfare the mind is usually bombarded by thoughts of M16’s, grenades, and hand to hand combat. In this new era of technology that we are living in warfare has come to mean so much more. Information warfare is the use of any type of information used to injure your opponent’s progress and further your own. The power of Information Warfare spans a broad scope of uses, from the gathering information about companies, to personal blackmail. It’s used not only by individuals against other persons, but companies and even the nation as well. As the third wave, defined by Tofflers, becomes more widely spread across the nation and world we can only expect a far larger usage of such technological tactics, being used in the home, workplace, and even international politics. Schwartau’s definition of Information Warfare is, “the use of information, and information syst ems as both weapons and targets in a conflict,'; (Schwartau 12). We are now living in a time when knowledge is power, and what is knowledge made up of? Quite simply, information.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Information Warfare is not only becoming more rampantly used among people, but they are using different types as well. There are three different classifications of Information Warfare. The first one deals with personal information warfare. This is inclusive with all the information that is available about an individual. Class two deals with corporate information warfare, which involves how information effects companies, businesses, and all economic interests. Of all the classes the third one has the broadest margin. The third class is global information warfare. This purpose of this class is to deal with all a... ... being able to visit such cites that would have pornography, and/or other material unsuitable for youngsters. The school has installed a program so that if the kids were to access prohibited cites an automatic alarm would notify Education Queensland’s network administrators. By taking control of the cites that the children can visit, the school system is helping to keep the children from visiting undesireable cites.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are programs available to those parents who feel it is necessary to monitor their childs use of the Internet. Cybersitter can be purchased for around $39.95, and can help to regulate your web browser keeping your childs access to the world wide web restricted. There is even and option in which incoming and outgoing e-mails for inappropriate material.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While it is possible to intercept and not allow such things on the internet on the Internet such as pornography, or material containing racist or violent content, in order to really do so the entire net would have to be controlled. An important question that has to be asked is who will do the monitoring, and what will they base their criteria on.

An appreciation of ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe and ‘The Confession’ by Charles Dickens Essay

This assignment asks for an appreciation of the stories by Edgar Allen Poe ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ and Charles Dickens ‘The Confession’. I will start by exploring Edgar Allen Poe’s story and style of writing, how it captivates the reader, building suspense and terror. I will then explore Charles Dickens ‘Confession’ And finally following my analysis of the two stories I will compare and contrast the different styles. Edgar Allen Poe’s story ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ describes how the perpetrator plans and executes a vicious attack on an old man. This story is told in an autobiographical format with the author describing his state of mind, questioning his own sanity. He calmly describes how there was no object or passion that caused him to commit the heinous act of murder as he describes his love for the old man. His only explanation is his victims ‘eye’ which he describes as vulture like and intimidating. He disassociates the ‘eye ‘ from the old man and it is the eye that drives him to commit the crime. He talks of his dissimulation in planning the old man’s death and how e treated him during the week prior to killing him, how he taunted him, stalked him, and preyed upon him at midnight (witching hour), this sinister act of voyeurism is unpleasant and adds to the tension of the story. It was only until the seventh night when he realised that to rid himself of the ‘Evil Eye’ he need to have the old man’s eye open to commit the act. On the eighth night he describes how he carefully taunts the old man describing his actions as clever and skilled, hysteria sets in and finds the events exhilarating, which is further compounded by his knowledge that the old man was fearful of intruders and robbers to realise the real danger is from within. He describes the fear and panic the old man is experiencing when he hears someone in his room, he goes on to empathise and understand how the old man is rationalising for the noise he heard. The author gives a description of a Grim Reaper, stalking in the shadows and enveloping the victim. He builds suspense and describes the web that he’s weaving to rid himself of the ‘vulture eye’. He describes seeing the ‘eye’ as freezing him and bringing his focus purely on the ‘eye’ completely detaching the old man from the ‘eye’. He recalls hearing the old man’s heart beating like a drum ‘It was a low, dull, quick sound- much such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton’. His acuteness of hearing increases the loudness of the heart beat it’s then he describes nervousness mixed with excitement. It’s with this increasing loudness that he fears he will by heard by neighbours that he enters the room dragging the old man to the floor pulling the mattress on top of him, where as the heart beat becomes muffled and finally stops. He describes the man as being stone dead and not troubling him any longer. In the concluding paragraphs he talks of how he concealed the body, dismembering the body cutting off the old man’s head and limbs and depositing them under the floor boards, believing himself to be clever. However the actions at such early hours raised suspicions. This brought three policemen knocking at the door, alerted by a neighbour hearing a shriek, in the middle of the night. The murderer invited the policemen in to search the house and take a rest from their duties. He showed his boldness, by placing the chairs above where he concealed the body. It was then he describes hearing a ringing much the same as the beating of the heart. He describes it as catching his breath, in fear that the officers also heard the beating. His anxiety increased and his paranoia set in. With the policemen not making a move to go he feared that they had heard the beating, it was so loud to him he thought they were bound to hear it and that he confessed to committing the deed and exposed the body to the police. There the story ends and we can only guess at the murderer’s sentence. ‘The Confession’ This is an autobiographical story which takes places in a retrospective view of the author’s life. This is a story that tells a confession of a condemned man. He talks of his childhood where he is victim to his own low self esteem with a few friends and his relationship with his brother. He is extremely jealous of his sibling because he perceives him as better than him ‘He was open-hearted and generous, handsomer than I, more accomplished, and generally beloved’ his friends and acquaintances would say ‘†¦they were surprised to find two brothers so unlike in their manners and appearance’. Then it tells of how his brother has been struck with a terminal illness. He talks of his marriage to his brother’s sister-in-law and describes this additional tie as estranging them further. He disliked his sister-in-law for he felt she could see through him, and see his jealousy, and so he could not meet her eyes but felt hers constantly digging into him. Only relieved by a quarrel, and her subsequent death, she both frightened and haunted him. She died shortly after her birth of her son. And on his brother’s death bed the child was placed in his care and should the child die all property and possessions pass onto to his wife. With ‘†¦a few brotherly words with me, deploring our long separation; and being exhausted, fell into a slumber, from which he never awoke.’ The author talks of his own childless relationship and how his wife took the place of the child’s mother. It was the child’s infatuation with his wife that he found disturbing as within him he saw his natural mother’s intuition, her face and her spirit which caused him to mistrust the boy to the point of obsession. He increasingly become uneasy in the child’s presence, he showed him fear and hate. The boy kept his distance whenever possible. He could not recall when these feelings came upon him and initially he wished the child no ill. The thoughts crept upon him until they overtook his whole thought patterns. He describes uneasiness when in the child’s focus, he become fixated on how easy it would be to kill the child. He began stalking the child, watching him, undertaking his tasks. As in the Tell Tale Heart this unhealthy voyeurism is vividly described to great effect- ‘I never could bear that child should see me’ in the Confession and ‘†¦ a pale blue eye, with film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ in a Tell Tale Heart. He goes on to describe how he grooms the child by modelling a model boat and waiting for him to go to the river to float it where he had planned to carry out the crime. He describes how he waited for three days until the child went to the river and when he was about to commit the crime the child saw his shadow in the water. It was as if the child’s mother’s eyes were starring back at him. In a moment lost in time the author appears to have mixed recollections of the event, one the child running for escape and the other when he is confronted with the child’s dead body lying at his feet stabbed by his sword. With his wife away from home he planned to bury the child in the garden and he became obsessed by the murder he committed. He talks of his feigned distress at being told the child was missing and how he had to break the news to his wife. He carried out the actions of a grieving parent raising no suspicions whilst all day long watching the new turf being laid hoping to add speed to the process. He talks of disturbed sleep, waking from nightmares and constantly needing re-assurance ‘†¦ and thus I spent the night in fits and starts, getting up and lying down full twenty times, and dreaming the same dream over and over again,’ he became paranoid and terrorised by his actions, fearful of discovery; he started to hear whispers on the wind- ‘†¦ a breath of air sighed across it, to me it whispered murder.’ This increased his fear. Then he goes on to describe how on the fourth day visitors from his earlier regiment called upon him. He invited them into the garden and set the chairs out on top of the child’s grave. They ask after his wife and the child, unsettling him a ‘theme’ in his life and his paranoia sets in. He is obviously terrified they would discover his secret. In attempt to hide his fear he asks the men if the child has been murdered. They attempted to re-assure him there was nothing to gain from killing an innocent child. Then as they were attempting to raise his spirits, two bloodhounds bounded into the garden and began pacing and sniffing the ground, until they came upon the murderer’s chair they began to howl. The visitors said that the dogs had made a discovery. It was then the murderer became hysterical that his two visitors after a battle restrained him, during which time the dogs tore at the earth and on seeing this, the murderer dropped to his knees and confessed the truth and begged for forgiveness. Then he retracts his confession for which he’s tried and found guilty. His only Solace is the fact that his wife has lost all her faculties and does not know his and hers own misery and his guilt. I wonder, however, if our ‘hero’ was truly repentant or just searching for sympathy since he has been found out – disguising what was really inside as he had done all his life. Perhaps we’ll never know the real badness. There are many similarities between both stories. ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ is autobiographical description/confession of the murder of a victim known by the perpetrator. It describes the careful process and preparation/planning of the murder and how the murderers own paranoia and psychosis results in the confession. They both describe the careful stalking of the victims. ‘The Confession’ by Charles Dickens is also an autobiographical description/confession of the murder in which the victim is known to the murderer and also he describes the preparation and once again has confessed as a result of paranoia. Both stories use the technique of repetition to create tension and suspense, and the use of short sharp sentences are also used to construct the state of panic of which both murderer’s encounter when they are discovered. The contrasts between the two stories are that ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe talks of his love for the victim, but fear of the eye. There is no financial gain to the murder on the death of the victim. The author describes no regret or remorse for the act and prides himself on the cleverness of his actions, Edgar Allan Poe tells the story through a psychotic murderer, whereas in Charles Dickens ‘The Confession’, the author tells the story through more of a thinking and tactical murderer. The author dislikes the victim altogether with no love loss between them. There is a gain from the death of the victim. And during more rational times the murderer talks of much regret and remorse.