Knit Media :: Free Essay Writer

Knit Media Remember the days when a person would have to wait in line for two days just to purchase U2 tickets? Remember the days of tapes and videos? Hey, let’s get with the program, it’s now the 21st century, the information, technology age. All one has to do is flick on the computer, get on-line, type in www.knitmedia.com and one has opened the doors to the â€Å"Entertainment Company of the 21st century.† In the convenience of a person’s home, one is able to download music, purchase a compact disc, and even download a performance. Michael Dorf, founder and CEO of the Knitting Factory had this dream, and what almost seemed impossible has finally come too pass. This dream needed a group of managers to put it into action. According to Management Leading People and Organizations in the 21st Century by Gary Dessler, â€Å"21st century managing, is a management approach to the rapidly changing business world that emphasizes responsiveness and effective leadersh ip†, (pp. 24-25). The Entertainment Industry is Infamous for the dynamic nature in the way business is conducted. The way a company reacts to trends in the Music Industry affect whether a company sinks or swims. Through expansion both here in the United States and abroad, Michael Dorf faces both challenges met and to be addressed. From examination of his management style, we can observe that this company, KnitMedia is swimming. Chapter One (pg. 30) Few industries are undergoing as much rapid change as music, entertainment, and Internet/new media-industries that KnitMedia is in. Compile a list of the trends (such as consolidation of the music companies) taking place today for which Michael and his colleagues will have to plan. Using WEB resources, make a list of the competitor in New York City for the Knitting Factory. Examples of some of these trends include the use of the Internet, the packaging of music, and clubs, which allow a person to experience the music in person. According to an article on the KnitMedia website, â€Å"Dave Brenner, Vice President, New Media oversees the development and implementation of all Knit media online properties and is involved in all levels of technology including network infrastructure, e-commerce, application development and interface design.† Thanks to Brenner one can easily access the knit media website and download music. In the past when a person hears a tune on the radio, he or she must hop into their car and drive to a music store.

Walt Disney World

Case Study: Walt Disney World Question 1: Suppose competing attractions, such as Sea World and Universal Studios, lower their prices of adminission. How should WDW respond? The issue of competitive price is close to the supply and demand one. As long as people willing to pay whatever the price parks set, especially WDW, why would they change? WDW provides such a high-quality offer than it is impossible to lower his prices; it could try to keep them steady. Even if the company decides to lower prices, it should do it in a significant way in order to attract more customers.For instance a $5 reduction in the price of admission would provoke any major changes. They would probably have to drop price below their competitors to make true gain. Besides, from a branding stand point, lowering prices sends a mixed message to consumers (adults with purchasing power) : indeed in customers mind, it would signal something goes wrong. Actually the price is an essential part of firms positioning and it would be difficult for WDW to position itself as the premiere theme park with lower prices than competitors; it is also un-strategic to re-position.WDW strategy has not to do with the credo â€Å"cheapest always win†. The corporation has to play on differentiation and keep playing its leadership positioning; it means making your product unique in some ways to maintain your competitiveness. The following paragraph deal with all WDW differentiation factors. WDW uniqueness criteria -Marketing: WDW propose a complete offer for adults and/or children (families). The variety of this offer (several theme parks such as EPCOT or Animal Kingdom, other activities such as golf or wildlife, several hostels and prices segments†¦) makes customers able to customize their vacations.WDW provides multi-experience. -Communication: the firm must keep using a multi-channel and multi-media strategy to spread its marketing messages including as many new technologies as possible. -Innovation & Ideas generation: WDW must preserve theâ€Å"environnement for supportive conficts† it created through its meetings: Gong Show, Charettes with architects and theme park designers, Movie Development meetings. – Common sense & Discipline: This is the practical part of WDW uniqueness because necessary to test ideas, especially from a fiscal and financial point of view. Indeed ood ideas need time that is the reason why WDW creative process goes against quick actions and audience research. -Creativity: As M. Eisner said â€Å"Together conflict & common sense yield creativity†. We can add that WDW culture of diversity and fun take parts in the creative process: diverse point of views and individualism lead to frictions, conflicts, debates that are essential to get great solutions. -Facilities and Employees: in facts, WDW employees competent, well-trained and friendly. That is a crucially important factor because most of them are directly in contact with customers.No need to justify how essential the sense of contact is in business. Furthermore, all the attractions in theme parks are totally safe; all the facilities (hostels, restaurants included) are clean, linked each other (monorail, boats†¦) and electrically connected.. We notice also that WDW is technologically competent: it is a leader in product development, equipments design and maintenance, industrial engineering†¦for instance WDW design and manage perfectly attractions waiting lines: customers are sensitive about the time they have to use rides. All these aspects are visible for customers Branding Image: all the previous criteria are parts of the branding image; WDW brand is the amount of thousands and thousands small actions (â€Å"pointillist painting†). In particular Mickey and Disney characters, the castle are the symbol that contains all the stories the company created, the dreams and thoughts it suggest to children. Thus, if competitors lower their p rices, WDW should not change its prices and by the same time keep guarding its brand trough all the strategic decisions especially for marketing: WDW messages should be focused on the quality of the product.Question 2: How can WDW utilize customer information better to increase its volume of business? First and foremost, we should have in mind the term â€Å"forecasts† when we deal with customer information topics. Indeed WDW, due to his forecasts department, accumulates data on consumer’s attendance but also consumer’s behavior. All the other departments of the firm (like Labor Management, Maintenance, Finance, Park Theme Design) have access to this precious information which will be used for a set of management decisions to increase volumes and profits.That information can be predicted daily, weekly, monthly or for several years (till five years). In order to understand how customer information is utilized, a look at the forecasting process is necessary; 1- Wh at are the data sources? There are 3 main sources: -The guests in theme parks, hostels, restaurants†¦this is the more direct source. -The employees. For this category we could say that it has nothing to do with consumer information.Actually it has for at least two reasons: first employees can be directly in contact with guests and their recommendations are precious; secondly we could see each employee as a consumer into the firm and improve their working environnement leads to improve final customer satisfaction. – The travel industry professionals because they have their own data bases. 2- How WDW get them? Through surveys (questionnaires, interviews, focus group techniques†¦). All kind of topics could be dealt with but the two most important are customers experiences future Travel Plan. 3- How WDW process these data?Thanks to such models as judgmental, economic, moving-average models, regression analysis, monthly forecasting mode. Each model take into account a ce rtain number of variables like gross domestic product, cross-exchange rates, airline specials†¦ 4- Forecasts This is a major step in the decision- making process. All these consumer information and their analysis by models enable WDW to forecast consumer behavior (attendance in particular). Thus WDW can manage demand taking proper decisions about the capacity planning, the number of required employees, the due quantity of food and beverage†¦Question 3: What weaknesses or limitations do you see in WDW strategy? Ops Strat s WDW strategy is coherente but we can observe some accurate failures especially in operations strategy. Let’s remind the operations process framework and colour in blue the specific â€Å"failing fields†: Product Design Process Design Location/ Layout Cap. planning/Forecasts Work Organization Operations execution Of course other fields like merchandising or Facilities development are concerned. In the following paragraphs we focused on all of those black points. Prices of admissionFirstly, we can put forward the fact that WDW does not compete on prices (especially price of admission). From a positioning point of view it is logical: WDW is a leader in entertainment industry and bet on quality, innovation and uniqueness. But in time of global economical crisis, customers may desire a lower cost product; and there are serious competitors able to propose such offer: Sea World, Universal Studios†¦Of course children are attracted by WDW and can convinced relatives but the final decision remains to adults who get the purchasing power. Hotel development strategyThen we should notice the expanding strategy for WDW hostels: it does not deal with short term demands. Long term demand is not so much reliable when economy is disrupted. Thus Disney occupancy rates above 90% much of the year which is not sufficient anymore. Synergies & organization -Another point is the fact that WDW meet some difficulties to create synergies because of its top management. It is a problem of hierarchy, organization, authority delegation and culture. Actually the main problem could be that it is hard to delegate autonomy, to create empowerment among the group. We should notice that the hierarchy reorganization tends to create duplications (cf: example of a person running movies in Italy reporting to two executives): several hierarchical levels are added. Actually WDW is a hybrid structure; it is in time of mutation or transition.Profits & Losses – WDW experienced losses in home-video earnings because of strategic decisions that lengthen the release cycle for certain animated movie classics. It could be a problem of product development (cf: The product Development Funnel and especially Products Design step) or process engineering. The consumer products department also knew difficulties. Actually it is a matter of merchandising, especially concerning licensed-characters. This problem deals directly with consumer behavior (in-store purchases, on-line purchases†¦). -Concerning the Interactive media division, Disney experienced huge losses (source: Disney Fiscal Year Results). Actually the group invested in self-published video games (video games that are published by their author) and it needs more times to be profitable. -It goes the same for Internet (Go. com, Disney. com, ESPN. com†¦).It is s a crucial business field but investments cost a lot. To conclude we could qualify WDW weaknesses and limitations as mainly cyclical strategic problems . They are not structural even though it could deal with the organization (organization chart) and we can afford to say that those difficulties are temporary. The only structural change that has affected deeply the company concerned consumers attitude. â€Å"Disney still knows how to sweep people off their feet†, better than anyone else but the corporation needs to take into account new habits and expectations. Walt Disney World Case Study: Walt Disney World Question 1: Suppose competing attractions, such as Sea World and Universal Studios, lower their prices of adminission. How should WDW respond? The issue of competitive price is close to the supply and demand one. As long as people willing to pay whatever the price parks set, especially WDW, why would they change? WDW provides such a high-quality offer than it is impossible to lower his prices; it could try to keep them steady. Even if the company decides to lower prices, it should do it in a significant way in order to attract more customers.For instance a $5 reduction in the price of admission would provoke any major changes. They would probably have to drop price below their competitors to make true gain. Besides, from a branding stand point, lowering prices sends a mixed message to consumers (adults with purchasing power) : indeed in customers mind, it would signal something goes wrong. Actually the price is an essential part of firms positioning and it would be difficult for WDW to position itself as the premiere theme park with lower prices than competitors; it is also un-strategic to re-position.WDW strategy has not to do with the credo â€Å"cheapest always win†. The corporation has to play on differentiation and keep playing its leadership positioning; it means making your product unique in some ways to maintain your competitiveness. The following paragraph deal with all WDW differentiation factors. WDW uniqueness criteria -Marketing: WDW propose a complete offer for adults and/or children (families). The variety of this offer (several theme parks such as EPCOT or Animal Kingdom, other activities such as golf or wildlife, several hostels and prices segments†¦) makes customers able to customize their vacations.WDW provides multi-experience. -Communication: the firm must keep using a multi-channel and multi-media strategy to spread its marketing messages including as many new technologies as possible. -Innovation & Ideas generation: WDW must preserve theâ€Å"environnement for supportive conficts† it created through its meetings: Gong Show, Charettes with architects and theme park designers, Movie Development meetings. – Common sense & Discipline: This is the practical part of WDW uniqueness because necessary to test ideas, especially from a fiscal and financial point of view. Indeed ood ideas need time that is the reason why WDW creative process goes against quick actions and audience research. -Creativity: As M. Eisner said â€Å"Together conflict & common sense yield creativity†. We can add that WDW culture of diversity and fun take parts in the creative process: diverse point of views and individualism lead to frictions, conflicts, debates that are essential to get great solutions. -Facilities and Employees: in facts, WDW employees competent, well-trained and friendly. That is a crucially important factor because most of them are directly in contact with customers.No need to justify how essential the sense of contact is in business. Furthermore, all the attractions in theme parks are totally safe; all the facilities (hostels, restaurants included) are clean, linked each other (monorail, boats†¦) and electrically connected.. We notice also that WDW is technologically competent: it is a leader in product development, equipments design and maintenance, industrial engineering†¦for instance WDW design and manage perfectly attractions waiting lines: customers are sensitive about the time they have to use rides. All these aspects are visible for customers Branding Image: all the previous criteria are parts of the branding image; WDW brand is the amount of thousands and thousands small actions (â€Å"pointillist painting†). In particular Mickey and Disney characters, the castle are the symbol that contains all the stories the company created, the dreams and thoughts it suggest to children. Thus, if competitors lower their p rices, WDW should not change its prices and by the same time keep guarding its brand trough all the strategic decisions especially for marketing: WDW messages should be focused on the quality of the product.Question 2: How can WDW utilize customer information better to increase its volume of business? First and foremost, we should have in mind the term â€Å"forecasts† when we deal with customer information topics. Indeed WDW, due to his forecasts department, accumulates data on consumer’s attendance but also consumer’s behavior. All the other departments of the firm (like Labor Management, Maintenance, Finance, Park Theme Design) have access to this precious information which will be used for a set of management decisions to increase volumes and profits.That information can be predicted daily, weekly, monthly or for several years (till five years). In order to understand how customer information is utilized, a look at the forecasting process is necessary; 1- Wh at are the data sources? There are 3 main sources: -The guests in theme parks, hostels, restaurants†¦this is the more direct source. -The employees. For this category we could say that it has nothing to do with consumer information.Actually it has for at least two reasons: first employees can be directly in contact with guests and their recommendations are precious; secondly we could see each employee as a consumer into the firm and improve their working environnement leads to improve final customer satisfaction. – The travel industry professionals because they have their own data bases. 2- How WDW get them? Through surveys (questionnaires, interviews, focus group techniques†¦). All kind of topics could be dealt with but the two most important are customers experiences future Travel Plan. 3- How WDW process these data?Thanks to such models as judgmental, economic, moving-average models, regression analysis, monthly forecasting mode. Each model take into account a ce rtain number of variables like gross domestic product, cross-exchange rates, airline specials†¦ 4- Forecasts This is a major step in the decision- making process. All these consumer information and their analysis by models enable WDW to forecast consumer behavior (attendance in particular). Thus WDW can manage demand taking proper decisions about the capacity planning, the number of required employees, the due quantity of food and beverage†¦Question 3: What weaknesses or limitations do you see in WDW strategy? Ops Strat s WDW strategy is coherente but we can observe some accurate failures especially in operations strategy. Let’s remind the operations process framework and colour in blue the specific â€Å"failing fields†: Product Design Process Design Location/ Layout Cap. planning/Forecasts Work Organization Operations execution Of course other fields like merchandising or Facilities development are concerned. In the following paragraphs we focused on all of those black points. Prices of admissionFirstly, we can put forward the fact that WDW does not compete on prices (especially price of admission). From a positioning point of view it is logical: WDW is a leader in entertainment industry and bet on quality, innovation and uniqueness. But in time of global economical crisis, customers may desire a lower cost product; and there are serious competitors able to propose such offer: Sea World, Universal Studios†¦Of course children are attracted by WDW and can convinced relatives but the final decision remains to adults who get the purchasing power. Hotel development strategyThen we should notice the expanding strategy for WDW hostels: it does not deal with short term demands. Long term demand is not so much reliable when economy is disrupted. Thus Disney occupancy rates above 90% much of the year which is not sufficient anymore. Synergies & organization -Another point is the fact that WDW meet some difficulties to create synergies because of its top management. It is a problem of hierarchy, organization, authority delegation and culture. Actually the main problem could be that it is hard to delegate autonomy, to create empowerment among the group. We should notice that the hierarchy reorganization tends to create duplications (cf: example of a person running movies in Italy reporting to two executives): several hierarchical levels are added. Actually WDW is a hybrid structure; it is in time of mutation or transition.Profits & Losses – WDW experienced losses in home-video earnings because of strategic decisions that lengthen the release cycle for certain animated movie classics. It could be a problem of product development (cf: The product Development Funnel and especially Products Design step) or process engineering. The consumer products department also knew difficulties. Actually it is a matter of merchandising, especially concerning licensed-characters. This problem deals directly with consumer behavior (in-store purchases, on-line purchases†¦). -Concerning the Interactive media division, Disney experienced huge losses (source: Disney Fiscal Year Results). Actually the group invested in self-published video games (video games that are published by their author) and it needs more times to be profitable. -It goes the same for Internet (Go. com, Disney. com, ESPN. com†¦).It is s a crucial business field but investments cost a lot. To conclude we could qualify WDW weaknesses and limitations as mainly cyclical strategic problems . They are not structural even though it could deal with the organization (organization chart) and we can afford to say that those difficulties are temporary. The only structural change that has affected deeply the company concerned consumers attitude. â€Å"Disney still knows how to sweep people off their feet†, better than anyone else but the corporation needs to take into account new habits and expectations.

Relationships In Pride And Prejudice Book - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 629 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/05/31 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Pride and Prejudice Essay Did you like this example? Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen, two hundred years ago is still among one of the most famous pieces of literature of all time. The story takes place during the Regency era in England and follows the life of Elizabeth Bennet and those around her during a time where a woman her age needs to find a husband. The characters within the novel are well-rounded characters with flaws. The most developed characters within the novel are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy who we see major character development throughout the entire novel. While we get to see into the mindsets of many characters, we get to be in Elizabeths head the most, and we get to see how shes thinking, feeling, and whats going on around her. Shes the second eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Elizabeth is a strong-minded, strong-willed, free-spirited, loyal, and a very intelligent young woman. However, like most characters in the story, she holds a flaw that causes conflict within the story. She holds great pride in the fact that she thinks that she is a good judge of character, the majority of the time. However, this gets her into trouble. As she isnt correct about two characters within the story. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Relationships In Pride And Prejudice Book" essay for you Create order After hearing a rude remark by Mr. Darcy and watching his behavior at the ball, Elizabeth, as well as several other people there take an instant disliking to him. His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world,(Ch3, pg. 7.) But because of her first meeting, she allows the meeting to cloud her judgment and becomes quite prejudiced towards him despite not getting to know him better. Which Mr. Darcy points out after getting into a debate about their flaws. And yours, He replied with a smile, is to willfully misunderstand them.(Ch11, pg36) Later on, she meets Wickham and she falls for his handsome appearance and charm. When he tells her of how Mr. Darcy cheated him out of money, she is quick to believe him. Despite being told of Wickham true colors by Miss Bingley and hearing her older sisters opinion of Wickham, she chose to keep her opinions on both men the same. Its not until after she rejects Mr. Darcys marriage proposal and reads the letter that he sends explaining Mr. Wickhamrs transgressions towards him and his sister, that she notices her flaw. That she allows prejudice to cloud her judgment of others. While she tries to deny it at first, she quickly comes to realize that while shed thought she was good at judging a personrs character, that shed been wrong all along. I who have prided myself on my discernment! I who have valued myself on my abilities! Who have often disdained the generous candor of my sister and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust!(ch36 pg.121) After this revelation, she begins to change her views for the better and does her best to not allow her own opinions cloud her judgment of character. Mr. Darcy is a wealthy landowner, who is a good friend of Mr. Bingley. Hes seen as a tall, handsome, and intelligent man. But, he comes across as arrogant, rude, and seems to act as if he is better than those who have a lesser means of income. As seen during the Netherfield ball, he only spoke to people in the same class as him, refusing to speak or dance with anyone else, insulting Elizabeth by claiming She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, (Ch 3 pg. 8) refusing to dance with her, seeing as she was from a lower class than he was. However, as he gets to know her better, he finds himself growing feelings for her even though he feels he shouldnt.