Winning Marketing campaign for ZARA Jacket Essay

Winning Marketing campaign for ZARA Jacket - Essay Example During the initial phase of pre-launch, ZARA will try to generate curiosity among the target market so that they are looking forward to get involved in activities arrange by the brand. In order to inform the customers about the latest offering, advertisements will be placed in leading magazines and Television channels. Moreover, E-marketing will be done so that the online customer base can be provided with the appealing offerings. Finally, the concert will be arranged after a month of the launch so that all other brands of Inditex are promoted simultaneously. Also, customer’s feedback will be sought to be assured that the unique product meets their expectations effectively. The concept of ZARA belongs to ‘Inditex’ Group, established by the company in year 1975 by Ortega Gaona in A Caruna, Spain. The group is recognised globally for offering eight store formats for the shoppers i.e. ZARA, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, ZARA Home, Uterque, Massimo Dutti, Oysho and Bershka (Inditex, 2013a). The competitive edge of the group lies in its differentiated business model which has two cornerstones i.e. flexibility and innovation (Inditex, 2013b). The success of the marketing campaign is highly dependent on tools utilised by well-known experts for conveying the right message (Keller, 2012) and persuading them to trying out the new offering instantly (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Although ZARA has been able to attract a large number of customers through prevailing marketing tactic but it is considering other options as well. As the fashion industry is getting competitive due to increasing number of companies and cost effective opportunities for apparel production (Pani & Sharma, 2012), it has become imperative for the companies to employ the best measures for strengthening their stakes (Hemphill & Suk, 2009). Considering the global fashion industry, it is observed that the leading brands are making effective use of four marketing practises i.e. Television

Narrative Essay Essay Example for Free

Narrative Essay Essay Purpose: The journey I had while selling magazines was memorable because I met a lot people and saw many fun places. Thesis Statement: Selling magazines doesn’t sound fun, but doing it all over the U. S. was the best experience that anyone could imagine as well as meeting new people and seeing so many new places. It all started one sunny afternoon in sunny Oceanside, CA on the Camp Pendleton marine base. I was staying with a friend and I looked on craigslist and checked the newspaper for jobs, when I came across an ad in the paper that read â€Å"A COOL TRAVEL JOB† so I decided to call the number just to see what it was all about. When the lady answered the phone she said, â€Å"Thanks for calling Success Express how I can help you? † and I replied hi my name is Katie and I am calling about the ad in the paper. The lady that answered the phone was Shellie and she asked me some questions and gave me an over the phone interview. When that was done she asked when I would be able to start and I said as soon as possible, then she said to call back in 30 minutes and I would know if I got the job. See more: how to start a personal narrative essay examples Selling magazines didn’t sound fun, but doing it all over the US would be a great experience that I couldn’t imagine doing and also meeting new people sounds fun as well as seeing new places. So 30 minutes later I called back and sure enough I got the job. Shellie sent me a bus ticket for the next day I got on the Greyhound bus and was on my way to Mesa, Arizona to meet up with the crew. When I finally arrived in Arizona after a long bus ride I went to the Ramada Inn where the crew was staying. It was around noon so of course the crew was out working. I met Shellie and she got me into my room where I showered and got ready to meet the crew. Later on after the crew got off work, I finally got to meet everyone, who in a way was kind of scary because I wasn’t sure how they were, but surprising enough they were really nice and welcoming. I had a trainer whose name was Tatiana and she gave me the rules and showed me around the crew and just gave me a rundown on what it was that we actually would be doing. After that it was pretty late so we called it a night and went to bed so we could be ready for the next day. So now the journey officially began. We woke up the next day got ready and then had a meeting to get pumped up to sell some magazines. Oh boy, let me tell you that meeting was something else. There was singing songs, spill contests, and just a bunch of positivity all around that you would have thought you were in a cult, but of course you weren’t. The meeting was over and we finally left in a 15 passenger van to go to a neighborhood or an apartment complex where we would get dropped off and do our thing to sell magazines. Now of course we got paid, but it was on commission only so you only made money on what you sold. Sounds hard, but not really it was like we were in a contest so it made it a little easier to talk to people because they would want to help you win so if all they had to do is buy a magazine to get you points they would. Don’t get me wrong not everyone would buy one so you really had to put your charm on. A great day would be selling 10 magazines, but anywhere from 5-7 would be a good day and you would still make good money. There were so many states that I saw and loved but just to name a couple that I really loved and were my favorite was Hawaii, Guam and Alaska. These places were amazing and those are the places that I made so much money. In Hawaii we stayed in a hotel right on the beach and would have free time to do what we wanted to like go shopping, play at the beach and even go to the bars. It wasn’t just about having fun though we also had to work, see in Hawaii there is a lot of military so we would work on the bases and sell to the soldiers. The military bases are what we called our money makers because the soldiers would buy a lot of magazines and would pay in cash so it really secured our orders. Guam was a lot like Hawaii sunny warm and water all around you. The local territory was little more different than Hawaii because they spoke Chamorro which is the language they speak there. Not everyone spoke different, but the ones that did were hard to understand. The people were all so very nice in Guam they would always offer you food and that is one thing with people in Guam if they offer you food you must take it because they consider it an insult if you say no thank you. The thing that I remember most about Guam is the stray dogs, but there they call them boonie dogs. These dogs would be all over and look so shaggy and some of them would chase you. Was sometimes scary, but most of the time they would leave you alone. Now for Alaska, I love it very cold, but I could see myself living there one day. Yes we would sell magazines in the freezing cold but of course we were bundled in warm clothes. Everyone in Alaska is so nice and welcoming. Alaska is where I had my high day of selling magazines which was 20 sales, boy I was a happy camper. I also saw my first bald eagle. One thing about Alaska is in the summer time it never gets dark so it’s such a different feeling, I think it would be hard to sleep when it’s still light outside. You would definitely have to get use to the weather, but it is still one of my favorite places. So selling magazines ended up being a very memorable experience for me because I never would have thought I would have seen so many cool places in the world. If you ever get to do an experience that would take you all over the country do it because you definitely won’t forget it. Selling magazines might not sound fun to some people, but it was my most memorable journey in my life so far and I am glad I did because then I would not have met new people and saw new places.

Business Network Transformation

Business Network Transformation It is nearly impossible to imagine any company in this global economy that operates isolated and does not interact with suppliers, partners and vendors at some stage. This global ecosystem is remoulding relationships between companies in new and often uncomfortable ways. Companies are organizing collaborative partnerships globally to support their business operations locally. That extends their business value and gain competitive advantage. These enterprises are seeing beyond conventional business boundaries to lower costs, increase profit and improve quality of service they provide by tapping into applications, personnel, and infrastructure irrespective of where they reside. So, companies are looking to gain competitive advantage by leveraging these novel opportunities arose from intercompany interactions. Though Business Network Transformation is not a new concept, this idea had been kept apart from action due to IT limitations. Companies traditionally focused on customers, internal processes and cost cutting to differentiate their business in this ecosystem. But IT has changed this perception recently. Enhanced IT capabilities for communication, collaboration and information sharing caused increasing global competition. Companies realised a new way of doing business working together while working for others. Examining their value chains and understanding this competitive weapon resulted in formation of Business Networks. This paper contains the following topics; Business Network transformation explained with example How IT helps business networks and role of IT in business network transformation Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) explained with 3 success stories Relating Service Oriented Architecture to Enterprise Resource Planning packages Conclusion Business Network Transformation According to Philip Lay and Geoffrey Moore, Business Networks are groups of companies that work together toward a specific objective for mutual financial benefit. The example below helps to understand Business Network Transformation. Business network of Cellular Phone Company: Partners: Mobile handset makers, Chipset provider, Network switching manufacturer, Contract manufacturers, Wireless carriers, Routing Vendors, Application enablers, Service providers voicemail, email, mobile search, banking, video streaming etc., Advertisers banks, pharmaceuticals, CPG companies etc., Consumers mobile phone owners, dealers enterprises etc. Strategic Objective: A multi channel marketing strategy to transit from manufacturing handsets and equipment to a software service provider. Business process and IT implications: Demand data should be visible to ensure high level of retail stock through rapid supply chain response. This implies binding marketing programs and sell-out data to improve marketing return on investment. This example shows a company with collaborating partners in a business network and their strategic objective to transformation. As the definition of business networks has become known to everyone, the pace in which these networks are created and transformed and what IT resources are needed for this transition became a challenge. Role of IT in Business Network Transformation Potential to compete in this global market depends on businesss network of people and flexible processes. New technologies like Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Software as a Service (SaaS) enable these networks to amplify opportunities and flourish. Effective and efficient communication by sharing information across its ecosystem of suppliers, employees, customers and distributors is enabled by implementing such service oriented architecture and services. Utilising these capabilities, companies can provide improved customer experience due to improved intercompany interaction. These potentials also enable seamless interaction with intra company systems focusing on improving value chain. Taking full advantage of these global opportunities from business networks and becoming globally integrated enterprise demands high level of flexibility. Businesses need to merge newly acquired business potentials and technologies with legacy applications. Existing IT infrastructure must be adaptable to changes in business models and must be ready to accommodate them. Information is already being shared internally across departments within the business but now it has to be shared externally across business partners, across countries and continents. Business processes must be agile and consistent alignment between business and IT is critical. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): Service oriented architecture (SOA) enables business organizations to achieve this agility needed to compete in global ecosystem. It divides the business into functional components that are easy to be drawn together quickly and economically. They are flexible enough to reuse in meaningful combinations to meet evolving business needs. These components are called Services. These combinations of services enable efficient collaboration and communication across company lines and unearth information buried within business processes. According to IBM, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is A business-centric IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services. Service oriented architecture is essentially collection of services. These services are loosely coupled and implemented in standard ways. In other words, caller needs no knowledge of the technology or location of service provider. For example Create invoice as a service can be invoked by any other business unit or from any business application when invoice needs to be created. SAP defined Enterprise SOA as A blue print for an adaptable, flexible and open IT architecture for developing services-based, modular business solutions. Three features of an SOA: These three features provide value in a business by implementing SOA. Software reuse: Reusing components is one of the important advantages of SOA. Reusable components enable companies to avoid redundancy. For example a business has many functional silos and each silo usually needs information from other silo such as customer information or invoice. When these silos are using disparate technologies and are operating on different platforms, they need duplicate instances of this information in each silo. SOA creates single version of such services which can be shared across all functional silos. Composite applications: Composite applications are new cross-functional applications formed by combining functionality from many existing systems. For example, SOA enables companies to provide a single point access to a range of products through a self service portal for business partners. Usually this portal might be a combination of different processes with different technologies supported by IT services. Standard interface: Caller of a service does not need to have knowledge about services location or technology platform on which it was developed. Interface to services in SOA takes standard form. This facilitates a flexibility to run services where they are needed irrespective of location and technology with greater ease. It can also increase IT efficiency, improve quality of service and reduce costs. Coming to business partners, these loosely coupled, standard interfaced services provide extra benefits. Partner need not to be aware of progress of implementation of a service, as SOA provides transparency of location and technology. Standard interface enables partners to call a service having minimum information about the service. In essence, the below are the benefits fall into three business categories: Business Effectiveness: Business agility Greater speed in responsiveness to market Competitive advantage Improved business process efficiency Accuracy in deployment of resources according to business needs Cost factor: Maintenance costs are reduced Minimum skills and efforts needed for business change Optimized price due to choice of platform, technology and location Risk factor: Incremental deployment Enhanced IT quality Optimized payback times Enterprise Resource Planning and Service Oriented Architecture: A single system capable of accommodating business data which is centralised and accessible across all functional areas in the company was the basic concept of ERP. Before ERP era, data would flow across business units but not stored in one system. The single system was the selling point of all ERP vendors like SAP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle etc. ERP implementation requires no service work to integrate smaller components but ERP implementation normally required greater customization. Without customization, ERP software packages seldom matched business processes and getting to the ready to work status. Though implementing ERP results many advantages, it has few drawbacks in terms of cost, customization and timeline for implementation. So ERP implementation and support are expensive and time consuming. It is also costly in the area of upgrading because it is tightly coupled package. The evolution of Service oriented architecture concept focused on these pitfalls of ERP. The Enterprise appl ication vendors used client server technology in 1990s and web client technology in 2000s. Now they are transiting to Service oriented architecture approach to ERP. This blend of ERP based on SOA is the best of breed approach facilitating customers to have more options to select services from any vendor. SOA can be said as father of modern IT architectures. Due to this combination, ERP components became services in Service oriented architecture. The below two are leading ERP vendors who recently released their ERP package based on SOA, SAP Enterprise SOA: SAP NetWeaver is the new product based on SOA. SAP NetWeaver is a platform on which other components such as Finances, Human Resource, Business Intelligence, Business process outsourcing etc are implemented. It boasts the advantages based on its SOA features such as web connections, Business network transformation etc. Oracle Oracle Fusion Middleware: Fusion Middleware is Oracles product based on SOA. It is a family of products seamlessly integrated to run agile business applications. Business Intelligence, User Interface, Content management, SOA Process Management etc. are components in this package. IBM Smart SOA: Smart SOA is a set of guiding principles derived from solidified best practices and documented projects. They have created entry points to each of their products such as Business Intelligence, BPM etc. These entry points are undertaking well defined, focused and individual project to meet individual business need. The role of SOA in Business Network Transformation can be easily understood from the success stories below. Ergon takes oil business to the web Ergon is United States based Petroleum Company. It is a privately owned company with 2,500 employees. It specializes in petroleum products with up and downstream operations like refineries, sales and final trucking. Business need: Ergon wanted to integrate internal processes to improve access to the information and to deliver that information to its customer. The company wanted to introduce self service portals and automated workflows to accelerate budget approval processes. Solution: Ergon has more than 50 operations within the business and each of which is a distinguished profit centre that reports back to the headquarters. They implemented SAP business workflow on existing SAP infrastructure to support purchasing and to automate approval of requisitions. Ergon also implemented IBM TotalsStorage DS6800 and changed its databases to IBM D2 facilitating upgrade their ERP to SAP ECC 6.0 in future. Benefits: Enterprise wide: SAP standardized their business processes. SAP enabled Ergons employees to gain consolidated view of individual workflow and to make better deals with their vendors. SAP ECC 6.0 based on SAP NetWeaver fetches more options for Ergon in the future. Portals enabled users to view core functionality tailored close to business needs. SAP NetWeaver created single enterprise platform. They could successfully align their business needs with their SAP ERP solution with greater flexibility and helping Ergons transition to SOA. Business flow: Ergon implemented SAP business workflow to support purchasing process as part of its ongoing enhancements to internal efficiency. SAP workflow tool accelerated approval of requisition process. This saved lot of administrative time by generating automated routing and emails. SAP business workflow reduced administrative workload and accelerated purchasing. After successful implementation of workflow tool and gained benefits from it, Ergon is now looking to extend this tool into other functional areas such as human resources. Storage Performance: Information access rates were improved and they saved 10-12 hours per weekend on database maintenance. This enabled freeing technical staff and to achieve better throughput for live users. They could increase the access up to 17 times faster than before. DS 6800 made reports and transactions through SAP applications run much more quickly. Storage performance is increased with new storage systems DS6800 and DB2 for business critical SAP systems. Stability: SAP and IBM worked together and IBMs DB2 is constantly supporting SAP applications. As performance and availability have become important aspects in extending SAP applications to more functional areas, this combination of SAP applications and IBM DB2 on IBM hardware using AIX operating system is helping Ergon to deliver excellent response times. Bezeq setup SOA: Bezeq is Israel based leading telecommunications provider. It is a privately owned company with 7,700 employees and with revenue of US $ 1 Billion. Its product and services range includes, domestic, international and cellular phone services, internet and data communication services. Business need: Bezeq wanted to maintain focus on new vision that is customer facing. In the highly competitive industry they wanted to keep their market shares regulated tightly. Field technicians needed equipment with mobile capabilities such as to prepare electronic bills, or customer receipts etc. They also planned to architect a reusable set of web services. Their objectives were to avoid constraints of location with handheld mobile devices and to provide application developers with a reusable set of services. Solution: Bezeq implemented SAP NetWeaver technology platform including exchange infrastructure, enterprise portal components and Web Dynpro development environment for mobile computing. Benefits: Enterprise wide: End to end business process integration was made possible by implementing SAP NetWeaver. This platform also enabled real time monitoring of field repair procedures. As NetWeaver is based on SOA, Bezeq was able to achieve improvements in processes surrounding service calls. Bezeq achieved speed in service completion from assignment to invoice. It has time to focus on streamlining its core telecommunications processes. Avoiding constraints of physical location: Field technicians are given PDAs to receive service calls through which they can order replenishments which also updates central inventory and customer records. They can use these PDAs from their homes and even while travelling. They can even get work related messages and use their cars as local and mobile warehouse for receiving and distributing parts to customers. Reusable services: For mobile computing, team has chosen Web Dynpro development environment. It is actually to program technician PDAs to access directly SAP NetWeaver portal component. Access to back end functionality that calls to the back end SAP system was encapsulated as reusable we services. Reduction in costs and risk in terms of both time and money is ensured by this use of encapsulated web services that is also flexible and reusable. Business model evaluation: Equipment and supplies are optimally allocated and managed using tools that technicians use. Company eliminated hour long scheduling session and consequently saved significant amount of money. They started saving 3, 250 hours a week. Bezeq has also reduced average response times to service requests from 6 days to 2 working days that should help increase customer satisfaction. Wipro Technologies helps its customers to make it quick Wipro Technologies is a division of Wipro Limited, the first global IT services organization to be certified in PCMM level 5 and SEI CMM level 5 and with annual revenue is US $4.3 Billion and 99,965 employees. They are one of the largest product engineering and support service providers globally. They have comprehensive research and development and provide IT solutions and services like systems integration, information systems outsourcing, software application development, package implementation and maintenance services. Business need: Wipro wanted to improve business process agility so as to improve customer experience for large automotive manufacturer in North America to increase competitive advantage. They also wanted to avoid difficulties involved in service level agreements in the areas of service contracts, monitoring agreements and track design times by deploying IT management tools. Wipro planned to increase security level in exposing IT services of the auto manufacturer. Solution: Wipro implemented Oracle products and services including Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle SOA suit including web services manager and BPEL process manager. They also implemented Oracle Enterprise manager an ERP solution that includes Tuning pack, Diagnostics pack, Management pack for SOA and Configuration management pack. Benefits: Enterprise wide: Oracles customer, the automotive manufacturer could roll out new services quickly and leveraged existing IT infrastructure and investments. They could successfully manage the implementation including services by various stakeholders, business units and vendors. Business to consumer portal enabled Wipros customer to access information online. They also gained the ability to analyse their IT infrastructure, capacity planning and service planning. Oracle SOA Suite: As customer deployed Oracle SOA suite, it enabled them to roll out new services in fast pace while leveraging existing IT investments. Business to consumer portal developed using this suite allowed automotive manufacturer to access information such as vehicle service alerts, campaign information, recall information and credit card reward points online. They also built a composite application enabled by SOA suite to aggregate account information gathered from disparate functional units in the business. Earlier, this application development used J2EE and took over one year and now with SOA suite it took 90 days. As part of SOA suite, Web services Manager assure Oracles customer to have the appropriate authorisation to access services. Oracle Enterprise Manager: This product from Oracle enabled its customer to proactively analyse IT infrastructure, service performance and capacity planning. As part of Enterprise Manager, Diagnostic pack enabled the automotive manufacturer to view problem areas in a single view. These success stories reveal how SOA enables businesses to gain competitive advantage by strengthening their business network and internal capabilities. Conclusion: In this commoditizing global economy it is critical to have the ability to operate effectively in business networks and to sustain competitive advantage. This ability to operate business effectively is made easy by Best of Breed IT solution (SOA and ERP) enabling businesses to excel at global scale. But the businesses have a challenge to come out of the shell to invest on these technologies to stand at the top in their niche markets. They also gain advantage of auditing their current infrastructure, business processes and integrate them to achieve single view.

The Case Against the Death Penalty Essay example -- capital punishment

In the United States, since the 1970s there have been more than 1270 executions according to the death penalty information center (Fact Sheet), What’s alarming about that number, is the number of people who were condemned to be executed based on race, income and social status alone, targeting those that could not afford good legal counsel, and were appointed attorneys that were â€Å"inexperienced and had below appropriate professional standards† (Hessick 1069), which sealed the fate of those literally fighting for their lives, on the day of sentencing. Capital punishment is unconstitutional, and violates human rights; a point of view rarely seen when debating the topic. Everyone talks about deterrence, everyone talks about justice for the victim, but no one seems to remember that even though the person responsible for a crime, whatever the nature of this crime is, is still a human being with constitutional, and human rights just like all of us. This paper will present facts that will help the reader understand the real nature of capital punishment, presenting the case against the death penalty for reasons of unconstitutionality and human rights violations. The first thing I want to cover is deterrence. Does the death penalty really deter crime? Some people say it does, that they work the same way speed signs work: First you notice the speed sign, then you drive without getting over the speed limit, it obviously works. Or does it? I came across many articles proving that speed signs are not a deterrent for speeding. Karen Sorensen writes on her news site â€Å"The Plainfield Police Department reports they issued 93 tickets for speeding and two for speeding in a construction zone despite warning signs being posted all along Rout... ... Behind the Wheel: Why Do We Speed?" Interview. Audio blog post. NPR. PBS, 07 June 2007. Web. 01 Nov. 2014. Peffley, Mark, and Jon Hurwitz. "Persuasion And Resistance: Race And The Death Penalty In America." American Journal Of Political Science 51.4 (2007): 996-1012. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. Prejean, Helen. "Would Jesus Pull the Switch?" Salt of the Earth: 1997. Claretian Publications, 1997. Web. 01 Nov. 2014. . Sorensen, Karen. "Speed Warning Signs No Deterrent for 95 Drivers." Plainfield Patch. 23 Oct. 2011. Web. 02 Nov. 2014. Spenkelink, John Arthur. "Last Words." Interview. Any Last Words? The New York Times. Web. 01 Nov. 2014. . "The Case Against the Death Penalty." American Civil Liberties Union. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation., 2011. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.

Android Os

CELLPHONE OPERATING SYSTEM 2010 CP 303 – Operating Systems 5/14/2010 Android is a complete set of software for mobile devices. It consists of: * An operating system * Middleware * Mobile applications Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. An application can call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that was designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. It is open source and can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users are able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. A developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone, also, he/she can build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect. ANDROID FEATURES Contacts/ Accounts: * Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. * Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources. * Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact's information and communication modes. A user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon. Email: * Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page. * Exchange support. Messaging: * Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages. * Auto deletes the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached. Camera: * Built-in flash support * Digital zoom * Scene mode * White balance * Color effect * Macro focus Virtual Keyboard: Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation. * Bookmarks with web page thumbnails. * Support for double-tap zooms. * Support for HTML5 * Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL. * Application cache support, for offline applications. * Geo-location API support to provide location information about the device. ANDROID SUPPORTED DEVICES Smartphones: * Acer Liquid A1 * Bluelans Communication Sciphone N19 * Bluelans Communication SciPhone N21 * Dell Mini3i * Geeks'Phone One * General Mobile DSTL1 Imaginary * HKC HKC Pearl * HKC Imobile v413 HTC Desire * HTC Dream * HTC Hero * Droid Incredible * HTC Legend * HTC Magic * HTC Tattoo * Google Nexus One * T-Mobile Pulse * Lenovo OPhone * GW620 Eve * Motorola CLIQ XT * Motorola Droid * Motorola MB300 * Motorola Devour * MOTO MT710 * MOTO XT800 * Motorola CLIQ * Sirius Sky * Qiji I6 Tablet PCs: * Archos 5 Internet Tablet * Camangi WebStation * Eken M001 (TP701) * Enso zenPad * Smart Devices SmartQ-V5 * Smart Devices SmartQ-V7 * Hardkernel ODROID-T E-Readers: * Barnes & Noble nook * enTourage eDGe * Spring Design Alex Other: * Acer Aspire One D250 REFERENCES www. developer. android. com www. android. com www. wikipedia. com

Hospitality Essay

From a food and beverage manager’s perspective – Why is managing the diversity of an international food and beverage operation so important? Discuss this by using a system, or process, or method and/ or technique In the hospitality industry, managing the diversity of international food and beverage operation which is important from a food and beverage manager’s perspective can improve the quality of the hospitality services, reduce high turnover in hospitality management and make more profit from the food and beverage operation. Hospitality workforce is consisted of diverse population and visible and non-visible differences which are included gender, age, background, culture, religion, race, disability, personality, and work style. According to this, the establishment of processing food and beverage operations is able to effectively manage people who work in hospitality workplace. And also, the hospitality education and training can provide hospitality worker an opportunity that improve themselves and understand the diverse workforce. Jones (as cited in Igram, 1999) indicated that â€Å"operations concern the way that organizations deliver their product/ service to the consumer† (p. 142). This is the key of concerning for the effective practice hospitality. Johnston (as cited in Igram, 1999) indicated that the operations could be divided into three activities; customer processing operations, information processing operations and product processing operations. As manager must understand these three activities which reflect employees how they plan and control the processing operation. Thus, effective hospitality operations must incorporate planning with technology and people management. Furthermore, Mullins (as cited in Igram, 1999) pointed that hospitality operations are heterogeneous group, but they share a number of common characteristics. For example, there are a wide range of skilled staff required, but there are also high numbers unskilled staff needed; most employees are from different countries, they have different background and use English as second language; there is a large proportion of female, part time, casual staff. Due to this situation, the labour mobility and turnover are high. Thus, managing diversity in food and beverage operation must need a perfect system or an improved method as foundation. Systematic in the  design, planning and control of a food and beverage operation must be concerned by international food and beverage manager. And also, management of the operation systems within a food and beverage operation must be considered by international food and beverage manager. What benefits will be brought into international food and beverage operation by understanding the systems? To sum up, there are three benefits. Firstly, control of resources which is implemented the systems inputs aim to reduc e wastage. Secondly, efficient and effective operation can perfect international food and beverage services by using systems processes. Finally, the systems outputs assure what goal the hospitality organization can achieve. The hospitality education and training can provide hospitality worker an opportunity that improve themselves and understand the diverse workforce. The hospitality education and training are the techniques which can complement the international food and beverage management. Lynch (as cited in Robinson, 2005) pointed that† business management foci currently in vogue with hospitality and food and beverage operations education and practice† (p. 70). In other words, in order to provide effective services to consumer, the hospitality organization will implement the food and beverage operations education and practice to guide and develop skilled and high standard staff. Ingram (1999) indicated that â€Å"effective academic abilities (including abstraction, attention to detail, â€Å"hair splitting†) are not always found in conjunction with personal organization skills (such as planning, delegation, prioritizing tasks)† (p. 146). Thus, the academic education impleme nted in hospitality organization can incorporate to the international food and beverage operations with staff. 2 From a food and beverage manager’s perspective – What are the important thing to consider when planning, designing and allocating space for storage, preparation, production and service for a food and beverage operation. From a food and beverage manager’s perspective, the design and plan of a food service facility effect on the attraction from customers and on productivity of employees, and also on making profit from hospitality business. If facilities are poorly designed, customers will be inconvenienced and food  services are inefficient. If a manager wants to perfect a food service, he/she must consider what requirements are needed when planning, designing and allocating space for storage, preparation, production and service for a food and beverage operation. The considerations will be the market and operational needs, the food production areas and equipment, sustainability and hygiene and health issue. As described above, first of all, as the operational needs, food service facility design will be the first consideration in planning space for food and beverage operation. The better food service facilities design will appeal to customers and employees when manager plans space for production and service. Rodgers (2005) indicated that â€Å"food service facility design is based on the principles of space efficiency, flexibility, product flow, food safety (sanitation) and ergonomics† (p. 308). In other words, an effective food service facility design can provide safe workplace for staff and set up an environment for efficient operation flow of people and product. The facility can make employees work efficiently so that the organization can reduce the labour costs. Furthermore, the costs on facility maintenance are low. Finally, the maximum profit is gained from investment. Secondly, manager must consider the food production areas and equipment. An efficient workflow established can create a tight, smooth and productive food service operation. Afterwards, an adequate work space and suitable work sections are required to provide to employees. For example, kitchen space sometimes will be minimized in order to make more room for customers. That lead to the kitchen space is limited. The quantities of food can be supplied, however, the narrow kitchen design cannot provide employees enough room so that the food service will be delayed which dissatisfied the customers. Another thing that manager must consider is the kitchen layouts. Ninemeier (2010) indicated that â€Å"work flow-the traffic patterns employees form as they go about their work-is another factor that muse be considered† (p. 5). Different kitchen activities must be done in individual work stations. For example, as the figure below, it is a bakery kitchen. Different number stands different stations. Employees can follow the work flow step by step to prepare food. As we can see from the figure, the food  preparation space must be divided into specific areas. The station 2-5 are the places which are for food preparation and storage. The station 1 and station 6 are used for washing and waste disposal. Due to this kitchen layout design, the food contamination will decrease and the food storage time can extend. As a food and beverage manager must consider of the food contamination. Figure 1 kitchen layout (Source: Ninemeier, D. J. 2010) References list Ingram, H. (1999). Hospitality: a framework for a millennial review. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 11(4), 140-147. Ninemeier, D. J. (2010) Management of Food and Beverage Operations (2nd ed.). American: American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation. Robinson, R. S. (2007). Plain Fare to Fusion: Ethnic Impacts on the Process of Maturity in Brisbane’s Restaurant Sector. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, 14(1), 70-84. Rogers, S. (2005). Applied research and educational needs in food service management. International Journal of contemporary Hospitality Management, 17(4), 302-314.