Current Events in Business Research Essay Example for Free

Current Events in Business Research Essay I had a hard time trying to figure out a function that I do at work or one that I would I’d like to in the future so I picked from Chapter 3 of our reading, The â€Å"Bringing Research to Life† of the Business Research Methods section which illustrates a scenario. Myra Wines is a woman that was hired by the U.S. Army to investigate and research with her team whether or not the testing area where the army uses its munitions testing was a direct connection or cause to the civilian death rate increasing since the range opened. There are a few issues here that Myra and her team will need to research and investigate. There are local activists voicing their concern, calling to shut down the range due to being environmentally hazardous. Another issue was these â€Å"duds† or bombs that didn’t explode when it hit the ground going off randomly, as the Army believed that its dead shells would only explode if another bomb was dropped on it to cause it to ignite. According to the Army, civilian deaths could not be attributed to their munitions testing area due to their testing of dropping the â€Å"duds† to torching them to try and ignite them. Wines and team hypothesized that the dead shells could potentially explode and leave no trace of the event taking place. Wines and team, met with Army representatives to go over the reports regarding dead shells or â€Å"duds†. By reviewing these materials they would be able define the management question which in turn would help by coming to a conclusion for the research question. The research team had to look at all the personnel that came in contact of shells, results that the explosions were leaving, and the frequency of dead shells Army states one out of twenty) to be able to come up with better research questions. The team’s observation showed them that civilians were actually opening up the bombs to salvage anything that had value. Unfortunately the bombs exploded and â€Å"vaporizing† the scavengers. Wines’ research team reviewed the data they collected, concluding that the civilians were thrill seekers and the scavenging fit into their thrills. Wines and team discussed their  conclusions to the Army, in which the Army to develop and implement policies to lessen av oidable civilian deaths. The team’s conclusions after reviewing the data, determined that the Army’s best management decision was to set off every â€Å"dud† shell at the end of each testing day and put kerosene on them so bombers can see at night and drop bombs to destroy the â€Å"duds†. Because of Wines’ and the team’s research, the Army implemented new procedures and the civilian death rate dropped. Research is a very important aspect to any company that is seeking to gain success or get the up hand on competitors. Searching for methods that will add value to companies is also considered the business research process. When researching, one must consider what is in the best interest of the company, its employees, the sponsor, and the community. Business research is important when determining what types of services companies are considering and required to analyze business situations. It is important to research the full potential of the service and what will the company gain from it. Business research is used to perform analysis of the industry, its products and to identify customer groups. It also is an important tool for management to make better business decisions. If the risk is too high, and there is not much that progress that the company will gain from providing the services, then it might be best to hold off a while longer. One of the keys to research is to take surveys, talk to all parties involved, and provide reasons for and/or against the objective of the research before it can even be considered. At my employer, we do employee surveys once a year. This is a way for the company to do research on the employee’s likes, dislikes, and complaints. By doing surveys, companies can get employees to open up and get answers to critical questions confidentially. References Cooper, D. R., Schindler, P. S. (2014). Business research methods (12th ed.). Boston, MA/USA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Napster Essays -- essays research papers

Napster: The Debate Over Copyright Infringement In early 1999, Shawn Fanning, a Northeastern University freshman, created Napster software. That summer he made it available for free through his Napster.com website. Napster is a peer-to-peer technology, which makes it possible for users to freely share their music files through the internet with other users all over the world. Specifically, this is how Napster works: 1.)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A user sends a request for a song. 2.)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Napster checks its database of music to see if the song is on the PC hard-drive of another Napster user whose computer is turned on (Note: No music is stored on Napster servers). 3.)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Napster finds the song. 4.)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Napster sends the song in MP3 format to the user who requested On December 6, 1999 the record industry sued Napster in Federal District Court for copyright infringements, and petitioned that court to shut down Napster. On July 26, 2000 the judge issued a temporary injunction to shut down Napster, and the next day Napster appealed the ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The following day the Appeals Court granted Napster temporary reprieve against injunction so they could further review the injunction request. On October 2, 2000 the opposing parties presented their supporting arguments before the Court. The case was finally resolved on February 12, 2001 when a ruling by the District Court of Appeals upheld the original ruling that Napster was aware its users were swapping copyrighted materials. Subsequently, Napster was ordered to stop allowing its millions of users to swap copyrighted material without a fee. There are several ethical issues involved in this case. First is the theft of the copyrighted music produced by artists who have not given Napster the right to transmit their music. Secondly, is the right of Napster to provide a legitimate service to consumers, and how that right has been attacked by artists in the recording industry. There are, indeed, two sides to this story. The stakeholders involved in this case are the artists, the recording industry as a whole, retailers, and consumers. All of these stakeholders are affected equally in this matter. The artists, recording industry, and music retailers face substantial loss of income if c... ...g they need to do, considering the investment in the company. Perhaps the optimal solution for Napster’s dilemma is the possibility of a cable TV type payment. Users pay a certain monthly fee for all the downloaded music they wanted. They could chat with their favorite artists, get first claim on concert tickets, and browse possible downloads by genre. The new system would pay the artists their royalties and sell millions of older titles that at present are sitting in vaults because no stores will give them shelf space. This option has the advantages of cooperation between the music industry and Napster. Napster users will have the same type of service as they do now, with extras so they won’t have to turn to no-fee options (Gnutella and Freenet). Music companies will be able to use the Internet for sales of all their merchandise. If music companies can package a better experience people will pay for it. In a recent survey of college students more than two thirds of the respondents would be willing to pay for a $20 dollar monthly fee of a similar service. The only foreseeable disadvantage of this solution is the plausibility of the record companies cooperating in such an effort.

Strategic Management and Lego

1st CASE STUDYWinter term 2012/2013Student: Aitor Martin SantanaProfessor: Ravinder Kaur-LahrmannSubject: Management Tools| THE LEGO GROUP 1. In this case I have identified some key characteristics that are in relation with the strategy that LEGO has been following. In the 1970-1980 decades, environment was hostile. There was a huge oil crisis, and there were too much difficulties. However, LEGO maintained its philosophy, and their image of unique and iconic brand. Competence was also hard, with Mattel and Hasbro in the market, but LEGO sustained its powerful position.If we focus, for example, in the strategy that they carried out between 1995 and 1998, an interesting fact is that their objectives (become the best known global brand, increase the sales, etc. ) are set in a long term direction. Another important point is that they wanted to expand the scope of their activities. They entered in new areas such as films, games†¦ and they also built new LEGOLAND parks. However, the t urnaround attempts that happened between 1999 and 2003 forced this company to check their strategy. Different factors such as the changing environment, lead times†¦ affected negatively LEGO`s strategy.This shows that the uncertainty of strategic decisions is also decisive. If we look at the exploring strategy model, we can see that the strategic decisions have affected the three main elements (position, choices and action). Regarding to the strategic choices for example, we can mention the corporate-level and the business level strategies. I think that LEGO took some correct decisions, such as changing their relationship with retailers, renewing their supply chain†¦ 2. There are many external features that have more or less influenced LEGO`s strategy development.One of this factors has been the competitor`s influence. Due to the high competitiveness in the toy market, LEGO has to make a big effort in strategy in order to be one of the leaders of this industry. Other import ant issue is the supply and the distribution. The main reason of changing their strategy is that sales were seasonal and they had to adapt their supply system to this. Concerning the distributors we can state that retailers were putting too much pressure on the company, so the solution consisted on bringing their positions in order to achieve better results.Maybe one of the reasons of starting a digital strategy was the obsolescence of their products. There are other influences worth mentioning, such as the economic (crisis and bad cost management) and social (criticism of the public). 3. Improvements of the capital structure were important resources that have enabled LEGO to achieve their successful results. If we focus on intangible resources, we can say that the reputation of this firm is key element, especially because they created an image of a family-run company, which give consumers, shareholders, suppliers†¦ a feeling of trust.Kjeld played an important role. On the othe r hand one of the most important competences of LEGO is their brand. This is one of the oldest and better known toy companies in the world, so we can say that their brand is iconic. In my opinion, this is the main core competence of LEGO. 4. I think that the various internal and external factors responsible for problems were the key element in the development of those alternative strategies. They forced Kejld to take those decisions.The previous years were adverse, and there were internal problems such as financial and logistic difficulties, longer lead times, etc. Also external factors such as competitor`s rising power and problems with suppliers were determinant in taking the strategic decisions. In my view, two were the most important strategies: focusing on cost and the supply chain and innovating. Managing the costs efficiently is very important, especially for companies that produce seasonal products. This gives security. Innovation provides a company an extra value.Inviting t he consumers to participate in product development was an excellent idea, because in the toy market is necessary to have lots of ideas. LEGO needed new, better and more ideas. 5. In order to approach future strategy development, they could focus on one of the four strategic lenses (strategy as a design, strategy as experience, strategy as ideas and strategy as discourse). If they chose the design lens, their managers would have to take rational decisions with a high grade of legitimacy such as those related to costs, their product`s marketing, etc.They also should take a look on economic performance, which is very important in LEGO Group. Also, they could focus in the experience lens. Focusing on this lens would be a possible decision, because LEGO has a lot of individual and collective experience. Although LEGO could focus on this lens, I personally think this would not be the best option because LEGO needs innovation and new ideas for the future, and this lens states that the futu re has to be made based in the past. The next would be the ideas lens. This would be, with the design, the ens which better would fit with LEGO Group`s strategy, and the one that they should develop most. I say this because in the market where this company competes new ideas are very important, in order to maintain competitiveness. Finally there would be the discourse lens, which I think could also be a good strategy for LEGO, but not the best, because we have to remember that LEGO doesn`t want its managers to have too much power and legitimacy. Their work should be more focused on teamwork and cooperation between higher and lower power levels in the company.

Analysis of The Cool Web, by Robert Graves - 1627 Words

The Cool Web Children are dumb to say how hot the day is, How hot the scent is of the summer rose, How dreadful the black wastes of the evening sky, How dreadful the tall soldiers drumming by. But we have speech, to chill the angry day, And speech, to dull the rose s cruel scent. We spell away the overhanging night, We spell away the soldiers and the fright. There s a cool web of language winds us in, Retreat from too much joy or too much fear We grow sea-green at last and coldly die In brininess and volubility. But if we let our tongues lose self-possession, Throwing off language and its watery clasp Before our death, instead of when death comes, Facing the wide glare of the children s day, Facing the rose, the dark†¦show more content†¦The reader is jolted as these adjectives are associated with unfamiliar subjects. This is a form of foregrounding to draw attention to the language of the poem. The use of cruel to describe the scent of a rose is especially jarring. Almost without exception the rose is a symbol of romance and love, not one of cruelty. Graves seems to be implying that anything that intrudes - even something pleasant - is objectionable and to be dulled. By describing the night as overhanging Graves refers to the sense of intimidation, of something unexpected looming over us. The poet then tells us that this should - and can be - be spelled away as undesirable. The verb spell in the phrase we spell away (lines 7 and 8) Graves exploits a double meaning of spell to intertwine the ideas of language and trickery. In the linguistic context spell means to form a word by arranging its constituent letters in the correct order. Spell also means to influence someone or something by means of magical powers. In this way, the poet concentrates a number of images into a single word. An adult s desire to misrepresent reality is a form of magical spell, but it requires the ability to spell words. (Graves also uses this technique in line 1 by describing children as dumb. This could mean that they are stupid and therefore unable to manipulate and distort the world. ItShow MoreRelatedDesigner Case Study Design and Technology Essay6997 Words   |  28 Pagesservices for the performers: rehearsal room, dressing rooms, library, etc In 1979, Alessandro Mendini invited eleven architects from all over the world to design a tea and coffee set: Michael Graves, Hans Hollein, Charles Jencks, Richard Meier, Paolo Portoghesi, Aldo Rossi, Stanley Tigerman, Oscar Tusquets, Robert Venturi, Kazumasa Yamashita and Mendini himself. The overall set is an exercise in micro-architecture, reflecting the various architectural styles of the day. The outcome was presented as TeaRead MoreFrankenstein Study Guide14107 Words   |  57 Pagescultures, and it was not uncommon for people to hold negative views toward cultures they didn’t understand. 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