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Entrepreneurship and Small business. MKT2290 Essay

Enterprise and Small business. MKT2290 - Essay Example The corporate methodology assumes a noteworthy job at building an extension betwee...

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Radio Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Radio Advertising - Essay Example Modern mass media industry offers a great range of both local and national radio stations broadcasting music of different genres aimed at different ages, backgrounds and tastes. To add more, the majority of radio stations have duplications of their broadcasts on the Internet, so everyone can access the broadcasts regardless of geographical location. The range of the radio stations found for this essay is rather heterogeneous in genre. The Whale 99.1 FM is the radio station focusing on classic rock, as it is stated on the website and clearly understood from the repertoire. WBGO 88.3 FM, the Ney York radio station stating its format as Jazz offers a variety of jazz compositions and related programs. 1033 The EDGE Rock Radio focuses – obviously – on rock format including both old and new songs. Country 106.5 WYRK Radio has mainly country format; 95.5 PLJ New York radio station offers a mixture of genres and musicians in its broadcasts; Pulse 87 NY located at 96.7 FM describes itself as a dance radio station and broadcasts a wide range of pop and dance music including numerous remixes. WQHT Hot 97 radio station features mainly hip-hop and R’n’B compositions. WLTW 106.7 Lite FM and the majority of stations found on the Internet tend to state their format as mix or dance, which means that they feature a diverse variety of pop and dance mainstream songs without focusing on a single genre. Moreover, some of the mixed-format radio stations offer a description such as Top 40 radio stations, which, of course, means that the broadcasts consist of the songs holding leading positions in the charts at the current moment. Narrowing our advertising-related target group to college student, we will inevitable come to a conclusion that mix, pop and dance radio stations are the most efficient means for reaching college students. Such radio stations are usually top, as they don’t offer some peculiar music, instead broadcasting mainstream compositions, which are, first

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Review of manuscript Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Review of manuscript - Essay Example Previous studies had suggested that many pests show an increase in population growth in a host crop which is nitrogen enriched. The current research was done in an area measuring 150m by 32m in New South Wales. It used four different treatments which were applied to the trial plot by means of broadcasting methods. I hereby confirm that this particular manuscript has not been published anywhere or considered by any other journal. I have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission. I would like to thank the editor and the reviewer for the informative and instructive comments they made. The comments have greatly improved the manuscript. I look forward to the journal’s response. In the study that was carried out, it was quite apparent that the statistical power was dependent on factors that included the statistical significance criterion, the management of the effect of interest and the sample size used. In order to limit the Type I error, which may result from these factors, the data was collected in five transects with each being divided into four replicates. By creating transects and replicates, it was possible to limit the occurrence of type I error while at the same time ensuring that the reliability of the data was enhanced. The higher the number of transects, the lower the probability of Type I occurring in the study. In the ANOVA analysis, the main assumptions made were related to the normality and the homogeneity of the data collected in the study. It was assumed that normality and constant variance would be present in the data. To check the assumptions, a classical parametric procedure involving the detection of the outliers was used. Since outliers have the potential of impacting on and influencing the homogeneity of the data variance, it was checked to ensure that the assumptions made were inherent in the data. The method for checking

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Container Shipping Industry

Container Shipping Industry Outline the evolution of the structure in the container shipping industry and discuss the extent to which the structural changes are explained by increasing size of ships entering Introduction In the past especially in the last twenty years international container shipping industry and the related trade has been increasing at a tremendous rate. The period between 1980 and 2004 shows that international maritime trade grew at 2.4% compared to this the containerised cargo has increased at 8.6% with an increase of 600% over that period compared to 70% of the maritime trade. This phenomenal growth can be attributed to the many things including the growing importance of transhipment activities. As more shippers understood the advantages of container shipping ports increasingly made changes to the infrastructure and adapted to handling of cargo using containers. This growth of world container traffic has also led to an increase in the size of ships resulting in challenges and opportunities for the container shipping industry. And there is no instance of such a spectacular growth in the transportation industry. This paper outlines the evolution of the container shipping industry h ighlighting the main reasons behind the growth and development of the industry, moreover it also discusses the increasing size of the ships and its relationship with the container shipping industry. (Ircha, 2006. Volk) The Factors Behind the Growth of Container Shipping Industry Volk has studied the container shipping industry and point out four factors which have helped the container shipping industry in achieving its tremendous growth. Following are the four factors: (Volk) Significant Increase in Productivity The origins of containerisation can be found in the fall out from the 1956 Suez Crisis when the when the blocking of the Suez canal leading to an increase in demand for transportation this led to an investment of the shipping industry into ships, but the end of the crisis meant that there was an over supply of ships and eventually led to a prolonged recession in the shipping industry. In addition to this shippers are always seeking to minimise cost as the freight level generally doesnt cover the costs, this cost cutting potential led to the introduction of container ships and the LASH ships, but the container ships were much more successful. The introduction of the 20 feet and the 40 ft container led to far-reaching changes to the transportation industry, the productivity of the container shipping is 4 to 8 times to that of the traditional shipping. This enormous productivity led to the shippers being profitable even when the freight rates were low and thus remained competitive. However to really gain from the containerisation concept a lot of investment was needed in the transportation channels. Countries have gradually adapted to this change and have done it at their own pace. This is the reason that the structural changes have been taking place even today in many of the Asian, African, Baltic and Latin American Countries. The Containerisation of shipping is still in the process of penetrating many national markets this is the reason for its greater development compared too the general transportation market. Structural Changes in Shipping Due of Containerisation The structural chages in Cargo shipping industry led to the success of the container shipping industry. first many of the ports which were important were unable to make appropriate changes like creation of quays, installation of careanes etc. Due to this many important ports like Liverpool, and San Francisco were left behind. Because of concentration od cargo on a few ports led to the development of hinterland connections, for example Rotterdam and Antwerp have effective inland shipping and. Not all of the shipping industry was able to adapt to the change brought about by containerisation, because in addition to shipping the shippers had to invest in containers too. This limited the number of shippers whoi were able to containerise their business. Major difference is that has occurred because of containerisation is the increase in the efficiency of shipping. In the past ships used to spend weeks standing at ports, the trips between Northern Europe used to take eight weeks, however with the introduction of containers the trips time has halved to four weeks. With significant increase in the capital investment and fewer number of ports, and increase in the speed of ships and efficiency. Shippers now realise that the ships cannot be profitable sitting at ports as a result the idea of offering of multiple loops has emerged. Because the larger ships with containers could not reach all ports and since many poiorts did not have the capacity or the finances to support containerisation, ship rotation and feeder shipping, a network of shipping feeders has evolved. These ships function both inter-regionally and intra-regionally. There has been an evolution of the trading routes along with the evolution of containerisation. In the past the routes between different regions of the world were quite clearly defined, however with the intention of creating more efficiency, for this new concepts like the pendulum concept and the round-the-world concept evolved. The decrease in the transportation was and is passed on to the customer with increased cost reduction, the volume of cargo being transported from far-flung areas has become extremely cheap as the large ships with containers are able to achieve economies of scale. Increase in Trade Volume and its Relationship with Economies of Scale The increase in containerised trade has induced the shippers to use larger and larger ships and the large size of ships has led to economies of scale. The strategies adopted by the shippers to deal with this interdependency is to understand the limitations of investment in ships, generally ships last for about 25 year on average, therefore to cope with the steady increase in demand many shippers order ships which have extra capacity to deal with the future increase. Some shippers try to increase their market share so they can invest in more ships. The increase in capacity is not insignificant as it determines the volumes whish can be transported. Bigger ships also mean more containers, this is the reason that there is extremely stiff competition because the container ship markets have newer ships all the time increasing the competition as the customers benefit because of increased size of ships. Low transportation costs have simulated global trade as products and goods become more and more competitive on a global platform. This is the reason that containers are used for general cargo but also for break bulk cargo like transportation of salt from Australia to Europe. In addition to price container shipping is not only reliable, timely and has more geographical outreach, that industries and producers produce goods which can be containerised. In addition since the size of ships is increasing even today the transportation costs will continue to decrease as the growth of containers is more than proportionate. Deregulation and Liberalisation Deregulation and trade liberalisation occurred in the 90s particularly the Asian and the Latin American countries. Chinas entrance in world trade has also been a major part of this liberalisation. Because of this container industry has experienced an added impetus to growth. Structural Change due to Increase in Ship Size Gradually over the years, specialised container ships have steadily increased in capacity and dimension shippers try to find the economies of scale in an ever competive market. In 2004 half of the ships ordered were big enough to have a capacity of 5500 TEUs at the minimum, in addition the 36 percent of the all container ships planned for building have a capacity of 7400 TEUs. These huge ships are now becoming more common in the key trading paths which serve Asia. New orders for China Shipping Container Lines range between 8500 and 9600 TEUS. It is estimated that the new ships will be 334 metres long and 42.8 metres wide and have anticipated drafts of 15 metres or more. Even bigger ships depend on better engine technology for the vessels propulsion system. (Notteboom2004) It is believed that the next increase in ship size will be 12,000 TEUs or even more, as the limitation in the engines mean that it will take two engines for the ships larger then 10,00 TEUs. It is estimated that the maximum size of ships would be approximately 18,000 TEUs. This is based on the fact that Malaccan Straight between Indonesia and Malaysia has the relevant depth limits (Gilman 1999). Bigger container ships need: Approach channels and berths which are deeper Channels and turning basins which are wider larger container terminals which have more storage capacity and warehouses on land so that they can satisfactorily handle higher volumes of export and import containers. Outreach which is both higher and longer mechanized ship-to-shore support cranes, An extremely proficient and well-organised work force working round the clock to guarantee swift ship turnaround Cullinane et al (1999) have found that economies of scale exist in the case of Europe-Far East and trans-Pacific routes in ships with 8,000 TEU even if the limitations of ports are taken into consideration. As for trans-Atlantic route the range of 5,00 to 6,00 TEUs is ideal. However today there is less knowledge about the economies of scale related to super-big container ships. Some believe in the case of 18,000 TEUs the cost saving are negligible as they would lack flexibility. Adding post-panamax capacity can give a short-term competitive edge to the early mover, putting pressure on the followers in the market to upgrade their container fleet and to avert a serious unit cost disadvantage, i.e. the ‘me too syndrome as indicated by. A boomerang effect eventually also hurts the carrier who started the price war.   While others like Waals and Wijnolst,( 2001)insist that there would be cost saving based on hub-feeder arrangement. It is clear that the increase in scale of vessels has decreased the slot costs in container industry, however it is also significant that larger carriers have not been able to achieve cost saving from economies of scale (Lim, 1998). Moreover inefficient slot utilisation and the tendency to buy more cargo at lower rates can lead to lowered revenues. Graham states that the techniques like cost cutting by post-panamax building will not be helpful and instead will prevent the shipping industry from achieving stability. To him the danger of a brutal cycle of increase in ship scale, continuous building and decreasing margin is detrimental to the industry. he goes on to say that this increase leads to short term reduction in cost which pushes competitors into investing in still larger vessels this is confirmed by Helmick et al (1996) who thinks that it is a boomerang effect hurting the shipper who started it in the first place. Conclusion Containerisation has been revolutionary in terms of changes brought about in the transportation industry, and especially in the case of container shipping industry the change has not only led to its tremendous growth but also lowered prices. From the above discussion it becomes obvious that containerisation and subsequent steady increase in ship sizes has led to many changes however some people argue that the exercise to find achieve economies of scale is unending and this will lead to an increase in vessel size, which may go beyond 12,000 TEUs in the next few years. This is because shippers have tried to achieve savings in terms of fuel economy and economies of scale in larger ships, this is to have a larger market share and be successful in the sector. Larger ships do have lower costs per TEU than smaller ships. From the perspective of the ports, the larger vessels will be favoured in the longer rroutes, like Trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic and Far East- Europe routes, with vessels larger than 8,000 TEUs. Ports have been gearing themselves up for bigger vessels trying to provide facilities to accommodate the huge sizes, this entails huge costs and structural adjustments, and however the incentive is to become hub ports, other ports have to make appropriate changes to remain competitive. References Cullinane, K., Khanna, M. and Song, D.-W. (1999) â€Å"How Big is Beautiful: Economies of Scale and the Optimal Size of Containership, Liner Shipping: Whats Next?† Proceedings of the 1999 IAME conference, Halifax, 108-140. Gilman, S., 1999, The size economies and network efficiency of large containerships, International Journal of Maritime Economics, 1(1) Graham, M.G. (1998). Stability and competition in intermodal container shipping: finding a balance, Maritime Policy and Management, 25(2), 129-147 Helmick, J.S., Wakeman, T.H., Stewart, R.D. (1996). Technology, intermodal transportation and port productivity: throughput maximization and environmental sustainability, The Journal of Urban Technology, 3, 11-38. Ircha, M C. (2006). Characteristics Of Tomorrows Successful Port in Crowley, Brian Lee (Ed.) The AIMS Atlantica Papers #4 http://www.aims.ca/library/Ircha.pdf. Lim, S.-M. (1998) â€Å"Economies of Scale in Container Shipping,† Maritime Policy and Management, 25: 361-373 Notteboom T E. (2004). Container Shipping And Ports: An Overview. Review of Network Economics Vol.3, Issue 2, 86-106 http://www.rnejournal.com/articles/notteboom-RNE_june_04.pdf Volk B. Growth Factors in Container Shipping. Elsfleth, Department of Marine Studies http://www.amc.edu.au/mlm/papers/AMC3_GRO.pdf Waals, F., Wijnolst, N.(2001). Malacca-max: container shipping network economy, Proceedings of the IAME 2001 conference, Hong Kong, 191-207

Friday, October 25, 2019

A Sociological Look at JAWS Essay -- essays papers

A Sociological Look at JAWS The movie I choose to review was Jaws, which is one of my favorites and a timeless classic. A traditional story about man against beast takes place on an island that depends on its summer tourist business. When the summer season in threatened by a series of shark attacks three men are sent out to track down a great white shark. The three main (human) characters are Brody (Roy Scheider), the police chief, who came to the island from New York looking, so he thought, for a change from the fears of the city. There's Quint (Robert Shaw), a caricature of the crusty old seafaring salt, who has a very personal reason for hating sharks. And there's Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), the rich kid turned oceanographer, who knows best of all what a shark can do to a man, and yet is willing to get into the water with one The movie starts just before the summer boom with a girl running out in to the ocean for a midnight dip. She is undoubtedly attacked by a shark and when she is found on the beach the next morning the town officials dismiss the find as a boating accident. Chief Brody who is not convinced of that is was a boating accident fears it was a shark attack. With the safety of not only the islanders but also the coming tourist crowds Brody tries to close the island off the tourists until the problem is solved. The Mayor sensing what Brody is up to stops the Chief from cutting off the islands only means of income. The Mayor tells Brody that no one is sure what happened to the girl and no decision like this can be made with the evidence at hand. Brody unwillingly agrees. When there is another attack, this time on a small child and in broad daylight, a meeting is called to discuss what to do about the islands problem. The Chief decides t call the mainland for help but being an island of fishermen the locals have only on thing on their minds. This is where we get to meet Quint. Quint is convinced that the only way to solve the problem is to hunt it down. He offers his services, for a nominal fee of course. In the end the Mayor decides that the best way to deal with the problem is by offering a reward to anyone who catches the shark. In comes Hooper. He arrives just in time to see the parade of fishermen cast off in any thing that’ll float in hopes of catching the prize shark. With chaos erupt... ...e relationship work so well. Even though they are driven by different means the goal is the same. Then comes Quint. While Hooper and Brody need him he has given them grief ever since he was introduced the plot. The relationship of the three is shady at best with the old (Quint) and the new (Hooper) combining forces to catch â€Å"the beast† Brody finds he is in the middle. At time you think that the come close, almost to the point that you think they enjoy each other’s company, but soon enough Quint’s true colors shine through and the other two begin to resent the collaboration. The two scenes where this is most evident are when Quint smashes the radio and then pushes the engine past its limit and burns it out. On both accounts Hooper and Brody can’t believe what has been done and are sure they have made a bad decision. Being dubbed by critics as the movie that made people afraid to go in to the water Jaws became an instant classic. Even the memorable title track, which is basically two notes, is able to strike fear and resurrect memories of the beast. Released in 1975 it continues to captivate audiences and still gives me a reason not to go in the water.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

People vs. Larry Flynt

After watching the film the people vs. Larry Flynt, it is clear that the major message is that all Americans have rights under the constitution. Although in some cases many Americans may not always agree with each other, it is their right and freedom to do so under the Bill of Rights. In particular the first amendment is a major focus of the film.Throughout the entire movie the Larry Flynt character (Woody Harrelson) defends the fact that he is an American, therefore like all other Americans he is protected by the bill of rights and is entitled, specifically, to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The film is a good portrayal of how our society and government perceive things as right or wrong. One of the most notable parts of the film is where the Flynt character argues with activists saying, â€Å"Murder is illegal but if you take a picture of it you may get your name in a magazine or maybe win a Pullitzer Prize.He continues his argument by saying â€Å"sex is legal, but i f you take a picture of that act, you can go to jail. † The point the film makes relates directly to the text in chapter two under â€Å"institutional adaptation† which states that in order for the constitution to remain viable , it must be able to adapt to changing times and deal with matters the authors could hardly have anticipated (p. 33). The film points out many weaknesses and flaws in the way courts are operated in America.There is one part in the movie where Flynt’s lawyer Alan Isaacman (portrayed by Edward Norton) tries to present what he feels as evidence to the jury, the judge refuses to let him show the evidence (other pornographic magazines. ) Although it is completely legal for a judge to refuse evidence, it shows that a man who is entitled power can still be very biased towards their own ideas and beliefs. The film is a very accurate portrayal of the true events since the film is based in part on the U. S. Supreme Court case Hustler Magazine v.Falw ell. The United States Supreme Court held, in a unanimous 8-0 decision Justice Kennedy took no part in the consideration or decision of the case, that the First Amendment's free-speech guarantee prohibits awarding damages to public figures to compensate for emotional distress intentionally inflicted upon them. Thus, Hustler magazine's parody of Jerry Falwell was deemed to be within the law, because the Court found that reasonable people would not have interpreted the parody to contain factual claims, leading to a reversal f the jury verdict in favor of Falwell, who had previously been awarded $200,000 in damages by a lower court. The First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. The freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole. The First Amendment envisions that the p olitical debate that takes place in a democracy will occasionally yield speech critical of public figures.The Court held that the First Amendment gives speakers immunity from sanction with respect to their speech concerning public figures unless their speech is both false and made with the knowledge of its falsehood or with reckless disregard for the truth of the statement. Although false statements lack inherent value, the breathing space that freedom of expression requires in order to flourish must tolerate occasional false statements, lest there be an intolerable effect on speech that does have constitutional value.Falwell argued that the Hustler parody advertisement in this case was so â€Å"outrageous† as to take it outside the scope of First Amendment protection. But â€Å"outrageous† is an inherently subjective term, susceptible to the personal taste of the jury empanelled to decide a case. Such a standard â€Å"runs afoul of our longstanding refusal to allow d amages to be awarded because the speech in question may have an adverse emotional impact on the audience†. So long as the speech at issue is not â€Å"obscene† and not subject to First Amendment protection, it should be subject to the actual-malice standard when it concerns public figures.Clearly, Falwell was a public figure for purposes of First Amendment law. Because the district court found in favor of Flynt on the libel charge, there was no dispute as to whether the parody could be understood as describing actual facts about Falwell or events in which he participated. Accordingly, because the parody did not make false statements that were implied to be true, it could not be the subject of damages under the New York Times actual-malice standard. The Court thus reversed the judgment of the Fourth Circuit.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Yahoo – Strategic Management Analysis

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Yahoo! Inc. , over its journey of almost 17 years has become the world’s largest online network integrated services provider with users exceeding 500 million in numbers worldwide (Yahoo FAQ, 2012). It has a presence in more than twenty markets and regions across the globe and is best known for its search engine and host of other services like finance, e-mail, advertising and social media. Yahoo! Inc. was started as a personal website directory by two doctorate candidates at Stanford University named David Filo and Jerry Yang.Filo and Yang realized the potential of generating revenue from their web directory by allowing companies to advertise their products on their online directory. Soon, Yahoo was notable enough to gain the attention of Sequoia capital, a venture capital firm. Sequoia provided much needed capital to Yahoo and Tim Koogle, a Motorola executive was hired as Yahoo’s Chief Executive Officer. Koogle’s excellent management skills and vision took Yahoo to the new heights of success i. . Yahoo! Inc. ’s stock price rose from $5 a share to almost $244 a share in 1999 (Jones, 2007) However, despite the leadership that the company enjoyed in its initial years, the company over the past years seems be losing market share to its arch rival Google Inc. Google has been outdoing Yahoo for the past many years now, gaining market share and increasing its customer base manifolds. Over the course of past few years, Yahoo! Inc. ade a slew of changes in its objectives, business model and to its external, internal environment and strategy to shore up its performance and regain lost ground to its main competitor Google. Herein, we shall take a close look at some of such factors through defining the company’s mandate, internal analysis as well as external analysis. INTRODUCTION The company under consideration Yahoo! Inc. (referred to hereinafter as â€Å"Yahoo†) is one of the world’s largest online netwo rk integrated services provider with a combined user base in excess of 500 million.Yahoo provides a whole host of network based services, however over its existence of past 17 years, many such similar service providers have shored up especially after the dot com boom. Some of these new players took the path of specializing in a particular form of service while others brought a whole gamut of new services with the old ones. World Wide Web has grown exponentially over the past years giving rise to the intense rivalry between companies involved. This intense rivalry especially with the likes of Google is one of the biggest challenges for Yahoo.In this case study, we try to first understand the backdrop in which the company is operating including its mission and vision for the future, its ultimate goals and philosophy regarding its business, its business model, external analysis based on Porter’s five forces model and finally internal analysis based on distinctive competencies, c ompetitive advantage and profitability. This document is prepared based on the information provided in the case, â€Å"Yahoo† (Jones, 2007) as well as numerous external sources such as Yahoo’s website and its annual reports circa 2011. COMPANY OVERVIEWYahoo was incorporated as an Internet service provider that would serve both the users and the businesses globally. Yahoo was founded by two Stanford PhD candidates in January 1994 named Jerry Yang and David Filo. However, today Yahoo has become one of the world’s largest global online network integrated services provider. Yahoo today has a user base of 500 million per month. It has a presence in more than 30 countries worldwide and provides services in more than twenty different languages. The company presently operates out of Sunnyvale, California in the United States.Yahoo first went public on the NASDAQ (YHOO) in the April of 1996. The stock had opened for $ 13. 00 per share of the company and by the very dayâ €™s end; it had reached a closing of $ 33. 00 per share (Yahoo Overview, 2012). In Dec 1999 the company was also added to the S&P 500 index. Recently, in early 2012, Yahoo had appointed Scott Thompson as the new CEO who was then replaced by Marissa Mayer in the month of May (Perez, 2012). Also in June 2012, the company also hired the former director at Google, Michael Barrett, as its Chief Revenue Officer.In April 2012, the company announced a cut of about 14 % of its workforce. This was expected to save the company around $ 375 million annually and is scheduled to be completed by end of this year (Liedtke, 2012). MANDATE The mandate of a company sheds light on why it exists, what it hopes to achieve in reference to the expectations of the stakeholders. Yahoo changed it mission statement from just â€Å"focusing on being a search portal† to â€Å"want to connect people to their passion, communities and world’s knowledge† (Baker, 2007).Yahoo’s mission Statement refers to the fact that the company envisages to achieve two major objectives; first one is to provide personal digital experience to their customers so that they remain happy doing things they like especially in the web and secondly to provide a unique way to the advertiser to connect to the consumers and help to build their business (Yahoo FAQ, 2012). In simple terms, as Yahoo enables people to connect with their passion in various fields i. e. sports, music etc. , it will in turn provide Yahoo with an excellent opportunity to generate advertising revenue from music and sports companies etc.The core values of the company provide a sense of direction that the company adheres to and the way it is going to do it, and the goals it wishes to achieve via the same. The company on its website has outlined six Core values that drive the company forward. These are namely (Yahoo Values, 2004). a. Excellence: The Company mentions of it always seeking quality and knowing that the suc cess should never be taken for granted and hence learn from own mistakes. b. Innovation: The Company believes in creativity and is ready to adapt to change in market trends and respond with calculated and responsible steps. c.Customer Fixation: The Company is always looking to maintain the trust of the customers and respond to the customers need and try to exceed them. d. Teamwork: The Company believes in and tries to encourage the best of the ideas from the entire organization and to foster collaboration and yet maintain individual accountability. e. Community: The Company seeks to serve both communities globally and the Internet Community as a whole in general. f. Fun: The Company also possesses a sense of humour and believe that the same is essential to the success of the company and also do appreciate and celebrate their achievement.From the aforementioned Core Values and the present scenario of the company, it seems Yahoo’s main challenge is keep up with its two very imp ortant core values namely Innovation and Customer Fixation which are integral for it to be the market leader in web portal industry. The main stakeholders of Yahoo are; its stockholders that invest their capital in the company, customers that use Yahoo’s web portal, advertisers that market their products through Yahoo’s online services and employees who provide it intellectual capacity leading to the creation of innovative new online products and services.Yahoo’s employees want a fair, ethical treatment and a stable job, advertisers expect to connect to their market segment by advertising on Yahoo, customers want enjoyable and innovative products that make their daily life easier and most importantly stock holders have an expectation that Yahoo will pursue strategies that increase company’s revenue and profitability maximizing shareholder value. EXTERNAL ANALYSIS COMPETITIVE FORCESYahoo operates in â€Å"the Internet products, services, and content marke ts, which are highly competitive and characterized by rapid change, emerging and converging technologies, and increasing competition† and that their most significant competition is from â€Å"Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and AOL (Yahoo 10K, 2011). Yahoo is a part of web portal industry where revenue generation is dependent on online advertising which in turn requires a large number of user base to generate any significant revenue.Advertisers prefer to advertise their products through web portals that have a large user base and offer products and tools which help them reach their target audience. In web portal industry, degree of rivalry amongst competitors is quite high, competitors compete aggressively against each other through innovative new product offerings and/or by lowering prices for advertising but Product differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult due to the fact that over the years industry has gone through consolidation and main players such as Google, Yah oo, MSN etc. ave gained a significant amount of market share creating an oligopoly. Industry has entered a mature stage in the western hemisphere such as Europe and North America but a lot of potential is available in emerging markets of Asia and South America where it is in growth stage. Due to the nature of internet, entry in to the web portal industry is relatively easy but based on the amount of capital, innovative skills and technological knowledge required to attract and maintain a large user base in the web portal industry, the threat of new entrants that can compete directly with Yahoo is quite low.Yahoo does charge some fees for certain premium services but generally its main services such as email and search are free of cost which is common amongst competitors in web portal industry. The range of services offered in web portal at little or no cost means that switching cost for users is quite low. Buyers also include those advertisers who would buy ad space on the website. Even though Yahoo’s revenue stream is not concentrated at any individual advertiser or user but low switching costs for users combined with the intense rivalry in the industry to gain advertisers puts bargaining power of the buyers at medium.Yahoo’s search engine essentially is a mechanism that provides users with an ability to search through content present on the internet. This content is freely available on the internet for Yahoo to collect and categories hence supplier power for Yahoo’s search engine is quite low. Web portal industry in which Yahoo operates does not have a lot of substitutes. Some possible substitutes for Yahoo’s products and services are; postal service is substitute of Yahoo’s e-mail service, financial newspapers are a substitute for Yahoo’s financial section, etc. but most importantly there are no efficient substitutes for search engines on web portal industry in both online or offline world. Because of the lack of ef ficiency of substitutes to products and services offered by web portal industry, the threat of substitutes is low. Recently Web portal industry has gained a possible complementor in the form of latest smart phones with high speed mobile internet access which gives user an ability to be online at any place at any given time. Smart phone technology combined with the web portal industry gives both parties involved a better opportunity to satisfy customer demands.MACRO ENVIRONMENT Aforementioned analysis was based on Porter’s five forces model which is subject to macro-environment. We shall now analyse different forces in the macro-environment. Economic conditions might affect Yahoo as it derives most of its revenue from businesses and individuals who advertise their products and services on the internet. Any slump in the economic growth may lead to a reduction in advertising budget of businesses which will eventually affect Yahoo. In the emerging markets such as those in Asia an d South America, Yahoo is presented with an excellent opportunity to expand its business.Along with the opportunity, Yahoo may also face stiff competition in emerging markets such as China where local competitors have gained considerable market share i. e. Baidu, Inc. in China has 63% of the market share and is Yahoo’s main competitor in that region (Barboza, 2010). Political and legal forces tend to affect businesses operating in the web portal industry especially in the emerging markets. Regulations on the internet service providers generally vary from country to country i. e. in certain countries local providers enjoy special protection through regulations giving them competitive advantage over Yahoo.Yahoo was successfully sued in France for its failure to keep Nazi memorabilia off its Web pages as it is considered a crime in France (Claburn, 2006) and in 2010 Google pulled out of China after failing to negotiate with Chinese government (Carlson, 2010). Internet is a rapid ly growing industry, and with low barriers to entry and low switching costs, technological forces heavily influence Yahoo. With the advent of new technologies, competition and rivalry between players in web portal industry is likely to be more intense driving down revenues as a result.Development in technology may give rise to newer forms of advertising media which can potentially take away revenue from Yahoo. Yahoo mainly operates in the online world and number of users with access to internet is growing rapidly and user base in the developed countries is very well spread out across all demographics. More and more people in the developing countries are getting access to the internet which is likely an opportunity for Yahoo. INTERNAL ANALYSIS We shall now discuss the internal environment of the company and how can it have any sort of material impact on the performance of the company.The internal Analysis of the company would include the distinctive competencies of the company, the c ompetitive advantage and the profitability of the company. The first and foremost distinctive competency of the company is the ability to enable people relate to their passion. This is as per Yahoo’s mission statement and is also reflective in the product portfolio. The company is probably the leader in the industry in terms of the number of services and products that the company offers. This range of product offering has not been observed to be present with the other competitors i. e. Flickr, a omprehensive imaging database, Yahoo Finance provides accurate financial Data in almost real time, etc. The second distinctive competency of the company is the brand name of the company, which has helped it retain its users despite its consistent problem in bringing new innovative products like its competitors Google and Facebook. The third and most important is the efficiency of Yahoo marketing services and its ability to attract customers and publishers. Since its beginning the busi ness model of Yahoo has been heavily reliant on contextual advertising and offering premium services.And this segment of business of Yahoo has still kept it in business. And not to forget the next competency of the company is its famous search and portal. Though the search algorithm used by the company has gradually been updated to the changing demographics of the business, but still some work needs to be done on it to make it a sheer strength for the company. Yahoo still possesses some competitive advantage as compared to its rivals. Firstly, Yahoo’s directory is very well-structured and authenticated business library and it can be developed and customized to act as a new and good source of revenue.Second is the ability of Yahoo to provide customized and contextual advertising. Another very important competitive advantage of the company is the hold of Yahoo in the mobile segment with its auxiliary products and even partnerships with third party service providers. And probabl y last but not the least is the employees of the company, who proved tremendous support, and technical knowhow, that helps Yahoo shore up with customized solutions for its customers and also help in maintain a virtually glitch/hassle free website quality.As far as profitability is concerned, this is something that has not been going right for the company. Over the past four quarters, the company has not seen any significant growth in its revenue and has in fact witnessed a decline in the operating profitability due to a rise in non-recurring expenses (Yahoo Income Statement, 2012). However since the new CEO took over in the month of July, she has embarked on a new strategy of Brownfield expansion via the M&A route and other critical decisions, that is set â€Å"to revive growth and boost profitability† which is a very positive and ncouraging news for investors (Womack, 2012). Yahoo’s decision to hire executives Michael Barret as a CFO and Marissa Mayer as a CEO seems t o show that Yahoo understands the threat that Google poses as both Barret and Mayer were executive at Google prior to joining Yahoo. From the above analysis, it seems that the company is better poised on its internal environment than external environment. And it needs to improvise on its assets and brand to shore up its market share and performance.Yahoo’s recent layoff of 14% of its work force seems to be beginning of new strategy of refocusing the company towards its core competencies, product innovation and growth. REFERENCES Yahoo FAQs. (2012). Investors FAQs. Retrieved from http://yhoo. client. shareholder. com/faq. cfm Jones, G. R. (2007). Yahoo. In C. W. L. Hill & G. R. Jones (Eds. ), Strategic Management An Integrated Approach (8th ed. , pp. C102-C114). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. Yahoo Overview. (2012). Overview. 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Baidu’s gain from departure could be china’s loss. The NewYork Times. Retrieved from http://www. nytimes. com/2010/01/14/technology/companies/14baidu. html? _ r=1 Claburn, T. (2006, 01 13). Yahoo loses lawsuit over nazi memorabilia sale. Information Week, Retrieved from http://www. informationweek. om/yahoo-loses-lawsuit-over-nazi-memorabili/177100347 Carlson, N. (2010, 03 22). Breaking: Google pulls out of china. Business Insider, Retrieved from http://articles. businessinsider. com/2010-03-22/tech/29990556_1_google-com-hk-google-s-china-googlecn Yahoo Income Statement. (2012). Income statement. Retrieved from http://in. finance. yahoo. com/q/is? s=YHOO Womack, B. (2012, 08 10). Yahoo strategy review may result in changes to cash plans. Bloomberg, Retrieved from http://www. bloomberg. com/news/2012-08-09/yahoo-ceo-strategy-review-may-result-in-changes-to-cash-plans. html