Living in the promised land Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Living in the promised land - Essay Example In an interview segment one, Grace Kapuro a physician from Philippines living in America gives a viably different approach to life in America. She alluded that in Philippines she had an easy life compared to the life in America. She claimed that life in America could be described as busy life where one has to do all chores compared to Philippines where she could get house maids. The adjustment in language, foods, dressing and customs as she puts it, was not as easy but was worthwhile. In the career field in Philippines she was a doctor but had to do some academic adjustments to fit if the medical field in America which later became very fulfilling (Luis canjura.segment 1) According to Kapuro the Philams (Philipine Americans) were different from the Philippino immigrants in some aspect of maintaining culture. The immigrants had been able to maintain their culture but the American born Philippines had already been integrated into the American culture. After the adjustments the physician said America is the country filled with milk and honey (Luis canjura.segment 1) Benito Vergara argues that relocating to the United States for their own individual interest is a betrayal to the Philippines because they are only immigrating for their own material success. Grace grabbed the opportunity and struggled the first few years she settled in. Immigrating to America, Grace saw it as an opportunity because she wanted to fulfill her American dream (Luis canjura.segment 2). After settling in America, Grace petitioned for her husband later her father. For the majority of Filipinos, it is true that they immigrate to America for their financial requirements which according to Grace seemed different in the early years of living in America. Homesickness was a common feeling in America, based on the fact that America had own cultures, food, language and the busy life in the city (Vergers, 46). Grace stated that she attended public school where the ratio in the classroom

Efficient Pricing of Geomarketing Internet Services Essay Example for Free

Efficient Pricing of Geomarketing Internet Services Essay Abstract Geomarketing information is information which enables the user to take better and faster decisions about marketing and sales activities. The main source of information are geographic, demographic, and statistic data. These data are usually collected and maintained by several institutions and come in a variety of forms and formats. The final integrators acquire datasets, sort, filter and organize them, and offer in advance defined analyses. In this paper we focus on geomarketing services offered on the Internet where usually no physical good is exchanged. The subject of trade is geomarketing information the user is able to extract from the datasets. The main issue is how to set a Pareto efficient price for geomarketing information. The situation is Pareto efficient when the sum of user’s and service provider’s surplus is maximized. We investigate nonlinear pricing strategies and their efficiency to serve mass markets and attract users with different willingness to pay. Nonlinear pricing is used in a broader sense to include the practice of selling the same information product on various vertical markets at prices that are not in proportion to the differences in marginal cost. The market research for the GISMO project (Krek et al. 2000) showed that the US market differs substantially from the European. It has characteristics of a commodity market, where providers offer very similar or equal products at similar prices. This is feasible only if the prices for raw datasets, which represent the main barrier to enter the market, are low or zero. Competition among service providers drives prices down and enables them to successfully serve a mass market. The European approach is mostly determined by the high prices of datasets and restrictions on the copyright forced by the National Mapping Agencies. This prevents further production and creation of information products and serves only a narrow group of users with high willingness to pay. We list the most i mportant conditions for Pareto efficient nonlinear pricing of geoinformation services. 1 Introduction Price is a very important element of trade. It can only be discussed in relation to what is offered, how much value the potential user attaches to the product and how much he is willing to pay for it. A geomarketing service in this paper serves as an example for a geoinformation service in general where a Geoinformation product is traded. A Geoinformation product is defined as a specific piece of geoinformation which provides an answer to a particular user’s question. The provider of a geoinformation service has to select the medium of delivery and the price for the service. We concentrate on geomarketing services provided online through the Internet. The service is mostly done automatically, and not by a human. Usually no physical good is exchanged. Gathering information about the product, placing the order, and payment is done over electronic network. In the sections 5 and 6 we analyze different pricing strategies for geographic information and their Pareto efficiency. The s ituation is called to be Pareto efficient when the user’s and service provider’s surplus is maximized. We review marginal cost and nonlinear pricing and explain in which cases they conform to the Pareto efficiency. Setting a price equal to marginal cost is not economically viable since such a price does not cover fixed cost. Some examples of nonlinear pricing, such as quantity discounts, term-volume commitments, and list of price options satisfy the Pareto efficiency requirement if certain conditions are satisfied. We conclude with the list of the most important conditions for the Pareto efficient pricing of geomarketing service. They can be applied to geoinformation services in general. 2 Geomarketing Services A geomarketing service is a service of providing geomarketing information to the user. Geomarketing information is information which enables the user to take better and faster decisions about marketing and sales activities. This information can be delivered to the user in a different form, format and through different media. Geomarketing information is gathered from internal company’s data, which are combined with external demographic, statistic and geographic data. A geoinformation that satisfies a particular information need in a specific decision making situation is called a Geoinformation product. 2.1 Geomarketing Data Geomarketing data consists of internal company’s data and external data. Internal data (the rate of sale, current customers profiles, etc.) is collected and maintained by the company itself. External data comes in a variety of formats and forms, as a collection of numbers, reports, maps, etc., and is gathered by different institutions. Demographic and statistic data is collected and maintained by Statistical Offices and aggregated to a certain extent. Geographic data is provided in Europe mostly by National Mapping Agencies, in USA by the US Geological Survey (USGS). Because of this broad variety of data, their structure, content and formats, they cannot be easily integrated and are not straightforward usable by a non-technical user. 2.2. Geomarketing Information: a Product The source of geomarketing information is geomarketing data. Specialized companies collect the data from different sources, combine them, sort and filter them. For example, the statistical and demographic data have spatial dimension, which is usually given by the street name and house number. This data has to be geocoded in order to link the attributes (purchasing power, age, educational structure, etc.) with geographic data. The providers identify dimensions of data that are valuable for a certain group of users, package them and offer them as a Geoinformation product. A Geoinformation product is a specific piece of geoinformation which provides an answer to a particular user’s question. The answer to the question can come in many different forms; as a selected dataset, combination of datasets, a report, a map, etc. To make the geomarketing service feasible, some in advance designed steps and analyses are offered to the user. The most common are customer profile, site selection, and market penetration. 3 Internet as a Medium of Delivery The Internet changes the way transactions are done. User and seller can enter an electronic relationship without personal contact. The buyer can place an order any time (from the seat at home, late in the evening) and can take as much time as he wants or needs to take the decision about the purchase. Searching for the right product over e-network, he can get comparable information about similar products from other companies, their characteristics and prices. Cooperation with potential and current users of geoinformation services is important. In the Internet world, the gap between service-consumers and services-providers blurs. â€Å"Consumers become involved in the actual production process, their ideas, knowledge, information become part of the product specification process† (Tapscott 1996). In a geomarketing service, usually no physical good is exchanged. The user gets o the result of nly the analysis, the answer to his question. Even more advanced geomarketing services offer the possibility of uploading the data of the user on the provider’s server and combining these data with the collection of the data on the server. A service offered via Internet involves less administration, paper work, and less human resources, which reduces transaction costs. Direct connection to the computer accounting system can provide systematic and efficient registration of the transactions. Security and protection mechanisms enable the service provider to follow and control transactions. Selecting a proper pricing policy in order to attract widespread use of the service is of great importance. In the next sections, we review marginal cost and nonlinear pricing, and analyze their Pareto efficiency. 4 Pareto Efficiency The situation is Pareto efficient if there is no way to make both the user and the service provider better off. The sum of the user’s and provider’s surplus is maximized. It can be a understood lso as maximizing the difference between economic benefits and costs which appear on the user’s as well as on the provider’s side. The economic benefits are the benefits of using the product on the product has to him with his willingness to pay for the marginal unit of the product. If he expects high benefits, he will be willing to pay a high price for the product. Cost incurred on the provider side is mostly high fixed cost of designing and creating the Geoinformation product and enabling the service, and low marginal cost of providing an incremental unit of the product. The user’s cost is the price he pays for the product, the transaction cost and the cost associated with acquiring the information about the product. 5 Marginal Cost Pricing and Pareto Efficiency Marginal cost pricing is pricing where the price equals the marginal cost. The cost of an economic good is an important determinant of how much the producer will be willing to produce. The concept of â€Å"marginal† or â€Å"extra† cost is crucial for the situation on the market of economic goods. It has an important role in appraising how efficient or inefficient any particular price and production pattern is (Samuelson 1967). This observation is valuable for the standard economic good where the total cost of producing the product depends on the quantity produced. The cost structure a Geoinformation product substantially differs from the cost structure of the standard economic good. The total cost of producing the product is mostly a high fixed cost of collecting the data and designing the product, and is not recoverable if the production is halted (sunk cost). The marginal cost of producing t e second and each additional copy of the product is h very low or zero, mostly the cost of disseminating the product. The share of the marginal cost in the total cost of production is negligible. Marginal cost pricing of a Geoinformation product would according to the marginal cost pricing scheme imply very low or zero price. â€Å"Pricing at marginal cost may or may not be efficient: it depends on how the consumers’ total willingness to pay relates to the total cost of providing the good† (Varian 1999). At the first stage of the production, the datasets have low value to most users and they have low willingness to pay for them. The high cost of producing the datasets cannot be recovered. M arginal cost pricing does not imply efficiency because it does not cover the total costs of producing a Geoinformation product. 6 Nonlinear Pricing and Pareto Efficiency Pricing is nonlinear when it is not strictly proportional to the quantity purchas ed. Different prices are charged to different groups of buyers or the same product. Nonlinear pricing is also used in a f broader sense to include the practice of selling the same product on different markets at prices that are not in proportion to the differences in marginal cost. Good examples are phone rates, frequent flyer programs, and electricity (Wilson 1993). The first notion about charging different users differently for the same product was called price discrimination (Pigou 1920) and distinguished among three different forms of discrimination. 6.1 Price Discrimination Pigou (Pigou 1920) first used the term price discrimination and he described the following forms of nonlinear pricing: †¢ First-degree price discrimination The first-degree price discrimination is sometimes known as perfect price discrimination. The producer sells different units of output at different prices and these prices may differ from buyer to buyer. The buyer pays the maximum price that he is willing to pay, irrespective of the cost of production and supply. Usually it is difficult to determine what is the maximum price someone is willing to pay for the product. †¢ Second-degree price discrimination The producer sells different units of output at different prices, but every individual who buys t e h same amount of the good pays the same price. Second-degree price discrimination is much more common in practice. Good examples of this discrimination are volume discounts and coupons. †¢ Third-degree price discrimination The producer sells the output to different people at different prices, but every unit of output sold to a given person sells at the same price. Customers are divided into more groups, which have different demand curves and different price elasticity. The highest price is charged to the groups with the lowest elasticity. Examples of this discrimination are student discounts. 6.2 Two-part Tariff Two-part tariff is an example of a nonlinear pricing and consists of two parts. The first part of the tariff usually comes in the form of a membership, an annual or monthly license and is supposed to cover fixed cost. The second part of the tariff is related to the usage (number of reports transferred, number of bits, layers, etc.) and covers the incremental cost. This pricing scheme is often used in telecommunication. Users are charged for the connection to the network and additionally for the usage. Two-part tariff pricing scheme can be very naturally applied to a geomarketing service. The first part of the tariff represents a membership fee, an annual or monthly licence for access to the data, reports and maps; the second part is a n additional fee usually based on the volume transferred. Price P for a geoinformation service is then P = p0 + p v.q where p0 pv q fixed fee (annual, monthly, membership, etc.) price set for a volume transferred quantity transferred. The revenue collected from the first part of the tariff (p0 ) is supposed to cover the fixed cost of producing the first copy of the Geoinformation product. The price of u sage (pv ) should cover the incremental cost and the cost of transaction. The combination of the membership and usage constructed for the predicted demand is set so that the company’s total cost is recovered. How high the fixed fee and the price of usage s hould be is an important question. Availability of the raw data at low price will change the nature of the market. The price for both parts of the tariff (p0 and pv ) will form according to the equilibrium rules of supply and demand. 6.3 Pareto Efficiency of the Two-part Tariff Two-part tariff can disadvantage a certain segment of the users. Imagine a geomarketing service company offering geographic data over the Internet. For the simplicity of reasoning, imagine there exist two segments of users; those who use data on a regular basis and have a high willingness to pay (governmental institutions, ministries, utilities, etc.), and those who seldom need data (students, individuals, small and medium companies, etc.) and have low willingness to pay. In this case, a high fixed fee excludes the users with low willingness to pay, occasional users who need only a small volume of the data and are not willing to pay an annual membership fee or a license. The necessary condition for Pareto efficiency is not satisfied. 6.4 Quantity Discounts Quantity discounts are a form of a nonlinear price where the provider charges a lower price for a higher volume purchased. The opportunity of selling high volumes at a low price is often neglected in geoinformation business. Increased revenue from the higher volume at lower price enables the provider to improve the service and reduce prices for all users. The quantity discounts are usually designed in order to stimulate sales, but can complicate the billing and accounting system. Pareto efficiency of quantity discounts depends on the volume-price categories offered by the service provider. This pricing strategy might disadvantage users with low willingness to pay, not being able to pay nor interested in purchasing higher volumes. 6.5 Term-Volume Commitments According to this strategy the user agrees with the service provider to pay a certain amount of money for the service in advance. The payment is set according to the predicted demand for the service. This kind of agreement usually involves some discounts, because the whole payment is done at once and at the beginning of the period. Short-term contracts involve lower reduction in price than longer contracts. This strategy reduces billing and accounting cost and is often used by Internet providers. For example, â€Å"a one-year-term commitment to spend $2000/month obtains a discount of 18%â€Å" (Gong and Srinagesh 1998), for the 5 -year contracts the Internet providers use up to 60% discount. Term-volume commitments satisfy the Pareto efficiency requirement if the user can choose among different schemes and are designed indiscriminately. 6.6 List of Price Options Different pricing options can be combined and offered as a list of price options. In geomarketing services, the two-part tariff is often combined with an additional pricing option, the uniform pricing scheme. Under the uniform pricing scheme, the user pays the price (p2 ), which is proportional to the data transferred. Usually the tariff per volume purchased (p2 ) is higher in the uniform pricing scheme than the price (p1 ) proposed in the two-part tariff scheme, but the user need not pay an annual membership fee or license. The user profits if he is an occasional user, who needs a small volume of data. The sum he is willing to pay in this case is lower than the annual membership or license fee plus the cost of the data transferred.

A Brief History of Heineken Company Analysis

A Brief History of Heineken Company Analysis Heineken is one of the global leading brewers. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and spreads its business all over the world. In this report, we have taken a deep look into the Heineken Company. We will generally display the company portfolio, and then followed by the companys past 5 years performance. Afterwards, the report will focus on Heinekens international marketing activities with detailed explanations of its international marketing strategies. Ultimately, the report will extend to discuss miscellaneous topics of Heineken Company, and ends up with an exhaustive conclusion. Introduction Heineken is one of the worlds biggest brewers and is committed to remaining strong and independent. The brand is named after the founders name Heineken -can be found all around the world. Heineken has become one of the most valuable international premium beer brand since last century and it is still growing stronger. Heineken is also one of the experts of beer brewing and has built quite a number of specialty beers around the globe. In addition to the Heineken brand, there are more than 170 specialty beers which meet a variety of consumers needs from every corner of the world. The famous brands include Amstel ®, Europes third-largest selling beer, Cruzcampo ®, Tiger ®, Zywiec ®, Birra Moretti ®, Ochota ®, Murphys ® and Star ®. Heineken has wide international presence through a global network of distributors and breweries. Heineken owns and manages one of the worlds leading portfolios of beer brands and is one of the worlds leading brewers in terms of sales volume and profitability. History The Heineken story began more than 140 years ago in 1864 when Gerard Adriaan Heineken acquired a small brewery in the heart of Amsterdam. Since then, four generations of the Heineken family have expanded the Heineken brand and the Company throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Employees In 2007, the average number of employees employed was 54,004 170 brands Heinekens leading brand portfolio includes more than 170 international premium, regional, local and specialty beers. Our principal brands are Heineken ® and Amstel ®. We continually seek to reinforce our brands through innovations in production, marketing and packaging. 139.2 million hl The Heineken brand is available in almost every country on the planet. We own more than 119 breweries in more than 65 countries brewing a Group beer volume of 139.2 million hectolitres. Segments Heineken applies typical Global Area Structure to their organizational strategy. Global area structure is an organizational arrangement in which primary operational responsibility is delegated to area managers, each of whom is responsible for a specific geographic region. (International Business, 5th edition, Rugman Collinson). Heineken distinguishes the following geographical segments: Western Europe Central and Eastern Europe The Americas Africa and the Middle East Asia Pacific Head Office/eliminations. Segment information is presented only in respect of geographical segments consistent with Heinekens management and internal reporting structure. Heineken runs its business in five regions, which is in charge of regional presidents. Regional subsidiaries, which remain high responsiveness to the group departments,are responsible for management, risk assessment and operation efficiency. The distribution models of Heinekens is of a big variety. Goods are delivered in multiple ways in every country, depending on the countries conditions, usually direct to the wholesalers or via third parties. Hence, distributions diverse. The various distribution models are taken in charge by regional subsidiaries as well. In such a circumstance, no secondary segment information is in hand. Targeting Young adult consumers (core aged 18-25) around the world is the group Heineken targets at. Heineken is aware of the rise of popularity of mixers and other drinks in this market. Positioning The premium positioning of the Heineken brand is crucial to the growth strategy. Maintaining this positioning requires a combination of the highest quality brewing process delivering the highest quality beer and creative and compelling marketing. As the brand extends its global market share, and its positioning becomes more consistent, its marketing is becoming increasingly international. However, within the marketing mix, there will always be a requirement for locally driven campaigns and support. Product strategy Theory Product strategies vary depending on the specific good and the customers. Some products ca be manufactured and sold successfully both in the United States and abroad by using the same strategies. Other products must be modified or adapted and sold according to a specially designed strategy. A number of factors can compel an MNE to use moderate to high product modification. These include economics, culture, local laws, and product life cycle. Application A key strength for Heineken is the fact that the product is produced to be exactly the same, no matter which of 115 or more breweries it was produced at. The recipe has stayed the same for nearly 150 years, and Heinekens attractive packaging and red star are recognizable nearly anywhere in the world. Heinekens entire brand image is centred on it being a superior quality beer with exceptional taste. Heineken has also won many awards for its beer, which reinforces their claim that Heineken is a product of the highest quality. One potential weakness is that Heineken lacks a production base in many markets, which inevitably leads to higher costs associated with getting the product to market in these areas. However, the flip side to that is the consumers perception of premiumness that is often associated with an imported beer versus one that is produced domestically. Another important strength for Heineken lies in their innovation, as is evident by their recently released Heineken Draught Keg. Since the Heineken beer is recognized all over the world, and the product life cycle is quite short, there is no need to do large modification to the beer itself. Meanwhile, its package changes several times within a year, which makes it fresh to consumers and also a efficient way to promote their products. Company performance This report also analyzes the Heineken Company performance in a horizontal scope as well as a vertical scope. We will first measures its regional performance, and followed by a last 5 year performance evaluation. As we know, Heineken Company is a Multinational Enterprise. It has been doing business in different regions worldwide. Take appropriate measures when dealing business with typical customers is quite important. The financial statement of year 2009 will be released on March 20, 2010. So the analysis is mainly based on the data from 2004 to 2008. Key figures Revenue: In general, the Heineken Company enjoyed increasing revenues in last 5 years, from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 10062 million (2004) to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬14319 million (2008). EBIT: Earnings before interests and taxes (EBIT) is used as a primary measure of profitability, without taking interests and taxes expenses into consideration. The higher EBIT, usually, the better. The EBIT was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1348 in 2004, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1249 in 2005, reached its peak at à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1832 in2006, and then decreased to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1418 in 2007, even declined further to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1080 in 2008, measured in millions. Net profit: Net profit calculated by profit before taxes minus taxes. The net profit has almost the same trend as EBIT: rose from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬642 million (2004) to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 1211 million (2006), then it suffered a downwards shrink to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬807 million (2007) and à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬209 million (2008). Dividends: Dividends is a portion of money a company paid to its shareholders. It can be used to measure a companys financial health. The dividends of Heineken kept growing from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬173 million in 2004 to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬343 million in 2007. In 2008, it fell by a small amount to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬304 million. Net cash flow: Net cash flow is a part of cash flow statement, represented the cash receipts minus cash payments. Net cash flow was -à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬550 million in 2004, leaped to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬401 million in 2006, and dropped to -à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬227 million in 2007, finally climbed up to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬225 million. Regional analysis Western Europe Have an eye on Western Europe, Heineken is doing excellent: Heineken is Western Europes leading brewer and the region is the biggest contributor to Group profitability, thanks to the strong market positions and excellent brand portfolio. Heineken is Europes number one beer. Heineken has market leadership positions in the Netherlands, UK, Spain and Italy; and it is the number two player in France, Ireland and Switzerland. In the Western Europe, in the year 2004 to 2007, the revenues were around à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬5,400 million. However in 2008, it jumped to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬7661 million. Heineken even generated à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬8,432 million revenue, with earnings before interests and taxes (EBIT) à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬792 million in 2009. The total assets were à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬3924 million in 2004, but almost tripled to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬11678 million in 2008. And the group beer volume has doubled in past 5 years, reaching 56,345,000 hl (2008). It takes up 38% of the Groups consolidated EBIT. Western Europe is Heinekens main market. Central and Eastern Europe Central and Eastern Europe is Heinekens largest region by volume. The business is benefiting from integration of acquired breweries and the outcome of portfolio optimization. The Heineken brand is increasing its popularity. The beer market there is largely influenced by financial crisis last year. The high price of our products can also be an influential fact. Within this region, the company earned increasing revenues between à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2,526 million and à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬3,687 million in last 5 years, and EBIT from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬254 million in 2004 to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬389 million in 2009. The total assets have a 20% growth within 5 years. Group beer volume generated a 50% increase. Africa and the Middle East The improved political stability continues to drive economic development and improve purchasing power, making beer more affordable. The popularity of the brands and of Heineken beer in particular, is rapidly growing. Heineken is the number two brewer in Africa and the Middle East. The revenue in this region in 2009 was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1,817 million, and EBIT was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬485 million. In the past 5 years, the revenue doubled and the EBIT tripled, total assets also grew from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬825 million to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1919 million. And the market volume is still rapidly growing. Heineken Company has a long-term orientation in this market. The Americas The economic downturn led to lower on-trade consumption and downtrading in the off-trade, especially in the USA. In the fourth quarter volume of the Heineken brand showed a positive trend in Canada, the Caribbean and South America. In 2009, the revenue was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1566 million while the EBIT was only à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬210 million. The revenue welcomes a peak at 2006, and has a moderate float in the rest of 5 years. EBIT tells almost the same story. Total assets have a 50% growth over 5 years. And the group beer volume up soared by approximately 5,000,000 hl. Asia Pacific The revenue in 2009 was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬309 million, and EBIT was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬103 million, the company also has a long-term orientation in this region. The revenue has a continuous decline, from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬471 million to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬297 million, with slight floating. EBIT began at à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬63 million, ended at à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬65 million, and topped at à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬95 million 2006. Total assets experienced an upward trend from 363 to 552, measured in millions of euros. Management Heineken Holding N.V. controls the Heineken Company. The Heineken N.V. Executive Board has two members, CEO and CFO. And it is chaired by the CFO Jean-Franà §ois van Boxmeer. The CEO is responsible for Group Commerce, Group Supply Chain, Group Human Resources, Group Corporate Relations, Group Legal Affairs, and Manager Group Internal Audit. The CFO is in charge of Group Control Accounting, Group Finance, Group Business Development, Group Process Technology Directors, Group Strategy Director, and Group Strategic Partnerships. There are five operating regions, namely, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, The Americas, Africa and the Middle East as well as Asia-Pacific. Each region has a Regional President. The Executive Committee is consist of two members of the Executive Board, the five Regional President,s and five Group Directors. The Executive Committee supports the development of policy and ensures the alignment and implementation of key priorities and strategies across the organization. Segmentation: Heineken sells its beer all around the world and has a global market share of 7%. The prime market of Heineken is Europe, in 2008 almost 50% of Heineken its sales were in Europe. Asia-pacific and the Americas cover the other 50%. The Americas count for nearly 30% of Heinekens sales, and the Asia-pacific for 20%. Heineken has divided all the types of beer it sales into groups. Standard lager, premium lager are the hold most products sold all over the world for Heineken. Together they count for almost 85% of all sales of Heineken. With standard beer counting for 55% of the total sales. Furthermore Heineken has got the groups specialty beer, ales shouts and bitters, and low or no alcohol. The group specialty beer count for 10% of the sales, so ales shouts and bitters, and low or no alcohol are of hardly any part of the sales of Heineken. Targeting: Because Heineken is a beer brand it can only sell to people who are older that a certain age. That age is set by the governments. The general age set by the governments for people to buy beer and other alcoholic drinks is set at 16 years in and older to 21 years and older. So the target market of Heineken is everyone older than the age set by the government. In what way does Heineken target the separate markets within those markets? To target the young adults (age 18-30) Heineken uses music. Heineken organizes for example a deejay-contest a lot of young adults are willing to go to that party. Heineken makes sure that their name is all over the place and that the party is a huge success Only Heineken beer is sold on that party, their name Heineken is everywhere you look. In this way Heineken makes sure that their name is widely known. Their name is also associated with successful parties so every time those young adults go to a party they will compare it to the Heineken party. That is the way of getting a good reputation among young adults. Because of this reputation Heineken will sell more beer to those young adults, which is their goal. Beer is very often associated with football. Heineken is a sponsor of the UEFA Champions League. At the beginning and during a football match their name is on billboards on the sides of the field. Their name is also mentioned before the match begins, for example: this match is sponsored by Heineken. In this way Heineken associates itself with football. Their target market with this type of advertising are the man who like watching football and who are allowed to drink, which is a big group. They are indirectly targeting the young people who are not yet aloud to drink, because they are watching to that match to they associate watching football with Heineken, so when they are allowed to drink they will probably buy Heineken to drink during the match. To target the women Heineken introduced Jillz and beer that is less bitter. Jillz is a apple cider mixed with water and barley malt and fruit. It is developed especially for women, because most women dont like beer. When you look at the commercial of Jillz you see four good looking men picking apples. Because women like watching to those men they will buy Jillz assuming that by drinking Jillz they will encounter such a good looking guy. Another way of targeting the women is by introducing a beer that is less bitter. Heineken introduces products like Wieckse Witte a white beer, which is less bitter than normal beer and has got a reddish color. Heineken introduced this type of beer because they assumed that women dont like beer because of its bitterness. Positioning, Market entry and distribution strategies: Waar verkopen ze en hoe krijgen ze de producten daar en hoe zijn ze in die markten binnen gekomen? Heineken sell its products almost everywhere in the world. Because beer hasnt got a high value per liter. Distributing the beer by for example a tanker is too expensive, so Heineken has to have a lot of breweries to supply in the countries they sell their beer in. because of this Heineken has got approximately 120 breweries in more than 70 countries. Heineken mainly sell its products through supermarkets/hypermarkets, specialist retailers and on-trade business. 7% of its products is sold on a different way. Drawing a conclusion this mean that Heineken is depending on other retailers to sell its products. Heineken doesnt have got a shop that sell only Heineken products. The only way in which Heineken is selling its own products is though internet. People can order Heineken beer on the official Heineken site, for example on www.Heineken.nl. Product strategies: There are a lot of different types of beer; there are bitter beers, sweet beers, sour beers, beers with a different amount of alcohol in it and different colors. This are some things that Heineken can differ its beer in. This shows that there are a lot of types of beer, but beer doesnt need a lot of modification. Heineken has got many different types of beer, even in one country. Heineken has got a total of 200 different products. There are different reasons for those modifications. According to International Business a book from Alan M. Rugman and Simon Collinson, there are four points on which a product has to be modified: Economics, culture, local laws and product life cycle. Economics: In each country the customers have got different needs. People want different amount of beer in a bottle, or they want more alcohol in their beer. Because of all these different needs Heineken has got to make a lot of different products, products that differ in size, alcohol percentage and shape. In the Netherlands for example, Heineken sell their beer primarily through the super markets and in bars. So Heineken sells often sells its products in bottles in crates, and in casks. The amount of beer in the bottles is approximately 33 cl. Culture: The history of beer a country and the time beer is present in a country causes many different tastes for and in those countries. In Germany for example people like to drink light beer(white beer). So when Heineken wants to sell beer in Germany it should not come up with dark beer with a high percentage of alcohol. So the culture of countries causes a lot of different demands for beer. Local laws: The laws of a country are very important for the beer products. When Heineken is not allowed to sell beer with a high percentage of alcohol in it, or when they are forbidden to use a certain ingredient, Heineken has got to come up with different products. Product life cycle: This concept states that a product has got to develop in order to maintain its sales. So Heineken needs to modify the beer products in order to keep ahead of the competition. Another reason to modify is to try and come up with other types of product before the demand of other products has declined to much, and to try and get to new markets. An example for this is Jillz, Heineken wants to sell its product to women, it keeps ahead of the competition, because the competition didnt came up with the same idea, and it invents a new product before another product, Wieckse Witte, shows a decline in sales. Pricing strategies: According to International Business a book from Alan M. Rugman and Simon Collinson, there are four forces that influence the pricing. Government controls, Market diversity, Currency fluctuation and Price escalation forces. Government controls: The government in the Netherland raises an excise on products that contain alcohol. Because beer contains alcohol, the prices of Heineken beer are higher than they would have had without that tax. The excise on crates is the same for every company, so Heineken can compete to other beers. Because Heineken is a premium beer, the price for a crate of Heineken is a lot higher than other types of beer. Therefore Heineken competes with other premium beer brand. Market Diversity: The marker diversity between countries causes different prices between those countries. A premium beer a Heineken can encounter a low demand for its beer. Heineken is than forced to sell its products for a low price to gain market share or just to sell beer. Heineken doesnt really have this problem, because they have over 200 different types of beer, so there is a high probability that Heineken does have the taste the people in that country like. Currency fluctuations: The currency fluctuations between countries cause higher or lower prices for Heineken beer that is exported. When the value of a currency in a country, where Heineken has got a brewery, declines compared to an country where the beer brewed is exported to, the prices of Heineken beer will increase compared to local beer brands. Price escalation forces: When the prices of producing Heineken increase by 25 cents, Heineken will try to pass this along to retailers in the production cycle closer to the consumers. Every retailer in the production cycle wants to make profit, so they will add an percentage increase. This increase in price will be larger the closer the product gets to the consumer. The increase of 25 cents may increase the prices in the supermarket with 35 cents.

The Never-ending Story: Sexual Orientation and Genetics Essay -- Biolo

The Never-ending Story: Sexual Orientation and Genetics It is my observation that the average person gains insight into the nature vs. nurture debate when some particular human trait that is politically or socially volatile at the time is announced as having a specific genetic origin. This observation was confirmed when, in surfing the web, I came across an article entitled, "Female Inner Ear Comes Out of the Closet (1)." While reporting on a study published by a UT psychology professor who found that homosexual women exhibit tones in the inner ear similar to those of male test subjects, the Daily Texan journalist, with no explanation or sources, effortlessly mixes and confuses the social construction with the "science" of sexual orientation—even in her or his title. Attempting to get to the root of how an individual's sexual preference is determined, and the subsequent attempt to designate these individual tendencies into definitive statements regarding large groups in society has become a seductive topic for numerous media source s within the past decade or so. A closer look at this debate reveals the relative error of exploring one side without an equal exploration of the other. Dean Hamer et al at the National Cancer Institute published the initial paper that is accountable for the explosion of interest and argument regarding genetic determination of sexual preference in 1993 (2). Hamer's study found that, of thirty-two pairs of brothers who were "exclusively or mostly" homosexual, twenty-two pairs of brothers shared the same type of genetic material. This introduced the idea that there is a gene for homosexuality. Hamer went on to identify a specific genetic sequence that exists on the maternally passed-on X chromosome... ... our society than whether or not sexual preference is a choice: that humans today are too focused on the why and the how of society and not the what and for what good. References 1)University of Texas Psychology Page, a short article from a local newspaper citing new and strange study http://www.psy.utexas.edu/psy/ARTICLES/news-mcfadden.html 2)Bryn Mawr College Student Biology Page, good overview of major genetics of sexual orientation studies in last decade http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/projects97/Newman.html 3)Hampshire University Website, thoughtful and comprehensive discussion of genetics of sexual orientation http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~kebF92/genetics.html 4)Frank Aqueno Website, an interesting but biased conversation between a famous professor/author and an gay rights activist http://eserver.org/gender/exploding-the-gene-myth.html

Care Ethicist and Virtue Theorist Essay -- essays research papers

Care Ethicist and Virtue Theorist   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In my film analysis I will be discussing some of the fourteen principles of a satisfactory moral system and a good ethical decision. I will also discuss how some of the characters use the theory of care ethicist (care ethicist is to treat others as a human being fairly or equally) and virtue theorist (virtue theorist is doing the hard thing). My movie analysis is on John Q.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Q. Archibald (care ethicists) is an ordinary man who works at a factory and takes care of his family. His wife Denise and young son Michael are his world. But when Michael falls seriously ill and needs an emergency heart transplant operation that cost $250,000. John can’t afford the money, but vows to take the initiative to do anything in coming up with money by selling all his personal belonging. John and Denise (wife) then goes to numerous health clinics to receive aid, but were denied because John was over qualified. As result of John not receiving any medical insurance John goes to his boss and ask for the complete insurance coverage, but was also denied because John’s boss cut John’s hours to part-time. John was devastated; he was devastated because his boss cut his hours and didn’t even let him know. As a result of John not coming up with the complete amount of the transplant the doctors will not perform the surgery. John can ’t believe that his son ( Michael who John has a proper relation to the cosmos and the greater scheme of the web of life by John already living his life and wanting his son to fulfill his life. John doesn’t care about anything else other than his son fulfilling his life.) is about to die and the doctors are not taking in consideration that John has some of the money, but not all and they still can’t perform the transplant. John says, â€Å"All his life, he has tried to do the right thing.† John feels the doctors don’t treat the people as they deserve. He feels they can do a better job in letting the community know about the different health plans, they can let the public know that HMO (medical coverage) is suited to pay there doctors not to test, because it would bring the cost down. As a result of there doctors not testing; the HMO give the doctors a big bonus at the end of the year. All John would have liked was for his boss and the people at the hospital to explain the different medical care services they ha... ...y could not be performing because of money. He was overcome with the situation again when John proposed to give half of the money so the surgery could perform. Dr. Truner was again had to break the bad news when John was willing to commit suicide and Dr. Truner still refuses to do the surgey. He was dealt with the hardest decision to make, because here is had a father who is willing to kill himself because of hospital policies and money that he can’t help this family. Dr. Truner actions could have been handling differently. His approach to the Archibald family could have been more sympathetic. Dr. Truner could have put up a fight with hospital administrators and the board of trustees to see what other options they could have proposed to the family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This movie enlightened me because in learning the different ethicists. I was able to see how a care ethicist and virtue theorist acts. It was a very emotional movie. This showed me the different medical plans they have available. What do their plans offer to me; if I am ever put in situation like John Q.? I have to know what medical plan I have to have; God forbid anything every happened to me or my family we can be covered.

Education for Cosmopolis :: Learning Curriculum Essays

Education for Cosmopolis ABSTRACT: An education for Cosmopolis is a kind of mediation between a cultural matrix and the meaning and value it confers on personal and communal self-appropriation, as genuine human beings, through history. The main strategy for a cosmopolitan educative integrates, around the notion of Cosmopolis, the tasks of an education conceived as a personal achievement and an education conceived as a legacy one generation shares with another. Cosmopolis, as a higher viewpoint of a culture, is based on the power of detachment and disinterestedness of human spirit; it is not an utopia nor an imaginative synthesis. A cosmopolitan education is radically emancipative. It involves a dialectical self-appropriation of the dynamic unit of human consciousness in the variables of development. Self-appropriation involves a fourfold conversion: psycho-affective, intellectual, moral, and religious. A cosmopolitan education also teaches us to think historically, to reach a world-cultural community, and to withdraw from practicality to save practicality. These thoughts are developed from the work of Bernard J. F. Lonergan. I. The Educative Mediation Education (1) mediates between cultural matrices and the meaning and value they give to their personal and communal processes of self-appropriation and self-affirmation as genuine human beings in history. Lonergan means by "mediation": . . . any factor, quality, property, feature, aspect, that has a source, origins, ground, basis, and consequences, effects, derivatives, a field of influence, radiation, expansion, an expression, manifestation, revelation, outcome may be said to be immediate in the source, origin, ground, basis, and mediated in its consequences, effects, derivatives, outcome, in its field of influence, radiation, expansion, in its expression, manifestation, revelation (1984, p. 2; p. 12). Such is the general or simple notion of mediation. Education is immediate in the basis and mediated in its expansion. The basis of education lays in cultural matrices. They generate, transform, and share meanings and values by the product of several patterns of experience (inconscient, dramatic, biological, aesthetic, artistic, practical, intellectual, religious, etc.), and the spontaneous and self-correcting processes of learning, such as the human cooperation in labor, the human intersubjectivity in language and communication, and the cooperation with others as the basis of legitimate power in the community. The expansion of education is an historical self-consciousness that persons and communities would autonomously affirm. Conceived as a mutual self-mediation process, education combines two types of mediation: mutual mediation and self-mediation. As a mutual mediation education is a reciprocal relation, where its elements configure an interchanging "functional whole: there are at least two principles and each mediates the other or others" (p.

Kurt Vonnegut Essay

Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse – Five appeared on the list of Time magazine’s 100 all time best English language novels since 1923. Written in 1969, this novel is considered a classic and is also known as one of his best works. Slaughterhouse -Five spans the different time periods of the life of Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist. Vonnegut witnessed the Bombing of Dresden in World War II, and this novel portrays the aftermath of the war. Vonnegut uses time travel as the plot device to portray human conditions from an unusual perspective. He was a prisoner in the Battle of Bulge in December 1944; in Dresden, Germany as a battalion scout. In all likelihood, the bombing of Dresden saved him from being sent to the Auschwitz gas chambers. Vonnegut was among the few survivors that were taken as prisoners to a slaughterhouse during the war and he worked in a meat-locker under this slaughterhouse, making diet supplements for pregnant women . The title refers to the slaughterhouse where Billy stayed as the prisoner of war. Vonnegut combines science fiction elements along with human conditions in the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, to drive the point. Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of a man Billy Pilgrim who has â€Å"come unstuck in time†. This term refers to his surviving a plane crash where he suffers a minor brain damage. Vonnegut has created a satire on fatalism. He believes that no matter how distressing the situation of a man is; he has the power to create his own reality through the sheer power of imagination. Billy Pilgrim experiences different time periods of his life especially his experiences of the World War II. The seemingly random happening of his life structures the thematic elements of the novel in an unraveling order. The novel examines many events in Billy’s life. This includes the death of his wife, his capture by the Nazis in World War II, and the unfortunate bombing of Dresden, which also became the inspiration of this book. The major theme comprises of the narrative that depicts Billy’s difficult times in Dresden, the secondary theme that runs through is his easy and affluent life as an optometrist in the city of Illium, New York, which is a fictional stand-in for Troy, New York, the city of Schenectady, New York. This is the place where Vonnegut has based most of his novels. The fiction runs parallel to the story of Vonnegut’s own transition from the depressing years of 1930’s, which was also the time period when ‘The Great Depression’ occurred, to a well to do existence that followed. The satirical essence of the novel is portrayed by the repetitive phrase, â€Å"so it goes† which Vonnegut uses to describe death and dying; whether it is of man, animal or the bubbles of champagne. He uses it to downplay the fact of ‘mortality’; making it sound humorous and routine. Some would say that his writings are creepy, but the fact is that he wrote beautiful, bizarre and horrifying novels replete with dark humor, and that set him apart as a unique writer. In Slaughterhouse –Five he uses words and phrases such as, â€Å"mustard gas† and â€Å"roses† to describe the rotting smell of a corpse, and the breath of an alcoholic. This novel explores the idea of fate, freewill and illogical nature of human beings. In the first chapter the narrator apologizes about the fact that the novel is so â€Å"short and jumbled and jangled† and then goes on to explain the fact that there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. The satirical tone and the dark humor is the alibi, which he uses to describe the horrific aftermath of bombings and war in general. There are three themes that he uses in Slaughterhouse –Five. The first and foremost theme is the- War. He writes about the contrasts of war; which is love, beauty, humanity, innocence, humor etc. In Slaughterhouse –Five just like his many previous novels, he says that war is bad for us and it is better to love one another and live in peace, than have wars. However, she doesn’t use love as the contrast of war, since Billy Pilgrim was not shown as a man who is madly in love with his wife. Yet he chose to depict it in a light yet effective manner. An interesting contrast Vonnegut uses in his novels are differences between the characteristics of men and women. Men are shown as cruel and ready to he engage in war any time, and the females are the shields, playing the shock absorber’s effect capably, as they are always engaged in trying to dissuade men from getting into wars. Women in Vonnegut’s novels are more humane, loving and have strong wills. The most compelling theme is that we as people are like bugs trapped in an amber and there are no â€Å"whys â€Å" to it. In a sequence in the novel, when Billy is trapped in Tralfamadorin Flying Saucer he asks, â€Å"Why me? † â€Å"†¦. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is . Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? † Billy was asked, and he recalls that he in fact had a paperweight in his office, which was a blob of polished amber with three ladybugs trapped inside it. Billy answers in affirmation and he is told: â€Å" Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why. † (ibid pg. 76-77). This extraterrestrial experience of Billy is symbolic of the fact that we are physically stuck in this world with no choice over our circumstances. In Vonnegut’s novels there are no set themes or plot that follows the story of heroes, heroines or villains. As Ernest W. Ranly says that all the characters in Vonnegut’s books are â€Å"comic, pathetic pieces, juggled about by some inexplicable faith, like puppets. † (Riley, 1974, pg. 54). Vonnegut himself says in his book Hocus Pocus that if there is no one to take the blame for the bad happenings in the book, it can only mean that the villain is God Himself; â€Å" or Herself or Itself or Whatever† (Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus, 1990). Another significant theme is that there is no soldier, only man. Being a soldier is a myth as a soldier is just a puppet of war used to do as the war demands. He doesn’t remain a human being anymore. Vonnegut expresses this thought most noticeably in this extract from the novel from the time when Billy was imprisoned in Dresden. When the three fools found the communal kitchen, whose main job was to make lunch for workers in the slaughterhouse, everybody had been waiting for them impatiently. She was a war widow. So it goes. She asked Gluck if he wasn’t awfully young to be in the army. He admitted he was. She asked Billy Pilgrim what he was supposed to be. Billy said he didn’t know. He was trying to keep warm. â€Å"All the real soldier are dead. † She said. It was true. So it goes. (Vonnegut 1969. Pg. 159). Another obvious theme is that death is inevitable. It also goes on to explain that life goes on, no matter what happens and who dies. The phrase â€Å"so it goes† occurs one hundred and six times throughout the novel; it happens every time someone dies, to take away the seriousness of death and impart a humorous quality to its inevitable graveness. This book has different meanings for different people, as everyone would be likely to interpret its subtle messages in their own way. The point that Vonnegut wanted to make was that no matter what happens , we should retain our humanity.