Aloha Case Essay Example for Free

Aloha Case Essay 1. What should be Alohas competitive strategy? Low cost? It is difficult for Aloha to compete with the industry giants like Nestle, PG and Phillips Morris on low cost. The reason is simple volume. These industry giants have much higher volume than Aloha and enjoy a tremendous advantage in economies of scale. It is probably suicidal for Aloha to try to adopt a low cost strategy. It will probably be crushed like an ant, unless the giants play â€Å"oligopolists† and charge high prices to maximize profits. Differentiation; i.e., selling gourmet coffee a la. Starbuck? It is probably easier for Aloha to position itself as a gourmet coffee maker, catering to the yuppie type and charging a premium price for a coffee experience different from that offered by â€Å"regular† brands. Differentiation seems to be the choice strategy for small companies in that its success does not rely on size or volume; anyone with little resources but a great idea can be the David that slays the industry Goliaths. Examples abound: Ben Jerry in ice cream and Paul Newman in spaghetti source. In fact, while the case tells us little in this regard, I suspect that Aloha has been able to survive in this competitive industry for all these years and seems to be thriving entirely because it started out occupying a special market niche and positioning its coffee as a gourmet brand. 2. How should the roasting plants, and marketing and purchasing departments be evaluated? Roasting Plants Given the differentiation strategy, the roasting plants should be treated as a profit center, as it is already now. That is because the differentiation strategy can be successfully implemented only if the quality of the coffee lives up to its image as a gourmet brand, and evaluating plant managers on profit, rather on cost alone, motivates the managers to constantly improve the quality of the coffee and maintain it at high levels. In contrast with plant managers evaluated on cost alone, plant managers evaluated on profit are penalized if they sacrifice quality on the altar of cost minimization; when quality declines, so will revenue and profit. On the other hand, if Aloha pursues a low cost strategy, then the plant managers should be evaluated on cost control alone. For a firm adopting a low cost strategy, volume is the king in order to achieve economies of scale and the customers targeted are less conscious of the quality of the coffee brands they drink. Thus, keeping cost down would be the primary objective for the plant managers. Marketing Department Since Aloha positions itself as a gourmet coffee maker, the objective for the marketing department is to keep both the price and gross margins high. Volume would not be very important as the firm knows that it only appeals to a limited group of coffee connoisseurs. Thus, the marketing department should be treated as a revenue center and annual evaluation of its performance should be based on a comparison of actual prices with target prices. Alternatively, marketing could be treated as a â€Å"pseudo† profit center with its â€Å"profit† defined as sales minus standard cost of coffee sold. If a low cost strategy is pursued, then the marketing department should be treated as a revenue center as well. But the focus now is on volume, or more precisely, volume growth. Thus, the marketing manager and his lieutenants should be constantly reminded of the importance of sales growth over time and be rewarded for good sales growth. Purchasing Department The purchasing department currently purchases coffee on both the spot and forwards markets. The policy is to make purchase commitments (forward contracts) based on maximum potential plant requirements and sell the rest on the spot market. That sounds like speculation. One may argue Aloha should meet its need for coffee beans only on the spot market and refrain from the speculation business, which is distracting attention from is main business grinding and selling gourmet coffee. A counter argument is that good coffee traders probably can spot market trends others cannot and are able to reduce the cost of coffee beans by purchasing forward contracts. I question that argument because it is doubtful that any market participants can â€Å"beat the market† and consistently purchase coffee beans on the forwards market at a lower cost than on the spot market. One drawback of the policy of buying forward contracts is it allows the purchasing department to transfer the most costly coffee beans to the plants and make the plants shoulder losses from their trading mistakes. Buying on the spot markets means that the purchased amount is equal to the need of the plants for coffee beans, and thus the purchasing department would not be able to burden the plants with high-cost beans and keep low-cost beans for themselves to boost trading profit. If the purchasing department is forbidden to play the forwards market, performance evaluation for the department is easy. It would be treated as a cost center, and the cost it incurs for coffee bean purchases will be compared with market price averages in the periods that the purchases take place.

The Character of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter Essay -- Papers N

The Character of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne, a character within The Scarlet Letter, is a prime example of Hawthorne's common transformation of individuals within his books. These mutations involve the qualities and attributes of her physical appearance, feminine emotions, and reputation among the townspeople. Throughout the novel, the mentioned elements of Hester's character develop and change several times, providing the reader with better understanding of the influence that the scarlet letter and other characters have on her. In the beginning of the novel, the reader is presented with a physical appearance of Hester that is pleasing to the visual eye. It is Hawthorne describes his heroine of the book by writing that "She had dark and abundant hair†¦face†¦beautiful†¦features and richness of complexion†¦deep black eyes" (51). Over time, these attributes faded and the "attractiveness of her person had undergone†¦change†¦sad transformation†¦luxuriant hair†¦cut off†¦hidden†¦some attribute had departed from her, the permanence of which had been essential to keep her ...

Do You Agree That Students Can Bring Hanphones to School or Not?

The relationship between teens and drugs has been around for decades; however, this is not what you would call positive. Substance abusing (which is using drugs or alcohol in ways than can cause physical harm) is often associated with crime. But why do youths take drugs† Youth take drugs for the following reasons: social disorganization, peer pressure, family factors, emotional, or rational choice. Social disorganization deals with drug abuse to poverty and disorganized urban environment. Drug use by youth minority group members has been tied to factors such as racial prejudice, low-esteem, social status, and stress produced from environment.The National Youth Survey found that drug use tends to be higher among urban youths. Peer pressure is the most well-known reason for teens to partake in substance abuse. Some may argue that teen drug abuse is highly correlated with the behavior of close friends especially when family supervision is weak. This relationship, in fact, is recip rocal: substance abusers seek out friends who engage in similar activities. Associating with drug abusers leads to increased levels of drug abuse. Another explanation is that drug users have a poor family life.Studies show that majority of drug users have had an unhappy childhood which included harsh punishment and parental neglect females and Caucasians who were abused as children are more likely to have alcohol and drug arrests as adults. Youths who learn that dugs provide pleasurable sensations may be most likely to experiment with illegal substances; a habit may develop if the user experience anxiety and fear. Other family factors associations with teen drug abuse include parental conflict over child-rearing, practices, failures, to set rules, and unrealistic demands followed by hard punishments.Low parental attachment, rejection, and excessive family conflict have all been linked to adolescent substance abuse. Psychodynamic explanations of substance abuse suggest that drugs hel p youths control or express unconscious needs thus come in taking drugs for emotional reasons. They may use drugs as an escape from real or imagined feelings of inferiority. Substance abuse is one of the many problems that begin early in life and remain throughout the life course. Youth who abuse drugs lack commitment to religious values, disdain education, and spend most of their time in peer activities.Rational choice is when they choose to drugs because they want to: some use them to get high, relax, improve creativity, or increase their sexual responsiveness. Most teens say â€Å"it's my life; I can do what I want. † However, some teens may use to this cover up the fact they do have problems or want to fit in. They don't want to be portrayed a follower rather than someone who can make their own decisions. The top two substances abuse is marijuana and alcohol; alcohol is the number one drug abused respectively.A survey from the Washington Post showcased that: out of 10, 61 6 8th graders: thirty-six percent had tried alcohol and thirteen percent admits to drinking regularly. Out of the 10, 484 seniors interviewed, seventy-two percent had tried and twenty-nine percent still use it. Fourteen percent of them sold drugs at one point while twenty-nine percent said they have came to school drunk or high. A direct relationship has been established between drug use and delinquency. Drug users may commit crimes to pay their habits. A study conducted in Miami found that 563 users annually committed more than 200, 000 crimes to obtain cash.Drug users may be more willing to take risks because of their inhibitions is lowered by substance abuse. Cities with high rates of cocaine are more likely to experience higher levels of armed robbery. Basically they are trying to say that teens who take drugs contributed greatly to the crime rate. With all the reasons for teen to take drugs like social disorganization, for example, I believe that the main reason is because of e motional problems and rational choice. I believe that drug abusers do contribute to the crime rate but not as much as they try to say it does.Studies have shown that the rates of teens that partake in drugs have dropped. Most teens drink and smoke with friends or alone. Some don't go out and commit crimes; they associate getting high as a regular part of hanging out with friends. With several programs like D. A. R. E. , the consequence of doing drugs is being spread out. I believe that's why most teens tend to smoke marijuana since the dangers aren't as high as cocaine and heroin users. However, some will do it out of rebellion and not recognize the link of their actions of today and the consequences they may have tomorrow.

The Jane Justin School Of Autism - 969 Words

Organization’s name and location: The organization I chose is the Jane Justin: School of Autism. It is located on 1300 W Lancaster Ave, Fort Worth, TX 76102. Mission or purpose statement: The Jane Justin School of Autism provides the right life skills and knowledge that children need to live a meaningful and productive life. How the school makes this mission possible is by responding to the needs of the students and families while respecting and embracing the individuality of the child while maintaining educational excellence. The Jane Justin School also hopes that the students one day may be able to return to a traditional classroom and educational setting with the skills that would make this possible. The community that the†¦show more content†¦Another program would be the applied behavior analysis department (ABA) this program provides behavior diagnostic services to the children with developmental needs. This program is also connected to the board certified behavior analysts (BCBA). The BCBA are intense therapy treatment that is based on scientifically tested behavioral principles and procedures. The ABA involves steady evaluation of treatment progress and clinical decision-making based on each child. ABA is the only treatment approach with rigorous scientific evidence to support its effectiveness as both comprehensive and focused treatment. The psychology services pay attention to attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, autism spectrum disorders, developmental delays, behavioral; disorders, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and difficulties associated with genetic disorders. They start evaluating the students by reviewing their historical background and looking at their past academic history. The Child Development Clinic (CDC) is another program that is provided. It is a multidisciplinary clinic that includes a psychologist and social worker. The psychologist may administer rating scales, cognitive, language, and/or developmental screeners as well as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2). Afterwards, the psychologist provides the family with a diagnosis (there may be more than one),