Greek Cultural Influences

The culture of ancient Greece reflects the importance of the individual in society in many different ways. The Greeks used art, philosophy, and even their system of government to convey their beliefs in the importance of one single man in a society. Greek artists showed value for the individual. All people were portrayed in Greek art, from the sagging old woman to the ideal athlete. Although early Greek art focused on the human ideal, their later art shows that the Greeks appreciated all forms, and found the human body in general to be a beautiful thing. Even the gods in Greek art showed how highly the Greeks valued humanity. The gods were depicted as humans, and were made to human scale; no huge overpowering deity was ever portrayed in their art. The Greeks appreciated themselves in their art as much as they appreciated the gods. Even on the most famous temple of all time, the Parthenon, humans were portrayed. The frieze that adorned the upper face of the Parthenon depicted the human procession in honour of the god Athena. It was not just sculptures and architecture that showed Greek pride in the individual. Greek drama showed a huge appreciation for humans in all their glory. The Greeks valued human emotions; their plays covered a wide array of subjects, all the way from the tragedies of war to the comedic side of a society in the perils of war. These subjects made it possible to reveal the Greek appreciation for real life situations, showing the value they placed on human actions, but most of all on human nature. Like the various forms of Greek art, the government of ancient Greece appreciated the individual by creating an environment in which individuals were free to express themselves. Tyrants like Pisistratus and Cleisthenes came to power to try and make the polis a better place for the individual. These tyrants reformed the state in many ways; they helped make it possible for the rich and poor to have equal rights, and they created the conditions for the construction of the splendid monumental buildings ancient Greece is remembered for today. Although not all tyrants were good, they all had one thing in common: they were all citizens of Greece, and ruled to improve the lifestyle of the citizens of Greece. After the end of tyranny, Greece had a democracy; a government ruled by the people for the people. This democracy was made up of a number of committees who did everything from working the laws all the way to handling military affairs. Any man could become a member of these committees if they were at least eighteen years of age. Individuals were elected by the people for exactly one year. This system also made it so that even the poor citizens were not powerless, and it enabled Greek legislation to be governed by new people with new ideas every term. Clearly, the Greeks took advantage of the abilities of its citizens. Along with creating a fair society for its citizens to live in, the Greeks also promoted the forward thinking and ideas of its people. The philosophies of such Greeks as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates helped shape Greek society in many ways. Plato valued the ability of all people, and believed that the ideal polis would be one in which every citizen would do his part according to his or her abilities, and there would be no distinguishing marks between the rich and the poor. Socrates also valued people in that he believed human beings and their environment are the essential subject of philosophical inquiry, meaning that humans and their actions were extremely complex and hard to understand, so they were worth studying. He also believed that the conscience of an individual provided better morals then even the laws of the government; he valued other peoples thoughts and what they had to say. The last of the three major Greek philosophers, Aristotle, believed that god had no purpose, and therefore people were to depend upon themselves. All of these philosophers are similar in that they all appreciated the thoughts and ideas of every individual, and their own ideas helped make it possible for all people of ancient Greece to appreciate what they had to say. The various characteristics of Greek society show pride in the individual in a number of different ways. The Greeks created an environment in which human actions, emotions, and imaginations were appreciated and encouraged. Humans were the subjects of statues, dramatic performances, and even philosophical debate. The Greeks were appreciated by themselves as well as the polis.

The Effects of Junk Food on Health

The Effects of Junk Food on Health Junk foods are deemed to be trash foods as they are high in fat, sodium  and sugar. The apparent effect of junk food can lead to obesity and a range of attendant health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. Majority of junk food choices do not deliver beneficial nutritional values. Here are the facts about  how excessive junk food consumption affects your body. First of all, junk food doesn't contain the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy. As a result, you may feel chronically fatigued and lack the energy you need to complete daily tasks.The high levels of sugar in junk food puts your metabolism under stress; when you eat refined sugar, your pancreas secretes high amounts of insulin to prevent a dangerous spike in blood sugar levels. Also, you can be less focused with anything you undertake at work and home because what you are acquiring from junk foods are mere fats, not healthy ingredients. Also, you will experience lack of important oxygen that eventually result to poor brain functioning. In fact, junk food will cause our body lacking of energy and less concentration and focus when doing work. Next, junk food contributes obesity.Junk food contains large amounts of fat, and as fat accumulates in your body, you'll gain weight and could become obese. The more weight you gain, the more you'll be at risk for serious chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. The high levels of fat and sodium in junk food can cause high blood pressure or hypertension. You'll feel tired and have trouble concentrating because your body might not be getting enough oxygen. Hence, fat will lead to weight gain and obese sickness, furthermore, high risk in suffering critical illness such as heart disease.Moreover, junk food can lead to diabetes. This happens because eating too much sugar puts your metabolism under stress, your body has to pump up insulin production to prevent a dangerous spike in blo od sugar levels. Because junk food doesn't contain the protein or complex carbohydrates that your body needs to maintain consistent blood sugar levels, your blood sugar levels will drop suddenly soon after eating. You'll crave sugar and likely end up eating more junk food. Over time, this stress damages your body's ability to use the insulin secreted by your pancrease.A healthy diet can help maintain your body's insulin sensitivity. As can be seen, over amount of sugar will cause pancrease problem and diabetes which will affect the ability of controlling sugar level. In conclusion, junk food caused diabetes, obesity and lack of nutrients for a healthy body. We must be disciplined in indulging in these types of food because they are initially unhealthy to have. Too much of anything sweet or salty is health threatening, to prevent it, we can pick fruits and high-fiber food for good snacks and meals.

Booking System Essay

1.Product Description Gamici is one of Singapore’s most prestigious and stylist Italian restaurant which served authentic Italian cuisine. With its simple, elegant yet friendly and vibrant environment, Gamici has become a common social gathering place for many friends and families. Therefore, this has helped to boost the growth of its business. Currently, Gamici is using a completely manual based system to carry out some of their day to day operations. Due to the business growth, this system has become inadequate to meet its business requirements. Some problems it encountered using a manual system when its business is getting busier each day: †¢ More manpower is needed to serve the customers which lead to space constraint in the restaurant. †¢ Servers complained that they have too much to do within the fastest time possible else customers will get impatient with their service. This may lead to more human error such as carelessness. †¢ Inefficiency caused returning customers to decrease as the wait time for seats, food to be served, servers’ response and billing are getting too long. †¢ Food quality degrades as food processing time is shortened to satisfy customers’ impatience. †¢ Customers can only reserve seats and order food through phone calls and this means that payment cannot be made beforehand. Some of the food ordered by customers may have special ingredients that need advance purchasing. Last minute cancellation by customers or customers who do not turn up, result in wastage of food and staff effort is put to a waste. Thus, the restaurant will eventually make loses. †¢ High expenses incurred. With the aim for solving the above problems, Gamici has decided to engage UPz to develop a portal to 1) Reduce the workload of the staff. 2) Have online payment via credit/debit card. 3) Receive order in real time Therefore, UPz software development team will introduce an Online Reservation and Food Ordering System (ORFO) whereby customers can browse the food menu online, which order can be placed and payment can be made through the system and reserve seats based on restaurant floor plan to pick the exact seat location in the restaurant that the customers prefer to dine at. 1.1Product Vision The new system (ORFO) aims to increase efficiency to smoother work flow of the restaurant so as to provide top-notch dining experience and service to the customers. It also aims to reduce overheads caused by the manual system and solve the current problems mentioned in Section 1 – Product Description. 1.2Business Requirements The first version of the ORFO must be available within three months. ORFO must demonstrate cost saving of at least 20% on labor within a year after the introduction. The reduction of manpower would mean that the restaurant need not have to activate as many staff as before during peak hours or days of the week. Labor productivity must be improved by 15% at least. Revenue must result in 20% increase after a year. New and existing customers patrolling the restaurant must result in 15% increase at least. 1.3Stakeholders and Users Management – The Board of Directors as the controlling interest in ORFO. Weekly status update meeting will be held to communicate the progress of the project to the management. Purchaser – Upz who invest money to develop the system. User – Customers who use ORFO to interact with Gamici. Developers – The eight-member development team which includes one project manager, two programmers, two software engineers, two database analysts and one designer. Staff – Restaurant Manager and Restaurant Supervisor who maintain and update the portal such as adding new items to the menu, making changes to the prices, introducing promotions. Administration Clerk and Waiters are only able to retrieve information. 1.4Project Scope The scope of this project is to develop an Online Reservation and Food Ordering System which will be integrated on Gamici website. This system allows reservation making and food ordering services that will provide a convenient dining experience to the customers. Customers can also raise special requests to cater to their needs. In addition, the ORFO system allows customers to choose their desire seats online based on the restaurant floor plan and order food. Then, payment can also be done online through ORFO system. Database will be created to keep track of customers’ information and requests. 1.5 Assumptions Order ID will be issued to customers after each transaction with Gamici. The payment modes will be through credit/debit cards or internet banking. An invoice will automatically be generated after each transaction. 6 Constraints The system should support various payment modes. Functional Requirements 1. General 1. The user shall only be able to perform the following operations: i. For customer: a. Make a reservation b. Browse menu c. Special request d. Make payment e. Modify/cancel reservation ii. For restaurant personnel: a. View database 2. The ORFO must have a â€Å"Back button† to go back to previous page. 2. Make a Reservation 1. When the user initiates ‘Make a Reservation’, he/she must be taken to the ‘Make a Reservation’ page. 2. The user must be able to enter the following information a. Time and date b. Number of people 3. Once the user submits the information, he/she will be taken a page that shows the floor plan of the restaurant. 4. The page must show all the available table(s) that fit the requirements in 2.2.2 in yellow. Unqualified table(s) will be in red. 5. The user must be able to choose the table(s) in yellow only and using the mouse by clicking on the table. The selected table will be in green. 6. The user must be able to deselect the table by clicking the selected table again and the table will be in yellow again. 7. Once the requested table(s) is selected, the user must be able to click the ‘Confirm’ button to proceed. 8. The user must be able to enter the following information: a. Name (between 1 to 32 characters) b. Contact number 9. Once the information is submitted, the selected table(s) and the information must be updated in the database. 10. If the update fails, the ORFO must show an error message to the user notifying him/her of the failure. 3. Browse Menu 1. The ORFO must display the menu that is updated to the current day and must be coherent to the menu used in the restaurant. 2. The menu page must display the menu in tabs with the following categories: i. Main course ii. Appetizers iii. Beverages iv. Dessert 3. Each tab page must display a list of 10 items at a time. 4. User must be able to navigate through the items using various navigational links provided at the bottom of the page: a. Clicking â€Å"next† will list the next 10 products in the menu. (If more available) b. Clicking â€Å"previous† will list the previous 10 products in the menu. (If previous exists) c. Click on individual page numbers will display the selected page. 5. The ORFO must allow the user to view the following about a single item from the menu by clicking on the item: a. Item name b. Item image c. Item description d. Item price 6. The user must be able to select the item by double clicking on the item and the item will be added to cart, refer to 2.3.7. 7. The ORFO must display a cart that contains the items selected by the user at the bottom of the page. 8. The cart must contain the following information a. Item name b. Item price c. Total price (with GST) d. Total price (with GST) 9. The user must be able to delete the item from the cart by selecting the item and click on the â€Å"Remove† button at the side. 10. If there is at least one item in the cart, the user must be able to click the â€Å"Proceed† button to proceed. 11. Once the â€Å"Proceed† button is clicked, the selected items information must be updated in the database. 12. If the update fails, the ORFO must show an error message to the user notifying him/her of the failure. 4. Special Request 1. The ORFO must display a list of default special request with tabs with the following categories: a. Birthday b. Date c. User defined 2. For tabs a and b, the page must display a list of 10 items at a time. 3. User must be able to navigate through the items using various navigational links provided at the bottom of the page: a. Clicking â€Å"next† will list the next 10 products in the menu. (If more available) b. Clicking â€Å"previous† will list the previous 10 products in the menu. (If previous exists) c. Click on individual page numbers will display the selected page. 4. The ORFO must allow the user to view the following about a single item from the menu by clicking on the item: e. Item name f. Item image g. Item description h. Item price 5. The user must be able to select the item by double clicking on the item and the item will be added to cart under refer to 2.3.7. 6. To delete the selected item refer to 2.3.9. 7. For tab c, the user must be able to enter in a short description of the special request and must provide the following information: i. Item name ii. Place to buy 8. If there is at least one item in the cart, the user must be able to click the â€Å"Proceed† button to proceed. 9. Once the â€Å"Proceed† button is clicked, the selected items information must be updated in the database. 10. If the update fails, the ORFO must show an error message to the user notifying him/her of the failure. 11. The ORFO must inform the user via the contact provided in 2.2.8 within 24 hours about the user defined special requests. 5. Make Payment 1. The ORFO must allow the user to look through all the items in the cart with information provided in 2.3.8. 2. The user must be able to confirm the order(s) by clicking the â€Å"Confirm† button. 3. The ORFO must display the modes of payment as shown: i. By cash at the restaurant ii. By credit card via online 4. If the user selects a, proceed to 2.5.5. If the user selects b, proceed to 2.5.8. 5. The ORFO must generate a transaction ID, the user must produce this ID at the restaurant for verification during the day of reservation. 6. The user must click the â€Å"Proceed† button to verify that he/ she has noted the transaction ID. 7. The ORFO must proceed to 2.5.14. 8. The user must be brought to a secured page to make the payment via credit card. 9. The user must be able to enter his/her credit card number. 10. After valid credit card number is entered, the user must be able to proceed by clicking the â€Å"Proceed† button. 11. Once â€Å"Proceed† button is clicked, the ORFO must verify the credit number. 12. If verification fails, the ORFO must show an error message to the user to notify him/her of the failure. 13. If verification is successful, the ORFO must generate an invoice and a link must be provided to the invoice for printing. 14. The ORFO must display the following information. a. Transaction ID b. Invoice ID (if any) c. Time and Date d. Number of people e. Table(s) reserved f. Food ordered g. Special request(s) (if any) 15. The reservation is completed, the user must be able to exit the page or proceed with another transaction by clicking the â€Å"Finish† button. 6. Modify/ Cancel Reservation 1. The ORFO must allow the user to modify or cancel reservation at â€Å"Modify/Cancel Reservation† Page. 2. The user must enter the following information for verification: a. Transaction ID b. Credit card (for payment via credit card only) 3. If the verification fails, the ORFO must show an error message to the user notifying him or her of the failure. 4. If the verification is successful, the ORFO must check the time of this adjustment and the time of reservation. 5. If the duration is more than 24 hours, the ORFO must show a message to the user notifying him/her that it is too late for the adjustment and 2.6.20. 6. If the duration is shorter than 24 hours, the user must be able to proceed to the page to make the adjustment. 7. The ORFO must display the following: a. Modify reservation b. Cancel reservation 8. If the user selects a, proceed to 2.6.9. If the user select selects b, proceed to 2.6.17. 9. The ORFO must allow the user to modify the reservation as shown below: i. Change reserved table, refer to 2.2 ii. Modify ordered food, refer to 2.3 iii. Modify special requests, refer to 2.4 10. If the net payment after the adjustment is less than the previous payment, no refund must be given. 11. If the net payment after the adjustment is more than the previous payment, additional payment must be made, refer to 2.5. 12. The ORFO must update the database with the adjustments. 13. If the adjustment fails, the ORFO must show an error message to the user notifying him or her of the failure. 14. If the update is successful, the ORFO must display the following information. a. New Transaction ID b. Invoice ID (if any) c. Time and Date d. Number of people e. Table(s) reserved f. Food ordered g. Special request(s) (if any) 15. The ORFO must display the following information of the reservation: a. Transaction ID b. Invoice ID (if any) c. Time and Date d. Number of people e. Table(s) reserved f. Food ordered g. Special request(s) (if any) 16. The user must be able to cancel the reservation by clicking â€Å"Cancel Reservation†. 17. Once the user selects â€Å"Cancel Reservation†, the ORFO must update the database with the adjustments. 18. If the adjustment fails, the ORFO must show an error message to the user notifying him or her of the failure. 19. If the update is successful, the ORFO must inform the user how to get the refund. 20. The adjustment is completed, the user must be able to exit the page or proceed with another reservation by clicking the â€Å"Finish† button. 7. View Database 1. The user must choose the time and date in a drop down menu. 2. The ORFO must display the database in tabs with the following categories: a. Tables reserved b. Food ordered c. Special Orders 3. If the user selects a, proceed to 2.7.4. If the user selects b, proceed to 2.7.6. If the user selects c, proceed to 2.7.9. 4. The ORFO must display the floor plan showing the status of the table: a. Green table means reserved b. Red table means not reserved 5. The ORFO must allow the user to view the following about a reserved table from the floor plan by clicking on the table: a. Customer name b. Customer contact number c. Number of people d. Link to the ordered food e. Link to the special request f. Mode of payment 6. The ORFO must display the ordered food in tabs based on the reserved tables. 7. When the user selects one of the tabs, the ORFO must display the ordered food in a table, with the following format: a. Main course b. Appetizers c. Beverages d. Dessert 8. The ORFO must display the quantity of the ordered food beside the item in the table. 9. The ORFO must display the special requests in tabs based on the reserved tables. 10. When the user selects one of the tabs, the ORFO must display the special requests in a table, with the following format: a. Birthday b. Date c. User define 11. The ORFO must display the quantity of the special requests beside the item in the table. 12. Once viewing of the database is done, the user must be exit the database by clicking on the â€Å"Exit† button. 3.Data Requirements Data requirements describe the format, structure, type, and allowable values of data entering, leaving, or stored by the product. 1. The system will only accept data which are correct and not ambiguious. E.g Mobile number should only be 8 digits long and credit card numbers should be 16 digits long. 2. The booking can only be submitted and processed by the system when all required fields of data have been filled up. 3. The system should display all times in the 24-hour clock format. 4. The system must store customer names in fields recording first and last name. 5. When a customer has selected a table of choice for booking but has not yet confirmed his booking, the system will lock out that particular table to other customers. 4.Non-functional requirements There are requirements that are not functional in nature. Specifically, these are the constraints the system must work within. 1. Compatiblity 1. The website should be compatitible with both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, the 2 most widely used browser currently. 2. User interface 1. The user interface should be as familiar as possible to users who have used other web applications and Windows desktop applications. E.g., we will follow the UI guidelines for naming menus, buttons, and dialog boxes whenever possible. 3. Security 1. Access will be controlled with usernames and passwords 2. Only administrator users will have access to administrative functions, average users will not. 3. Database should be reasonably secured to prevent leak or loss of confidential information such as credit card details from customers.. 4. Performance 1. The system should be up and running 24/7. 2. It should support at least 100 users using the online booking concurrently without any lag. 5. Backup and Recovery 1. There should be a backup server and database to prevent service interuption or loss of data when the main server and database are down. 2. Downtime should not last more then 30sec when switching from main server to the backup server in case of a breakdown. 6. Reliability 1. The whole online booking system should achieve a 99% sucess rate. i.e downtime should not be more then 1% of its total operating time. 2. System review will take place monthly. Any lack in performance or reliability will be addressed and improved on after each review. 7. System Maintainence 1. Maintainence of the system will be conducted weekly. Maintainence will be conducted during off-peak hours e.g between 12am – 6amz 5.Interface Requirements Overview The user interface of this restaurant booking system is a web site which can be viewed using popular web browsers. This high accessibility made it easier and more convenient for users to use the system. Users don’t need to set up any additional software for the purpose of running the system. As long as an Internet co nnection is available, the system can be easily accessed using their mobile devices. Multi-platforms operation is also an additional advantage of this design. One more advantage of this design is the power of the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides nicer features with simple modification and configuration compared to the GUI of other languages. HTML language supports the use of other languages and technique to make dynamic objects, which can improve the vividness of the application. 5.1User Interfaces These are the fundamental features of the GUI that should be included in the websites: A login box comprises of an account and a password textfield. Users can sign in using their NRIC to check their bookings. We can provide the sign up function for long-term users so that they don’t have to refill the information everytime booking is made. A dynamic menu including the links to the homepage, the menu page, the booking page and the information page. the menupage will have the list of food with its respective image.It can be divided into many pages to ease up the navigation. The booking page will have a shopping cart function for the booking of food and a clickable map for the reservation of seats. After booking is submitted, the webpage will automatically redirect to the payment page. The information page will provide additional information about the restaurant. A slideshow or a flash of the images of the restaurant. Images of the top ordered dishes and their respective information (e.g price, ..). A panel for advertisements coming from our own restaurant or from other parties. 5.2Hardware Interfaces Describe how the software application interfaces with hardware that exists outside the scope of the system. 5.3Software Interfaces The use of web design tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver is employed to make a more professional and nicer design of the system. The code editor and the design editor is integrated in one tool, which allows easy modification as well as addition of elements onto the web pages. Interactive and dynamic objects can be created more easily within a few clicks. The platform to implement the webpage is php and mysql with the support of Apache. Another platforms to be considered are jsp, serverlet using netbean, asp.net and C# using Visual Studio. However, PHP is chosen due to its popularity, ease in coding and the availability of free scripts online. To edit the images and make the flash, it is recommended to utilize Adobe Photoshop, Flash SlideShow maker and Adobe(Macromedia) Flash Player. This requires some Actionscript code to make the dynamic contents. It’s also used to create icons and graphics to enhance the interface. 5.4. Difficulties Encountered and Solutions Applied Since most of the languages used is new to the development team. It takes time to get familiar with these languages. Another problem confronted by the team is the inconsistency in designs and layout since different components and different pages are developed seperately by different people. These components are later merged together to form the complete system. Confronting these problems, our team has come up with appropriate solutions and applied it successfully. For instance, we have searched online and found plenty of free pieces of code and software that is applicable to our system. This simplifies the process of coding and developing some interactive components. To name it, we use Flash SlideShow maker to generate the slideshow in the flash format simply by adding pictures and choose the skin of the layout. A lot of PHP codes, Javascript to do some complicated tasks or to make dynamic menus features can be found easily on the websites and tutorials. They give us an idea of how the job is done and save us a lot of hard work. About the inconsistency matter, the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is applied to enhance the flexibility and accessibility of the elements by defining the common element property seperately and concretely. These properties are specified in the style sheet, which determines the appearance of all the pages that are linked to it. The point is that these properties only need to be entered once and then they are applied automatically to all the elements, which save a lot of coding. Another remarkable advantage displays itself when it comes to managing big and sophisticated websites. CSS make it possible for the whole systems and organizations to share and reuse a small number of style sheets. Beside ensurement of consistency across the site, CSS also favors the updating and modifying of the web layouts to conform to the changes in system requirement. Instead of editting individual components, we can edit all together in one go by modifying the style sheet. 6.Use Case Model Provide the top-level use case diagram, followed by the use case description for each use case. 6.1Use Case Diagram 6.2Use Case Description 7.Glossary Define all terms and acronyms required to interpret the SRS properly. This is the (problem) domain dictionary. 8.References Provide a list of all documents and other sources of information referenced in the SRS and utilized in developing the SRS. Include for each the document number, title, date and author. |Document No. |Document Title |Date |Author | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 9.Revision History Identify changes to the SRS. |Version |Date |Name |Description | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Disneyland Hong Kong Essay

1. What led to the eventual woes experienced by Hong Kong Disneyland in its first year of operation? How should Hong Kong Disneyland rectify its market situation? The venture into Hong Kong by Walt Disney was a simple example of a large successful western company not doing its homework. The case presents a clear picture of the importance of understanding a foreign market thoroughly before doing business there. Several factors led to an unsuccessful first year of operations and a majority of these factors could have been avoided with a better cultural understanding in the planning stages. One of the culture differences that was obvious to Disney was the fact that the children are not familiar with the Disney characters. Disney has established its brand and is a marketing poster child in the United States, however this advantage goes out the window in a country such as china that has sheltered itself from the outside world until recently. Disney thought that making a meager attempt at introducing the characters before the launch of the park would help, however familiarity isn’t synonymous with brand attachment. As listed in Global Marketi ng Management by Kotable & Helson, â€Å"Cultural Distance† is one of the six external criteria for choosing a mode of entry into a foreign territory, which was not accounted for by Disney. Cultural distance also recognizes the fact that different cultures have different expectations. This was also the case with China. As stated in the case, â€Å"for the tourists of Mainland China, going to Hong Kong means a shopping experience, and so they choose the cheaper alternative to Hong Kong Disneyland†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The case goes on to allude to the fact that the culture in China is one about dollars and cents – when a Chinese person spends his/her money, they are more interested in what they are physically getting. This is very culturally different from a Western vacation where relaxation and experience is the expectation. Disney does a great job at providing a  magical experience, but in my opinion this is what led to their struggle in Hong Kong – the Chinese tourists do not value that very magical experience that westerners do. There were also other factors such as neglecting to do homework on how Chinese tourists select a destination. The Chinese tend to have a strong relationship with travel agents where as in the U.S a vacation is generally booked online without any personal interaction. Failing to account for these small differences coupled with the lack of brand attachment created nothing but an overpriced theme park. All hope is not lost however! Hong Kong is a huge tourist market and there is plenty of opportunity, but the only way for Disney to rectify its market situation is to bridge the gap of cultural distance. One way to do this would be to add an educational element to their park. The case notes that the Chinese put a premium on education, and in this culture the parents are the ones making the decisions – so appeal to them and attract more people. If Disney wants to succeed it needs to also remember what made it so successful in the U.S. After year one it is clear that their brand is not established and would not do all the work for them, and must take the necessary steps to reestablish themselves all over again. It must create a magical feeling in every Chinese child hearts as well as fit the consumer expectations of their parents. 2. To what extend could Hong Kong Disneyland adapt its product to Chinese consumers without diluting its image? Hong Kong Disney obviously requires a lot of changes in order to be successful – but at what point to these changes start impacting its brand? Being such a different culture from Disney’s main operations, China presents a challenge in that Disney is at risk of tarnishing its name if it changes its product to suit the Chinese expectations. The best way to handle this would be to introduce characters and elements of the theme park that are brand new to China, and not introduce them anywhere else. Instead of using Mickey Mouse as the brand image they can introduce something completely new – and after due time this could be successful because it is not as though the Chinese consumer has any attachment to the already established brand, as a matter of fact they are not even familiar with it. It can also change the layout of its parks. China is more interested in taking home physical items  rather than memories so why fill up the park with aesthetically pleasing creations? Instead they can introduce bigger rides in order to allow for pictures. They can even put a super-sized mall within their park in order to establish a collection-type phenomenon surrounding Disney products in China. The text refers to this strategy as â€Å"International Market Segmentation.† A list of reasons is given by Kotable & Helson for the segment approach, and the first one is â€Å"Identifiable – The segments should be easy to define and measure.† A country like China certainly calls for this approach because of the potential dilution of brand image, however by keeping the Hong Kong Disney defined as just that – Hong Kong – the brand in the United States will be unharmed. 3. How should Hong Kong Disneyland address competition? Hong Kong Disneyland’s main competition is Ocean Park, a â€Å"homegrown† theme park. First Disney must recognize the advantage that Ocean Park has over them. Ocean Park has an advantage in that it understands the battlefield, so to speak. It is a Chinese company and it understands the expectations of its consumer. There is brand recognition and a little bit of loyalty since it was established in China. They have a popular educational segment which bodes well with the Chinese and generally provide a good overall experience for the price. They are recognized as the best way that Disneyland can separate itself is through differentiation – they have to make their product unique. Another way that they can address competition is by going after a different part of the market. As stated on Ocean Parks website, a midweek ticket is 320 HK which translates to about 40 bucks in US dollars. A potential opportunity might be to offer Disneyland as the premium option. At 40$, O cean Park offers a pretty cheap admission and there is not much room to beat their price, however by offering upscale restaurants and shops, Disneyland can capture the upper echelon of tourists. Through differentiation and a focused market, Hong Kong Disneyland can coexist with the large and established Ocean Park.

Assess the Components of Cash Flow Statements Research Paper

Assess the Components of Cash Flow Statements - Research Paper Example The implementation of any non cash undergoes changes. 2. There are two methods of preparing a cash flow statement namely;- direct method and indirect method. Direct method uses real cash flow data from the organization’s operations. It presents major classes of gross cash receipts and payments. It is typically used by small firms. While preparing a cash flow using the direct technique, items such as amortization of insubstantial assets, preliminary expenditures, depreciation, and debenture discount are disregarded from the cash flow statement given that the direct method is inclusive of non-cash and cash transactions. Indirect method derives the data from the income statement and from changes on the balance sheet from one period to the next. The income statement and the balance sheet are based on the accrual accounting. It is a partial communication of accumulation basis gains to cash basis gains. 3. Different components of the cash flow statement employ indirect method. For instance we arrive at net cash flow from operating activities indirectly by starting with reported net income and working backwards to convert that amount to a cash basis. Depreciation expense does not reduce cash, but it is subtracted in the income statement. In the indirect method, positive adjustments to net income are made for decreases in related assets and increases in related liabilities, while negative adjustments are made for increases in those assets and decreases in those liabilities (Brahmasrene et al, 2004). The next section of the Statement of Cash Flows is Cash Flows from Investing Activities. Usually, this part comprises of any long-term savings the business makes plus any investment in fixed assets, such as plant and equipment. The last section of the cash flow statement is Cash Flows from Financing Activities (Dechow, 1994). Here, you have to finance your firm with long-term bank loans that have an increase and this is prepared using long terms. If you unite the

Island of stone money Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Island of stone money - Essay Example When the Germans gained possession of the island, they ordered the chiefs of the districts in the island to repair the paths that had been neglected and were in poor condition. When the chiefs declined to administer the repair of the roads, the Germans sought a way of imposing fine on them. A person was sent to each disobedient district to mark the most valuable Fei with a black cross to indicate that the government now owned the stones (Friedman 3). The people then felt impoverished, repaired the roads, and the government then sent its agents to erase the marks. Consequently, the people regained possession of their Fei. Despite these people’s apparent lack of knowledge on how monetary systems work, the article compares their beliefs with an incident in the U.S where the Bank of France requested the Federal Reserve Bank to store its gold in its account. Consequently, the Federal Bank put French gold in separate drawers and put a label to indicate that it belonged to the French. The two incidents illustrate how important myth is to monetary matters. People tend to believe that their own money is more real and rational than those used by other societies. Because of these myths, people fail to realize that money from other countries may have high purchasing powers than theirs (Friedman 5). One of the characteristics of Fei that qualified it as money was its use by these people as a medium that could be exchanged for goods and services. The durability of these stones, another characteristic of money, ensured that they performed their duty as a medium of exchange and store of value. Durability as a feature of money is critical since it develops confidence that an item can be exchanged later for other goods. Fei can be classified as commodity money because its value was independent of regulatory forces but dependent on attached value on its material. Act of the Germans to mark the stones illustrates this because of the adverse effects that it

Ressource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ressource Management - Essay Example This paper aims at discussing strategies that are involved in sourcing, budgeting processes as well as financial reporting requirements adopted by Tesco PLC, a UK based supermarket that deals with various kinds of products. Sourcing Apart from dealing with food products and Tesco mobile among other brands, Tesco PLC deals with selling and distribution of safety equipments such as gumboots, oil resistant boots, helmets, ear plugs, overalls and dust coats among others. Majority of our customers are entities dealing with manufacturing of all kinds of products as well as flower farms. Based on the need to maintain safety in all work places and be in line with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety requirements, majority of firms offering products as well as services have continued to order from us thus increasing our sales. Tesco PLC has outsourced the process of manufacturing most of our products to a neighboring firm. Outsourcing refers to the contracting of a firm ’s business activity to a third party. ... The second advantage is that the company is able to share the risks arising. Another advantage of outsourcing is that the company does not incur the costs of hiring production machine or purchasing them. Likewise, we are able to concentrate with our core business of selling and marketing of our products making the relationship with our client’s stronger. Disadvantages of outsourcing our services Although Tesco PLC emulates outsourcing, the company is faced with some disadvantages. First is lack of customer focus by the company we have outsourced to. Based on the fact that the company manufacturers products for various companies dealing with safety gadgets, it may lack complete focus on the quality of our brands2. Additionally, sometimes there is a delay in the delivery of the final products to Tesco PLC premises an issue that has caused us to lose some loyal customers3. Despite the disadvantages, our organizations objective is to outsource its production process for the next 3 years after which it will establish its own production department. Budgeting processes Tesco PLC.has established accounting department that undertakes the budgeting process under the leadership of a senior accountant. The company maintains a cash budget. The cash budget entails an expansive plan of future cash flows. In order to ensure that the company liquidity is maintained at a recommendable state, four items are covered by the cash budgets. These includes cash receipts, cash disbursements, net change in cash for a particular period of time as well as new financing needs. The accounting department undertakes six processes in its annual budget preparation. Automating: This department uses excel spreadsheets with formulas that are used to compute