Friday, September 4, 2020

Rationalism vs Empiricism Using Descartes free essay sample

Q3:What are the primary contrasts among logic and experimentation as ways to deal with information? Clarify the points of interest and burdens of each, utilizing Descartes (Second Meditation) as the case of a realist, and Hume or Locke as the case of an empiricist. In your view which approach better clarifies the sound judgment information on the world that we underestimate? Sound judgment information will be data we know and see unproblematically. It may be the case that a creepy crawly has six legs, your multiple times tables or that in noting a different decision test, it is a smart thought to get an elastic and fill your answers in pencil. It is data picked up from common life. Epistemology is a philosophical term concerning the nature and impediments of information. It addresses right off the bat what is information, besides how is information obtained and thirdly the constraints of information. Realism and experimentation are two methodologies which try to give answers to these inquiries (Cottingham, 1988). We will compose a custom exposition test on Realism versus Empiricism Using Descartes or then again any comparative subject explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Experimentation sees that the improvement of ideas and thoughts are subject to the faculties (Markie, 2008). On the other hand realism determines that thinking, instinct and conclusion are a definitive vehicles to obtaining information, not tangible experience. These hypotheses don't really exist in resistance of one another, however can coincide to portray how one perspectives the procurement of information in various fields (Markie, 2008). All through this article, I will talk about the focal points and drawbacks of each view utilizing Descartes’ ‘Second Meditation’ as opposed to Hume’s ‘Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding’. I will at that point expound how the Empiricist viewpoint gives a superior clarification to good judgment information on the world we live in. Logic Rationalism is a strategy wherein the measure of the fact of the matter isn't tangible however intelligent and deductive. The rationalistic viewpoint makes due on the supposition that right off the bat, there is a sane structure to the world and also, that individuals have the ability to grasp it. It uses the deductive strategies for rationale to give a model to all human information and depends on instinct (Markie, 2008). This isn't generally the situation, so this way of thinking can't be depended in all conditions. Realism is established on the theory of Intuition/Deduction, proposition of Innate Knowledge or Innate Concept postulation independently or in some mix (Markie, 2008). The Intuition/Deduction postulation suggests that in a specific branch of knowledge, some data is known by instinct alone or that information is picked up by derivation from intuited recommendations. Encounters are unequipped for creating one’s information yet can catalyze thinking making information progress from obviousness to awareness (Cottingham, 1988). The Innate Knowledge proposal attests that some information is characteristic inside humankind like DNA, as a feature of our sound nature. The Innate Concept hypothesis depends on the attestation that a portion of our ideas are not picked up as a matter of fact (Markie, 2008). The discerning nature naturally has an individual’s ideas. Sense encounters may catalyze a procedure by which ideas are better seen however experience doesn't give the ideas or decide the data they contain, reasonability does (Markie, 2008). Other minor speculations which are utilized to a lesser extent to underwrite Rationalism are the Indispensability of Reason Thesis and the Superiority of Reason Thesis. The Indispensability of Reason hypothesis expresses that we gain information in a specific zone when we use finding and utilize instinct. In all actuality they have ‘narrowly kept cutoff points without any innovative force than exacerbating, transposing, expanding or decreasing the materials gave by the senses’. On the off chance that an individual is without the limit of one of the faculties, they are without the data given by that sense and are unequipped for understanding data joined to that sensation (Hume, 1975). Reestablishing that sense empowers them to get tactile information, empowering them to imagine the appended thoughts. This demonstrates the significance of the tangible experience and that without it understanding is unimaginable. Correlation In my assessment, Empiricism better clarifies the good judgment perspective on the world. This is on the grounds that information increased through sane idea anyway much you can get it, isn't engrained or coordinated into your center convictions in a similar way as that increased through unmistakable experience. Information increased through experience is all the more firmly felt and can be viewed as better than information picked up by reflection (Hume, 1975). Without an encounter of the subject in center, the data is isolates and reflection can't continue to happen. Instinct and conclusion, anyway pertinent, are available to misleading and can prompt erroneous suppositions. Individuals recently accepted the earth was level and the earth was the focal point of the universe, as this â€Å"information† fit their present diagrams. It seemed well and good yet lead to wrong ends as it needed testing. It is through experimental perception that exact understanding was reached. Their reasonable reasoning followed intelligent finding and was accepted to be right because of their instinct, however even sound reasoning can be questionable prompting incorrectly suppositions (Descartes, 1984). It is demonstrated that when individuals have emphatically held convictions, they see data in such an approach to help their present comprehension and deny contradicting sees, sifting through data that doesn't accommodate their present compositions like putting signals on a pony. In spite of the fact that they accept their contemplations to be levelheaded, their forces of conclusion are undermined and can be normally off-base. This altogether confines their capacity to pick up information (Descartes, 1984). End Rationalism and Empiricism are two unmistakably various perspectives identifying with epistemology and the level of information that the faculties give in the development of information.

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the functional organisation Essay

Talk about the qualities and shortcomings of the useful association and the cross-utilitarian venture based association (PBO) in CoPS - Essay Example 1 The main point of the paper is to expand by characterizing the different parts of the substance of the paper for example it will begin by characterizing CoPSs and their significance to the organization. This paper will likewise harp on the shortcomings and qualities each type of association impacts on the creations of CoPS in the organization. Explicit accentuation will be the distinctions in the shortcomings and qualities of task based associations and utilitarian association structures of a similar organization. Regardless of whether the distinctions can be amended or not will be the judgment of the organization. The key difficulties of task based associations (PBOs) regarding their need in the CoPS assembling will likewise be investigated. The paper will likewise distinguish the sorts and sorts of PBOs and CoPS separately. This will help in unmistakably organizing the sort of qualities and shortcomings each will affect on the presentation of the organization. The vast majority of the areas of the paper are illustrated to coordinate the themes with the normal difficulties that will be experienced while embracing the particular authoritative structures At last, it will diagram the connections between venture based associations, the utilitarian associations and the CoPS as far as their creation and quality evaluation. Another point of this paper will be to plot the highlights of undertaking based associations with pertinence to the organization. The inward coordination will likewise be investigated so as to unmistakably separate the two types of associations. It will likewise characterize and expand cross-practical venture based associations and their inside organisations2. As indicated by Hobday, Complex Products and Systems (CoPS) are designing escalated, high worth capital merchandise. (Hobday, 1998) CoPS are typically made in little clumps because of their speculation venture, significant expenses, sythesis and physical scale. Contemporarily, all CoPS are

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Santas Lap Christmas Improv Drama Game

'Santas Lap' Christmas Improv Drama Game Santas Lap is a minor departure from a performance center game called Surprise Guests. Similarly as with that character speculating game, one individual will leave the stage region and be too far to hear. The rest of the cast individuals will at that point assemble recommendations from the crowd by asking them: Who would it be advisable for me to be? The crowd may propose conventional character types: cattle rustler, drama vocalist, team promoter, or different proposals. They may likewise propose explicit people: Walt Disney, Vladimir Putin, Queen Elizabeth, or characters from books or films. Or on the other hand, the crowd can be urged to offer strange proposals, for example, A man with no bonesA lady who is frantically infatuated with pastaA youngster who fears sweets Step by step instructions to Play After each cast part has gotten a character, all at that point structure a solitary record line. The individual playing Santa enters in character, and the scene starts. Santa Clause might be played in a certified kind of way (think Miracle on 34th Street), or he might be depicted as a displeased shopping center Santa (as in A Christmas Story). After Santa interfaces with the crowd or maybe with a mythical person representative, the principal character in line sits on Santas lap. (Or on the other hand they can simply move toward Santa if sitting isn't suitable to the character.) As Santa approaches what the individual needs for Christmas, he will likewise take part in a discussion that will convey entertaining little pieces of information about the personality of the character. Similarly as with Surprise Guests, the objective isnt such a great amount to accurately figure the character. Rather, the entertainers should concentrate on cleverness and character advancement. Capitalize on the collaboration between Santa Claus and his riddle lap-sitter. After the lap-sitter has been distinguished, at that point Santa proceeds onward to the following individual in line. Note: In request to make the comedy game increasingly powerful, Santa should don't hesitate to move from his seat, taking the characters to see his workshop, sled, or reindeer outbuilding. Tips To help plan an effective comedy occasion, look at these tips: You wont require a huge amount of space for this inquiry and-answer speculating game, yet you will need at any rate five individuals to play. In the event that you have that couple of, you can turn individuals all through the crowd and can pivot the individuals being Santa in various rounds, as each round will move rapidly. On the off chance that you have many individuals, you can at present pivot Santa after a specific number of characters speculated, for example, each 10, or after a specific time allotment, state 15 or 20 minutes, contingent upon how Santa is doing.If kids are associated with the game, consider their insight into popular individuals or characters while picking the subjects.When concocting your subjects, the more inventive you can be, the more exuberant the game will be. Having somebody claim to be an information passage representative, for instance, won't be as lively for the on-screen character as, state, a skydiver with a dread of statures. Get a passionate compo nent into the character proposal whenever the situation allows. This can likewise assist the on-screen character with thinking up what the person needs from Santa for Christmas, as the character will have a need of something incorporated with their job from the beginning.

Inattendu Essays - Jewish Culture, Hebrew Calendar, Free Essays

Inattendu Essays - Jewish Culture, Hebrew Calendar, Free Essays Inattendu Inattendu Une certaine mutation dans le plancher causa aux planches de saltine se qui me signala lapproche de mama mre. Jouvris les yeux doucement laissant la lumire aveuglante accesser mes retinas tendis que je baillaient gracieusement and tirant les quatres extentions de mon corp. Avec elle, elle apportait un assortement dlectable de viandes completment satures avec de la sauce, se que jaimais appeler mon petit djeuner. Attackant la nourriture avec un apptie qui mtait avant inconnue, jaivais vite dvourer le repa qui mavais t donn avant daller saluer le rest de mama famille comme ils arrivaient la food aprs une priode de repos et rcupraton bien dserve. Regrettablement, bien qu ils taient bien reposs, personne navait lnrgie pour accepter mon offre qui tait de prendre lavantage dun si playmate matin dt pour prendre une marche relaxante atravre du voisinage. Pourtant, je dcida dy aller bien que seule et je suis parti standard mama fight qui se trouvait dans la porte arrire. Une fois dehors, je fus barrage dun assortement dodeurs de nectars dlicieux qui vennait du jardin de mama mre. Mais, aprs avoir appris mama exercise du plusieurs expriences passes, je dcida de continuer mon chemin et daller voyager quelque standard dautre o jallais pouvoir courrir et jouer sans avoir a minquit des results, le park. Le park tait situ peu prs trois alliances de mama maison et a me prennait environ cinq minutes pour my rendre. En chemin, je remarqua quelques enfants qui avait dcid de suivre mon model et de sortir pour jouir dans le soleil du matin en jouant la balle. standard de lodeur de gazon fraichement overthrow, tu pouvais presque goutter le sel vennant de leurs fronts reluisants de sueur et de leurs bras se qui tait le leur dpense outrageous dnrgy. Moin coordin dans child tat dilapid, lenfant le in addition to jeune et embonpoint lana la balle trop flank vers la awkward, et elle roula jusque dans la regret. Come basic courtoysie, je courrue rcuprer lobjet qui nous amusaient tant juste pour tre rencontr standard un cri aigu, suivi de la noirceure vide. Jouvris mes yeux laissant les rayons nuisibles acceder reprise une fois mes retinas. Inadequate de bouger, je cherchait de tous cts ssayant de trouver se qui me retenait, mais je trouva la place une flaque de sang cramoisi rouge qui expandait lentement. la mme rhythm je devenait de in addition to enplus froid et de in addition to en in addition to engourdi. Paniquan, jai ssay de fuir juste pour raliser reprise une fois que jtais dsempar et stationary. Une odeur maladive de fer et de caoutchouc brul drivait doucement autour de mama tte tournant mon esctomac en un mlange dacides insuportable. Bientt, le jeune garon qui avait lanc la balle tait au-dessus de moi en larmes souhaitant que javais respect des deux cts avant de charger dans la regrets, et quil aurait pu faire quelque picked pour amiliorer la circumstance. En un moment, ses compagnions apparurent avec un adulte habill en sallopette pleine de peintures, peuttre child pre, qui sentait les cigarettes et qui cest agenouill a mon ct en flattant mes cheveux et en me rassurant que tout allait tre right, et que mama famille serait l bientt. a na pas pris beaucoup de temps avant que tous les garons furent en larmes vehicle ils se sentaient compltement responsable pour laccident et venait juste de raliser la gravit de la circumstance. Se home que quand jai vue lexpretion sur la figure de mama mre que je compris tel point laccident tait grave. C.tait un ragard dhorreur et dangoise mlang se qui tourna presque instantanment en stun et en tristess quand elle enleva sa fille de la scene. Jai vue mes amis de jeu retourner chez eux aprs avoir vue mama condition. Lentement, mama vision devin embrouill, et graduelment mes yeux fermairent coupant la lueur du soleil et mama vue de tout mes companies avant que mon coeur pompe pour la dernire fois. Maintenant en paix, je me sens mal pour les gens qui ont souffre cause de mama mort. Ce ntait pas le temps ou la faon wear jaurais du mourrir, mais a mama funrail, mama famille mama dit quils ne touveraient jamais un ami aussi steadfast et point que moi, leur chien.Une certaine mutation dans le plancher causa aux planches de wafer se qui me signala lapproche de mama mre. Jouvris les yeux doucement laissant la lumire aveuglante accesser mes retinas tendis que je baillaient gracieusement and tirant les quatres extentions de mon corp. Avec elle, elle apportait un assortement dlectable de viandes completment satures

Friday, August 21, 2020

Black Boy :: essays research papers

Dark Boy      Black Boy is a story written in first individual through the dark boy’s eyes. The story opens with the dark kid cleaning eyeglasses at the sink during the morning hours before lunch. As the kid washed eyeglasses this day as every single different days, Mr. Olin, a white man who bossed the dark kid around floated over him. While starting up discussion with the dark kid, Mr. Olin poses a crazy inquiry if the dark kid is his companion. This inquiry in the story is the initial phase in building up the plot. The dark kid, frightful of the Mr. Olin and the force he has over him, chooses to deceive him and reveal to him that he is his companion. Mr. Olin starts to deceive the dark kid in imagining that another dark kid named Harrison needs to battle him as a result of words that were misinterpreted. The dark kid gets stressed in light of the fact that he doesn't recall saying anything offending to Harrison, and he needs to converse with him and make things right. Mr. O lin tells the dark kid that he will proceed to address Harrison for him. During the dark young men mid-day break he proceeds to converse with Harrison himself about the circumstance, however soon they understand that they are being set up to battle each other so as to diversion to the white men. Both dark young men keep their mouths shut about addressing one another and knowing reality that neither of them needs to battle. Mr. Olin and Harrison’s manager both continue egging them on for a considerable length of time to battle one another lastly pay off them with five dollars to box battle. Harrison is intrigued in light of the fact that he needs a suit and this cash will help, however the other dark kid realizes this is despicable and wouldn't like to battle regardless of what the pay off is. For quite a long time Harrison and the dark kid question whether to box or not, and they at long last chose to box yet to imagine. The day comes to battle and both gaze each other in the face understanding that they need more information about battling to counterfeit the entire scene. The battle starts and the two young men irate at themselves, one another, and their position start to battle and shed blood. After their battle the two young men feel disgrace and corrupted and never battle again in spite of the fact that they are egged on commonly after.

Monday, August 3, 2020

CP 1 Toby Triebel and his founding story of Spotcap

CP 1 Toby Triebel and his founding story of Spotcap INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are here with Toby Triebel from Spotcap of Berlin . Toby, how are you doing?Toby: Very well, thank you, Martin! How are you doing?Martin: I am awesome, thank you! I am very glad that you take time for the interview and let me br iefly tend your personal background. What did you do before you started Spotcap?Toby: Sure. I am German by background but moved to London when I was sixteen and I did my school there, my university. Then I spent ten years in finance, working at an investment bank for the first five years and then for the last five prior to co-founding Spotcap I worked for an emerging credits hedge fund. So I have been in finance for more than ten years and bringing the finance background with me to Spotcap.Martin: And when did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?Toby: I guess it was probably two, three years ago when I started looking into entrepreneurial opportunities in detail. I have always been interested and curious in finding more about ent repreneurial opportunities and startups in general and I have long been investing in startups as sort of an angel investor myself but it was really about two, three years ago when I was, I probably wouldn’t say bored at my previous job. It was more the fact that I was interested in new challenge to put it that way.BUSINESS MODEL OF SPOTCAPMartin: Cool. Then let’s put some light on Spotcap â€" the new challenge of your life. What actually is Spotcap?Toby: So Spotcap is fintech company, Fintech meaning combining finance and technology, using technology to provide financial services. Spotcap in particular and how it fits into the fintech environment is online landing. It is providing loans to small businesses using technology online. That is essentially what we are doing. We are operating in three countries today Spain, the Netherlands and Australia providing loans up to 100  000 Euros to micro, small and medium sized businesses as we call them in the three markets today.Martin: Y es, right. Can you walk us through the credit approval process? So how many applicants do you have? What is the basic process â€" which one is manual and which one is automatic? What are the typical acceptance rates?Toby: Yes. We really thought long and hard about using and building the right technology to facilitate both the application as well as the approval process to a very large extent. The application process is done by business owners or directors of those micro, small and medium sized businesses; it is entirely online and it takes up to ten minutes provided that you have all the documents in place. It is really straightforward, it is a combination of entering information as well as providing financial documents and linking data, making sure that we have all the data we need to do our scoring. We then gather all the data, put it into our scoring algorithm and come up with a credit decision that is more often than not accept and approve credit applications. Sometimes we also will have to reject them because the business is not ripe enough yet, not mature enough.Martin: And do you need a banking license for this and that is the reason why you are currently only in three countries?Toby: The regulatory environment, it is distinctively across not just across Europe but across the world really. We do not need a banking license in the markets that we operate in which is good and bad. We very much welcome regulation and this is also why we applied and also received the STA credit license from the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Which we would need to operate, to do our business in the UK and we have started to implement the UK STA requirements across the three markets that we operate in. But today our operations in those three markets are entirely unregulated but we approach the regulatory environment proactively.Martin: Ok, and how does it come that it is currently unregulated? For example, imagine that I am a company in Spain so to speak, a market where you are active, and I have got several options of how I could finance my business in terms of debt financing: whether I go to a bank and get a loan or weather I use Spotcap. From my understanding, it is that banks in Spain are regulated and you as an alternative are currently not regulated. Is there a reason why the regulators have chosen for this to be unregulated or is it just that your business model is so new, they never would have expected something like that?Toby: It is a deliverable of both. If you think about it you take one step back, regulation is in place inheritly to protect the consumer in two ways. You can touch the consumer in two ways:you can provide loans to consumers andyou can take deposits from consumers.Regulation is in place to protect those. We do not touch either. We don’t provide loans to consumers, we only provide loans to small businesses and we do not take deposits. Our loans are inherently and exclusively on-balance-sheet funded. So that is why regulation is generally less pronounced in the space that we are in. Having said that, the UK is at the forefront of regulating our space as well and we would expect regulation to be put in place in Spain and other markets as well and that is exactly why we have chosen to be extremely proactive here and voluntarily implemented STA type of regulatory requirements across all our markets already.Martin: One other thing I wanted to talk to you about is you told you are giving basically loans out. Is there a difference in terms of how you finance those yourselves because you said it is on-balance. Is it more that the loans you are financing with venture debt and your headcount and so on with your equity?Toby: To a large extent this is true. We use institutional debt to fund our loan book and equity that we raise, and we raised 13 million in our series A charting last year, we use to fund our operations. We use institutional investors debt to fund the loans.Martin: In terms of revenue model is it ri ght to assume that you are basically like a bank, based on having interest income or is there any other revenue stream that you are thinking of?Toby: Yes, it is interest fee income exclusively, no other income.Martin: Okay, cool. One other thing which is very interesting for people just thinking about starting a company; I mean they can either bootstrap, or start a company and get some venture funding, or third option they can go to rocket internet and collaboratively start a company. This is what you did, Toby. Could you please help us understand how the process works at Rocket Internet? So how is an investment decision made? How is the management found and how are the first 100 days working?Toby: So a lot of questions at once and not exactly one line answers to any of those, I am afraid, because the process at Rocket to some extent is very streamlined but to another extent can differ significantly from company to company, from startup to startup. In some cases, Rocket Internet com es up with the idea, kickstarts the business, then searches for the right management to be put in place, the right co-founders who are then left alone at some point to build the company. However they can benefit to a very large extent from Rocket network in terms of human resources, in terms of expertise and know how in various areas, and in terms of investor relations and fundraising where Rocket can be and has been extremely helpful for many businesses.There are some other examples where co-founders approach Rocket and come up with an idea and need a seed investor. That is an alternative root whereby management approaches Rocket and comes forward with an idea and Rocket then chooses or not to support that business.Martin: And is there difference in terms of equity share? Because from what I have heard is that Rocket is typically having an idea and looking for management you maybe get up to 10 percent of the whole management in the form of equity. Is there difference if the founder is approaching Rocket?Toby: To be honest, I am not sure. I can only speak for myself. So I am sure there are differences across the companies but I am afraid I do not know any further detail on that.Martin: Okay, cool. So how did you experienced your first one hundred days and how is it typically going? I know there is obviously difference in term of which business model you choose. If you have some kind of fintech related stuff maybe regulatory actions will have a big share of time spent in the first weeks or months. If are only having an e-commerce maybe that is not the biggest issue. But is there some kind of basic process which you can walk us through?Toby: I mean Rocket does provide an active support to its young companies right after founding. It is clearly they provide support for putting the investment and the capital into place that is needed to build the business. Often, Rocket is involved themselves as a lead investor but they also have a network of other investors that may or may not chose to participate. So that is the big advantage of having Rocket as a seed investor and incubator.The other advantage, and that is not something to be underestimated is the large extent of expertise within Rocket Internet and within the Rocket Internet family. That is to say in IT, in product, in sales, in marketing, in PR. In many functions Rocket has a tremendous amount of expertise and really great people who has been in their respected functions for a long time, who have a lot of know-how, who can help kick start the business and get it on track faster than you would be able to otherwise. And I think that is the main benefit of Rocket and that is why a lot of Rocket companies have been so successful and have been so successful in a short period of time.Martin: Can you give us an example, Toby, of specific situation where you tapped into the knowledge of somebody at Rocket Internet and what the benefit for Spotcap was?Toby: In the beginning, we did not have Alin e in our head of communications so we went to Rocket and in particular went to Rockets’ PR communications team and sought some help and advice. And what they did, they provided a lot of guidance, help and actual real work in kick starting or PR effors. In particular, when we launched Spotcap in Spain in September last year they did the entire PR work: coming up with a PR strategy with a concept all the way to putting together a launch event, a press kit and so on which was tremendously helpful. We would have not been able to launch Spotcap that quickly and that successfully without the help of the Rocket PR team in that particular kit.Martin: So that’s that basically mean that you just paid for the service and had them on demand basis so to speak for just kick starting and scaling up for specified time then potentially scaling down at some other point in time?Toby: Essentially. Rocket services are not for free. You need to pay it, to pay the services just like you would for exte rnal providers. However, what is really helpful is the speed with which you can get that advice, support and work done at Rocket. And that is what the true benefit comes from. You have got the best talent in the respected areas and functions at Rocket and it is your own choice whether you want to benefit from that or not. And we chose to use a lot of Rockets’ resources in the beginning and subsequently we hired our own team and we are using a lot less Rocket resources now than we did twelve months ago.Martin: How many people are you employing currently?Toby: 65.Martin: Okay. You said that you raised €13 million in your series A. How the capital raising process worked and what was involvement of Rocket Internet in that?Toby: Rocket has been helpful. Rockets’ network of investors is definitely very helpful in allowing a series A of that magnitude to happen.Martin: And what was the specific process? So did Oliver called some kind of investors in Asia or the US and said, “We hav e an awesome project, Spotcap, that would revolutionize SMB loan business in Europe. This is why you need to invest” or was it more like, “Oli, I have got cool business idea and I need get in touch with those two people. Can you just make an intro?” So how did it actually work?Toby: I would like to answer that in more general way and it is probably a combination of both and ultimately you need to prove the business model and the management team to attract the capital that you need to start a business. And Rockets’ network of investors is certainly very helpful.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM TOBY TRIEBELMartin: Cool. Toby, what would be your advice for people who are just interested in starting a company and what are the pros and cons of starting the business by yourself just as bootstrapping or raising venture capital by yourself or on the other hand working directly with Rocket Internet?Toby: Working with Rocket Internet directly definitely is a much quicker approach to build ing a business. We founded Spotcap last summer, we are now 65 people. If I have probably done it completely by myself I would now be 10 people, if I did a very good job in finding investors, raising money, attracting talent.I don’t think there is a right way to do it. It depends on your preferences. What you would like to do. Can you afford to not pay yourself any salary for a year or two? If you can, then you might as well give it a go and try your luck to raise money. How many relationships do you have? There are a lot of questions that come to play that ultimately determine whether going to Rocket is good or whether you might be better off trying it yourself. I chose the Rocket way for the advantages that I outlined in terms of investor relations but also the expertise and knowledge that resides within the Rocket framework that is extremely helpful for starting up companies.FUTURE OF SPOTCAPMartin: Let’s have a look at the future of Spotcap. So currently you are active in thr ee markets and what are your growth options or the growth path that you would like to go for? Is it more of a regional extension or is it a product wise extension or is it first and foremost just increasing the penetration in those three markets?Toby: It is actually a combination of all three that you mentioned. We definitely see enormous potential in the three countries that we are operating in by further penetrating the market. We see growth potential coming from enhancing our product offering in those three markets and of course we see a lot of growth potential by going to further markets outside those three.Martin: What makes you think of having the boundary currently at €100K in terms of loan application because it is for me quite arbitrary, so why not €250K or one million?Toby: It is driven by the way we structured our product. Just to summarize that very briefly our product today is a credit line that has a certain commitment period and if you draw down your credit line y ou draw down so called loans and those loans have a tenor of six months and the loan amortizes monthly and linearly. It means that after each month you need to pay back 1/6 of your loan or the principle of your loan along with the necessary interest rates, interest expenses. So having a larger loan in place might mean that or will mean that you need to generate so much more cash in order to service that debt so that Today it is not the market that we attract. By extending our product offering and extending the duration of our loans we will and we can and we will increase the size of our credit lines and loans to go beyond €100K. That will certainly happen at some point.Martin: And in terms of region expansion how are you assessing which are the markets to enter next?Toby: There are a number of reasons that made us go into the three markets that we are operating in today and those reasons also apply for the attractiveness of other markets.Number one is the opportunity, the market s ize in terms of the number of micro, small and medium sized businesses that are out there.Number two is the availability of capital for those enterprises from traditional lending providers such as banks.Number three is regulatory environment.Number four is competitive environment.And number five I would add is the availability of data in order for us to do our scoring.Martin: Because another factor I would have considered is the profitability. I totally agree with all the other five factors that you mentioned but one other thing is even if I am thinking about Spain and I am giving a credit the default rate is much higher then maybe on average in Germany. So this is also one factor of having the credit spread so to speak build in.Toby: Yes, profitability ultimately is something that is important as well so I agree with you. However, I was a credit investor myself before I built Spotcap so it is all about pricing the risk.Martin: Yes, right. Cool, Toby, thank you very much for your ti me. And I think there is a great message out there for a small and medium sized businesses because now they can get maybe good or at least a fair amount of credit for their business.Toby: Thank you very much, Martin.Martin: Thanks again. Have a nice day.Toby: Thank you, you too. Bye, bye!Martin: Bye!THANKS FOR LISTENING! It’s here! The first episode of The Cleverism Podcast!You can download the podcast to your computer or listen to it here on the blog. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are here with Toby Triebel from Spotcap of Berlin . Toby, how are you doing?Toby: Very well, thank you, Martin! How are you doing?Martin: I am awesome, thank you! I am very glad that you take time for the interview and let me br iefly tend your personal background. What did you do before you started Spotcap?Toby: Sure. I am German by background but moved to London when I was sixteen and I did my school there, my university. Then I spent ten years in finance, working at an investment bank for the first five years and then for the last five prior to co-founding Spotcap I worked for an emerging credits hedge fund. So I have been in finance for more than ten years and bringing the finance background with me to Spotcap.Martin: And when did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?Toby: I guess it was probably two, three years ago when I started looking into entrepreneurial opportunities in detail. I have always been interested and curious in finding more about ent repreneurial opportunities and startups in general and I have long been investing in startups as sort of an angel investor myself but it was really about two, three years ago when I was, I probably wouldn’t say bored at my previous job. It was more the fact that I was interested in new challenge to put it that way.BUSINESS MODEL OF SPOTCAPMartin: Cool. Then let’s put some light on Spotcap â€" the new challenge of your life. What actually is Spotcap?Toby: So Spotcap is fintech company, Fintech meaning combining finance and technology, using technology to provide financial services. Spotcap in particular and how it fits into the fintech environment is online landing. It is providing loans to small businesses using technology online. That is essentially what we are doing. We are operating in three countries today Spain, the Netherlands and Australia providing loans up to 100  000 Euros to micro, small and medium sized businesses as we call them in the three markets today.Martin: Y es, right. Can you walk us through the credit approval process? So how many applicants do you have? What is the basic process â€" which one is manual and which one is automatic? What are the typical acceptance rates?Toby: Yes. We really thought long and hard about using and building the right technology to facilitate both the application as well as the approval process to a very large extent. The application process is done by business owners or directors of those micro, small and medium sized businesses; it is entirely online and it takes up to ten minutes provided that you have all the documents in place. It is really straightforward, it is a combination of entering information as well as providing financial documents and linking data, making sure that we have all the data we need to do our scoring. We then gather all the data, put it into our scoring algorithm and come up with a credit decision that is more often than not accept and approve credit applications. Sometimes we also will have to reject them because the business is not ripe enough yet, not mature enough.Martin: And do you need a banking license for this and that is the reason why you are currently only in three countries?Toby: The regulatory environment, it is distinctively across not just across Europe but across the world really. We do not need a banking license in the markets that we operate in which is good and bad. We very much welcome regulation and this is also why we applied and also received the STA credit license from the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Which we would need to operate, to do our business in the UK and we have started to implement the UK STA requirements across the three markets that we operate in. But today our operations in those three markets are entirely unregulated but we approach the regulatory environment proactively.Martin: Ok, and how does it come that it is currently unregulated? For example, imagine that I am a company in Spain so to speak, a market where you are active, and I have got several options of how I could finance my business in terms of debt financing: whether I go to a bank and get a loan or weather I use Spotcap. From my understanding, it is that banks in Spain are regulated and you as an alternative are currently not regulated. Is there a reason why the regulators have chosen for this to be unregulated or is it just that your business model is so new, they never would have expected something like that?Toby: It is a deliverable of both. If you think about it you take one step back, regulation is in place inheritly to protect the consumer in two ways. You can touch the consumer in two ways:you can provide loans to consumers andyou can take deposits from consumers.Regulation is in place to protect those. We do not touch either. We don’t provide loans to consumers, we only provide loans to small businesses and we do not take deposits. Our loans are inherently and exclusively on-balance-sheet funded. So that is why regulation is generally less pronounced in the space that we are in. Having said that, the UK is at the forefront of regulating our space as well and we would expect regulation to be put in place in Spain and other markets as well and that is exactly why we have chosen to be extremely proactive here and voluntarily implemented STA type of regulatory requirements across all our markets already.Martin: One other thing I wanted to talk to you about is you told you are giving basically loans out. Is there a difference in terms of how you finance those yourselves because you said it is on-balance. Is it more that the loans you are financing with venture debt and your headcount and so on with your equity?Toby: To a large extent this is true. We use institutional debt to fund our loan book and equity that we raise, and we raised 13 million in our series A charting last year, we use to fund our operations. We use institutional investors debt to fund the loans.Martin: In terms of revenue model is it ri ght to assume that you are basically like a bank, based on having interest income or is there any other revenue stream that you are thinking of?Toby: Yes, it is interest fee income exclusively, no other income.Martin: Okay, cool. One other thing which is very interesting for people just thinking about starting a company; I mean they can either bootstrap, or start a company and get some venture funding, or third option they can go to rocket internet and collaboratively start a company. This is what you did, Toby. Could you please help us understand how the process works at Rocket Internet? So how is an investment decision made? How is the management found and how are the first 100 days working?Toby: So a lot of questions at once and not exactly one line answers to any of those, I am afraid, because the process at Rocket to some extent is very streamlined but to another extent can differ significantly from company to company, from startup to startup. In some cases, Rocket Internet com es up with the idea, kickstarts the business, then searches for the right management to be put in place, the right co-founders who are then left alone at some point to build the company. However they can benefit to a very large extent from Rocket network in terms of human resources, in terms of expertise and know how in various areas, and in terms of investor relations and fundraising where Rocket can be and has been extremely helpful for many businesses.There are some other examples where co-founders approach Rocket and come up with an idea and need a seed investor. That is an alternative root whereby management approaches Rocket and comes forward with an idea and Rocket then chooses or not to support that business.Martin: And is there difference in terms of equity share? Because from what I have heard is that Rocket is typically having an idea and looking for management you maybe get up to 10 percent of the whole management in the form of equity. Is there difference if the founder is approaching Rocket?Toby: To be honest, I am not sure. I can only speak for myself. So I am sure there are differences across the companies but I am afraid I do not know any further detail on that.Martin: Okay, cool. So how did you experienced your first one hundred days and how is it typically going? I know there is obviously difference in term of which business model you choose. If you have some kind of fintech related stuff maybe regulatory actions will have a big share of time spent in the first weeks or months. If are only having an e-commerce maybe that is not the biggest issue. But is there some kind of basic process which you can walk us through?Toby: I mean Rocket does provide an active support to its young companies right after founding. It is clearly they provide support for putting the investment and the capital into place that is needed to build the business. Often, Rocket is involved themselves as a lead investor but they also have a network of other investors that may or may not chose to participate. So that is the big advantage of having Rocket as a seed investor and incubator.The other advantage, and that is not something to be underestimated is the large extent of expertise within Rocket Internet and within the Rocket Internet family. That is to say in IT, in product, in sales, in marketing, in PR. In many functions Rocket has a tremendous amount of expertise and really great people who has been in their respected functions for a long time, who have a lot of know-how, who can help kick start the business and get it on track faster than you would be able to otherwise. And I think that is the main benefit of Rocket and that is why a lot of Rocket companies have been so successful and have been so successful in a short period of time.Martin: Can you give us an example, Toby, of specific situation where you tapped into the knowledge of somebody at Rocket Internet and what the benefit for Spotcap was?Toby: In the beginning, we did not have Alin e in our head of communications so we went to Rocket and in particular went to Rockets’ PR communications team and sought some help and advice. And what they did, they provided a lot of guidance, help and actual real work in kick starting or PR effors. In particular, when we launched Spotcap in Spain in September last year they did the entire PR work: coming up with a PR strategy with a concept all the way to putting together a launch event, a press kit and so on which was tremendously helpful. We would have not been able to launch Spotcap that quickly and that successfully without the help of the Rocket PR team in that particular kit.Martin: So that’s that basically mean that you just paid for the service and had them on demand basis so to speak for just kick starting and scaling up for specified time then potentially scaling down at some other point in time?Toby: Essentially. Rocket services are not for free. You need to pay it, to pay the services just like you would for exte rnal providers. However, what is really helpful is the speed with which you can get that advice, support and work done at Rocket. And that is what the true benefit comes from. You have got the best talent in the respected areas and functions at Rocket and it is your own choice whether you want to benefit from that or not. And we chose to use a lot of Rockets’ resources in the beginning and subsequently we hired our own team and we are using a lot less Rocket resources now than we did twelve months ago.Martin: How many people are you employing currently?Toby: 65.Martin: Okay. You said that you raised €13 million in your series A. How the capital raising process worked and what was involvement of Rocket Internet in that?Toby: Rocket has been helpful. Rockets’ network of investors is definitely very helpful in allowing a series A of that magnitude to happen.Martin: And what was the specific process? So did Oliver called some kind of investors in Asia or the US and said, “We hav e an awesome project, Spotcap, that would revolutionize SMB loan business in Europe. This is why you need to invest” or was it more like, “Oli, I have got cool business idea and I need get in touch with those two people. Can you just make an intro?” So how did it actually work?Toby: I would like to answer that in more general way and it is probably a combination of both and ultimately you need to prove the business model and the management team to attract the capital that you need to start a business. And Rockets’ network of investors is certainly very helpful.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM TOBY TRIEBELMartin: Cool. Toby, what would be your advice for people who are just interested in starting a company and what are the pros and cons of starting the business by yourself just as bootstrapping or raising venture capital by yourself or on the other hand working directly with Rocket Internet?Toby: Working with Rocket Internet directly definitely is a much quicker approach to build ing a business. We founded Spotcap last summer, we are now 65 people. If I have probably done it completely by myself I would now be 10 people, if I did a very good job in finding investors, raising money, attracting talent.I don’t think there is a right way to do it. It depends on your preferences. What you would like to do. Can you afford to not pay yourself any salary for a year or two? If you can, then you might as well give it a go and try your luck to raise money. How many relationships do you have? There are a lot of questions that come to play that ultimately determine whether going to Rocket is good or whether you might be better off trying it yourself. I chose the Rocket way for the advantages that I outlined in terms of investor relations but also the expertise and knowledge that resides within the Rocket framework that is extremely helpful for starting up companies.FUTURE OF SPOTCAPMartin: Let’s have a look at the future of Spotcap. So currently you are active in thr ee markets and what are your growth options or the growth path that you would like to go for? Is it more of a regional extension or is it a product wise extension or is it first and foremost just increasing the penetration in those three markets?Toby: It is actually a combination of all three that you mentioned. We definitely see enormous potential in the three countries that we are operating in by further penetrating the market. We see growth potential coming from enhancing our product offering in those three markets and of course we see a lot of growth potential by going to further markets outside those three.Martin: What makes you think of having the boundary currently at €100K in terms of loan application because it is for me quite arbitrary, so why not €250K or one million?Toby: It is driven by the way we structured our product. Just to summarize that very briefly our product today is a credit line that has a certain commitment period and if you draw down your credit line y ou draw down so called loans and those loans have a tenor of six months and the loan amortizes monthly and linearly. It means that after each month you need to pay back 1/6 of your loan or the principle of your loan along with the necessary interest rates, interest expenses. So having a larger loan in place might mean that or will mean that you need to generate so much more cash in order to service that debt so that Today it is not the market that we attract. By extending our product offering and extending the duration of our loans we will and we can and we will increase the size of our credit lines and loans to go beyond €100K. That will certainly happen at some point.Martin: And in terms of region expansion how are you assessing which are the markets to enter next?Toby: There are a number of reasons that made us go into the three markets that we are operating in today and those reasons also apply for the attractiveness of other markets.Number one is the opportunity, the market s ize in terms of the number of micro, small and medium sized businesses that are out there.Number two is the availability of capital for those enterprises from traditional lending providers such as banks.Number three is regulatory environment.Number four is competitive environment.And number five I would add is the availability of data in order for us to do our scoring.Martin: Because another factor I would have considered is the profitability. I totally agree with all the other five factors that you mentioned but one other thing is even if I am thinking about Spain and I am giving a credit the default rate is much higher then maybe on average in Germany. So this is also one factor of having the credit spread so to speak build in.Toby: Yes, profitability ultimately is something that is important as well so I agree with you. However, I was a credit investor myself before I built Spotcap so it is all about pricing the risk.Martin: Yes, right. Cool, Toby, thank you very much for your ti me. And I think there is a great message out there for a small and medium sized businesses because now they can get maybe good or at least a fair amount of credit for their business.Toby: Thank you very much, Martin.Martin: Thanks again. Have a nice day.Toby: Thank you, you too. Bye, bye!Martin: Bye!THANKS FOR LISTENING!Thanks so much for joining our first podcast episode!Have some feedback you’d like to share?  Leave  a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please  share  it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.Also,  please leave an honest review for The Cleverism Podcast on iTunes or on SoundCloud. Ratings and reviews  are  extremely  helpful  and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.Special thanks  to Toby for joining me this week. Until  next time!

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Multilingualism At Parramatta High School In Australia - 3850 Words

Multilingualism At Parramatta High School In Australia (Research Paper Sample) Content: Social LinguisticNameInstitutionDateIntroductionToday being a dynamic world, both mass migration and globalization in schools and suburbs around the globe are turning to be multilingual and multiethnic places. Yet Nortier (2008), points out that there exists little linguistic research on various ways in which language can be used by different multilingual communities. Over the past one decade, Australias population has been increasing gradually, thus leading to the development of more multicultural system which associated with a growing diversity of races, languages, values and cultures. In Australian various efforts have been developed by either individuals, educational organizations and jurisdictions to allow Australia achieve multicultural successes. According to Ricketts et al., (2014), success is seen as a short concept since it is mainly dependent on specific efforts of various groups or individuals and who have either moved on, had support withdrawn or even pas sed away.The, need for both educational and schools systems have played a crucial role in Australia through supporting cultural responsiveness to the multicultural system. The main contributor of high Austrian population is high migration rate which has results from an increase in the number of families and students entering Australia through the use of humanitarian visas. Jenny M et al., (2014) points out that development of more a more multicultural system associated with multiculturalism in Australia has led to an increase teaching profile which is mainly dominated by middle class, non-Indigenous European educators.Presence of foreign teachers in Australia has also increasingly resulted in the development of mismatch among schools and culture expectations of various students with different language origin.The aim of his paper is to discuss different language practices at Parramatta high school which located in natural swampy environment in the western suburbofSydney in Austria. In Parramatta high school about 95% of all the students use a language other than English (LOTE) as a means of communication at home (Byrne, 2013).Multilingualism At Parramatta High School In AustraliaParramatta high school is multicultural with the pre-dominant languages being English, Chinese, Turkish as well as Arabic. Parramatta high school has wide ranges of programs that support and promotes student diversity (Komorowska, H. 2011). One of these programs was held in 2016 and involved Korean, Indian, Afghani and Chinese students and communities whose first language is not English (PHS, 2016).Through recent, Parramatta high school in Australian High Schools students was seen to effectively speak in their main ethnic language infrequently in both communications and their various friendship contexts. Wright et al., (2016), pointed out that No student who were reported of speaking their main ethnic language all the time while at school. From the study, only about seven students out of the possible 20 participants never used their main ethnic language to communicate while at Parramatta high school. While on the other side the results from the study were relatively stronger. From the above study, main ethnic languages tend to play an incidental role in several of peer groups or individual interactions (Pachucki et al., 2015).Regardless of their different language backgrounds, Parramatta high school students highly valued their increased ability to effectively gossip in their primary ethnic language without educators or other students understanding their information. When one participant, Abrihet, was asked what he would miss if he woke up one day and find out that he could not efficiently communicate with his ethnic language his response was ...Gossiping about other students in your ethnic language which they couldnt understand easily'.Costas et al., (2017), points out that The increased value which is placed on having an ethnic language which is a seen secret language leads to a potential dilemma to a huge number of students in Parramatta high school. Also students such Abrihet, who mainly speak an ethnic language which is not known widely in the Parramatta high school community.However, Abrihet while in his friendship group he has learned different words from Cambodian language which is spoken by the two other friends in their group. Abrihet explains that sharing languages at Parramatta high school was beyond words sharing but also played a crucial role in sharing secrets and facilitating encompassing and crossing. As Baslio et al., (2017), defined crossing as the efficient use of various language varieties which are associated with ethnic or social groups which the speaker is not a member(Baslio et al.,2017).Rampton et al.,(2014), points out that Crossing can also be effectively characterized as a language play form. In this language play, speakers are usually self-conscious in using actual words from another ethnic language group. Rat her than the language play mainly conveying the intended meaning it can also be associated with other hidden meaning. Such as swearwords and greetings or insults (Pujalor, 2001) Language play in a diverse linguistic environment is seen as a type of multilingual language play which resulted in the formation of a firm student peer culture at Parramatta high school ( Rampton et al.,2014).Initiatives to improve multilingualism at Parramatta high schoolAccording to Halliday, et al., (2006), there are several methods which can effectively contribute improving multilingual identities such as Acknowledging languages spoken in Parramatta high school, promoting Cultural innovation and free language interaction. Kirsch et al.,( 2017),points out that education policymakers and other stakeholders should come together so as to recognize the necessities of having a multicultural language system effectively. In a dynamic school environment, multicultural language system helps to promote the develop ment of the school performance and student-student or student-teacher relationship achieve the increasing global languages requirements (Moore et al,2015).Acknowledge all the languages spoken in schoolAny language spoken in school should be embraced fully. Verbal or visual support will also play a crucial role in promoting multilingualism when either in or out of the class environment (Lo Bianco, J. 2009). Students are also expected to learn the importance of both first and secondary language (Rodriguez, 2017).Free language interactionAll students should be encouraged to share their ethnic languages freely and also get to know the similarities and differences in their languages (Van Lier, 2014). Free language interaction can also be achieved by forming different linguistic groups and giving students a specific topic to work on in different languages and later allowing each group to present using various languages (Van Lier, 2014).Cultural innovationAccording to Meng, et al, (2017), cultural innovation can also be another crucial method of promoting multi-lingual. Culture can be utilized as a tool to effectively promote and enhance diversity. Cultural artifacts and goods from different ethnic groups can also be exchanged; this also plays a vital role in boosting diversity (Meng, 2017). Thus, culture can be a method which can be used to promote the growth of linguistic diversities. Enhancing cultural creativity among students can also be the best tool which will allow them to effectively avoid major language disparities in schools (Behar-Horenstein, 2017).Language policy formulationAccording to Jaspers et al., (2017), a language system provides effective guidelines for both language use and diversity. Formation of a language policy will also greatly assist in promoting diversity. In this system of formation of a language policy students will be taught to embrace other people's languages and also prepare them with sufficient skills and attitude which will allow t hem to face the larger world with confidence (Banks et al., 2001). Learning different languages equip learners with different opportunities that help them adjust to any given environment and also promote ethical behaviors when engaging the rest of the world.Sustainability point of view;Having a sustainable point of view broadly acknowledges diversity as a vital key to sustainability (Pascual et al., 2017). When a learner is fully equipped with different languages, he/she develops abilities and concepts of sustainability (Wals et al...2002). At Parramatta school, for example, their primary mission is to create a platform whereby learners exchange knowledge among themselves for global sustainable development. Also, sustainable point of view also contributes to national or student-student reconciliation (Pascual et al., 2017)RationaleTo achieve the above initiative of promoting multilingualism at Parramatta high school a lot has to be done.The teaching of various languages should begin at early stages. Parramatta High School In Australia will assist in breaking up the social-cultural links and efficiently help all learners to appreciate other languages during early stages (Gee, J. 2015). Various programs have to be in place to promote diversity issues. There must be a way to make students attitudes active when learning different languages and should not be a form of punishment to students.The student should also enjoy the b benefits of secondary languages globally. If students feel that something is significantly beneficial to them, then it will be difficult for them to drop the languages (Murillo, 2017). It should also be acknowledged that language policies are long term investment processes and that will also promote long terms achievement. Learning languages offers a complete understanding of different societies and culture thus leading s...

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Customer Association and the Success of the Branding Strategy of Starbucks Coffee - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 12 Words: 3652 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Research paper Level High school Did you like this example? ‘The Way I See It: Customer Association and the Success of the Branding Strategy of Starbucks Coffee Introduction Maintaining an effective brand image is a challenging task, where a company needs to maintain the sense of momentum without losing a sense of continuity (Cagan and Vogel, 2001). The power of the Starbucks brand is exceptionally strong and has been imitated by numerous related and unrelated products and companies around the world (Knapp, 1999: 199). The expansion of Starbucks from just a small coffee provider into a global brand was swift and effective (Schultz and Yang, 1997). Behind this global explosion lay the concept of a Starbucks brand, one which bombarded the customer on all five senses from the smell of the coffee, the modern artwork on the walls to the contemporary music soundtrack and polished pinewood tables (Bedbury and Fenichell, 2003: 107). By February 2008, however, the brand had suffered 40% decline in share price and owing to the current recession is being forced into a programme of store closures (Smales, 2008). Several reasons lay behind this, such as the s uccess of rival coffee houses, the saturation of some areas with Starbucks coffeehouses and the decline in consumer spending at a time of economic hardship. However, this decline in sales was not simply due to exogenous factors: it represented the decline in the brands effectiveness. For the first time, the Starbucks brand has been forced onto the back foot. In many previous examples of a strong brand suffering a decline in sales, brands often suffer because the company fails to take stock of the associative aspects of branding – the elements added by the customer to the brand or product based upon their own experiences (Ries, 2004: 196). A company cannot control what the consumer associates with the brand, it can only point them in the right direction. This research will therefore aim to investigate if the Starbucks decline resulted from a failure of strategy that led to negative associations being made with the brand. It is important to see how close the feedback loop is kept in Starbucks, in the extent to which the company tracks and reinforces customer perception of the brand. Put simply, this research will aim therefore to examine the extent to which what Starbucks wants customers to think of them is matched by what customers really think of them. Though sounding simple, it represents a vital part of the branding exercise that can sometimes be overlooked by some, often very popular and successful, companies. Research objectives To examine and analyse the branding methods used by Starbucks that created the hugely successful global company To conduct primary research to establish the associations with the Starbucks brand made by a plethora of consumers, from actual Starbucks customers to a more random sampling to glean a general perception of the associations of Starbucks. To establish whether the brand of Starbucks has been watered down and lost its brand impact, or whether it simply face increased competition from imitators a nd a weak global economy. To analyse the extent to which attempts being made to find a new avenues for development for Starbucks seem like based on an effective appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the brand. Background The first Starbucks opened in Seattle in 1971 (Michelli, 2006: 2). Originally only set up to roast and sell beans, the first significant step towards their development into a global brand began when Howard Schultz was appointed director of marketing in 1982. On a trip to Milan, Italy, Schultz encountered European Coffee bar culture and aimed to attempt to associate psychosocial meaning of coffee to the stores (Schultz and Yang, 1997). However, this was initially rejected and Schultz thus founded his own chain called Il Giornale. In 1987 Starbucks was sold to Schultz who, after renaming all his Il Giornale stores Starbucks, began its initial period of expansion (Clark, 2007). By 1992, Starbucks had grown to 165 coffeehouses and their first store outside North America was opened in Japan in 1996. After a acquiring a number of other coffeehouse chains, Starbucks expanded quickly and after being initially floated on the stock market in 1992, expanded by 5,000% by 2006 (Michelli, 2006: 3). Schultz retired as managing director in 2000 but returned in 2008 to attempt to return the chain to its initial philosophy and success, claiming that the brand had become diluted and blaming store ‘cannibalisation where the fast expansion had resulted in too many stores in some areas. On 1st July 2008, the company announced it was to sell 600 outlets and in the same month the company cut approximately a thousand jobs (Smales, 2008). In January 2009, 300 more stores were announced to close. Schults innovation to the branding was to see an opportunity to ‘transform the traditional American coffee experience from the ordinary to the extraordinary (Michelli, 2006: 2). ‘The true size of the Starbucks brand is more subjec tive than quantifiable, (Knapp, 1999: 197). A key component of the Starbucks identity has been the rigid focus on establishing brand loyalty through customer experience (‘one cup at a time) rather than through aggressive marketing and advertisement. Schultz argues that in the 1990s, Starbucks spent more money on training than on advertising (Schultz and Yang, 1999). The construction of the Starbucks brand took account of the fact that brands tend to absorb all associations around it and therefore was constructed from the very basic aspects of staff training to create a friendly atmosphere to the dà ©cor on the walls. It does not franchise its stores in order to maintain full control (Michelli, 2006). It was seen as a company philosophy, not simply a marketing exercise and as such pervaded all departments, each employee, and every aspect of design. For example, Starbucks coffee machines are fixed at a lower level and on the counter allowing the coffee server to maintain eye contact with the customer rather than turning their back on them (Schultz and Yang, 1997). This holistic philosophy was vital for establishing Starbucks as a significant and fundamental coffee retailer. It represented a heightened awareness of brand environmentalism before it had become more mainstream (Bedbury and Fenichelli, 2006: 111). The company even banned smoking from its stores long before smoking bans developed in North America and Europe, simply in order to maintain the aroma of freshly roasted coffee and avoid any inadvertent negative associations of their brand (Michelli, 2006). Starbucks attempts to offer not just an especially well-brewed cup of coffee, but to reinforce their expertise as researchers, purveyors and professionals in providing the perfect cup of coffee for the customer (Bedbury and Fenichell, 2006: 108). Schultzs attempted to not only transfer the taste of freshly roasted coffee, but to transfer the entire welcoming social experience from Med iterranean culture to North America and beyond. The astonishing success of the experiment means such branding was evidently enormously successful. However, the plight Starbucks has found itself in the last two years suggests that such innovative thinking may well have lost its momentum and a question mark now hangs over its potential for future success. It is not certain if the brand needs more or less innovation: whether changes made in the last decade has made the customer lose sight of the original benefits of the brand (as Schultz maintains), or whether, in fact, the original idea only had a limited mileage. It has been maintained that the company expanded too quickly in a period of global economic health and thus finds itself stranded when faced with a global economic downturn. However, it is not simply that it expanded too quickly – if it could maintain the market it developed, it would likely find the level of expansion more sustainable than it appears. For a com pany which became an enormous global brand in a very short space of time through an innovative form of thinking, Starbucks now faces significant challenges to maintain and reinforce its dominance of the coffeehouse industry. Literature Review A fundamental question of this research is essentially: what has gone wrong with the Starbucks brand? Has negative customer association taken place, or has the positive brand image undergone a dilution and lost its original impact? Branding encompasses more than simply semiotics and imagery, and embraces a plethora of media and psychology (Ries, 2004: 7). Put simply, a product is something which a company sells but a brand is something which a customer buys. Although the history of branding seems relatively short, emerging as a conscious objective in the Nineteenth Century, elements of association can be seen in the Port of Portugal or tea from China from at least the Seventeenth Century. However, branding exercises became an obsessi ve form of marketing in the mid to late Nineteenth Century, resulting in some of the most longstanding brand-names such as Cadbury, Schwepps, Bovril and Oxo. Branding became very significant after 1869 when Heinz offered successful pickles that were then trusted and enjoyed by consumers, eventually becoming the brand itself. One a brand loyalty has been secured, consumers seem to be reticent to avoid developing and switching loyalties; a factor pointed out in the Heinz slogan ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz (Rooney, 1995). Where many identical products existed, attempts were made to increase the value to the consumer. A number of techniques were developed for this method, and many brands were reinforced through sponsorship of expeditions such as Robert Scotts Antarctic expeditions, were the photographs showing intrepid explorers munching on Cadburys proved to be an important new avenue for reinforcing a brand (Cubitt and Warren, 2000: 118). A strong brand can anticipate longevity in the marketplace: in 1923 the brand leaders in motorcycles and soft drinks were Harley Davidson and Coca Cola and so it is today (Kathman, 2002: 27). Branding is traditionally seen as receiving its first definition in a memorandum issued by the firm Proctor and Gamble in Cincinnati in 1931 (Kathman, 2002: 25). This articulated the basic principles of brand management as research, development and communication. Branding received a boost by the development of large-scale supermarkets where similar products would be displayed next to each other meaning the package no longer similar encased the product, it had now to sell it. Manufacturers gradually began to develop the principles of creating the image of a brand from visual means. Contemporaneously, Louis Cheskin developed the ‘Principle of Sensation Transference which demonstrated that consumers tend to assign expectations and associations of products based on the design, shape, colours of the packages of a product (R ies, 2004). This increased the role of the designer in product development to one selling a product in addition to simply a practical solution. This was exacerbated by the increase of self-select environments in the retail environment. At the core of a branding exercise lies the product itself. This can be surrounded by a primary mantel of branding, the packaging, name, and ways in which the product is presented. The outer mantel is the warranty, the delivery credit, after-sales service and other factors that can augment the product beyond its initial use (Ries, 2004). Almost anything can be branded and it is seen as comprising four main factors: the attributes, benefits, values and the personality. Different brands can focus on different aspects, such as a banking service focusing on the values provided by the product. The characteristic of a strong brand is that it offers significant financial and perceptual benefits, is consistent and focuses on quality and uses a full mar keting mix to consolidate performance and position. As Schmitt (2000: 165) notes, ‘products are no longer bundles of functional characteristics, but a means to provide and enhance a users experience†¦ consumers want to be stimulated, entertained, educated and challenged. The theoretical perspective of branding has undergone resurgence in recent years. Rather than being understood simply as a ‘name, term, sign, symbol, or a design or simply a ‘major issue in product strategy, (Kotler, 2000: 396, 404), brands have become holistic and sophisticated entities (Keller, 2003). For Kapferer (1997), the brand is simply seen as a sign that uncovers the qualities of the product. Whereas branding traditionally was under the control of the marketing department, the strategy now appears to be much more than this, to the extent of being seen as representing not only the product but the company philosophy (Aaker and Joachmisthaler, 2000). Recent contributions to the literature have included Aaker and Joachmisthaler (2000) who posit the theory of brand leadership model as one which embraces notions of strategy rather than the traditional model of tactics (Urde, 2003). They see the building of branding as encompassing the four challenges: organizational, brand architecture, brand identity and position and brand building. An alternative model is provided by Davis (2000) which sees the brand as an asset. He defines this as a fiscal approach, which attempts to build the ‘meaning of the brand, communicating it internally and externally (Davis, 2000: 12). This conception of a brand is one which fits the Starbucks model well, from its staff training to its corporate philosophy, the company sees its brand as having a tangible meaning rather than simply a means to sell a product (Michelli, 2006). This ‘corporate branding has received attention also by Aaker (2004) and Schultz and Hatch (2003). The theoretical and analytical debate of branding in the literature has tended to lag behind the practical success of branding strategies, and so it appears Starbucks company philosophy was developed ahead of its theoretical articulation. Starbucks is often used in marketing and business textbooks as a clear example of a successful brand (Knapp, 1999: 199). Given that a brands success results in imitation and further theoretical and strategic articulation, it would seem paramount that if the Starbucks example of what can be dubbed a successful ‘holistic brand is to be retained, then it would be a significant and important contribution to the debate to establish ‘what has gone wrong with what was a runaway success story of effective branding in the 1990s. If the success of this branding strategy is to be imitated then the potential for its longevity should be established. Put simply, are people just bored of Starbucks now the novelty has worn off and there are a plethora of imitators, or can this be seen simply as a ‘blip for a brand which holds the potential to be around for as long as Heinz? Rationale for study This study in partial fulfilment of the degree will contribute to the branding debate by investigating and analysing a vital aspect of the Starbucks brand. Brand strategy can only manipulate customers associations and emotions with regard to a product so far, and a feedback loop is essential to ensure that the intended associations are made by the customers (Aaker and Joachmisthaler, 2000). Furthermore, it will contribute to an understanding of the coffeehouse industry and the extent to which the Starbucks phenomenon shows signs of longevity as with other brands. Resources Required No extraordinary resources will be required for this study beyond a PC, photocopier and time. The fiscal resources required will be kept minimal. Methodology A questionnaire research strategy will be devised in order to ensure a stratified sample. Extremely short quest ionnaires will be used to establish the associations of Starbucks with a number of individuals. This will be semi-structured questionnaires where it is anticipated that the responses can be graded and coded according to positive or negative associations. A number of research locations will be considered in order to establish the most effective spread of respondents. For example, Starbucks customers will be used in order to provide an index of responses (it can be presumed associations will be largely positive) and then respondents sought from locations where their relationship with Starbucks cannot be seen as being unduly effected by any environmental or temporal variables. Research Design Using a short questionnaire such as this means the research will sit between a quantitative form of collecting data and a qualitative in that the results will be analysed using quantitative techniques but little guidance is provided to frame the questions. This means time will need be spent coding the responses and entering them into a spreadsheet program such as Excel. An important dimension of the research strategy includes establishing the sampling procedure. At least part of this research will come from asking individuals in the street, and the location of the researcher and the time at which the research is carried out are all likely to have an effect on the results. The importance of this factor is not just in asking ‘the average man on the street but establishing as wide a sweep as possible to examine the associations not just with product users (coffee drinkers) but to examine the effectiveness of the Starbucks brand in maintaining an association with all individuals. A negative response is therefore as important in this case as a positive response and the questionnaire must be carefully structured to ensure that even non-coffee drinkers can consider what they associate with Starbucks. By conducting this research using a variety of media and a variety of locations, it is hoped the potential exists to compare and contrast the different samples, but also to build up as wide a picture of the public perception of the Starbucks brand in the UK as a whole. This can then be compared to the Starbucks brand as represented in Schultz and Yang (1999) and its corporate literature such as ‘The Green Apron Book, their website and publicity material, and analyses made in the secondary literature. It is important to recognise that this, in itself, does not signify the success or the failure of a brand, but it may offer some clues into the downturn experienced by the Starbucks brand. Ethical Issues It is vital, of course, to receive the consent of the individuals who will respond to the questionnaire. Although each respondent may be given a code, no identifying data will be taken. Unlike brand strategists, the researcher is at great pains not to affect the way in which the customer might view Starbucks and so it is vit al to ensure that the respondents are aware that the researcher does not in any way represent the company. It would, however, be courteous to liaise with a Starbucks coffeehouse, particularly if attempts will be made to secure a sample of bona fide Starbucks customers, and attempts will be made to ensure that attention is paid to copyright and intellectual property. Contact will be made with Starbucks, informing them of the intentions of this research and requesting any further information that may come in useful but for reasons of independence it would be prudent to maintain a respectable distance from the company itself. Most data regarding the company will be taken from publicly-available sources and published works and confidentiality issues will not pose a problem in this case. Anticipated Problems and Solutions The construction of the questionnaire is likely to represent on of the most time-consuming aspects of this study and attempts will be made to ensure that â €˜test drafts are used and enough time is maintained to make effective evaluations and revisions to the content. Furthermore, establishing a suitable sampling technique is liable to be a difficult task and the number of respondents is likely to vary depending on time of day, day of week and other factors that might make establishing a firm unbiased empirical foundation difficult. Great pains must be taken to ensure that as many respondents are sought as possible, and the temptation to tend to approach those who might appear to the researcher to proffer the greatest likelihood of answering questions is avoided. However, this is a key factor in Social Science research and one that is always difficult to sidestep – even if a more anonymous data collection method was used, the respondents would tend to be self-selecting (Crouch and Housden, 2003: 138). Selecting suitable locations to conduct the research is important and the relationship of the researchers location to an y Starbucks (or other) coffeehouses must be carefully and fully considered as factors that might well have an effect on results. However, it is this researchers opinion that the greater the number of respondents and the greater the number of locations and methods of data collection, the greater the likelihood that any random bias will tend to balance itself out as long as no systematic selection factors are at work. Bibliography Aaker, D. A. and Joachimsthaler, E., 2000. Brand Leadership, London: Free Press. Bedbury, S. and Fenichell, S., 2003. A new brand world: 8 principles for achieving brand leadership in the 21st century. London: Penguin. Behar, H. with Goldstein J., 2007. Its Not About The Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks. London: Portfolio Budd, M. amd Kirsch M. H., 2005. Rethinking Disney: private control, public dimensions. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. Cagan, J. M. and Vogel, C. M., 2001. Creating breakthrough products: i nnovation from product planning to program approval. London: FT Press. Clark, T. 2007. Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce and Culture. New York: Little Brown. Crouch, S., and Housden M., 2003. Marketing research for managers (3rd edn.) New York: Butterworth-Heinemann. Davis, S. M., 2000. Brand Asset Management: Driving Profitable Growth through Your Brands, San Francisco: Josey Bass. Kapferer, J., 1997. Strategic Brand Management. London: Coogan. Kathman, J., 2002. ‘Brand Identity Development in the New Economy.Design Issues, 18.1,24-35. Knapp, D. E. 1999. The Brandmindset. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Kotler, P., 2000. Marketing Management. Chicago: Northwestern University Press. Michelli, J. A., 2006. The Starbucks experience: 5 principles for turning ordinary into extraordinary, New York: McGraw Hill Professional. Ries, L., 2004. The origin of brands: discover the natural laws of product innovation and business survival. L ondon: HarperBusiness. Rooney, J. A. 1995. ‘Branding: A Trend for Today and Tomorrow, Journal of Product Brand Management, 4:4, 48-55. Schmitt, B. H., 2000. Experimental Marketing. London: Free Press. Schultz, H. and Yang, D. J., 1997. Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built A Company One Cup At A Time, New York: Hyperion. Schultz M. and Hatch, M J., 2003. ‘The Cycles of Corporate Branding: The Case of the LEGO Company, California Management Review, 46:1, 6-26. Smales, W., 2008. ‘Why Starbucks Sales Have Gone Cold, https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/ 7219458.stm Urde, M., 2003. ‘Core Value-Based Corporate Brand Building, European Journal of Marketing, 37:8, 1017-1040. Warren, A., and Cubitt, G., 2000. Heroic reputations and exemplary lives. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Find out more from UK Essays here: https://www.ukessays.com/services/example-essays/marketing/success-of-the-branding-strategy-of-starbucks.php#ixzz3 EEbwDhyb Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Customer Association and the Success of the Branding Strategy of Starbucks Coffee" essay for you Create order

Monday, May 18, 2020

The French Quarter New Orleans - 1145 Words

The French Quarter, one of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans, is one of the most classic and flourishing areas in Louisiana. It is also known as Vieux Carrà ©, which is French for Old Square. It was established by the French in 1718 and it was a valuable site for trade because of its location along the Mississippi River. It was first in the hands of the French, then it was given to the Spanish, then the Louisiana Purchase took place, and ever since it has been in the hands of the United States. Le Vieux Carrà ©; (the French Quarter) is a spirited tourist attraction for the city of New Orleans that is steeped in history, and has made and continues to make a tremendous cultural and financial impact on the citys economy. The French Quarter was founded in 1718 as a 70 squared military-style grid. Its founder, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, who was a French Canadian naval officer, got together with two other French engineers to design the city’s street plan. His plan was to construct a central square that was surrounded by a 6x9 city block grid. At the center, a church, a rectory and a prison were constructed. The French Quarter still maintains historical buildings, such as the Church of St. Louis and the Ursuline Convent. It has incorporated a style of urbanism for four centuries, which became a part of the city during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase transferred the colony to the U.S. beginning an era of prosperity. The victory ofShow MoreRelatedNew Orleans: A Historic City849 Words   |  3 PagesNew Orleans is the largest city in Louisiana, it is located in the southern part of the state, between The Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain. New Orleans has belonged to Spain, France, and the United States. It was founded by the French in 1718. New Orleans has about 712 churches in all. It has about 165 city owned parks. 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Mardi Gras (?Fat Tuesday?) is a French term for Shrove Tuesday, the day before the start of Lent. Before Lent festivities reach the climax on a day in February or March, depending on what date Easter is.(Americana pg. 308)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  French colonists brought MardiRead MoreThe Bias and Suffering after Hurricane Katrina: Trouble The Water, and Zeitoun1450 Words   |  6 Pagesnamed storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds â€Å"gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye† (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great massesRead MoreMardigras1558 Words   |  7 Pagesdifferent cultures. 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In exchange one of the luckier neophytes had once told March, She coaxes us through the birth pains on our journey to become superb French-educated pastry chefs extraordinaire, that is if we survive her wrath. The young woman who had dashed outRead More Les Gens De Couleur Libres, The Free People of Color in New Orleans1274 Words   |  6 Pagesbut what life was all about. New Orleans New Orleans is a city in southern Louisiana, located on the Mississippi River. Most of the city is situated on the east bank, between the river and Lake Pontchartrain to the north. Because it was built on a great turn of the river, it is known as the Crescent City. New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, and named for the regent of France, Philippe II, duc dOrleans. It remained a French colony until 1763, when it wasRead MoreEople Culture Essay758 Words   |  4 Pagesdecide to show their culture thats what makes it so beautiful, and a new experience every time you do, taste or see something new from a different culture One experience that helps me to understand other cultures better is dancing. I have gotten the opportunity to go to a summer intensive in new york to do many different styles of dance from many different cultures. I have gotten to do styles of dance like ballet from the french culture and west africa from the african culture. This has helped meRead MoreComparison Between City London And New Orleans1094 Words   |  5 PagesI will compare my city London to New Orleans. I will investigate and compare them to each other which is going to be easy I hope you enjoy me explaining to you their similarities and difference. 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Monday, May 11, 2020

Historical Bias Of The Persian Wars - 1332 Words

The Persian wars were a group of wars between the Persians (the largest empire) and the Greeks (city-states philosophers) from 492 bc to 449bc. The history is told in great part by Herodotus, a Greek historian, considered to write historical bias in regards to Greek Persian history. Herodotus was said to investigate the Persian war, going through different lands and collecting personal inquiries, myths, legends and accounts of the Persian Wars. He was praised and honored for his recollection of the events, which were both factual and fictional. Herodotus wanted to pass down a history of why these two great people came into battle from a personal point of view. Cyrus the Great became ruler of the Persians because he did not want to be controlled by the meads and along with his nomadic warriors, he overtook them. Previously, the Medes had an Iranian religion of whom the Magi were like the priests of Persia and with their great architectural knowledge, they build fire temples which were used by the Magi to perform ceremonies rituals. This religion derived from magic and astrology, principles of dualism (good Evil) and resurrection. This religion is one of the causes for which Cyrus the great, rebelled against the Medes. With his army, he conquered most of Asia and remained in power because of the type of ruler that he was. Cyrus allowed the people to keep their customs and practice their own religions, worship their own gods and carry their separate rituals,Show MoreRelatedThucydides And Thucydides Writing1054 Words   |  5 Pagesand observed. Herodotus, in his account of the War for Greek Freedom, takes great care to include the mos t seemingly insignificant details of Persian, Lydian, and Greek culture--from their practices regarding death to their sexual habits to how they eat at mealtimes. Thucydides, on the other hand, tells The History of the Peloponnesian War from a bias against the clutter of religion, prophecy, culture, and humanity. As the two tell their historical accounts of two closely-connected events, theirRead MoreGreek Tragedy By Euripides Medea1646 Words   |  7 PagesShe is capable of manipulating the men around her, and killing her victims in ways that are highly gruesome. All of which are considered as masculine traits in a Greek mindset. Lastly, considering this play was written on the eve of the Peloponnesian war, Euripides uses the fact that Medea, a wild woman who has committed filicide, murdered a king and a princess, is still allowed safe harbor in Athens, as a way of criticizing Athenian moral bases, keeping in mind that they were fighting against the SpartansRead MoreCultural Bias and Structure in Herodotus Essay759 Words   |  4 Pagessuccession of events. 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Some said Xerxes signalled the downfall of the Persian empire, but others say he was an effective king marred by plain bad luck. It is my goal to delve into the vast range of sources on Xerxes and his reign, rise to prominence, and eventual assassination. From this I will not discover the definitive truth;Read MoreMain Motives For The Invasion Of Iraq2018 Words   |  9 PagesIraq in 2003? This project argues that there were many more complex reasons for Tony Blair’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, other than the war on terror, the need to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and to free the Iraqi people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussain as the government implied. 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