netflix vs blockbuster case analysis

netflix vs blockbuster case analysis Free Online Research Papers Reed Hastings has already been a success for beginning new companies. He first made a name for himself by going public with Pure Software in 1995. After the development of this company he began to obtain several other companies and made Pure Software one of the 50 largest public software companies in the world by 1997 until they sold to Rational Software in 1997. From there Hastings moved on to others projects. He noticed that there was a demand for the ability to rent movies. With a large customer base he figured there was no question that his company could fail. Since the internet was booming, Hastings sensed the opportunity for online movie rentals. This began the only movie rental industry to a large audience. With one company becoming successful, it wouldn’t be but a matter of time before others began to catch on and begin to reap the benefits of someone else’s idea. Back in 1985, David cook wanted to fill a niche market just like Hastings. He wanted to load a market for customers who wanted to rent an assortment of VHS movies. By selling off his existing oil and gas software business, Cook subsidized the first store. By 1986, an initial public offering was started in order for the need to raise capital to fund further expansion. However, a harmful news article delayed this offering. Running into liquidity problems, Blockbuster had an ending result in a $3.2 million loss. In 1987 cook sold a one-third stake in the company to a group of investors. In conclusion, Cook was forced to turn over future control of the company, and eventually left the company. 2003 was the most interesting year for Blockbuster. The company placed a net loss of $845.2 million, which shifted Blockbuster to make some important decision for the company’s future. The five forces model is a tool used to diagnose the competitive pressure of the industry. From these five different areas of the market, this model evaluates the power and significance of each pressure. The strongest of the five forces comes from rivalry among competing sellers. Firms will use any resource or weapon available to gain a better position in the market. Many marketing experts say that rivalry refers to the jockeying of market share by firms. There are two main types of players in the video rental industry: Traditional renters, such as Blockbuster, who operate physical store locations, and mail-order renters such as Netflix. Competition for market share is brutal for the traditional renter. As this type of renter, Blockbuster has positioned itself with a profound fixed cost communications venture in retail store locations. Due to this high fixed cost, by spreading the cost over many rentals will be the only way Blockbuster can lower its average cost per item. As in a ny industry, if competition takes market share away from a company it is possible for the cost to increase. Blockbuster will eventually find itself competitively disadvantaged if this were to happen. Therefore, Blockbuster fiercely competes to maintain its market share. This can be seen via several recent Blockbuster promotions, most of which were aimed at the competition from Netflix. Tactics such as the Blockbuster game or movie pass, which is limitless game or movie rentals for a flat per month fee, were designed to come from the loss of market share. In order for Blockbuster to remain cost competitive overall, Blockbuster will regain some market share through these passes, even though they do not generate as much revenue as per rental fee. Mail order firms such as Netflix have a different cost structure in contrast to the traditional renter. Netflix’s distribution centers, inventory, and website maintenance are primarily Netflix’s fixed costs. These fixed costs in total are far lower than the fixed costs a chain such as Blockbuster acquires. In isolation, the fixed cost per rental element for Netflix is lower, and Netflix can reach a competitive average cost at much lower rental amount. This allows them to offer flat fee rentals, while maintaining a lucrative margin. In order to steer clear of rising cost average costs, Netflix may not need market share as desperately as Blockbuster. However, Blockbuster will be placed at a price disadvantage if Netflix recognizes that it can steal enough market share away from them. Thus, this leads to intense competition and firm rivalry as well. Because the industry is stagnant, there are many other factors influencing firm rivalry in the video rental industry. The only real alternative for growth is to increase market share, since the size of the market is not expanding. This obviously intensifies competition. Furthermore, movie/game rentals are an extremely undifferentiated product. A rental from Blockbuster is exactly the same as a rental from Hollywood video or Netflix. There are little or no switching costs for consumers to move between firms. This strengthens price competition for consumers to gain market share. Finally, there are strong exit barriers for companies such as Blockbuster. As a result, Blockbuster will continue to match prices with Netflix or others as it struggles to survive, increasing the competition even more. Prior to the explosive growth of the internet in the late 90’s, a strong dispute could be made that there were high entry obstacles in the video rental industry which restricted competiti on. This would include the relatively large economies of scale required to operate retail locations which did not operate at a cost disadvantage relative to Blockbuster. Another entry barrier was the high brand loyalty enjoyed by Blockbuster, which was the place to go for movie rentals. Lastly, new firms would also face entry barriers in the form of needing to generate sufficient volume in order to gain access to revenue sharing agreements with the studios similar to those which blockbuster had in place. With the evolution of the internet, all of these factors changed. However, the retail location entry barrier disappeared as technology allowed companies such as Netflix to reach a nationwide audience without a physical appearance. Blockbuster had alienated many of its customers by not keeping enough copies of popular movies in stock, among other reasons mentioned prior. Therefore, the brand loyalty barrier was overcome mostly by chance. The barrier of needed to have enough volume to negotiate profit sharing agreements with studios simply became debatable. DVDs has replaced VHS, and DVDs were priced for retail sale less than $25.00, unlike VHS which was rental priced in the 70-90 range. This meant that Netflix did not have to negotiate revenue sharing like Blockbuster did in the days. As a result, competition has amplified further because there are now few entry barriers in this industry. Video rentals are bountiful with substitute products. This includes items such as pay-per-view , VOD, and streaming on-line videos. As these are all feasible alternatives, the threat of substitutes plays the role of yet another intensifier in delivering a nearly identical product. Suppliers in the video rental industry yield minimal power when addressing this force in Porter’s model. An input such as games and DVDS is nearly identical for all suppliers. As mentioned above, there is a wide availability presence of substitutes and also virtually no ability to price discriminate. These factors erode the supplier power while at the same time intensifying the position of buyers. Therefore, the dominant trend in the future will result in intense competition with falling prices because when all five forces are combined it will be apparent that firms will have a strong desire to compete on price within the video rental industry. It is important to analyze potential profitability with a firm using a SWOT analysis. First, Blockbuster will be analyzed internally and externally followed by strategic recommendations. Strengths of a company internally are very important when analyzing growth and potential profitability of a company in a given industry. Blockbuster has roughly 8,000 stores worldwide. Therefore, Blockbuster products have a huge distribution channel relative to all these locations. This in turn puts Blockbuster is a good position for distribution and access to the world. Over 2, 600 store locations are outside stores. This distribution available through Blockbuster also increases their bargaining power with studios. With the presence of movie stores, there is an added convenience for their mail-order and internet customers. Customers are able to return videos and rent new ones by mail and any store location. This requirement results in a valuable database that may be used for tracking who is rent ing and what they want to see or play. In turn, this allows Blockbuster to custom fit store inventories to the members each store serves. This enables Blockbuster to implement more effective marketing to its customers with such a strong database. All these locations have helped make the Blockbuster brand identical with movie and game rentals. Therefore, Blockbuster has various strengths including a strong brand loyalty with existing customers and still being the face of movie and game rentals. While analyzing the case it is believed that Blockbuster has many weaknesses in the industry. Because Blockbuster was the leader in this particular industry, it shifted heavily with them loosing money strengthening the intensity of rivalry. They tried to go online but couldn’t keep up with competition. Therefore, one strong weakness overall is upholding a store versus a warehouse. With all these weaknesses being profound it appears that Blockbuster has 3 vital weaknesses such as memberships, inventory, and availability. Because only members may rent from Blockbuster this weakness is perhaps true throughout most of the industry. It puts consumers into a position that they are forces to choose, which can result is many outcomes. Inventory is also a profound weakness. Because Blockbuster’s inventory is limited and stores have limited space it provides weak spot for new movie releases that are being released throughout the year. Stores must make the choice to bring in more new releases or eliminate older movies that are less frequently rented. As a result, this may put a strain on members who are looking for older movies or games that are hard to find forcing them to go to a competitor. Lastly, availability of movies is another obstacle Blockbuster needs to overcome. Consumers are in search of instant gratification today more than ever before. For example, if a movie comes to the mind of a consumer that they want to see they want it instantly. Therefore, if he/she cannot have it that day, then they may not rent. Blockbuster’s opportunities can be tackled to exploit their weaknesses within which in turn can be very beneficial to their company. Moving on with the SWOT analysis, opportunities are very vital to a firm. Blockbuster has many opportunities that can be foreseen for the future. One of the most important opportunities that Blockbuster has encountered is transforming the movie rental business through its mail order system. There are many competitors in the industry such as Red Box and DVD play kiosks that people may rent with a credit card for one dollar a night with no membership required. As a result, these kiosks have provided a strong opportunity for Blockbuster. Blockbuster can still penetrate this market with its own DVD kiosks by capitalizing on its own name. Blockbuster can also use its bargaining control as an industry giant to bargain rights to provide PPV streaming of video, music and games. Also, the use of digital media allows Blockbuster to offer a larger selection of films, music and games while potentially reducing its physical inventory. Therefore, as a result, it will allow Blockbuster to offer l egal instant gratification to consumers, which is very important for an industry to realize and capitalize on. There are many threats that could be imposed on Blockbuster is this vigorous competitive industry. As well as any other industry change in technology and shifting consumer preferences is an ongoing threat. Due to new technology and marketing practices, new policy and procedure awareness will be the main driving force of a company’s success, and in turn, how well one adapts and adopts is vital. With other companies offering different service, Blockbuster has encountered immense competition within this industry. For example, Movie Gallery which provides the same features and attributes as Blockbuster and the powerful Netflix. Netflix proposes flat rate rentals by mail and online streaming. Consequently, movie stores and distribution is slowly moving towards a direct model where consumers can access movies on demand. Some other important threats are that consumers can still buy movies or choose to go out and do other things. Blockbuster is also more expensive due to their busin ess model. Therefore, if Blockbuster wants to stay afloat in this highly competitive industry they will have to alter some aspects within their model. There are many strategic recommendations that Blockbuster can benefit from. The first recommendation for Blockbuster would be to close some of their locations within close proximity of each other. This level of overlapping coverage may be unnecessary. This would provide an alternative to reducing operations expense and ultimately fixed store costs would go down. Furthermore, Blockbuster should not focus most of their attention on their stores. They will not keep up in the ever changing industry trends in technology and peoples preferences. Blockbuster also got rid of late fees with is good for consumers but bad for revenues. With that said, they reversed it, which reversed their strategy. In addition, Blockbuster should put rentals online that are no longer available in stores. This would answer one of the problems of them not having a deep stock of movies for people that want to view older movies. Blockbuster could also partner with other retailers such as giant eagle. This woul d reduce their fixed costs and enable them to benefit by gaining access to the grocer’s customers, opening up cross-promoting opportunities which could drive additional revenues. Another important recommendation Blockbuster could consider is having a better marketing strategy. If a costumer isn’t aware that a specific channel exists, then there is virtually no change they will use it. Blockbuster could open the door to many ideas and implement to improve brand awareness while maintaining their market share. For standing locations, a loyalty program can be designed. All of these marketing ideas will provide Blockbuster to achieve the utmost effectiveness. To sum up all these recommendations, as more people become accustomed to the alternative methods of video purchase, Blockbuster will need to meet the consumer’s needs where they want to do business. By designing a strong database of viewing customer preferences, they could have a potential marketing tool. Therefore, an effective marketing tool would help to ensure and maintain a aggressive edge in this ever changing industry. Moving away from the traditional renter, the mail-order industry will now be evaluated. Netflix is the world’s largest movie rental service with over 6.3 million members and a deep collection of many movies. There are known for both their excellent customer service and their convenient and user-friendly interface on their award winning website. New technology has enabled Netflix to provide high quality streaming videos directly to their subscriber’s computers. Netflix has entered the VOD market, providing them to maintain their superior position. By entering this powerful market, Netflix will be able to differentiate itself from its competitors, and reduce the likelihood of price competition. In the long run, after movie streaming has increased to become popular, Netflix can separate the DVD rental and streaming movie services, offering different plans. Therefore, the SWOT analysis will be analyzed to foresee how profitable Netflix is and will become. Netflix has a lot of strengths making them the leader in this industry. The number one strength for Netflix is having a strong competitive advantage. The advantage is the first mover advantage in online rental. Netflix also by chance had great entry timing. They entered the market for DVD rentals at a time when there were few other competitors, allowing them to establish their brand name and image for providing a unique service. Netflix was the first to offer DVD rental by mail and this allowed them to offer a greater variety of DVDs to consumers. Therefore, the early entry of Netflix has allowed it to maintain a high market share in the DVD industry and have strong brand recognition by being a first mover. Netflix also has high customer satisfaction, which is the stem of a successful company. Without customers, a company does not exist. Netflix is smart because they understood the weakness of competitors. They understood what irritated many video rental store customers: late fees. W hile costumers rush to return the movie on a certain day this may impose late fees comparable to the price of the rental. In turn, Netflix provides no due dates, late or cancellation fees. Because Netflix enables the customer to keep the DVD as long as they want, this provides freedom to return the movie at ones convenience. Another strength Netflix incurs is its Award winning website. Their website allows predicting what movies one would want based on their previous rental history. It also enables Netflix to plan future rentals and allow customers to rate movies that they have previously rented. This proves to show that Netflix has a large selection at affordable pricing that may not be offered in stores such as Blockbuster. Blockbusters total access is probably the best thing that ever happened to Netflix, providing plentiful opportunities. Even though a few years ago Blockbuster jumped into a brutal price war with Netflix trying to swipe their customers away, it did Netflix a favor. It provided them with several opportunities. The total access pitch of returning DVDs to a physical store got immediate flow, but backfired. Dozens of Blockbuster movies were being pirated, enabling customers to make copies before returning them. Even though Netflix is highly successful, they also incur weaknesses. Netflix often has trouble providing enough copies of new popular movies. As a result, a main cause of customer dissatisfaction is Netflix’s inability to completely satisfy the initial rush for a new movie. However, the company knows that it would be unprofitable in the long run to buy more copies just to serve the rush when a movie first becomes available because the copies will not be rented with nearly a s much frequency soon after the rush. Netflix also doesn’t have a direct connection to any movie studios so it must purchase its entire media through the consumer market. As Netflix integrated the streaming industry it has comparatively small movie availability to stream. One big disadvantage Netflix has encountered is that customers have to wait for the next movie to arrive in their mailbox. By the time the subscriber receives the movie, he or she may no longer be in the mood to see it. This may enable the costumer to leave their home and go and rent a movie. Another disadvantage with mail-order rentals is the lack of control of DVD return time since customers have control of the movie for as long as they want. The DVDs can also arrive scratched or broken during the mailing process. One opportunity that Netflix could foresee is product line expansion such as video games. They could also expand downloadable movie offerings and print third party advertisements on their mail-order envelopes. Lastly, the can expand on partnerships and technology providers. The clearest threat to Netflix is Blockbuster and other established rental businesses. Beyond this, costumer’s satisfaction is the only aspect of this business that can make or break a company. Netflix also many not be able to retain enough of the market to survive if they were to lose its wholesome, reliable image. Also, bigger companies such as Apple could impose a potential harm to Netflix. There are bigger competitors in the streaming and video market and Netflix is less suite d to compete with hardware innovations because it has little or no experience in this area. Just like Blockbuster, Netflix has threats of people going out and buying DVDs and also going out and doing other things. Also, Netflix has DVD competition from Red Box and Blockbuster and the everlasting staying power of DVDs. Some strategic recommendations for Netflix are they should continue to market their services effectively. Their subscriber base will grow steadily and will be able to collect more personalized data. Netflix should also suggest t make its streaming services available under a separate subscription plan of its own. Also Netflix should increase their streaming video library since they are in strong competition. Netflix should also continue to reach to the less technological savvy consumers. This will provide an advantage over other firms in the future of this rising market. 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A Leader in On-Line Travel Services Essay Example for Free

A Leader in On-Line Travel Services Essay ? The travel industry is billion dollar a year business. Year round people from all walks fill the roads and departing plane seats in search of travel success. There is no doubt that the travel industry will continue to be in demand, however, while vacationers, business travelers and everyone in between anticipate spending a good chunk of change to get from point a to point b, no person wants to part with their hard earned money. Thankfully, some genius out there understood this. Along with the evolution of the technological advances came a miraculous source for locating the best deals in travel, from flights to hotels to car rental. Based on the number of travel websites available, no longer do discounted travel options belong solely to commissioned travel agents. Today, everyone from housewives to grandpas to beer-guzzling football fanatics have the capability of obtaining their own travel deals. Parented by Expedia, Inc and based in Washington State, Expedia. com revolutionized the way people travel the world, and as time continues, its services only get better. With a bit of research, a pen and some paper, soon-to-be travelers are able to decide what airline or hotel best suits their needs (and their wallets) all with just a few clicks of the mouse. While competitors such as Travelocity and Priceline offer much of the same services, Expedia. com continues to be a leader in the travel industry (PR Newswire, p. 1). Thousands of hotels, airlines and other travel accommodators have joined in to vie for the traveler’s business, and the wooing has resulted in deep discounts and sometimes little extras, such as free hotel nights. Expedia. om’s early days were a bit primitive, but as the demand for travel options increased, the business flourished. Expedia. com has become a household name among travelers and will continue to be a source for deal seekers around the world. Expedia. com’s big break came in 1996 when Richard Barton, who, at the time, was responsible for creating CD-ROMS for Microsoft, presented the idea of offering travel options on-line (NetIndustries, p. 1). Microsoft Network1 reluctantly began assisting in web exposure in order to generate business for the experimental company (NetIndustries, p. ). While discounted airline tickets were the only product Expedia was offering at the time, the investment Microsoft placed in technological innovations for the company greatly expanded the number of people coming across Expedia. com’s website. A few short years would prove that Expedia. com was not just some fly-by-night ‘dot-com’. In 1999, Microsoft Network spun off a portion of their interest in Expedia for public availability; a move that increased Expedia. com’s worth within hours (NetIndustries, p. 1). With success under their belt, Microsoft opted to sell its entire interest in Expedia. com to USA Networks, Inc. 2. Led by CEO Erik Blachford, Expedia. com is wholly owned by InterActiveCorp (PBM, p. 1). Teaming up with Classic Custom Vacations, Expedia Corporate Travel and Travelscape. com, Inc. , Expedia. com found itself in the perfect position to expand the types of travel services offered, and could continue fulfilling their mission of utilizing electronic sourcing in order to provide the best travel options to its users (About Expedia. com, p. 1). Services available through Expedia. com include discounted flights, hotel accommodations, auto rental, cruises and even vacation packages, all for domestic and international destinations. Additionally, the company offers guidance to travelers who are unsure of the type of travel they are seeking. By clicking the ‘activities’ tab on the website, destination seekers are able to view events taking place all over the world (Expedia. com, p7). Additional services include printable maps, an easy 1. Microsoft Network, a major software developer, assisted Expedia. om by providing technological resources, to include premium web exposure, which played a major role in Expedia. com’s growth. 2. USA Networks, a media based operator, changed its name to USA Interactive upon completing its purchase of Expedia. com. USA Interactive also owns Expedia. com competitor Hotels. com (SJP, 2002). to maneuver website and 24/7 customer service. Along with success, Expedia. com endured its share of struggles. In early operations, Expedia faced several lawsuits, including one from competitor Priceline. om for infringing on a patented â€Å"name your price† service. Other competitors, such as Travelocity. com were heating things up by adding new features and services to their websites. Expedia. com’s defense was to play-up the features and services they already used by launching a major marketing campaign using tags like â⠂¬Å"Don’t just travel. Travel right,† and â€Å"Where do you want to go today? † (NetIndustries, p. 1). While the marketing campaign was a success, profit success was short-lived when some airlines stopped paying commissions to on-line travel agents, including Expedia. om. While competitors such as Priceline. com tagged on hefty $10. 00 surcharges to customers using airlines who didn’t pay commissions, Expedia was able to negotiate with several airlines in order to avoid charging additional fees to customers, while continuing to offer those airlines’ services without feeling too much of a punch (NetIndustries, . 1). Overcoming these challenges, Expedia continues its success by utilizing a product line pricing strategy, which entails offering a variety of products at ranged pricing, or bundling packages and charging accordingly. A mere 11 years old, Expedia. com has become established nationally as well as internationally. Today, Expedia. com’s success continues. It employs 1,758 people, and averages sales at an estimated $590 million (NetIndustries, p. 1). The future includes focusing on the business traveler, whose needs are being met by providing the widest range of products possible, and offering little comforts such as the Expedia. com Cafe3. Cornering the market with the best deals, Expedia. com will continue to lead the on-line travel industry without missing a beat. A Leader in On-Line Travel Services. (2017, Feb 26).

Law enforcement Cameras Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Law enforcement Cameras - Research Paper Example Even so, the source cautions of how these cameras capture unintended images from private locations. Thus, despite its support for surveillance cameras, this source provides appropriate arguments for both sides of the divide on way privacy gets affected by surveillance cameras. This article uses the story of a victim of crime to illustrate the usefulness of police surveillance cameras in protecting people in the cities in America. On the other hand, it also discusses the limitation of this technology, including its inability to selectively capture what is useful to deter crime, thus bringing it out as a technology that invades privacy. As such, the research paper could borrow critical arguments on law enforcement cameras for protection and their limitation with regards to invading privacy. This book articulates pressing issues on privacy from the 17th Century to date, giving an account of how governments have abused some of its privileges. Of particular importance to this research paper is its discussion of the sophisticated cameras used for surveillance by the police. The ability of these cameras to peer through private settings provides the basis for argument for infringement of privacy by law enforcement cameras. In this article, Lynch discusses the use of cameras in traffic to reduce pedestrian fatalities. With a focus on New York City, the article educates on the powerfulness of these cameras in capturing images even in places considered as private. However, the author concludes by noting no evidenced reduction in pedestrian fatalities as a result of installation of these cameras. Apart from being useful in appreciating the functionality of surveillance cameras with regards to crime prevention, this source is also useful in arguing for law enforcement cameras as privacy invaders. This publication discusses the technological advancement in law enforcement, particularly

Analysis of Witan Pacific Investment Trust Plc- Fund Management Essay

Analysis of Witan Pacific Investment Trust Plc- Fund Management - Essay Example Witan Pacific is an investment trust that was established in 1907 as General Investors & Trustees Limited (GIT). The company then used to invest in a diverse range of assets. Following the 1929 market crash, the company shifted from equities to Treasury Bills, cash and British Government Securities. GIT merged with City and Gracechurch Investment Trust in 1975. GIT was renamed F&C Pacific Investment Trust in 1984. In 2005 it adopted a multi-manager approach where Witan Investment Services was entrusted with management of the operations and Aberdeen and Nomura became the investment managers of the company (Witan Investment Services Limited, 2012). Investment Objective The investment objective of the fund is to give its shareholders a portfolio of investments with a balance of assets in the region of Asia Pacific with the aim to outperform MSCI AC Asia Pacific (Witan Pacific, 2011, p.1). Investment Strategies In order to achieve the aim and objective, the fund has devised a set of strategies: In order to diversify risk and add value for investors, active multi-manager approach is used. The company faces the foreign currency exchange risk and equity market risks in emerging markets such as settlement risks with regional exchanges. Other risks include selection of investment managers and other generic risks related to specific country. The company does not use foreign currency hedging instruments but regularly report the sensitivity analysis of each foreign currency exposure. This might be due to the fact that using hedging instruments with underlying emerging markets currencies except yen may add to the existing inherent risks. Also the concentrated exposure to Japanese markets has been reduced from 2010 levels (figure 5). The investments are also more diversified on the basis of sectors (figure 6). The multi-manager strategy and regular reviews by the board have helped mitigate the equity market risks and settlement risks because of the different investment approach. Investment in fund with two different investment approaches diversifies risk by averaging the risk and return. Investment in two different funds will increase the costs for the investors. To manage the fund’s growth predominantly through return on capital. The NAV total returns over 1 year, 3 years and 5 years period are more than the benchmark return (figure 12). Over the five years, the NAV has been at premium to the share price of the trust over 5 years. The NAV total returns and total shareholder returns include dividends re-invested. Buy-back shares when the company’s shares are at a discount to the net asset value. The bought back

Brain Tumors and Work :: Medical Workforce Lesion Essays

Brain Tumors and Work Going Home after a brain tumor or lesion can be exciting, joyous, and fearful for the whole family. It can be hard to leave the security of your doctors and nurses, even though they are only a phone call away. Luckily social services can help homecoming along with the many laws protecting people with disabilities. Employment The workforce includes many individuals with psychiatric disabilities who face employment discrimination because their disabilities are stigmatized or misunderstood. Congress intended Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (1990) to combat such employment discrimination as well as the myths, fears, and stereotypes upon which it is based. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC" or "Commission")(2005)receives a large number of charges under the ADA alleging employment discrimination based on psychiatric disability. These charges raise a wide array of legal issues including, for example, whether an individual has a psychiatric disability as defined by the ADA and whether an employer may ask about an individual's psychiatric disability. People with psychiatric disabilities and employers also have posed numerous questions to the EEOC about this topic. The purpose of the ADA is to: (1) provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities; (2) provide a clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standard addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities; (3) ensure that the Federal Government plays a central role in enforcing the standards established in this chapter on behalf of individuals with disabilities; and (4) invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to enforce the fourteenth amendment and to regulate commerce, in order to address the major areas of discrimination faced day to day by people with disabilities. The first employment lawsuit filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was on behalf of a brain tumor survivor. In July 1992, Charles L. Wessel, Executive Director of AIC Security Investigations, was fired with one day’s notice after telling his company he had inoperable brain metastases from lung cancer. The Chicago-based company’s owner told Mr. Wessel that his position had been eliminated. On November 5, 1992, the EEOC filed this first federal ADA â€Å"test case† with their Chicago district office. The EEOC claimed Mr. Wessel was able to perform the essential functions of his role of executive director and that his firing violated Title I of the ADA. EEOC lawyers described the case as â€Å"a classic example of the type of

Generational Differences at the Workplace

The article that I have chosen for my assignment is called â€Å"Generational differences in the workplace: personal values, behaviors, and popular beliefs. † It was published recently in the Journal of Diversity Management. The main purpose of this paper was to identify the most significant differences between three generations of present employees: Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y, using popular and academic literature. These differences were then analyzed using the results of the Rokeach Value Survey, which included 5057 interviews with people from every group. According to the results, the information received from the research was very similar to other widely-spread opinions on this topic. The differences found between these three generations were quite typical and this implies that managers have not only to remember about such age-specific diversity but put a lot of efforts to be able to successfully hire and retain employees from every above-mentioned group. People from these generations usually see the world in a very different way as they have been influenced by different factors during the age of making up of their personality. That is why they should be managed in specific ways, adjusted to their core values and desires and some of the possible ways are considered in the closing part of this article. Main part: According to Manheim (1953) a generation can be defined as a group of people born and raised in the same general chronological, social and historical context. Nowadays, many companies are faced with challenging problems concerning the rising amount of conflicts in the workplace between people of different age. This is one of the obstacles of the generation diversity, that should be treated very carefully as it has an enormous impact on the social life of any company. The article offers us a survey conducted among 5057 employees of various age in order to understand the principal distinctions between three generations, to better realize their core values, beliefs and expectations from life and, what is more important for the employers – their expectations from their jobs. As it was already mentioned in the Introduction these three generations are the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), Generation X (born 1965-80) and Generation Y (born since 1980). Baby Boomers present the largest group of employees nowadays. These are people who mostly rejected their parents' values in their earlier years. According to Loyalty Factor President Dianne Durkin â€Å"They invented work as self-fulfillment and proving themselves, and have defined themselves by their careers† (ref. â„â€" 4). Usually they can be described as self-absorbed, loyal and competitive workaholics. They usually have leading roles in the company, holding top-level management positions. In addition to this they are competent, effective but usually have quite conservative type of thinking and do not like to accept any changes. Generation X people are mostly very confident and independent, as the environment where they were brought-up had changed a lot. These children usually came home after school alone as their parents were working the whole day. And this was one of the main factors that led to the creation of a freedom-loving and self-reliant generation. According to the article â€Å"Managing Different Generations at Work† (ref. â„â€" 3) these people view work just as a job. They work to live, not on the contrary and they want to balance their lives. That is why they need to be given freedom and autonomy, maybe some support, but not the guidance. A clear mission and well-defined goals should be created for Xers. They are very cynical by nature and are usually not concerned with the words like loyalty and trust that is why they tend to change jobs very often. Probably the most interesting generation of these three is the last one – Generation Y, as these young people represent the future. This generation was brought-up on computers, internet and TV programs. They are optimistic, realistic, globally aware and easily accept diversity and innovations. According to the article â€Å"Get ready for a new type of worker in the workplace: the net generation† by MarkL. AIch, Ph. D (ref â„â€" 6) the members of the newest generation hold respect for people who can demonstrate expertise and knowledge, but not just thanks to someone’s rang or age. They are more interested in utilizing their expertise and skills, want to participate in decision making and have a need to collaborate and to establish an interconnectivity with others. This may also be confirmed by the article â€Å"Managing Generation Y† by Rick Weber (ref â„â€" 12) where he states that these people feel great about themselves. And when you think about how to prepare the next generation to move into leadership roles they are already thinking about buying the company. They also want to learn from others, because they are curious. So the best way to retain these young talents is to spend time in guiding, directing, and supporting them, and giving them the wisdom they cannot get from anywhere else. It is interesting to see some peculiarities in the results of the Rokeach Value Survey mentioned in the given article. According to its results, Family Security and Health are on the first two positions for every generation. Freedom is very important for both X and Y generations, but is quite insignificant for the Boomers. Gen X’s value for pleasure is higher than others, and Gen Y ranked Independence much higher than two other generations. Other significant differences in ranking preferences include Open-mindedness which has a very low position in the Boomers’ rank. As we can observe now, the results from the survey correlate strongly with a general description of every generation. Thus, we can state that there are some typical differences between Baby Boomers generation, Generation X and Generation Y which should obviously be taken into account by the managers who have to deal with employees from these various groups. They need to know what their workers want, what they need and how to occupy them as this is essential for the successful and effective work of the whole company. Implications: For sure, there are many challenges created by having multiple generations in the workplace, but if the correct approaches could be found, the goal of creating an efficient, effective and sustainable business model that uses the best qualities within each of the three generations can be achieved. Baby boomers are characterized as loyal hard workers usually taking high positions. They can be probably motivated by money, promotion options and social approval. Referring to the article â€Å"Managing Baby Boomers† by D. Quinn Mills and Mark D Cannon (ref â„â€" 8) this generation can be attracted and motivated by several approaches. First, it is important for managers to be sensitive to employees’ needs and interests and provide the variety of challenges and experiences to keep the job interesting. Another good tip is to treat them as professional because Baby Boomers usually consider themselves professionals and want to be respected for their individual skills. They like to have responsible tasks and have opportunities for further development. Some other steps could be to create individually oriented reward system, to provide opportunities to develop relationships adopt a more participative management style and try to reduce conflict through understanding. The distinctive features of Generation X are their independence, self-reliance and lack of trust. That is why managers should try to make their work more meaningful and fun. According to the article â€Å"Managing our future: The generation X factor† by Gary O’Bannon (ref â„â€" 9) managers need to support Xers’ style of thinking, learning and communicating, and respect the unique perspective they bring to the workplace. Maybe Xers should be granted more day-to-day autonomy and enough creative responsibility to imagine problems in their own terms. Here I would like to give an example of a global management consultant company Accenture (ref. â„â€" 11) that realized how time flexibility may significantly increase the level of satisfaction of their workers. For that reason they introduced an idea of Future Leave which gives the employees a possibility once in three years to take 1 to 3 months of self-funded sabbatical and use it as they wish. Some similar steps may be undertaken to satisfy Generation X’s necessity in independence, because it gives them time to rethink their values and feel more comfortable and appreciated. The Generation Y is raised on computers and constant changes in the world. Therefore they need to satisfy their high ambitions, curiosity and need of innovation. Referring to the article â€Å"The Net Generation Takes the Lead† (ref. 10) the trend in the companies should be toward networks, not hierarchies, toward open collaboration rather than command, toward consensus rather than arbitrary rule, and toward enablement rather than control. Learning has to be part of work and these people should always be given the possibility to offer new ideas, to innovate. They should be given interesting and challenging tasks, and in addition to this their opinion should be appreciated as they will never stay in a place where they do not have right to participate in decision-making and add value in the future of the company. However, simply because people are from same generation does not automatically mean they will all share the same generational characteristics. That is why managers should treat every person individually, based on who this person really is, but not on whom he or she should be according to their belonging to any kind of groups or generations. Only doing that way, the company will be able to manage diversity in a right way.

Movie Review Horror Movie Alien - 1368 Words

Horror is a film genre created to elicit a negative emotional response from the audience by playing upon primal fears. Usually, a horror film will entail many physical, but also emotional and psychological, elements in order to create an atmosphere that is ripe for creating these negative emotions. One such element often used within the horror genre is the ‘monster’, often the main antagonist figure in the film. As such, the monster is a large part of the make-up of the given film. The movie Alien, released on May 25th, 1979, is one such film that falls into this category of monster-driven plot. The ‘alien’ in the movie took years to design and months to physically create, and acted as a backbone, holding the movie together. To this day people know what you’re talking about when you refer to the ‘alien’, because of its creepily interesting allure, its ground-breaking design, and because of all the spin-off’s and sequels that it ins pired. Dan O’Bannon, a graduate of the University of Southern California, was the original concoctor of Alien. While working on Dune, a movie that later fell through, he became inspired and started writing a script entitled â€Å"Memory†. This 29-page script would be what he used, after Dune fell through, to start the project that would later be known as Alien. While he was working on the script for Dune he met many talented artists but, the one that intrigued him the most was a man by the name of H.R. Giger. In an interview O’Bannon explained hisShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Movie The Bride Of Frankenstein 1514 Words   |  7 Pagesfor my input to help them compile their list of great horror movies. I decided that the best way to share my input is by choosing two movies from the horror movie genre and comparing and contrasting them to concluded which out of the two is a better horror movie. 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