Defining Moment in a Career Essay

2.Describe a â€Å"defining moment† in your experience. How did it significantly impact you? There was a particular incident where I had a tough time making a decision. One of my team members from a mission critical project wanted to return to India as he had a personal emergency. He wanted to sort this out as it had begun to impact his work. I had learnt that peace & happiness in personal front will reflect into your professional world but till this incident I never stood up for such cases. But this time I decided to discuss the issue with my supervisor. To my surprise, he was more concerned about the $ losses and losing credibility with the customer. He out rightly rejected this. But I wasn’t convinced with the supervisor’s approach and decided to discuss with the client directly leveraging my personal rapport. The Customer was empathetic and was willing to let go of him after a week of overlap with a new person. While this action of mine got me into the good books of my team members it made a seamless entry into the bad books of my supervisor which had a direct impact on my performance rating. I felt dejected but beside this entire scenario I was convinced I was right in my actions and this was my defining moment where I stood up for what I believed in and I continue to do so till today. Meanwhile the new person had picked up job very well and the project had no impact because of this change.

Nintendo Marketing Mix

QUESTIONS & IDEAL ANSWERS: . 1. Conduct a 4C's Stakeholders Analysis of the Nintendo Wii Market in 2006. Please note that an analysis is more than just a list. You need to describe each stakeholder and how they affect the strategy. †¢ Consumers (note: there's more than one target segment): The case notes that Nintendo targeted non-gamers in addition to gamers. This included consumers of any age and gender. Conversely, competitors like Sony focused on teens and males. The case also mentions moms/housewives and families as targets of Nintendo marketing. The ideal answer analyzed gamers and a few non-gamer segments, such as moms. Analysis should have included qualitative description — why is this segment interested in the Wii? — and quantitative data, such as the segment's size and value. Finding quantitative data required research beyond the case, perhaps to the U. S. Census website. Such data is not easy to find, but this extra effort is what distinguishes an â€Å"A† paper. Extra credit was given to creative segmentation, such as targeting businesses and office workers, who might play the Wii on breaks, or doctors who would recommend Wii to their patients. Company (keep this brief: focus on 2006 — no Nintendo history required): A company analysis is not a history report. It should describe the company's brand, resources, internal stakeholders, strengths and weaknesses. An ideal answer noted that Nintendo has a long reputation in gaming, but with the Wii it built a family-friendly brand â€Å"that puts smiles on surrounding people's faces. † In contrast, the competition had numerous violent games. In addition, unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is not a diversified company. Its total income is much lower than either of its primary competitors (the case Appendix contains these figures), which meant fewer resources and much more at stake. Either the Xbox or the PS3 could fail, and the parent companies would survive; Nintendo could not afford to have the Wii fail. At the same time, the gaming focus helped position Nintendo as the only pure gaming company: its name is synonymous with electronic gaming. In terms of internal stakeholders, the case talks at length about Satoru Iwata, whose vision drove the company. In a footnote, the case mentions that Iwata had experience as a game developer. By contrast, the CEO's of Sony and Microsoft have no game development experience. †¢ Competitors (keep this brief: describe both direct competitors and indirect competitors, but focus on strengths and weaknesses — how much of a threat do they pose? ) The case discusses the key direct competitors, Sony and Microsoft. Sony had a strong reputation in high-quality electronics, and its PS2 and PS3 systems emphasized technological sophistication. Sony focused on hardcore gamers with increasingly violent games. This recipe translated into early sales success — but also high prices. Sony's weakness was its increasingly bureaucratic nature, and the decline of its other businesses. While Sony was cutting costs and laying off workers, they also had production problems with the PS3 — a complicated and expensive piece of technology that is supposed to be a multimedia entertainment hub. This made Sony vulnerable to a challenge. Microsoft was primarily a software company with a controversial brand. Research beyond the case reveals criticisms of Microsoft's monopolistic tendencies, and the fact that Apple was positioning Microsoft as dull and low quality. Research also reveals significant quality-control problems with the Xbox. Microsoft relied heavily on market timing and quantity of games to promote the Xbox, along with Xbox Live, which enables consumers to play each other online. Despite weaknesses, Microsoft and Sony were still formidable competitors — Nintendo knew it couldn't compete by doing the same things they were. Nintendo had to do something vastly different — even disruptive. Indirect competitors include PC games, Web-based games and phone-based games. You could even mention non-gaming entertainment, such as YouTube and Facebook, as indirect competitors. Community (focus on complements and collaborators): Game-software developers were both collaborators and complements. These developers worked with Nintendo to create games exclusively for the Wii — such games do not work on any other platform, so their fate is tightly tied into the Wii's. They were complements in that hardware sales affected software sales, and an interesting game could boost Wii sales. The broader community, according to the case, includes doctors and therapists who recommend the Wii Fit to patients. Thinking outside the case study, the community also includes the news media — like the New York Times — reviewed the Wii and reported on the shortage and long lines of buyers. This increased desire for the product, and enabled Nintendo to limit its advertising expenditures. 2. Create a positioning map. Your map must include the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox, and the target consumer segments you described in question 1. You may hand-draw the map or use any software you prefer, but the map must be pasted into the body of your document. †¢ You choose the criteria that are most relevant and important. You're allowed to guess what the consumer segments want, but you will receive extra credit if you can find any research or data on gamer preferences. †¢ Do you see any opportunities on this map for new competitors? We discussed positioning maps in the forum. You needed to draw a similar map here. The two criteria must be product features important to consumers. For video games, this might include price, complexity, family friendliness or graphics quality. It does NOT include sales (few consumers care how much money a company makes) — though you could argue for â€Å"scarcity† or â€Å"popularity† as viable criteria. Consumer segments should appear on the map according to their preferences. This example uses Price and Game Complexity as criteria: [pic] The blue star represents the Wii, the green triangle Xbox, and the red circle PS3. The PS3 combines the highest price with the highest complexity, while the Wii combines the lowest of both. Consumer segments are represented as letters: NG = Non-Gamers, CG = Casual Gamers, HG = Hardcore Gamers. The Hardcore Gamers prefer the PS3 in terms of complexity, but would like a lower price. The Non-Gamers want a low price (they don't want to pay anything) and a simple game. The Casual Gamers want something in between, but are closest to the Wii. You can see that the Wii appeals to two segments, while the PS3 and Xbox fight over just one segment. This leaves an opening in the middle for a competitor who can appeal to the Casual Gamers — the iPhone, perhaps? All these positions are based on qualitative analyses presented by the case. For this exam, I allowed you to simply estimate what consumers wanted. In the real world, you would conduct market studies and consumer surveys to find exact preferences. If you actually did find actual research or survey data on segment preferences in video games, I gave you extra credit. Also, on an ideal map, the symbols vary in size depending on sales and value. Since Wii led the market, its star would be bigger than either the circle or the triangle. Hardcore Gamers might be the most valuable segment, since they're willing to spend more money on games; the HG would then be bigger than the other letters. Drawing a positioning map tends to be the most challenging question in this exam, so I am fairly lenient in grading. However, many students still have trouble with it. That's why it's important to participate in the forum. 3. Describe Nintendo's Marketing Mix strategies for the Wii. Be sure to describe the strategies behind each element of the marketing mix, and how they differentiated the Wii from the competition. †¢ Product (keep this brief: focus on Wii's Unique Selling Proposition — what makes it truly different): The Wii's unique selling proposition — compared to the Xbox or PS3 — is simple games based on physical motion. Consumers don't need thick manuals or long learning curves to enjoy the Wii, which attracts casual gamers and non-gamers. You could also discuss Wii's family-friendly, non-violent games. †¢ Price (for the United States only): In 2006, the Wii sold for $250 (or $249) and included five games for a â€Å"complete† product, yet Nintendo still profited on each unit sold. (The games are less sophisticated and cost less to produce than the competition's. ) Sony's PS3 started at $599 and was cut to $499. The Xbox sold at $479. Despite these significantly higher prices, both Sony and Microsoft lose money on each unit sold. Neither the PS3 or the Xbox originally came with games, so to make a profit, Sony and Microsoft charged high licensing fees to game developers. This in turn translated into expensive games. †¢ Place (think in terms of retailers and product supply): The Wii sells through traditional and online retailers, such as Best Buy. More significantly, in 2006, the Wii was continuously in short supply. This is an important distribution (place) issue. If consumers can't buy your product, you not only won't make money, you send business to your competition. However, in the case of the Wii, the shortages actually increased consumer desire for the product. Since there were long lines and waiting lists for the product — and numerous major news stories about it — consumers assumed the Wii was good. Since there was a greater supply of PS3's and Xboxes than demand, consumers assumed they weren't as interesting. Consequently, some consumers simply waited for new Wii shipments; others searched stores and websites and paid higher than the retail price. Some analysts believe Nintendo had a policy of intentional scarcity. This is a common practice in marketing: some companies produce a limited supply of a certain product to increase its perceived value. For example, luxury car companies have â€Å"limited edition† models, fashion designers produce a few of each product, most universities do not accept everyone who applies. The Wii shortages increased both consumer desire and news coverage — which was key since Nintendo could not compete against Microsoft and Xbox in advertising. †¢ Promotion (describe the advertising budget and any ads): This required research, since the case was not explicit about advertising expenditures. Searching for Nintendo advertising budget on Google reveals a number of estimated figures, ranging from $85 million to $200 million. Any reasonable estimate was fine if it was referenced and came from a trustworthy source (not someone's personal blog). The important point was to have you practice corporate research, and to show that Nintendo did not rely on â€Å"word of mouth† alone to generate sales; it spent millions of dollars to get the word out. More research reveals the Nintendo Wii commercials (http://us. wii. com/tvcm_usa_gallery. jsp), which emphasize people enjoying the game, not the graphics. The very first commercial (found on YouTube and other video sites) shows two Japanese men visiting American homes with the game and announcing, â€Å"Wii would like to play. † This underscored the Japanese origins of the Wii, which enhanced its credibility. In addition, the case mentions a word-of-mouth campaign in which suburban housewives were given games in hopes that they would share its value as family entertainment. Overall, the promotions establish the Nintendo brand as family friendly, fun and physical. By contrast, ads for the Xbox and PS3 emphasized the sophisticated graphics and often fast, violent action — not an attraction for casual gamers. 4. Answer just ONE of the following questions. If you answer more than one, only the first answer will be accepted. This is your opportunity to use your imagination, so be creative. Your recommendations here had to make sense based on the company's brand and resources. You couldn't just say â€Å"spend more money on advertising† or â€Å"increase distribution. † Of course, all companies would like to do that (unless product scarcity is part of their plan) — but could they afford to? Your answers also had to be specific — you couldn’t just say you would make your product â€Å"higher quality† or â€Å"more fun. † You needed to state exactly what you wanted to achieve. More points were granted for originality and creativity. If you decided to work for Sony or Microsoft, and all you did was copy Nintendo, you didn't get many points. Above all, your answers had to be marketing driven. If you talked about improving factory efficiency or hiring the best engineers, those were answers for another class. A. If you were the VP of Marketing for Nintendo, what would you have done differently? This is the hardest of the three questions, since Nintendo was already successful. You could make more products available so that there weren't any shortages, but how would this affect the benefits of product scarcity? Also, assuming Nintendo was already producing as many games as it possibly could, where would it get the extra production capacity? You could argue that Nintendo should have launched with a higher price, using a skimming strategy to profit off early adopters, and then lower pricing as production caught up. That would make sense — but it wouldn't have created the buzz of the product shortages. Some other ideas could involve different target segments, such as schools or hospitals. B. If you were the VP of Marketing for Sony, how would you respond to the Wii? One of Sony's advantages is that it's the only one of the three companies to produce entertainment content, such as music and movies (like â€Å"Spider-Man†). How could they have leveraged that content to make the PS3 more attractive? Sony also produces other electronics equipment. Could you have integrated those products, perhaps in a bundling special (buy a Sony HDTV and get a PS3 free) or by making a game that uses a Sony Camcorder? C. If you were the VP of Marketing for Microsoft, how would you respond to the Wii? Microsoft's key advantage is that it creates the operating system that runs most of the world's computers. Is there a way to combine personal computers and the Xbox? (That would have helped them compete against Apple, as well. Since Microsoft lost money on the Xbox console, why not just focus on the software market? D. Is there another competitor that might be a significant threat to all three of these companies? If so, who is it, and why are they a threat? How should Nintendo respond to them? PC Games and the phone-based games are two possible competitors. Dell, for example, makes sophisticated gaming computers under its Ali enware brand. Nintendo's response could include making its controllers compatible with Dell computers. Or perhaps Nintendo could collaborate with Apple to make iPhones interact with the Wii. There were lots of possibilities here.

Values and norms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Values and norms - Essay Example Generally a group defines the rules that will be used for deciding appropriate and inappropriate values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors (Changing minds, 2011). These rules become the norms for the common people. Folkways are the set of norms, values and virtues that have not been strictly put into law but are followed out of imitation and mild social pressure. The American society is a multitude of diverse cultures from across the world. As a result, American culture is deeply enriched by the values and norms of different culture. Some of the recognized values of America are: Individual freedom: The value of free individual leads to a person having control over his/her own destiny. This freedom entails the individual to choose his religion, profession, education in specific and in general the way s/he wants to spend her life. Privacy: Privacy is another important value that is followed in America. People in America don’t want anybody else to interfere in their affairs or give advices. People generally want others to mind their own businesses. American and Mexican cultures are different in more ways than in the ways they are similar. While Mexicans put family as the most important thing, which is above education and success. Americans consider punctuality as an essential trait whereas Mexicans consider it appropriate to be late to dinners. Another contrasting difference is in the position of the women in the society. While women in America have almost equal decision making powers as their husbands, they play a secondary role in

Cloning Brachyury from SW480 in pNEB193 plasmid Essay - 2

Cloning Brachyury from SW480 in pNEB193 plasmid - Essay Example This concentration permitted me to proceed on to the next step of the experiment as it had more than 500 ng of RNA. However, it was noted that some students obtained very low concentrations of 15 ng/ ÃŽ ¼L compared to the class average of 169.3 ng/ ÃŽ ¼L. If the class results are analyzed, it can be noted that the standard deviation of this experiment is 151, hence, the range of results is (169 +/− 151) 18 – 320. Table 1 shows that sample F concentration. Nevertheless, samples H, L for example are much higher than the range of the results. The key point of the experiment which determined if the experiment could go on or not was the quality of RNA. That is depicted in figure1: gel denaturation of RNA, the ratio between 28S and 18S RNA is 1.3 – 2.5; many of the students had this value while some were not due to sample degradation or they did not load their samples in the appropriate wells. 3 – The second experiment was the cDNA synthesis where RT – PCR (SuperScript III RT) was used to synthesis it from RNA which was determined by the students as B, D, E, G K O and P. Every student began with a concentration of 6.16 ng. After the synthesis of cDNA, the concentration of the the whole sample was measured by the demonstrator using a Nanodrop. The data of the whole class was very close to the average 747 .2 ng/ ÃŽ ¼L (table 2). The standard deviation was 131.2 which were very small. Thus, almost all students did the experiment correctly as the results of the class data were in the range of 547 – 631 ng/ ÃŽ ¼L. On my part, the sample obtained was 302 ng/ ÃŽ ¼L which also was in the range. This allowed all students to go on to the next experiment. 4 – The next step of the experiment involved the use of the PCR to amplify the full length of Brachyury and human ÃŽ ² – actin from the cDNA that was obtained. Using 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis, the products of the PCR were analyzed. The PCR in my group worked and had

(Postmodernism) Realities and identities in motion Essay

(Postmodernism) Realities and identities in motion - Essay Example When a society acquires being modified as such, in the process, a number of possibilities are generated, of which one leads to theory, the other to commodity and this is exactly how ‘postmodernism’ and its concept were granted coexistence with humanity. Due to the extensive width or range of application and forms which postmodernism may assume, prominent theorists had each provided a description which is unique on its own and the term has by far not been taken with a single, fixed definition. By research, one may recognize a point of convergence to an idea that readily sticks to mind. It has been claimed with frequency that postmodernism, or pomo for short, is identified with a peculiarly dramatic shift from the contemporary or a radical breaking off the mainstream and ending modernistic convention so as to constitute an entirely new approach on building layers of revolution out of such movement that was highly critical toward modernism. It is a dimension where one could witness nature evolving upon nature in a series of transition rising from competing ways of thought which the society has decided to take to a flexibly sophisticated level in shaping its culture. Not only does postmodernism establishes its presence in art and fashion, but it also extends to a variable degree of influence onto literature, film, architecture, philosophy (Postmodernism – Definition) and several other fields that, in a way or another, are inevitably affected by its collective impact. As postmodernism proceeds to set up a bulk of challenges along the path of modernization, it enables each individual to possess a forward-looking perspective and consequently execute around a sharp attitude for reform of style. With a transforming culture, as one becomes increasingly prone to crises in identity, the person attempts to borrow strength from a character disposed to ‘postmodernity’ in speech, act, and choice of clothing most commonly. Such occasion may vividly reflect the ultimate outcome of postmodernism, through the response of those who have imposed its effect upon themselves. Equivalently, since this truth expands to beyond a region, the postmodern notion of reality all the more affirms the essence of going after modifications by individual pursuit, noting that the materialized concept of postmodernism is well about a multitude who see, hear, and feel each other react differently and take advantage of situations or commodities that they have been accust omed to naturally buy into. At present, people have manifested such truth in reality as they customize preference of films and film types to be watched. ‘The Matrix Trilogy’, for instance, managed to have adjusted to some extent a viewer’s level of thought about a computer system which, beyond logic, rational space, and imagination, has appeared to invade the human world the human world instead of the reverse the nature often times is. It seemingly offers a conditioning for the audience to suppose at random the subtle possibility of being controlled and programmed by a man’s technological creation whose ultimate advanced state is invisibly larger that it reaches the capacity of executing within psychological bounds that projects how humans could

Bela Pinga Ltd Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bela Pinga Ltd Company - Essay Example Database Management System (DBMS) can achieve this. By doing this Bela Pinga Ltd. business will achieve Speed of response, Accuracy of Information, Cost-Effective Transaction, Low Overheads and Maintaining Service Standards. This report will analyze the sales processing (Sales Department) of the Bela Pinga Ltd, which is located in Commercial Street, Sheffield, receives and processes sales orders from customers. In the initial section, the application domain of the potential user(s) and requirement analysis of the sale office will be presented. After that, E-R Model and Relational Data Model (RDM) will be analyzed for sale office system. In the last section of the report database overview and screenshots of the database (Microsoft Access Database System) made will be shown. The Information (Database) System will be made in Microsoft Access database system for sales order processing views for â€Å"Bela Pinga Ltd†. This will serve as the prototype for the final version that will be based on a combination of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. This Information system will be used by for the sales order processing view. The potential user of the Information system will be customers who place orders and the sales assistants who check the availability of the desired type of wine in Bela Pinga Ltd stores at the Logistics Department in Nottingham Street, Pitsmoor, Sheffield. However, if the quantities of the desired type of wines are not available, then sales assistants notifies it to the Purchasing Department, which is further taken care by the Purchasing department and is out of scope for this assignment (assumption). Figure 1 shows the E-R Model for the Sale Order Processing View of Bela Pinga Ltd. The four major entity identified are Customer, Order, Wine Details, and Invoice.  

Speculating about causes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Speculating about causes - Essay Example Employees may get retrenched for example when a firm no longer needs the services of the employees or if the company itself shuts down its operations. It is usually not easy to find to find an appropriate job immediately after being laid off. A company would not desire to appoint somebody recently laid off for bad reasons such as failure to do a good job, absence from work, theft or drunkenness in work. It makes someone sacked to find alternative employment immediately. In some cases, the economy of a country might be undergoing turmoil making job hunting difficult. Other individuals are unable to get employed because they lack the required level of qualification and experience for a particular job. Some organizations will not hire someone without getting a good reference and remark concerning the prospective employee. Employers all the time appoint the best-qualified individuals for its vacant positions available. Many individuals are in no position to come across jobs because they are disabled or have health issues. For example, if one gets injured in an accident or gets ill for a prolonged time the person may be unable to do work hence remain jobless (Greenhalgh 103) . Each act comes with an outcome. However, the effects and causes and of joblessness are very powerful the life of the affected individuals. For instance, an employee lacking the suitable and appropriate skills required for a task will get retrenched or fired from a company. An individual may be jobless or get sacked from their job when a company wishes to cut on its budget. Similarly, in a case where there are plenty of workforces but not enough work to match them, their number will be reduced to ensure the company does not waste resources. On the other hand, if there is an abundance of jobs, but the employees lack the correct experience or skills to work then the their replaced will occur. Job losses are beginning to rise steadily, and