Website Proposal For Holiday Inn Hotel Tourism Essay

Website Proposal For Holiday Inn Hotel Tourism Essay The shrinking world is expanding the outreach of tourists. No more do hotels have a fully staffed reservation department with managers, assistant managers, supervisors and agents. The internet has conveniently replaced numerous phone calls, faxes and payment issues. Now potential guests just dial a toll-free number or book directly on the internet. According to Forrester Research 32% of hotels revenues come through online bookings. They include both direct reservations and those made through third party websites. The travel industry allocates 29% of its marketing budget to online marketing. (Cullen)This is so because the importance of integration of E-Commerce with business strategies is realized. This is also because the nature of the traveler and travelling is changing. Present day travelers are hyper-interactive, who are texting, tweeting, emailing, communicating with friends via face book and commenting on their current or previous travels. The advent of social media and mobile Web means that potential guests for the hospitality industry have continuous access to multi-channel interaction and sharing opinions. Thus hotel websites have to be designed in order to handle this hyper-interactive user. Thus hotel websites can no longer be static brochures with stale and boring context. (Max Starkov). Back ground The Holiday Inn hotel is a subsidiary of the IHG group of companies. It is a brand which remains consistent towards the board. Guests at the 1874 Holiday Inn hotels around the world know that they will be treated well and have certain level of expectations regarding the service. In fact the idea for the Holiday Inn hotels came into the mind of its founder, Kemmons Wilson, when he was disappointed with the consistency of road side motels during a trip to Washington DC. Consistency is a great advantage when it comes to providing services. The art of total quality management lies with the hospitality greats like Marriott, Hilton and of course Holiday Inn but when it comes to social media policies and the ever changing world of the internet consistency has a huge down side. Consistency is not the only key feature of the Holiday Inn hotels and resorts. Innovation goes side by side with consistency. Holiday Inn hotels were the first ones to introduce the Holidex reservation system giving its competitors a run for money. Holiday Inn hotels also initiated the idea for indoor pools, termed Holidromes, turning its hotels into resorts. This innovation and comfort, which is the landmark of the Holiday Inn hotels, should be made evident in the hotel website. With the advent of time, Holiday Inn is now an established name in midscale provision of hospitality. This midscale travel market consists of 43% of travelers worldwide. (Hospital and tourism industry report:Q2 2010) and is the sector of the tourism industry which faces the highest competition. With the tourism industry recovering from the economic depression of 2009, the number of tourists is increasing, but at the same time the new tourist is more cost conscious and e-savvy. With social medias burgeoning levels and websites like tripadvisor advising tourists on the wide range of living options available, the tourist might not fall for the reliability of brand names as the previous guests were. The increasing travel trend resulting from economic recovery also means that the internet is bombarded with tourism information. This is so because due to economic conditions many hotel websites were abandoned during the past two years. The waking up of hoteliers means that new websites are profoundly different as they now cater to a different inventory distribution system, social media and cross channel marketing. Almost all new websites cater to mobile web applications and so does the Holiday Inn website. With increased globalization of the economy and increased competition hotels cannot rely on their past successes. Holiday Inn and IHG are bound to know this well as the hotel chain lost considerable market share in the 1980s. it is only after its re launch in 2007 that the hotel has again captured some part of its market segment. At the time of the re launch, the new hotel website was also launched. Consumers that visit the hotel website find a user friendly environment. The site provides availability details, locations, room features and descriptions of the surrounding area. But provision of these details is not enough for the highly competitive hospitality industry. Holiday Inn hotels needs to develop a website which highlights its core competencies, tackles competition from market rivals and eliminates the bargaining power of buyers. During the pre recession times, visitors were more satisfied with the Holiday Inn website than the industry average. This data was deployed from studies based on 31 websites of leading hospitality brands. It checked data based on the five most crucial dimensions of a visitors online experience. They were navigation, content, interactivity, motivation and adoption. The customer satisfaction was generally higher ranking in the 92nd percentile. (Website Satisfaction Soars at InterContinental Hotels Group) In the year 2007, the content dimension was an area of strength for the website. The amount of details provided covered a vast range of aspects of visitor concern. Coupled with this was the fact that the data was very well structured and easy to navigate. This led to an adoption rating higher than the industry average, pointing to future site referrals and a strong likelihood to return. The website also fostered brand loyalty. According to Sasha Paine, an analyst at iperceptions, There is no clearer indicator of a sites effectiveness than its ability to build loyalty among its visitors.(Website Satisfaction Soars at InterContinental Hotels Group) The new virtual market place allows small companies to compete with industry giants. This means that Holiday Inn faces competition not just from hotel chains like Ramada and Hilton but also from small hotels. By looking at the hotel website we can easily find out that the website is high in content. The most critical section, which is the reservations section, is right in front for customer ease. The reservations section helps finds locations and provide all details regarding the Holiday Inn hotel in the area to be visited. On the downside it is known that only 32% of visitors visit a hotels website to make reservations. (Hospital and tourism industry report:Q2 2010) The rest visit either to find information or to compare rates. For visitors who are not lured by the brand into booking, the website should be appealing and catchy enough to ensure adoption or at least a revisit. But what the website lacks is targeting new customer strategies. It seems that unlike other websites which appeal to new guests by providing reasons for staying at their hotels, the Holiday Inn relies on its brand name and preconceived notions about its excellence to get potential guests to make reservations. What is not realized is that website design is an illustrative art and making correct use of this art might ensure that visitors will not have to change pages or scroll down for the required information. A look at the key competitor Ramadas website demonstrates this very well. Though the reservation section is still on the main page of the site, the opening window encompasses much more than only the reservation section. It eyes potential customers and not just visitors by ensuring that new deals are right under the visitors nose. The slideshow of the Holiday Inn website is not very creative and is short with only 4 slides. Though it instantly appeal to the comfort factor and attracts business travelers immediately. The family and friends factor and fun travelling and living is excluded from the slide show. In contrast other websites have wider navigation menus and longer, swifter slideshows. Websites are using rich media foreg the Pueblo Bonito website and the Atlantis hotel in Dubai. Websites foreg theurbansuites.com are also trying to split visitors by demographics and visitor types to provide custom services. Websites have an increasing number of testimonials, blog links and some even have the press singing their praises. (Mackenzie) This you attitude employed by the website and marketing strategy appeals to visitors. This paper looks at the need for developing a new website for the Holiday Inn hotels. It observes the changing trends in both website designs of the hospitality industry and nature of travelers. Data is collected from visitors to the website and their satisfaction is analyzed. Satisfaction is measured using variables which include content of the website, ease of navigation, interactivity, motivation and adoption. This is done by e-surveys and observing visitor behavior on the website. Conclusions are then drawn regarding visitor satisfaction. Since online reservations make up a chunk of all hotel reservations, it will be very important to pay due attention to either reconstructing or renovating the website if needed. The new website can be developed by outsourcing the development of the website to some leading website developers specially related to the hospitality industry. Budgetary allocations will have to be made. They include consultancy costs, advertisement of the new website, Search Engine optimization costs and website development and mantainence. Research will have to be made on the percentage of revenues generated by the website, the potential for development and the amount competitors allocate towards online marketing and website development. Budget allocation and trends in the hospitality website industry along with weaknesses in the current website will provide guidelines for the new website. Rationale The hotel marketing industry is a booming industry which caters exclusively to hospitality providers. Surveys are done and researches made to find out about visitor and guest behaviors. These researches aid hotel marketing advisors in development of new websites and to target customers. Special online surveys are designed to get visitor opinions and rate their satisfaction. Some of the works done in this regard are The Iperceptions satisfaction index It is the only metric device to measure exclusively customer satisfaction with an online channel. It provides advice to hoteliers on data mining and analyzes that data to provide results and draw conclusions. The hospitality and tourism industry report This caters to timely changes in the hospitality and tourism industry providing hoteliers with the current trends and predicting the future condition of the market. Best practices in Hotel website design by Hospitality e-business strategies. A report prepared by hospitality e-business industries which looks at the importance of websites for hotels and outlines ways to do so. Best Practices for Maximizing Your Hotels Online Revenue ROI by Kathreen Cullen. This white paper is a survey which as the name suggests helps hotels maximize their online revenue. Although the content of these reports and many others which try to integrate E-Commerce with hospitality are industry specific but they provide broad guidelines for the Holiday Inn hotels. This paper will focus on how the Holiday Inn hotels should conduct its research? what would be the methodology of research and what strategies would be involved. The limitations of the research and the potential for advanced features on the Holiday Inn website will also be discussed. As Del Ross, vice president of Americas Distribution marketing for IHG, claims We truly believe in the paramount value of knowing our customers and capturing their opinions in the context of their actual online experiences by implementing improvements research for the new website will be centered around customer opinion and satisfaction. Data collection and methodology. Advanced research methods will have to be employed to gather data from website visitors. According to Cooper and Schindler (Methods) qualitative studies may be combined with quantitative ones to increase the perceived quality of the research, especially when a quantitative study follows a qualitative one and provides validation for the qualitative findings. There is a strong suggestion within the research community that research, both quantitative and qualitative, is best thought of as complementary (Malhotra) and should therefore be mixed in research of many kinds. There is a strong suggestion within the research community that research, both quantitative and qualitative, is best thought of as complementary and should therefore be mixed in research of many kinds. Both qualitative and quantitative data sets will have to be used. Since customer satisfaction regarding the website has to be measures, offline data collection can prove to be useless and mundane. Online data collection approach can be utilized in two ways and can result in both objective and subjective responses. The difficult part about this research is that though secondary data relevant to the industry is abundant, but none of this will be specific to the Holiday Inn hotel. Thus researchers will have to gather primary data from the scratch, analyze it and form conclusions about the current state of the hotel website. Sampling methods The sampling method will mostly be a non probability method as the only visitors cannot be forced to take part in the research. Probability sampling will be reserved for a small focus group. Quantitative research will depend upon visitors and visitors will only participate in qualitative research by choice. Quota method of sampling will be the most convenient. This is so because only potential travelers should be included in the research. Only people with annual income above $50000 will be sampled. Population below this income group generally is observed not to travel frequently. Similarly other characteristics of current guests can be used to find the different quotas which should be used in sampling. This kind of sampling will make it impossible to assess the sampling error as the results will not be representative of the population as a whole. Focus groups of targeted market will need to be used. Since the current website of the hotel and the general notion about the hotel chain is that it caters to mostly business travelers, business travelers can be selected randomly. They can be chosen from firms where work entails frequent travelling. These business travelers will be then asked to navigate through the website and answer relevant questions about the website content, ease of navigation, interactivity and adoption. The results can be classified and then visitor perceptions about the different aspects of the website can be rated. They will provide a clear guideline about the positive and negative aspects of the website. This focus group will be coupled with quantitative and qualitative data. The focus group technique will allow better screening of the focus group respondents to ensure that they are the people whom the hotel is most interested in and thus provides an in-depth insight. Descriptive data from the survey and the questionnaire will reveal information that could not be easily explained by the statistics from quantitative data. This survey will be limited to a very small population of potential Holiday Inn customers. It can be both biased and non-representative of the actual feelings of the general public. But this data will target the largest niche of current customers. Gathering quantitative data Quantitative data can be gathered by observing visitor behavior on the website. It can be done on a large scale on the website. The behavior observed includes number of clicks, time on site, no of visitors who made a reservation, net promoter scores and the page from where visitors are exiting. Relationships between variables can be observed. This can be done from web analytics of the website. The sample size from this kind of web analytics has to be large and therefore will have to be done over a period of time. For much of its history, web analytics has been concerned with measuring behavioral phenomena. Unique visitor counts, pages viewed/visit, time on site, bounce rates, click through rates, ad impressions, and, more recently, rich internet application events have But studying clicks alone can never tell more than a part of the visitors story and will never bring to light true engagement data. Behavioral analytics is akin to paleontology, in the sense that it presents a fossilized record of a visitors site experience, at least as much as can be captured through page tags with optimal cookie deletion rates. However much scientists study the material implements of the past, however, they will never truly be able to gauge whether people were happy and led meaningful lives. This is the primary shortcoming of behavioral research; the tracks a visitor leaves are necessarily incomplete without knowing intent, attitude, and satisfaction. Further, engagement indices will always be hollow metrics unless they can be made to account for loyalty, trust, and advocacy (iperceptions) Gathering qualitative data. Qualitative research will take more time and preparation. Different sampling methods and full time researchers will have to be employed to monitor data. The basic format will be inviting all visitors to the website for a short survey or questionnaire. It will have to be ensured that the questionnaire is short and to the point yet it is fulfilling the purpose. This is necessary because abandonment of questionnaires will lead not only to loss of data but will also cause distaste for the website in visitors. Like all qualitative and naturalistic research methods, questions will have to be developed which are clear and unambiguous but open to change as the research develops. It is necessary because both qualitative and quantitative research goes hand in hand. It is qualitative research which will give a holistic view of the complexities which the website poses to its visitors. In the course of the survey visitors will be asked to provide scores for the website attributes related to their online experience. Each of these attributes will be related to specific dimensions of the website. It can include questions such as whether the visitor likes the site enough to recommend it to another friend or colleague. The scaling can be done on a 1 to 10 scale ranging from very bad to outstanding. The attribute sets that will be selected will be in accordance with both the E-commerce and hospitality industry standards. They will be content, navigation, motivation and interactivity in this case. It might also address the most crucial section of the website which is the reservations section. Thus the questions to be addressed are Navigation Website functionality must be intuitive and easy-to-use. If visitors are cannot find the information they desire, they may lose interest and move on to another hotels site. It is also important to be sure that hotels provide the capability to allow customers to book via the method of their choice such as mobile and smart phone technology. Content The website must provide all necessary information. This information should not only be limited to the hotel but also about the area and activities where the hotel is located. The content of the website should be accurate, up-to-date, detailed and relevant. Interactivity This will address questions about the visitors ease of communication with the website and therefore the hoteliers. It measures functionality, collaboration, informational exchange, and the intuitiveness of transactional tools. Motivation This measures whether the online content matches with the services the hotel provides. It questions whether the customers feel that the site was trustworthy and if their time on the site was well spent. All these factors eventually answer one question and that is of adoption. This is the main factor of concern for the Holiday Inn hotels that whether the visitor will re-visit the website or refer the website to somebody else. Potential for new features New vanity websites can be added which cater to different locales. It should be ensured that the feel of the different websites remains the same but better search engine optimization can be achieved. The Holiday Inn website can be optimized in two ways. It is the need of the time to modify the contents for Search Engine optimization. The second is the renovation and restructuring of the website. New website design Visual content It has been observed that the Holiday Inn website has a subtle color appeal. It stands true to catering to business travelers as they can visualize themselves in that situation. But simultaneously excludes a large travelling class. A glimpse at the Marriott hotel website speaks loads about integrating target markets at one place. A boost of color on some place in the Holiday Inn website will provide the required energy to indicate that the hotel welcomes both fun and families. Selling travel is all about selling a vision, a dream-an intangible product. Rich media and its many formats-from photos and visual galleries, to videos and virtual tours, e-postcards, web cams, interactive maps, etc.-can truly present your travel product and make it tangible and real. Seventy-two percent of US Internet users view video online on the same scale as network television and 89% of users surveyed said video influenced their booking decision. Usability surveys about hotel websites show that the majority of users think hotel websites are lacking or need more pictures and images The website can also add more visual content as the number of slides on the main page slide show is only 4 and only targets limited audience. The website can make use of good photography which provide more details about rooms and amenities. Demand generator content. The website should add more localized content to each of its franchise content sites. This will not only aid in showing up on search engines but a description of the area and the activities of the areas helps visitors thus creating better chances of adoption. More navigation options can be introduced on the main page as even though the current website has a high content percentage but the visitor has to scroll and search for it. More tools can easily be added in the navigation tool bar without making the site look congested. Scalability The website platform should have the ability to grow with the needs of the growing Hotel Inn. Holiday Inn is launching new hotels so it should be ensured that the new website keeps pace with both the rapidly changing face of the hotel as well as the fast changing tourism industry. Thus new development should be both easy and inexpensive. It should be easy to add new pages without the returning visitor to find a change which hinders his navigation. Conclusion The rapid pace of change of tourism industry and the changing face of the traveler requires the Holiday Inn hotel to maintain a website which is intuitive and adaptative. Regarding this concern quantitative data can be analyzed from the websites web analytics. An understanding of this quantitative data can be done by a focus group survey of the target market and online questionnaires. Visitors to the website can be surveyed about their views about the website. This will be random non-probability sampling. The questions have to be short and succinct as target specific attribute. This is to ensure that the visitor does not abandon the survey midway. After the online survey, a deep understanding can be gauged by using a focus group. This can be done either online or offline. The focus group can be small but chosen by quota or snowball sampling. The target audience should be used as the part of the focus group. The sample can be small but the questionnaire has to be extremely detailed. This will address all questions which arose from the satisfaction or non-satisfaction of the online survey participants. The final data set will lead to a certain conclusion about the visitor satisfaction index. This can be used to provide guidelines about visitor expectations from the website and how and how much the website should be modified. The modified website will lead to higher revenue and return on investment. Online questionnaire Based on todays visit, how would you rate your site experience over all? Very bad Bad Fair Good Outstanding Which of the following best describes the primary purpose of your visit? Make a reservation Compare rates Find more information View/cancel reservation Other please specify Were you able to complete the task you visited the website for? Yes No What do you value most about the website? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What did you most dislike about the website? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Would you recommend the site to somebody? Yes No If you answered in negative to the previous question, why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Would you recommend any changes to the website? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How did you arrive at the website? Typed the URL in the browser Search engine Advertisement Link on a Blog Another website Link sent by somebody Other. Please specify _______________________________________________ The offline questionnaire presented to the focus group. This will be modified according to the response generated from the online website survey. It will be more detailed so as to sound explanations of the data derived can be provided. Offline questionnaire What is your age category? 15-20 years 20-35 years 35-60 years 60 or above What is your gender? Male Female Are you single or married? Single Married Your email address? _____________________________________________________________________ How often do you travel? More than four times a year. Twice or thrice a year. Once a year Less than once a year Is your travel related to work most of the time? Yes No Do you always make your bookings online? Yes No What features of the website did you use? _____________________________________________________________________ Did each page load quickly enough? Yes No On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent rate the following Reservation procedure Website speed Ease of navigation Visual appeal Information Your overall satisfaction Was the reservation process efficient? Yes No Were you tempted were you to abandon the reservation process midway? Yes No If yes then why? Choose one that is applicable Technical difficulties Rate issues Difficulty in finding Unfriendly website Other. Please specify ______________________________________________________________ Did you easily find what you were looking for? Yes No Did the website design confuse you? Yes No Was the language easy to understand? Yes No Was navigation comfortable? Yes No Was the information you were looking for easy to find Yes No Was the information useful? Yes No Was the information detailed? Yes No Was the information accurate? Yes No Was the information up-to-date? Yes No Did you like the appearance of the website? Yes No Do you think more visuals should be added to the website? Yes No If yes, do you think it will make the hotel more appealing? Yes No Will a more detailed, illustrative website, aid or hinder you in your work? Yes No Do you think the overall design of the website can be improved? Yes No If yes then how? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Can the website alone without the Holiday Inn brand name lead you to make a reservation? Yes No What did you like the most about the website? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What did you dislike most about the website? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What problems if any did you face when navigating the website? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Was the website user friendly? Yes No If no why not? Would you recommend the website to someone you know? Yes No If no, then why not? __________________________________________________________________ Would you navigate the site from your phone? Yes No If no then why not? _____________________________________________________________________ Do you think your time on the website was well spent? Yes No If no then why not? _____________________________________________________________________ What are your overall suggestions for the website? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Field guidelines The research survey will look at the need for developing a new website for the Holiday Inn hotels. It observes the changing trends in both website designs of the hospitality industry and nature of travelers. Data is collected from visitors to the website and their satisfaction is analyzed. Satisfaction is measured using variables which include content of the website, ease of navigation, interactivity, motivation and adoption. This is done by e-surveys and observing visitor behavior on the website. Conclusions are then drawn regarding visitor satisfaction. Since online reservations make up a chunk of all hotel reservations, it will be very important to pay due attention to

HEA ACT :: essays research papers

In our society, there are many obstacles that face students who are trying to obtain a college education. First, the student has to do well in high school, pass the S.A.T.’s, and be able to afford to pay for a college education. For those who can’t afford to pay for college there is Financial Aid. But what if financial aid was taken away from students based solely on one minor drug offense? I will address several reasons why I believe the Souder Amendment is unethical and why it should be repealed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Souder Amendment was developed by Rep. Mark Souder that denies financial aid to students with a drug conviction. This amendment is in total contradiction of the Higher Education Act which was developed in 1968 to provide financial aid to over 7 million students each year. Financial Aid was invented to provide financial assistance to students who come from low income families. Seeing how financial aid is solely based on the families financial household income, the money that is awarded to the family should not be in jeopardy if being taken away due to the students prior drug offense. By using this offense as a consequence to committing a drug related crime, it introduces many obstacles for middle class people, 2 minorities, and it ignores the most widely abused drug on college campuses - alcohol.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Working class students are the majority of people that attend college on scholarships and financial aid. While in school, experimentation may introduce itself as something that should be done while attending college. The consequences of allowing yourself to fall victim to drinking or taking drugs previously only had the consequence of a tremendous hang over the next morning. If caught by an official abusing drugs or alcohol, detainment would normally occur and several minor measures would be met to ensure the diversion of attempting to â€Å"experiment† again. But now that the Souder Amendment has been drafted, that one offense prevents a student from obtaining anymore government financed money to attend school. This is unethical to me because after the student realizes their mistakes and suffers the embarrassment of getting caught, they now have the burden of trying to obtain money to continue to pay for school. Quickly raising several thousands of dollars to pay for their next semester rarely happens and they are forced to take a semester off of school to save up so they can enroll the following semester.

Howard Schultz Essay

Organization culture has been defined and studied in many and varied ways. Culture is defined as the set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by members of an organization (Daft, 2012). The culture of an organization is going to play a big role in the success of the company. No matter how big or how small the company is, maintaining a culture that all employees can live by. Having all employees on board with the company’s mission will pay off a great deal in the long run. Starbucks is one of the premier coffee shops in the United States and their mission tell consumers what they do to maintain a huge customer base, to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time (www. starbucks. com). This paper will help consumers understand Starbucks’ organizational culture and the key leadership and management traits used to execute the business strategy. When people think coffee, they think Starbucks. Starbucks has become a hot commodity when it comes to consumers and their coffee. When people go to a Starbucks, they already know what they are getting, specialty coffee, great customer service and a nice cozy place to relax and just kick back. From the CEO on down to the baristas, Starbucks has developed a culture that sets them apart from other coffee shops around the world. Their success can be credited to the customer service. Anyone in a business knows that customer service is very important and can determine the success of a company. Starbucks thrives on ensuring that the baristas develop positive relationships with all customers. By doing this, customers will start to become loyal to the company. Loyal customers will keep Starbucks competitive in a market that a lot of people seem to be fond of because when people get up in the morning, nothing may be more refreshing then a cup of coffee. The Starbucks organization wants all its customers to feel like they are part of something special when they purchase a cup of Starbucks coffee. To help strengthen the culture, Starbucks focuses on being active in communities, in addition to their environmental responsibility, business ethics, open door policy, and their concern for the employees, customers, and stockholders, all these things make a strong positive organizational culture (Campbell, 2009). Within the organization, from the Starbucks executives down to the baristas, when it comes to maintaining the positive organizational culture that has been laid out for all employees, Starbucks separates themselves from many other coffee shops. The Starbucks management team has not based their success off of several things. Within the company the stores offer things that not many restaurants offer, such as Wi-Fi, exotic styles of coffee and a comfortable place to relax and enjoy a hot or cold coffee beverage. These things differ from other coffee spots in the world, so it makes Starbucks very unique. The innovative coffee styles that Starbucks uses attract the traditional coffee fanatic, as well as a new customer base. The styles of coffee will maintain customer loyalty and loyalty is one of Starbucks main focuses. The dedicated customers consist of business professionals and students. These are the individuals that Starbucks employees will see the most. The environment is made for them as well. For example, business men and women may go to Starbucks for lunch. It is comforting, quiet, and the store gives off a positive vibe. For students, it gives them a chance to indulge in a good beverage as well as take time out of their day to kick back and read a book or even catch up on a few homework assignments, whatever the case may be Starbucks offers an environment that others do not. To some consumers, having the coffee may just be a bonus; they really enjoy the environment Starbucks offers. According to brand expert Priya Raghubir, â€Å"Starbucks stands for coffee; it’s converted that into an experience, â€Å"People really have gotten to know Starbucks as the quintessential coffee shop, where they can sit and be welcome over a cup of coffee† (Shayon, 2013). As discussed previously, customer satisfaction is very important to the brand and company. Making customers feel at home by making Starbucks a cozy environment and providing free Wi-Fi keeps customers happy and keeps customers coming back. The management team coming up with these concepts really puts what they are trying to do as a company in prospective and also gives consumers an idea of what their company culture is. Throughout the company there are different management positions. It is the job of this team to attain organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources (Daft, 2012). Within the Starbucks culture one of the main focuses is the customers. With that being said a good management competency to have is communication. This is a very important skill to have because at Starbucks employees are constantly dealing with customers. Even at the executive level of management, communication is even more important because these are the individuals that are making the decisions that could affect the entire company as a whole. When those decisions are made they need to get communicated down to the baristas and everyone else in between. Communication fits perfectly within this company’s culture. Communicating things from the top to bottom tells all the employees what the main purpose of the company is. Communication helps maintain the culture throughout the whole company as well. For an organization like Starbucks were the focus is to keep customers coming back, the employees must communicate with them at a level that employees from other coffee shops just are not use to. With how Starbucks operates as a whole, they have made themselves the place to buy coffee, which they are not really known for. They are recognized for their great communication with the customers, with other employees, and the management team, and the goal is maintain this level of professionalism so the new and existing customers re-enter a Starbucks and always get the same exact experience no matter the location. â€Å"We’re not in the coffee business. It’s what we sell as a product but we’re in the people business hiring hundreds of employees a week, serving sixty million customers a week, it’s all human connection† (Gallo, 2012). Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz is the man behind how this culture was developed; he is the one that drives the bus today. Back in the 1980’s Schultz had a vision to enhance the way people drink their coffee and he did just that. Starbucks coffee speaks for itself; it is the culture Schultz put in place that makes Starbucks unique and a nice environment to be in. Starbucks opened its first store March 30, 1971 with more than 17, 000 locations around the world (Gallo, 2012). Without Schultz, this company would not be what it is today. Since the early 70s the company has managed to emerge as a premier coffee in the world, and in the 80s with Schultz at the helm. In 2000, with Schultz not in the mix, things did not go as well as expected when he resigned. Eight years after his resignation; he was appointed as CEO again to help the company from the downward spiral they were on. Schultz stressed that is was going to take a lot to get Starbucks back to where they needed to be. It is clear that Schultz made a big impact on Starbucks when he was CEO, and when he was not CEO, the company took a bit of a plunge. Without Schultz, over time it seems like Starbucks may have not lasted. Answering the question, would Starbucks achieve long-term sustainability as a global leader in the coffee industry without Howard Shultz, the answer would have to be no. Just in a short period of time, the company managed to get away from the culture Shultz brought to the company. As an organization, it is their job to live up to the culture that was put in front of them. There have been many times in business where new leaders are appointed and they just do not live up to the expectations. This is a problem that can be fixed if communication is sustained as well. All companies develop or have a culture set in place already. Management plays a key role in developing and ensures that the culture is maintained. Starbucks is an organization that thrives off their culture and this is the reason why they are successful in the business world. They have set themselves apart from other coffee shops by focusing on things other than just the coffee, like the customers, the environment, and for business professionals and students, the Wi-Fi. The organizational culture at Starbucks may not be the best, but they are making a strong case for the organization. References Campbell, A. (2009, November 09). Organizational culture. EZine Articles, Retrieved from http://ezinearticles. com/? Organizational-Culture&id=3203513 July 23, 2013 Daft. (2012). Management. (10th ed. ). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Gallo, C. (2012). Starbucks ceo: Lesson in communication skills. Forbes, Retrieved from http://www. success. com/articles/1272-rekindling-the-heart-soul-of-starbucks? page=2 July 23, 2013 Shayon, S. (2013, March 08). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www. brandchannel. com/home/post/Starbucks-Customer-Loyalty-030813. aspx July 23, 2013 .

Case Study of the Life of Bill Viola

DrumheadBill Viola is populating fable of media and engineering particularly in video production. Viola Born on January 25, 1951 in Queens, New York, United States of America. Viola spent his early old ages of life in his place town Queens and subsequently on shifted to Westbury, New York. Viola had funny nature that ever triggered him to travel in front to fear. Once he was on a hilly country trip with his household, where he about drowned in lake but he mentions the incident as one of the most bewitching experiences of his life. Viola earned university grade from Syracuse University, Syracuse New York in 1973 in all right art and started his professional calling as a picture technician at Everson Museum of Arts in Syracuse, New York. Subsequently on two old ages he worked as proficient manager in Art/Tapes/22. And in 1976 and 1977 he traveled across the universe to enter cultural humanistic disciplines public presentations. In 1977 Viola was invited by WNET 13 channel Television re search lab New York to work as an creative person in abode where he directed a noteworthy series of work and they were on aired. 1977 proved to be lucky for Viola in footings of personal life, he was invited to La Trobe University, Melbourne Australia by their cultural humanistic disciplines manager, Kira Parov as in the really following twelvemonth Ms. Parov became Mrs. Viola. In 1979 Viola along with his partner Parov, traveled to Sahara desert, Tunisia to enter mirages. In 1980 Viola achieved a cultural family between US and Japan for one and half twelvemonth at Japan. In Japan, Parov and Viola acquired cognition in Zen Buddhism and Viola became the first creative person in abode at Sony Corporation’s Atsugi research research labs. At the terminal of 1981 Parov and Viola came back to USA but this clip in California where Viola joined California Institute of Arts as an teacher and taught Advanced Video Technology. Viola besides continued his art work with a alone subject wi th Parov. They created art work based on human organic structure medical images retrieved from a local infirmary, carnal consciousness in a menagerie at San Diego and fire walking rites of Hindu community at Fiji. Parov had great involvement and experience in picture taking. In 1987 both travel to south west of USA and captured stone sites and recorded pictures of desert landscapes. Viola’s art work is intriguing, the manner he relates everything behind the camera to sole religious thoughts. His picture demo his great and alone love for nature. In 2005 he went to Dharamshala, India with his boies to enter a supplication with Dalai Lama. Viola has great passion for music excessively. From 1973 to 1980, seven old ages he had worked, performed and learned with a composer David Tudor, being attached to a music group â€Å"Rainforest† . Viola’s arts work got planetary acknowledgment and assessment back in 1970’s. Numerous exhibitions of humanistic disciplines in all over the universe exhibited Viola’s originative humanistic disciplines work. For case in 1987 at Museum of Modern Art, New York â€Å"Installations and Videotapes† . In 1995, Viola represented USA exhibiting one his celebrated piece of art work â€Å"Buried Secrets† at the 46th Venice Biennale. In 1997, Whitney Museum of American Arts paid a testimonial to Viola’s art work by showing Viola’s 25 old ages of art work that had around 35 installings and picture tapes. Viola has a alone personality and thought. In an interview he revealed that he don’t like to populate in crowded topographic points, he prefers to populate in the corner side of metropolis therefore he’s populating from last 25 old ages in a corner of long beach, California with his partner and two boies. His studio is nearby to his house and he has rented another house, where he has maintained a resource library. In that house, he goes and stays to believe and be after thoughts, without any communicating beginning non even phone. Harmonizing to Bill Viola, he thinks more creatively when he his near to nature and off from people and day-to-day everyday tensenesss. He merely goes to his studio after explicating an thought to work else he doesn’t travel. He takes things and events positively, like he has no fright that life will stop. In fact the chief subject behind most of his work, we all life in this universe for a short continuance and we have to return into ageless life, that’s stableness. His art works began to exhibit when he was at school at the age of, normally displayed on wall. During his academic life, his pictures were ever fixed on walls and they are still at that place. This fact convinces that he has in born endowment of going an creative person, much like a passion that subsequently on became his profession ( Viola, 1990 ) . His thoughts are profoundly rooted in spiritualism, Mysticism, shamanism, Buddhism. Taoism, Sufism, and philosophical ideas ( Ross, Sellars, & A ; Hyde, 1997 ) . Viola has received legion awards for his outstanding parts to media and picture engineering. In 1984 he received a national award: Polaroid Video Art Award for his exceeding accomplishment. Again in 1987, he received Maya Deren Award from American Film Institute, USA. In 1989, his work was honored with John D. and C atherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, USA. In 1993, he was awarded Skowhegan Medal for his contributions’ in Video Installation, USA. Viola has immense part to art in footings of ancient civilization, his services were acknowledged and awarded in 2003 by American Federal of Arts that presented him Cultural leading Award. Viola non merely received prestigiousness and awards from his place state but across worldwide. In 2006, he received NORD/LB Art award in Bremen, Germany. In 2009, he was honored by an award from Cambridge MA. In 2009 he won International Prize at Barcelona, Spain. In 2011 Viola’s university, Syracuse University felt great pride and award in his pupil parts to field of humanistic disciplines and awarded him Arent Award for Distinguished Alumni. Recently in 2013 he received two awards, one from Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, CO the â€Å"National Artist Award† and the other from Aurora Picture Show, Houston, TX the â€Å"Aurora Award† . Along with a long list of awards, Viola has besides received nine ( 9 ) honorary doctorial grades in Fine Arts from assorted universities and institutes worldwide.DiscussionIn media engineering legion creative person are working on picture engineering and installings, what makes Viola’s art unique is usage of slow gesture with intensive computing machine based redaction. He has contributed a batch in this field, in this paper we will discourse some of his plants. In 2007 Viola represented US in 52neodymiumVenice Biennale where he presented his picture installing, â€Å"ocean without shore† . It’s one the major and greatly influential picture installings by Viola. The construct behind â€Å"Ocean Without Shore† is about the passage between life and decease with utilizing H2O. A spectator faces three big picture proctors which are placed in a dark room. About 20 four people get downing looking from an unseeable H2O wall. Flow of H2O is dynamic. Every individual walks entirely and get down nearing the spectator. Those 20 four people are all same, brumous and skin tone is gray. As the semen closer to the spectator, at a certain distance that is a threshold between them and viewer, they touch the unobserved threshold. When they touch it, it clearly seeable as a powerful heat lightening. Afterwards they turn back and travel once more to the unseeable H2O wall. Whole picture installing last for one and half hr. Every individual looking from the unseeable H2O wall is soundless, unagitated, and inactive. They are pass oning with deep emotions. Their emotions can be written into 1000s of words. Each of the individual returns, as if decease is strike harding at his door. They are in a unusual peaceable province as reaching of decease is welcomed by them. Ocean Without shore is a deep emotional illustration of homo. It depicts the events which lie at concurrence point of decease and life. Bill Viola says, â€Å"The picture sequence paperss a sequence of persons easy nearing out of darkness and traveling into the visible radiation in order to go through into the physical universe. Once bodied, nevertheless, all existences realize that their presence is finite and so they must finally turn away from stuff being to return from where they came. The rhythm repeats without end.† Idea of Ocean Without Shore was taken from the poesy of Birago Diop. Birago was inspired from a Sufi mysterious Ibn Arabi who said â €Å"The Self is an ocean without a shore. Gazing upon it has no beginning or terminal, in this universe and the next.† This work shows Viola is influenced by mysticism and Sufism. Viola’s work allows viewer to comprehend all signifiers of life, in a ways he persuades the spectator to see his ain contemplation in the basic thoughts of hope, desire, love, decease, regeneration and above all stableness ( Robson, 2011 ) . Another great piece of art was subsequently on presented by Viola that portions concept and subject with Ocean without shores. Bodies of visible radiation is a distinct series of Transfigurations that focus on the clip when a individual or object follows the rule of transmutation due to internal forces of high witting non external. Viola shows the transmutation of ego is normally called by an interior realisation. A individual gets clear thought of his psyche, his filthy, unfiltered set of emotions and so he overcomes all such emotions and gets transformed into a new being, an ideal being. In this piece of art Viola used black and white images of apparitional organic structures, that appear easy from darkness, and pass through a certain threshold of H2O and enter enlighten colourful universe. That new reaching of self-encounters with diverse set of human emotions from joy to fury, and all are occupied with some desires, and eventually these apparitional organic structures disappear i n darkness from where the appeared. In this installing Viola used images shootings from an old camera along with shootings with a High definition camera ( Viola, Bodies of Light ) . In this artistic picture Viola conveys a message of life to his spectator that their comes a point in life, when a individual changes itself for his interior peace and satisfaction. Runing with this universe may gain money and luxury to a individual but the cost is an individual’s internal peace. Internal forces become stronger to external forces and therefore a man’s life become calm.DecisionBill Viola is a large name in the picture engineering and installings, and has achieved many awards and awards due to his parts. One can non state viola came into this field by opportunity or by pick. He is an congenital creative person. Harmonizing to him life without art is non a life. Despite great sum of celebrity and acknowledgment, Viola’s life is simple and he looks for simpleness in ever y facet of life. The chief thought of Bill Viola’s work is about basic human life, demands and procedures. The manner he tries to associate the being of adult male with decease is singular. He shows both sides of positions in his work. Exemplifying the phenomenon of decease so much is normally considered as pessimism. It may devoid the viewer’s involvement from life and he may believe that life will stop so why he has to do attempts for endurance. But Viola on the same clip attempts to convert the spectator that he can non get away from cosmopolitan worlds. A dead being is really undead. He persuades the viewing audiences to believe at high degree of consciousness. This attack provokes the spectator to understand the importance of basic human needs that are love, hope, heartache and a desire to populate. Viola uses H2O and visible radiation along with high dimensional camera’s to picture his subjects. His hallmark is usage of slow gesture, organic structures ( c haracters ) appear and disappear in proctors of picture screen really easy and swimmingly. His picture enhances the sum of repose in the spectator. Viola uses latest engineering and works on old age construct and thoughts peculiarly Sufism and Mysticism. Viola’s piece of work are unagitated, calm and smooth that adds repose in spectator. Viola’s work is more about to chew over than to praise the high dimension camera. His subjects are cosmopolitan and influence all sort of people. One can non claim that he makes art pieces and picture installings for a peculiar category of people. Viola has deep involvement in ancient saints and their history.MentionsRobson, J. ( 2011, November 19 ) .Bill Viola: Ocean Without a Shore.Retrieved from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.pafa.org/billviola/Bill-Viola-Ocean-Without-a-Shore/1184/ Ross, D. A. , Sellars, P. , & A ; Hyde, L. ( 1997 ) .Bill Viola.New York: Whitney Museum of American Art. Viola, B. ( 1990, June 30 ) . Contemporay Arts. ( M. Nash, Interviewer ) Viola, B. ( n.d. ) . Bodies of Light.Bodies of Light.James Cohan Gallery, New York.

How Should Marianne Berner Respond to the Invitation for Ikea to Have a Representative Appear on the Upcoming Broadcast of the German Video Program?

Numerical Di? erentiation MACM 316 1/9 Numerical Differentiation  ® Suppose we have a list of points x0 < x1 < x2 <  ·  ·  · < xn and corresponding function values f (x 0 ), f (x 1 ), f (x 2 ), . . . , f (x n )  ® A natural question is whether we can use the data above to approximate f ? (x) at some point x ? [x0, xn].  ® The answer is easy provided the points xi are equally spaced so that xi ? xi? 1 = h (constant) and x. The easiest way to motivate derivative formulas is using the definition of derivative f (x + h) ? f (x ) f ? (x) = lim h>0 h which suggests many possible difference formulas: ? (x ) ? f (x + h) ? f (x ) h f (x ) ? f (x ? h) f ? (x ) ? h f (x + h) ? f (x ? h) f ? (x ) ? 2h f (x + 2 h) ? f (x ? 2 h) ? f (x ) ? 4h (forward difference) (backward difference) (centered difference) (wide centered difference)  ·Ã‚ ·Ã‚ ·  ® These formulas are accurate only if h is â€Å"small enough. † October 30, 2008 c Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? eren tiation MACM 316 2/9 Example Suppose we’re approximating the derivative of f (x) = 2 sin(3x) using the equally-spaced data x 0. 3000 0. 3250 0. 3500 0. 3750 0. 4000 0. 4250 0. 4500 0. 4750 0. 5000 f (x) 1. 5667 1. 6554 1. 7348 1. 8045 1. 8641 1. 131 1. 9514 1. 9788 1. 9950 The approximations of f ? (0. 4) with h = 0. 1 are: 1. f ? (x) ? f (x+h)? f (x) h f ? (0. 4) ? 1. 9950? 1. 8641 0. 1 = 1. 3090 (40%) 2. f ? (x) ? f (x)? f (x? h) h f ? (0. 4) ? 1. 8641? 1. 5667 0. 1 = 2. 9740 (37%) 3. f ? (x) ? f (x+h)? f (x? h) 2h f ? (0. 4) ? 1. 9950? 1. 5667 0. 2 = 2. 1415 (1. 5%) where the relative errors are computed using the exact value f ? (0. 4) = 6 cos(3 ? 0. 4) = 2. 17414652686004 2. 1 2 y 1. 9 1. 8 1. 7 1. 6 1. 5 0. 25 0. 3 0. 35 0. 4 0. 45 0. 5 0. 55 0. 6 x Figure 1: f (x) = 2 sin(3x) October 30, 2008 c Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? rentiation MACM 316 3/9 Example (cont’d) Investigate what happens when h is decreased to 0. 05: x 0. 3000 0. 3250 0. 3500 0. 3 750 0. 4000 0. 4250 0. 4500 0. 4750 0. 5000 f (x) 1. 5667 1. 6554 1. 7348 1. 8045 1. 8641 1. 9131 1. 9514 1. 9788 1. 9950 The approximations of f ? (0. 4) with h = 0. 05 are: 1. f ? (x) ? f (x+h)? f (x) h f ? (0. 4) ? 1. 9514? 1. 8641 0. 05 = 1. 7460 (20%) 2. f ? (x) ? f (x)? f (x? h) h f ? (0. 4) ? 1. 8641? 1. 7348 0. 05 = 2. 5860 (19%) 3. f ? (x) ? f (x+h)? f (x? h) 2h f ? (0. 4) ? 1. 8641? 1. 7348 0. 1 = 2. 1660 (0. 4%) 4. f ? (x) ? f (x+2h)? f (x? 2h) 4h f ? (0. 4) ? . 9950? 1. 5667 0. 2 = 2. 1415 (1. 5%) Notice that: †¢ The forward and backward difference formulas (1 and 2) have similar accuracy. †¢ The centered difference (3) is much more accurate than the one-sided differences. †¢ Decreasing h increases the accuracy of the approximation. Question: Can this be explained? October 30, 2008 c Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? erentiation MACM 316 4/9 Error Analysis To analyse the error in ? nite difference formulas, use Taylor series approximations. Examp le 1: Forward difference formula †¢ Write the Taylor polynomial of degree n = 1, with error term: ? (x + h) = f (x ) + f (x ) h + f (c) 2 h2 †¢ Then f (x + h) ? f (x ) h ? = f (x ) + f (c) 2 h = f ? (x ) + O (h) †¢ Decreasing h clearly reduces the error. Example 2: Centered difference formula †¢ Taylor polynomials for f (x + h) and f (x ? h) to O (h4): f (x) 2 f (x) 3 f (4) (x) 4 f (5) (c1 ) 5 f (x + h) = f (x) + f (x) h + h+ h+ h+ h 2 6 4! 5! ? f (x ? h) = f (x) ? f ? (x) h + f (x) 2 h2 ? f (x) 6 h3 + f (4) (x) 4! h4 ? f (5) (c2 ) 5! h5 †¢ Subtract the second equation from the ? rst and divide by 2h: f (x) 2 f (x + h) ? f (x ? h) ? = f (x) + h + O (h4 ) 2h 6 Error in centered formula is smaller (as expected)! October 30, 2008 c Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? erentiation MACM 316 5/9 Error Analysis (cont’d) Taylor series can also be used to derive new formulas. Example 3: A second-order one-sided formula †¢ Write the Taylor po lynomials for f (x + h) and f (x + 2h): f (x) 3 f (x) 2 h+ h + O (h4 ) f (x + h) = f (x ) + f (x ) h + 2 6 4f (x) 3 ? 2 f (x + 2 h) = f (x ) + 2f (x ) h + 2 f (x ) h + h + O (h4 ) 3 ? †¢ Form the following linear combination: 4 f (x + h) ? f (x + 2 h) ? 3 f (x ) 2h ? = f (x ) ? f (x) 3 h2 + O (h4 ) Expect this formula to be more accurate than forward/backward differences, and similar to centered formula October 30, 2008 c Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? erentiation MACM 316 6/9 Richardson Extrapolation In addition to creating new formulas or reducing h, there is a â€Å"trick† for increasing accuracy:  ® The centered difference formula is missing the odd terms: f ? (x) = f (x+h)? f (x? h) 2h f ? (x) = g0 (h) + O (h2) + O (h4) + O (h6) +  ·  ·  · a  · h2 + + O (h4) + O (h6) +  ·  ·  · (1) Then, write the same difference formula using h : 2 f ? (x) = g0 ( h ) 2 + a  · ( h )2 + O (h4) + O (h6) +  ·  ·  · (2)  ® Eliminate the O (h2) term by taking 4 ? (1) ? (2): 4f ? (x) ? f ? (x) = 4g0 ( h ) ? g0 (h) + 4a  · ( h )2 ? a  · h2 + O (h4 ) + O (h6 ) +  ·  ·  · 2 2  ® Simplify to obtain a formula of higher accuracy: ? f (x) = 4g0 ( h ) ? g0 (h) 2 3 + O (h4) + O (h6 ) +  ·  ·  ·  ® Continue this idea (recursively) to higher orders: 4g0 ( h )? g0 (h) 2 3 + b  · h4 + O (h6 ) +  ·  ·  · = g1 (h) + b  · h4 + O (h6 ) +  ·  ·  · = g1 ( h ) 2 + = 16g1 ( h )? g1 (h) 2 15 + O (h6 ) +  ·  ·  · = g2 (h) + O (h6 ) +  ·  ·  · f ? (x) =  ® In general, gn = October 30, 2008 b 16  · h4 + O (h6 ) +  ·  ·  · 4n gn? 1 ( h )? gn? 1 (h) 2 4n ? 1 Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? erentiation MACM 316 7/9 Richardson Extrapolation – Example  ® Consider the data from the earlier example: x 0. 300 0. 325 0. 350 0. 375 0. 400 0. 425 0. 450 0. 475 0. 500 f (x) 1. 5667 1. 6554 1. 7348 1. 8045 1. 8641 1. 9131 1. 9514 1. 9788 1. 9950 g0(h) = f (x+h)? f (x? h) 2h g1(h) = 4g0 ( h )? g0 (h) 2 3 g2(h) = 16g1 ( h )? g1 (h) 2 15  ® Steps in Richardson extrapolation (x = 0. 4 and h = 0. 1) are easy to organize in tabular form: x=0. 4 h=0. 1 h g0 (h) – O (h2 ) g1 (h) – O (h4) g2 (h) – O (h6 ) 2. 1416807698 2. 1741099363 h 2 2. 1660026447 h 4 2. 1721088377 . 1741465220 2. 1741442353  ® Note: Don’t confuse with Newton divided differences!  ® Relative errors (using f ? (0. 4) = 2. 17414652686004): x=0. 4 h=0. 1 g0 (h) h 1. 49 ? 10? 2 g1 (h) g2 (h) 1. 68 ? 10? 5 h 2 h 4 October 30, 2008 3. 74 ? 10? 3 9. 25 ? 10? 4 2. 26 ? 10? 9 1. 05 ? 10? 6 c Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? erentiation MACM 316 8/9 Optimal h  ® When applying any ? nite difference formula, †¢ we want h as small as possible so that truncation error is small (Taylor polynomial error term), †¢ we cannot take h too small, otherwise round-off error dominates (subtractive cancellation). There should be an â€Å"optimal h† where truncat ion error and round-off error balance out. Example: Forward difference approximation  ® Evaluate the difference using ? oating point arithmetic: f (x+h)? f (x) h = f (x+h)(1+? 1 )? f (x)(1+? 2 ) , h = fl f (x+h)? f (x) h + where |? i | u = unit roundoff a ·u , h where a is some constant a ·u = f ? (x) + b  · h + h truncation round-off  ® Optimum h occurs roughly when b ·h ? a ·u h =? h ? a ·u b Example: Take f (x) = 2 sin(3x) †¢ Then a ? 4 and b = f (x) 2 = |9 sin(3x)| 9. †¢ Assume single precision arithmetic u = 10? 6: h? †¢ f ? (0. ) = October 30, 2008 4  · 10? 6 9 ? 0. 00066667. f (0. 400667)? f (0. 4) 0. 00066667 ? 2. 16 (0. 65% relative error) c Steven Rauch and John Stockie Numerical Di? erentiation MACM 316 9/9 Below is a representative sketch of the estimates for b ·h †¢ truncation error: a ·u †¢ round-off error: †¢ total error: h b ·h+ a ·u h 20 18 16 total error Total Error (10-3) 14 12 10 truncation error 8 6 round- off error 4 2 0 0 0. 2 0. 4 0. 6 0. 8 1 1. 2 1. 4 1. 6 1. 8 2 h (10-3) Note: Total error has a local minimum near x = 0. 667 ? 10? 3. October 30, 2008 c Steven Rauch and John Stockie

Case Study of The Deepwater Horizon Disaster Essay

Case Study of The Deepwater Horizon Disaster - Essay Example decision makers have to consider several tensions; for instance, individuals against profits, or short against long term rewards, so as to account for the various decision points of the diverse stakeholders. The management of BP illustrated that the company the development and also safety of the societies in their areas of operation. Safety is achieved through aiming for minimal accidents and harm to individuals, and also minimal environmental damage. Present companies generally explain that they serve the best interests of stakeholders. The companies stress the â€Å"triple bottom line† illustrating people, planet and then profits. These companies also emphasize good corporate citizenship in their societies, and ensure sustainability through safeguarding long term assets like environment and employees. But, this desired rhetoric cannot be achieved without the formulation of strategic decisions which reflects corporate social responsibility. Decisions illustrates where company rhetoric is transformed into practical reality, through implementation. Ethical decision making entails less complicated processes. Organizational structures or routines can develop organizational culture that render activities common sense, require less or no decisions. Company decisions are mainly among competing â€Å"goods† like short term against long term interests, proven systems against innovation, and reducing different categories of risks. This 2010 case study that analyzes deepwater horizon and Macondo well explosion, illustrates good example of ethical decision making complexities (Liu, 2011). On 20th April, 2010, leaking gas and oil from the Macondo exploratory site reached the overhead deepwater rig, and resulted in an explosion, and eventually the well blowout. The explosion resulted in the death of 11 individuals, the injury of 16 people, and traumatizing experience of 99 survivors. The blowout discharged approximately 5 million oil barrels for more than 87 days. Several

Starting a Business Online Part 2 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Starting a Business Online Part 2 - Term Paper Example This is because our domain provides has given a very good reputation for our business despite being new in the domain. The domain has acted us a promotional avenue where it draws the potential clients and the well displayed contents encourages people to choose or buy service from the website. Determining whether to sell or not a domain name depends on the business value of the domain name (Kalakota & Robinson 2003).   A domain valuation is a key tool of determining the value of the website. The process is relatively complex for individuals who do not have experience. The URL brokers are very critical aspects in determining the domain value. I will turn down the offer to sell the domain name since it will have negative implication on the business. The business sell will drop down if we sell the domain name. Moreover, finding our business in the internet will be very cumbersome. The reputation and the hard work that has been invested in the business to make the business credible and relevant will be hugely jeopardized. Most companies which have excelled in terms of domain have supplied a lot of determination and hard work. The usability and the convenience of the software used in e-commerce is a very critical aspect when it comes attracting and maintaining. The however most software developers do not consider when they are developing their systems. Usability is how the easy the users can use the module of a system. If the module for example the catalogue module is simple and clear, then it can attract the attention of the user. How organized the module is assisting the users in accomplishing their task with a lot of simplicity. The availability of effective shopping cart abilities is critical in ensuring that the customer’s purchasing via internet is increased. Lack of an effective shopping card result less sells and waste of time. The module ensures automation of the complete shopping process. This makes the whole purchasing process simple and automated . Shopping card saves money, time and makes the happy. The criteria of creating a shopping are very critical since the usability and the effectiveness of a shopping process is very crucial. The processing of purchasing transaction process is equally important. The transaction process starts from ordering, processing, payment and delivering process. The procedure should b short and clearly so the records of all the procedures are recorded and processed in an effective manner. Moreover, the processing of the purchase involves the transfer of money. The security of the payment processing is critical since the security of money is very crucial. The web usability can be increased by ensuring that the all the usability features of the different section are effectively attended to. For instance, the ability of a customer to go through the ordering process within the shortest time possible assists in attracting more and maintaining those who have used the service. The most effective ways of improving the usability of a website is by increasing web traffic, SEO and market segmentation. Search engine optimization is the best way of improving the traffic. Search engine optimization is a method used to increase the traffic to a website using techniques which raises the ranking of you search engine in the website. The technique is related to Google. Some of the aspects which are considering in maximizing search engine include: Check out- the web manager should