Change Management Plan and Communication Plan Essay

Workers react to change differently and often feel threatened by it. Reaction to workplace transformations usually manifests itself in one of three ways. There is proactive reaction that sees change as an opportunity to try new and improved things. Reactive workers resist change and try to keep things as they were. Inactive employees take the neutral position and straddle the fence watching the struggle between other employees. Older workers within the company tend to resist change because they want to do things the old way. Employees may feel a loss of identity. They may feel a loss of control. Workers also experience a loss of meaning, belonging, and even a loss of their future. Trying to make the changes seem positive does not erase the uncertainty, rumors, or the ambiguity (Jones, 2011). Managers should strategize on the best way to enforce any changes at Riordan Manufacturing. There should be some expectation of resistance in regard to any change. There should be time restraints and deadlines put into place. The changing process may affect deadlines until everyone is on task with the operational changes and new policies. Managers must plan ahead for any resistance at Riordan. Forming task teams that oversee each department affected by the changes over the next 12 months is one strategy that can prove useful. New goals and expectations as a result of the changes should be outlined and followed. There should be effective communication skills with floor managers and employees (Gul & Sahin, 2011). The process can run smoother if the employees at Riordan feel motivated, and teamwork encouraged. There will be employee evaluations over the next year to monitor the success or failure of the changes. New system changes, problems, and success will be determined weekly in a detailed report. The reports from the task team and the floor managers will determine the feasibility of the changes. Employees will be required to take assessments to ensure that they fully understand the new operations. New records will be maintained,  updated, and signed by each employee. Training and educational courses will be provided, including computer classes. References Gul, H., & Sahin, K. (2011). The Information Society and Public Employees Perception of Transformational Leadership. Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal(25), p237-249. doi:64368178 Jones, T. (2011, January). Use Resistance to Enact Workplace Change. Business Journal Serving Fresno & the Central San Joaquin Valley, p.11. doi:10797394

Alternative Fuel Vehicles Feasibility Study Essay

As a leader in the rental vehicle industry for the past 30 years, ABC Rental Cars has continually remained a step ahead of its competition. To continue to set the pace for other rental agencies to follow, and to ensure ABC Rental Cars’ dominant position in the marketplace, alternative fuel vehicles (AFV), or more specifically, hybrid vehicles, should be evaluated as to the feasibility and consumer interest of introducing these types of vehicles into our fleet. Currently, gasoline prices are at an all-time high. The United States’ dependency on foreign oil is also at an extremely high level, and with the ever-shifting Middle Eastern political climate teetering at volatile levels, hybrid vehicles are an important avenue to be considered. While hybrid car sales currently lag behind sales of conventional vehicles, J. D. Power & Associates, a market research firm, estimates that hybrid vehicle sales will increase to half a million by the year 2006. In addition, nearly 20 new models of hybrid cars, SUV’s, and trucks will be rolled out to consumers in the next few years (Mossy Automotive Group, 2004). ABC Rentals can reap the rewards of providing these vehicles to its consumers, provided the cost associated with this program is mutually beneficial to both parties. Initially, the types of fuels that are available need to be researched to determine the viability of introducing hybrid vehicles into our fleet. While there are several options of alternative fuels available, most are not practical. The fuels analyzed included natural gas, biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, Fischer Tropsch, liquefied natural gas, methanol, and propane. Ultimately, the research concluded that the only practical, economical, and accessible fuel currently available is electricity, when used in the hybrid concept. There are many vehicles that use electricity. The most popular concept is used in hybrid vehicles. These vehicles have an electric motor, with a separate gasoline motor. One of the benefits is fuel economy. According to an EPA report, hybrids â€Å"can more than double the gas mileage of conventional gasoline or diesel-powered cars. † Also, this use of energy reduces emissions because gasoline consumption is reduced. Next, the gasoline motor charges the battery as the car is running, nullifying the need for recharging stations. Ultimately, the most practical fuel that can be considered at this time is electricity combined with gasoline, which is used in hybrid vehicles. (EPA, 2003) As a means to gauge consumer interest in these types of vehicles, we also needed to research our competitors to distinguish if hybrid vehicles would be a practical addition to our fleet. Currently, EV Rental Cars is the only company in the United States to rent hybrid cars to the public. At this time, there are a total of eight locations with hybrid vehicles: four locations in California: Los Angeles, Burbank, Ontario and San Diego, one location in Phoenix, Arizona, two locations in Virginia: Dulles and Arlington, and one in Washington D. C. With all of the locations above in mind, EV Rental Cars has grown in fleet size to more than 400 cars throughout the eight different locations (www. evrental. com, 2001). One of the vehicles available to rent at EV Rentals is the Toyota Prius, which is a full size family sedan. This vehicle rents for $49. 99 per day, or $299. 94 per week, and EV Rentals offers 150 free miles per day and . 25/mile thereafter (www. evrental. com, 2001). The Prius achieves 60 mpg in the city and 51 mpg on the highway (autos. yahoo. com, 2004). Comparatively, Honda has introduced the Honda Insight, which in the rental vehicle industry is considered to be a standard size car, and the Honda Civic hybrid, which is considered to be a compact car. These two cars are offered by EV Rentals at a similar price to the Toyota Prius (www. evrental.com, 2001). The Honda Insight achieves an EPA highway mileage of 66 mpg and 60 mpg in the city, while the Honda Civic hybrid can travel 650 miles with a full tank of gas (www. honda. com, 2004). As indicated above, these three cars are not only great when it comes to mileage, but another advantage they enjoy is that they are also environmentally friendly. For example, the Prius produces 90 percent less harmful emissions than a traditional car (www. ineed2know. org, 2004), which is important to those individuals that are concerned about the environment. Even President Bush seemed to agree that alternative fuel vehicles needed to be further investigated when he endorsed the concept of alternative fuel vehicles and allocated more than a billion dollars toward the transition to hydrogen fuels (www. evrental. com, 2001). On the other hand, these types of cars are not a practical investment if cost and availability are issues. Not only is the price higher, but due to limited interest in hybrids by consumers at this time, there is only a small geographic area where hybrids are being rented. Most locations are situated in California, Arizona, and Washington; therefore, if ABC Rental Cars is looking for a new rental opportunity that could expand quickly, hybrid vehicles may not be the ideal choice. Initial startup costs and maintenance costs are also important factors to consider. The price of a hybrid automobile is higher than that of a comparable gasoline engine powered automobile. According to the Website ineed2know. org, a consumer can expect to pay from $3,500 to $6,000 more for a hybrid vehicle. The money a consumer saves in purchasing a hybrid depends greatly on the cost of gasoline. For example, if gas is priced at $1. 80 per gallon, it might take the average driver between 10 and 15 years to make up a $3,500 increase in the initial price. The higher the gas prices go, the less time it will take to recoup the higher price of purchasing a hybrid (ineed2know. org, 2004). However, statistics detailing the amount of time needed to recoup initial investment costs for businesses were not available at this time. Batteries for hybrid vehicles cost considerably more than conventional car batteries. Hybrid batteries sport a price tag of $1,000 – $2,000, more than 10 ? 20 times that of a gasoline powered vehicle (ineed2know.org, 2004). While most hybrid batteries are covered under the vehicle warranty, once the warranty expires it will be the owner’s responsibility to cover the cost of a new battery. Below are some specific pricing examples of hybrids that are currently on the market: The Toyota Prius has a suggested retail price of $21, 708, which is comparable to the Corolla that retails at $15, 580. The hybrid Honda Civic cost $20, 650. That’s about $2,300 more than the Honda Civic with a gasoline powered engine. (Phelan, 2004) Eartheasy. com lists the Honda Insight with a base retail price of $19,080 to $21,280. (2004) The Pontiac Website (2004) lists the comparable Vibe at $17, 165. The Ford Website (2004) boasts the hybrid 2005 Ford Escape, available in August 2004, which will have a retail price of $26,970 for the front-wheel drive SUV. The four-wheel drive hybrid SUV will retail at $28,595. Comparable Ford Escapes with gasoline powered engines retail for $19,995 and $21, 605 respectively. Renewable energy has become the focus of many markets in today’s society. From solar panels to hybrid vehicles, Americans are interested in purchasing these types of technologies, but need financial help from the government in the form of tax credits and rebates. Hybrid vehicles are costly to manufacture, and automakers pass on this higher cost to consumers in the form of higher retail prices of the vehicle. To help offset these higher prices, automakers are encouraging the federal government to provide tax credits to those consumers who purchase hybrid vehicles. The reason for this push is there is currently no alternative technology planned for the future. In a speech given to the Automotive News World Congress, Ford Motor Company’s CEO William Ford stated: â€Å"Hybrid vehicles are a very good bridge between today’s technology and fuel cells. Fuel cells ? as promising as they are ? come with a tremendous infrastructure challenge. We do not have hydrogen on every corner like we do gasoline, and we also have storage issues. With hybrids, we do not have to invent anything ? we know they work. † (Kiley, 2004) To date, there are two types of tax credits available to those who purchase alternative fuel vehicles: ? If you purchase a certain type of electric vehicle, you may be entitled to a tax credit. ?If a vehicle qualifies as a â€Å"clean-fuel† vehicle, you may be entitled to a deduction from gross income. Currently, any clean-fuel vehicles that are manufactured after June 30, 1993 and before January 1, 2007, qualifies the owner for a deduction off of their gross income for a portion of the cost of the vehicle. Examples of these vehicles are natural gas, hydrogen and any fuel that is composed of at least 85% ethanol, alcohol or ether. Electric vehicles receive a 10% tax credit, based on the purchase price. The maximum dollar amount cannot exceed $4,000. These credits will be phased out gradually ? 25, 50 and 75 percent in 2004, 2005, and 2006 respectively, until it is phased out completely in 2007 (www. taxguide. completeax. com, 2004). These tax credits are targeted to the individual consumer, and not for rental vehicles. With the price of gasoline currently hovering around $2. 20 per gallon, the hybrid vehicle appears to be an attractive alternative. However, without a tax credit geared towards the business market, it is not a feasible option. Unfortunately, even with a tax credit, it would take years for the population to change their driving habits. To summarize, marketing alternative fuel vehicles to the consumer can be challenging, and most consumers are not aware of the types or manufacturers of these vehicles. If people are knowledgeable at all about alternative fuel environmental friendly vehicles, they may not be certain of where they can purchase or rent one of them. Purchasing an environmentally friendly vehicle is getting easier to do, with more car manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon. Honda and Toyota have led the way with hybrid vehicles, and Ford has also been in the market with its Ford Crown Victoria natural gas vehicles, with upcoming plans to debut their 2005 Ford Escape hybrid in August 2004. Pontiac is also throwing their hat into the ring with their new hybrid vehicle, the Vibe. Most consumers that are in the market for alternative fuel vehicles are looking at the new hybrids, which use both a combination of electricity and gasoline and can achieve 50 to 60 miles per gallon. The batteries on these vehicles automatically recharge themselves; consequently the vehicles never are required to be plugged in. Renting an alternative fuel vehicle can be more challenging than purchasing one, since at this time there is only one viable rental agency; EV Rental Cars, who has partnered with Budget Rent a Car, a major player in the rental car industry. If a person lives in, or is visiting California, Arizona or Washington D. C. , they can rent one of these vehicles at one of the major airports. The cost is $10 to $20 dollars more per day than renting regular gasoline powered vehicles. Most can be rented or reserved on the Internet, but some alternative fuel vehicles cannot. Consumers must request these in person at rental locations. There are a small amount of benefits for the consumer. For example, drivers can travel in the carpool lane even if they are driving alone in California, Arizona, Virginia and Georgia, thereby saving time. Additionally, when returning traditional rental vehicles, a renter is usually required to return the vehicle with the same amount of gas as was in the vehicle when first rented. Conversely, alternative fuel vehicles can be returned empty, incurring no extra surcharge. As far as refueling these vehicles, charging electric vehicles is free at the rental car recharging stations. Also, hybrid vehicles are more economical because they get more than 60 miles per gallon. Looking at the limited benefits, the overall cost and lack of convenience of purchasing or renting one of these alternative fuel vehicles, and the fact that there is limited availability, does not make it very appealing to the consumer. To investigate a hybrid vehicle consumer’s point of view concerning these types of vehicles, we conducted an interview with Dr. Mark Looper, a hybrid car enthusiast who operates the website altfuels. org. Dr. Looper holds an MS and PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology, and an AB in physics from Princeton University. He has owned alternative fuel vehicles since 1993, and rents hybrid vehicles from the local EV Rental agency in his area. His website offers reviews of these rental vehicles, as well as real-life experiences of Dr. Looper’s travels utilizing alternative fuel vehicles. Dr. Looper’s primary reason for renting AFV’s is to provide information about alternative vehicles to the general public in the form of his reviews, as well as to promote and gain support for these vehicles with his friends, colleagues, and anyone interested enough to learn about alternatives to gasoline powered vehicles. While Dr. Looper’s rental charges exceeded the cost of gasoline powered vehicles, he stressed that cost was not much of a factor in his decision. Instead, Dr. Looper was far more interested in providing useful information to the visitors of his website. One of the questions asked of Dr. Looper was his comfort level while renting AFV’s. Specifically, did he feel nervous that alternative fuel may not be available, or that the vehicle would not handle as well as a traditional vehicle, two concerns of traditional vehicle owners. His reply was that while he was initially nervous when he decided to drive the vehicle across the country, he has never felt nervous while driving in his area. Fuel was always available, as were charging sources. Dr. Looper has stated that he would continue to rent alternative fuel vehicles, to not only â€Å"promote AFV’s by enhancing market demand and visibility,† but to also provide important feedback to consumers considering purchasing or renting these vehicles. Dr. Looper also feels very strongly about environmental issues, and considers this when making a decision of which vehicle to rent. If an alternative fuel vehicle is available, he will always choose this path, as opposed to the traditional vehicle. In conclusion, our research reveals that ABC Rental Cars should not consider introducing alternative fuel vehicles into its fleet at this time. The initial investment costs are much higher than those of traditional gasoline powered vehicles, and costs associated with the upkeep of these vehicles are also prohibitive. In addition, while tax breaks are available to consumers purchasing hybrid vehicles, our studies failed to reveal any tax savings for businesses purchasing, or renting hybrid vehicles. Furthermore, Dr. Looper’s enthusiasm and knowledge notwithstanding, the demand for hybrid vehicles is not currently at a level that would justify the amount of capital necessary to launch this program. However, ABC Rental Cars should continue to monitor developments in the hybrid vehicle industry, as well as gauge consumer interest in these vehicles, and be prepared to move forward with this program should it become economically feasible in the future. References Eartheasy. com (2000 – 2004) The new hybrid cars. Retrieved June 19, 2004 from http://www.eartheasy. com/live_hybrid_cars Environmental Protection Agency, (March 2003). Clean Alternative Fuels: Electric Vehicles. Retrieved, June 18, 2004 from http://www. epa. gov/otaq/consumer/fuels/altfuels/altfuels. htm#fact EV Rental Cars (2002) Website. Retrieved June 19, 2004 from http://www. evrental. com/index. html Fordvehicles. com (2004) Escape Hybrid. Retrieved June 19, 2004 from http://www. fordvehicles. com/escapehybrid/home/index. asp? bhcp=1 Ineed2know. org (2003 – 2004) We Know: 5 important facts about hybrid cars. Retrieved June 20, 2004 from http://www. ineed2know. org/hybrid_cars. htm Kiley, D. (April 8, 2004) Top auto execs turn to tax code to boost fuel efficient vehicles. USA Today Looper, M. , (2004) Owner and Webmaster of www. altfuels. org Interviewed June, 2004 Mossy Automotive Group, (January 22, 2004). Alternative fuel vehicles would add powerful new dimensions to any auto fleet. Mossy Automotive Group Online. Retrieved June 24, 2004 from http://www. mossy. com/news_show. html? item_num=10 Phelan, M. (June 3, 2004). Cutting the hybrid hype. The Detroit Free Press. Retrieved June 20, 2004 from http://www. freep. com/money/autoreviews/hybrid3e_20040603. htm Pontiac. com (2004) Pontiac Vibe. Retrieved June 19, 2004 from http://www. pontiac. com/vibe/index. jsp? brand=home&pagename=home Taxguide. com (2004) Website. Retrieved June 18, 2004 from http://www. taxguide. completetax. com Yahoo! Autos (2004) 2004 Toyota Prius. Retrieved June 22, 2004 from http://autos. yahoo. com/newcars/toyota_prius_2004/3809/model_overview. html.

Tax Return Position Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Tax Return Position Paper - Essay Example Question One Issued by the government’s administrative, judicial and legislative branches through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Treasury Department and Congress, primary tax law sources bear more statutory authority than the secondary sources. The most significant primary sources include the Internal Revenue Code, public laws and income tax treaties (Lederman & Mazza, 2009). Then there are treasury regulations; revenue procedures; revenue rulings; announcements and notices published by the IRS; legislative history; and legal judgment on tax affairs. Treasury regulations usually remain in the form of proposed, temporary or non-codified tax statutes, until they are certified as final or reliance regulations. The IRS also supplements such sources by making actions and decisions, audit technique guides and the internal revenue manual accessible by the public (Ellen, 2012). Developed by the IRS, these initiatives support the fundamental Internal Revenue Code through taxpa yer assistance services such as the Frequently Asked Questions feature, forms on federal tax instructions and IRS publications. References made to decisions arrived at by tax courts are also considerably detailed sources that bear interpretations specific to taxpayers. Question Two Though not of equal statutory weight as the primary sources, secondary sources of tax law bear their own significance in the way they offer a comprehensive starting point to research. They are usually in the form of publications, books and articles written by tax professionals, scholars and legal analysts (Lederman & Mazza, 2009). These sources mainly occur as newsletter, textbooks, articles appearing in legal periodicals, treatises and reports on tax law published by institutions that offer commercial services in tax research. These secondary sources mainly find, scrutinize, clarify and interpret what the primary sources have provided. Question Three Substantial authority entails the recognized standards frequently used for the defense of a tax preparer in the possible event of negligence and understatement. As per the provisions of IRC 1.6694-2, a tax preparer is required to support such tax positions as prepared with the sources he used (Don, 2008). The sources are evaluated basing on their authority, where the primary sources bear the most authority. If the tax preparer is found to have relied on and used substantial authority in arriving at the position presented for the returns, a possible penalty is waived. The intended objective of substantial authority is to determine that most primary sources of tax law support the preparer’s position. The constituents of substantive authority include the Internal Revenue Code, statutory provisions, tax treaties, committee reports, and the Treasury Department’s official position on treaties. Question Four The IRS, which operates under the Treasury Department as an administrative body, has the key role of processing tax return s and examining them for deficiencies. It also issues Revenue Rulings, Notices and Revenue Procedures, which are administrative decisions explaining specific taxpayer issues or the precise manner in which items must be treated. The IRS also the mandate to alter rulings or regulations and, in such a case, courts hearing future cases will encounter new questions. On the

Homeland Security Preparedness Model Research Paper

Homeland Security Preparedness Model - Research Paper Example Homeland Security Preparedness Model The Steering Committee including the Managing Director, the Chief Security Officer and the Chief HSE Officer will design and lay down the plan. And will review the plan and its implementation annually so as to identify any weaknesses in the plan, or control weaknesses in the implementation of the plan and take immediate steps to change them. The Safety Officer will, on a random basis, quiz staff members concerning the Emergency Preparedness Plan and their roles in any drill. This process serves as a source of feedback, which the Safety Officer can use for evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the program. First and the foremost step of the prepared plan are to conduct a Hazard Vulnerability Analysis. Evaluate every possible event in each of the three categories of probability, risk, and preparedness. Add additional events as necessary. A Hazards Vulnerability Analysis can be conducted on need to need basis, and by the committee made for this purpose by the steering committee. Th e report and findings of the analysis shall be submitted to and discussed with the steering committee on monthly basis, until the analysis is final and final report is presented to the steering committee. The Hazards Vulnerability Analysis assists the organization in determining to which hazards it is most vulnerable and to which it is least vulnerable.The inventories prone to catching fire shall be kept in the room where fire detection, protection and extinguishing controls are the most effective and efficient. Communication Channels: Following are the ways in which the employees will be warned and communicated of the hazards or emergency situations: 1. Alarms: The alarm will ring continuously for 2 minutes and then with varying pitch for 5 more minutes. 2. Loud Speakers: Announcements to be made in the speaking language of the employees as well as in the local language so as to facilitate the non-executive staff. Staff Trainings : Employees must know what to do at the time of emer gency, to ensure that this happens, following trainings must be conducted: a. The general overview of the plan, so that the employees know what is in the plan, what actually is a disaster / emergency and how to proceed step by step at the time of a disaster or emergency. Must be conduct once annually and can be conducted half yearly too. b. The training to understand the evacuation and drills,

Stem-Cell Therapy Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Stem-Cell Therapy - Annotated Bibliography Example On laboratory animals, the researchers used neural stem cells programmed to develop only into nerve cells, then transplanted to the damaged region of the brain with promising results that are safer than embryonic stem cells and more efficient than fetal tissue. Prior to a clinical trial on human patients, verification of such approach is on the way. Ischaemic heart disease is the reduced blood supply to the heart muscle causing death. The coronary arteries are blocked, causing death to cardiomyocytes and continues into myocardial infarction (heart attack) which overstrains the surviving myocardium and ultimately ends in heart failure. This article discusses the knowledge to date of regenerating myocardium to revive the adult heart of mammals, with various stem-cell and progenitor types as therapy. Stem cells approaches considered for cardiac therapy includes the injection of skeletal myoblasts, bone-marrow-derived cells, embryonic stem cells (ES) and endogenous cardiac stem cells (CSCs).

Blueprint for the Services at Brithinee Electronics Essay

Blueprint for the Services at Brithinee Electronics - Essay Example started Brithinee Electronics in 1963 after two previous ventures did not work out. The earlier ventures proved to be a springboard for getting into the business of repairing industrial motors. Wallace's young sons, Wally and Don Brithinee worked alongside their father in starting and developing the fledgling company, gradually learning the rewinding business. In 1970 when the Lincoln Electric, a large manufacturer of electric motors, came out with an appealing low priced motor, the Brithinee made a strategic decision to be distributors for Lincoln's new product line. Taking on the Lincoln line allowed Brithinee Electric to offer its customers the choice of repairing or replacing a malfunctioning motor. By 1972 Brithinee Electric had seven employees and enough business to feel optimistic about the future, so it built a 10000 square foot facility to house the business. The company's facilities were expanded to 16.750 square feet seven years later. By 1980 Brithinee Electric had 23 employees. In 1982 Wally and Don Brithinee took over the management of the business when Wallace Sr. decided to retire. In 1987. Brithinee has about $4.5 million in revenue, about 75% of which came from sellings its Toshiba and Baldor lines of electric motors and about 25% came from motor repair work. Building customized electric control panels was of which came from motor repair work. Building customized electric control panels was a new venture with one full time employee, but control panel sales were not yet large enough to be listed as a separate revenue category in the company's financial statements. Brithinee's main emphasis was in motors for water pumping and treatment areas, rock crushing, cement facilities, and the food industry, including wineries and breweries. 1.0 Blueprint Design Blueprint is the term the service experts' use for the structure of the company services Lovelock (2003). It is also known as structural process design and was created by Shostack in 1987. Blueprinting not only highlights the importance of the service design but also concentrates more on flowcharts or processes modeling. It also shows a clearer picture of the process in service mapping. From the perspective of the Brithinee Electric's customer (first stage of process is bringing the motor to the workshop or asking Brithinee to get it picked from the customer's site). When a customer would come with the problem being faced in his motor, the Brithinee staff would firstly take its photos and test it. After the testing the customer would be told of the problems that exists and how would it be cured. If the customer allows, the second stage of repairing starts off. 2.0 Flow Chart of Brithinee's Electric The process consists of 11 steps: 1. Customer brings in his motor 2. The problem existing in the motor is discussed with the staff and the staff is told after the review if they want

William Wordsworth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

William Wordsworth - Essay Example The characterization of Tim O’Brien in the book, although fictitious, is important in generating a sense of relationship between the story and the reader in ways that explains a very profound side of war pertaining to truth. Through his various stories, O’Brien reflects on different perspectives of war and its associated notions of courage and bravery. In a story he tells, O’Brien feels like a coward because he supported or conformed to a stand he did not stood for. He attempted to try to escape the war by running away to Canada but inevitably decides to give in to social pressures of giving his service for the draft. A prominent emphasis is on the aspect of truth related to war. Occurrance does not entail truth and thus, everything that happens does not necessarily mean it is true. With this concept, O’Brien tries to stress on the fact that truth is independent of happenings but depends on feelings. As such, truth is far beyond the usual accepted truths that are created through social or cultural discourse. This also implies that something cannot be deemed untruthful is its existence is fictitious but rather such â€Å"story-truths† are central to capturing truth as they engender emotions. O’Brien used various stories to demonstrate how the truth of any story lies not in its accuracy of evidence but in its emotional connection with a receiver: listener or reader. Some stories that are narrated in the course of the book also include some that do not necessarily seem to be truthful in their conventional ways but they are true in the sense that they appeal to their audiences in ways that establish a connection. Tim O’Brien has intelligently employed his characterization in various different stories throughout the book so as to build an interest and a sense of reality of experiences. With his book, O’Brien has tried to create an

Women's Studies. Claiming Feminism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Women's Studies. Claiming Feminism - Essay Example Logical and intellectual study and discussions of gender inequalities allows students to become aware of the injustices in the world towards women and to work and make effort towards changing unhealthy dynamics in any situation. Feminism Feminism is support and encouragement of women right on the basis of political, social and financial equality to men (Heywood, 34). Feminism is a belief that women and men are equal. To support this belief a movement started. In history feminism came into existence due to inequality between the two genders. Nowadays Feminists activist work towards area like domestic violence, gay marriage, equal pay, equal rights, sexual harassment, discrimination and reproductive. When I think of feminism first thing that comes to my mind is a woman with a broom. It is simply because a woman is associated as being a house wife. Her main responsibility is to look after the house and children. In third world countries this idea still prevails. A woman is still not fre e in her decisions about her life. What she wants is either decided by her elders or her husband. There are countries where women are not allowed to drive. They cannot travel without their male partner. History In 1800 women had very little control over their lives. Even the rich women had limited authority in domestic life. They had no property rights, political rights or financial independence. Higher education was not accessible to women. Lower class women worked hard alongside men. Lower class women faced same social and legal restrictions. The awakening started in the 1790 which emphasized emotion experience over a certain belief or view. It allowed women more opportunities outside home. The First Wave of feminism started from early 19th century up till the year 1921. The first wave started in abolitionist movement. Feminism movement was aligned with anti salivary and anti racism movements. As the civil war ended the right to vote or suffrage was granted to former slaves but no t to women. Many women who were part of feminist movement left their coalition with anti-racism movement. In the initial stage the aim was to support a wide range of rights for women. But with time the first wave of feminism movement narrowed its focus on the goal of achieving women's right to vote. The first college that enrolled first 15 women in higher education was  Oberlin College  in Oberlin. In 1948 the feminist movement started at Seneca Falls convention. It was the first women’s rights convention. It was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, with others. It all started in June 1840 at World Anti-Slavery Convention. The Convention was held in London. The ordinary point of view at that time was that women are not capable of speaking in public. The topic that was discussed was not slavery as planned but rather it was whether women are capable of leadership.. The conclusion was that women are not fit for public speaking. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth C ady Stanton were sent away from convention. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton went out angrily from the convention. There were many achievements made by First Wave Feminist. In 1954 Florence Nightingale established female nurses with the military. In 1860 Suffragists New York passed the Married Women’s Property Act. The bill allowed women to inherit property, share custody of children and control over their wages and wills. In 1916 Margaret Sanger opened first birth control clinic in the U.S. She was giving reproductive rights to women. The clinic had all-female staff. These actions led to her arrest. In 1918 â€Å"Married Love† was published by Marie Stopes. Book was about women’s sexual desires (Jutte, 165). The book got very famous at that time. The right to vote was

A restaurant chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A restaurant chain - Essay Example Another important source of its revenue includes profits earned from its operated restaurants. In the year 2011, the company was able to make a profit of 5.5 billion dollars, and this amounted to annual revenue of 27.5 billion dollars2. The primary business line of McDonalds includes cheeseburgers, milkshakes, desserts, soft drinks, French fries, cheeseburgers, etc. Recently, the business performance of McDonalds has been falling down, reporting a negative growth in its markets, and revenues. For example, in the year 2014, the business performance of McDonalds in Europe and America experienced a slow down3. In Europe, the company posted a negative drop of its financial performance by 1.4%. This is despite depicting a strong financial performance in its UK market. In United States, the company was able to post a drop of its sales by 1%. Another problem facing this company is its weak and inefficient customer service capability4. The company employees are not good at catering for the needs of its customers, and this has an impact in affect the loyalty of the customers towards the business organization. In any organization, employees of the company play an important role in determining whether the company will succeed or not. An efficient and friendly workforce would ensure that they are able to know and serve the needs of its customers, and this is the key to increasing the market share of an organization5. For purposes of improving its financial performance, the management of the company has to solve the above mentioned problems. There are two major methods that the company can use to solve the mentioned problems, and they include, improving its marketing strategy and its customer service capability. However, the company cannot develop an efficient marketing strategy, without having information on the strategies of their competitors, and the needs of its customers. This would therefore force the company to

Summary of America's 1 percent problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Summary of America's 1 percent problem - Essay Example since they had numerous investments, they were able to recover pretty soon and were already enjoying the fruits of the additional income once the recession ended by 2010. Arguments have been made for and against this increase in the inequality gap and the consequences it is bound to elicit. The truth of the matter however remains and that is the fact that the rich are continuing to be rich hence owning almost everything in the country while the poor and now the middleclass are becoming poorer and poorer by the day and the government is only aggravating this through its cut throat policies meant to benefit the haves who are the minority. This trend will make the US lose its economic superpower position to other nations that actually care about the whole nation in such a way that they are trying ways to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor for future social and political stability and not only economic stability. America should borrow a leaf from some of these nations such as Brazil otherwise the near future presents only doom for the nation in

Rocky Gognon General Contarctor Essay Example for Free

Rocky Gognon General Contarctor Essay Rocky Gagnon is 50 years old carpenter who wants to make some changes for the way he earns his money. Due to his health condition especially his back, instead of working hard physically, he wants to work with his mind by creating an effective house-building team which includes various type of construction workers. Gagnon wants to continue his life as a general contractor, but as a general contractor he encounters some problems of building a team; therefore he has hired a well-known and respected business professor from the local community to serve as an adviser and mediator. Most of the problems he faces are due to a lack of cohesiveness and cooperation between the contractors which create big problems to form an effective work team. Rocky Gagnon must know the stages of developing a group such as forming, storming, norming and performing. All contractors should work together for one common goal and they should respect to work of each other. It is very important to know that level of respect should come from one individual with the organization. The best solution is Rocky Gagnon as a leader should inform the team of what it takes to establish effective work team. The team must educate on understanding of roles and group norms, common goals, a positive team identity, good working relationship, shared responsibility, respect, positive energy, trust, willingness to cooperate, unity, good communication, pride in membership, and synergy. An effective team and leadership will reduce the problems of the work team. Rocky Gagnon should also know how to build a team. A team has a small number of people with good skills who are committed to a same purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Work teams, project and development teams, parallel teams, management teams, transnational teams and virtual teams are the example of team types.

Going global means new frontiers Essay Example for Free

Going global means new frontiers Essay Introduction On the 19th Sep. 2014, the world’s largest initial public offering (IPO) was successfully completed in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), U.S., and the total IPO amount has reached up to $25 billion (Chen. Mac. Solomon. 2014). Alibaba, the miracle creator, used only 15-year’s development to take the seat in the Wall Street and build an e-commercial empire. The NYSE’s IPO is the signal to tell global investors and competitors that Alibaba is ready to join the global market competition. For Alibaba, going global means new frontier, however, the new frontier could be either a barren cliff or cornucopian grassland. In this essay, we will mainly discuss that why Alibaba want to expand global markets, and how Alibaba is going to make the global strategies to against global competitors in overseas market. by avoiding direct competition, targeting similar market as China and increasing firm size in the global market environment to step into a â€Å"grassland† market for persistent development. Alibaba the world’s largest online and mobile commerce company, was established in 1999 by the group of 18 people led by Jack Ma in Hangzhou, China. There are three main sites in Alibaba China, including T-mall, Taobao and Alibaba.com along with numbers of other companies to support Alibaba’s ecosystem development. Moreover, Alibaba also has Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com to provide worldwide online shopping services (Pressman 2014). Until 2013, Alibaba has more than 2 million merchants across more than 190 countries and regions. In 2013, there was amount of $248 billion transactions went through Alibaba’s online sites which is more than the total of eBay and Amazon. Furthermore, after the NYSE’s IPO, Alibaba’s market cap has reached up to 215 billion dollar, which only followed behind Microsoft, Google and Apple among the global tech firms (Lajoie Shearman. 2014). Global Market Expansion (convention path: from domestic to overseas) Why Alibaba want to expand global market?  Alibaba is a typical Multi-national corporation, since Alibaba set up the headquarter in the China and operate e-commerce businesses in other  countries. in As a typical multi-national corporation, going global to exploit new distant market, to merge into larger and more efficient units and to exploit better social capital is an irresistible process for Alibaba. As the dominator in the China’s online shopping market, Alibaba has already controlled 80% of the market share, thus Alibaba needs new distant markets for persistent development. Moreover, For Alibaba, both the internal capabilities and external environment allows Alibaba to make the global market expansion decision. For the internal capabilities, Alibaba is a mature Internet corporation, which has controlled 80% of the China’s online shopping market. China’s market profits could constantly provide enormous capital support for Alibaba’s long-term market expansion. Moreover, after the NYSE’s IPO, Alibaba has won the trust from global investors and acquired sufficient capital for early market expansion. However, the challenges always exist during the process of the market expansion, especially from the local e-commercial corporations. Despite of the competition, high cost for setting up facilities, cultural shock, and different government policies would also be main concerns before the decision was made. Thus, I have listed three main strategies below to demonstrate Alibaba’s global market expansion. Avoiding direct competition Instead of â€Å"face to face† competition with those locally dominant e-commercial corporations, Alibaba decided to operate their business around the market edges and move partial of e-commercial businesses to cross-country trade. In 2004, The America’s largest e-commercial corporationeBay entered the Chinese market by merger with a Chinese e-commercial corporation—EachNet. In order to against eBay, Alibaba decided to launch Taobao, one of the main sites under Alibaba for C2C (customer to customer) business model, compete with eBay. Because of Taobao’s preponderant business model and domestic advantages, eBay finally failed in China’s e-commercial market expansion (Wang, 2010). Right now, Alibaba faced the same challenge in the America’s market, but Alibaba will not make the same mistake as eBay did. In order to avoid direct competition with eBay and Amazon, Alibaba has launched AliExpress for cross-country trade wholesale by offering quality products at factory prices. As the advantages, Chinese  products have unbeatable prices to attract American customers; also Chinese customers have strong demands for American high quality products (like Cherry Farmers and Fisherman). Although it’s too earlier to claim the final result of Alibaba, to avoid direct competition is always a good way to enter a new market without too much pressure from local competitors. Finding similar market as China Alibaba’s global strategies are more likely targeting the large and potential e-commercial market as China’s market. For instance, Brazil, as one of the largest developing economy in the world, the economy status and e-commercial structure in Brazil is really similar as in China. ALthough, eBay and Amazon has already settled down in the Brazil’s market, it’s always not too late for Alibaba overtakes the dominance. In 2013, Alibaba set up a Portuguese e-commerce site to allow Brazil buyers directly purchase goods from Chinese wholesalers. Just in a year, Alibaba has became the third largest e-commercial website and took 20% of market share after Ebay and Amazon. In this July 12 millions of Brazilian customers visited the Alibaba.com, which is ten times than last year (Sciaudone, 2014). Moreover, in Brazil’s market, Alibaba wisely used the local sub-contractor to reduce investment and improve service quality, which subcontracted the online payment services to Boleto and delivery services to Brazil’s state-owned postal service (Pressman, 2014). To make it even better, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Chinese President Xi Jingping have signed the agreement to open the â€Å"Green Channel† to support Alibaba’s business between two countries (Chao, 2014). All in all, the success in the Brazil’s market indicated that to find the similar market is a feasible strategy for future development. Increasing the firm size As a typical multi-national corporation, Alibaba effectively applied the law of increasing firm size, ‘which have rapidly growth in the representative size of the firm, culminating in the MNC, and the parallel growth in organizational complexity’ (Hymer, 1970). E-commercial is the fundamental business for Alibaba’s long-term development, but not the only business Alibaba does or will do. As the range of investments show below, Alibaba  made plenty of investments in smart phone, video websites, telecommunication and so on. Some of them are complement businesses to support Alibaba’s e-commercial, like Juhuasuan, Alipay and Alibaba pictures; and some of them are potential businesses for long-term development, like Kabam, Peel, and Tango. Like Jack Ma has said in the Stanford Business School’s presentation, Alibaba would always follow the market’s path, where is the market, where is the Alibaba. Alibaba believed those investments are the future market and opportunities. On the global market expansion, Alibaba’s strategy is to pursue dynamic, diversified, sustaining development. Impacts on global market and host region With the development of Alibaba, the global e-commerce businesses will absolutely more competitive than before. There will be more and more cheaper and quality products flow into global market from China. Other e-commercial corporations, like eBay and Amazon, have to find the way out to against Alibaba’s expansion. On the other hand, Alibaba’s global market expansion will provide more opportunities and channels for China’s manufactories and factories to enter into a larger market. As Alibaba’s mission said, ‘to make it easy to do business anywhere.’ Alibaba help China’s merchants to do business much easier and more efficient. Conclusion It is indeed that Alibaba made a great success in 15-year development, but some concerns still exist from investors. Some investors even thought it’s possible that Alibaba is too big to be expropriated by Chinese government (Crovitz, 2014). However, It’s a totally misunderstanding, Chinese government always encourage and support China’s corporations to exploit overseas market and welcome foreign investment. Furthermore, investors also consider the instability to an Internet company. Unlike other industries, such as auto or manufacture industry, Internet Company is highly volatile. Internet Company could create billions of fortunes overnight, but also could lose everything instantly. In this case, it’s a significant mission for Alibaba to keep investors’ trust and faith. Up to now, Alibaba’s steady-state growth and expansion is the best response to investors’ trust and support. For 15-year development, Alibaba completely followed the conventional path from serve domestic market to operate businesses overseas. Eventually, Alibaba has successfully built an e-commercial businesses bridge between China and overseas market. Alibaba will continue to grow, and it will continue to change China and change the world. As William Kirby, and expert on Chinese business in Harvard’s business school, demonstrated that Alibaba is ‘a private company that has done more for China’s national economy than most state-owned enterprises (Economist, 2013).’ References Chen, Liyan; Mac, Ryan; Solomon Brian. Alibaba Claims Title For Largest Global IPO Ever With Extra Share Sales. Forbes. Web. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014/09/22/alibaba-claims-title-for-largest-global-ipo-ever-with-extra-share-sales/ [Accessed on: 14/11/2014] Crovit, Gordon L. 2014. Alibaba: Too Big to Expropriate? The Wall Street Journal. Web. Available from: http://online.wsj.com/articles/gordon-crovitz-alibaba-too-big-to-expropriate-1411339239 [Accessed on: 14/11/2014] Hymer, Stephen. 1970. Lecture notes distributed in Global Business Environment at The University of Birmingham U.K. on November 2014. INC. 2014. How Alibabas Jack Ma Conquered China. INC. Video. Web. Available from: http://www.inc.com/jack-ma/alibaba-jack-ma-reveals-his-global-strategy.html [Accessed on: 14/11/2014] Osawa, Juro. Alibaba Isn’t the Amazon of China. The Wall Street Journal. Web. Available from: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/10/16/alibaba-isnt-the-amazon-of-china/ [Accessed on: 15/11/2014] Pressman, Aaron. Alibaba a threat to eBay, Amazon outside the U.S., not within. Yahoo Finance. Web. Available from: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/alibaba-aims-at-ebay-and-amazon-outside-of-the-united-states-173757037.html [Accessed on: 14/11/2014] Sciaudone, Christiana. 2014. Alibaba in Brazil Challenges EBay-Amazon Market Grip. Bloomberg. Web. Available from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-05/alibaba-in-brazil-challenges-ebay-amazon-market-grip.html [Accessed on: 14/11/2014] Shearman, Nick; Lajoie, Marc. 2014. What is Alibaba?. The Wall Street Journal. Web. Available from: http://projects.wsj.com/alibaba/ [Accessed on: 14/11/2014] The Economist. 2013. The World’s greatest bazaar. The Economist. Web. Available from: http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21573980-alibaba-trailblazing-chinese-internet-giant-will-soon-go-public-worlds-greatest-bazaar [Accessed on: 20/11/2014] Wang, Helen H. 2010. How eBay Failed in China. Forbes. Web. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/china/2010/09/12/how-ebay-failed-in-china/ [Accessed on: 20/11/2014] http://www.cnbc.com/id/102008330#.

Design of Search and Rescue Helicopter

Design of Search and Rescue Helicopter Proposal:Search Rescue Helicopter This report highlights the design process of a SR Helicopter system that can rival the competitors in the current market. In order to do so SysML modelling methods have been used to allow us to get a better understanding of the system and the problem at hand. To do so further research was conducted on the leading SR Helicopter in the market, to get an understanding of what type of features are expected from the system. After conducting some requirements capturing, key design features are created for the SR Helicopter. This is done by refining the requirements given to us by the customer/stakeholders. Engineering characteristics are then found from the key design features and represented in the association matrix. This leads on to tradeoff decision that need to be made to optimize the system and satisfy majority of the requirements given by the customer/stakeholders. Systems Design for Helicopters Through this report, we will develop a system design for a military search and rescue helicopter (SR Helicopter) that can be used in missions that is in hostile environments. Following on from this we will conduct a competitive analysis of the designed helicopter to its competitors. The baseline for the new system will be using an existing military helicopter, the HH-60G. 1.1 Background of the HH-60G Pave Hawk The primary mission of the HH-60G pave Hawk helicopter is to recover personnel from hostile environments. In addition, the helicopter also executes search and rescue, medical evacuation, disaster relief, security cooperation, NASA space shuttle support and rescue command and control missions [1]. The HH-60G Pave Hawk has been used in the past for several operations, including the Operation Desert Storm, Operation Allied Force and many more [1]. They have also been used to provide emergency evacuation for U.S. Navy SEAL teams in their operations overseas [1]. HH-60G Pave Hawk has not just been used for military operations but also for helping when natural disasters happen. For example, when there was an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, these helicopters were deployed to provide search and rescue within 24 hours of the disaster [1]. This illustrates how resilient these helicopters are already, so using this as the baseline of the system will ensure that the new system will have a solid foundation. 1.2 Aims The aim of this report is to use system design modelling tools to design and analyse a search and rescue helicopter that met the customers requirements. 1.3 Objectives Conduct some background research on the current systems in the market Refine the requirements given by the customer/stakeholders. Use SysML tools to design and analyse the system. 1.4 Further research Current Features on the HH-60G Pave Hawk include: communication and navigation that includes integrated navigation, global positioning and Doppler navigation systems [2] [1] Satellite communications [1] Secure voice and Have Quick communications [1] Can fit up to 12 troops and six crewmen onboard [1] Automatic flight control systems [2] [3] Night vision goggles [3] Infrared system that allows the pilot to see in low level light (limited visibility) operations [3] [1] Weather radar [1] Anti-ice system on the engine and rotor blades [2] The HH-60G Pave Hawk includes equipment such as retractable in-flight refuelling probe, 7.65mm or 50calibre machineguns and a 3600kg capacity cargo hook. As well as a cargo hook the Pave Hawk also has a hoist cable that is capable of lifting a load up to 270kg from 200 feet [1]. Most of these features are upgraded from the UH-Black Hawk. Which just shows how the HH-60G Pave Hawk is the leading SR Helicopter in the market in this moment in time. 2.1 Narrative A military search and rescue helicopters (SR Helicopter) purpose is to be a quick responder to finding a missing person or people. Naturally it will mean that the helicopter will have to travel at great speeds to reach the area that the missing personnel is assumed to be. But sometimes the mission commander (person who is in charge of the search and rescue mission) will receive new information on the location of the missing or injured people, which will then need to be relayed to the crew in the helicopter. Once the crew reaches their destination they need to have the technology onboard the helicopter that will allow them to locate the missing or injured person/people. This ranges from night vision goggles to radio systems. In some circumstances the missing people will have radios on them, which can be used to hail the helicopter. When the person or people are located the helicopter must be able to retrieve them from any terrain and have the space to accommodate them. In addition the helicopter will be tasked to go into hostile environments, which can put the crew and the helicopter its self through a lot of stress. The stress could range from subzero temperatures, storms and even bullets in a warzone. Usually the helicopters will be armed with weaponry that will defend its self from incoming fire from the ground and air. 2.2 Use case Diagram The use case diagram is used to allow us to identify the key requirements in the system. In addition, due to the fact that this use case is used for behavioural modelling, it allows the user to identify actors, relationships and the system boundary of the system. You can see in the figure 1 that there are multiple actors (stick figures) involved with this system. Initially there is a lot more but they are out of our scope in this moment of time. The use case in figure 1 starts off with the operational requirement, which is Conduct search and rescue in hostile environments, which then branches of into 4 other essential requirements such as Operate in hostile environments and Travel at high speeds. Figure 1: High level use case Moving on, another use case diagram was created, as seen in figure 2, which highlights the remaining functional requirements. At this stage, the use case method sometimes highlights requirements that are derived from each other. For example, from Identify person/people imperil, three other requirements were derived; Identify personnel at night, Long distance communications and Identify personnel in low visibility conditions. Figure 2 Low Level Use case The next stage will be to identify all the different requirements and sort them into functional and non-functional requirements. 2.3 Requirements Identification A systems engineer will use requirements to validate the stakeholders needs are satisfied by the delivered system [4]. Therefore a systems engineer should be able to understand the problem in different layers of perception [4]. Requirements identification also helps the systems engineer to check if he is creating the right system for the stakeholder. 2.4 Organise the requirements by Type The requirements start off with an operational requirement, which highlights the highest level. Usually the operational requirement would be agreed with the primary stakeholder which is derived from the narrative provided earlier on in the report. As well as the operational requirements, the functional and non-functional requirements are then also derived from the narrative. To do this, the narrative is re-written a couple of times, refining the information till the engineer has a set of functional and non-functional requirements [5]. It is essentially an iterative process where the system engineer continuously analysis the requirements and refines each requirement until there is no ambiguity in them. These refined requirements are illustrated further down in the report, in 2.5 Requirements Model. For this scenario, the Operational requirement would be: Conduct a search and rescue operation in hostile environments. The Functional requirements for this scenario would be: Locate person/people imperil Identify person/people imperil Long distance communication Operate in hostile environments Operate in wet conditions Store medical equipment Low unit cost Non-Functional requirements: Fit injured personnel onboard Recover injured personnel from elevated height Operate in hostile environments Operate in cold conditions Operate under fire High operating range High cursing speed High max speed These requirements were then placed into a SysML Requirements table, which allows us to put the required information in a table format. This makes the requirements much more representable and allows us to add in information regarding the requirements, such as, high cruising speed: Shall be able to travel faster than 200mph. The others can be seen in figure 3. It is at this stage were the non-functional requirememnts are added, to ensure that all the requirements can be found in one place. Each requirement is then given a piority rating (under the colloum risk) according to the importance of the requirement. Pioritisation was decided off the combination of the customers needs and how much of an effect the requirement has to the overall operational requirements. Following on from this, the key design features were decided and justified. This a critial section for systems engineers when they are deciding the likely trade-offs. The pioritisation and justifications are what influences the decisions on which trade-offs will be considered. Type Requirement Key Design Feature Piority Justification Non-Functional 1.4 Fit injured personnel onboard Shall be able to accommodate at least 8 people High The HH-60G Pave Hawk is the best helicopter for search and rescue at the moment, which can hold up to 12 people and the six crew members onboard. Taking into consideration this is when all people are healthy and not injured the stakeholders agreed that 8 injured people must be able to fit inside the helicopter. Non-Functional 1.4.1 Recover injured personnel from elevated height Shall be able to recover person imperil from an elevated height of at least 200 feet High The stakeholders wanted the system to have the cabalility to extract injured personnel from an elevated hieght. Non-Functional 1.5.1 Operate in cold conditions Should be able to operate at temperatures more than -30 degrees Medium The system must be able to operate in harsh weather conditions, which includes subzero tempreatures. The engines in the HH-60G Pave Hawk can operate efficiently in -30 degress [6]. As we are creating a system that should be able to rival the best SR helicopters out there, we decided our engines should be able to operate under the same conditions as the HH-60G Pave Hawk. Non-Functional 1.5.3 Operate under fire The fuselage shall protect the crew and vital mechanical parts from bullets less than a 50 Caliber bullet High As the stakeholder highlited the fact that this SR Helicopter would be used in the military as well as natural desasters, it is essential for the system to be able to withstand small arms fire and automatic weapons. This would be anything less than a 50 caliber bullet. Non-Functional 1.8 High operating range Shall have a range more than 650km High Currently the SR helicopter that has the smallest range is the black hawk helicopters, with the range of 592km. The coustmer stated that they would like the helicopter to rival thoes that are the best in the market as well as keeping the cost down, we decided that having the minimum 100km more than the lowest range out there, will give our system the competitive edge it needs. Non-Functional 1.9.1 High Cruising speed The cruising speed is more than 170mph Low Looking at the curising speed of the HH-60G Pave Hawk, which is at 184mph. This system needs to rival it as well as keeping the cost low. So the best way to do that is keep the cruising speed relatively close the to the Pave Hawk, but reducing it slightly to lower the costs. Non-Functional 1.9.2 High Max speed The max speed is more than 200mph High Looking at the max speed of the HH-60G Pave Hawk, which is at 220mph [1]. This system needs to rival it as well as keeping the cost low. So the best way to do that is keep the max speed relatively close the to the Pave Hawk, but reducing it slightly to lower the costs. Non-Functional 1.7 Low unit cost Unit Price shall be less than $40.1 Million High Analysing the market, the best helicopter (HH-60G Pave Hawk) has a unit cost of $40.1 Million. So keeping the price less than the Pave Hawk, will make it more appealing to the coustomers. Figure 4: Key Design Features Justification 2.5 Requirements Model (Relations) From the requirements table in figure 3, a requirements model was created showing the relationships between each requirement. As you can see in figure 5, all the requirements can be seen mapped back to the operational requirement. This shows the relationships between each of the requirements and how they are vital for the system to achieve its operational requirement. In addition, this tool allows us to highlight the requirements that are derived from other requirements. For example, in figure 5, requirement 1.5 Operate in hostile environments, has three other requirements that are derived from it. 1.5.1 Operate in cold conditions, 1.5.2 Operate in wet conditions and 1.5.3 Operate under fire. Something that should be noted is that these three requirements are not all functional requirements. Even though 1.5.1 is a functional requirement 1.5.1 and 1. 5.2 are both non-functional requirements. 3.1 SysML Block Definition Diagram (BDD) Block Definition Diagram is used to define the different types of physical units as well as intangible entities [7] [4] [5]. Furthermore, the BDD defines each blocks characteristic in terms of it structural and behavioral features [7]. The diagram can be used to plot the requirement constraints that have been identified previously in the report [4] [5]. Finally, the BDD allows the user to define the relationships between each block, for example the hierarchical relationships [7]. Figure 6 is the Block Definition Diagram for the SR Helicopter System, which as seen, has eight main blocks: Fuselage, Power Plant, Rotor Blades, Battery, Hoist Cable, Visual Software, Radio system, Armament. The Fuselage block is associated to two other blocks (which is represented with a straight line, that has no arrow at the end), Hoist Cable and Armament. The reason for this is because both the Armament and Hoist Cable is connected to the Fuselage. The reason for there not being a direct association line between these three is due to the fact that there is no signal flow between these subsystems. On the other hand, if we look at the Battery and the Fuselage there is a direct association line since the battery will power the lights and other electrical equipment inside the fuselage. In addition to the fuselage the battery also has a direct association line with the visual software, radio system, hoist cable and power plant. The reason for this is because all these subsystems need electrical power to work and carry out their operations. Each block has specific operations that it needs to carry out, in order for the overall system to achieve its goal. Visual software must be allow the pilot to locate and identify the person/people imperil (see requirement 1.1 and 1.2), in order to do so it has to have the capabilities to see in the dark, which means the subsystem needs to generate night vision display. By looking at the rest of the blocks it is now easily identifiable, of their purpose in the overall system and how each subsystem aids the overall system in achieving the requirements. 3.2 SysML Internal Block Diagram An Internal block diagram can be interpreted the complete opposite of the block definition diagram due to the reason that an IBD is a white box or internal view of a system block [4] [5]. The blocks in the BDD are represented in the IBD as parts. This just means that this diagram illustrates the flow properties between each subsystem. Figure 7 is the IBD for the SR helicopter system which can be traced back to the Block Definition Diagram in chapter 3.1. As you can see in figure 7, the power plant block has a port, which links to the Fuel flow property. This illustrates how the fuel is supplied from a different part of the system (Fuel Tank) that is outside of our scope. After receiving electrical power from the battery, the power plant (engines) can then ignite the fuel which then generates power. This power is then transferred to the Rotor Blades, which is not only represented with an association line but the Direction label indicates where the energy flow is going. So, from the power plant the power is going out into the rotor blades, which is then transferred into torque. This torque then generates lift, allowing the helicopter to fly. Moving onto another section of the diagram, the Fuselage has only one flow property, which is people. The reason for this is because the fuselage has one main purpose, which is to allow people to enter and exit the helicopter. Even though flow property is considered the flow of energy, in this case people are considered a flow of energy. The flow property people is then connected to the torque flow property of the hoist cable, as the torque energy lifts the people from the ground into the helicopter. Finally, if we continue analyzing the fuselage, you can see that the flow property is only linked to one other flow property, but there is still an association line between the fuselage and the armament. The reason for this is because we know that the armament in placed inside the fuselage so these two subsystems are connected, but as far as we know there is no flow of energy between them. Figure 7: Internal Block Diagram 3.3 Association Matrix In this section of the report we will explore the key design features that was provided by the costumer [5]. These key features are the ones that influence the system requirements significantly. To illustrate this, the key features were matched with its corresponding engineering characteristics, which allowed us to figure out the strength of their connection [5]. Figuring out the strength of their connection lead on to us deciding what the tradeoffs were. If we analyses figure 8, we can see that the engineering characteristics are categorized into five different sections: Helicopter Fuselage Amour Armament Power Plant The Helicopter category represents the whole system, which allows us to illustrate the relevance of each engineering characteristic with the overall system [8] [5]. For instance, the volume of the fuselage is affected by the height, width and length of the helicopter as well as the other engineering characteristics from the other sections. Looking at the Power characteristic, we can see that it is affected by weight of the armament, range and weight of the power plant, the material density of the amour and the weight of the helicopter its self. This indicates that this particular engineering characteristic needs to be taken into careful consideration when designing the system. Similarly, the Range of the power plant is also affected by a majority of the other engineering characteristics. Keeping these two engineering characteristics in mind, if we look into the key design features, we can see that Power and Range (of the Power Plant) affects quite a few of the key design features that are ranked at a priority of 5. Therefore, the tradeoffs we will be analyzing will be the ones highlighted in yellow. 3.4 Block Constraint Diagram From the previous section of the report (3.3), the key design features that have been chosen are Unit cost Figure 9, illustrates the Block constraint diagram created to determine the tradeoffs between the engineering characteristics. It does this by determining which engineering characteristic directly affect the key design features [5]. The blocks in figure 9 can be considered as functions, which is illustrated by the constraints subheading in the block. Using the, Unit cost 650km, the function of this is mathematically calculated with the combination of the variables; Fuel consumption, Fuel capacity, Weight, Engine Power, Helicopter speed and Air resistance. 3.5 Parametric Diagram Similarly, in a sequential viewpoint is used to help with the analysis of the tradeoffs. Figure 10 is a Parametric diagram which demonstrates the engineering characteristics that are used to calculate the range and unit cost functions [9] [4]. From the diagram and research, it became clear that if you increase the power of the engines the range of the SR Helicopter systems starts to decrease. Looking at the function of the unit cost, you can see that Engine Power is included in the function, meaning that if you decrease the Engine Power the unit cost will reduce with it. This illustrates the tradeoffs of the engineering characteristic and key design features. Further detail in how to optimize the tradeoffs will be done in the next section. Trade offs must be made to ensure that the system satisfies majority of the requirements that was stated at the beginning of this report. As stated in the previous section of this report (3.4), the parameters we will be focusing on when trying to optimise the tradeoffs are Motor Power, Unit Cost 650km. To illustrate where the optimal point will be between the three tradeoffs, a graph was created with all three parameters. Figure 11: Optimisation Graph The graph above indicates the area where the optimal tradeoff will be. This was calculated with the research information on the different engines that are used in the market and their outputs. You can see that two main competitors that were used, the UH-Black Hawk and the HH-60G Pave Hawk, are indicated with the red and blue lines. During the research, the motor power of each helicopter was looked up and compared to the range that they produced. After gathering enough data, a graph was created that would indicate the relationships between the findings. You can see that as the motor power increases the range of the engines start to increase after a certain point. In doing so the cost of the system starts to increase dramatically too. The report has explored how the current systems that are in the market, such as the HH-60G Pave Hawk and the UH-Black Hawk. Which allowed us to get a better understanding of what type of competitors the SR Helicopter will face. The next stage was to define the stakeholder and user requirements, which was achieved in the methods section. Creating the requirements table allowed us to verify and validate that we created the right system and the system that the customers asked for. To create the requirements table and other diagrams such as the BDD, IBD etc., SysML modeling languages were used, which allowed us to analys the system designed. Finally, the report comes to the following recommendations. Since the requirement was to keep cost as low but keeping the SR Helicopter in the competitive race in the market, the maximum cost for the SR Helicopter was reduced just below the Pave Hawk, at $38 Million. Reducing the cost meant that the motor power was also reduced, which in return reduced the range. The motor power didnt suffer that much on reduction but the range drop was more significant. Reducing the motor power by just 100 Shaft Horse Power meant that the range dropped from 900km to 730km. On the other hand, this is still acceptable as the requirements stated that the range had to be greater than 650km, which it is and with the shaft horse power being at 1,800 shaft horse power the engine can still reach maximum speeds above 200mph. [1] HH-60G Pave Hawk, , . [Online]. Available: http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104508/hh-60g-pave-hawk.aspx. [Accessed 15 3 2017]. [2] S. E. |. .-6. P. H. {{cite journal |last= Young |first= Susan H.H. and S. H. S. E. Young, 2008 USAF Almanac, Air Force Magazine, vol. 91, no. 5, p. 155-156, . [3] Airforce-technology Editors, Kable Intelligence Limited, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/sikorsky-hh-60g-pave-hawk-combat-search-rescue-helicopter/. [Accessed 8th March 2017]. [4] O. D. A. . C. Guillaume FINANCE, SysML Modelling Language explained, 7 October 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.omgsysml.org/SysML_Modelling_Language_explained-finance.pdf. [5] D. N. M. C. Dickerson, Architecture and principles of systems engineering, CRC Press, 2010. [6] A. O. Hyg, Cold Exposure During Helicopter Rescue Operations in the Western Alps, 01 January 2003. [Online]. Available: https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/47/1/7/131313/Cold-Exposure-During-Helicopter-Rescue-Operations. [7] T. Editors, Block Definition Diagram (bdd), [Online]. Available: https://www.threesl.com/cradle/help/System%20Modelling/other/bdd.htm. [Accessed 5th March 2017]. [8] P. H. I. A. P. D. J. Hatley, Process for system architecture and, 2000: Dorset House Pub. [9] D. W. e. al, Systems Engineering Handbook: A Guide for System Life cycle processes and activites. [10] Wikiwand Editors, General Electric T700, [Online]. Available: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/General_Electric_T700. [Acces

Applications of Physics in Daily Life Essay example -- water pumps, mot

In real life situations, there are many applications of physics. Physics is applied in almost everything we do and everything around us from household chores, in school and in professional practices like engineering. It ranges from simple applications like boiling water to complex professional ones like road and rail construction. Some of the most common applications are as discussed below. Water and well pumps Water and well pumps are utilized to draw water from a profundity where the water table is a few feet underneath the range of provision. Regularly utilized for water conveyance. Hand pumps are physically worked pumps; they utilize human force and mechanical playing point to move liquids or air starting with one spot then onto the next. They are broadly utilized as a part of each nation on the planet for a mixture of mechanical, marine, watering system and recreation exercises. There are numerous distinctive sorts of hand pump accessible, fundamentally working on a cylinder, stomach or turning vane guideline with a check valve on the section and passageway ports to the chamber working in restricting bearings. Most hand pumps have plungers or responding cylinders, and are sure relocation. Suction and lift are paramount contemplations when pumping liquids. Suction is the vertical separation between the liquid to be pumped and the core of the pump, while lift is the vertical separation between the pump and the conveyance point. The profundity from which a hand pump will suck is restricted by air weight to a working profundity of less than 7 meters. The depth to which a hand pump will lift is administered by the capacity of the pump and the driver to lift the weight in t... ...rged as a consequence of volume development. As the motor chills off once more, the compartment furnishes a proportional payback liquid to the radiator, consequently, "reusing" it. This implies that fresher autos are considerably less inclined to overheating as more senior autos. Consolidated with upgrades in radiator liquid mixtures, which go about as radiator fluid in frosty climate and coolant in hot, the "reusing" methodology has prompted a noteworthy abatement in break downs identified with warm extension. Works Cited Fleisher, Paul. Matter and Energy: Principles of Matter and Thermodynamics. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 2002. Beiser, Arthur. Physical science, fifth ed. Perusing, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1991. "Correlation of Materials: Coefficient of Thermal Expansion" Royston, Angela. Hot and Cold. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2001.

Personal Narrative- Contributing to Society Essay -- Personal Narrativ

Personal Narrative- Contributing to Society I am one of those people that you’d probably term â€Å"normal†. I attend a normal school, I work at a normal job, I have a normal life. You wouldn’t single me out on the street: there is nothing remarkable about me, I am one of the many. So, what has someone like me got to say that would make any difference to this world? I haven’t fought the important socio-political battles of this century; I haven’t done anything that will be recorded in the world annals. Yet, I believe that I can contribute towards a healthier society. We live in a world that has forsaken the value of small things and deems those who think like me, foolish dreamers who will be left behind in the rat race. Well, so be it. I know I have to keep working and living in thi...

Mimosa :: essays research papers

Separation from their original home was one of the many past events that caused tensions and turmoil between a father and his two daughters. While each individuals thoughts about each other fluxuated between both positive and negative, one thing remained constant through out the progression of the poem, the ever enduring presence of religion, faith and its beliefs. Religion has always had a place in the life of Vito and his family, he had his own ways of using his faith to comfort himself as well as his own visions on what a heaven would be to him, while his daughter also held a strong faith in religion. Just as the weak Mimosa plant needs support to grow or face death, each of Vito’s daughters , especially Lucia, has attached themselves to a faith, a religion to support and help themselves through life. Vito like many, have found a place for his faith. He believed that a true heaven would be back in his homeland, back in the garden that he cared for so dearly. This garden in fact acted like his own garden of Eden. For his character was like that of the tender Mimosa plant, which when faced with the slightest touch or trouble from an outside source, would recoil its leaves and take a defense position close to the garden that it grew within. Vito would retreat to this garden to escape the troubles of the outside world when they became unbearable. He describes the garden to us as; “The garden that kept them little children even as adults;'; This could be taken as that it did not actually affect Vito physically young but rather it altered him mentally. He would become like Adam and Eve before evil and like that of a young child, all ignorant of all troubles. Complexity and all other dilemma’s that plagued their lives. So in this garden he would escape his troubles through the means of ignoring them and not acknowledging their existence and thus a bit closer to peace, and less degrees of separation between himself and his God.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though his daughters once also joined him in his “light';, in essence his garden, it is said that his daughter, Lucia (an cleaver metaphor of Lucifer?) Is that of a luckless fallen angle, refusing to join him in his light. Lucifer himself was a fallen angle, and now Lucia clutches to

Nok Air

Furthermore, the main objective of the airline its self is to capture and gain a larger market share from a targeted market that comprises of both normal Low cost carrier travelers, whether from existing users of the airlines or from competitive airlines, and potential from alternative transportation modes such as trains, buses, and vans that are common mearns form commuting to other parts of Thailand. Sales and marketing strategies especially relating to price offers are key factors in capturing additional passengers. In addition, promotion and advertising are important factors in push strategies to motivate prospects to the airline.Nok Air’s campaigns involve mobile marketing, online marketing, billboards, print media advertising as well as Television Advertising. These multi-channels of media usage allow Nok Air to reach a large number of audiences in order to capture attention to its promotions on offer and leave an impression that salience to the mind. Creating loyalty to the Nok Air brand is based on the airline’s special service to the customers who frequently travel on the airline is a way to retain existing customers as well as attract new customers by word of mouth from existing and loyal customers.Usage rate is also another reason of purchase intention. For those individuals who are required to travel frequently on company’s business or government official business will need a reliable airline that can accommodate to their needs and offer a fare that will save them cost and time. This market survey has been also conducted by secondary data analysis, focus group interview, and questionnaire survey in order to find consumers insights regarding purchasing, consuming and attitude towards airlines. Main highlights of the survey iincluded : ? What are attitudes toward low-cost carriers and full-service carriers? What would be the important factors to increase customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer engagement? ? What shou ld be brand positioning of Nok Air in customers’ minds? ? What are the value-added things that customers looking for when they fly domestically? ? Is the domestic flight service price sensitive? ? Which channels do customers usually go when shopping for domestic flight? ? How would you recommend promotional mix for Nok Air? ? What should be the communication message and marketing campaign for Nok Air to create customer engagement? ? What are the promotional tools to be used for generating more sales?SITUATION ANALYSIS The changing demographics of travel have greatly dictated the target customers for Low-cost air carrier industry. After almost a decade of its initiation, Nok Air has observed some dramatic changes in the perception of Loc-cost air carriers and the fierce competition that exist in becoming the market leader in this industry. This section will detail the potential Target Market Characteristics of Nok Air with the focus on the market size, segment, share, growth, and trend. MARKET ANALYSIS Market Size: Thai domestic air travel market reached 13. million passengers in 2010 and expects an annual growth of approximately 5% over the next six years. This equivocates to approximately 17. 4 million passengers by the year 2017. In 2011, Nok Air projected that it had served about 4 million passengers or approximately 26% from the estimated 13. 8 million annual domestic air travelers for the year1. Market Segment: In order to determine the best market segment to describe individuals who fits the profile of LCC (Low-cost carrier) passengers, a build-up approach would be a suitable method of classification. This approach seeks to identify ssimilarities or common customer needs2.Key factors in defining consumer criteria for Nok Air are Profile, Psychological, and Bbehavioral. Segmentation of Nok Air passengers are individuals of both sex with the age range divisible in the range of 15-24, 25-34, 35-44, 44-54, and 55+. Occupation and level of income chara cteristics are generally individuals who are professionals, government officials, businessmen, sstudents, and employees in low-to-medium income group. These would be individuals who are motivated by benefits from travelling on Nok Air or the perceived valued attained, whether it is based on ticketing prices or overall value for money.Touch points and media used would be internet users as well as travel agents and ticketing counters and centers. Market Share The phenomenon of Low-cost carrier industry has changed the dimensions of air travel. The ticket price war was the key marketing strategy for these carriers and focusing on the basic elements or â€Å"no frills† was the cost-cutting model to capture the segment whose primary objective was to commute from one destination to another safely. This swing in trend shifted the market share from the legacy carriers, as leisure passengers looked for cheaper alternatives.Despite the growing market of domestic air travel, FSC (full-s ervice carriers) are seeking ways to compete with its new rivals, by letting the free market economic model of price discrimination by demand and supply to dictate the ticket prices, along with sales promotion strategies that remind consumers of its brand and presence. Figure: 1 [pic] An analysis of The LCC Capacity Share (%) of total seats in Thailand indicates an increase year-on-year from 2010 – 2012, despite a decline from 2007-2009. These figures are encouraging indicators for those who seek to rofit by becoming a player in this market as there has been a rapid increase as well as the steady eating into the market shares of the FSCs. Currently, the two FSCs players are Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways, while Air Asia, Nok Air and Orient Thai are the three main LCCs in domestic travel. Figure: 2 – Thailand Domestic Air Market Share as of October 2011 [pic] Market Growth and Trends There has been a rapid expansion in the LCC and the trend shows no signs of a slow do wn as airlines are placing orders for new aircraft at an alarming rate.Within the Thai domestic airlines, two new players are emerging in the market. Thai Smile, a subsidiary of Thai Airways has launched services since July 2011 with four 174-seat A320 with an objective to operate a fleet of 11 A320 by end of 2015 3, and Thai Tiger Airways an alliance with Thai Airways and Tiger Airways, are expected to take a share of the lucrative Bangkok – Chieng Mai – Phuket routes will be announcing their launch soon. Current players such as Air Asia have nearly 300 aircraft on order and Bangkok Airways a fleet of 18 aircrafts that are renewed every five years.The key SES among Thai domestic tourists is the growing middle-class who has time, mearns and the inclination to travel. Domestic tourism has become an increasingly important component of the overall tourism mix and is an important role socially, economically, environmentally and culturally. The Tourism Authority of Thailand ’s ppolicy of encouraging and motivating domestic tourism by providing incentives has been a key factor in the market. The TAT has also designed strategies to maintain the brand image and take advantage of emerging opportunities.Thailand has recorded an increase of 31% in tourism receipts in 2011 over 2010 with a total earning of 776 billion baht. The country recorded 19. 23 million international visitors in 2011. Figure 4 indicates the various regions of tourist arrivals to Thailand. Figure 4: International Tourist Arrival to Thailand Jan-Dec 2010 [pic] International tourist arrival does not specifically dictates the mearns of transport to other domestic destinations are commuted by LCCs, but it does provide a prospective on the target population sampling frame that Nok Air can serve.Strategies can be designed on destinations that an inbound tourist would most likely visit by understanding cultural and ethnic diversities, socio-economic status and purpose of visit to Thailan d of these tourists. Market Needs The primary purpose of an airline is to serve transportation needs. However, airlines cater to travelers’ need by fling domestic routes, short-haul services with conneactivity and transfers to other carriers via a network of hubs. Nok Air being a LCC does not provide frills and therefore only basic needs are fulfilled. However, this does not mean that quality and efficiency are neglected.Environmental Analysis The nature of the market is where a product and service offer from a supplier is subjected to evaluation and price valuation from the consumer such that fluctuations in demand and supply are adjusted to a point of equilibrium. With the LCC market, the key issue is how the airlines can keep to a low operating margin while maintaining itself over equilibrium to strive and grow. Economically, this is generally measured in the ability to keep itself in the â€Å"black† while trying to become the market leader. Technology plays an imp ortant role in transforming this concept into a reality.Welfare maximization is the trend of this decade and the emergence of LCCs has had an impact on the socio-economic spending behavior. There are many factors in the macro-environment that Nok Air has to take into consideration when making decisions. A social and cultural, demographic, economic, technological, political, legal, regulatory, and ethical issue needs to be defined to understand the effect on the brand’s performance. Political factors: Earlier in 2011, the government had set up policies in developing the tourism industry. These involved development of infrastructure, safety, and hygiene.Restoration and development of natural, cultural, and historical sites while seeking to encourage investment by the private sector and local administration. The aim is to improve standards to make Thailand a world-class destination in the area of personnel standards and quality of service. Proactive marketing strategies in targe ting various groups both domestic and inbound with focus on quality tourist are pursued in the field of medical tourism, international meetings, and exhibitions. Waiving visa fees for visitors from Thailand’s FTA partners or those with trade and investment relations is one method of promoting this industry.Other government value adding policies are the promotion of tourism activities include nation’s bid to host international events and filming location support. Some laws and regulations have been revised to improve the effectiveness in safety and tourists’ exploitation counter-measures. In summary, the objective is to premote tourism including domestic by developing tourism and tourist destinations and ensuring travelers’ safety; support ecotourism, cultural tourism, medical tourism and spas with high quality and value addition.Economic factors: Although the Commercial Bank’s MLR interest rates have been steady between 7% – 7. 85% per annum , the foreign exchange rate has undermined the progress of tourism in Thailand. As compared to the USD to THB in the past five years, there has been an average gradual appreciation of the Thai currency than others in the region. Economically, it is difficult to raise prices fin terms of foreign currency, and therefore somewhat uncompetitive in some areas of the tourism industry, for example hotel rates. Figure 5: For-ex [pic] The recent increase in minimum labor wages has resulted in higher inflation.Many smaller firms have opted to lay-off some employees that they believed possessed lower qualifications than others. However, the recent flooding was a major cause of economic slowdown and the government has implemented low financing and corporate tax holidays for SMEs that were affected by the disaster Social factors: Changing social trends can have an effect on the tourism industry. This is however predominant in the aspirations and expectations of travelers to and within Thailand. Thai society shares the perception that domestic tourism development is steadily improving, but hampered by red-tape management and bureaucratic problems.They perceive culture as a tourism product and environmental impact as a problem in which tourism industry has a social responsibility to decrease pollution. Economically, tourism is viewed positively in terms of national revenues and job creation, and modernizing society, but viewed inversely as a mearns of fostering a materialistic society5. Technological factors: Technology plays a vital role in promoting tourism worldwide. It is an efficient and effective way to reduce cost and improve quality via internet and social media network for the purpose of promotion and recruitment of potential clients.Accurate information about tour destinations, resources, and image can be â€Å"pushed† into cyberspace and provide a channel for attractive marketing mix strategies. Customer can then gain experience and information of the trip through planning and virtual tour at their convenience. Environmental factors: Environmental factors play an important part of Thailand’s tourism industry. Change in weather pattern has a sthrong impact especially during the rainy seasons. The effect of this was clearly visible during October’s flooding disaster, which had one of the highest levels of tour cancellation in the nation’s history.Global warming has made it difficult to predict or forecast a peak-season for domestic tour and operators are well conscious and concerned about environmental issues. To enforce practices, the government has placed taxes on air travel and encourages the use of NGV/LPG as â€Å"clean† fuel alternative on buses. Environmentally friendly products and processes are affecting demand patterns and creating business opportunities in the industry. Legal factors: Thailand’s Department of Civil Aviation is the government agency that has the obligations to premote, develo p, and regulate the nation’s civil aviation.The aims are to comply with international aviation standards and fulfill demands resulting in tourism promotion and national economic growth while promoting Thailand as the aviation hub of Southeast Asia. The roles and responsibilities include 1. Implementing Air Navigation Act 2. Promoting and Developing National Civil Aviation 3. Executing orderly civil aviation 4. Making airports under jurisdiction available for public 5. Coordination and cooperating with domestic and international organization. COMPETITION ANALYSISThe key competitors of Nok Air in the Domestic air travel market are Thai Airways (FSC), Bangkok Airways (FSC), Air Asia (LCC), and Orient Thai (LCC). There are other airlines that fly domestically such as Happy Air, Solar Air, and Thai Regional Air, but they are at an infancy stage of the competitive market of this industry. It is too optimistic to say that these new airlines are not of an immediate threat to Nok air, but their presence dictates the growing need for travel to more unexplored and unfamiliar destinations prove to be a selling point for some airlines and pose a potential competitive threat in the future.Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (TG) – Address: 89 Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Bangkok 10900, Thailand. Phone: 66-2-545-1000 Fax: 66-2-512-2182 Website: www. thaiairways. com. Established in 1960 Thai Airways International Public Company Limited is Thailand’s national airline with both domestic and international routes including Asia, Europe, North America, Africa and South West Pacific. The airline provides transport as well as freight and mail services on all its destined flights. The company is a state owned enterprise which is controlled by the government and partly owned by the public7.Its key competitors in the domestic airline market are ranked as follows: 1. Thai Air Asia 2. Nok Air 3. Bangkok Airways 4. Orient Thai Airways Competitive Advantages: Thai Airways ranked as the low cost leadership with a huge customer base uses resources to innovate design operation which enable it to control its cost. Online growth has allowed Thai Airways to cater to a separate class of clients. Its intensive fleet of aircraft gives it an option to find the best value-to-cost in operating aircraft with relations to airport configurations. A sthrong management team keeps the operations running smoothly.A well trained and managed Cabin Staff that caters to meet customer satisfaction is a key advantage of the airline. Being the national carrier, Thai Airways enjoys the largest market share and therefore a sthrong loyal customer base8. Bangkok Airways Company Limited (PG) – Address: 99 Mu 14, Vibhavadirangsit Rd. , Chom Phon, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand. Phone 66-2- 2655678 Fax: 66-2-265-5522. Website: www. bangkokair. com . Established in 1968 Bangkok Airways was Thailand’s first private aviation company operated under the na me â€Å"Sahakol Air†.Initially, the airline provided charter services using a two engine 9-seater plane catering only to multinational corporations in Thailand. With the rapid growth of tourism and business investment, air transportation became an important mearns of transport. Bangkok Airways realized the potential and in 1986 began its operations as the country’s first privately-owned domestic airlines to limited destinations such as Krabi, Korat, and Surin. Presently, it flies to 20 major routes covering nearly all major resort destinations in Thailand along with 8 international destinations.The airline has invested in building and maintaining its own privately-operated airports at Samui, Sukhothai, and Trat; providing Thailand with additional hubs and fulfilling the increasing demand of air traffic volume. 9 Its key competitors in the domestic airline market are ranked as follows: 1. Thai Airway 2. Thai Air Asia 3. Nok Air 4. Orient Thai Airways Competitive Advant ages: Bangkok Airways has great regional service including its own privately owned airports in various domestic destinations.Comparatively, it offers cheap fares on promotions with routes to popular vacation destinations in Thailand. Some routes of these routes are exclusive to Bangkok Airways, such as Samui. Bangkok Airways is also renowned for its unique boutique style in-flight service and have been awarded â€Å"Best Regional Airline† five consecutive years. This is a good brand image for the airline. Thai Air Asia Company Limited (FD) Address: 89/170, 19th Floor Juthamard Boulevard, Vibhawadee Road, Talad Bangkhen, Laksi, Bangkok, Thailand. Phone: 662 315 9800 Fax: 662 315 9801. Website: www. irasia. com. Established in 2004 Thai Air Asia is a joint venture between Malaysian LCC Air Asia and Thailand’s Asia Aviation. It is truly a Low-Cost Carrier airline with a network of domestic and regional service tthroughout Thailand and Asia. It is known to be one of the mo st aggressive airlines with its marketing strategies based on online promotions to target price conscious consumers. Air Asia places a lot of importance on branding and its association with various and popular footballs teams in both domestic and international arena has proven to be a successful campaign.Its key competitors in the domestic airline market are ranked as follows: 1. Thai Airways 2. Nok Air 3. Bangkok Airways 4. Orient Thai Airway Competitive Advantages: Thai Air Asia has been able to keep a low cost in its operations based on the same principles and model of the mother flagship Air Asia. The marketing strategies are targeted at mass customers with one of the lowest air fares to any of its numerous destinations within this region. The efficiency of its workforce and multi-skilled staff has been a benchmark for other airlines to follow.This ranges from aircrew and ground staff, to the maintenance, operations and administrative staff. The single type fleet to service the customer has made it easier for Air Asia to maintain its aircraft. Online promotions and website maintenance with secure and direct access are key factors in keeping customer satisfied and loyal to the airline. Orient Thai Airways (PG) Address: 18 Ratchadapisek Road, Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Phone: 66-2-229 4260 Fax: 662-229-4278-9. Website: www. flyorientthai. om. Established in 1993 Based in Bangkok, Orient Thai Airlines operates scheduled International and Domestic flights and specializes in International charter flight around the worlds. It operates domestic flights with a fleet of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing 737 aircraft type with its regular destination from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket and Had Yai. Its key competitors in the domestic airline market are ranked as follows: 1. Thai Airways 2. Thai Air Asia 3. Nok Air 4. Bangkok Airway 5.Competitive Advantages: Orient Thai has very few competitive advantages other than the fact that it is one of the cheape st airlines to fly with and the routes that it flies to are relevant. PRODUCT OFFERING Nok Air offers air travel to various destinations around Thailand with ground support transportation â€Å"Fly-and-ride† to bordering countries as well as â€Å"Fly-and-ferry† to many seaside resorts. Most flights to major city destinations are flown by its regular Boeing 737 jets and ATR 72 turboprop aircraft.Nok-mini is a commuter airline that is a Sub-brand of Nok Air, but is owned and operated by Siam General Aviation, independent from Nok Air. It is however, a partnership and code sharing that has been beneficial to both companies where Nok-mini acts as a feeder route to beautiful small towns and low traffic routes. The land transport coach Service operated by Udon Keaw Tour (Thailand) and Trans Express Co Ltd. (Laos). Hi-speed Catamaran services are operated by Lomprayah High Speed Ferries Co. , Ltd. n Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat Thani, while Coach and Hi-Speed Ferry Service operated by Tigerline Travel Co. ,Ltd in Trang. Nok Air not only provides air transportation and commuter service, but also a travel experience. Its affiliations with various hotels, resorts, entertainment venues, and financial institutions give Nok Air its Brand Value. Memberships and Fan Clubs provide a touch-point for existing and potential customers to be in contact with promotions, offers, and activities. One of the most popular media used is its website that offers and informs all current and forthcoming campaigns.Members also receive information via mobile phone SMS and MMS messages as a more personal and direct sales push marketing strategy. What Nok Air can add to its product offering is that it can change its aircraft interior to make the seats more comfortable with new configurations for better leg space. In-flight entertainment can be introduced along with a sense of â€Å"Thailand† by using traditional aromatic scent to create a pleasant environment in the cabin. Natural aromatic freshening scent has been internationally proven to have a relaxing effect.In-flight amenities can also add intrinsic value to the product where a passenger can take along the earphone (which is rather inexpensive) that has Nok Air’s logo on it as a present for themselves or for their loved ones. Route Map Figure 6: Nok Air [pic] SWOT ANALYSIS – NOK AIR A SWOT analysis—is a review of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats–is a core requirement of any organization and essential to understand any industry. The volatile airline industry is no exception especially in the highly competitive Low-cost carriers (LCC) industry.The objective of each airline is to maximize their strengths and opportunities while minimizing their weaknesses despite ssimilarities of the business. Strengths – Internal origin helping to achieve organizational objectives 1. Higher number of distribution channels 2. Sthrong backup on financial, capital, and human resources 3. High level of employee quality available to the organization 4. Increasing geographical coverage in both domestic and international routes 5. Improving operational capabilities (in terms of efficiency) 6. Improving service quality 7.Brand Awareness 8. Effective in-flight space management Weakness – Internal origin harmful to achieve organizational objectives 1. Price on product offering 2. Bad cash flow problem arising from cost management 3. Poor financial performance / profitability 4. Low customer loyalty 5. USP (Unique Selling Proposition) – ssimilar for all LCC airlines 6. High degree of competition 7. High cost of capital 8. Low experience of management team – company is 8 years old 9. Low level of advertising Opportunities – External origin helping to achieve organizational objectives 1.Growth rate increasing by traveler with high number of booking rate 2. Government support open sky ppolicy 3. Higher Demand 4. Convenience a nd faster 5. Joint promotion 6. Government supports on TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) Threats – External origin harmful to achieve organizational objectives 1. Other governments support low cost airline in the country 2. Large number of competitors in the Market 3. Price war with promotion war 4. Long time booking (behavior change) – Pre-booked tickets on pricing tiers 5. Payment Ppolicy 6. Confirmation Process 7. Fuel cost increasing . Time to time increase in airline taxes 9. New domestic hub with less convenient flight connections (International and Domestic) MARKETING STRATEGY Mission To be the number one low-fare, high-value budget airline in both Thailand and Asia by being perceived by all who travel in Southeast Asia as affordable, yet offering with the best of Thai hospitality. To provide travelers with a point-to-point regional air service that is safe, reliable, convenient and true value-for-money through cost-effective operations with highest possible r eturns to shareholders.Develop and motivate our people to have initiative and be highly productive. Marketing Objectives Seeing potential in the international market, Nok Air’s marketing objectives for first quarter of 2013 is based on a business plan to launch flights from Bangkok Don Mueang Airport to China, as well as several other routes that are within three to four hour range from Bangkok. Having a significantly lower cost structure than competing airlines, Nok Air has aimed to compete more effectively against Thai Air Asia and other LCCs.Being Thai Airway’s domestic LCC subsidiary, Nok Air has been able to fill the critical void in the Thai Airway’s portfolio for the fast growing budget end of Thailand’s international market. This move will enable Nok Air to capture a sizable market share within the region, especially with the high demand for travel from China. Route extensions along with increase flight frequencies will enable the company to grow in the market as well as create a level of brand awareness in both the domestic and international market. In anticipation of this growth, Nok Air has procured new aircraft to its already existing fleet.Hiring only â€Å"beautiful girls with nice personalities† in their early 20s, budget airline Nok Air seeks to â€Å"rejuvenate brand image† & â€Å"improve service efficiency. † With the current cabin crew age averaging only 26 years old, Nok Air is keeping with other airlines trend of recruiting fresh, young and good-looking faces to do the job. The objective is to cash in on the energy, enthusiasm and deducation that are normally associated with youth in order to drive service efficiency and project a better impression on passenger (Bangkok Post 8/9/2011).The impression is a dynamic lifestyle image that meets passenger’s expectations of being served by fresh, friendly, efficient staff. Financial Objectives Since its launch with an initial capital of THB5 00 million, Nok Air has not required any additional capital since its launch in 2004. Currently, it has approximately THB1. 5 billion in the bank. The airline has been profitable every year except for 2007 and 2008 massive fuel price hikes and falling domestic demand. However, the following year, it bounced back into surplus as conditions improved.In 2010, it turned a net profit of more than THB600 million and over the first three quarters of 2011 a profit of THB230 million despite continuing tribulations in the oil markets. The devastating floods that closed its home base at Don Mueang Airport in the last quarter of 2011 did have an impact on Nok Air, but it managed to reach a profit of THB400 million and projected revenue of THB6 billion, carrying about 4 million passengers by the year’s end. Target Market There are various variables that a market research can assist in defining the right market segment or more likely a possible target customer of Nok Air.A classification s ystem of Demographic, Geographic, Psychographic, and Bbehavioral will enable the airline to narrow the scope and focus its resources to its target market satisfying their needs. DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Demographic defines the population into groups with common variables, and targeting each of these groups to enhance the airline’s performance. This can be further divided into: Gender- Nok Air has focused its marketing to both genders since it is difficult to segregate which one gender represent a larger share of the company’s target market and hence both should be considered equally.Income Level- In developing pricing strategies for fares, Nok Air has to keep to its strategy of being a LCC (Low-cost carrier). This would serve best for those in the SES of C1, C2 and D classification of Social class. A strategic move to improve and provide convenient flight timing and routes to SES B could result in an increase of market share from FSC in terms of value-for-money. The cl assifications are based on the occupation of the head of the household. Grade |Social Class |Chief Income Earner's Occupation | |A |Upper Middle |Higher Managerial, Administrative Or Professional | |B |Middle |Intermediate Managerial, Administrative Or Professional | |C1 |Lower Middle |Supervisory Or Clerical And Junior Managerial, Administrative Or Professional | |C2 |Skilled Working |Skilled Manual Workers | |D |Working |Semi And Unskilled Manual Workers | |E |Those At The Lowest Levels Of |Casual Or Lowest Grade Workers, Pensioners And Others Who Depend On The Welfare | | |Subsistence |State For Their Income | Age- Based on the terms and conditions indicated for the purchase of an air ticket, the permissible age for passengers travelling chaperoned on a domestic flight on Nok air must be 16 years of age. It can be assumed that the age range of 15-55 would be best target market to focus the airline’s promotional campaign on. Occupation- Nok Air’s passengers would gen erally be individuals who are professionals, government officials, businessmen, sstudents, and employees of a firm. However, the purpose of travel does not have a direct relationship with the occupation of these passengers.They may be travelling on a vacation, visiting relatives, making a pilgrimage, and other personal reasons rather than on a business or government reasons. Flight schedules and destinations would be the reason these passengers would seek importance in selecting the airline that they travel on. With Nok Air frequency and multi-destinations available, passengers have the options to select the Marital Status- The concept that Nok Air can market in this category is of the Honeymooning couples, or just married as well as for those who are married and do wish to enjoy a romantic getaway. As for those who are single, Nok Air can focus on adventure or functional aspects. The strategies would be to seek a market in eco-tourism, and sight-seeing.However, whether single or ma rried, the objective is to create a positive perception of Nok Air for all segments as this factor is linked to the psychological aspects and income status of an individual. GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Viewing from its extensive network of 20 destinations available on Nok Air’s routes, it has access to a population where other airlines in the same category do not. Availability and frequency to destinations allows Nok Air to hold a competitive advantage over other airlines. Since Nok Air is involved in the business of transporting passengers from one geographical location to another, this segmentation plays a vital role in its marketing strategies. Passenger’s dependency and demand for Nok Air’s service is critical to its development. Its success in strategically locating its hubs t various domestic destinations in Thailand has motivated Nok Air to expand to other areas in Asia. PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Targeting a certain group within a population base on their li festyle, activities and interest is the focus of this segment. The importance is in understanding consumer buying behavior by referring to their AIO (Activities, interest, and opinion). Nok Air’s website is one of the medium use in gathering views and information to analyze consumer behaviors of its consumers. Some factors that help define the population on psychographic segmentation where Nok Air has emphasized their resources on are: Lifestyle –  The â€Å"Check-in of Your Choice† program allows passengers a check in process that best fits their lifestyle.The options available are: Airport Check-in: Passengers can check-in their baggage and get their boarding pass at the airport counters. Telephone Check-in: Passengers can call in on a hotline 1318 and collect their boarding pass at the counter. This allows them to arrive just 30 minutes before departure therefore suitable for those who are pressed on time. However, the drawback is that they cannot check-in their baggage. Web Check-in: A personalized method of allowing the passengers who are Nok Fan Club members to log in and select their choice of seats and options offered on the airline’s website. Boarding pass can be collected at the airline’s counter in the airportMobile Check-in: Ssimilar to the online format where the passenger can use an application on their mobile phone to select a preferred seat and check-in. Boarding pass can be collected at the airport. Check and Shop: Is a unique format only available at Chiang Mai. The process allows you to collect your boarding pass at Chiang Mai Central Airport Plaza, 1 hour (2 hours maximum) prior to the departure. Nok Air will provide transfer service between Chiang Mai Central Airport Plaza and Chiang Mai International Airport 30 minutes prior to the departure for boarding. Activities interests and opinions (AIO) –  A subset of lifestyle, activities interests and opinions also affect consumer buying behavior.Nok Air Fan Club Privilege is a holistic approach to understand the consumer’s AIO by offering a link to Nok Community through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as on mobile link via Apple Apps and Android. Here loyal customers can be involved in the activities and share common interest and opinions in the community. Values attitudes and lifestyle –  Another concept which is a subset of the lifestyle segment is values attitudes and lifestyles classifying individual into the VALS framework. Nok Air can understand individual passenger profile by determining what these individuals do with the resources they had at their disposal as well as the amount of primary innovation they could accept or create.Information collected by research on passengers can help the airline design and implement new strategies in the future. BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTATION Bbehavioral segmentation divides a population based on their behavior, the way the population respond to, use or know of a product. Consumers’ decision making are base on factors they take into consideration before purchasing a ticket, thus these decisions are affected by their behaviors. The reasons for purchasing a ticket can be buying for occasions such as travelling during Songkran, and New Year’s holidays. Another reason can be for benefit sought such as travelling for the purpose of commuting from one location to another.The selection may be based on the marketing mix being offered or a hedonic one. Loyalty to the Nok Air brand is based on the airline’s special service to the customers who frequently travel on the airline is a way to retain existing customers as well as attract new customers by word of mouth from existing and loyal customers. Usage rate is also another reason of purchase intention. For those individuals who are required to travel frequently on company’s business or government official business will need a reliable airline that can accom modate to their needs and offer a fare that will save them cost and time. This is more in line with wholesale purchasing and diverging efforts to meet customer’s demand.In line with this, Nok Air offers a Corporate customer service whereby the benefits includes fixed fares, change fee waived for change in name or date, no service fees, payment after booking is made, and a dedicated corporate hotline. The objective is to gain a larger market share from a targeted market that comprises of both normal LCC travelers, whether from existing users of the airlines or from competitive airlines, and potential from alternative transportation modes such as trains, buses, and vans that are common mearns form commuting to other parts of Thailand. Sales and marketing strategies especially relating to price offers are key factors in capturing additional passengers. POSITIONINGIn the term positioning for Nok Air, it refers to the customer’s perception of a service in relation to its co mpetitors in the domestic airline market. Current market position of Nok Air is that it is a no frills airline providing air transportation of passenger to various destinations within Thailand. In this respect the terms of â€Å"No-frills† is largely interpreted as an airline offers low fares but eliminate all non – essential services, such as complimentary drinks snacks, in – flight entertainment systems, and different class of seating. They operate by using limited or ssimilar types of aircrafts to keep maintenance low and fly out of remote airports to cut overheads.The interior of these aircrafts are fitted with minimum comfort and generally carry advertising inside the cabin to generate revenues. Additional fees are imposed for luggage and other amenities. In order to understand passenger’s perception of Nok Air in relation to its competitors, a perceptual mapping of perceive value analysis between service quality and price relationship is modeled. Th ere are three major competitors of Nok Air, namely Thai Airways, Thai Air Asia, and Orient Thai Airways. Thai Airways – Service quality is superior to that of Nok Air because of its status of being a national carrier of Thailand and is actually a FSC (Full service carrier) airline. However, they are non-competitive in terms of pricing.Thai Air Asia – There are some distinctive advantage in service offered to passengers by Thai Air Asia in terms of optimizing call centers, touch points, and efficient online websites. The influence from the Air Asia core brand adds on to value in terms of human resource management and operational management. However, the pricing strategies are unpredictable and ambiguous at times. Orient Thai – The airline’s safety and service records are inferior among all. Despite their efforts to improve their image, the airline struggles to maintain its operations and have access to limited routes. However, their commitment to improveme nt has been a key factor sustaining its presence in the market coupled with one of the lowest airfares on domestic routes offered to major destinations.Nok Air’s direct competitors are faced with the same elements in keeping cost low and generate enough profit by management and planning strategies. By analyzing its value chain, Nok Air can increase its margins on fares by managing its primary and support activities. [pic] Support Activities †¢ Firm Infrastructure: Focus on improving Accounting, Finance, Legal, and General Management within the firm. †¢ Human Resource Management: Recruitment, Pilot Training, and Cabin Crew Training. †¢ Technology Improvement: E-commerce ticketing sites having more international languages, In-flight system operating service with infomercials and music. An improvement at the airport ground base with touch points flight scheduling system to inform passengers of the flights departures and arrival. Procurement of Resources: Aircraft acquisition that would best serve the client’s needs while maintaining operational cost. Primary Activities Inbound logistics: This involves aircraft scheduling to depart and arrive at prime time where passengers can conveniently optimize their stay at a destination. Seats on any particular flight are perishable resource. Yield management allows the airline to sell its seats on flight to consumers optimizing it to a full load capacity on all flights. Route selection is another factor that will allow Nok Air to capitalize on a â€Å"first mover advantage† and become the market leader in that geographical area. Operations – The ground staff at various hubs are vital to Nok Air’s operations.Aircraft operations, ticketing, gate operations, and baggage handling efficiencies can give the airline a competitive advantage in turning the aircraft around on its next scheduled flight. One aspect observed is the disembarkation of passengers, most of who are generally in a hurry to get off the flight once the plane stops. Managing the plane’s exit doors to disembark passengers are some ways to gain valuable customer satisfaction. While onboard, the flight attendant’s positive attitude and behavior can add value to the brand as they are brand ambassadors of the airline. Outbound Logistics: Flight connection to destination via its network of alliances such as Nok Mini and other modes of transport such as land and sea, can add and impression in service value.Also an effective baggage system of loading and off-loading displays effectiveness in operations of the airline. Marketing and Sales: Promotion and advertising are key factors in push strategies to motivate prospects to the airline. Nok Air’s campaigns involve mobile marketing, online marketing, billboards, print media advertising as well as Television Advertising. These multi-channels of media usage allow Nok Air to reach a large number of audiences in order to capture atte ntion to its promotions on offer and leave an impression that salience to the mind. Service: Extended service beyond arrival at the airport hub of Nok Air such as affiliations with car rentals and hotel accommodations.The airline can work in conjunction with these firms on barter case basis, whereby car rental rates and hotel room rates discounts offered for passengers can be offset by airfares discounts for executives and staff of these affiliated firms. Credits can be accumulated on â€Å"points† system and exchange for transactions such as transportation and stay-over for air crew and airline staff. A perceptual mapping illustrates the position of Nok Air in comparison to its competitors. [pic] MARKETING MIX PRODUCT / SERVICE – Nok Air provides air transportation services to 20 domestic destinations in Thailand. The main airport hub is at Don Mueang Bangkok Airport. Its destinations are: Bangkok (Don Mueang) – Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hat Yai, Loei *, Mae Sot *,Nakhon Phanom, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nan *, Phitsanulok, Phrae *, Phuket, Roi Et *, Sakon Nakhon, Surat Thani, Trang, Ubon Ratchathani, and Udon Thani Chiang Mai – Phitsanulok, Mae Hong Son, Udon Thani**, and Mae Sot* * Operated with aircraft chartered from Siam General Aviation (Nok Mini) ** Code shared flights operated by Siam General Aviation (Nok Mini) Tangible Clues – since service is intangible and difficult to sell, marketers can at best convey reassurance and quality to its customers. For Nok Air, transportation is its core product. The service it provides that serves as tangible clues are the airline’s physical facilities and the demeanor of its staff.To distinguish itself from its competitors, the airline can provided several tangible clues such as food/beverage, magazines, staff uniforms, logos, color and design of the aircraft, and flight bookings. Service – there are two types of services involved in Nok Air’s operations being ground services and in-flight services. Convenient airport with car parking facilities, transport to the airport, efficient baggage checking, and efficient service at reservation counters are some of the factors that defines on-the-ground services. These attributes are primary touch points where passenger’s initial perception of the airlines are conceived and relates back to the brand equity of Nok Air. Once inside the aircraft, the airhostesses are the brand ambassadors of the airline.Nok Air’s well trained flight attendants have the responsibility of providing polite, warm and courteous service to its passengers. This momentum is transitioned to the representatives at the baggage counter, and Nok Air’s passenger assistance counters as an augmented product/service to develop customer loyalty towards the brand. PRICING – Based on the SES of the passengers, pricing plays a vital role of Nok Air’s marketing strategy, since the airline bases its image by cla ssification of being a â€Å"Low-cost carrier† and is judged whether the product/service offered is fairly priced. Thai Airways band image alone is sufficient to justify its premium pricing base on seating â€Å"class† on the air fares.Whereas, other airlines like Thai Air Asia, Orient Thai, and Nok Air all identify themselves as Cheap-value pricing or even Low-cost pricing, but rather project themselves as Value-for-money pricing airlines. The intention of value for money pricing is to charge an average price for the fare and emphasize excellent value for money on the fare. This establishes a reputation and enables the airline to achieve good levels of profit margin. However, during a certain period, the intrinsic concept is to undercut the competition and prices are used as a tool to attract passengers to purchase based on seasons. The current world economic crisis and the recent flooding in 2011 have had an impact on the local economy.All airlines are competing to s et prices at competitively low levels to attract customers. Nok Air’s strategies are in line with the basic pricing models of LCC. These cost cutting measures comprises of: High aircraft utilization – Keep aircraft flying commercially as much as possible and at the fastest turnaround time as possible. Airline makes money when its aircraft is flying and not parked on the ground. No frills – Any and all luxury items and services are considered frills and that the airlines by rendering a fee to the airline, the passenger will only then have access to these items. They range from food and beverage, seating, paperless ticketing, non-refundable ppolicy, and no loyalty program.Streamline operations – includes limited types of aircraft used so that there is specialization in the pilot, crew, and ground operations. Single class seating on all flights and Standard operating procedures are ensured to create homogeneity of service. Most of the prices offered by Nok A ir are based on the pricing tiers structure. This structure is a time value relationship for seats. The first few tiers are target to value conscious passengers looking for extremely cheap tickets by booking early. The mid-tier passengers are those who book moderately early but pay a higher price and the top tiers are the passengers who pay the most because they purchase the ticket at the last minute.PLACE – There are four method of distributing airline tickets: Consolidation – sales of ticket at airline counters Tour Operators/Travel Agents – customers approach their travel agents to book tickets for them. The tour operators take a commission from the airline. Affiliated with companies – Airlines gets affiliated with companies on corporate fares and provides a discount on the bulk buying Direct Sales – through home lease systems which are telephone, fax, emails and online booking. LCC Airlines keep their distribution system simple as possible and this is possible with the use of internet technology which can be remotely operated even at the most deprived of locations.PROMOTIONAL MIX – Since consumers have become aware of the competition among LCCs, they anticipate and appreciate the vvariety of marketing efforts that are in place to entice them to use the specific airline’s service. In the times of credit crunches, the airlines seek ways to be most efficient in saving cost while eliciting the most from the IMC programs they have to optimize outcomes. There are numerous ways that Nok Air can reach these consumers, and some of the most common ways are: Advertising – Creative advertising campaigns are the most common way to get the message and promotions out to a large audience. Telecast and print media are important channels for promoting the air business.Since advertising is expensive, the marketer needs to be mindful of the timing and opportunities when it arrives. Adverting during peak seasons can attra ct potential client to switch to Nok Air, and the airline have to select appropriate theme for the advertisement; for example beach getaway destinations for the summer season. Publicity – This process of persuasive communication where the public relations officer provide the media people with information of the airline’s promotion and set up a press conference, dinners, meetings, and get together, to gain wide spread telecasting through news and promotional channels. The objective is to get favorable news of the airline.Sales promotion – By proving additional incentives to travel agents and tour operators who are the front line of Nok Air’s sales promotional effort, the airline’s campaigns are focused and on target with the right segment. This direct communication allows the consumer to interact with the premoters and get valuable information about the offers to these individuals to persuade in decision making process. The air ticketing counter is another channel where the airline’s own personal can motivate the consumer to pick up on the offer before purchase. The value added promotion can be in the form of alliance with Nok Mini, Hotels, Banks, Credit Card Firms, and Car Rentals. Word of Mouth – Satisfied customers are the best premoters of the brand. They act as opinion leaders and inform the merits of the airlines to their peers and associates.Nok Air’s best and most reliable promotional strategy would be to keep customers loyal to the airline and should design ways to reward them for their referrals. PEOPLE – In this industry, the airline staff comes in contact with the customers in the course of production and consumption of service. The duties of the Human Resource department of Nok Air to select, provide training, and motivate its employees since these employees are ambassadors of the airline. Their initiative, competence, responsiveness, problem solving ability, caring attitude, and goodwi ll are the impressions that create customer satisfaction to the airline. The air stewards are the people who are in contact with the customers.Their physical presence reflects the airline image to the customers although it varies in degrees and the nature of service. The passengers expect a pleasant and polite service from these individuals who are in high contact with them and therefore their appearance plays a tangible dimension of quality. The air-crew such as the pilots possesses technical attributes in operating the aircraft and safe journey. Another ancillary service are the travel agents, tour operators, and sales counter personnel who help create the service of exchange but not in direct part of the service. There are without a doubt other employees and staff of the airline that makes the operation and management efficient and effective. It is essential to have the right people on the right job.Inspiration and motivation for these employees are critical for the organization to operate in this highly competitive environment and they their loyalty to Nok Air is an asset to the airline. PROCESS – Is the flow of service from the decision makers to the ultimate buyers. This is the involvement of channels, front line staff, travel agency offices, and tour operators. The process begins from the reservation of seats by mearns available to consumers such as telephone, internet, or personal booking till the minute they depart the airport. In some instance, the post-purchase service is involved. The process starts with information in the reservation system and managed via a large network of computers that allows the reservation to be instantaneously monitored and confirmed as required in the system.The terms of the booking is also indicated so that the passengers are aware of the limitations and conditions of the ticket as well as options and benefits iincluded in the purchase such as exemptions of cancellation fee and changes in seat reserved. Facilities at the airport such as check-in counters, flight information, and baggage handling helps to contribute perceived value in quality serviced that transfers to customer satisfaction. While in the aircraft, satisfying meals and entertainment along with amenities distributed are part of the total process in delivering quality service and increasing brand equity. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE – Is the point where service is delivered and interactions occur.The aircraft itself as well as the in-flight food are physical evidence of the airline service. This is experienced in the ways the airline configures the seats so that passengers can experience a comfortable flight although the category of the airline is that of LCC. While on the ground, booking office, ticketing counters and even the aircraft when parked, can create a good impression as a physical evidence of Nok Air. The overall designing of the booking office, the check-in counter, the domestic lounge, and the aircraft exterior appearanc e is used to trigger the customer’s experience of Nok Air. If the experience is a favorable one, the brand benefits by association to these physical environment.Don Mueang Airport is the base airport of Nok Air despite the fact that its Bangkok’s secondary airport. However, Don Mueang airport is cheaper than the main airport at Suwarnabhumi and are generally less congested therefore making the turnaround time lots shorter. Flight transfer service is not offered at Don Mueang and Nok Air can only offer advice to passengers seeking to board a connecting flight to board a shuttle bus, catch a taxi, or have someone pick them and drop off at Suwarnabhumi International Airport. Nok Air also has acquired an area in Don Mueang Airport for a playground for â€Å"Kids† as a place to entertain them before boarding the aircraft.