Harlequin Enterprise Mira Decision

Harlequin enterprise had a competitive advantage in the women’s romance fiction genre up until the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Harlequin faced steady loss of share in a growing women's fiction market due to the popularity of single title novels. It is costly to imitate but to stay competitive I would recommend that Harlequin perform a limited launch of Mira by re-developing titles in their back-list and generating direct-to-reader sales through the Book Club, while it explores global distribution and marketing relationships. The Mira decision is great way of gaining new grounds but there are numerous issues surrounding it. First, competitions are fierce and there is great deal of threat to its potential in the U. S market. The agreement with Simon and Schuster at the end of romance wars may not be sustainable. If harlequin launches Mira in direct competition with S&S it would be very difficult considering harlequin is dependent on S&S for the distribution of its series titles within the U. S market. If Mira is pursued, harlequin would have to redevelop its distribution chain and its value chain within U. S. Harlequin’s brand loyalty is strong due to its readership base. This is evidenced by the direct-to-reader Book Club, which currently provides 3/8 of US Sales at significantly higher margins than indirect sales. With this value, harlequin should proceed cautiously but look towards reducing external threats and external opportunities. The Mira decision could be the solution to increase sales. With harlequin’s reputation of producing high quality books, Mira could be successful. There’s a great deal of risk involved in this investment, with significantly higher cost for production, distribution and marketing and considering harlequin’s inadequate expertise outside of the romance realm. As with the 1987 worldwide case, I believe harlequin could learn from their mistakes and be optimistic towards their future.

“Hiroshima” by John Hersey Essay

The human mind cannot comprehend the split-second deaths of 100 000 people when the atomic bomb hit the people of Japan in August, 1945. However this event, which has changed the world forever, can be relived through the lives of six survivors in John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Expository texts such as the aforementioned often present powerful social issues which challenge not only the reader from the contemporary Western culture but also the reader from the 1946 American society. Hersey employs various techniques, including point of view, tone, emotive and descriptive language to position readers to respond to changing priorities, Japan’s reaction to the crisis and moral and ethical issues. Up until Hersey’s account of the Hiroshima bombing, texts that were presented to readers were fabricated propaganda and contained the preconception that dropping the bomb was not ethically wrong. This influenced readers in that context to feel as if the Americans had taken the right action to end the war. However, Hersey writes Hiroshima in the point-of-view of six †hibakusha’s†, focussing entirely on their stories of endurance and hope throughout the atomic blast. As he writes in such a journalistic style and detaches any feelings or opinions he may have about the event, he forces readers to draw their own conclusions from the facts and question the morality of the Americans and their president. Quoted from Rhodes, the making of the Atomic Bomb from a scientist who took part in assembling the bomb, â€Å"†¦I still remember the feeling of unease, even nausea, when I saw many of my friends rushing to celebrate. Of course we were exalted by the success o f our work, but it seemed rather ghoulish to celebrate the sudden death of a hundred thousand people, even if they were â€Å"enemies†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ. Hersey portrays the six characters not as enemies, but as normal people, with real values and attitudes which elicits resentment towards the Americans and encourages readers to sympathise with the Japanese characters. To reconstruct the effect of the blast and its dismal consequences on Japan’s population, Hersey selects a variety of characters such as a widow, a priest and a surgeon to resemble the microcosm of Japanese society. Not once does Hersey question or agree with the decision to drop the bomb nor does he sympathise with the Japanese victims but by emphasising the survival instead of the suffering he prevents his book from becoming anti-American, therefore  broadening his target audience. The only way â€Å"Hiroshima† would be read by the â€Å"New York Time’s† loyal readers was for Hersey to write in this unemotional tone, for example â€Å"†¦they had not had the strength to move; they must have drowned.† This is a style which is se en today as a clever way to escape extreme controversy. Of course it is inhumane to kill thousands of innocent people without warning and â€Å"The eyebrows of some were burned off and skin hung from their faces and hands. Often, because of pain, they held their hands up as if carrying something in both hands.† The descriptive language throughout the novel proves the abovementioned point to the reader. Still, you have to consider the context before making judgement on the decision to drop the bomb. Truman may have been concerned for his countries welfare but there were many other alternatives. Surely readers can see that now, but Hersey’s use of language techniques in his recount of Hiroshima was taking the American readers one step closer to realising the truth; that Truman’s resolution to drop the bomb â€Å"†¦in order to shorten the agony of war [and] in order to save the lives of thousands of young Americans† [Public Papers of the President, Truman, 1945] not only ended the war but inflicted suffering and death to thousands of innocent people. Very few of Hersey’s characters have close family ties, further emphasising the way Japan comes together as a community in the time of this crisis. Unscathed are aiding the wounded on the riverbank, providing water, food, and comfort as though they were family. Readers are positioned to accept the character’s attempts to help the people that are only strangers to them. However even though these six characters help one another to try to rebuild their lives, each suffers on their own. â€Å"The hurt ones were quiet, no one wept, much less screamed in pain, no one complained†¦not even the children cried.† After the explosion the lack of dialogue creates an eerie, almost silent atmosphere to portray the peaceful and humble characteristics of the Japanese people. The characters have an admirable patience and endurance shown in the face of adversity. When father Kleinsorge offers water to the wounded, â€Å"almost blotted out by flash burns, they [take] their share and bowed to him in thanks.† No one shouts out in rage or promises revenge towards their opposing country. The techniques Hersey has employed in this text positions the reader to accept the Japanese culture and realise that  even though thousands of lives were lost, the attack on Hiroshima brought the community together and shaped it into the country it is today. On the morning of the attack, the citizens of Japan were living like ordinary people, with priorities and values which would be similar to those we have in our contemporary Western society. However they were completely unaware that their priorities would change dramatically when the bomb was dropped, destroying their lives and tearing apart their families. The detail selected encourages readers to experience the severe shock that is instilled into the characters as they come to terms with their new situation. â€Å"Things don’t matter anymore. Yesterday my shoes were my most important possessions. Today I don’t care. One pair is enough.† This symbolises the preciousness of life and the insignificance of material possessions. The suffering of thousands of people and their wounds and burns are described repeatedly and the injured and dying are so numerous that the doctors no longer help the badly injured because they are not going to survive. Dr Sasaki is faced with the decision to leave the severely wounded and readers are positioned to sympathise for him as making this decision in the devastating circumstances would be almost impossible. He feels that they will â€Å"die feeling cheated† if he tells the victims he will return to help, only leaving them to die. Combined with the point of view of each character, readers are encouraged to respond to the bombing with feelings of anger and empathy towards the six survivors and the way it has affected their priorities and their future. Hersey’s bleak yet graphic account of the Hiroshima bombing is a novel which can be read for generations and still capture the horror of war and the endurance of the Japanese people. Hiroshima encourages readers of today’s western society as well as the readers in 1946 to respond to the text with feelings of sympathy, anger and remorse. Hersey employs techniques such as selection of detail, language, tone and point of view to encourage readers to be challenged by the powerful social values; changing priorities, Japan’s reaction to the crisis and moral and ethical issues which are embedded in the text. Overall Hersey exposes the true side of war to the readers; the side which is not glorified but elicits extreme loss of life and untold suffering.

Mean-Variance Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Mean-Variance Analysis - Essay Example The practical applications of portfolio theory abound in different segments of business and finance. This report seeks to explain the principles of diversification, and discuss some practical applications of portfolio theory in business and finance. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Principles of Diversification 4 Application of Portfolio Theory Mutual Funds 5 Application of Portfolio Theory Capital Allocation 7 Application of Portfolio Theory to Product Portfolio Decisions 8 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction Diversification is the premise that underlies portfolio theory (Markus, 2008). A portfolio is a combination of assets with a unified risk and return value expectation. Diversified portfolios ensure that loses are minimized if they occur (Hill, 2010). Mean-variance analysis helps determine the viability of an investment portfolio through the analysis of the portfolio risk. The theory relies on the use of portfolioâ €™s variance by comparing how assets in the portfolio vary with regard to each other (Diether, 2010). Mean-variance analysis for a diversified portfolio measures the portfolio’s efficiency. The most efficient portfolio has the highest expected return for a certain standard deviation. Mean-variance analysis application in business and finance helps in making the optimum decisions about the riskiness of a portfolio. This report seeks to demonstrate the practical applications of mean-variance analysis in portfolio theory. Principles of Diversification One of the principles of diversification is the belief that the portfolio, as a whole, is more important than the individual assets (Sumnicht, 2008). Secondly, investors are risk averse, and therefore will only invest in those portfolios which they belief will be adequately commensurate to their returns. Investment should be for the long term, probably up to ten years into the future (Sumnicht, 2008). Diversification presumes t hat markets are efficient, and will not have any unforeseen disruptions. Finally, each risk level bears its own unique optimal allocation with regard to asset class at which the portfolio bears maximum returns. Application of Portfolio Theory Mutual Funds Mutual funds are actively managed investment options in which investors pay investment companies to invest their money in stocks and pay a return on the same. The financial analysts at the mutual fund companies make use of portfolio theory in calculating risks on their clients’ portfolios. The portfolio theory offers a robust and comprehensive model on which to calculate risk and make sound investment decisions from the results (Sumnicht, 2008). However, mutual funds offer a unique challenge to the effectiveness of the portfolio theory in that the final return faces significant distortions due to high fees, hidden costs, unpredictable taxes, and uncertain stock investments (Rutner, 2004). A major part of the modern portfolio theory is the frontier curve. The frontier curve plots risk and return (FundsMover, 2012). According to the portfolio theory, the funds that lie on the curve form the maximum yield potential for a given level of risk, measured as standard deviation. The curve flattens as the return rises. The rate of return per risk decreases, and at some point the amount of risk an investor exposes himself/herself to increases considerably for a slight increase in the return. The standard deviation indicates the volatility of the mutual fund.

How Could Leader Be Strategic Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How Could Leader Be Strategic - Term Paper Example The employees of the company are their most precious asset so in order to get the employees in the right direction, making sure they adapt change and they work as per the strategies designed by the leader, leader needs to be not only strategic but also tactful. A strategic leader can not only help companies in achieving its objective but the leader can also create a competitive advantage. We will start by analyzing what is a strategic leader, followed by who should be a strategic leader? , When is the best time to become a strategic leader? , Where should strategic leadership be developed? And then finally, How can we develop strategic leadership?  Ã‚   Strategic leader is someone who can make realistic strategies for the company and who has an ability to influence others and make other believe in his vision and strategies. The strategy he needs to come up should be innovative, practical and should be one which leads in getting company a competitive advantage (Forbes, 2005). It is crucial to make sure that everyone in the organization is trained in such a way that they all become potential leaders. Information should not only stay in the upper rank but also be discussed in the middle and lower rank so everyone gets a chance to present their abilities well (Gilmore, 2007). Everyone in the organization needs to keep one important aspect in mind, that is to create opportunities and then also to utilize the opportunities in the best way possible. So whenever there is an opportunity people with potential should come forward to present their ideas and strategies as opportunity would knock your door only once and there is hardly a second chance. Strategic leaders are an integral requirement of all the organization in today’s world that is the reason why companies invest a lot in making strategic leaders. The most important thing which the leader needs to keep in mind is the self believe and self confidence which the leader have in himself. Some important trai ts include not only knowing and dealing with his/her work area but also being well aware of the surroundings and the business unit on the whole. Realizing importance of good relationship is clear and vital for a good leader as the businesses are interconnected and leader needs to deal with not only the employees but also with the vendors as supply chain management is a very crucial factor, following stakeholders and even competitors. Short term and long term goals are important so strategies should be made accordingly. Cost reduction is a very important factor so the leader needs to have good cost management skills and overall good leadership skills also on a personal level in order to deal well with the co workers. Leader not only needs to have knowledge and skill set which is restricted to him/her self but he should also transfer knowledge to others and then later on the transferred information and personal information can be combined in order to generate best strategies for the c ompany. Using their process we can create an environment of strategic leaders that team up and are committed to create a sustainable competitive advantage (Forbes, 2005). A leader needs to think about the organization in terms of its asset management, they need to think of a bright and successful future for themselves and also for their associates. Corporate social responsibility of the leader also plays a pivotal role here as the leader needs

Team Work Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Team Work - Research Paper Example As the discussion stresses departmental teams are also long term since they ensure proper manning of their lines of responsibilities at all times to encourage efficiency. Short term teams are self managing and handle frequent system challenges for instance addressing employee discipline issues. During this implementation time, members of the team hold formal and informal meetings where they freely interact with one another. This is the time they evaluate their performance and find out if indeed they are within the set deadlines. Teams play a pivotal role in the workplace and are lauded as the best human resource practice since it acts as learning time for employees. The members present their incomplete ideas in a discussion, and they humbly argue out the case, the strongest option is later adopted by the team as findings. These resolutions are binding upon every member, and the team is wholly accountable for them. This paper outlines that un the article, â€Å"How to Build a Teamwork Culture† by Susan Heathfield, she says that teamwork is core to organizations which value cooperation when handling office tasks. Employees trust that all issues pertaining to planning, decision making and task execution are best undertaken together, this helps in ensuring accuracy since input from different minds reduces risk factors. For instance, decision making on product diversification requires input from the marketing team who roll out campaigns to gauge market response. The finance and accounting team also computes the right prices to offer the new product in the market. These two and other relevant departments get together by holding frequent meetings where they all share their points and areas of concern.  

Media theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media theory - Essay Example A number of interpretations for these methodologies and styles are possible based on various lenses used to analyze the creation of different media elements. Contemporary media studies consist of various analytical elements and styles. These could depend on semiotics, ideological analysis, psychoanalytical approaches, formalist approaches, feminist approaches, modern approaches, post modern approaches, post structuralist approaches as well as post colonial approaches. However, there is a certain fluidity present between these differing approaches so no one piece of media can be termed as relying on one of these approaches alone. Instead, it is common for more than one device to be used to create media elements (Berger, 2011). This ensures that a singular piece of media will appeal to as many audiences as possible at the same time. In order to satisfy the needs of various subcultures it is necessary to construe a piece of media from as many differing perspectives as possible without s poiling its overall composure. While some pieces of media might contain this contention through the process of directed creation, other pieces of media might contain such influences involuntarily. It is highly obvious that a number of sub cultures also influences the creator of a piece of media. Hence, it is natural to expect a piece of media to be composed of various forms and methods of thinking and style. This is all the more obvious for textual pieces of media more than other kinds of media. It might be argued that other media such as movies for example are far richer in terms of content than textual pieces. However, movies are the joint collaboration of a number of people working together while textual content is often the creation of one individual alone. The depth contained within textual materials is arguably far richer than other pieces or elements of media. This paper will focus on the media analysis of a piece of text contained in the January 2011 edition of Time Magazine titled New Ways to Think of Grief by Ruth Davis Konigsberg. A number of different media analysis approaches will be used in order to decipher the creation and composure of the said piece of media. These will involve a combination of theoretical as well as practical media analysis tools and theories. These tools will be applied to the subject text sequentially to bring out the various influences as they compose the text. The article by Konigsberg tends to look at grief, one of the most basic of all human emotional expressions. Certain human experiences such as happiness, grief, surprise and the like are such basic blocks of the human being that they are seldom revisited for consideration. It is common for an average person to never look into these nooks and crannies and to forge ahead in life using conceptions gathered from society. However, the article penned by Konigsberg forces one to â€Å"revisit the basics† to see how one’s conception of grief is fashioned by the people and social values around a person. This method of looking at grief or this method of looking at anything else is purely post modernist without argument. The post modernist approach relies on â€Å"revisiting the basics† to look for continual and dynamic evolution of issues that fashion human life. The basic tenet of post modernism is the belief that human issues are continually evolving and will continue to behave as such without any stoppage. These ideas are supported by the fact that society is

Image Encryption Reserach Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Image Encryption Reserach - Research Paper Example This paper is a summary of the encryption algorithms and their classification that is based on their means. We analyze the mathematical based, DNA encryption as well as the Chaos based. The objectives and future achievements that are in place are also discussed. Introduction In our current world, very important information is always transmitted to various places via the internet. For some reason, this information may sometimes be accessed by people who should not access the information at all e.g. internet hackers. It is for this reason that most organizations prefer to use image hiding to protect the crucial information that they move in the network. Image encryption is the cryptographic process that involves the transformation of plaintext information, using the cipher algorithm so that it is made unreadable to anyone apart from the people who have the professional special knowledge about the encryption usually called the key. As a result ciphertext is made this is encrypted inform ation. In order to make the encrypted message readable again, a process known as decryption is done to the encrypted information (Cimato 56). During the process of image encryption, three main processes are involved. This include; pixel scrambling, this is very simple and in most cases easy to achieve. However its security is compromising. This is because in this process, only the positions of the pixels are changed but not the positions of the pixel gray. The second process is pixel replacement. In this type Boolean operation XOR is used to alter the values of the gray. However if plain attacks come, then the process is not effective. The combination of the pixel replacement and the pixel scrambling is the third process. This is the most effective way to encrypt information. Advantages of image encryption Image encryption is one of the most affordable and important defense mechanisms available to many small businesses. Below are some of its advantages in the application of data sec urity. 1. In case a hacker gets past all other measures of security, a well, encrypted information automatically stops them from getting past this security measure. It is therefore a good security measure. 2. Another importance of encryption is that incase a laptop of an employee working with a lot of information is stolen, the laptop will not be able to work outside that organization due to the encrypted information hence protecting the information. 3. Image encryption is very cheap and efficient compared to other data protection techniques. This is the reason why many businesses prefer to use image encryption. 4. It is also used for the verification and authentication of the image (Tina ET all 78). Section 2 Image encryption techniques Mathematical concept-based image encryption techniques In this type of technique, concepts of mathematics are used to build and design the encryption algorithms. There are three types that are involved; non linear matrix mixing sometimes known as th e Arnold transformation, this type mixes pixels according to color space and phase space. It uses the cipher that is derived from cease. The second one is the use of space curves e.g. H curve, E curves and so on. This type uses the principle of non omitted and non repetitive to reach the desired goals (Pommer 112). Recorded pixels are the last one. This type uses the methods of trigonometric transformations, and logarithmic transformations. Secret segment