Lincoln and Johnson vs. the Radicals Essay Example for Free

Lincoln and Johnson vs. the Radicals Essay The Civil War, which lasted up until 1865, was the bloodiest battle that this Nation had ever faced. Making it even sadder was the fact that this Nation was divided, North against South, and brothers were killing brothers, fathers killing sons. It was indeed a tough time for President Lincoln who was sworn into office in 1861. He needed to end the war and figure out a way to bring peace and rebuild the Nation. In order to end the war he devised a plan to free all slaves in the eye’s of the government, and on the first day of the year in 1863 he announced his â€Å"Emancipation Proclamation,† declaring all slaves owned under the Confederacy to be now free men. The Confederacy was beginning to crumble; Southern cities were destroyed and the Southern economy was in ruins. Lincoln now focused his attention on the idea of Reconstruction, and reuniting those Southern States back into the Union. It would not be easy for Lincoln, however, as he faced far different ideas than his, proposed by the Radical Republicans, led by Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. Despite being the Republican nomination for President, Lincoln was far more conservative than those Republicans taking the majority of seats in Congress. In December of 1863, before the war had officially come to a close, Lincoln began to devise his Reconstruction plan, which at the time was considered to be very lenient by those of the Union. His plan was very compassionate toward white southerners, except for major leaders of the Confederacy. He needed those Confederate Army generals and high-ranking officers to take an oath of loyalty to the Union, and verbally accept the Nation’s abolition of slavery. Lincoln’s plan was to institute new state governments in the South, under control of those southerners who had not aided to Confederacy. Lincoln also had the idea of granting voting rights to those freed African Americans who were educated, owned land, or had participated in the fighting for the Union. Under Lincoln’s plan, three southern states (Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee) acknowledged the abolition of slavery, formed new Union-loyal governments, and were ready to be readmitted completely into the Union. The Radical Republicans were not pleased to the slightest with Lincoln’s plan. They demanded much harsher penalties for seceding the Union, and they refused to seat the representatives from those three states, reconstructed under Lincoln’s plan. Because they were so displeased with Lincoln’s leniency, they pushed what is known as the Wade-Davis bill through Congress in 1864. This bill instituted a temporary governor, from the North, to each of those 11 Confederate states. When the majority of men residing in those states had pledged their allegiance to the Union, the governor was to hold a â€Å"constitutional convention,† where only men who had never fought against the Union could elect delegates to represent them in Congress. Once this was accomplished, the new state governments had to acknowledge the total abolition of slavery, disenfranchise Confederate leaders, and pay off all of their war debts, mainly owed to England. After all of this, and only after all of this, could those southern states be readmitted into the Union. Dissatisfied with the Radicals bill, Lincoln overrode their authority with a â€Å"pocket veto.† As you would assume, the Radicals were utterly outraged with Lincoln’s actions, and demanded that Lincoln accept some of their ideas proposed by the Wade-Davis Bill. Unfortunately, we will never know how the President would have negotiated terms with those Radical Republicans. On the night of April 14th, 1865, Lincoln was shot from behind while watching a play with his wife, and died early the next morning. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice President, became the Nations new President shortly after the assassination. Johnson, who was originally a democrat, was now faced with the issue of Reconstruction, and like Lincoln, took a more moderate approach. While Congress was out of session in the summer following his launch into Presidency, Johnson quickly began to â€Å"R estore† (as he like to call it) those southern states back into the Union. His plan was very much like the Wade-Davis Bill in which he instituted a temporary governor to those southern states and had the governor allow qualified voters to elect delegates to represent them in Congress. When Congress came back into session in December, they began almost immediately to refuse seats to those elected delegates. Even though Johnson’s intentions were very similar to their Wade-Davis Bill, those Radicals were angered by the fact that most southerners still wished for slavery even though they took an oath against it. Many Confederate generals being voted in as Representatives in Congress also angered the Radicals. So they shot Johnson’s plan down, plain and simple. The Radicals began to gain more and more power in Congress due to several factors. First, Black Codes began to arise in southern states which authorized sate officials to apprehend unemployed blacks for vagrancy, and hire them out to mostly plantation owners in order to pay off their vagranc y fines. This angered many northerners as is basically violated southern states oaths of African American freedom. This caused Congress to pass the first Civil Rights Act, which gave the federal government the right to intervene in state affairs if blacks were not given appropriate rights. Johnson vetoed this bill but was easily overridden by the all-powerful Radical Congress. Next, Congress devised the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It stated that all people born or naturalized in United States territory are considered citizens, and penalties would arise for states that denied the right to vote to any male citizens. It also stated that former Confederate officials were prohibited from holding any state or federal position unless they were pardoned for their treasonous Civil War crimes by two-thirds of Congress. Any state that ratified this 14th Amendment would be readmitted into the Union. Tennessee was the only state to ratify and be readmitted right away. Finally, those ten states that were still outstanding from the Union were divided into five different â€Å"military districts.† A military commander was assigned to each district and was responsible for registering citizens to vote (black males, and those whites who had not bore arms against the Union). Voters had to elect government bodies who would write their new state constitution, and have it passed by Congress. And finally, after all that, the state had to ratify the 14th Amendment. All but Virginia, Texas and Mississippi had reunited with the Union by 1868 and finally by 1870 those last 3 states were reunited only after ratifying 15th Amendment in addition to the 14th one. Alas, the Union was rejoined, blacks now had their freedom and right to vote, and peace was beginning to take presence. When we look at the similarities proposed by Lincoln and Johnson, we see that both men were in favor of leniency for those southern states. Lincoln only felt it was necessary for Confederate leaders to take an oath of loyalty as opposed to the Congressional decision that Confederate leaders needed to be pardoned by two-thirds of Congress (Which would likely never happen as Radicals held so much power in Congress) in order to take part in state or federal legislature. It is clear that Johnson also opposed this idea, and leaned toward Lincoln’s plan, in the way he vetoed Congress vigorously. This similarity in ideas between Lincoln and Johnson is also a major difference between the presidents and Congress’s final decision. Unfortunately for Johnson (and Lincoln), and the rest of the moderate northerners, his veto was no match for Congress. A key similarity between the presidents and Congress though, was the issue of African American rights. The final Congressional plan involved a federal Civil Rights Act and two new Constitutional Amendments, in order to protect the rights of African Americans. Lincoln obviously believed in equality when he delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, and stated that educated, land-owning, or allied blacks should be given the right to vote. And based on Congresses final decision, I would say the majority of people from the south who were qualified to vote on the new state governors were probably African Americans. In conclusion, when comparing the presidential Reconstruction plans, with those actually put into play by Congress, the main difference falls within the idea of leniency vs. anger. The presidents wanted the whole ordeal over and the states rejoined, whereas the Radicals wanted revenge on the South for seceding. As to which ideas would have worked better? It is very hard to say. All that can be said is that eventually, the Radicals gained too much power in Congress for the presidents to handle, and ultimately an all-powerful republican Congress overruled their ideas. Bibliography(EZbib.com) Brinkley, Alan. Reconstruction and the New South. The Unfinished Nation. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York [u.a.: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 369-83. Print. 35b. Radical Reconstruction. Radical Reconstruction [ushistory.org]. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. Time Line of The Civil War, 1865. Time Line of The Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.

Business Structure Of Blizzard Entertainment

Business Structure Of Blizzard Entertainment This report is a in-depth look at Blizzard Entertainment the company, to find out why Blizzard entertainment is so successful in the gaming industry. We will look at the reasons on how it could come out with best selling games over and over again and how they manage to sell 2.4 million copies of one game within the first 24 hours. Furthermore, we will understand how Blizzard entertainment runs such a big company to such efficiency using the business model SWOT and PEST in the analysis of its success. A look at the current developments and what future developments it might have or where it can go from here will be discussed as well. Well, Blizzard Entertainment was not always as we had known it, originally founded in 1991 February as Silicon Synapse by Chairman Allen Adham, president Michael Morhaime and vice president Frank Pearce All Graduates from UCLA. In the days of Silicon Synapse it was more on focused on making game ports for other Gaming studios. Until the Breakthrough Game The Lost Vikings, it was hailed as one of the forefathers of that Game Genre . A year after that they released Rock Roll Racing another Cult Hit that paved the way for its predecessors in the Racer Shooter Genre. In 1994 It was only then its name was reestablished as Blizzard Entertainment. The first big scale game it released by Blizzard Entertainment, was Warcraft: Orcs HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__HumansHYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__Humans Humans and it was a hit with the gamers. Ever since they have made a benchmark in the game, the gaming world was at their fingertips now. After such success with Blizzard Entertainments original Warcraft game, Warcraft: Orcs HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__HumansHYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__Humans Humans , was touted as one of the best strategy games of 1994, and the games epic sequel, 1995s Warcraft II : Tides Of Darkness, won numerous awards, including the companys first Game of the Year award. Warcraft III :Reign Of Chao ss, released in July 2002, has likewise won several accolades , just like Starcraft another hit Game Series released by Blizzard Entertainment, It has become a staple of professional tournament gaming, along with its expansion, the award-winning Warcraft III : The Frozen Throne, which was released in July 2003. II. Current Projects and a look at the rise of WOW ( World Of Warcraft) Well Blizzard has many notable achievements in its released games, None of it comes close To World Of Warcraft, more widely known as WOW. World of Warcraft stands as the greatest game in the popular Warcraft series. World of Warcraft has been an extraordinary success since its launch in November 2004. It has impressed game critics and has captivated millions of players, who adore the virtual world created by this game. It is no longer just a game but is now a genuine phenomenon, and one that shows no signs of abating. It is one of the key games of recent times, and stands as a landmark title for online gaming. World of Warcraft is the forth title in the series of Warcraft games, which has been entertaining people for over a decade To understand more about the appeal of World of Warcraft, let us recall the time when WOW was released. It was not merely some massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It created a truly engaging online world set in the heart of Azeroth, a fantastic land that is filled with heroes and monsters and many other creatures. The games strength is that it functions as an experience, as a world that exists on its own terms that you may visit and explore as you please. The game sold more than 240,000 copies in its first 24 hours on the market, more than any other PC game in history. Since then it released two other expansion sets which was a greater success then the one before. Blizzard is also making attempt to diversify beyond their original aim of just making games. Blizzard Entertainment is currently working with Legendary Pictures in making a live action Warcraft movie. III. tso The 8 Core Values are namely : Gameplay First, Blizzard Entertainments success can be attributed to the gaming experiences they provide the consumer or player. The goal of each discipline within the company regardless of job post be it art, programming or customer support, is to create games as fun as possible for as many people as possible. In order to achieve this aim, it is in Blizzard Entertainments prime belief that its workers also enjoy the process of game making. Commitment to Quality, This is the most well known core value of Blizzard Entertainment, which is not only applied in creating the best gaming experience for the consumers, but also practiced in every aspect of their job. They approach each task carefully and seriously, and seek honest feedback and use it to improve the quality of their work. Afterall, games are remembered for their high quality, and not how late they are released into the public. Play nice, Play Fair, In their business first impressions are important but lasting impressions are the ones that matter. Blizzard Entertainment strives to maintain a high level of respect and integrity in all interactions with us, players, colleagues, and business partners. The conduct of each Blizzard Entertainment employee, be it online or offline, can reflect on the entire company. Embrace your inner Geek, The employees at Blizzard are encouraged to show their geek side . Cutting-edge technology, comic books, science fiction, top-end video cards, action figures with the kung-fu gripà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Whatever it is theyre passionate about, it matters that each employee embraces it! Their unique enthusiasm helps to shape the fun, creative culture of Blizzard Entertainment. Happy and truly passionate workers make better workers, and what Blizzard Entertainment is all about today. Every voice matters, Great ideas can come from anywhere. Blizzard Entertainment is what it is today because of the voices of our players and of each member of the company. Every employee is encouraged to speak up, listen, be respectful of other opinions, and embrace criticism as just another avenue for great ideas. All because Blizzard values its employees and listens to the different ideas. Think globally, Blizzard Entertainment is a global company and everywhere on the planet there are people who play Blizzard Entertainment games. While respecting the cultural diversity that makes people unique, we strive to grow and support our global gaming community. We also seek the most passionate, talented people in the world to enrich our company and help us forge the future vision of Blizzard Entertainment. No country is too big or too small for Blizzard to take on or think about. Lead responsibility, Blizzard Entertainment believes its products and practices can affect not only our employees and players but the industry at large. As one of the worlds leading game companies, they are committed to making ethical decisions, always keeping the players in mind, and setting a strong example of professionalism and excellence at all times and for other game companies to exemplify. Learn and Grow The games industry is ever-changing. Technology improves, techniques change, and design philosophies become outdated. Since the founding of Blizzard Entertainment, it has worked to improve through experience, teaching one another and cultivating the desire to be the best at what they do. They see this as an individual responsibility as well as the companys. Employees can count on their peers, managers, and the company itself to be supportive and help them gain the knowledge and training they need. IV. A in-depth SWOT Analysis This Analysis will help us better understand of Blizzard Entertainments Success and its weaknesses. Using The SWOT Analysis model we can see the opportunities and revaluate the strategies to cope with its weaknesses. Strengths Good market position globally One of the very best pc game developers and held in high esteem by its customers. Very large age group from its larger customer base. Takes Feedback from its players and customers quickly and seriously. Developed World Of Warcraft to huge success and acclaim. Weaknesses May lack some competitive edge in some market segments over rival companies Relies on its current game titles more than it should. Very slow to release its games, often over the stipulated release date. Opportunities Business can be further diversified into other industries, example, making a film which it is trying to do now. Acquire more gaming sectors. More varied games. Look at a brand new type of pc game to boomz everyone away. Opening up of other global markets, getting more customers worldwide further. Working together with another pc gaming company to have a co-project. Threats Other big pc game producing companies, might pose some competition with maybe more attractive graphics or different game genres, Example, FPS. The time it takes to release a game might turn some gamers off, or they might just stop waiting all together. Limited experience in other industries it might want to diversify into Piracy 3rdparty clients such as Garena, lancraft blueserver and many others. Strengths Blizzard Entertainment has a good market position globally, meaning in the games market it has a huge cut of the customers and transactions that happen in it. Blizzard Is very well respected by the gamers, customers and other companies alike for their awesome games which are well designed and enjoyable for a very wide age group. When Blizzard comes out with a new game other companies will always try to better it learning from its strengths. From kids to adults, blizzard games have players every age range, making it well welcomed by all. Blizzard Entertainment leaves no gamer from the casual gamer to hardcore, professional gamer satisfied. The games Are simple enough and fast for the casual gamer to play, but also well balanced with good competitive potential. Intact, World Cyber Games (WCG) the worlds largest scale gaming competition has 2 Blizzard Entertainment games to compete in, Namely Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3 and Dota, which is a custom map made from Warcraft 3. Blizzard Entertainments World Of Warcraft easily overshadows all of its accomplishments with 12 million subscribers and increasing. Making it the most played online MMORPG, no small feat without its dedicated team of staff. If a bug is reported or game defect , blizzard will take it seriously and respond quickly to look into the problem and solve the issue. Weaknesses While Blizzard Entertainment is certainly a very successful company but it is not perfect or infallible. One of its Weaknesses is its most of its games revolve around the same genre of the real time strategy (RTS) or Role Playing Games (RPG). Some game diversity would be a fresh change and might get into a bigger cut of the market and different gamer groups. On top of that Blizzards Entertainments game graphics might be less visual compared to other games therefore might have less competitive edge in some market segments over rival companies example sports gaming or fps. Though Blizzard Entertainment has very good games it keeps expanding on the already expanded game stories, example Warcraft which has great gameplay and good storyline, however it Blizzard keep concentrating on the same story and how to make a better installment people might get bored to keep playing the same story thats over extended or stretched. While Blizzard Entertainment are showing great signs of market diversification by trying to make a movie, their experience is very little in that field and almost non-existent. Might hit many glitches and problems along the way it might hard to solve with little experience. Which Blizzard Entertainment is attempting to avoid by working with a experience movie company, Legendary Films. Everyone agrees that Blizzard Entertainment makes great games, but another thing they agree is they take a really long to do that often over the stipulated release date. An impatient customer is never a happy customer. Game Quality should never be compromised but still the releases could be faster. Opportunities No doubt Blizzard Entertainment is very successful in its games and products, it can further diversify into other game genres it might not have touched, example sports gaming or FPS. Warcraft has a very rich storyline and might be good as a comic or book, gaining more exposure for Blizzard Entertainment as well in the process. Gameplay improvements and Graphical improvements to its current games with patches or when a new game comes out because the gaming industry is always improving, and gamers demand more every time. Look at a brand new game Genre with a totally new gaming engine of which the likes were never seen before and Blizzard Entertainment is on its way to another great selling game. Working with another experienced gaming company will help expand its horizons and its pool of talent, with more ideas and more funding, Blizzard Entertainment has a great global market share and good global coverage, but there are still countries that have not even heard of it, with the expanding global market and opening of markets, it would be a great time to reach even more countries. Blizzard Entertainment is currently working with Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films such as Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, in making of a live-action Warcraft movie. Threats Blizzard Entertainment faces serious competition from other companies that have some game genres that other gamers find more fun, example FPS. On top of that though Warcraft 3 has great cinematics, its in game graphics cant be compared. So many other games out there with much better graphics. EA games has Tiberiam Wars with much better graphics but of the same RTS genre , how about Relic Gamings Company of Heros. The Time it takes for Blizzard Entertainment to release its games is a great internal threat, for it may lose many loyal customers that got sick of waiting for the usually delayed games. Customers hate to wait unnecessarily and may buy other games instead. Blizzard Entertainment move into diversifying its market by moving into the movie industry which it has little experience, and requires a lot of funding. By going into other Game Genres its not familiar with also can be a risky move that might spell disaster by spreading itself too thin. Piracy is without a doubt one of the greatest threats to Blizzard Entertainment, infact to any industry that relies on the IP law. File Sharing is now everywhere and very easily accessible, one can even get the game without going out of his home and without spending a single cent for the game. Piracy costs Blizzard Entertainment millions of dollars every year. Why would people pay if they can get it free? Along with Piracy is 3rd party clients that make it possible for the games to be played online for free without the need for a original cd-key. In the past without these programs playing online with a pirated game would be impossible, and that would be one of the reasons why original games where still popular for the fact it had a cd-key that allows it to be played online. With these programs it bypasses all these security measures and there is no longer the need to pay for the game. V. Final SWOT Evaluation It is clear enough from this evaluation that Blizzard Entertainment has a very successful business model, but at the same time has so much more that it could improve on and diversify into. The very rich storyline of Warcraft has so much potential from movies to books to comics to Television series. The move that Blizzard Entertainment decided to make by working on a Warcraft movie was a good market decision to capture the growing movie industry and movie fans. Its lack in experience in the industry is offset by doing the movie with a more experienced movie company Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films such as Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, with a proven track record. But it should be warned that yes Blizzard Entertainment can go into other industries, but it must not neglect its main market share the gamers, and some hardcore fans might be turned off by the change Blizzard Entertainment. The Strengths are many and can be further worked upon by looking at the same game with different angles. Continuing to make games based on the gamers demand would be the best bet, for that means their games will always be in demand. The threats and weaknesses are numerous as well, however with the right well thought strategies they can be avoided and countered to keep Blizzard Entertainment ahead in the gaming world. However the greatest threat is Piracy and 3rd party clients, which in the case the saying if you cant beat them , join em doing business with the 3rd party clients might help Blizzard Entertainment gain back its lost profits from the programs and piracy. VI. Conclusion Blizzard Entertainment is a great game developer, and to continue in a increasing volatile market it has to keep changing to meet the demands of the new world. But if it continues to deliver its mission statement Dedicated to creating the most epic entertainment experiencesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.ever following its 8 core values. I dont doubt and not for a second that Blizzard Entertainment will continue deliver gaming experiences that redefine gaming.

The Development Strategies Of Budget Hotels In China Marketing Essay

The Development Strategies Of Budget Hotels In China Marketing Essay With rapid economic growth in China, the Chinas tourism industry has entered a huge stage of development. Such as mass tourism, individual travel, business travel has increased. Related data show that in 2020 there will be the number of tourists from the world to could reach 300 billion people. The market share is highest. According to the huge data, here is a huge market demand for budget hotel industry. At present Chinas tourism industry already entered the large-scale travel stage. The travellers are willing to accept clean, cheap, basic-service hotels. In order to meet Chinas tourism and business needs, the new trend is development of the international level of budget hotels. Here are some typical Chinas budget hotel chain such as Home Inns, Jin Jiang Inns, and 7 days Inns. They are use chain business model adapt to the China tourism industrys needs, the development will bring new opportunities for the hotel industry. The advantages of the budget hotel are the operational model i s small, the low-cost investment required, and easily developing chain business-make the hotels have a brand, customers, quality management based on low-cost investment. But the industry will face challenges by many local and foreign hotel competitors appear in the industry. And the budget hotel industry is in the preliminary stage, the concept of budget hotel is unclear, no standard industry rules, carefully dividing a market, and the marketing strategy also need to be development. The budget hotel industry has to develop marketing strategy to seek the road of sustainable development. In this paper, marketing strategy of budget hotel in China is the object of this study. I will evaluate the current situation of budget hotels industry in china, and analyze the problems in the budget hotel development. I will describe the marketing strategy of the Home Inns case study, using their successful marketing strategy to identify appropriate development strategies for budget hotels industry in China. I will focus on the marketing strategy theory from my BBA programme to analyze the actual problems and the successful industry cases such as Home Inns that will provide a great guiding to Chinas budget hotel industry have a new development strategy. Orientation The overview of China budget hotel industry In China the budget hotels is still a new concept. In Europe and the United States, the budget hotels are quite mature industry. It is compared with the full-service hotels form. But there is no form definition for budget hotel. We can accord the characteristics of the budget hotel to define the budget hotels is as follows: limited facilities and services; aimed at the travelers and business travelers market; standardized operation; the price is low usually below in 300 RMB in China (Table 1); branded network of hotels; located on major road networks or in secondary urban locations such as retail parks. They are generally good quality, service standards, the comfortable environment and value for money bedrooms designed and marketed in such a way as to appeal to the travelling public and is a cost-effective modern hotel business (Jones, 2002). Table 1- The Published Room Price of Home Inns Budget Hotels Room Bed Price Standard 1F Double: 15m2  ¥227 Standard King size 1F King size: 15m2  ¥227 Standard ¼Ã‹â€ 2F-4F ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ° Double: 15m2  ¥265 Business ¼Ã‹â€ 2F-4F ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ° King size:15m2  ¥265 (Source: Home Inn website) According to the Chinese budget hotel industry report 2011-2012, I saw the Chinas budget hotel industry has a rapid increase in market share. In 2011, the Market size grew 45 percent year-on-year to RMB26 billion and the number of budget hotels grew by almost 42.85 percent to 7,314. The industry is still in the big but not strong stage. For the market share, the total revenue of hotels in China has a concentration ratio just 37 percent in 2011. In future completion progression, the fast market expansion mainly through franchise chains, mergers and acquisitions. (China budget hotel industry report, 2011-2012. 2012) Analyzing the current business portfolio of the China budget hotels may use the Boston Consulting Group Approach (BCG) to measure market share and growth of their business. Here is a high-share business units in low-growth market is called Cash Cow. They need to develop strategies for growth. The hotels need growth if they are to compete more effectively, more satisfy their customers, and attract more professional staffs. The purpose of strategic planning is to find ways in which the budget hotel industry can best use its strengths to take advantage of attractive opportunities in the environment of the China budget hotel industry. (Armstrong Kotler, 2007) SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is a useful tool to evaluate the businesss overall strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T) (Table 2). It analyzes businesss markets and marketing environments and base objective to find attractive opportunities and identify environmental threats. The strengths and weaknesses are in the internal environment, and opportunities and threats are in the external environment. I will use this tool to analyze the current situation of the budget hotel industry strengths and weaknesses in the internal environment to determine which opportunities it is best. The goal is to match the industrys strengths to attractive opportunities, overcoming the weakness and minimizing the threats (Armstrong Kotler, 2007). The SWOT analysis can be very good response current situation of the industry. Strengths Internal capabilities that may help a company reach its objectives Weaknesses Internal limitations that may interfere with a companys ability to achieve its objectives Opportunities External factors that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage Threats Current and emerging external factors that may challenge the companys performanceTable 2-SWOT Analysis Internal External Positive Negative (Source: Text book Marketing: An Introduction, Figure 2.7) The strengths of China budget hotel business: Low cost investment: the cost of budget hotel is lower than other star hotels, the development is easy. Price advantage: the budget hotel can proved a lower price for good quality, service standards, the comfortable environment, and the bedrooms designed. Customer advantage: the low price of the budget hotels can better attract customers improving occupancy rates. Management advantages: budget hotel use chain business operation, it is easy to set up management model and adapt to market competition. Information advantages: easily set up their own network, customer service systems, and reservation system. Using modern technology can obtain more stable customer source. (Zhao Guo, 2006) The weaknesses of China budget hotel business: Huge numbers of budget hotels had flocked together in China. No standard competition model in the industry. Lack of clear market positioning Lack of standard management system Some budget hotels cheap equipment cannot meet the customers needs. (Meadin, 2010) The opportunities of China budget hotel business: There is a huge Market demand for growth in China. According the world tourism organization predict the worlds largest tourism country will be China in 2020. Now, the demand of the budget hotels increases along with the increase number of Chinese tourists and foreign tourists. (Meadin Website, 2010) Change of consumption idea and behavior. With the improvement of the living standard of Chinese people, the consumption idea and behavior began to improve. So there is a huge space for development. (Zhao Guo, 2006) The threats of China budget hotel business: There is so much competition for the China budget hotel industry. Foreign budget hotel into the Chinese market. And the brand of Chinese budget hotel continues to expand. There are a lot of potential competitors and substitute hotels. Crisis of confidence. Some budget hotel cannot meet the needs of customers such as cheap facilities, low service quality, and bad hotel operations. This made a negative impact for the budget hotel industry. Lack of professional human resource management. The rapid growth of budget hotel in China to make the lack of management model and professional staffs. (Zhao Guo, 2006) The features of China budget hotels The limitation of product: the core of the budget hotels is accommodation. They remove some unnecessary service to cut the cost. Quality of services and products: the budget hotels emphasize the comfortable of guest room facilities, clean and convenient environment, and service standards. Reasonable price of the budget hotels: the main target markets are tourists, students, business man etc. The price is usually below 300 RMB. (Table 1) Chain business operation: a lot of budget hotel use chain business model such as JinJiang Inns, Home Inns etc. This way can enhance brand value, expand business range. This is important difference between other star hotels. (Zhang, 2008) The problems of China budget hotel industry Lack of service standards The biggest problem of the budget hotel is no-standard service, poor facilities of some budget hotels, and difficult to meet the needs of the customers. Most of the budget hotels management does not reach the position, low service level, and the environment is not enough comfortable. Some budget hotel also operate old low-star hotel model. They are not professional for the budget hotels core of service. The definition of the budget hotel is safe, clean, providing basic life needs. The budget only is less investment and less supporting facilities. It is not to decrease the basic management of service quality. Budget hotels investment is less, but also need to have a standard rules and basic service quality and professional level. (Gao, 2009) Lack of brand awareness In China budget hotel industry, the brand awareness is not strong. Many of the budget hotels are individual operation that not build a scale business and brand effect. The development of individual operation by the price competition is negative for the development of the industry. The customers acknowledge of brand and choice of service brand gradually growth that has also become a kind of consumption habits. Now the most main competition is brand competition, if the hotels have not a brand image they will lose competitiveness power. Actively implement the brand strategy has become an important issue for the budget hotel management. At present, the most of the Chinas budget hotels did not build a scale business and also not use chain operation, except JinJiang Inns and Home Inns have brand and collectivization characteristic. There are few budget hotel create their own brand awareness. (Gao, 2009) Lack of professional human resource Lack of professional talents is a development bottleneck with the company size is continually expanding. The lack of professional talents can easily lead nonstandard service operation skills and poorly service quality. The team building and developing personnel sources from which to recruit potential employees is so important for the company development. The budget hotels need the employees who can handle a wider variety of responsibilities that training and developing managers is so important (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhar, Wright, 2009). The professional talent competition is so importance for budget hotel industry. In practice, the budget hotels are faced with the lack of professional talents. The human resources required of the budget hotels are one person who can on more jobs and more abilities manager but there is lack of human resource in the market. Therefore, the Chinas budget hotel industry will face the strong challenge from foreign brand and capital. Attracting talents and crea ting high quality management team is so important improvement for the China budget hotel industry. There only have the strong human resource development the budget hotel achieve the goals by service standard and operation standardization. (Gao, 2009) Difficult to build scale management The budget hotel industry is an emerging industry. Many owners dont have a lot of management experience. At the same time, the budget hotel both in size and in financial resources is limited. The development of the budget hotel industry is mainly at an individual operation situation, so the weak profits for owners and for customers is difficult to meet their requirements. The budget hotel industry need to change the management model is necessary. (Gao, 2009) No clear market segmentation In China many budget hotels do not have clear target market and or market segmentation that causes the market overlap or product design is not obvious difference so lack of different subdivided market demand for products and services. In China there have been no analyses on budget hotel clear division of products to meet different customers with customer demand for the industry. In foreign the budget hotel can be divided into three categories: full service hotel, budget hotel, and cheap hotel. The three levels of the price and the facilities is bigger difference. At present the product design of the Chinas budget hotel is single. There is no obvious difference of product and individuality characteristic. The different customers have different demand that reflected in product demand. There has a strong required for product differentiation. (Qiang, 2008) Research Methodology In this paper, I will use case study method. This project uses the Home Inns budget hotel in China. It is successful marketing strategy experience for the budget hotel market. And analyze the issues and current situation of the Chinas budget hotel industry. After analysis, I find some greatest marketing strategy for the industry help other hotels to find their own suitable development road. They have appropriate marketing strategies to compete with other competitors, and establish their own brand image. The main research contents: Introduction the research background and objectives, the structure of this project, and the significance of the research in this paper; Analysis of the current situation and business environment of the budget hotel industry, include the definition and characteristic of the budget hotel, and defining the problems of the budget hotel industry; Analysis of the marketing strategy of Home Inns, include the introduction of Home Inns and its successful marketing strategies. Reporting the findings, include develop the greatest marketing strategy for the budget hotel industry based on analysis of the Home Inns marketing strategy and the theory of marketing strategy. Data collection: I plan to gather information from the Primary data and secondary data. The secondary data has been collected include magazine, newspaper articles, books and internet articles or journals, and a thesis on a marketing strategy topic. The main data is based on the secondary data source. On the other hand, the primary data also been used include internal report and document from their owned Website of the companies. I also will collect some literature and theory based on my BBA courses include marketing management, strategy management, small business management, human resource management, and service operations management what factors help the budget hotel industry find the appropriate road to face the challenges and develop their own marketing strategies. Review of Literature Introduction of Home Inns In China, Home Inn was founded in 2002 that is the first budget hotel company for the 21st century. The vision of the company is wherever you go, you are always at home with professional and courteous service, comfortable rooms, convenient locations, and low prices that make attractive for leisure travelers and individual business who demand clean, comfortable and convenient environment of the budget hotel. Home Inn continues to rapidly expand its nationwide network of hotels. In November 2011, Home Inn launched a new hotel brand- Yitel for the middle-class and high-class market. They also completed the acquisition of an all ownership interest of Motel 168 hotel chain and have retained the Motel 168 brand in October 2011. In 2012, home Inns operated across 243 cities in China with a total of 1,682 hotels (Appendix-2). Their goal is to continue expanding to ensure whatever how large grows they will always keep the consistent quality and superior service that guide each hotel in the ho me Inns group (Overview of Home Inn, 2013). Home Inn is a largest budge hotel company in China with a 23.7% market share in 2012. (Appendix-3) The history of the Home Inn is Ji Qi one of Ctrip founders who founded a good business chance. Because Ji Qi noticed a lot of traveler complaints the price is so expensive of the hotels in the Ctrip Website. After some analysis and reaches he found in China the full-service star hotels is not economy and the cheap hotel is poorly quality. This opportunity let Ji Qi created a chain brand idea for the hospitality industry in China. So the Home Inns hotel brand is developed. (Ma Chen, 2008) Analysis of marketing strategy in Home Inns The brand of Home Inn hotel is rapid growth in a short period that has become a first budget hotel chain. Its successful management strategy will be used for other budget hotels in China. To subdivide the market segmentation The company must to divide the market segmentation to decide its clear market positioning strategy. The company designs the strategy to build the right relationships with the right customers. First the company need to identify a set of possible competitive advantages which to build a position, second step is company chooses the right competitive advantages, and last one step is the company selects an greatest positioning strategy. Then the company must to effectively communicate and deliver the chosen position to the market. Market positioning includes deciding how to best serve target customers and setting the competitive advantage for the company. Company positioning should be summarized in positioning statements that state the target segment, positioning concept, and specific points of difference. (Armstrong Kotler, 2007) The segment market will be the direction for Chinas budget hotel business in the future, said Ye Bingxi the senior public relations manager at Home Inns and hotel management Inc. (Wang, 2012) The market position of Home Inns is the middle and high-end business hotel for individual business and leisure travellers who need a comfortable and clean hotel room at right price, Home Inns is a good choice that allows you feel the warmth of your home. The market is more carefully segmented to target customers. The Home Inns provide basic living facilities, clean room, and the equipment is simple and reasonable for individual business and leisure travellers will get the comfortable, clean and safe hotel environment at the right price is around 200 RMB. The clear positioning is an important competitive advantage. The marketing positioning of Home Inns to highlight their own characteristic, such as the room design is very unique. The most direct impression of the Home Inns is warm, simple, and convenient. They deliver the unique products and service for customers best impression. (Su, Shen Zhong, 2009) To emphasize quality consistency The high quality also can mean high levels of quality consistency. Today many companies have turned customer-driven quality into a potent strategic power. Customer-centered companies define quality in terms of creating customer value and satisfaction. They want to create customer satisfaction and value that is necessary of consistently meeting customers needs (Armstrong Kotler, 2007). A good quality control is a system used by a manager to ensure that the finished services meet the needs of customers. Effective quality control is needed to set standards for the service quality range, measure actual performance, and compare that performance with established standards (Byrd Megginson, 2009). Attracting talents and building a high quality management team is so important for perform the established standards of the service quality and ensure the quality consistency. There is only the strong human resource development lead the budget hotel to achieve the goals by maintaining the service standard and operation standardization. For a chain business, the service quality control is so important. If you dont have a good standard of the hotel will not be able to assure the quality of the company brand. The Home Inns practice has great directed function. Standardized service is a huge challenge for budget hotel chains. Only the standardized service can help consistently service quality. The Home Inns have established an effective management system. There are external and internal factor. External factors include industry, product, service and marketing. Inside factor include human resources, management system and core competitiveness. The home inn have wrote standards and procedures have established their own service standards. The different departments and teams within our management work together to maintain strong internal control and strengthen focus on risk management. (Tang, 2007) To build strong brand In China mostly budget hotels are single business form, no scale formation without the brand. For a budget hotel the brand is powerful assets that must be carefully developed and managed. The strong brand provides a company with many competitive advantages can create big benefits. A powerful brand enjoys a high level of consumer brand awareness and loyalty. The brand exists in the minds of customers. The real value of a strong brand is its power to capture consumer preference and loyalty that expanding the market share. (Armstrong Kotler, 2007) The Home Inns created their own brand that direct represents the characteristic and culture of the business in the market. The well-known brand is based on the quality of the products and services that maximum to meet the needs of the consumers. Home Inns create their own brand mainly following several ways as: Fist, Home Inns on the brand name is fully considered the characteristic of the budget hotels. On the one hand, home reflects the warmth, comfortable, home feeling meet the customer psychological needs. On the other hand also reflects its convenient and expeditious such as quick reservation system, good traffic conditions customer can easily and quickly find Home Inns. Secondly, through the reasonable and rapid expanding, home Inns hotel chain in order to build the good image. Third, Home Inns more focus on the satisfaction of the brand. The Quality control always is in the expanded scale process. Survey of customer satisfaction is used to timely analyze the customers comments and opinions, and then plan the best solution strategy at the first time. Finally, in the information and technology society, Home Inns paid more attention to the promotion such as advertising and public relationship. Include print, radio, television, magazines etc. The building advertising is an important part in the Home Inns marketing and is also a modern communication to achieved good effect. The Home Inns hotel builds up a good corporate image in the industry. (Su, Shen Zhong, 2009) To perform the chain operation strategy The budget hotel industry has to use the chain operation value for the biggest value. Because the low price of the budget hotels they should be collectivization and chain operation way for obtain more market share and development space. The chain operation strategy has many advantages over independents. Home Inns is a leading economy hotel chain in Chain. Home Inn Company has clear market position, standardized service processes, daily operations management and supervision system can make a best chain forms. They also provide the strong financial support, and then the ideal chain brand is effectively created. Home Inns use regular chain and franchise chain to expand the market size and the numbers of the home inns hotel. There are nine service support for franchise business, such as brand support, sales support, engineering and maintenance, and chartered service, maintenance profit, standard manuals, training, hotel management and network technical support content to ensure the standard of service and replication, as well as the brand is effectively expand (Tang, 2007). By the end of 2010, Home Inns Company has a total of 674 hotels covering 121 cities in China. Under Home Inns chain mode, its total room number is 7,8231 (Appendix 4). Its average per hotel guest room number is 116. In 2010, annual average every hotel room revenue is RMB 144. Under the back ground of collectivization and standardized chain replication model, Home Inns budget brings a large scale chain like brand effect. (Baidu, 2013) Research Finding Home Inns success experiences maximum meet customers needs and the basic requirement such as convenient, comfortable, clean environment and through the brand strategy and chain strategy to realize the company development. Now here is some the development issues of the budget hotel industry in China such as no clear market segmentation and poor brand marketing. But with the rapid development of Chinese economy and the tourism industry, the demand of budget hotels become more and more strong in the market. There are some success marketing strategies for the industry from Home Inns. Differentiation strategy Differentiation strategy provides the budget hotel products and services that offer benefits different from other competitors. The aim is to achieve competitive advantage by offering better products or services at the same price. The success of a differentiation strategy is likely to be dependent on two key factors: identifying and understanding the strategic customer that focuses consideration on who the strategy is targeting; and identifying key competitors (Johnson, Scholes Whittington, 2008). In China most budget hotel is not clear on the market segmentation. The target market is single, no clear subdivision. Here the Homs Inns is good example for the industry they accord different age will be divided into the senior passenger market and youth passenger market segment, and also be divided according the occupation. So the budget hotel industry should accord the gender, income and other factors to design different budget hotel products and service to meet the needs of the consumers for obtaining the customers loyalty. At the same time, the features of the budget hotel are also important for the differentiation strategy. The budget hotels implement specialization strategy the characteristic factors to meet diversification of the consumer demand and required. They need to focus on the maintaining the general service characteristics such as economic, comfortable and convenient and at same time creating the significant personality characteristics such as new concept and new acc ommodation experience to attract consumers is the service extends to the spiritual aspects. For chain operation, each budget hotel has different regional resources and market conditions advantages that through the diversification reengineering will be make the best choice for the budget hotel chain management. (Huang, 2012) Actively promote Chain operation The chain operation is the main trend in the budget hotel industry. Home Inn is a biggest chain operation business in China. It is good to ensure the most important customers resources through the chain model. The business travelers will choose familiar brand when they need a hotel service in another city. So the key of the chain operation management is to open enough hotel stores in more and more city that keep the travelers can find themselves familiar brand in different cities. Fist, individual economic only have small profits, the budget hotel is difficult to obtain rapid development by single unit profit. The scale economy is consequentially development trend. Second, the hotel is in a specific space environment to the customer provide accommodation facilities and service industry. The hotel hardware facilities is fixed in the specific space so the single budget hotel sales has a larger space limitations, will seriously affect to attract customers. Now the consumers activity area presents a wide range feature. Single budget hotel only through chain operation to speed expand their business scale and through the scale business reduce transaction costs and management cost, and integration of internal resources, expand the brand influence, the market competition advantage can be achieved. The chain operation management is the necessary way for the budget hotel industry development in China. (zhao, 2007) Brand strategy Brand is the intangible assets of the budget hotel it can produce huge economic benefits. Brand strategy is very effective marketing strategy. Brand is the culture and the unique advantages of different budget hotels. Brand is like the life of the budget hotel chain operation management, because the brand can let customer best understand and feel the different characteristic with other budget hotels that enhance consumers loyalty and identity. The well-know brand also is so important for the chain operation management that is effective competitive advantage. (zhao, 2007) The budget hotels need to manage brands as assets calls for longer-term strategy, maintain and protect their brands image, associations, quality, and to prevent short-term actions. First, the brands positioning must be continuously communicated to consumers that create brand awareness and to build preference and loyalty. The customers loyalty depends on the longer-term brand experience about the budget hotels consistent quality services and products. The budget hotel quality brand mainly through the image features, the price, the accommodation, the service staffs, and the hardware facilities to the customers produce the first impression. So the budget hotel build their brand depend on the long-term quality management and effective marketing strategy. The budget hotel needs to pay more attention to improve their own quality, and to train its staffs for professional manager market that to help employees understand and be enthusiastic about the brand promise. (Armstrong Kotler, 2007) Service strategy Service strategy is so important for the service industry-budget hotel industry. The service is to satisfy the needs of their customers through the place, staffs, price, equipment, and communications that they can see. For example, the budget hotel room is tangible services to customers enjoy the intangible service such as clean, warmth, comfortable. The budget hotel need to improve the service quality to meet the customers demand let them really feel the value. Successful budget hotels focus their attention on both their customers and their employees. First they need to ensure the internal

Career Opportunities For Recipients Of Degrees In Mathematics :: Argumentative Persuasive Papers

The Many Career Opportunities For Recipients Of Degrees In Mathematics I have chosen to do Possibility 7. It states that once a person decides to study mathematics they are limited to the possible fields of work that is available to them. According to this statement the only possible jobs are teaching jobs at the school, college, and university levels. It also talks about how this can be dull to some and how a person can't become a millionaire this way. I am in total opposition of this statement. I believe that if a person studies mathematics they have a world of options open to them. By no means does studying mathematics limit a person to the teaching profession alone. Mathematics majors are in demand in the work force. The jobs are out there if the perspective workers have good job search skills, which are essential. The teaching profession alone offers an assortment of different levels of teaching. One could teach at the elementary, middle school, high school, college, and university levels. There are also teacher's aids, research assistants, and student teachers, as well as substitute teachers. The demand for teachers is elevating at an alarming rate. This goes for teachers in general, but especially for teachers interested in teaching in the mathematics or science fields. Besides being a teacher, who technically is a mathematician, there is also the obvious profession of being a mathematician without being a teacher. There are also opportunities such as becoming an engineer, a research scientist, or a manager of a business. Mathematics majors work for such companies as IBM, AT&T Bell Labs, American Airlines, FedEx, L. L. Bean, and Perdue Farms Inc to name a few.(Source III) There are also mathematicians employed in such government agencies as The Bureau of the Census, Department of Agriculture, and NASA Goddard Space Center.(Sources III and IV) Mathematicians are needed in the fields of law and medicine as well as in the arts, such as sculpting, music, and television. The possibilities are seemingly endless. When you think about it, almost every job involves mathematics. It is true that not every job opening could be properly satisfied by a person who majored in mathematics, but for the most part that person would have an advantage over other applicants because of their knowledge in mathematics. I believe that a strong background in mathematics is an asset to a person looking into just about any field of work.

The three stories I have chosen to study are: Flight by Doris Lessing,

The three stories I have chosen to study are: Flight by Doris Lessing, Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit by Sylvia Plath and Chemistry by Graham Swift. In these three stories the writers explores complex family relationships. Choose three stories, where the writers present difficult relationships between family members, compare and contrast these relationships. The three stories I have chosen to study are: ‘Flight’ by Doris Lessing, ‘Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit’ by Sylvia Plath and ‘Chemistry’ by Graham Swift. In these three stories the writers explores complex family relationships, through a variety of techniques: imagery, mood and atmosphere, symbolism and structuring the stories to built up to a climax, when there is a point of realisation for both character and reader. All three stories begin by presenting idyllic family relationships but as the stories progress things change. The story Flight by Doris Lessing is about an unnamed old man who keeps pigeons, he worries about his granddaughter, Alice. He has seen his other granddaughters leave home, and he is possessive of Alice and jealous of Steven, her boyfriend. The old man argues with Alice about her behaviour, and complains to his daughter, Alice's mother Lucy. At the start of the story the old man shuts up his favourite pigeon, rather than let it fly. When Steven, the boyfriend, makes him a present of a new pigeon, he is more able to accept what is going to happen, and he lets his favourite go. The ending of the story is has more than one possible meaning: Alice has tears on her face, as she stares at her grandfather. But I do not know if they are for him, for Steven, for herself, or for some other cause. And we do not kn... ...d that she is to blame for the damage to the snowsuit. In this story, Plath explores the themes of: corruption and betrayal, material possessions and human values, man and superman, fantasy and reality. One way the writer uses to explore these themes is the use of symbolism; in the story flying is a symbol of possibility and imagination. At the start, the narrator dreams of flying, and seems able to believe in her dreams. At the end, flight is no longer a possibility and the airplanes vanish with Superman's cape. The story contrasts two costumes – one is Superman's famous blue suit, with the red cape trailing behind; the other is Paula's powder-blue snowsuit. They seem to represent opposing ideas. Superman's costume is a symbol of justice and miraculous deliverance from evil. Paula's snowsuit comes to represent self-indulgence and petty materialism.

Boys of Blood and Bone Essay

David Metzenthen’s Boys of Blood and Bone is an ambitious novel linking the stories of Henry Lyon, in the summer before he starts his first year of Law at university, and Andy Lansell, Australian digger killed in the Somme in 1918. Andy and Henry’s stories meet when Henry’s car breaks down in the small country town of Strattford on his way to a sailboarding weekend with his mates — and his disgruntled girlfriend Marcelle. While stuck in Strattford, Andy gets to know Trot and his girlfriend Janine and centenarian Cecelia Hainsworth, never-married fiancee of the long-dead Andy. Henry is given Andy’s diary to read, and finds himself fascinated bythe tragic story of this young man of his own age from another time, another world. The narrative of Boys of Blood and Bone alternates between Henry’s contemporary story and the war time experiences of Andy and his mates. The point is not so much that the two young men’s lives are directly paralled — it’s rather that the comparison of their stories points up the extreme difference between the experiences of the generations in question, and their attitudes to life and death. Henry’s moment of physical courage when he board sails into a wild and dangerous sea points up his reckless sense of immortality, as contrasted with the young soldiers’ rueful, resigned courage under the most extreme, nightmarish and unbelievable circumstances. Similarly, Henry’s one passionless sexual encounter contrasts powerfully against the diggers’ frank embracing of (as they know, possibly first and last) sexual opportunities with, it must be stressed, entirely willing young women. This is not to infer that the novel romanticises the past, or past generations at the expense of the current generation. Yet there is a sense of frustration with Henry’s somewhat aimless, even unambitious wandering through life, compared to Andy’s clear-sighted, focused recognition of what is required of him in his here and now. And don’t forget — we’re talking about 18 year olds here. Boys of Blood and Bone is on its surest ground in the chapters dedicated to Andy and the desperate, bloody battlefield of the Somme. Metzenthen’s year spent researching the war is evident, and the physical and emotional ordeal these young men is vividly realised (although Andy’s last day is dragged out a little too much in classic horror movie â€Å"I’m not dead yet! † style). Less well depicted is the romantic tribulations that form the core of Henry’s story. His conflict with Marcelle is presented, but not adequately explored; his subsequent romance is more fleshed-out and recognisable, yet this narrative thread still seems somewhat pale in comparison to the life and death circumstances of Andy and his mates. In the past decade or so, young Australians have demonstrated a genuine interest in the war-time experiences of their counterparts from decades ago. Attendances at ANZAC Day ceremonies and visits to Gallipoli have increased enormously, and there is a new-found respect for the war-time experiences of Australian service men and women in times gone by. In this context, Boys of Blood and Bone is bound to find an enthralled and open audience.

Creating a database of computer games Essay

I am creating a database of computer games. It is intended to both aid the customer in choosing which game to purchase, if any. It is also intended to aid the staff of the store by easily providing them with any information that they need for whatever reason (for example helping a customer with an enquiry). They have the problems of there being a lot of different computer games available on a number of different ‘platforms’ (different hardware systems), this means that it will either take a long time for a customer to search through all of the games available to them and to find the look of one that they like, or they cannot see all the games that are in stock, for instance there could be some in the stock room that they do not know about. These problems all currently exist in the shop and there is no way of customers to know the information they require, they just have to ask members of staff. This database will help them, as it will display all the games in the shop and the stock room. It will also display the rating given to the game by a reputable independent magazine for that format (CUBE in this case). It will also display a hyperlink to a review for the game, so that they can find out if the game is suitable to their tastes. In this case it takes them to totalgames. net, an affiliate of CUBE magazine, so the reviews are reliable and coincide with the rating. I chose to use a database software package called Microsoft Access because it allows me to satisfy all the requirements of the product I am working on. It allows me to easily enter the data that I have collected in the form Of a table, it then allows me to create queries so that the user can easily sift through all the data and find the information that they require. It also allows forms to be made, which provide an easy and simple user interface, so that all the functions that the user will require are available to them, and they need not go into any other part of the program. It also allows you to create reports and they can then be printed easily. These are all functions that can be performed in a database but not other software such as a spreadsheet or a Word Processor. Analysis I collected my data from a number of different sources; these include a magazine, which has a directory in the back to allow me to collect a lot of the data which I require (see pages and ) . I also used the website http://www. totalgames. net which has a large database of reviews for games, which allowed me to both provide a direct link to a full and comprehensive review for most of the games listed in my database, as well as allowing me to obtain another review score so as to be able to get an average. I also collected data such as prices for the games (which I could not obtain from the other sources) in the database from shops such as GAME(r). I collected the data from the shops using my data capture form, of which a blank example can be found on page and the completed example may be found on page. I validated my data in a number of ways. I created a couple of input masks so that information could not be entered incorrectly; fig 1. 2 displays an error that was displayed if you entered text in a numeric field. Another one was to just check all entries by proof reading them, both as I entered them and then reading through again after entering them. The second was to run a spell check, to pick up on any spelling anomalies and allow me to check the manually. This picked up on a couple of mistakes which I was able to edit (see fig 1. 1 below).