Tuesday, December 24, 2019

How I Met My Husband And Araby Analysis - 1550 Words

There is a certain time in everyone’s lives in which they experience the phenomenon known as immaturity. Everyone was once a child and makes thus have a record for making wreckless mistakes. However, as the years pass by, we all have come to realize our mistakes and learned from them in order to mature. In How I Met My Husband and Araby, both authors showed how their main characters developed over time. Each main character from both stories transitioned from a child to a young adolescent. However, each character’s path differs in order to find themselves. For instance, How I Met My Husband is told in the first person point of view and the main character is a girl. Whereas, Araby is told from the perspective of a young boy. Both characters†¦show more content†¦In the story, Munro wrote, â€Å"He put the cake away carefully and sat beside me and started those little kisses, so soft, I can’t ever let myself think about them, such kindness in his face and l ovely kisses, all over my neck and ears, all over†¦.and we lay back on the cot and pressed together, just gently, and he did some other things, not bad things or not in a bad way.† Edie unquestionably liked Chris and made her believe she was an adult because he liked her in return. Similarly, in James Joyce’s Araby, the young boy who isn’t identified, has a crush on a girl that is around his age. However, Chris is much older than her and is aware that he’s twice, if not three times her age. In addition, Edie even admits that, â€Å"I (she) had only kissed a boy on a dare before, and kissed my (her) own arms for practice.† For that reason, Edie has never experienced anything other than a meaningless kiss and isn’t knowledgeable of the situation she is in. In the same way, the boy from Araby is inexperienced with girls and tries to impress her by going to the bazaar she wasn’t able to attend. Nevertheless, at a young age, teenagers are naive and ignorant about the process of growing up and soon enough learn from their mistakes. For instance, Mrs. Peebles tells Edie, â€Å"Calm down. Don’t get hysterical. Calm down. Stop crying. Listen to me. Listen. I’m wondering, if you know what being intimate means. Now tell me. What did youShow MoreRelatedANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesï » ¿TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS The purpose of Text Interpretation and Analysis is a literary and linguistic commentary in which the reader explains what the text reveals under close examination. Any literary work is unique. It is created by the author in accordance with his vision and is permeated with his idea of the world. The reader’s interpretation is also highly individual and depends to a great extent on his knowledge and personal experience. That’s why one cannot lay down a fixed â€Å"model†

Sunday, December 15, 2019

New Balance Athletic Shoes Case Free Essays

Operations Management and Management Science Case Study Capacity Planning New Balance Athletic Shoes Summary James Davis is the president and general manager of New Balance Athletic Shoes. The Boston, Massachusetts based company began producing corrective shoes and arch supports in 1906. New Balance garnered a reputation for quality specialty footwear when in the 1950’s it began producing running shoes for men. We will write a custom essay sample on New Balance Athletic Shoes Case or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is the beginning of 1978 and Mr. Davis has a number of important decisions to make regarding the future of his growing company. In recent years the demand for running shoes has experienced explosive growth. The increasing popularity of the sport of running requires James Davis to carefully evaluate the accuracy of the company’s sales forecast. Mr. Davis knows that precise forecasting is the key to providing good-quality service by meeting customer demand. Another effect of increasing demand on New Balance is the necessity for expansion. Mr. Davis must evaluate a number of options for expanding production capacity in order to meet increased demand for his company’s products. This report will attempt to offer James Davis sound advice in regards to the evaluation of sales forecasts and expansion options. We will also present Mr. Davis with an alternate sales forecast and an evaluation of New Balance’s sales representative network. Analysis: Upon reviewing New Balance’s 1978-1981 domestic sales forecast, it is decided that James Davis may have reason to be apprehensive. Davis needs to be sure that the forecasted sales increases, which range from 117% to 286% of 1977’s sales, are truly warranted. Although Davis knows that demand for running shoes is skyrocketing, he should also know that that does not guarantee sales. The maturing preferences of the shoe consumer have been evident in the ever changing ratings of Runner’s World magazine’s top ten shoes. Upon reviewing the lists of top ten shoes we realized that product development is not only a key to New Balance’s success, but is also a key to success for a majority of its competitors. While only 2 of the top 10 running shoes of 1975 were introduced within a year of being rated, the following two years of ratings were filled with a majority of newly developed products. The 1976 ratings listed 7 of 10 running shoes which had been introduced within a year of being rated, and the 1977 ratings listed 6 of 10 running shoes which had been introduced within a year of being rated as well as 1 of the 10 that had been substantially redesigned. The achievement of new products in Runner’s World magazine’s rankings proves that product development is going to be one of the biggest keys to New Balance’s future success. While New Balance has a reputation for producing quality footwear, we must urge Mr. Davis to insure that his company remains on the leading edge of running shoe development. In the past, New Balance has been able to distinguish itself by offering its shoes in varying widths. While making varying widths available has set the company apart from its competition in the past, we predict that it will eventually become an industry standard. Much of the recent success of New Balance was due to the rave reviews of the newly developed 320. New Balance product designers, working in unison with a world-class distance runner, found that a built up heel wedge and midsole greatly improved the comfort of the shoe. The design team also reduced the sole thickness of the 320, which in turn reduced the shoe weight and thus the runner’s level of fatigue associated with their footwear. These are the innovations that New Balance must continue to excel in if it wishes to meet its forecasted sales. Development of new shoe designs and the use of new materials will allow New Balance to produce the lighter and more flexible shoes the running public desires. Another product development related recommendation we would like to make to New Balance is in regards to its competition. New Balance can no longer be content following industry leaders such as Adidas and Nike. Although the two large shoe manufacturers produce nearly 70% of the product available, smaller companies such as New Balance, Brooks, and Etonic have been able to make enormous headway into the market. Adidas and Nike, being larger more top heavy corporations, will naturally have longer time periods between research and development and product release. We suggest that New Balance take advantage of its smaller size by releasing the types of new products previously detailed at a faster pace than their larger competitors. It is in this area that we feel New Balance’s demand forecast is flawed. The forecast’s short term reliance on current products in the company’s shoe line is an error that may cause New Balance sales. As evidenced by the average two year appearance in Runner’s World ratings, the life span of a running shoe is short. We do not believe that New Balance can rely on the 320 to carry sales until their new trainer is available (;1yr. ) to gain market share. New Balance needs to rapidly release newly developed, state of the art running shoes prior to both industry leaders to put the company in a position to capture additional market share. In addition to believing that New Balance’s product mix has been forecasted incorrectly, we also contend that it has been somewhat overestimated. The following alternate demand forecast estimates overall market demand, as well as demand estimates for specific consumer categories. Please take note of the assumptions that were made in the creation of the forecast. Next, we look at New Balance’s sales representative network and its relationship to the company’s production facility location. The most important aspects to note concerning New Balance’s distribution, is the over representation in the northeast, and the under representation in the West. While New Balance has been able to maintain a strong market share in the northeast where a majority of its sales representatives are located, the company’s market share is low in the west where the largest portion of the running shoe market is located. Due to this under representation, the western sales region represents a great deal of untapped potential for the company. Although having its production facility located in the northeast has helped New Balance build up its market share in that particular region, the company should consider the advantage of having a more westward located facility to help strengthen its presence in the region. Finally, we are going to address New Balance’s various options for capacity expansion. In addition to running a second shift, alternate sites for new facilities have been located in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the state of Texas, and the country of Ireland. The following table details the financial aspects associated with each expansion option. Beginning with the option of starting a second shift, you can see that Mr. Davis’ belief that this option is not viable holds true. On the one hand, a second shift is not the best financial decision for New Balance because of both higher expenses (Labor Cost), and lower projected earnings due to lower capacity (1500). On the other hand, a second shift is not the best option from a human relations perspective. Mr. Davis has made mention of various concerns regarding company employees such as finding good stitchers and supervisors, keeping morale high, and preventing unionization. Mr. Davis has also located an available production facility in Ireland. This site does have the advantage of having a lower labor cost, a lower facility cost, lower equipment costs, and savings from both a tax holiday and available grants. While the Ireland location does have certain benefits, there are a number of critical drawbacks. The negative aspects of the Ireland facility are a slightly lower capacity potential, and very costly international freight costs. Both of these factors greatly reduce Irelands estimated after tax earnings, and are the reasons we are recommending Ireland as the second worst choice for New Balance. The next site to be considered is the Lawrence facility. This location has qualities that should appeal to New Balance. The Lawrence site is the largest of the company’s options, has local government willing to offer relocation assistance, and is close to the Everett St. ocation and its network of material suppliers. In addition to these qualities; it has been found that there are a number of local experienced shoe workers in need of work. Although these factors make Lawrence attractive to the company, they are offset by the site’s shortcomings. Lawrence has a higher labor costs, moderate rental costs, a short lease term, and a high state tax liability which makes the site the second best choice for New Balance. Texas remains as the last site evaluated, and is the recommended site for New Balance. Although there are some negative aspects in regards to Texas, such as higher materials and overhead costs as well as higher rental costs, they are outweighed by the sites positive points. While moderate labor costs, the absence of state taxes on corporate income and the availability of skilled workers are all good reasons to recommend Texas, it is its westward location which is the key to Texas’ potential. As mentioned earlier, New Balances lack of presence in the west is costing the company potential market share in an area highly populated with runners. Having a centrally located production facility will no doubt improve its Texas and west coast market shares. Conclusion: From the above analysis, we draw the following conclusions: 1. New Balance’s sales forecast is overestimated and their forecasted product mix is in error. The company should use the alternate forecast provided. Additionally, New Balance should rely less on its current shoe models by working towards more rapid product development. 2. In order to develop an accurate demand forecast, particular attention should be paid to the expected growth of both serious and women runners. . There is an effect on regional market share based on the location of the production facility. If New Balance would like to increase market share in regions other than its own it should seriously consider a more westward production facility. 4. After taking both financial and non-financial aspects into consideration, the opening of a Texas facility is recommended. Another benefit of havin g an additional production facility located in Texas will be the company’s ability to fulfill the previously mentioned lack of western regional market share. How to cite New Balance Athletic Shoes Case, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Austravel Pty Ltd Law of Contract

Question: You work for an advertising company and are asked to review a holiday package from a brochure before it goes to print. You are asked to provide advice to the advertising company on the legal effect of the representations in the brochure. Answer: For the purpose of making the report for the present assignment, the holiday brochure of an Australian company needs to be selected. Therefore, the brochure of Austravel Pty Ltd has been selected. This brochure has been designed to provide information to the consumers. Therefore the contents of this holiday brochure have been evaluated in order to make the present report. This analysis is done for the purpose of seeing if there is any information presented in this holiday brochure that can be treated as unconscionable, misleading or deceptive. Similarly, it also needs to be seen if the information that has been mentioned in the brochure by the company makes a false representation. Similarly, this holiday brochure also needs to be evaluated in order to see if any prize or gift has been provided to the consumers by the company or if there's something in the brochure that amounts to bait advertising. Under the law of contract, the terms of a contract may fall in the category of conditions or warranties or representations. It is also worth mentioning at this point that while in the past, only two categories of the contractual terms were present, conditions and warranties, but after the decision given by the court in Hong Kong Fir Shipping v Kawasaki (1926), third category of innominate terms was also created. It is very significant to correctly decide in which category, a particular term of the contract falls in. The reason is that the remedies that may be available to the innocent party in case of a breach of contract may rely upon the category in which the contractual term falls (Khoury and Yamouni, 2006). It has also been provided by the law of contract that any false or misleading claims should not be made by the parties to the contract concerning the supply of goods or services. In the same way, the law also prohibits from making false or misleading claims related with the description of the goods or services that the party is offering under the contract. Hence, the law prohibits the businesses from making false and misleading claims that may be related with the quality, value or the standard of the products that have been provided to the customers (Carter and Harland, 2004). A term of the contract can be described as a condition if it is a significant term and this term goes to the root of the contract. Therefore, in case such a term has been breached, the law provides the right to the other party according to which the contract can be terminated by such a party. At the same time, the innocent party is also allowed by the law to claim damages. However, if only a warranty has been breached, which can be described as a minor term, the law does not provide the right to terminate the contract to the innocent party. Therefore, the innocent party can only claim damages for the breach of a warranty (Graw, 2011). As mentioned above, apart from the category of conditions and warranties, a third category has also emerged. This is the category of innominate terms. Therefore, in case of a breach of an innominate term, the court looks into the effect of the breach of the term of the other party. Hence, if the court finds out that due to the breach, the innocent party has been deprived from nearly all the benefit that it was going to achieve under the contract, the court may allow such a party to terminate the contract and at the same time, such party can be allowed by the court to claim damages (Sweeney, OReilly and Coleman, 2013). At this point, the provisions of Australian Consumer Law, particularly section 18 should also be considered. Section 18 provides that, while entering into the contract, the parties cannot be involved in conduct that can be termed as misleading or deceptive while they are going to supply goods or services. For this purpose, it has been stated by the courts that misleading or deceptive conduct may include actions of the party and also the silence of the party. In the present report, the contents of the holiday brochure of Austravel Pty Ltd need to be examined in order to see if these terms fall in the category of conditions or warranties. It is also worth mentioning at this point that all the terms that have been mentioned in this agreement need to be analyzed in order to see if they fall under the categories of conditions or warranties. Similarly, it also needs to be mentioned at this point that in Australia, the advertisements are governed by common law as well as the statute law. At the same time, the government agencies, along with self-regulation is also present regarding the claims that are made in the advertisements. When the Austravel brochure is analyzed, it is found that there are a number of terms that have been mentioned in this agreement. These terms fall under the categories of conditions and warranties. For instances, according to a particular term mentioned in this brochure, it has been stated that the consumers will have to pay $35 per day to the company they decide to take along their pets on the holiday. Hence, the brochure clearly states that this amount will have to be paid by the consumers. According to another term that has been mentioned in the brochure, it has been stated that the accommodation provided to the consumers will match the description made in the holiday brochure. However, it is worth mentioning that it has not been clearly stated if the image of the accommodation that has been shown in the brochure is a description of the real accommodation that will be provided to the consumers. Due to this ambiguity, it is likely for a number of consumers to believe that they will be provided the same accommodation that has been shown in the brochure of the company. There are certain legal rules related with the statements that have been made by the company in fine print. The law provides that by using these statements made in fine print, a company cannot evade its duties. In view of these provisions of law, an obligation has been imposed on the company by the law that it should clearly mention if the consumers are going to be provided with the same accommodation that has been shown by the company in its brochure or the accommodation will be equipped differently (Vermeesch and Lindgren, 2011). There is another term present in the holiday brochure of the company which it has been stated that the company cannot be held accountable for providing any compensation to the consumers in case a loss or damage has been suffered by them. Therefore, all the responsibility lies with the consumers only. It appears that through this term present in the holiday brochure of the company, which has made an attempt to restrict its liability in case the consumers suffered any loss or damage. But the consumer law provides that a company cannot rely on the disclaimers if the conduct of the company can be described as misleading or deceptive. At the same time, it is also worth mentioning that the consumers cannot ignore such a disclaimer totally. According to the law of contract, the company can rely on such a disclaimer for the purpose of limiting its liability if the disclaimer has been brought to the notice of the consumer before entering into the contract. Hence, such a clause can provide pro tection to the company if it has been properly included in the contract. But in the end, the enforcement of an exclusion clause is a matter that depends on the facts of each case. There is another clause present in the holiday brochure according to which, it is the responsibility of the holidaymakers that they should leave their rooms tidy and clean. The brochure of the company mentions that in case the company has to incur extra expenditure for cleaning the room, the company reserves the right to charge these expenses from the consumer. In this way, the consumers have been clearly informed that if any extra amount has to be spent by the company on the cleaning of the room, the company has the right to charge these expenses from them. There is another clause present in the agreement of Austravel through which the company has tried to exclude its liability in case the goods of the passengers are lost or damaged. Hence this term, states that in case the belongings of the consumers are lost or damaged otherwise, the company cannot be held responsible to pay damages in such a case. By inserting this clause in the agreement, an attempt has been made by the company to place full responsibility on the consumers alone regarding their belongings and the company owns no liability in this regard. According to another clause present in this agreement, it has been stated that the company will not refund the booking amount to the consumers in case anybody wants to cancel the booking. It is also mentioned in this clause that if the total charge of the holiday is less than $100, in such a case the consumers are required to deposit the full amount. In this way, effect of this clause is that if the consumer is going to book a holiday that costs less than $100, and later on wants to cancel the booking, it is possible that the company may refuse to return the whole amount. Another exclusion clause has been implemented by the company in this agreement. Through this term, an attempt has been made by the company to exclude its liability or at least to limit the liability of the company. This term mentions that the holiday company cannot be held liable for any loss or damage suffered by the consumers due to reasons like mechanical failure, inclement weather, acts of government, etc. in the same way, there is another clause present in this agreement, which provides that the company is not accountable for the loss or damage caused to the consumers due to acts of God like fire or flood or similar other causes. In the same way, there is another clause, which provides that in case any loss is suffered by the consumers from the neighboring properties, in such a case also, the company cannot be held accountable. In this way, the analysis of various terms of this agreement reveals that these terms have been mentioned in the brochure of the company with a view to e xclude or limit the liability under certain circumstances. Bait advertising generally takes place when a particular product is advertised by the business at a certain price, but the business does not have the reasonable supply of such a product so that the consumer is made by it (ACCC v Channel Seven Brisbane Pty Ltd., 2009). What can be termed as 'reasonable supply' depends on several factors, including the nature of the product and what was claimed by the business in its advertisement. However the analysis of the present knowledge of mission has revealed that there is no bait advertising on part of the company. In the same way, the company has not offered any gifts or prizes to the consumers in its holiday brochure. References Carter and Harland, 2004, Contract Law in Australia, 4th ed., Butterworths Lexis Nexis Graw, Parker, Whitford, Sangkuhl, 2015, Understanding Business Law 7th ed LexisNexis Butterworths Graw, S., 2011, An Introduction to the Law of Contract, 7th Ed., Thomson Reuters. Khoury and Yamouni, 2006 Understanding Contract Law, 7th ed., Butterworths Lexis Nexis Latimer, P, 2016, Australian Business Law CC, 2016 Edition Sweeney, OReilly Coleman, 2013, Law in Commerce, 5th Ed., LexisNexis. Vermeesch,R B, Lindgren, K E, 2011, Business Law of Australia Butterworths, 12th Edition Case Law Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Channel Seven Brisbane Pty Limited [2009] HCA 19 Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co Ltd v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd [1961] EWCA Civ 7