Redesigned SAT Writing and Language Test

In March of 2016, the College Board will administer the first Redesigned SAT test to students across the country. This new Redesigned SAT test looks incredibly different from the current exam! One of the major changes is the retiring of the Writing test. It will be replaced by the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section, of which, the Writing and Language test is a major part. This page explains what you can expect to find from that portion when you sit for the exam in 2016.   Check out the Current SAT vs. Redesigned SAT chart for an easy explanation of each tests format.  Want to know even more about the redesign? Check out  Redesigned SAT 101  for  all  the facts.   Aim of the SAT Writing and Language Test According to the College Board, The basic aim of the redesigned SAT’s Writing and Language Test is to determine whether students can demonstrate college and career readiness proficiency in revising and editing a range of texts in a variety of content areas, both academic and career related, for development, organization, and effective language use and for conformity to the conventions of standard written English grammar, usage, and punctuation. Format of the SAT Writing and Language Test 4 complete passages 4 sections44 multiple-choice questions 11 questions per passage35 minutes 8 minutes 45 seconds per passage if youd like to plan your time. You will not be given only 8 minutes 45 seconds per passage – you may distribute the 35 minutes any way youd like.   Passage Information What exactly will you be reading on this Writing and Language test? Well, first, each of the four sections passages will be between 400 - 450 words for a total of 1700, so each is a manageable portion of text. One of the passages will be from a career perspective. Another text will relate to History or Social Studies. The third passage will relate to Humanities and the fourth will relate to Science. Youll also see one or more graphics in one or more of the test sections. In addition, the purposes of each passage will vary somewhat. One or two of the passages will make an argument; one or two will inform or explain; and one will be a nonfiction narrative. So, if youre a visual learner, here is an imagined example of what your Writing and Language test could look like: Section 1: A 425-word argument passage about the need for diversity in the workplace. 1 chart showing the percentages of ethnicities in healthcare. 11 questionsSection 2: A 410-word passage explaining Julius Caesars reign. 11 questionsSection 3: A 430-word passage arguing for an increase in nutrient-rich foods in cafeterias of Floridian schools. 1 table describing the daily nutrition of available lunches. 11 questionsSection 4: A 435-word passage telling a story about a specific doctors use of robotics in her surgical procedures. 11 questions Writing and Language Skills Tested Youll have 44 questions; might as well figure out the skills those questions are designed to measure! On this exam, you should be able to do the following: Development: Add, revise, or retain central ideas, main claims, counterclaims, topic sentences, and the like to structure text and convey arguments, information, and ideas.Add, revise, or retain information and ideas (e.g., details, facts, statistics) intended to support claims or points in text clearly and effectively.Add, revise, retain, or delete information and ideas in text for the sake of relevance to topic and purpose.Relate information presented quantitatively in such forms as graphs, charts, and tables to information presented in text. Organization: Revise text as needed to ensure that information and ideas are presented in the most logical order.Revise text as needed to improve the beginning or ending of a text or paragraph to ensure that transition words, phrases, or sentences are used effectively to connect information and ideas. Effective Language Use: Revise text as needed to improve the exactness or content appropriateness of word choice.Revise text as needed to improve the economy of word choice (i.e., to eliminate wordiness and redundancy).Revise text as necessary to ensure consistency of style and tone within a text or to improve the match of style and tone to purpose.Use various sentence structures to accomplish needed rhetorical purposes. Sentence Structure: Recognize and correct grammatically incomplete sentences (e.g., rhetorically inappropriate fragments and run-ons).Recognize and correct problems in coordination and subordination in sentences.Recognize and correct problems in parallel structure in sentences.Recognize and correct problems in modifier placement (e.g., misplaced or dangling modifiers).Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense, voice, and mood within and between sentences.Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun person and number within and between sentences. Conventions of Usage: Recognize and correct pronouns with unclear or ambiguous antecedents.Recognize and correct cases in which possessive determiners (its, your, their), contractions (it’s, you’re, they’re), and adverbs (there) are confused with each other.Recognize and correct lack of agreement between pronoun and antecedent.Recognize and correct lack of agreement between subject and verb.Recognize and correct lack of agreement between nouns.Recognize and correct instances in which a word or phrase is confused with another (e.g., accept/except, allusion/illusion).Recognize and correct cases in which unlike terms are compared.Recognize and correct cases in which a given expression is inconsistent with standard written English. Conventions of Punctuation: Recognize and correct inappropriate uses of ending punctuation in cases in which the context makes the intent clear.Correctly use and recognize and correct inappropriate uses of colons, semicolons, and dashes to indicate sharp breaks in thought within sentences.Recognize and correct inappropriate uses of possessive nouns and pronouns as well as differentiate between possessive and plural forms.Correctly use and recognize and correct inappropriate uses of punctuation (commas and sometimes semicolons) to separate items in a series.Correctly use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes) to set off nonrestrictive and parenthetical sentence elements as well as recognize and correct cases in which restrictive or essential sentence elements are inappropriately set off with punctuation.Recognize and correct cases in which unnecessary punctuation appears in a sentence. Preparing for the Redesigned SAT Writing and Language Test The College Board and the Khan Academy are offering free test prep for students interested in getting ready for the exam. You read that correctly: Free. Check it out!

Kate Controls Her Own Actions in William Shakespeares...

Kate Controls Her Own Actions in William Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew Who is primarily in control of Kates actions in William Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew? Is Kate primarily controlling her actions, or do other characters in the play control her? If you just read through the play, but dont study it in-depth, it appears that Kate is controlled by other characters actions towards her, but is this actually the case? Isnt it very possible that Kate is actually in control of all her decisions, but is just strongly influenced by others? After studying the text in-depth, you can see for yourself that although Kate is strongly influenced by others, she is the one who actually makes the decisions to act in the manner in which she†¦show more content†¦The sun: it is not moonlight now./Pet: I say it is the moon that shines so bright. (4.5.2-4). Petruchio first called the sun the moon and Kate argued with him because it was obviously the sun (at the time, they were on their way to Baptistas house), but Petruchio insisted that it was the moon. Kate fin ally agreed, I know it is the moon that shines so bright (4.5.5). People just reading through the play and not studying it would say that Petruchio is controlling Kate by making her agree with him. I dont think this is so - Kate most likely just gets sick of arguing with Petruchio because she can tell he will continue to insist that the sun is the moon. If you think about your childhood, there is probably at least one example of a time you were arguing with a friend of yours about something and neither of you wanted to give up and let the other person win the argument, but eventually, one of you gives in. The reason Kate might be so quick to give in this time is because she knows Petruchio is trying to tame her and that she wont be able to get anywhere with him. Petruchio tells her when they first meet, For I am he am born to tame you Kate,/And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate/Conformable as other household Kates (2.1.308-310). Furthermore, people may argue that Kate acts like a shrew not by her own choice, but because others mistreat her. What they think proves this point is all the examples of instances in which Kate isShow MoreRelatedTaming Of The Shrew By William Shakespeare And 10 Things I Hate About You By Gil Junger1365 Words   |  6 Pages(Ronald Inglehart, Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around The World, 2003) Detecting the intertextual relationship between Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare and 10 Things I Hate About You by Gil Junger, has greatly enhanced and enriched my understanding of love and gender and it’s varying ideals throughout the centuries. Taming of the Shrew depicts the quintessential features of a 16th century marriage, whilst 10 Things I Hate About You, its 21st century counterpart, has beenRead More William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew Essay1159 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew In the beginning of â€Å"The Taming of the Shrew†, some say Shakespeare portrays Katherina as a very shrewish figure. Others may argue that she is not shrewish but just a very strong willed person. At the end of the play some people say she is transformed into a very kind and gentle person, while again others will argue that she is not â€Å"tamed† but just putting on an act to â€Å"show up† her younger sister Bianca, whom has always been more beautiful andRead More Portrayal of Women in William Shakespeares Plays Essay3560 Words   |  15 PagesWilliam Shakespeares characterization of women varies immensely from one comedy to another. 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In _10 Things I Hate About You_ and Kiss Me Kate from two very different times in the twentieth century, and paintings of Katherina and Bianca from the late nineteenth century, the creators of these adaptations have chosen to focusRead MoreSexism in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare Essay example1104 Words   |  5 PagesSexism in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare The Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare is an introduction in the everpresent battle of women to be loving and caring wives, while at the same time holding on to our independence. Its plot is derived from the popular war of the sexes theme in which males and females are pitted against one another for dominance in marriage. The play begins with an induction in which a drunkard, Christopher Sly, is fooled into believing he is a kingRead MoreThe Taming Of The Shrew By William Shakespeare Essay1990 Words   |  8 PagesThe Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare was written in the latter years of the Elizabethan Era. In this play, Shakespeare looks at the themes of womanhood, patriarchy, courtship, and marriage, which are topics prevalent in Elizabethan Era. Amongst citizens, the topics hold strict beliefs in the public space. This play that illustrates a woman with such self-control and individualism, get forced into the life of a weak woman beholden to her husband. A once strong and domination female characterRead MoreMarriage in William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew Essay example2632 Words   |  11 PagesMarriage in William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew At the time Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew the idealistics and attitudes to not only marriage, but also women were of a whole different nature. A woman would have had to be married to someone with the same social status. The man would indeed haveRead MoreEssay on Changing Gender Roles in William Shakespeares Macbeth2817 Words   |  12 PagesChanging Gender Roles in William Shakespeares Macbeth  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Much attention has been paid to the theme of manliness as it appears throughout Macbeth. In his introduction to Macbeth in The Riverside Shakespeare, Frank Kermode contends that the play is about the eclipse of civility and manhood, [and] the temporary triumph of evil (1307). Stephen Greenblatt emphasizes the same idea in The Norton Shakespeare, crediting Lady Macbeth for encouraging her husband through both sexual tauntingRead More The Politics of Contemporary Approaches to Shakespeare Essay3166 Words   |  13 Pagesprominently through the plays of William Shakespeare. The professor under controversy, Professor Jared Sakren, hailed from Juilliard. ASU had recruited him primarily to build a graduate acting department. An equation for success turned into a recipe for disaster. The feminists in the department had purposed to kill off the classics. Sakren was told to stop teaching the sexist works of Shakespeare or to revise the ending to such plays as The Taming of the S hrew in order to appease women (Alexander)Read MoreIntroduction : How ve He Do That?10829 Words   |  44 Pagesand understanding memory, symbol, and pattern; this only enhances the reading and provokes the reader to analyze the text in a more productive way. Once you become a more avid reader you will be privileged to make comparisons, connections, and your own conclusion from the literary work you’re reading with certain aspects of many different literary works you’ve read along the way. Not only does this bring depth into the work for your better understanding of the â€Å"big idea† but also makes it a more enjoyable

Real World Business Analysis free essay sample

The Business Model3 Uncontested Market Space Strategy—First Pass3 General Force and Customer Analysis4 Customer Analysis5 Relative Core Competency and Resource Analysis7 Metrics Tactical Plan10 General Approach to Leadership and Culture13 Six Paths Analysis15 Strategy Canvas Analysis17 Four Actions Grid Analysis20 Noncustomer Analysis21 Buyer Utility Map22 Price Corridor Analysis24 BOI Index Table25 Three E Fair Process Analysis27 Reference:29 The Business Model Peach mobile provides Telecom and Internet service to the consumer and corporate customers in Jamaica. Peach mobile’s mission is to equip every home and office in Jamaica with voice and data connectivity. Peach mobile provides communication services to three million Jamaican public. Peach mobile offers products and services that enable the Jamaican public to connect each other and with global public. This is an age where communication impacts almost every stage of social and personal life of every human. The high quality network infrastructure developed by Peach mobile delivers world class customer experience to Jamaican public. Peach mobile achieves customer traction by first to the market and offering best value to every dollar customer spent. Peach mobile differentiate its service by the customer experience it provides. The stores and customer support executives maintain the policy â€Å"walk working†. The policy makes sure the customer who contacts the store or an agent with a problem leaves the store or call with the problem resolved. Uncontested Market Space Strategy—First Pass Creating a space that would utilize the company’s strength (Hammel amp; Prahlad, 2005) is crucial in avoiding â€Å"bloody Red Ocean†. Kim and Mauborgne argue â€Å"Success comes, not from battling competitors, but from making the competition irrelevant by creating ‘blue oceans’ of uncontested market space† (Kim amp; Mauborgne, 2005, p. 24). Peach mobile has the potential to create a â€Å"unique space that is off the map†. Peach mobile has land line, internet, and mobile products in its portfolio. The competition is limited in their product offering where all the three products are not in their portfolio and cannot be acquired due to current market regulations. The demand for internet service and mobile communication are increasing month on month while the landline still remains a hugely profitable business. A product suite under a single label that would offer these well complemented services at a competitive rate can provide a unique product that utilizes the company’s strength. Competitor would find it hard to match such a product while customer can benefit from the additional value Peach mobile can offer. Peach mobile would need repositioning of its products as customer value products to gain customer traction. General Force and Customer Analysis The working cultures in every market is changing and moving towards a global culture. The high cost of maintaining the offices and people desire to be free and enjoy the work is moving more and more companies to adopt a work from home culture. The critical elements in making this happen are effectiveness of the communication. This presents Peach mobile an enormous opportunity to capitalize with its services in land line, high speed internet and mobile communication. Jamaica has a significant diaspora population. The diaspora still maintains a good relation with relatives and friends in Jamaica and often supports the local relatives and friends financially. Peach mobile can look this as an opportunity to boost the airtime selling. Peach mobile could be selling airtime to diaspora public that are loaded in local Peach mobile phone account for various communication needs. Jamaica is one of the top tourist destinations. The roaming charges for communication are quite high for the tourists. Peach mobiles can develop roaming partners to develop products that would offer exclusive rates to tourists that offer value for customers and assured revenue for Peach mobile. Customer Analysis Jamaica’s marketable population is reported as three million. The Jamaican customers are very social and keep close ties with local and international friends. The public is very expressive and generally engage well in conversations. The general characteristics of the public are very conducive for telecom product that enable and innovate communication options. Market segmentation is key in understanding the customer base of Peach mobile. The usage information that Peach mobile could retrieve from various systems while providing the service can be extremely effective in segmenting the customer. Peach mobiles customers can be segmented based on the age, gender, most received or made call location (geographical), revenue generated, type of services purchased, length of time on the network, handset or device used (feature of device) etc. Jamaican customers are very sensitive to the price owing to economic conditions. It is notable that Jamaica has well over 90% mobile communication penetration. This shows that telecommunication services are considered a very important need of the public and can be categorized as essential service. Peach mobile account only 20% market share, this would mean an excellent opportunity for Peach mobile to increase the revenue by increasing the market share. Right product and market positioning will help Peach mobile gain market share. Hamel and Prahalad argue â€Å"it is not industry that is mature, but the executives’ conception of the industry† (Hamel and Prahalad, 2005, p158). Analyzing the current customer requirements and issues, it is clear that customers are not quite happy with the fragmented solutions that competitors are offering. The multiple vendors often make the solutions difficult where there is no single ownership. Peach mobile with it range of products in the portfolio can offer a solution that would address the customer issue and enhance the customer experience of product usage and service. The customers appears to embrace products that offer higher talk time. This is evident from the traction that similar products gained from competitor and Peach mobile alike. Jamaican customer generally exhibits extreme loyalty, but the lesser distinction of value in products among competitors are forcing the customers to look for the better value product. This situation could be extremely helpful for Peach mobile in its efforts to increase the market share. Jamaican customers can be reached through public communication mediums like television, radio or newspapers. Peach mobile should try innovative methods to reach to customer, this could also be used as advertisement and a statement of intent and commitment to serve the people. The core competency can be grouped to primary competency that involves customer, secondary competency that involves internal process and finally critical assets in the value chain process. Competitive position often provides leverage to market a product or dictates product behavior in the market. Logistic and distribution-chain influence the company’s ability to reach the customer with the product. Architecture addresses the organizational design and capabilities that enable delivery of value to the customer and maximizes the profit. The core competency analysis and comparison with the competitors reflects areas that require attention and development along with areas that are better performed. Table 1 reflects the core competency and resource comparison with the industry competitors. The items marked in the color green are considered strengths and items highlighted in the color red are considered a weakness of Peach mobile. In the telecom industry, the value that the product offers to the customer has become the primary differentiator. The competency is influenced significantly by the value offering capabilities that the company develops over a period of time through smart investments. The Peach mobile’s network reach, coverage, stability, reliability and capacity enables the company to offer a better value to the product and services that company provides. This can be considered as strength and inimitable competitor advantage to Peach mobile. The competency is relative sustainable as competitor will need long time and large investments to match. The customer satisfaction is considered as the next critical competency. The peach mobile’s customer satisfaction is lower than the competitors. The next two competencies come from the technology element of the value chain. The High speed Broadband infrastructure is better than the primary competitor but lower than the second competitor. Peach mobiles ability to provide full service to telecom needs of customer is a critical factor in the success of Peach mobiles business model. The competency enables Peach mobile to offer product choice far better than the competition. Peach mobile’s difficulty in attracting highly skilled human resource leaves this competency a poor score. Highly skilled employees are critical to any business, in delivering value to the customer and sustain profitability. This is a serious weakness for Peach mobile. Management must pay attention to create an environment that would attract and retain highly skilled humans. Peach mobile has a good representation across the island with a well-developed dealer network. There is no significant advantage to this competency with competitors as all looks well represented and accessible across the island. The competencies grouped to architecture element of the value chain are a real concern for Peach mobile. The poor internal management control is evident in Peach mobile posting sustained loss even when sales have increased. The project management skill is critical in keeping the cost to budgeted figures. The timely execution of projects helps to capitalize the opportunities that arise in the market. IT system plays the pivotal role of decision support by providing trend predictive analysis and critical monitoring reports. An incompetent IT system can mislead the management and often keep them blind folded. The competitors appear to have a far advanced IT systems that tracks the number of key performance indicators (KPI) and provide valuable decision support information to management. Peach mobile architecture elements need immediate attention from management. In the critical asset category of the competencies, Peach mobile has some inimitable competencies. The license to provide full service to a customer is an enormous competitive advantage. The brand power is an area of concern, but the last couple of years has shown an improvement to brand power with the reduction of people’s perception of Peach mobile as anti-competitive and monopolist company. This would need continuous attention from management. The anti-competitive perception will drive away the potential customer and result in lost opportunities. Metrics Tactical Plan Table 2| Key Performance Indicator (KPI) measuring metrics| The â€Å"measurement matrix† for Peach motile is grouped to Customer, Financial and Technical categories. Peach mobiles business model is created around providing customer the best customer experience in the market. Best possible customer experience can only be provided when customer gets the best service when the product is used. The Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is designed to monitor the customer impacting elements of business on a daily basis. For a telecom company, the Network snapshot shows the count of subscribers attached to the network for at a point in time. This is a  powerful performance measure as this represents the potential customers that can make or receive the call. The metrics provides insight into possible network congestions that may affect the customer experience. The next three measures look in to market share elements. â€Å"Active subscriber† represents the count of subscribers who has made a transaction with the company in the given month. â€Å"Competitor CLI count† shows the number of competitor numbers that are in contact with Peach mobile subscribers. â€Å"Activation/Deactivation† shows the customers that are newly joining and leaving the Peach mobile network. Analyzing the three measures can provide insight into customer behavior, competitor activities and customer acquisition of Peach mobile. These KPI’s are ranked one as they are customer and revenue impacting. The measure â€Å"Usage† provides insight into customer usage pattern. The customer usage is segmented to â€Å"OnNet†, â€Å"OffNet† and â€Å"International†. The three segments represent different profitability and usage pattern. â€Å"OnNet† means call made within the Peach mobile network, â€Å"OffNet† means call made or received from a local competitor. â€Å"International† represents calls made to International destinations from Peach mobile network. The KPI is ranked two as it provides a behavior pattern that would support the revenue generated. The next pivotal KPI is the â€Å"customer care† category. These KPI’s helps the business to measure the customer satisfaction level by looking at volume of call received to customer care center and how efficiently the calls were managed. These KPI’s are ranked one as they are customer experience and revenue impacting. Financial KPI’s are â€Å"Topup†, â€Å"SDP balance†, â€Å"Revenue†, â€Å"Credit Collection†, â€Å"Costs† and â€Å"Stock value†. â€Å"Topup† represent the airtime or credit that that subscribers purchase to use voice or data services that Peach mobile provides, these applicable to prepaid customers only. The SDP balance represents the money available in customer account at a point in time. This represent the money that the customer has in his account to make a call or subscriber to a product that Peach mobile offers. These two metrics provide insight into operational performance of Peach mobile on a daily basis. This is a good indicator of what business can be expected in the coming days. If there are no credits going into customer accounts, and SDP balance is dropping, the coming days are expected to have drop in usage and related revenue. Close monitoring of this KPI will allow Peach mobile to proactively address possible issues that may result into revenue loss. Revenue KPI indicate the revenue that Peach mobile generates on a daily basis. The revenue should be segmented to â€Å"Subscription†, â€Å"Data†, â€Å"Incoming Revenue (Carrier billing† and â€Å"Traffic† with Traffic further segmented to â€Å"OnNet†, â€Å"OffNet† and â€Å"International†. The Financial KPI â€Å"Topup†, â€Å"SDP Balance†, and â€Å"Revenue† are ranked one. These measures are vital for the existence of the company and these measures should be closely monitored. Another important measure in financials is the â€Å"credit and collection† KPI. The metrics defined in credit and collection category provides insight in to company’s account receivable and collection quality. Cost and Stock are other two vital measures in finance that would provide insight into operational efficiency of the company. The KPI’s Credit and collection, Costs, and Stock are ranked three as these are influenced by internal controls and do not impact customers directly. The Technical KPI’s is the final category of daily tracked KPI’s. Ensuring the highest quality of the network is of crucial to Peach mobile’s business model. The technical KPI looks at the cell sites availability from different geographical regions which will translate to possible customer issues and lost revenue. Technical KPI’s are ranked two as this could provide insight into possible customer impacts. The historic nature of the measure makes the KPI more of a justification rather than a measure that would trigger an action. Closely Monitoring and analyzing the defined KPI on a daily basis would provide Peach mobile management a deep insight into operational and behavioral habits that could be used to action the necessary corrections required. General Approach to Leadership and Culture Telecommunication is a fast paced and technology driven industry. The leadership plays the crucial role of creating and sustaining the success of telecom companies. Jim Collins argues â€Å"what catapults a company from merely good to truly great† (Collins, 2005) is the quality and behavior of its leadership. Hess empirically proves that companies that support consistent organic growth have leaders that are humble, passionate focused operators (Hess, 2007). The empirical evidence that Collins and Hess argues and confirms the style of leadership that most successful companies had as servant leader. Peach mobile’s need leadership that is humble, passionate and focused operator and has a fierce resolve to get back to winning ways. The leadership should embrace the Tiffany slogan â€Å"Growth without compromise†. The poor leadership could be primary reason for Peach mobiles weak score in core competency â€Å"Developing and attracting Human talent†. Michael Gregoire stated culture, people – the talent as the real differentiator where differentiation of the product features are far difficult. A dynamic talent pool that has experience and ability to adapt could be the real competitor advantage in value creation (Gregorie, 2006). Peach mobile must implement strategic HRM to develop and train leadership candidates (Hess, 2007). Strategic HRM will aid the Peach mobile’s need to produce committed and engaged employees who will strive forward. â€Å"Strategic human resources management is largely about integration and adaptation. Its concern is to ensure that: (1) human resources (HR) management is fully integrated with the strategy and the strategic needs of the firm; (2) HR policies cohere both across policy areas and across hierarchies; and (3) HR practices are adjusted, accepted, and used by line managers and employees as part of their everyday work. † (Schuler, 1992). The 5-P model Schuler suggest can be an excellent framework for Peach mobile to integrate strategic HRM. The five â€Å"P† are HR Philosophy, Policies, Programs, Practices, and Process (Schuler, 1992). The market players are struggling with high cost of operation due to intense completion and efforts on defending respective territories. This presents Peach mobile a situation to review its market strategies. There exist a possibility of creating a blue ocean that would present a significant competitive advantage and an uncontested market space. Six paths analysis of current market reveals that the head-to-head intense competition is primarily on voice products. Market operators are competing on managing two strategic groups that can be defined as corporate users and consumers. Corporate users are high volume users and generate high Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). Consumers make high numbers in count but have a relatively lower ARPU. Operators have a large focus on managing a competitive position in these strategic groups which consumes an extremely high cost. The Market buyer group can be segmented to â€Å"prepaid† and â€Å"postpaid†. Prepaid are subscribers that pay upfront for the service where postpaid subscribers pay for the service at the end of the month after receiving the services. Traditionally prepaid subscribers are observed less loyal and more vulnerable to leaving the service provider. The market operators currently focused on offering products and services that maximize the value for customer spend. The battle is intense in lowering the product price and increasing the minutes of usage. The emotional orientation is large in the market. Companies are conceding high cost to develop brand image and there by customer affinity. Peach mobile has a tremendous opportunity to create a blue ocean by reconstructing the buyer value. Internet service is an excellent platform to build the buyer value. Focusing on internet service will enable Peach mobile to develop products that offer buyers new value. Peach mobile should create a product offering that would reduce the influence of the strategic group. A product that appeals to both strategic groups equally can develop a new customer base that has higher ARPU. Reducing the distinction between the buyer groups is crucial in creating the blue ocean. Customization of products consumes high cost. Developing loyalty and longer lifetime from customers through product value could reduce the operational cost and provide a true competitive edge. Looking across to complementary products and service offerings will be another element in Peach mobiles efforts to create the blue ocean. The wide range of online contents from music libraries and journals could be a service that Peach mobile can capitalize. Customized credit card is another service that Peach mobile could consider. The emotional orientation should be moved to functional orientation that can attract customers based on the product value. The younger generation shows more functional orientation and Peach mobile should be building on this. Sustaining the competitive advantage would need consistent and continues creation of blue oceans. Competitors would always catch up and Peach mobile should be prepared for this. Investing early in emerging technologies can provide a platform to create Blue Oceans for Peach mobile. Strategy Canvas Analysis Peach mobile is a telecommunication company that offers products and services in wireless and wired telephone services and broadband internet services. The segment chosen for strategic canvas analysis is the internet offering service. Internet has become the backbone of the communication industry. Internet is the platform where value added services like voice calls, video conferencing and other services offered. Technological advancement is geared towards increasing the reach of the internet to the wider market and increase in bandwidth. Peach mobile focusing the strategy canvas analysis on a fast growing and highly untapped market segment will provide the company an uncontested market space. A competitive advantage in internet service area will further boost Peach mobiles chances of offering internet related product to customers. The importance of internet service to current and future customers make logical sense to create a blue ocean for this segment of business. The value innovation proposed is High-speed Mobile Internet Service (HMIS) that would enable Jamaican public to connect to internet from where ever they are. The product High-speed Mobile Internet Service will be referred as HMIS in the rest of the document. My personal experience for many years as an internet user and professional association with a telecommunication company for long years help me to identify the factors that the industry competes on and invests. Figure 1. 2 presents a chart of strategic canvas with competitor analysis. Like every other product or service offered, Price, Value and Network Quality are the primary factors that industry competes for internet service, as well. All three competitors in the market have internet service offered in the similar range. The scoring for each factor is done in a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 represents the lowest and 10 the highest. The cost of the product in comparison with international market is relatively low and hence the scored at a low point. All three competitors offer similar value (volume of download and upload data and time to use) on the product. The similarity in value offering puts the score for Value at 5 for each competitor. Network quality is another critical factor that industry competes. Competitor 1 has a network overload issue that often compromises the quality of the service offered. This puts the score for Peach mobile and competitor2 at 5 and competitor1 at 4. The next competing factor in the industry is the Network coverage. Network coverage determines the ability of customers to use the service across the island. Competitor2 is cable based internet provider and do not have coverage in many part of the island. Competitor1 is a mobile internet provider, and their service depends on radio transmission to deliver the internet service. The radio transmission has limitations inside closed door buildings. Peach mobile has both mobile and cable service to support the internet need of customers. Considering these factors the scoring for these factors are 6 for Peach mobile, 5 for Competitor1 and 3 for Competitor2. Band width is the next factor that industry competes. Competitor2 has the highest band width offering. Competitor1 has the lowest as its internet service is based on radio transmission, and it is significantly lower than cable based band width. Peach mobiles cable based bandwidth is lower than competitor2. Based on these the scoring assigned are Peach mobile 5, Competitor1 4, and Competitor2 8. The final factor chosen for strategy canvas analysis is the product reach of each competitor. Competitor1 has the highest rate of 8 for product reach due to its significantly higher market share on mobile devices that are capable of internet browsing. Peach mobile is second in market share for mobile devices. The position in mobile devices and cable operated internet service puts Peach mobiles score is placed at 5. Competitor2 provides only cable based internet service to limited cities. This puts Competitor2 score on product reach at 3. Four Actions Grid Analysis Figure 1. 3 Eliminate: * Customer affinity with brand| Raise: * The product  offerings| Reduce: * Distinction in product and service offering between consumer and corporate * Distinction between the buyer group * Relationship management for corporate account| Create: * A robust and stable network infrastructure that enables hassle free use of high speed internet * Support system that would provide speedy resolution to infrastructure issues| â€Å"Blue ocean strategy aims to reconstruct buyer value elements in crafting a new value curve, using the  four actions framework  to break the trade-off between differentiation and low cost and to create a new value curve† (Blueoceanstrategykenya. Peach mobile should be using Four Action Grid to â€Å"pursue differentiation and low costs to break the value-cost trade-off† (Kim amp; Mauborgne, 2005). Peach mobile should eliminate emotional orientation of buyers in product selection. Company’s current market positions of distant second further warrant this. â€Å"When companies are willing to challenge the functional/emotional orientation of their industry, they often find new noncustomer insights. † (Blueoceanstrategy. com, 2013). The Six Paths analysis identified that market operators are locked in a head-to-head competition for attaining a competitive position among the strategic groups. Their primary focus is to better serve the buyer group. In order to create a blue ocean, Peach mobile should reduce the distinction in product and service offering between the strategic groups. This would allow Peach mobile to create a customer base that does not require individual attention and relationship management. Developing a single strategic group would reduce the company’s operational cost significantly. Maintaining multiple buyer groups attract high cost. Peach mobile should focus on reducing the product offering distinction among the buyer group and create a single larger buyer group. Company should develop product offering that are efficient and offers the best value to the customer. Raising the value in product offerings is a critical element in creating the blue ocean. Peach mobile needs to create a robust and stable network infrastructure that enables hassle free use of high speed internet. Developing a support system that provides quickest turnaround time to network infrastructure issues is critical to the success of high performing network. Noncustomer Analysis Figure 1. 4 First Tier â€Å"Soon-to-be† customers are the city living public who chose products by the value it offers. Peach mobile can capitalize on this segment by offering a product that would offer higher value than any competing product. The â€Å"soon-to-be† customers would represent roughly 25% of the noncustomer base. Second Tier- â€Å"Refusing† customers are the loyal customers to competitions who have a high affinity to the brand. Peach mobile needs a focused program to address the emotional orientation customer by offering clearly distinguishing values and functions in their products. This would represent the larger section of the noncustomer. The section would account for approximately 30% of the noncustomer base. Third Tier- â€Å"Unexplored† noncustomers are those do not use the internet service yet. They represent 45% of the noncustomer base. Addressing the need of the â€Å"unexplored† segment of noncustomers will provide Peach mobile the opportunity to capitalize on this untapped market with little or no competition. Buyer Utility Map â€Å"Unless the technology makes buyers’ lives dramatically simpler, more convenient, more productive, less risky or more fun and fashionable, it will not attract the mass no matter how many awards it win† (Kim amp; Mauborgne, 2005 p120). Buyer utility map helps to outline all the leavers to deliver an exceptional utility to buyers and unique customer experience. The buyer utility map for mobile Internet service by Peach mobile reveals numbers of positive and negative elements that influence buyer experience. Figure 1. 5 presents the buyer utility map. It is clear in analyzing the different stages of buyer experience circle that there are issues that need focus and resolution from Peach mobile. To get an exceptional utility, these blocks need to be removed. The product HMIS has a dependency on buyer having a device that the service can be used. This makes the elements in Supplement stage of buyer experience critical to the success of proposed value innovation. Supplementary stage of the buyer experience raises the questions â€Å"How easy to obtain? How much time do they take? How costly are they? How much pain do they cost? †. The answers to the above questions are less desirable and cause a significant negative impact in customer experience. These questions can be related to utility leavers’ simplicity, convenience, risk, and fun and image respectively. Peach mobile needs to work on making the smartphones available to buyers in easy and convenient fashion. The situation is an opportunity to look across the complementary product and service offering. Introduction of financial services to aid the cash strapped Jamaican buyer may provide a surge in demand for smartphones and HMIS offered by Peach mobile. The distribution network and experience of the customer at the store are competitive, but this needs to be outstanding to deliver an exceptional utility to buyers. Lastly the pricing must be an attractive point to trigger an interest from mass buyers. Availability of similar product in the same price range from competitor makes this element an obstacle in delivering the exceptional utility. Price Corridor Analysis Figure 1. 6 Same form Different form same function Different form and function same objective Low High Mobile Internet Competitor1 Mobile Internet Peach mobile Cable Internet competitor 2 Cable Internet Peach mobile Internet cafe/hotels Price corridor of the mass Lower-Level Pricing Same form Different form same function Different form and function same objective Low High Mobile Internet Competitor1 Mobile Internet Peach mobile Cable Internet competitor 2 Cable Internet Peach mobile Internet cafe/hotels Price corridor of the mass Lower-Level Pricing â€Å"To secure a strong revenue stream for your offering, you must set the right strategic price† (Kim amp; Mauborgne, 2005 p131). Looking at the similar services offered within the industry provides a clear understanding on the price corridor of the mass. There are five services available in the market that is similar to Peach mobile offering. Figure 1. 6 shows a comparative analysis of industry offerings with their pricing and customer traction. The product offering from Peach mobile do not have excludability and has the risk of free riding. This would mean that the product pricing must be highly competitive and close to an offer that buyers cannot refuse. Peach mobile needs to adopt a lower-level pricing strategy considering these factors. The significant part of the cost in HMIS is the infrastructure development which is one time investment. This would enable Peach mobile to bank on volume sales to increase profitability. Peach mobile should adopt to target costing pricing model. Kim and Marborgne argue â€Å"to maximize the profit potential of a blue ocean idea, a company should start with strategic price and then deduct its desired profit margin from the price to arrive at the target cost. Here, price-minus costing, and not cost-plus pricing is essential if you are to arrive at a cost structure that is both profitable and hard to match† (Kim amp; Mauborgne, 2005 p131). Peach mobile should consider the pricing based on the target costing and work on reducing and optimize the cost to convert the aggressive pricing to return handsome profit. Peach mobile could also partner with phone manufactures to produce unique handsets that would provide the buyer high value at lower cost. A revenue share mechanism could be extremely attractive to any phone manufacture where there is a high potential of volume sales. BOI Index Table Blue Ocean Idea (BOI) Index provides managers a basic but robust test of the blue ocean strategy against the critical perspectives utility, price, cost and adoption. A higher bandwidth and mobility will help the Jamaican buyer to get connected with the rest of the world far more quickly and efficiently. The price perspective answer the question is your price easily accessible to the mass of buyers. Peach mobile’s price for the offering will be positioned at the lower-level of the price corridor. The aggressive pricing will make the offering easily accessible to the buyers. Adapting to target costing pricing method will price the offering at most accessible position for mass of buyers. The cost structure would require focus from management to implement and cost saving measures that would increase the profitability from the offering. Peach mobile should drive the changes with lean manufacturing. â€Å"In this demanding market companies who adopt a lean manufacturing strategy have a chance at not only surviving, but flourishing†¦ By eliminating unnecessary waste, companies can experience step-function improvements in profitability and cash flow, as well as improved customer and employee satisfaction† (Maddy, 2007). The dependence of the customer having a handset that is capable of utilizing the faster bandwidth is a serious block in adoption of the proposed value innovation. Entering a partnership with mobile handset manufactures to develop low cost handsets can be mutually beneficial proposition. Setting up a financial service for buyers is critical to faster adoption of the offering. The cost attractive handsets and the availability of financial services will help easy and swift adoption of the proposed value innovation. Three E Fair Process Analysis A fair process is required for the successful execution of any strategy. A fair process requires â€Å"building execution into strategy by creating people’s buy-in upfront. The workforce’s trust of a level playing field is critical in inspiring them to cooperate voluntarily in executing a strategic decision (Kim amp; Mauborgne, 2005, p175). Kim and Mauborgne identify engagement, explanation and clarity of expectation as three mutually reinforcing elements that define fair process. Peach mobile must create employee commitment to execute the value innovation successfully. The management should identify the key influencers and engage them in the strategy decisions. The implementation of the cost saving efforts and volume sales strategy require larger commitment from the employee for a successful result. Engaging the key influencers will communicate management respect for individuals and their ideas. Sense of engagement and respect can produce greater commitment and effort from the employees. Peach mobile management must set up bi-weekly or monthly performance review meetings to review the performance in regard to the new strategy. The performance meeting could be an excellent venue to take stock of things and align the team and individuals performance with management strategy. Providing an explanation of management decisions is critical in earning the trust of the employees. Understanding the rationale behind the managerial decisions will help the employee to commit to the management ideas. Developing an environment of trust is critical for employee engagement. The Peach mobile’s management must provide clarity to its expectations based on the management decisions. A clear understanding of the deliverable and the impact would help to reduce political jockeying and favoritism. Kim and Mauborgne observe â€Å"with fair process, people tend to be committed to support the resulting strategy even when it is viewed as not favorable or at odds with their perception of what is strategically correct for their unit† (Kim amp; Mauborgne, 2005, p184). The success of the proposed value innovation depends much on the execution and the cost discipline that Peach mobile can manage.

Arguments for and Against the Censorship of Pornography free essay sample

The controversy surrounding pornography is complicated not only by a lack of agreement on whether pornography should be allowed in our society, but also by a basic disagreement over what is included in the definition of pornography. Emotions run high and scientific rigour falls aside where it comes to studies of the effect of pornography, the use of these studies in mass media and in academic debates. Sifting through mountains of rhetoric can be confusing, when few entering the debate can even agree on what pornography is, much less what are its corrosive effects.The first task of this paper, therefore, shall be to begin at the beginning, and clarify the differing definitions or idea about pornography that are at play in recent academic debates. Secondly, I will examine the arguments for and against pornography, be it by way of censorship or not. Finally, I will look at the underlying assumptions of ethical systems that are being used here as points of reference. We will write a custom essay sample on Arguments for and Against the Censorship of Pornography? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I will argue that much of the disagreement about this issue is due to the fact that the various sides are appealing to wildly different ethical systems.On the one hand, there are those that appeal to utilitarianism, while others appeal to an individualistic, existentialist ethics. . I cant define pornography, one judge once famously said, but I know it when I see it. (Justice Potter Stewart) in Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964. Let me begin, then, with the very different ways that pornography is characterized and defined. Pornography means materials that are sexual in nature, usually in a way that is offensive to one self or the mainstream public.Proof of this position lies with the fact that much of art in the Western tradition (that which is displayed in museums) depicts sexually explicit material. There is no question that this is art, not pornography. The second common distinction is one that is drawn between â€Å"pornography† and â€Å"erotica†. As described by Nettie Pollard in her article, â€Å"The Modern Pornography Debates,† qualifying as â€Å"erotica† are representations of a sexually explicit nature, but which are not violent or degrading to women; â€Å"pornography†, on the other hand is harmful because it is violent or sexually degrading to women. This distinction is murky, however, because sometimes the distinction is mean to signal the difference between visual materials (†pornography† includes the Greek term graphe, or visual representation), whereas â€Å"erotica† is then used to refer to written materials describing erotic acts. This last way of delineating the matter appeals to the belief that whereas pornography appeals to men because their sexuality is more visual, erotica appeals to women’s more internal and intellectual connection to sexuality. However, any feminist would refuse both distinctions as being false.Why? Because in either case, the division between erotica (good) and pornography (bad) is just a way of distinguishing the erotic and sexually explicit materials that you find acceptable with that which you do not find acceptable. The problem is that, in trying to censor pornography, no one wants to ban any and all erotically or sexually explicit materials but only some. But then, tha t means that someone has to make a decision, draw the line between good and bad sexualities. That we should be more preoccupied with punishing bad representations, not what they represent.