Recruitment and Selection at Enterprise Rent-a-Car free essay sample

The Times 100: Business case studies Recruitment and selection at Enterprise Rent-A-Car Teacher: Timmy Norris Author: Johnny Gat Date of submission: 4th of May Introduction Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a car rental company established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1957 by Jack C. Taylor. Its original name, â€Å"Executive Leasing Company†, was renamed to â€Å"Enterprise† in honor of the U. S. S. Enterprise aircraft carrier, which Taylor served on during World War II. In 2009, Enterprise became a subsidiary of Enterprise Holdings, Inc. s a result of Enterprise Rent-A-Cars 2007 acquisition of Vanguard Automotive Group, which is a parent company of National Car Rental and Alamo Rent a Car. This acquisition helped the company to a long-term business growth. Nowadays, Enterprise is the largest rental car company in the United States, with more than 5400 locations and employing over 65 000 people. In the late 1990s, this company also began expanding to different countries and its fi rst opened office outside the USA was in 1993. We will write a custom essay sample on Recruitment and Selection at Enterprise Rent-a-Car or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Today Enterprise has many locations in Ireland, the UK, Germany and Canada. Identify three reasons why Enterprise uses workforce planning. At Enterprise every employee can achieve promotion within the company, which reduces the need for external recruitment. However, Human Resource Management (HRM) realizes that the future may hold changes affecting its staffing needs, so they cannot manage only existing staff. This is called a workforce planning. One reason the company uses this planning is the potential enter into new markets. For example, Enterprise moving into Car Sales requires recruiting experienced people with new ideas. The second reason is connected with the growth of technology. New equipment needs to be handled by skilled people. The last reason is very simple. When employees retire or are promoted they leave a gap that needs to be filled. In a competitive market, what does Enterprise do differently to attract high quality candidates? Enterprise attracts high quality candidates through Campus Brand Managers, who work within the UK universities. These people actively promote the company to local staff and students. Also there are many other activities to peak the interest of potential applicants, such as presentations on the company, mentoring programmes etc. What competencies does Enterprise look for when recruiting in order to maintain its high levels of customer service? Enterprise looks for a special combination of competencies that would contribute to maintain its high level of customer service. The right combination of competencies should include a bit of everything. It is very important for the staff to know how to empathize with the customer, as well as being available when it is convenient for the customer. Natural sales and persuasion skills are essentials. Candidate? s personality has to be strong and creative. It is necessary to be reliable about getting things done on time and know how to work efficiently under pressure. The ability of solving problems right away is welcomed. Being a confident leader is an advantage, however, the candidate should be able to work cooperatively. How does Enterprise? s strategy of providing a career path benefit the company? The whole process of recruiting suitable people with the special combination of competencies contributes to the achievement of the firm? s goals and objectives. Generally, this strategy has proven very efficient. Therefore, the training and development of company? staff will continue. Conclusion The company? s goal was never to be the biggest, but the best. In such a competitive market it is hard to succeed. It is necessary to have some strategy to continue its growth. Enterprise? s strategy is a service-orientated business, therefore offering the best customer experience. This experience is based on precise recruitment and selection wit hin the company and also through workforce planning. All the trainings programs, developments and promotions challenge the employees to do their best; it leads to improvements and better productivity.

Destiny essays

Destiny essays What is destiny? To many people it is how they live their lives. They believe that everyones life has its own destiny or course. According to Websters Dictionary destiny is a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency. (Websters Dictionary) In other words our destiny is out fate. It could either be a good thing or a bad thing and to most people it has already been decided by a Supreme Being or God. But that is just the pessimistic view on destiny. Others believe that one can decide his or her own destiny. A person just has to know how to control it and become a master of it. I personally believe that one can control his or her own destiny. That is if you strive to do that yourself. If you just live your life expecting that everything will fall in your lap you are wrong. Nothing in life is pre-destined as in the people you meet, the jobs you get or the person you marry. If that were to be true then everyone would be happy, that is if your destiny is for you to be happy. I think that the notion of destiny is just an excuse that people use for the misfortunes or fortunes that they encounter. During the course of ones life you can began to make your own destiny. From childhood up to the point where you die you always have aspirations for yourself and that makes the person strive for it, not because you were put on this earth for that particular reason. Evolution proceeds under a law as unerring as any well-established scientific law, namely, that of karma or the law of cause and effect. Each action, each desire, each thought, produces its result with unfailing certainty. "As a person sows, so shall he also reap." This makes perfection possible, for knowledge is power, and when a person knows the law and works with it, he can produce any result he chooses, he becomes master of his destiny. (Encyclopedia of Philosophy) It is impossible for anyone to become a master o...

A Shift Of Reality Essay Research Paper

A Shift Of Reality Essay, Research Paper A Shift of World The new telecasting genre of world shows is going so popular because they offer an alternate sense of world. What is world and is there merely one reading or many different 1s? There is no 1 world because world displacements. The dictionary definition of world is the followers: World is the province of things as they are instead than as they are imagined to be. Worlds are facts. Just like world, facts besides shift. There could be a newspaper article about an temblor in Los Angeles and it would depict the harm and deceases, which are facts. Another edition of the newspaper may come out a few yearss subsequently with new information and more deceases to account for which would so do the facts to switch. Virtual world is the set of images and sounds produced by a computing machine which seem to stand for a topographic point or state of affairs in which a individual sing it can take portion but is this truly world? There can non be merely one world that is cosmopolitan to everyone becau se along with the always-changing context, people s perceptual experience besides changes on a regular footing. To assist exemplify this, world telecasting plans have been created. Of class the manufacturers of these telecasting shows do non desire the viewing audiences to hold on such differentiations between world and the shows they are bring forthing because it might endanger the merchandise they are seeking to sell. Unfortunately, the people who buy into these world shows far out-weigh the 1s who don T. Ten old ages ago, manufacturers recognized there was a whole new genre of programming out at that place. Today, the world fad is now under manner in full force. New shows are being introduced one right after another. Manufacturers have created shows like Big Brother, Survivor, Real World, Blind Date and Temptation Island because of the popularity of this new genre of world shows. But why are these shows so popular and how existent are they or in what sense are they existent? Why have these world shows taken over and have somewhat replaced Television situation comedies and films? Aren t there similarities between the two? These shows are so popular because they deal with existent life issues and jobs that happen in every twenty-four hours lives of people in our society. Of class in existent life, you might non travel to Belize to rip off on a important other but the bang of it excited the viewing audiences. They deal with constructs that could go on to you and we, as people are funny about how to respond to these same state of affairss without really holding to be in them at the present minute. We continue to watch these shows because we associate to a character that is similar to ourselves and we concentrate on that character s interactions and relationships with others. But how existent are these character s reactions. Of class they don Ts have a book but they know that they were picked because they could full-fill some imitation and they play up to this function they were given. We get pulled in and go funny to what is traveling to go on next. We want to see our character and what they do next or what is in shop for them. You could about state that we become addicted to the telecasting shows. Not merely do we watch these shows for existent life comparings but we besides watch them because they are merely entertaining and merriment to watch. Sometimes the material that happens is so far fetched that you merely have to express joy at the idea of it really go on ing. Peoples like these shows because they can express joy at the state of affairss being portrayed and know that they don Ts have to cover with them themselves and because it isn t go oning to them. These shows offer an alternate sense of world where at that place seems to be no effects or the effects seem bogus or staged because it is a telecasting show. How existent are these telecasting shows and can you truly compare them to existent life world? Take Real World and Temptation Island. Real World is about six aliens who go through an full showing procedure and are picked to populate in a house someplace and have their lives taped and so broadcasted to the full universe. The public viewing audiences raise many inquiries. How much of their lives and interactions are really shown? There is no manner that the manufacturers can suit all of the things that happen into a half-hour or hr block. So what do they make? They edit and edit and edit. They create the struggles and play off people s insecurities and emotions. They develop the chief narrative line and secret plan with all the hours of fresh taping. Real World is now in its seventh or 8th episode. Make you truly think that the 7th episode is traveling to be as existent at the first 1 was? The reactions are supposed to be believed to be existent but in fact, many argue that they are s taged. They have no book but the manufacturers can make the character with the engineering of redacting. They can pretty much make about anything with this engineering. There is no written book that is really touchable but it seems as though there is an mute book that these alleged existent people follow. Temptation Island on the other manus is about four twosomes who go to an island in Baja off the seashore of Belize and are so separated from their important other. They so are surrounded by individual aliens of the opposite sex and tempted to rip off. The manufacturers tape the twosomes as the y travel on assorted day of the months with different work forces and adult females. These tapes so acquire shown to the important others with the worst parts of class being shown to change and falsify world and do it look like something bad happened. The people on Temptation Island have most likely seen other world based Television shows. They know that there are 1000000s of viewing audiences watching them on telecasting so they are traveling to make things to seek and stand out. Their reactions most probably will non be 100 % existent because they know they have a function to full-fill or an image to maintain. How can you be 100 % existent when you have 100s of cameras on you all the clip? This leads to the point about bad material. It is the bad material that sells. Anyone with even a small spot of sense should be able to see that these shows are altered and offer a different sense of world. But why so does this material sell and does it go on to go more and more popular? What do people believe of when they hear the word normal? What is normal? Are the people on Temptation Island and Real World normal people or do they full-fill some function that the manufacturers want portrayed? Normal as depicted in the dictionary says that it is conforming with an recognized criterion or norm ; natural ; usual. How so, do you find what is the recognized criterion? Is it being scraggy and a size two or is it a size eight? Is normal holding tonss of money and being celebrated and being driven around in a limousine or holding a house in the suburbs and having your ain concern and driving a mini new wave? You can construe something to be normal legion ways. I think that the world shows take what they think is normal and broadcast their position all across the state. Temptation Island for illustration does non hold any corpulent work forces or adult females. They all have nice, muscular organic structures and respectable callings. What does this do the younger viewing audiences that these shows have been targeted at feel about how they should look? Is this what world is all about? These people in these new shows are people like the remainder of us but they change the minute they get behind a camera. We might be looked at as tiring but they could be merely like us, merely non perceived as drilling because they are on this world telecasting show. Are these shows so popular because it is stressed upon us that the persons in these shows are normal so we are supposed to be able to associate to them better because they are more like us instead than a alleged famous person? Berger makes a claim on page 105 in the Way of Reading text. He says that the manner we see things if affected by what we know or what we believe. This helps to explicate why there is non one world and the differentiations between the varying degrees of world. If an person is brought up in an environment where his/her parents don t get along and there is dishonesty in the household, so they might turn up to see rip offing as non so bad. They would see Temptation Island as a show similar to their childhood and might promote the twosomes to rip off or wouldn t look down upon it whereas a kid who was brought up in a different type of environment where dishonesty is looked down upon enormously. This kid might see the show as disgusting and abhorrent and might non understand why any twosome would hold to take part. There are many other cultural issues in our society that one could reason are ambivalent. The issue of abortion, criminal conversation i.e. Monica Lewinsky, the monetary value of gas, child labour Torahs or speeding ordinances. The experiences in our lives and our beliefs shape the manner that we see world. It all relates to Berger s claim about the manner that we see things are affected by what we know and believe. I think that a large portion of this popularity with the world telecasting shows is credited to people s captivation with phantasy universes and desiring to populate the perfect life where everything happens merely as it should. How can one specify the perfect life? Is it holding a batch of money and being able to make everything you want or is it holding an tremendous household with tonss of love? It is difficult to state what the perfect life is. These new telecasting shows challenge that perceptual experience on what people think world is and offers a different degree of world. This is why I believe that there can be no one world. Everyone has a different position of what they think world is to them, what is normal to them, what is a perfect life and what is of import to them that they get out of life. They compare their lives to those people on these telecasting shows because it is the cupboard to existent that they can associate to without really being straight involved. They do n Ts compare their lives to films and Television situation comedies as much because they know that they both have books that the histrions have to follow and they are seen as farther from the true world than a show like Real World or Survivor. By watching these shows people can populate their lives about through the characters and that manner there are no effects. The characters do things that us as persons would neer believe of making or opportunities we could or neer would take. These new world telecasting shows offer an alternate sense of world and many different degrees of it. There is non one world because it is everlastingly altering and germinating and our society has taken this new genre of telecasting shows to portray this.

Flow, Precipitation, and Turbidity of the Red Cedar River Lab Report

Flow, Precipitation, and Turbidity of the Red Cedar River - Lab Report Example Apparatus/Tools used The set of tools for turbidity and Particle Load include a sounding line (a rope attached to a concrete weight), a timer, a supply of tongue depressors, and the aerial photo, a bucket to collect samples of river water bottles or jugs for transporting water samples to the lab, and a device for filtering known volumes of water, graduated cylinders, a supply of filters that will retain particles ≠¥1ÃŽ ¼m in size, metal dishes for drying and storing the filters, an oven and a desiccator to dry the filters, and a balance for measuring particle mass. Procedure In measuring turgidity and filtration of the river water sample, the procedures included, first the river water sample was collected from a Farm Lane bridge. Secondly, filter papers were obtained from the stack and placed on the manifold followed by screwing the filtering cup down tightly in order to avoid leaks. As a third procedure, a vacuum was turned on followed by measuring out 0.5L of water at a time, which was then placed into a graduated cylinder while carefully pouring it into the filter cup. Water was added to the cylinder until when the filter paper turned brown. Water from both flasks was emptied after every use. Thirty filter papers were then placed labeled metal dish. This was followed by placing the metal dish with the filter into a drying oven. It was then that the filters were tried for a period of 24 hours. Finally, with the use of a metal weighing dish, the weight of the dried dirty filter was recorded.

Art and Protest in Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Art and Protest in Writing - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that to a new writer, attitude would be a critical component especially when sharing what has been written with other writers. Wiggins argues that every successful writer needs to posses some degree of arrogance. For example, Alvarez is a renowned novelist. In her novel Something to Declare, the author includes a reader’s comment claiming that after finishing one book by the author, the reader would automatically be led to buy another of the author’s books. This has been used as an intentional strategy by most writers to gain trust from the readers and thus make it easy to manipulate their minds in line with their purpose of the writing. This study highlights that Cambridge Educational Services introduces an important aspect in writing referred to as â€Å"wordsmithing†. This involves categorizing alphabetic symbols so as to convey a particular meaning. Writing involves use of symbols that could be easily predicted and symbolism plays an important role of communication in writing as writing in itself could have desirable or undesirable consequences. Probably, Alvarez avoiding to attack America directly for racism could be an example of symbolism in use. The author chose to use the America beauty pageant instead thus reduces chances of undesirable consequences. Most people would write about others but their works would not last. But for writers like Alvarez, their works become constantly new in the reader’s mind.  

Advertising and Promotional Culture Essay Example for Free

Advertising and Promotional Culture Essay Race and Class in Verizon TV Ads No matter what are the patterns of the ads, the ultimate purpose of ad is attracting public attentions and selling the products. Based on different consumption groups, the ads from the same brand also need to change the advertising images, backgrounds and lines, to reach as many consumers as possible. Verizon Communication Inc is one of the most famous broadband and telecommunications company in United States. Its service range is very broad, including mobile phone, TV and Internet, and its consumption groups covers low class, middle class and upper class people. In this paper, I will analysis the class and racial elements in Verizon 4G LTE commercial and Verizon Mobile Devices and Healthcare commercial. Applying multi-racial advertising talents and different story telling methods, Verizon stresses on the class segregation while pays less attention on racial differences. This advertising strategy helps Verizon divide its consumption groups based on their consumption abilities. It is not only one method to avoid the disadvantage of racial selling, which easily limits the consumption groups, but also direct the company to improve the services to satisfy each specific class better. The Verizon 4G LTE commercial is also called â€Å"Bad Idea† commercial. Just as the African American guys keep saying â€Å"Whassup† in the Budweiser ad, Verizon keep showing the bold black â€Å"Bad Idea† sign after the men in the ad say some bad ideas. The background of the ad is a group of lower class men gather together and play basketball. During the break, they chat and share informations. â€Å"You guys check it out, household bleach. † â€Å"Look Good. † â€Å"I know, right? † Then the â€Å"Bad Idea† comes out with a sting sound. I tell you what saves the gas money. My kids hitchhike to the school. † â€Å"Great Call. † Then the â€Å"Bad Idea† sign comes out again. After two more guys share their information and both have been categorized as â€Å"Bad Idea†, the fifth man comes over, says, â€Å"Surprisingly the Verizon 4G LTE is like 6 times bigger, but I am going ATT†. Instead of showing t he â€Å"Bad Idea† sign again, the voiceover tell the consumers what is the â€Å"Good Idea†, â€Å"There are good ideas and bad, with over 6 times more coverage, Verizon, is the good idea†. This ad uses a sarcastic way to impress the people of lower class and the spectacular consumption strategy to sell the service. To sell the product to a group of people, ads always build up the environment and back ground they familiar with first. Watts defined spectacular consumption as â€Å"a process through which the relations among cultural forms, the culture industry, and the lived experiences of persons are shaped by public consumption†. The group of men in the ad have economic pressure and family burden so they come up their own ideas to save the money. Maybe playing basketball on weekends is their only chance to get rid of work and family messes, so they exercise, brag and relax. The group of men in the ad is the epitome of the lower class men in the United States. Their income is limited so they hope for better quality services with reasonable prices. And this the reason that Verizon keeps telling the men in front of the TV that their 4G is over 6 times more coverage compared to ATT, which means we have better quality than ATT and fair price. People’s consumption habits can easily be effected by the surrounding people. The same situation happens in the ad. Though most of the ideas come from those guys are bad ideas, but their friends are willing to accept it. And this is the disadvantage of speculation consumption. Unless people can make right decisions, because good ideas always spread. And this is the ultimate direction that Verizon is willing to go. If the men do not want to make bad decisions and feel brighter in their peers, choosing Verizon is always a good proof. Unlike focusing on social class characteristics mostly, this ad add one African American talent to minimize the racial segregation. It cannot change the fact that even in this small group, it is still white man dominant, but the black talent definitely increase the group diversity and make this more likely in American society. The situation in the other commercial is the other way. This is the TV commercial expressing how Verizon contributed in the health care field. To create out the confidence and reliability of Verizon’s services, the talents who play doctors and nurses in the ad look tidy, calm and helpful. One of the similarities among them is they all use mobile devices to check out the medical records, 3D brian scanner pictures or drug information. The patients are the other essential consumption group that Verizon wants to attract, so Verizon states that patients can measure the heart rate and the contractions and send them directly to the clinic through mobile devices, as well as helping the patients memorize their illness history. All the advantages prove the Verizon tries to â€Å"improve collaborations between care givers and patients†. Also, instead of putting the lines into the talents’ mouth, this ad use the voiceover to tell us the benefits of the service. In this way, Verizon makes the ad more like a Public Addressing Ad instead of a commercial ad. It may makes the consumers feel that Verizon is not only one company which just care about their own profits, it also cares about the society and is willing to pay back. Compared to the former 4G ad portraying the simpleminded, funny and a little arrogant lower class men, this ads pictures doctors and nurses, middle and higher class people as warm-hearted, dedicated and smart. They are the best group to publicize the reliability of high technology. Verizon applies the graphics and the statistics to show how professional Verizon can be in healthcare field. I think the multi-racial aspect is worth mentioning in this ad. Cortese once said in her paper that â€Å"advertising images, as cultural commodities and social constructions, are sites of struggle along racial fault lines in the United States’s cultural landscape†(Cortese, 1), and I think it is a good example of the improvement of racial problem in this country. On the one hand, the white people in this ad is still more than the colored people. After all, the United States is still one white dominancy society, but at the same, it is also a big â€Å"Melting Pot†. So we can still find the Asian American and Latino/African American face from this ad. Moreover, because doctor and nursers are care givers, so they are in a powerful statues, while patients are considered as the care acceptors and they are in a weaker position. In order to show the equal presentation, the ad also categorizes the Asian American as the doctor and the Latino/African American as the patient instead of ask both of them to be the patients. Different company has various adverting strategy. Luxury brands need to show their sharp fashion taste while normal brands must present their money-saving advantage. But for brands like Verizon, which provides necessary services for almost every class people, they need to use diverse selling advertisements to hit all possible consumption groups. From the two typical Verizon ads, people can conclude that the selling strategy of Verizon is dividing consumption groups based on their social class instead of their races. It is a more realistic way to provide different costing plans to various income groups. And it can also attract all people who has this economical ability instead of blocking out of some potential consumers because racial discrimination. In this way, Verizon could possible to increase their consumer range and increase their profit.

Essay --

People say that the first step to success is finding out what you want and then giving yourself to it with all your heart. I have partly found myself by making one of the most important decisions of my life - choosing a profession, and now I study Management at YSU’s faculty of Economics. I have to admit that I haven't always been a student with top marks as I connected my goal of becoming a good specialist with an experience rather than a qualification. Now I realize that the harder I work at the university, the closer I get to my profession. However, like most of my fellow students, I dream of breaking out of my academic routine and getting skills that standard lectures will never provide. Through applying to this project I have made my decision on choosing an exchange country that fits me most, and I hope that I fit it either, with my statements that are introduced below. Several things interest me about the US as an exchange student, and I want to introduce them from practical, sociocultural and after all, a little bit â€Å"selfish† aspects. First, US Universities have much to offer me as a student by giving out an opportunity to study precisely what I’m interested in, in a more different way than I've been used to in my current university. In other words, American education methods meet students’ objectives and raise analytical thinkers with skills of a potential leader. That is part of what makes it such an interesting place to study. Besides, studying in a country with mixed culture which is also filled with international students has another advantage: that is becoming part of the Global youth and exploring my opportunities, obtaining self-confidence, as well as breaking some stereotypes through interactions and ... ...a western education they are motivated to make major contributions to the development of their countries with a clear aim of building a democratic society by sharing experience and knowledge with others. I have the qualities of struggling for the implementation of the goals that I have always wanted to achieve and even if they don’t work sometimes, at least I know that I dreamed out loud. So I would like to study in the USA by means of this program, because it teaches a lot in a short time and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Thus, I am ready to be an exchange student for my willingness to continue the endeavors of Global UGRAD alumni: i.e. I have to be a good ambassador of my country, enrich my knowledge reservoir and use it for the benefit of the public sector in my community. This is my full understanding of what is required from any exchange student.

Critical Thinking â€Factors that Influence Adult Learning Essay

Being able to read and understand research studies requires quantitative reasoning. The purpose of this assignment is to help you get accustomed to identifying the various parts of a research study. Be sure to review the module homepage and background information before you begin any of the assignments in this course. In general, the best way to approach the assignment is to read the article through rather rapidly in order to get an impression of its general content; then read it more slowly and make appropriate notes so you can complete the assignment as directed below. Organize your paper using these headings, in this order. Your paper should look like the following list/outline, with these same subheadings listed in the same order. Just provide the information for each section. I already know that the authors of the article can identify their purpose, hypothesis, etc. so you will not earn credit for copying the information from the article. Show me what you understand after reading the article. Explain each section very briefly so I can see what you learned from reading the article. Your summary of each section must be written in your own words. Do not copy or simply paraphrase. Reference: This should be so accurate that the reader can go directly from your abstract to the original article. Give a complete APA style reference. (Hint: the reference above is in APA style, so your reference should like that) Purpose of the study: Sometimes the purpose is stated as an aim, an objective, or a goal. At other times, it is incorporated in a statement of a problem, leaving the reader to infer the purpose has a stated problem, a purpose, or both. If the purpose is inferred, you may state it in your own words. Participants: The term â€Å"participant† refers to the sample studied. Under this heading, you should include a description of ages, sexes, socio-economic status, school grade, mental level, number, and/or any other demographic characteristics given in the article to describe the particular sample used in the study. Type of Study: Was it a quantitative or a qualitative study? Or were both types of data used? Please explain why you think so. Hypothesis: What is the hypothesis of the study? If the hypothesis is inferred, you may state it in your own words. Procedure: Sometimes the procedure is referred to as the â€Å"method† and includes a description of control techniques, measuring devices, materials used and ways of proceeding, in attempting to achieve the purpose or purposes of the study. Statistical Tests: Identify the statistical tests used in the article; examples might be chi square (x2), t-test, f-test, Mann-Whitney, etc. Results or Findings: What actual data was reported by the author of the study? Explain the results — don’t just copy them. Conclusions: What does the author of the research article believe the results or findings mean? Critique: In each of the previous sections, you have been reporting what the article said. Now, I want you to think critically about what you’ve learned, and give me your own thoughts. Briefly describe your reaction to the article. For example, was it well-organized? Easy or difficult to understand (please explain why)? Did it present diverse perspectives about the topic? Don’t limit yourself to just these questions — be reflective about what you read. Critical Thinking –Factors that Influence Adult Learning Reference: Vonderwell, S. , & Zachariah, S. (2005). Factors that influence participation in online learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38(2), 213-230. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/274761283? accountid=28844. Park, J. , & Choi, H. J. (2009). Factors influencing adult learners’ decision to drop out or persist in online learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 12(4), 207-n/a. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/1287038599? ccountid=28844 Purpose of the study: Vonderwell and Zachariah conducted a study to look at the factors that influenced learner participation. They looked into several sections at the Midwestern University. They found that for online comprehension must have common goals as all the members are dependent on each other for success creating a learning community and not just an individual (Vonderwell, S. , & Zachariah, S. 2005). P articipants: This study encompassed 147 learners that discontinued in one to three online courses between the fall of 2005 through the summer of 2007. This study was conducted with males and females from the ages of 20 to over 40. Type of Study: This was a quantitative and a qualitative study. This study was a quantitative study as it showed the number of learners that drop out due to varies variables: scheduling conflicts, family and personnel issues, financial problems, managerial support. This study is also expressed as a quantitative as its goal is to show the dropout rate and change the behavior from a broader perspective and a more personable way as to check on the students and see their status. Hypothesis: I believe from this study that adult online learners are more likely to drop out when they do not receive support from their internal and external structures and sources that lead guide and motivate their lives independently along with enrolling in course that are able to effect and are relevant to their lives. Procedure: The method of this study was conducted was population and sample Statistical Tests: This study used the longitudinal process of dropout distance education test, the estimated marginal means of relevance, estimated marginal means of satisfaction. Results or Findings: This study showed that there are many factors that affect online learners such as external factors (family), internal (to themselves) and the difference in what the learners desires in an online course and resolving to remain motivated in the course if it is relevant to their life in some way. Critique: As I am not best person with reading comprehension and am a bottle line up front (BLUF) this article was a dry read to me and rather difficult to pick out all the test that were conducted. Although, the overall result were very plainly stated that online learner has outside influences that guide them in the completion of a course and their motivation to remain. I thought it was interesting that the study addressed administrators and instructors roles strictly to support the student on all levels where possible. Conclusions: This study concluded that online learns are more likely to drop out when they don’t receive support (weather internal, external, and personal). Also, it showed that online student are less likely to drop out when they are motivated by the course and are content with and the practicality to their own lives.

SWOT Analysis Tencent Limited Holding

IntroductionIn March 2010 McKinsey published an article dealing with the obsession of the Internet of the Chinese population by concluding the following statement „People in the country’s 60 largest cities spend 70 percent of their leisure time online. Seismic changes in the consumer market are likely as a result.â€Å"1 China’s Internet population increased at the end of 2012 to a total number of 564 million users compared to approximately 250 million users in 2008, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIN).2 The main reasons for this enormous growth is strongly connected with different aspects, as for instance the general growth of Gross-Domestic-Product (GDP), lower priced computers, more affordable telecom connection fees, government support to Internet usage, and low-cost entertainment aspects. This affected, that also lower income groups started to use the Internet.3 Answering to this fast development and growth of Chinas Internet p opulation, the Internet service industry is about to increase up to 17 percentages in 2013. In the last years, the Internet service industry achieved even annual growing rates up to 20 percentages, resulting of the booming demand.The Internet market seems to be quite satisfied for the moment but even in the next years researches forecast an annual growth of approximately 10 percentages. This is due to the expansion of existing offers in the area of e-commerce and advertisement services.4 Observing the numbers, 148 million people have already experienced Internet shopping since 2010 and it is expected that 30 million people will additionally make use of it by the end of 2015.5 The Economist stated, â€Å"the future of e-commerce is China†.6 Besides the e-commerce and advertisement services also the application services became more and more important over the last years because of the introduction of smartphones and tablets.7Recognizing the trends, Tencent Holdings Limited deci ded 20 years ago to enter the market and finally became the largest Internet Service Portal in China. Tencent still enjoys a quasi monopoly position, which is hardly endangered due to rising competition. That is the reason why they need to think about using new opportunities and fending upcoming threats. Consequently Tencent should carry out a Strengths-, Weaknesses-, Opportunities-, Threats-Analysis (SWOT-Analysis), which includes the study of their own weaknesses and strengths in the internal dimension and the resulting opportunities and threats giving from external influences.This paper will firstly give an overview about the internal strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore Tencent’s external environment will be analyzed and the results will be used for defining the opportunities and threats of the company Before starting with the literal SWOT-Analysis for Tencent the first Chapter gives a short explanation about SWOT-Analysis in general.2 Definition SWOT- Analysis As mentio ned in the introduction, there are two different parts of changes in the environment, which lead to affect the performance of companies. This chapter will explain the difference between internal and external environment and their interaction. Furthermore the next part will explain the so-called SWOT-Analysis in detail.Internal environment analysis points out strengths and weaknesses of a company that in turn, supports decision-making processes concerning the handling of upcoming threats and opportunities.8 Knowing which strengths and weaknesses the company has to face, the internal environment analysis studies aspects like assets, people or knowledge on the one hand and financial deadlines or gaps in capabilities on the other hand.9 Analyzing the internal environment is very important because it defines the capability of the company to deal with the threats and opportunities given by the external environment.10 External environment deals with all developments on the marketplace, inc luding political, economical, social, legal and technical conditions as well as customers, competitors, suppliers and the public. Changes in the external environment or the so-called STEEP (socialcultural, technological, ecological, economical, political/legal)  force the companies in most cases to rethink their actual strategy, to make use of the emerged opportunities and to prevent occurring threats.11 As for instance using the development of a new market as opportunity or dealing with threats as new competitors or decreasing demand.12 To use opportunities means to develop a best-practice strategy. Regarding this, companies have to decide, whether it is the best opportunity to offer something in short supply, to provide something in a better way what already exists, or to create a totally new product.13 Concerning to that, the company has to know if there exists demand, needs and wants for the product they want to provide.14 Facing threats and not trying to fend them often leads to decreasing profits or lower sales. On the one hand knowing these threats gives the opportunity to react and trying to avoid, that threats are going to influence the company’s performance.15 On the other hand firms often do not have control over the threats, which affects the company negatively like for instance new competitors are entering the marketplace. This results in giving up potential customers and thus decreasing demand.16Bringing the internal and external environment analysis together is what you call a SWOT-Analysis. The SWOT-Analysis evaluates all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company, which builds the base for a strategy formulation.17 Meaning that knowing the strengths and reduce weaknesses help companies to use opportunities on the one side, On the other side to use strengths and develop strategies to avoid that weaknesses will become the target of threats. After this short definition of the SWOT-Analysis the next step will be to work out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Tencent Holdings Limited. 3 SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited3.2 Internal Environment AnalysisAs mentioned in the Introduction the Internet Industry in China is booming. To cover all possible marketplaces in the Internet Tencent offers a broad range of products and services. Besides the most popular service, the instant Messenger called QQ including numerous added services, Tencent provides online media, (wireless) internet value added services, interactive  entertainment services, especially in the online-gaming sector, e-commerce platforms and services as well as online advertisement services.18 Tencent also follows latest trends, as for instance launching a mobile application of a messaging service and added games and a mobile payment system, because of the latest development of using smartphones and tablets instead of personal computers.19 Tencent is one of the oldest Internet corporations in China and wi th its QQ platform the company reached 798,2 million user accounts by the end of 2012.20 As a result, Tencent influenced the communication world in China fundamentally. Another strengths lies definitely in the broad product and service offer of Tencent and the way in which they create synergies. The company offers seven main business lines, starting from instant messaging to online advertisement services. Besides just offering free services, Tencent tries to bind their users to the company’s value-added and paid services, in order to make profit.21 The strategy aims to offer the Internet population the possibility to use a wide variety of services in one company.Furthermore Tencent could gain a lot of experiences and knowledge over the past 20 years as one of the first providers in the Internet service sector, which significantly strengthened the company’s research and development abilities. Despite having already the mature technology in the market, half of the employ ees of Tencent belong to the Research and Development department, to ensure Tencent’s current market leading position and sustain this competitive advantage. Additionally to that the Tencent Research institute, which is China’s first Internet institute with the main goals in research and development of core technology on the Internet, supports the corporation in being innovative.22 Another strength of Tencent is their workforce as Tencent sees them as the â€Å"most precious asset and emphasized on the training of employees† by using different Training Systems.23 Moreover Tencent Holdings Limited is the third largest Internet operator in the world and the largest listed company in China.24 Benefitting from many advantages due to the companiescompany’s size there are also weaknesses the company has to face. In the following part the internal environment focuses on revealing the weaknesses of Tencent.Regarding the large variety of the product range Tencent, Tencent faces the fear of cannibalization because it creates a competitive situation in between their products. An example can be giving by the different instant  messaging services WeChat and QQ or TM and RTX, which serve the same purpose. Besides that QQ mobile messenger gets more and more the look of WeChat, which makes it even more competitive and leads to higher confusion for the consumers.25 Moreover Tencent greatest weakness is being not really innovative rather than being a â€Å"copy cat†. This occurs with the fact, that Tencent copied a lot from successful western companies. QQ for example is a copy of the Israeli invention ICQ and SOSO, the search engine of Tencent uses especially Google as a model.To conclude the internal environment analysis, one can summarize, that Tencent is a highly developed company with a lot of market power due to their long existence. On the opposite Tencent can notcannot convince with real innovative power. To get an idea what influence s TencentsTencent’s decision externally the next step will be to analyze the current market situation of the Internet market in China.3.1 External Environment AnalysisTencent operates in a highly challenging and rapidly changing environment. To get an idea what external impacts Tencent has to face it is important to know, what external factors the Chinese Internet market is about. As already mentioned China, faces a fast growing market in e-commerce because of the increasing number of Internet shoppers. The government noticed the importance of this growing market as well and plans to â€Å"upgrade the technological capabilities of e-commerce†.27 Another importance opportunity lies in using the governmental support, which is communicated in the 12th five-year plan and includes the support for the â€Å"new-generation IT† and additionally the advance of the information networks, mobile communication and the Internet.28 China is nowadays the largest Internet market in the world, which implicates that it is also one of the most competitive markets in the world.In addition to the high development of the Internet scene many companies entered the market in the last years, which leads to a highly competitive situation in general. Chinas Internet population is still growing but the annual growing ratio halved already from 20 percentages in the last years to 10 percentages as forecasted. Besides that, more and more  startups enter the markets, which results sooner or later in a fully satisfied market and a loss in profit and market share.As an example for the highly competitive market, the image below shows the current competition situation on the search engine market in China.There are already eight providers only for search engines on the market including international companies like Yahoo and Google. The low market share of these international companies underlines the fact, that there are still restrictions from the government concerning the fu lly market entry of these companies.Image : China Search Engine Market Share in August 201330Even if governmental regulations already have relaxed a bit, Chinese Internet sector faces still a lot of restrictions. Chinas Internet companies benefit by this, because many foreign websites are still blocked and they are not exposed to powerful competitors like Facebook. This in consequence creates the possibility to develop and strengthen own applications. On the other hand it could become a threat as soon as the government decides to abolish this restrictions. Chinese Internet companies then have to face the full international competition against global players as for example Google.31 After giving this overview about the external and internal environment the next chapter will use this information by concluding recommendations about Tencent’s future strategy.3.3 SWOT-Analysis and RecommendationsTencent entered the Internet market in many different dimensions and accordingly place s their product and service offering. Due to the previous analysis, there are especially three main product categories where Tencent should use their opportunities in further expansion. Firstly, Tencent should, due to the growth-intensive market segment, expand their e-commerce offer by developing for instance their website Papai.com. To even attract more possible Internet shoppers, they also should expand their online advertisement services. Thus, they can make use of synergies they already created through their broad offers, by linking their advertisements services with the shopping sites they own. This second measure, leads to the creation  of new potential profit zones.Thirdly, Tencent should not only focus on expanding existing offers but also develop new products, as for instance in the sector of cloud computing. By doing so, they can fully exhausting governmental support. Taking into consideration, that the market will be opened up in the long-term, Tencent should emphasis their innovation process on new products and services for the national and also international market. This should not be very difficult to accomplish, since Tencent disposes of a highly experienced workforce in Research and Development. This in consequence will enable the company to expand international and compete with other global players. If Tencent wants to keep their position as the third largest Internet company in the world they have to continue growing their business. Considering the slower growing Internet population in China, Tencent needs to go international to keep their growing position.Tencent did this by investing in foreign companies as for instance in the case of FAB.3233 This expansion should be continued in order to gain international market share and increase their portfolio in other Internet based services, as well as to improve their overall operational capability. Another possibility to do so is by expanding through strategic alliances†¦ By building strat egic business partnerships within China and gaining market share in several sectors Tencent is also able to fend the threat of market entry by international Internet companies in turn. Tencent furthermore has got a highly influence on the communication world in China as one of the oldest Internet company and built already a lot of barriers for international companies.Taking the messenger service QQ as an example for the mostly used messenger in China it enjoys a very high customer liability. Consequently Tencent could prevent loosing their position in China because although of the feared abolishment of several governmental restrictions concerning the entry of international companies. Additionally Tencent should try to avoid that QQ gets more and more the look of WeChat. As already explained, this could tempt users to change to competitors because of confusion. In this case, Tencent should favor cannibalization by offering differentiated products of the same purpose, to avoid losing costumers to competitors. The image below shows a summery of the named points and what the SWOT-Analysis and recommendations for the Tencent Holdings Limited contain.Image 2: SWOTs of Tencent Holdings Limited344 ConclusionInternet business in China is still one of the fastest growing industries in the world and Tencent used and uses this opportunity a lot in expanding existing products, launching new services and developing better solutions for the internet population in general. These actions are supported by the try of going more and more international. Even though the external environment analysis showed that the Internet market is influenced by many factors, which co-determines the performance of Tencent an all the other Internet companies. To reach the best performance they could get, Tencent has to use its strengths and to improve its weaknesses to make the best out of every trend, meaning using opportunities and fending threats.To summarize what the work pointed out in the pr evious chapter, Tencent shouldTencent should expand their e-commerce and their online advertisement services. Moreover there is a big opportunity to create national and international strategic businesses trough the investments or the development of own innovations, which should be easily possible due to he strong research and development activity of Tencent. Additionally to that, Tencent already is the third largest Internet company worldwide, which makes it easier for them to enter international markets and gaining new customers all around the world.Regarding the governmental aspects, Tencent needs to use the supports given by the government and stress the development of new systems. Furthermore Tencent should definitely try to further build their market entry barriers. As a conclusion, the SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited showed, that the company is rightly positioned at the top in the world ´s largest Internet market, due their numerous strengths. But in times of liber alization, globalization and an almost satisfied domestic market, Tencent has to fight against the identified threats in the upcoming years.

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The Celsus Library essays The construction of the Celsus Library was ordered by Council Julius Aquila in the name of his father Julius Celsus Palemaeanus. It was built in 110 A.D. The Celsus Library is one of the most spectacular buildings in Ephesus. The tomb of Julius Celsus Palemaeanus can be found in a special-made room on the ground floor. On the outside it has two floors, and in the inside it has only one 15 m. Salon. Light comes in through the windows scattered on the walls and the three floored galleries. The entry to the library was through the 9 step stone stairs from the Currettes Road and reaching to the podium which was base to the four double Corinthian columns supporting the building. These columns stand on square shaped pedestals. Right behind the columns after a narrow walk-way there were three gates. The middle one is wider and higher than the others. The decoration of the front totally reflects the Roman architectural style and is the most beautiful examples of its time. The four woman statues found between the columns of the front symbolize the elements of Mind, Fate, Knowledge and Virtue. The originals of these statues are found in the Vienna Museum today. The parsomen book rolls used to be protected from the humidity with shelves closed by brick on both sides. This library brought up counted scien tists and philosophers of the world in its time. The front of library has greatly attained its old appearance with the restorations of the past years. The interior of the library, measuring 10.92m by 16.72m, is lined with decorative marble. The section of the west wall over Celsus' remains is aspidal. A statue of Celsus, or of his son, was found during excavation and is still on exhibition in Istanbul at the Archeology Museum and was thought to have rested in this niche. On the walls were niches for the scrolls of the library ...

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