India s Production Of Shale Gas - 3074 Words

University of Pittsburgh Joseph Graduate School of Business Maria Beatriz Alcantara de Miranda Challenges in the Production of Shale Gas in the United States and in Logistics and Transportation of Natural Gas in Russia Research presented to the GRP: Global Energy – Competing Perspectives from Western PA to Eastern Europe course, taught by Prof. Susan M Hicks. Pittsburgh June 2015 ABSTRACT This research report examines the challenges in the production of Shale Gas in the United States and In Logistics and Transportation of Natural Gas in Russia in the past recent years and the future challenges for the Energy industry. This report is based on information catered by the many lecturers during the course and†¦show more content†¦Contents Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 Natural and Shale Gas†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 Challenges and Opportunities of Conventional and Unconventional Gas†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.7 Conclusions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.14 References †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.15 Challenges in the Production of Shale Gas in the United States and In Logistics and Transportation of Natural Gas in Russia INTRODUCTION The most vital industry of our time is the energy industry. It provides energy to all other industries and improves the quality of people’s lives. Energy helps us produce and preserve all basic necessities like food, fuel for transportation, power to keep machinery working and communication technology accessible. Energy is found in a number of different forms as chemical energy, electrical energy, thermal energy, solar energy, mechanical energy, and nuclear energy. The future of the energy industries holds many responsibilities toward creating new technologies to explore and transport energy to its final consumer respecting natural resources and minimizing harmful environmental impact. The concerns on environmental impacts of the energy production systems have made many countries take an extremely large amount of time developing policies that regulate the energy industry. Those policies aim to control

Principles of Management Total Quality Management Free Essays

Total Quality Management (TQM) has been around for several years. The concept is being applied to business and industry processes for the purpose of quality improvement. Many businesses feel that TQM is only for large manufacturing type businesses or major industries. We will write a custom essay sample on Principles of Management: Total Quality Management or any similar topic only for you Order Now (Lee p1) TQM can be used for everyone with managers and employees. Certainly everyone involved with customer service. It is important to recognize the TQM and assessment are made up of identifiable, measurable components. Proper orientation to and understanding of the TQM philosophy, team development, problem solving techniques, and statistical process control must be the mission of everyone in any organization. (Lee p1) The wall street journal has twice reported on the struggling efforts of companies trying to improve overall quality and customer satisfaction. (Chaudron p2) Management must realize that to fully implement TQM, satisfy customers, and promote teamwork in the entire organization, often wrenching systemic changes must be made: profit sharing may be introduced; individual performance appraisals may be radically changed or eliminated; organizational structure may be realigned away from functions to a customer process or geographic – based structure, information may be given to employees formerly reserved for senior management; and significantly more authority may be given to line employees. (Chaudron p2) If management does not align these systems, the effect will result in much struggle and confusion. Organizations need to spend time on the design of their efforts. If they do not, they risk pouring time and dollars into and effort that will eventually collapse. Among the decisions that should be made up – front, before implementing a quality effort are: measures of success, the degree of employee involvement, the depth and breadth of immpleementation, and the techniques to be used. (Chaudron p2) As someone once said, â€Å"If you don†t like where are are going, you may not like getting there.† A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. They need to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management. (Deming p1) A leader of transformation, and managers involved, need to learn the psychology of individuals, the psychology of a group, they psychology of society, and the psychology of change. (Deming p1) Changing behaviors is probably the most critical area in the process of change. People do not necessarily resist change. They resist being changed. It is important to give people time to understand the true needs and the process of change. Leaders promote open communication and clear visionss of the organizations future. The stronger culture values towards the market place, the less need for policy, instructions, organizational charts etc. Leaders empower and involve people to achieve the organization†s objectives. (Deming) TQM has been proven to work in many types of businesses such as Health Care facilities, Universities, multi million dollar corporations and small businesses. Can the concepts of TQM be applied to Hotel management operations? The Hotel industry is a very competitive business, based almost solely on customer satisfaction. Hotels have been feeling much more pressure in the past decade; they have been feeling a sense of crisis. Crisis that is caused due to th increasing number of new hotels being built up and down the interstates. An old hotel must use the concepts of TQM to keep themselves in the forefront of customer minds. To make the TQM philosophy work in the hotel industry, you must have continuos commitment from all levels of employees. Corporate owner, general managers, department managers, shift supervisors and hourly employees. The commitment must be to embrace and implement the philosophy of Deming and the principles of TQM on a daily basis. The focus must be on the processes of the organization and on providing leadership. Above all this commitment must be consistent. Owners and management must decide together and implement methods that can bring about change in the processes that produce product (room style and cleanliness) and service (customer satisfaction ) for the hotel. Management must review its mission and challenge suppervisors and employees to identify their respective departments philosophies, goals, objectives, and expected outcomes. If they don†t know the results they desire, assessment is meaningless. Once this is accomplished, techniques can be identified to measure quality improvement and to reduce the variation of outcomes. Commitment to quality is essential if companies are to succeed in a commercial environment. If you look at a 30 year old hotel and compare it to several new hotels, the older one better offer something of good quality and with excellent customer service. Competing with brand new is tough in this day and age. Customers want the best, they expect the best. TQM style will help bring out the best in any company. Comparing management styles of two hotels, brings about some interesting discoveries. One that used the TQM philosophy and the other that did not. The most obvious difference was the attitudes of the employees. The TQM hotel has employees that feel like they are the hotel. The same projection was received from the housekeeping staff as for the guest service agents. The general manager does not call them employees he calls them team members. They have team meetings, they all realize the importance of each job and each of them cross train for the other positions. The general manger has empowered the employees to make decisions on behalf of the business. They all have support from corporate managers and district managers. With this franchised hotel they all support each other. They try to keep their workplace fun with contest and monetary winnings. These employees enjoy coming to work and try to make each day better than the last. When the hotel succeeds so do the employees. The hotel without TQM present does not run the same at all. Employees come to work to fill their shifts. They make the same amount of money whether the hotel is full or empty. Empowerment is not a work that is recognized. All departments are separate and do not necessarily work together. The manager does much more managing and works harder because everything that happens is brought to them. When shown the difference between the hotels we are also forced to look at which one fares better in the community. With out a doubt the TQM hotel surpassed the other hotel. Suggestions to make TQM work for everyone.  · Make a personal self-examination regarding your willingness and discipline to alter day-to-day management behaviors in such a way that the organization is ever mindful of the strategic importance of TQM.  · Establish agreed upon quality measurements, followed by widespread search for the best performers to measure against.  · See out customer feedback and objectively measure their concerns.  · Work with employees to help them understand the strategic importance of new TQM activities and to buy into the process.  · Don†t go overboard. Focus on a few processes and their characteristics.  · Create an organization that is capable of learning from itself in the quest for continuos quality improvement in the strategic process Quality management principles are a comprehensive and fundamental rule of belief, for leading the operation and organization, aimed at continually improving performance over the long term by focusing on customers while addressing the needs of all stake holders. (Quality Management) These principles used in hotel management could take you to the competitive edge. Principle 1 – Customer Focused Organization: organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, meet customer requirements, and strive to exceed customer expections. Principle 2 – Leadership: Leaders establish unity of purpose, direction, and the internal environment of organization. They create that environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization†s objectives. Principle 3 – Involvement of People: People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization†s benefit. Principle 4 – Process Approach: A desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources and activities are managed as a process. Principle 5 – System Approach to Management: Identifying, understanding, and managing a system of interrelated processes for a given objective contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. Principle 6 – Continual improvement: Continual improvement is a permanent objective of the organization. Principle 7 – Factual Approach to Decision Making: Effective decisions and actions are based on the logical and intuitive analysis of data and information. Principle 8 – Mutually Beneficial supplier Relationships: Mutually beneficial relationship between organizations and its supplier enhance the ability of both organizations to create value. (Quality Management) If all principles are applied with effective management, they will most certainly do a whole lot of good to create a better atmosphere for more effective people. Changing behaviors is probably the most critical area in the process of change. Leaders should empower and involve employees to achieve the organization†s objectives. Continuous improvement is a mindset, a way of doing business. We are never good enough; we can always be better. This is an ethic and an aspiration. (CIDR) On the other side of the coin, not everyone agrees with the whole TQM concept. In an article by Robert A Zawacki, Carol A. Norman, Paul A. Zawacki and Paul D Applegate, they say that total quality programs are a bust because TQM programs try to implement 9,000 new practices simultaneously. Their conclusions were (1) Involve everyone in the process, and (2) be willing to change everything, but concentrate on one thing at a time. They believe that most continuos improvement and partnering programs are failing because individual contributors are overworked, lack alignment and feel devalued by their leaders. In their opinion the error that many leaders made in the 1990†³s , in their rush to embrace the total quality movement, was that although they recognized the importance of quality they put more efforts into planning than they did into implementation and follow-up. (Zawacki p1) TQM can work with efforts of everyone. From the highest paid to the lowest paid. Everyone in the company is important. Jobs will be better, people will be happier and customers more satisfied. That spells better business and more business. Everyone wins. All it takes is commitment. How to cite Principles of Management: Total Quality Management, Essay examples

How Volvo Evolve in the Changing Market free essay sample

BK 3037 Strategic Marketing Question 1: PESTEL Answer: Political One of the macro-environment factors which influencing Volvo’s strategy is the large taxation toward automotive trade by the government. Government is putting in place taxation structures that penalize large cars, with large CO2 emission. According to the case, Volvo’s biggest seller was its XC range, now being particularly successful in America, where big cars typically equated to big success. This government acts is encouraging consumers to move to hybrid or fuel efficient cars from big cars because the selling price of big cars would be more expensive when governments impose larger taxation on large vehicles. Consequently, the demand for big cars would drop significantly as consumers would prefer smaller cars due to high price sensitivity level and benefits gained from the government on smaller cars (Yoon and Tran, 2011). Therefore, large taxation on large cars will affect the sales and revenues of Volvo who mostly sells big cars. Legal The enforcement of US government toward the safer initiatives for automobile industry has challenged most of the automobile manufacturer which included Volvo. Therefore recently, Volvo invested heavily in safety research and development; its Goteberg Safety centre is world-renowned. Hence, Rudall (2011) emphasizes that the cost per unit of car has increased as research and development require a lot of experiments and tests to assure the performance. Besides that, research and development in new products involves a risk of whether the consumers will like the new features that have been added to the new or existing product. The more Volvo invests in research and development, the less cash flow they have in hand, thereby affecting the smooth running of daily operations. Economic Oil is the major ingredient in the production of tires. According to Li and Zhao (2011), increase in oil prices means that the cost to make the tires also increases. These tire production affects the Volvo as the increase in the price in tire production affects their profit margin. Additionally, rising commodity prices also affects Volvo’s strategy as 1 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing he raw materials for automotive industry are basically rubber and steel. Since, the prices of these commodities have gone up; Volvo would have to spend more money to purchase the auto component to make the entire cars. The higher the price Volvo purchases these commodities, the higher the selling price that Volvo would have to charge their customers. If they were to transfer the cost to their customers, there is a possibility that customers would shift to Volvo’s competitors as customers are very price sensitive (Lee and Cheong, 2011). Hence, the sales and profits of Volvo will decline and they might lose market share. Moreover, with the rising price of oil in the American market, sales and revenues of Volvo has dropped dramatically because their main business comes from fuel grueling SUV’s. With the increasing fuel prices, the trend has shifted from bulky cars to smaller and fuel efficient cars, thus, Volvo will be faced with many competitors such as Toyota while dealing with satisfying their customer demand (Hilmola, 2011), and hence, it affects the profit margins of Volvo. Moreover, increased oil prices is affecting the type of vehicles demanded by the customer and the way those vehicles are designed. According to Xia and Tang (2011), since there is a big shift from SUVs to fuel efficient or hybrid cars due to the rise of fuel prices, the problem of manufacturing overcapacity has incurred, where supply is more than demand, thereby, sharply dropping the SUV price. Additionally, when Volvo lowers down the selling price of SUVs, the profit margins of each car will become smaller, as their selling price might just be sufficient to cover the total cost of the production. Besides, when supply is more than demand, they would need more space or bigger warehouse to store the cars, and hence, higher cost of storage would incurred. Consequently, it forces Volvo to change their strategy to produce fuel efficient cars instead of SUVs. Environmental Furthermore, the community realizes that the transportation sector is becoming increasingly linked to environmental problems. With a technology relying heavily on the combustion of hydrocarbons, notably with the internal combustion engine, the impacts of transportation over environmental systems has increased with motorization (Bernon, et al. 2011). According to case study, Volvo’s main strategy is to produce SUVs but the consumers are engaging with environmental concerns where they are 2 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing demanding from fuel-efficient cars that release less pollution and absorb lesser fuel. Hence, this forces Volvo to offer Flexi-Fuel (combination of Petrol and Ethanol) in certain geographic mark ets in order to catch up the latest trend. Due to this reason, Volvo has to spend vast amount of money to purchase new raw materials and develop the technology to produce fuel-efficient cars to meet the current demand. Under such conditions maintaining market share and customers is difficult as the selling price needs to be lower to beat the competition, thereby, forcing Volvo to absorb the production costs (Needles, et al. , 2010). Social On the other hand, the changing social culture is affecting Volvo’s strategy as well. There are declining birth rates in Europe, smaller families and more couples choosing to remain childless. This demographic change has influenced Volvo significantly as their main product, SUVs, as it is suited well for big-size families. However, due to the increase of nuclear families consumers are willing to purchase smaller cars because of their small family size and smaller cars consume less petrol, thus it saves cost (Gwartney, et al. , 2008). In addition, many cars on the road today are used by just single occupants, commuting to work. Hence, the socio-cultural changes affect Volvo business strategy as the demand for SUVs is declining but demand for smaller and fuel-efficient cars is increasing. Besides that, they have to invest a big amount of money to do research and development for fuel-efficient cars in order to compete with Toyota for market share. Baumol and Blinder (2011) emphasizes that heavy RD will lead Volvo to incur higher cost of production and profit margin will decline as they cannot sell the cars at a high price since to their competitor (Toyota) is offering reasonable price for fuel-efficient cars. Technological Technological factor plays an important role in automotive industry because consumers always demand for better and higher quality technologies in their cars so that the technologies can help consumers to save petrol, bring greater convenience to them, and ensure their safety (Hage, 2011). Based on the case study, Volvo took the first step as the pioneers of the safety cage, crumble zones, side-impact protection, antilock brakes, whiplash protection, and airbags. As the first mover, Volvo is able to 3 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing enjoy great profits before their competitors come out with the similar technologies but with lower prices or better quality (Aswathappa, 2005). Hence, Volvo would have to invest heavier in RD to develop innovative technologies that create the safest most exciting car experience to customers. Additionally, Volvo also needs to invest in RD for fuel-efficient cars as it is the current of the market. If Volvo fails to produce hybrid or fuel-efficient cars with a reasonable price, they will lose market share due to competitors are offering customers with the demanded products (fuel-efficient cars) (Schwartz, et al. , 2010). Heavy RD is required from Volvo and at the same time they cannot charge higher prices, and hence, the profit margin of Volvo will be smaller. 4 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing Question 2: Five Forces framework Answer: Five Forces framework included the bargaining power of supplier and buyer, threat of substitute, threat of new entrants and power of rivalry. Any changes from any of the forces will bring huge impact to an industry. As the world is going to global, competition arise and it make the five forces framework even more competitive and it affect the global automobile market directly. Bargaining power of buyer Bargaining power of buyer are referring to the negotiation power or influencing power of the buyers toward the prices charge by a company (Jones and Hill, 2010), the buyer of the automobile company may refer to the end user of the automobile. As year by year, there are more and more new players joining the market of automobile. One of the reason contributes to high bargaining power of buyer is low switching (Jones and Hill, 2010). As times past, there are more and more players join to the automobile industry. For example, U. S’s automobile market shares which used to dominate by the Big Three (Ford Motor Company (Ford), General Motors Corporation (GM) and DaimlerChrysler (DC)) had been taken over by foreign brands such as Honda, Toyota and Mitsubishi in 2005 (Gopal, n. d. ). Hence, this provides larger range of choices for the consumers and this makes the buyers have high bargaining power toward the industry. Since there are more choices in the market, consumers’ dependency toward the particular brands will decrease, as the product does not fulfil the customers’ expectation, they might switch to another brand with low or even non switching cost. For example, as according to research, the sale of new car in U. S market has increase, as people are willing to pay for better quality cars (Gopal, n. d. ). The world now is moving to the environmental friendly site, thus, most of the automobile firms are facing challenge by switching their focus from big car, large engine to fuel-efficient engine. Beside, due to the availability of information, buyers nowadays are more educated and they are very concerning about the effect of the automobile to the environment and this has relatively increase their bargaining power as buyer. For example, there are more than 100 type of motor magazine in the market 5 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing which provides reliable and sufficient information for consumers (Gopal, n. d). Since the switching cost of the buyers is low due to the fierce competition, buyers’ brand loyalties have decrease. Bargaining power of supplier Bargaining power of supplier is referring to the negotiation power of the supplier for the business which may include supplier of human resource, supplier of raw material, and other outsourcing partners (Jones and Hill, 2010). For the auto component supply industry, the bargaining powers of suppliers are relatively low, as there are many available suppliers of raw materials in the market, the switching cost of the cars manufacturer to other suppliers are low or even none. For example, large automobile manufacturers such as GM, Ford and Toyota have strong bargaining power as they always purchase the raw material in large quantities (Jones and Hill, 2010). The sizes of auto components are typically small (Ahmadjian and Lincoln, 1997), meanwhile the big players are able to use the threat of manufacturing a component themselves rather than buying it from auto component suppliers to played off suppliers against each other, forcing them to lower down the price and increase the quality (Ahmadjian and Lincoln, 1997). Hence, we can say that the bargaining powers of auto component suppliers are relatively low. Unlike air line industry, which the air line are highly depend toward the suppliers, automobile manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda or Volvo, it has own research and development department (RD) which helps in exploring all the latest technology. It contributes in lowering down the dependency toward the suppliers as suppliers merely involve in supplying raw material instead of important technologies as like Boeing (air plane manufacturer) and other air line. Hence, in short, the bargaining powers of suppliers are relative low as the low dependency toward the suppliers and the threat of switching to other suppliers always work as a strong bargaining tool for the automobile manufacturers. Threat of Substitution This refers to the product of different businesses or industry that can satisfy similar customer needs (Jones and Hill, 2010). For automobile industry, due to the increasing 6 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing number of public transport and other way of transportation, the demand toward automobile has gone down. For example, as according to research, nowadays people might choose to take public transport as their daily transport instead of own private car due to cost and environmental issues (Eboli and Mazzulla, 2008). Beside as government is placing pressure toward the environmental issue, public transports are being well develop day by day (Eboli and Mazzulla, 2008), and it actually decrease the dependency of owing a private car. In addition, as the social-culture has changed, people nowadays are reluctant to give birth and hence it decreases the willingness of consumer to own a car. As according to research, the birth rate of developed countries such as Japan, Korea and State are relatively low and it actually affected the several industries and this included automobile industry (Powell and Hendricks, 2009). In this case we can justify that only small part of the automobile industry are highly affected by the substitution, however, for those luxury brands such as Volvo, BMW or Audi, their target markets are hardly affect by the improvement toward the public transport (Svensson and Wagner, 2011). In short, the threat of substitution toward the automobile industry is not high as it merely affected those below middle-income. Threat of New entrant New entrant may refer to potential competitors that are not currently competing in an industry but have the capability to do so if they choose so (Jones and Hill, 2010). As refer back to the case, the automobile industry has facing increasing deregulation; this had broken down the entry barrier for new entrance. For example, Volvo needs to compete with not only the local market players but also the Asia market player such as Toyota since there entry barrier of foreign brands to the local market had been broken down. As more new entrance coming into the market, the switching cost of the consumer from one brand to another brand is even lower than before (Che and Seethu, 2008). Hence, there deregulation may affect partly of the industry but not whole. Firstly, setting up a new automobile manufacturing company requires huge capital injection which decreases the willingness of new player to enter the industry. This may due to the high risk of huge capital injection and hence potential companies dare not to grab the opportunity. Beside there are already few strong players in the automobile manufacturer industry such as GM, Ford, Toyota and Honda, which have 7 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing already gain certain economic of scale in term of buying large quantity of auto components (Xia and Tang, 2011), and this had build barrier of entry for potential players. In short, the threat of new entrant is low as it is high risk business. Rivalry among established companies It refers to the current struggle between companies in an industry to gain market share from each other (Jones and Hill, 2010). For automobile industry, the rivalry is intensified due to the high exit cost and the industry demand. As mentioned earlier, the set up cost of an automobile manufacturer is relatively high and hence this has created exit barrier. Hence, even the business of an automobile manufacturer is bad; it will still lock into the industry where overall demand is static or declining (Jones and Hill, 2010). For example, GM, had struggled in the industry for more than 8 years due to declined sale, because of the high exit cost, it had been locked within the industry (Terlep, 2011). Besides, the declining demand from customers as mentioned earlier had contributed to intensify the rivalry as well. As consumers are reluctant to buy a new car due to environmental issue or declining birthrate, it actually forcing the automobile manufacturers to play off against each other for larger market shares (Eboli and Mazzulla, 2008). Hence, we can conclude that the rivalry among the established companies of automobile industry is intensified due to the declining demand and high exit cost. 8 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing Question 3: Answer: There are many different brands of vehicles. As to stand with one foot crossed in front of the other competitors, Volvo has adopted the focused differentiation strategy (Dinitzen, 2010). A focused differentiation strategy is aimed at a niche group of customers with unique tastes (Schermerhorn, 2010). The cars produced by Volvo are targeted at a niche market of safety conscious upscale families. These upscale buyers of Volvo are those who value Volvos reputation for durability, and are willing to pay high dollars for this Swedish brand of luxury. Volvo has differentiated their cars by adding additional features that are not available on other cars. Their cars are known as extremely safe cars for families due to the design, which its innovation in car safety enhancements, being pioneers of the safety cage, crumble zones, side-impact protection, antilock brakes, whiplash protection, and airbags, as stated in the case. One primary means of differentiating Volvo’s cars is through its research and development department to produce cars model that exude quality, performance and safety which emphasize on creating luxury automotive brand for family sector. This can be seen from the case that the model of XC90 is well-designed with a large SUV and the price range from ? 33,000 to ? 54,000. However, Volvo continually develops and adds new features that increase values to customers. Some recent innovation of Volvo’s that differentiates their products is Volvo’s sporty hatchback S30 which the engine and brake system of the S30 is designed differently from any compact executive hatch class cars in existence and is destined to compete against high-end versions of VW’s Golf. This shows Volvo attempted to broaden their target market by attracting younger drivers to their car marque (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2007) and Volvo sees their future as delivering safe, premium and exciting driving suitable for families. At the same time, Volvo has reached a level of maturity, by providing a better balance between sportiness and comfort, and also achieved high level of safety. Besides using focus differentiation strategy, Volvo should use differentiation strategy with a little of expansion strategy. A differentiation strategy depends on developing resources that set the company’s offer apart in a way that is meaningful and difficult 9 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing to duplicate (Lowy and Hood, 2004). This can be achieved through keeping ahead of competition, satisfying customer’s wants and also expectations better than business rivals (Moynihan and Titley, 2001). Volvo’s cars consist of those attractive features which meet customers exact demands in terms of passenger comfort, driving safety and total economy. This enables Volvo to sell their cars at a premium price and satisfy the unique needs or preferences of customers (Hills and Jones, 2007). Furthermore, people are becoming more conscious about what they are buying, and are more environmentally and safety conscious too in today’s trends (Aarts, 2010). This means that quality work is a crucial part of all areas in their global organisation from product development and design to purchasing, manufacturing, sales and service. Therefore, Volvo should expand their products and focus on product innovation that developing product features that customer value to prevent eroding the current market and increase overall sales and profits (Hunt, 2003). This is to ensure that in case the existing market for the type of product that Volvo offers is already saturated and there are convenient ties to other product types. This strategy helps reduce overall business risk by offering products in a variety of customer categories. With this, Volvo may build up a brand name that evokes the feeling of safety and luxury in an expanding market base. The uniqueness of Volvo may insulate the company from competitive rivalry and reduce customer sensitivity toward price increases. Consequently, these will increasingly affluent public and they will become more famous and trusting of automotive industry. 10 BK 3037 Strategic Marketing Reference List Aarts, L. (2010) Feeding People. United Kingdom: Academy Press. Aswathappa, A. (2005) International Business. nd ed. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Baumol, W. J. and Blinder, A. S. (2011) Economics: Principles and Policy. 12th eds. Ohio: Cengage Learning. Bernon, M. , Rossi, S. and Cullen, J. (2011) ‘Retail reverse logistics: A call and grounding framework for research’, International Journal of Physical Distribution Logistics Management, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 484-510. Dinitzen, H. B. (2010) Organisational Theory: A Practical Approach. Denmark: Hans Reitzels Forlag. Eboli, L. and Mazzulla, G. (2008) ‘Willingness to pay of public transport users for improvement in service quality’, European Transport. Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 107-118. Gwartney, J. D. , Stroup, R. L. , Sobel, R. S. and MacPherson, D. (2008) Economics: Private and Public Choice. 12th eds. Ohio: Cengage Learning. Hage, J. (2011) Restoring the Innovation Edge: Driving the Evolution of Science and Technology. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Hills, C. W. L. and Jones, G. R. (2007) Strategic management: an integrated approach. USA: Cengage Learning. Hilmola, O. P. (2011) ‘Benchmarking efficiency of public passenger transport in larger cities’, Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 23-41. 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Master Essays - English-language Films, Afrikaner People

Master Harold And The Boys Athol Fugard's "'Master Harold' . . . and the Boys" is about Hally, a white young man, and the damage done by apartheid and alcoholism. The play takes place on the southeast cost of South Africa, 1950, in Hally's parents' restaurant. This is where two black servants, Sam and Willie, work for the white family. Sam and Willie have been a part of Hally's upbringing and are close friends. Hally has educated Sam with the knowledge acquired from school textbooks, but Sam has been trying to teach Hally vital lessons necessary for a healthy lifestyle. With a racist environment and a boorish alcoholic as a father, Sam has been a positive role model for Hally. The question would be, could Sam's influence outweigh the negative environment, shaping the confused boy? There are symbols in the play that illustrate the stimuli contributing to the answer. In "'Master Harold' . . . and the Boys", one can examine the kite, dance, bench, and disease; these are the symbols of the conflicting forces competing for Hally's future. The kite is an object symbolic of transcendence. Even as a child, Hally had an ingrain sense of defeat, disappointment, and failure; that is why Sam made him the kite. He wanted the little boy to be proud of something, proud of himself. Sam gave to him the phenomena of flying, the ideology of climbing high above his shame. The kite triggered neurotic thoughts but exhilarated the despairing boy. "This is it," I thought. "Like everything else in my life, here comes another fiasco." Then you shouted "Go, Hally!" and I started to run. I don't know how to describe it, Sam. Ja! The miracle happened! I was running, waiting for it to crash to the ground, but instead suddenly there was something alive behind me at the end of the string, tugging at it as if it wanted to be free. I looked back . . . I still can't believe my eyes. It was flying. . . I was so proud of us. . . I would have been suicidal if anything had happened to it"(Fugard, pp.1691-92). The kite conjured up ideas and feelings of believing in miracles, of being alive, and free. Sam left Hally up on the hill, with the a sense of pride, beside the bench. Hally wondered why Sam had left him alone that day. The two of them were up there for a long time; the only bench on the hill read "whites only". The bench is the symbol of apartheid, division, hatred, and racism. It is apartheid that Hally hides behind as he uses Sam and Willie as his scapegoat. Hally is filled with so much rage over his father, he is torn between love and hate. When the conflict supernovas, Hally lashes out on his two black friends. He tries to pretend they are not friends by acting strictly like a boss. Carrying on with this little man routine, Hally asks Sam to call him Master Harold. Sam would only do this if they were no longer friends; Hally would be no different from his father. This is the case for, when he spits in Sam's face, Hally becomes Master Harold. Apartheid is victorious in the corruption of another white male as Hally takes his place on the bench of segregation. "If you're not careful . . . Master Harold . .. you're going to be sitting up there by yourself for a long time to come, and there won't be a kite in the sky"(Fugard, p.1709). Along with the kite and the bench, the dance is another symbol in "'Master Harold' . . . and the Boys". After one of the phone calls that trigger his explosions, Hally, once again, is calmed by the idealistic voice of Sam. They begin talking about the art of dancing and how it can be seen as a metaphor of life. The dance is a symbol of inner harmony, social peace, and a world without violence or aggression. This is an ideal world. Sam points out that none of us know the steps; there is no music playing, but it does not stop the whole world from continuing. Even though there are bumps that leave bruises, life keeps on existing. We should just learn to dance life like champions. Hally, who only has words and books without value, falls in love with this analogy. At least until the next bad bump -- when he has a phone conversation with his father.