We Real Cool Essay Example for Free

We Real Cool Essay 1) Rhyme Gwendolyn Brooks makes great use of rhyme throughout the poem. She uses words such as cool, school, sin, and gin (Brooks 684-685). These are rhymes that appear at the end of lines. The rhyme scheme used compliments the theme, since it is the directed to a young audience. It is known that Brooks is trying to attract a young crowd because she is talking about young people who are supposed to attend school. The poem has an up tempo beat, almost like a rap. This rap-like sound may also help to appeal young readers. 2) Literary Devices  But as if the rhyming werent enough, Brooks also uses alliteration, the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases, usually a consonant. â€Å"Lurk late. We†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Strike straight. We† (684)  Sometimes the rhyming doesnt even stop with the two end words: â€Å"Sing† â€Å"sin† â€Å"thin† â€Å"gin† (685). She also uses dialect, a black dialect. 3) Theme This poem describes the lifestyle of young rebels. They are cool having left school, and die soon. The seven players in the poem were victims of self-destruction. Brooks makes the theme evident to the reader with the use of irony. The first line of the poem reads We real cool (684)and the last line read We die soon (685). So, in other words the pool players were too cool for their own good. Brooks expresses the way she feels about school drop outs in a short, yet forceful poem. 4) We Real Cool is very unique definitely has a powerful message behind it. Gwendolyn Brooks illustrates the essence of troubled teenagers who will eventually suffer the ill-fated possibility that life will render a human being if they continue the lifestyle of the streets — â€Å"Die soon†. The poem was written in 1950 (685) during the struggle for African-American civil rights messages and, to appeal to young African Americans of the time. It expresses the problems and also the dangers which affected the young African-American community; and it serves as a way to help the youth realize the ways of their problems and change themselves for their own good and the good of the community.

Unemployment IA Essay Example for Free

Unemployment IA Essay MADRID: The number of people unemployed in Spain, which has the highest jobless rate in the European Union, fell for the first time for five months in December, the Labor Ministry said Tuesday. There were 4.1 million people registered as jobless last month, down 10,221 or 0.25 percent from November, the biggest decline for the month of December since 2000, it said in a statement. But compared with the total 12 months ago the figure was still up 4.50 percent, or 176,470. December is is normally a weak month, if unemployment lowered in December it is a good jobless figure, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an interview with Onda Cero radio. The government does not provide a jobless rate, but the national statistics institute, which uses a different calculation method from the Labor Ministry, said in October that the rate had dropped to 19.79 percent in the third quarter of 2010 from 20.09 percent in the second. It was the first drop in the unemployment rate since it dipped to 7.95 percent in second quarter of 2007, its lowest level since the country returned to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. The institute will publish fourth quarter unemployment figures on Jan. 28. Last month Zapateros Socialist government announced it was scrapping a 426-euro ($568) per month subsidy for the long-term unemployed as part of austerity measures to slash the public deficit and ease fears that it will need an E.U. bailout like Greece and Ireland. Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10categ_id=3article_id=123230#ixzz1BfNIeF2q (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb) Unemployment Internal Assessment For the first time in many months Spain is experiencing an unemployment rate drop, even though it is the country in Europe with the highest unemployment rate. Unemployment is an economic condition when people seeking jobs remain unhired, and is expressed as a percentage of total available work force. The type of unemployment Spain has been seeing is cyclical unemployment. Cyclical unemployment is usually related to the national output of a country, this is because when national output is high, the work force is also high meaning that cyclical unemployment is low, and vice versa. Cyclical unemployment is usually described as the result of businesses not having enough demand for labour to employ all those who are looking for work. The recession caused aggregate demand to fall, meaning that consumers are spending less money on goods and services. Recession is defined as a period of economic decline, usually accompanied by a drop in stock, increase in unemployment, and a decline in housing market. Aggregate demand is the sum of all demand in an economy, and can be calculated by using gross domestic product (GDP) of a country, and is represented by the formula: (AD) = C + I + G (X-M). This graph illustrates some of the effects of the recession on a countrys economy. As shown aggregate shifts from AD to AD1, this is because the consumers are spending less money during the recession period making the demand on products less, also this moves the equilibrium from E1 to E2, causing a movement along the supply curve. When people are buying less goods, firms are not required to produce as many goods, meaning that less work is required and causing unemployment in most cases. As the graph illustrates DL (Labour demanded) shifts left to DL1, because of the firms and companies not needing as much work force as before. This leads to a change in the equilibrium point moving from E1 to E2. As the equilibrium point shifts, this makes both the wage rate and number of workers decrease, the space between Q2 and Q1 is the amount of workers who have become unemployed during the recession. When looking at the graph this should show that the average wage rate would fall as well to match E2, but the wages will stay the same because of wage stickiness. This means that since wages do not fall, the actual number of unemployed people is between Q1 and Q3. Wage stickiness means that wages and prices do not instantly or even quickly adjust to changes in demand or supply during recessions. This is because it is proved that cutting wages during a recession would hurt morale in most companies, making the employed workers less efficient at their job. Wage stickiness can be looked at from two aspects, the short and long run. In the short run only minor differences would be seen, but in the long run they might fall/grow slowly. Even though the recession caused unemployment in Spain, during December in 2010 the unemployment rate fell. The cause of unemployment falling could be linked to the season. During the Christmas season, the demand for normal and luxury goods are high, this means that the demand for labour would also increase because of the sudden change in consumption of goods. A luxury good, is a good or service that is not essential but makes life more enjoyable. As the demand for labour increases, the unemployed workers will be able to get a job during the season; this is also known as seasonal unemployment. Seasonal unemployment is a type of unemployment that occurs due to the season of the year. The industries affected by seasonal unemployment are tourist industries, fruit picking, and catering firms. This could explain whether the recent unemployment drop in Spain is a phase because of the seasonal unemployment, or if the unemployment rate will continue to fall throughout the year. In either situation it is essential for Spain to focus on the unemployment rate if they are to overcome the recession as fast as possible, and start pumping money into the economy. This is because as mentioned in the article the demand for labour increases as demand for goods increases, this would open job opportunities for unemployed citizens. And as those people will now have a steady income, making them spend more money than before, and helping the economy.

Marketing plan of Tata Nano for UK market

Marketing plan of Tata Nano for UK market Tata is one of the biggest automobile manufacturer in India. Last year they have launch Nano which is the cheapest private car in the world. It is around Rs 1,000,000 which is  £1452.53 approx. Mr Ratan the chairman of Tata Ltd announced Nano model which a common middle class Indian can afford it easily and they called it as the Peoples Car. Nano was launched India 1st April, 2009. It was expected to be on road in July of the same year. It created a buzz in 2008 when it was first shown in an auto exhibition. People were so excited on the launching that on the first day of booking it received 5500 booking. The question arises, what makes Nano so affordable and cheap? Answer to this question Tata made it parts lighter, smaller, took all the shallow parts and changed without compromising the safety and fulfilment of environmental factors. According to Windecker (2005) these situation gives an emphasis the power of society of different cultures. In which low price cars have given high first choice over luxury, SUVs and sports cars. The latest trend has shown that low price cars are more in demand than the others even in the markets like US and UK. The Tata should be focus on the UK market. The reason behind selecting UK market as the primary target market is the status of India as a reasonable means in the market; UK Automobile market has the potential dynamics, potentials and communication similarities which are due to help an Indian company in the UK. The other potential markets that are to be considered are USA and Russia. USA is one of the largest markets in the world countries but th e reason for not considering US market as preferential is because quality requirements are very high and some non tariff obstacles which make it slightly harder for a new competitor to go into this market. The other reason is because the markets level of maturity, experience and competive pressure is quite high. On the other hand in Russian market, there were several factors high taxes on the new competitor etc which do not support an international company like Tata. This reason makes it less eye-catching than the UK market. The main being the development of the country is quiet tentative and dealers market is underdeveloped. The three models Tata Nano available in the market. Tata Nano, Tata Nano CX and Tata Nano LX. All the parts of the models of Nano will be imported to United Kingdom by Tata Industries. The car can be assembled by the factories in Halewood and in Northwest England. Tata Motors already have dealers in East Kent Audi in Kent and White May fair Audi in Greater London. Tata can distribute Tata Nano cars through these distribution centres only. 2.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS: Tata Motors Limited is arguably Indias largest automobile Company; it has revenues of over Rs. 1600 crores last year. Its Commercial vehicles are largest selling vehicles, and also it is ranked in top three in the passenger vehicles segment. Few of Tata vehicles also won the prizes in last three years. Another large announcement was made by Tata regarding their progress in the passenger vehicle segment. In January 2008 Tata announced that, The company would release a $2,500 car that could replace the motor scooters commonly used in developing countries to car around whole families (Carty, USA Today). The company is fourth largest truck and the second largest bus manufacturer in the world. Tata Motors also acquired Fords UK based car brands Jaguar and Land Rover in March 2008(BBC News, 2008). Ratan Naval Tata (Chairman of Tata Group), insist the need for an innovation like Nano is because of the nature of the market and transport of the country. In India availability and quality of mass transport are major problems. The two seated motorcycle is normally considered to be a family vehicle in India, Even though motorcycles are quite dangerous mode of transporting for a family. So with this in mind Tata Nano was created as a safer form of transport. (Pradeep Thakur, 2009) 3.0 Market Summary : The estimated number of cars on the road of United Kingdom more than 28 million, as per the survey more than 35% of the car on the road are low price vehicles. The price of such low price cars are estimated about say  £4500 to  £ 4812, which is almost 3 times higher than the price of TATA Nano.( Svend Hollensen, 2010) 3.1 Target Markets Identifying the target market for launching any product is necessary. So Tata have recognise the lower income group with family, students, first time buyers mainly young population, and used cars buyers as their potential target market. 3.2Positioning The greatest USP of Tata Nano is that it is the worlds cheapest car while being eco friendly as well. The company have not compromise the quality and safety of the car while making it cheapest car. By leveraging Tata Nanos competitive edge the positioning of the product can be achieved: industries Tata Motor who has been in vehicles industries (commercial, passengers utilities) since 1945 is already an experience player in the automobile market. Tata motor has good relationship with more than 100 components suppliers( Jagmohan Raju, 2010). 3.3 Geographics Tata Motors has targeted the urban area market such as London. Because according to the survey more than 60% of cars running in London are in lower price range. Secondary, the presence of Asian Community in London, Tata is a renowned name in automobile sector in India. That can play the fact that the market Tata is entering is not entirely new and it already have brand recognition. 3.4 Distribution review Tata Nano will be positioned as an affordable car in overseas markets same as it was done in Indian market.. The car will be assembled at pre-defined locations as the Easy to assemble kit will be imported from India. The proposed locations are Northwest England and Halewood. Its redistribution to showrooms can be done on regional basis. More than 40 sales offices will be opened throughout United Kingdom. 3.5 Competitor review The main competitors are Volkwagen, Renault, Peugeot, Toyota, BMW, Citroen, Ford, GM (Vauxhall), and Honda. As per the SMMT statistics, top Companies in selling cars in United kingdom are as follows: 4.0 SWOT Analysis: 4.1 Strengths: The first and foremost strength is that the car has low price, stylish, high fuel efficiency and environment friendly (Green House). Tata as company is already a known brand in the world which can create enough brand awareness in people to consider the product. The response of the car was very heart warming in the country of launch which increase the company turn over as well as the trading profit. Weakness The main weakness of the product is lack of luxury quality. And mere perception of the people because of the price of the product. The sophisticated buyer will feel that the product is not worth buying because of its price. The product is not technologically advance and the performance is average in compare to its competitors. 4.3 Opportunities: The product is relatively new. So in this case it can create an opportunity to Tata. As Nano is a nice specimen of Innovation. This is also an opportunity to the company to enhance its global presence. The market demand of lower price cars can also be an opportunity for the company launching the cheapest car in the world. 4.4 Threats: The major threat will be the competitors like Ford and GM. Their product Ka and Astra respectively are already major players in the market. The volatility of fuel price can also be seen as a major threat. The change of legislations and foreign policies can also affect the plan of Tata. The other threat face by the company can be the oil crisis, recession etc. 5.0 Pestle Analysis: 5.1 Political: According to Hormazd sorabjee, a top indian car journalist, Tata Nano is the most eco friendly and politically acceptable car ever launched in the market. It is expected that Nano will pressurize the automobile industry globally for have direct model in its price range. Other automobile manufacturers like Volkswagen have already shown interest by announcing their plans for a model of lower price range. But the cost will be slightly more when the factors like tax and manufacturing costs will be taken into account. The market will be surely affected by the increase in the oil price due the global economic unsteadiness which can also be a major factor. Any increase in the oil prices will affect the sales of luxury car, as it will surely go down. Mintel in 2006 stated because of this issue, an increase in the level demand has been developed towards the car with smaller engine with fuel effieciency. According to KPMG, 2004 Administrative barriers which quality controls and operations requ irements are not to be overlooked and a higher emphasis will be given to all safety measures and emission level which will result in increase in production costs. Because of which profit margin on the product will decrease. Mintel, 2006 stated that the increase of traffic on the road of UK can increase the threat of high capacity overload. Hill in 2002 stated in his article that the political relations between countries of operations can also be the factor which can affect the company. For example if India will cooperate with the UK within the government policy of favourability the UK government can leverage in tariff and non-tariff barriers which can make the entry for the company in UK market easier. The foreign ownership regulations (The market expansion mode (Hill, 2002) the government has remove some regulatory control from large numbers of industries which includes automobile as well. This means that it is up to the foreign companies to choose their mode of expansion the UK according to their preferences. 5.2 Economic: Strategies of pricing and potential profit on investment are the major issues that affect the current as well as the future market growth. These factor are to be considered while selecting a market. The UK market is viewed as a very mature market (Mintel, 2006). According to the present scenario the market is estimated to reach the value of  £31billions. But the overall UK market is experiencing negative growth due to the maturity level of the consumers. Nevertheless due to the impact of certain factors like society and technology the car segments with lower price range have considerable growth prospects. Mintel (2006) claims that there is a significant decrease in the confidence of new cars consumers. The decrease in the rate of GBP has created various confusion for manufactures consumers operating in pounds. The cost of labour in the automobile industry highlighted, the cost factor and capability of direct and indirect costs becomes one of the key issues in maintain advantage. According to the opinion of the industry specialists (KPMG, 2004), the issue that will influence the decision selecting the location the most is the cost of labour. According to the survey (KPMG, 2007), a major importance is given by the company on the cost of labour which can is describe cost of their retirement fund, healthcare and their legal services. The growth of present political and economic boundaries for example European Union, all European Union markets are now considered as a single EU market. This political policy can help Tata motors for entering in various European markets like Italy and France According to estimations of Nieuwenhuis Wells (2003) the European Union attracts the companies as the target market for a car manufacturer will remain high. They claim that the EU as a target market will be maintained to attract the manufacturers because of the increase of its market value and size. 5.3 Social Factors: Demographic factor is one of most important social factors. It affects the risk taking nature, spending power, consumer trends, lifestyle, and value per customer. The change of demographic trends allows the company to construct a plan which suites the particular product. The current demographics have gradually weakened the sales of family cars in the UK. Lifestyles The change of lifestyles and habits of the consumer can have a direct impact on their expenditures; Mintel (2006) also pointed out that in UK recent increase in the culture of having two or more cars in the family. Mintel (2006) adds that the negative effect of market development and increase in the prices of oil is challenge by the impact of change in the lifestyle of the masses. Thus, on the contrary, Tata Nano will experience healthy growth despite a fall in the sales of automobile in the UK. Because our target market will be the high population of students and female drivers in the country, 5.4 Technological Factors: The doors for new transactional options are open by the rapid growth of Internet in the market. Currimbhoy (2004) suggests that because of the constant growth in the areas of technology, like in the fields of communication and digital technologies have formed new opportunities such as e-shopping, new channels for marketing and new tools of marketing research. According to Mintel (2006) the problem in increase in capacity can be tackled by the using e-shopping by the leading car distributors. The growth in the channels of e-exchange between agents will be able to benefit the supply chain strategy of the company. 5.5 Environmental Factors: As per the UK market, Tata Nano is made environmental friendly, Tata also has exceeds measures for regulating standards on safety and pollution. The aim is to make Nano an eco-friendly car for the masses. As per the UK standards the car has been modified by replacing the seatbelts, glass, light, tyres and engine. Speed in miles, Indian road are on klilometre. Accordint to Data monitor, 2006b the car subjected to undertake government official crash tests and is also has to undergo an overall inspection. Then only the car is given approval for sale. After these all inspections the price of the car is expected to increase (Datamonitor, 2006b) 6.0Porters Five Forces: 6.1 Competitors bargaining power: The UK is highly consolidated automobile market. The competition is between Ford, GM (Vauxhall), BMW, Volkwagen, Peugeot, Toyota, Renault, Citroen and Honda. Because of presence of powerful and establish competitors a requirement of product differentiation has been created. According to Mintel (2006) the tough competition in the market introduces a significant price pressure and requires increasing overall promotional costs. The manufacturers had to close certain plants to cut the costs and survive on the market because of the present market conditon. At the moment, the major competitive strategies are new product development, an improvement in supply chain and above all serving the needs of emerging market segments (Mintel, 2006). The emerging requirements demands extremely high level of responsiveness towards operational. 6.2 Buyers bargaining power: In the UK market the buyers experience very strong bargaining power because the intensity competition on the global scale is high and overcapacity issue UK is always on the rise. According to Mintel (2006) A high level of bargain seeking behaviour is shown by the buyers. 6.3 Suppliers bargaining power: Even though Automobile manufacturers have consolidated forming large entities they do not make a significant shift of bargaining power in OEM-suppliers relations. According to Veloso Kumar (2002) a consolidation of different supplier groups is gaining because of the OEM sector. The sections like demand chain partners and large car dealers are experiencing bargaining power because of the overcapacity. 6.4 Threat of substitutes: Apart from direct competition from public transport, the major competition for automobiles are other transport services like taxis. One of the major substitute threats are the second hand cars market.According to Mintel (2006) the steady accumulation of second-hand cars has become one of the major reasons of the dramatic fall of the sales of new cars. 6.5 Threat of New Entrant: The threat of new entrant is minimises because the level of entry barriers like conlosidated industry, RD capability and well developed value added chain are quite high. Nevertheless, because the industry is much globalised, the concept of new entrant is not that clear-cut, new geographical markets are entered by existing manufacturers. Datamonitor (2006) also states that there is not enough measures introduce by EU countries to protect the market if the Chinese manufacturers tried to flood EU markets in the future. 7.0 Marketing Mix Strategy: 7.1 Product Review: There are three variants in the Nano range: Nano, Nano CX and Nano LX Only the Nano CX variant would be introduced in the UK Market for the first stage Tata Nano LX will introduced in the UK Market during the following year The car has achieved its low price by minimizing costs on unnecessary luxuries, the basic Nano comes without front and rear fog lights, with a heater or air conditioning, with anti-lock brakes, only one single windscreen wiper, manually operated windows, manual steering with no air bags, tiny 12 wheels, plastic body parts joined with adhesive instead of more conventional metal and welding and a two cylinder 623 cc engine that provides a massive maximum speed of 65 mph (around 105 km/h). Among the features of the car are: 7.1.1 Stylish and comfortable The design for Nano is made designed by taking a family in mind, has a roomy passenger compartment with generous leg space and head room. It can comfortably adjust four persons. Four doors with high seating position make the people to have more leg and head room. Yet with a length of 3.1 metres, width of 1.5 metres and a height of 1.6 metres, with adequate ground clearance, it can effortlessly manoeuvre on busy roads in cities as well as in rural areas. Its mono-volume design, with wheels at the corners and the power train at the rear, enables it to uniquely combine both space and manoeuvrability, which will set a benchmark among small cars (Pradeep Thakur,2009). 7.1.2 Fuel-efficient engine Nano has a rear-wheel drive, all aluminium, two-cylinder, 523 cc, 33 PS, multi point fuel injection petrol engine. Two-cylinder gasoline engine with a single balancer shaft is used for the first time in any car. The design helps the car to minimise weight, which results in maximising performance for consumed energy and delivers high fuel efficiency. The electronic engine management system controls the performance of the car. 7.1.3 Meets all safety requirements The current regulatory requirements are all taken in consideration in the case of Nano. Nano actually exceeds all safety measures. It has a strong passenger compartment because of an all sheet-metal body, seats belts, intrusion-resistant doors, crumple zones and strong seats. 7.1.4 Environment-friendly Tata motors are known for manufacturing eco friendly in Indian Market. Nano is not different it has tailpipe emission performance exceeds regulatory requirements. Nano has a lower pollution level in comparison to all two-wheelers being manufactured in UK today. The car has low carbon dioxide emissions because of the high emission, thereby benefiting in two an affordable transportation solution with a low carbon footprint. 7.2 Branding By help of branding the consumer can identify manufacturer of a product and them to send the feed of the products performance to the concern manufacturer or distributor. Branding creates a different identity in the products and services from the other. The main task of branding strategies is to convince the consumers that there is a meaningful difference among brands in the product category. In the case Tata Nano, corporate name is combined with products name for the sake of branding. Tata is fourth largest heavy vehicle manufacturer in the world, and it is a good strategies to cash in the brand value of the manufacturer. 7.3 Product Strategy The Tata Nano CX model will be first introduced with a 3 years warranty. The next Tata Nano LX model will be introduced in the following year, because Tata as a brand will be established by then. For all marketing campaigns the brand and logo will be displayed everywhere and on the car as well. 7.4 Pricing Strategies The Cost price is an estimated GBP 2, 420 or equivalent to INR 174,903, which includes import tax, sales tax, duties excise assembly cost and shipment costs. The prices show a strategy by which shares can be taken from more settled competitors. 7.4.1 Setting the price selecting price objectives Major three objectives of Tata should be for an effort to position itself in the UK Automotive market. The objectives are: Survival, maximum current profit and maximum market share. 7.5 Survival Intense competition from UK second car manufacturer, Perodua for a share of the automotive market segment for the below 1,000 cc category will act as an incentive fot Tata Nano. It will ensure that the car covers variable costs as well as some fixed costs. Survival in the case of Nano is a short term objective as in the long run. 7.6 Maximum current profit Tata in UK will set a price that will maximize current profits, cash flow and return on investment, after taking into consideration the demand and costs involved. Because the category of small foreign cars has not been really tested by other manufacturers, therefore the demand is rather difficult to estimate but Tata Nano for having a good response towards its entry into the UK market. 7.7 Maximum Market Share Tata is set to launch low price for a new car in order to attract a maximum number of buyers and a large market share by will implementing the market-penetration pricing in the UK. The cost can be decrease by achieving high volume of sales. This will allow the company to further decrease the price of the product. In the UK car market the low price prodices more market growth, this show the high sensitivity of the market. Tata is also confident that as sales increases the production and distribution costs will also fall. By this Nano will help to keep out competition and maintain its low-price position. The low-price entry will provide all Perodua consumers to have a best alternative. 8.0 PROMOTION STRATEGIES 8.1 Objectives of Promotion Strategies Before determine the promotion strategies, we need to very clear about what are the objectives we need to achieve. We know as above, our missions are to promote Tata nano in a UK and increase the sales quarterly. Tata Nano is very new for UK, they feel fresh with this new brand and concept of this car. Tata Nano will get into market in 2010. Brand awareness and concept/knowledge of this new car should be the companys first and foremost objective for promotion. Tata Nano burst into the worldwide market in the short time because of being so cheap. The advertisement and organize the event or campaign in sufficient detail to establish the good brand attitudes should be done properly because Tata is still new to UK market. For creating a strong brand equity awareness of brand is very important. The second objective should be persuasion through the medium of knowledge. The comparison between Nano and other cars which are more expensive and are not afforded by everyone can approve to be a good marketing tool for Tata Nano. Besides that the scheme of 30 days money return guarantee will also be introduced for the promotional purpose We can also have a 3 years free maintenance scheme for Tata Nano like other major car manufacturers 8.2 Advertising Program The main aim is to inform UK market that Nano is the cheapest car in the world. Create an understanding in the consumer to buy Tata Nano not just because its cheap but also its safe, useful, all in good quality and also environment friendly by developing an advertising program. 8.3 Online Advertisement The online advertisement should the first step taken by the company. Tata Nano already created a Web site www.tatanano.com on March 2009 for a good communication with the concern consumer. In the Web site, all the details of the car and company with images and videos are provided to customers. This can be a good strategy to bring the consumers close to the histpry of the company so that they can be more satisfied. In addition to images and videos, the website also has a links which shows the public feedback of Nano. Besides that, Blogs have become an important for searching any major information you require. Blogs is best place where people of same interest can discuss their issues and concern. By establishing a blog network a company can easily monitor the feedback and even can look for the potential new consumer. Blogs and Internet are at present the best and cheapest way pf creating brand awareness globaly. 8.5 Television Advertisement Television is expensive mode of advertisement but its ia also very powerful as product is fully explained and secondly the product get an image by exposing it to television. Tata can show Nanos attributes and persuasively explaining their corresponding consumer benefits. The company should lower advertising budget and should only air the advertisement on national channel between 7 to 11 pm. A good advertisement always creates a need in the consumer mind which increases brand equity as well as improve sales. 8.4 Newspaper Advertisement Beside the television, most of the UK reads newspaper every day because of the fact there are around 10 newspaper companies circulating it for free. So this can be a good mode for market coverage in a big city like London. Newspaper advertising is also not so expensive. 9.0 Channel of Distribution Strategies 9.1 Direct marketing channel (zero-level channel) Manufacturer Customers Tata Nano in UK can sold directly to its concern customers. By visiting the sales office or any special event the customer deal directly with the companies dealers for booking. Besides that, there should be a 24X7 customer care centre from where customers can get all the information they want for booking a new Tata Nano and there should be a 24 hrs attendant on the website who can chat live with the customers and give information about the product. These all ideas can help us eliminating the middle men from the chain which will surely decrease the variable costs. 9.2 Physical Flow Transporters, Warehouses Tata Motor at India Assembly Workshop At UK Customers From the diagram, we can understand that as per the basis of demand the car will send in parts from India and will b assembled in the workshop in the UK can know. The final step is to send the product direct for the customer collection. 9.3 Payment Flow Tata Motor at India Sale Office At UK Banks Customers Banks Customers can have two option of paying the bills either by cash or by bank. Because of this diagram the customer will be pay less because the cost of commission of the middle men like retailer and franchise are not included in the flow chart. It is also good for the Tata Motor because the payment will be collected more efficiently. 9.4 Information Flow Tata Motor at India Sale Office At UK Customers Informations like product, price development and so on can be given direatly by Tata motors to their customers. And by the help of various services like response calls and mailings or through internet blog, Tata can identify the need of the customers. The complaints of the customers have to be dealt directly. So that customer will be fully satisfied at the end of the day. 9.5 Promotion Flow Marketing Campaign/Event Tata Motor at India Sale Office At UK Customers Media Have two ways of promotion flow, directly and indirectly. Directly is well organize the marketing campaign, event and road show. By this way, well promote Tatanano to target market by face by face and provide the opportunities to them try to drive the Tatanano. Indirect ways are we will do the advertisement through media such as internet, TV, radio and also newspaper. By this promotion flow, Tata Motor aims to create brand awareness and increase the sales in the UK. 10.0 Financial Plan The overview of the Tata motors will be done in this section. The major financial aspect like expense forecast, sale forecast, break even analysis and their relation to the market strategy are included in the section. 10.1 Break even analysis Break even analysis indicates that 3369 unit or  £ 28,615,563 will be required in monthly sales revenue to reach the breakeven point. Table: Break Even Analysis Break even analysis : Monthly unit break even 3369 Monthly sales break even  £ 28,615,563 Monthly unit production 6083 Average per unit revenue  £8,492 Average per unit variable cost  £5,550 Average per unit fixed cost  £1,630.11 Estimated monthly fixed cost  £9,916,915 10.2 Sales forecast Sale was done with adjustment of seasonal factor and is on quarterly basis. Graduation month was used as seasonal factor to adjust our forecasted sales because our primary targets are the graduation students. There is an increase of 10% sales annually according to the forecast, graph given below represent the sale forecast. Figure : Sales Forecast 10.3 Marketing Expense Forecast Marketing expense forecast provides an indication about when our marketing plan has to be modified and it also keep marketing department focused toward their goal. Advertisement, marketing campaign, direct marketing and other are all the major categories in which the expensed are tracked down. The marketing budgeting is quite necessary for most of the companies from it affect the total sale of the quarter. In 2010 Tata motors believe that marketing expense will not be more than 4 percent of total sales. 11.0 IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL The idea behind the marketing plan of Tata Nano is to show the current standing of the company. The performance of the company can be improved by observing following areas of the company: Monthly and annual revenue of the company Monthly and annual expenses of the company Satisfaction of the customers A 10 percent growth in the annual sales of the company 11.1 Marketing Organization The main responsibility of a marketing manager should be taking control of all marketing activities. Marketing manager will designate all the promotional and advertising responsibilities to his juniors. Sales performance will be the responsibility of the sale manager. The entire department will be work under the guidance of marketing director 11.2 Contingency plan: Difficulties and risks: One of the difficulties that will be face by the company

Alternatives to Live-Action Fictional Films :: Film, Documentary

Is there an alternative to live action fictional films? And if there is an alternative is there a chance it could be entertaining? Who doesn’t enjoy a good fiction film? In Film: An Introduction by William H. Phillips, we learn that the alternative to such films can be both enlightening and entertaining (299). What type of film could be both enlightening and entertaining? Documentaries are. There is potential in a documentary film, also referred to as non-fictional films, which fictional films cannot grasp. According to Jack C. Ellis, a known documentary film critic, documentaries â€Å"(1) communicate insights, achieve beauty, and offer understanding.† They also â€Å"(2) improve social, political, or economic conditions† (qtd. in Phillips 299). In ways documentary films are similar to fictional films. Both types of films have infinite possibilities of topic choices to choose from and have a crew to influence and manipulate the film so that it can be accepted the way they want it represented. However, documentary films are created to be works of informative and factual art. Fictional films, although they may stem from the ground of truth, they branch into the realm of unrealistic entertainment (316). But why is there a big market for documentaries? The answer is simple. Each person alive; whether they are young, old, intelligent, undereducated, black, white, Baptist, atheist, everyone has an interest in something and documentaries can inform an audience about that particular interest (316). There are two types of documentaries, the narrative and the non-narrative. The majority of documentary films are made up of non-narrative films, meaning that there isn’t an actual story being portrayed in the film rather just a list of information that make an argument (301). Narrative documentaries create and develop a story, normally following a person and their ambitions. This type of documentary is more comparable to fictional films versus non-narrative films because the information presented does not have to be sequential as long as it is factual (302,303). Both types of documentaries use artifacts, such as photographs, that pertain to the subject in their film and are spliced from one frame to another in the editing process, to force the point of view that the director wishes to portray onto the viewer (301 & 306). This is the reason that Phillips refers to documentaries as ‘Mediated Reality’. A documentary film is biased and cannot be objective. It may be perceived as truth by viewers, but there is a difference between the genuine footage that was recorded and the censored scenes that were developed in editing.

Dale :: essays research papers

Earnhardt dies following Daytona 500 accident DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, 49, was fatally injured Sunday in a multi-car accident on the final lap of the 43rd Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. "NASCAR has lost its greatest driver," said NASCAR Chairman of the Board Bill France, who himself is recovering from life threatening illnesses, "and I personally have lost a great friend." His wife Teresa was at his side at the time of death. Dr. Steve Bohannon, emergency trauma surgeon who was on one of the ambulances that responded, said, "My speculation would be head injuries, basically to the base of the skull." Earnhardt, who won the 1998 Daytona 500, was unconscious when he was cut from his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after the accident between Turns 3 and 4 of the 2.5-mile speedway as a tangled pack of cars raced to the checkered flag. He was immediately transported to Halifax, less than one-mile from the speedway. "I don’t know what to say. This is incredible, just incredible. I think everybody is just in shock right now. "I didn’t see much of what happened up there (in the fourth turn). After the race was over, I heard things didn’t look very good but, man, Earnhardt. You figure he’ll bounce right back," said Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 12 Penske Ford. Your first thought is, hey, he’ll probably come back next week at Rockingham and beat us all. "My heart goes out to Theresa and Dale, Jr., Kerry and Kelly, and to Taylor Nicole." Earnhardt was pronounced dead while his driver, Michael Waltrip, was being interviewed in the Daytona press box after his first career victory in 463 starts. In the accident, Ken Schrader's No. 36 Pontiac was pinned against the outside wall by Earnhardt's out-of-control No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, which came from a lower lane on the 31-degree banked turn. "I don't know what happened -- all of a sudden we were all crashing," said Schrader, who was unhurt in the accident. "I guess someone got into Dale because Dale got into me and then we went up. We hit pretty hard and Dale hit harder." Schrader tried to visit Earnhardt's car after the accident ended, but quickly left the area. I didn't get to talk to Dale," Schrader said of his escape. "I went over there and then they (safety workers) got there real quick, so I got the hell out of the way.

The Pressure To Be Perfect Essay -- essays research papers

The Pressure to be Perfect In today's competitive society, a person strives for perfection, due to the fact that so much emphasis is placed on one's outer appearance. No matter who we are or where we live, society puts this pressure upon us. We are typically faced with this pressure by models on television and in magazines. Companies seem to have targeted women more so than men. They usually use women with good looks and nice figures to advertise and market their product. When companies use these women in advertisements, it is setting a standard that other women feel that they need to follow. What has happened to internal beauty? Society puts so much importance on external beauty that people have forgotten about an individual having beauty within. The sayings â€Å"beauty is in the eye of the beholder† and â€Å"beauty is only skin deep† come to mind when I think about just how much emphasis is placed on outer appearance. A major factor that has increased the percentage of overweight people in society is technology. This includes items such as elevators, escalators, garage-door openers, drive-in windows, and the remote control. It use to be that you would at least burn some calories by having to get up and turn the channel on the television, but thanks to technology it is now a push of a button. Just think, things have the possibility to grow increasingly worse because of the 'information super highway'. There is no need to get out and walk the malls in search of a particular item...

Case Analysis: Michael Eisner has More Problems than He Can Face

Eisner's Mousetrap Disney's CEO says the company has a lot of varied problems he can fix. But what if the real issue is something he can't face? By Marc Gunther Reporter Associate Carol Vinzant September 6, 1999 FORTUNE Magazine) – Michael Eisner, the famously hands-on CEO of Walt Disney, is up to his old tricks. Last night he screened a rough cut of Dinosaurs, Disney's big animated movie for next summer; he loved the story but complained that some jokes were stale. Today he's holding a four-hour brainstorming session about Mickey Mouse, looking for ways to keep the 71-year-old rodent relevant. One idea: a skateboarding Mickey. ) Later, he'll watch Peter Jennings' newscast on Disney-owned ABC and surf the Internet to see how the company's Websites stack up. Is this any way to run the world's most troubled entertainment giant? After all, as Eisner sweats the details, earnings are dropping, top executives are defecting, and Disney stock is plunging like a ride down Splash Mounta in. â€Å"Maybe I'm crazy,† Eisner says, â€Å"but I don't consider this a crisis. I don't think our problems are in the fabric of our company. And I don't have my head in the sand. Sitting down for a two-hour interview, he admits mistakes. He says, for instance, that he should have settled former studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg's suit against the company earlier to avoid a â€Å"parade of horrors† (see box). And he concedes that the company has sustained real damage: â€Å"It's like a train wreck, only nobody got killed. † But Eisner denies that he has lost his touch. â€Å"The criticisms of me and Disney today,† says the 57-year-old chief executive, â€Å"are as shortsighted as were the praises of me and Disney in the high economic times. Sunday nights on ABC, Michael Eisner–celebrated CEO, business magazine cover boy, and author of his own life story–still hosts The Wonderful World of Disney. The rest of the week, life is not so sweet i n the Magic Kingdom. Certainly shareholders have reason to feel grumpy, with the stock trading at about 37% below last year's high. There's no quick fix in sight either. Tarzan, the $160 million summer blockbuster, won't have much impact on earnings; the movie cost too much to make and isn't selling enough T-shirts and toys because the market's glutted with Star Wars stuff. That's one of the scary things about today's Disney: The company has grown so big and its problems are so far-reaching–ranging from the phenomenon of â€Å"age compression† to the explosion of media choices–that they can't be fixed by a couple of hit movies or TV shows or more Disney stores. The other scary thing is this: Disney seems less able than ever to cope with adversity. That's because Eisner, for all his creativity and charisma and grand plans, presides over an insular–some say arrogant–corporate culture where decision-making is hierarchical, centralized, and slow. It's an utter mismatch for the Internet age. â€Å"This isn't Mickey's house anymore,† says a former Disney insider. â€Å"It's a multibillion-dollar company. † Eisner does have a plan. He is cutting costs and reengineering a company that got bloated with success. He's making overseas growth a top priority. He wants Disney to be an Internet giant, taking on Yahoo and America Online. And, yes, he'll keep on tweaking theme park rides and screening ABC pilots and driving subordinates up the wall with his meddling, because he fervently believes that if you demand high quality and develop synergy, financial results will follow. The interesting thing about our company,† Eisner says, â€Å"which I think is extremely flattering, is that everybody takes for granted that we make good products. They think, Oh, the Disney cruise ship, they take a wand and a little pixie dust and all of a sudden you revolutionize the cruise industry from floating Vegas hotels to romantic ocea n liners. There are zoos all over the world, and up comes the Animal Kingdom. Or Tarzan, or the Lion King on Broadway–people say, ‘They have no trouble with the creative thing. Well, it's the creative thing that turns the company around. † Besides, he declares, a bit impatiently: â€Å"We are the most profitable media company in the world. We're being buried a little prematurely here. † He's right about the bottom line. Last year Disney reported revenue of $23 billion, operating income of $4 billion, and net income of $1. 9 billion–its net was far more than that of Time Warner (owner of FORTUNE's parent), News Corp. , and Viacom combined. For the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 0, Disney's revenue is expected to reach $24 billion. But all other key indicators are down, some shockingly so. For the first nine months of fiscal 1999, excluding a one-time gain from an asset sale, Disney reported declines in operating income of 17%, net income of 26% , and earnings per share of 27%. Some Wall Street analysts have cut their fiscal 1999 earnings estimates as many as five times since last summer, and 13 of 25 analysts have a â€Å"hold† on the stock, according to Zacks Investment Research. The company has simply stopped growing, and it isn't a momentary dip either: Operating income fell slightly last year too, and Disney isn't expected to match its fiscal 1997 earnings until 2001 at the earliest–a startling comedown for a company that, for a decade after Eisner took over in 1984, delivered annual profit increases of 20% and a return on equity of 20%. Return on equity, a key benchmark that has been sliding ever since Disney's 1996 merger with Capital Cities/ABC, has slipped below 10%, estimates analyst Laura Martin of Credit Suisse First Boston. Some people have the impression that Disney still is what it was–an animation company that generated great returns on capital,† Martin says. â€Å"But that may be over. † Until recently Disney was propelled by a handful of big ideas that were executed almost flawlessly. First, Disney released its library of beloved animated films on video just as VCRs took off; nine of the ten bestselling titles of all time are Disney movies, and most, like Snow White and Cinderella, were paid for long ago. Second, Eisner and Katzenberg revived Disney animation with instant classics like Aladdin and The Lion King, which made big profits at the box office and on video and spawned even bigger ancillary revenues from licensing and merchandising. Third, Disney built more than 700 retail stores in the U. S. , Europe, and Asia. Finally, the company embarked on a vast expansion of Walt Disney World, creating and updating dozens of attractions and building an astonishing 15,000 hotel rooms since 1988. (They called the strategy â€Å"Put the heads in the beds. ) Disney's market capitalization soared from about $2 billion before the Eisner era to $85 billion at its peak in April 1998. Thanks to the rising stock price, Eisner got fabulously rich too, exercising accumulated stock options that gave him pretax gains of more than $500 million since 1992. He still holds 12. 7 million shares, according to Disney's latest SEC filings, worth about $330 million at today's prices. So what's gone wrong? Sta rt with the fact that all the businesses that powered Disney, with the exception of the theme parks, are slumping. Home-video earnings have tumbled, partly because consumers now have shelves filled with Disney animation. Revenues from licensing and merchandising are down, partly because of the economic downturn in Asia, and sales and profits from the Disney Stores have declined because product lines have grown stale. â€Å"How many Mickey Mouse T-shirts can you sell? † asks Christopher Dixon, entertainment industry analyst for Paine Webber. Altogether, Disney's all-important Creative Content segment, which includes movie and TV production, home video, licensing, merchandising, and the stores, saw its operating income fall from $1. billion in 1997 to $1. 4 billion in 1998; it decreased by another 42% during the first nine months of fiscal 1999. If that were a movie, they'd call it Honey, I Shrunk the Earnings. In Eisner's view, the problems are unrelated. â€Å"A lot of things happened together to make our earnings slide,† he says. Disney is attacking each concern, slashing costly pr oduction deals in the movie business, releasing fewer live-action movies, resting its classic video titles longer between releases to rekindle demand, and merging overseas distribution forces for film and video. To boost demand for consumer goods, the company will try to coordinate marketing in big retailers such as Wal-Mart. â€Å"We'd like to have a Disney boutique to sell the T-shirt, the lunchbox, the sheets and towels,† says Peter Murphy, Disney's self-assured 36-year-old head of strategic planning. Suppose, though, that the declining sales of videos and merchandise reflect a more fundamental issue–weakness in the Disney brand. This notion is such heresy inside Disney that everyone, including Eisner, dismisses it out of hand. We have research on our brand in 20 or 30 countries, and we are almost without exception the No. 1 or No. 2 brand,† Eisner says. Disney executives say that if the brand were in trouble, Disney's theme parks would be suffering along with the rest of the company; as it is, they're thriving–even the one in France. In the theme parks and resorts segment, revenues and operating income grew by 10% and 13%, respectively, in 1998, and they've gro wn by 14% and 13% so far this year. â€Å"We have as many kids lining up to see Mickey Mouse as ever,† says Paul Pressler, 43, the president of Walt Disney Attractions. And our merchandise has done great. † Disney World has reached beyond its core audience of young families to beckon convention-goers, older people, and â€Å"pre-families,† which is Disney-speak for single people. And it's capturing more money from visitors who stay in all those new hotels. Sure, Disney's theme parks rule–it's parents who decide on family vacations–but the brand isn't holding up as well in crowded arenas like videogames and cable TV, where kids are more autonomous. Disney's interactive unit is an also-ran in the booming videogame business. On cable, the Disney Channel ranks a poor third in viewing among kids ages 2 to 11, behind market leader Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. Both Nick and Cartoon, relative newcomers to the kids' business, exploited Disney's vulnerabilities. â€Å"The Nickelodeon opportunity was to get inside the lives of today's kids,† says Nickelodeon President Herb Scannell. â€Å"We've been contemporary. They've been traditional. † While Disney characters are drawn from myths, history, and storybooks–just about every big Disney animated feature could begin with the phrase â€Å"long ago and far away†Ã¢â‚¬â€œNickelodeon's TV shows and movies tell stories about real kids. Today the Viacom unit captures more than 50% of the audience of all children's TV programming. When Disney tries to exude a hipper aura–think of the bestselling Phil Collins soundtrack from Tarzan–the company is more likely to speak to baby-boomer parents than to their offspring. Here's where that idea of â€Å"age compression† comes into play. Kids grow up faster these days, the experts say, and start emulating teenage behavior when they're 9 or 10. They rebel against their parents and shy away from a â€Å"good for you† brand like Disney. Ten-year-old boys who watch wrestling or South Park on cable and 9-year-old girls who love Ricky Martin think Disney is for little kids. â€Å"They've never gotten past the problem that their core audience is girls 2 to 8 and their moms,† says a former Disney executive. And even among young kids, the hot properties lately are Nickelodeon's Blues Clues, PBS's Tele-tubbies and Nintendo's Pokemon, now a hit TV show on the kids' WB, yet another new kid-vid network. The cluttered kids' marketplace points to another fundamental problem facing Disney–competition on a scale the company hasn't faced before, across all its businesses. Warner, Dreamworks, and Fox do feature animation. Universal just opened a second Florida theme park. Fox Sports is taking on ESPN. Can you begin to see why managing Disney today is harder than it was a decade ago? What changed everything, of course, was Eisner's boldest stroke as CEO: his $19 billion merger with Cap Cities. That deal, cheered at the time, still appears strategically sound–the idea was to marry Disney content with ABC's broadcast and cable distribution. The problem has been execution. While ESPN and other cable properties have grown, no unit of the company is as besieged as ABC. It will lose money this year for the first time in a decade, despite a fantastic advertising marketplace, because audiences are splintering and programming costs keep climbing. (Disney agreed under competitive pressure to spend $9. 2 billion–that's right, billion–for NFL rights for ABC and ESPN through 2008. ) Operating income for the company's broadcasting segment, which includes ABC, its TV stations, 80% of ESPN, the Disney Channel, ABC Radio, and stakes in Lifetime, A&E, the History Channel, and E! Entertainment, grew by just 3% last year; it's down 18% so far this year, mostly because of ABC. I'd be the first to say the results of the ABC television network, particularly in prime time, have been disappointing since the merger,† says Robert A. Iger, 48, the lifelong ABC executive who is chairman of ABC Inc. While Iger's bailiwick extends way beyond the network, he keeps a close watch on programming and told FORTUNE in 1997, â€Å"Prime time is my No. 1 priorit y. † Since then, ABC's ratings for its 18- to 49-year-old target demographic have fallen by another 13%, leaving the network No. 3, behind NBC and Fox. Oops. Wait, it gets worse. Remember how the merger was supposed to marry content and distribution? That's not working well either. Owning and broadcasting a hit, then selling the reruns, is the best way to make big money today in television. Just ask Rupert Murdoch, whose Twentieth Century Fox TV studio not only owns the biggest hits on Fox–The Simpsons, The X-Files, and Ally McBeal–but also produces The Practice and Dharma & Greg for ABC, as well as key shows for NBC, CBS, and the WB. By contrast, Disney's Touchstone Television production studio has failed to develop a prime-time hit for ABC or anyone else since creating Home Improvement in 1991. Out of sheer frustration, Eisner last month merged the Touchstone studio into ABC; the idea is to save money and force the two units to cooperate. â€Å"It's a fantastic opportunity to reengineer the way television is done,† says Lloyd Braun, the studio president who co-chairs the merged unit with ABC's Stu Bloomberg. Like a movie studio, ABC Entertainment now will develop, own, finance, and distribute more of its own content. The trouble is, the new model could seal ABC off from the rest of the television world. While ABC executives say they'll still buy shows from studios like Warner Bros. nd Fox, the studios worry about doing business with the new, vertically integrated ABC. â€Å"You're going to have to demonstrate to me in tangible ways that I'm going to get a fair shake,† says Sandy Grushow, president of Fox's Twentieth Century Television. The other networks, meanwhile, suspect that any show they get pitched by a Disney entity will be an ABC reject. Beyond that, t he merger adds another layer and the prospect of infighting at ABC Entertainment, now run by a posse that includes newcomer Braun, programmers Bloomberg and Jamie Tarses, network President Pat Fili-Krushel, ABC Inc. resident Steve Bornstein, and Bob Iger, who still reads scripts of key ABC shows on weekends. Nor is Eisner shy about weighing in; he helped shape the fall lineup and ordered ABC to negotiate tougher deals with its affiliates and program suppliers, which are not happy. This management by committee has never worked in television, and it's not working at Disney-ABC. There is much more at stake here than the unwieldy operation of the TV unit. The new ABC structure is emblematic of what may be Eisner's thorniest problem, if only because he doesn't seem to recognize it: It's Disney's corporate culture. Under Capital Cities, ABC was run in a determinedly decentralized way; executives were given authority and responsibility as long as they exercised fiscal discipline, and the company was generally well run. The Disney approach reflects different values: centralized control, an obsession with synergy at the expense of individual business units, a suspicion of outsiders, and a muddying of responsibility. The results speak for themselves. Writing about the Disney culture is tricky because knowledgeable critics are unwilling to speak on the record; the company's just too powerful. But talk to enough people and you hear similar complaints. One persistent theme: Eisner insists on making too many decisions himself, which clogs the decision-making process. So do the roomfuls of strategic planners who analyze everything. A second complaint: Eisner's too tough. Working with Disney is notoriously difficult, so much so that a group of partners, including Coca-Cola, AT;T, Delta, and Kodak, used to meet informally to trade tips on how to cope. A related point about Eisner: In spite of his affability, he doesn't really value other people. That's one reason the death of his longtime second-in-command, Frank Wells, in 1994, was a seminal event. Wells commanded Eisner's respect like no one else, told him when he was off-base, and deftly softened his edges. They were a great team. Eisner tried to replace him with Michael Ovitz, a crucial error at just the wrong moment. Ovitz's management got the ABC merger off to a dismal start, and his 16-month tenure scarred the company. Since then, strong executives have left, among them former CFOs Stephen Bollenbach and Richard Nanula, Internet guru Jake Winebaum, and former ABC executives Geraldine Laybourne and Steve Burke. Finally, the critics say, the company has simply grown too big to be run from the top down. Eisner's approach worked for the old Disney, where the focus was on a single brand; he could gather a cadre of executives at his Monday lunches and get things done. Now Disney must manage multiple brands in a world where speed counts and partnerships are vital. A respected ex-Disney executive told me, â€Å"The company has changed and the world has changed, but Michael hasn't changed. Now he's got to change. † Eisner and his lieutenants bristle at the criticism from unnamed sources, and you can't blame them. Yes, they say, Disney is tough, but so are GE and Microsoft–which, by the way, lose lots of executives, too, because they have an abundance of talent. To the charge that he meddles, Eisner pleads guilty with an explanation: He wants Disney to excel. (Even his detractors say he has great instincts. ) When he heard from a friend that the cast members at Disneyland Paris weren't as helpful as those at Walt Disney World, he recommended better training. â€Å"Is that meddling or is that insisting on a high standard of excellence? † Eisner asks. â€Å"If there's an area where I think I can add value, I dive in. Yes, at certain times I paralyze people. I'm never satisfied. It gets people crazy, I know that. † But Eisner also says he leaves his best executives, like theme park chief Pressler, alone. â€Å"There's no brain drain,† he says. â€Å"We have unbelievably strong management. † Eisner's turnaround strategy focuses not on Disney's culture but on operations, fiscal engineering, and growth. Consolidation and cost cutting are already under way across the board, with the movie division leading the way. Studio chief Joe Roth has already cut spending by about $550 million annually, by making fewer movies. It focuses everyone much more closely on the films at hand,† Roth says, â€Å"and ironically, I am quite sure that–for the fifth time in six years–we will be No. 1 in market share again this year. † Disney is also looking to sell Fairchild Publications, a magazine company. Sources say Disney also expects to write off a big chunk of the $9. 2 bi llion NFL deal. In a move that should please Wall Street, CFO Thomas O. Staggs is reworking Disney's compensation system so that executives will be evaluated on cash flow and return on equity as well as on reported earnings; that's designed to encourage business units to use capital more efficiently. The theme park segment, in particular, has been a huge consumer of capital, but it will use less after new parks open near Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in 2001. Disney's best growth opportunity probably lies overseas. Right now, the company gets about 21% of its revenues from abroad, less than other global brands like Coca-Cola (63%) or McDonald's (61%). That's why Bob Iger's recent promotion to president of Walt Disney International puts him in a crucial role, spearheading what Eisner calls â€Å"a monumental change in the way the company is structured. Iger has begun to overhaul all of Disney's operations outside the U. S. , which grew up haphazardly as each business–film, TV, the stores, cable, or theme parks–built foreign outposts that reported back to the home office. Now those businesses will also report to regional executives in charge of continents or key countries; each territory will also get its own CFO and brand manager. That may sound like more Disney l ayering, but Iger says it offers major advantages. First, the company will save money through consolidation, whether in renting office space or buying advertising. Disney also expects to do a better job of tapping into local trends. Iger cites a revealing example: â€Å"It's having someone in Japan who would see the Pokemon phenomenon at an early stage and have the clout, really, through me, someone who has a seat at Michael's table, to be able to raise the consciousness level of the company about that potential quickly and effectively. † Interestingly, the idea is not to delegate authority but to shorten the distance between the rest of the world and Eisner. Eisner's other major focus is the Internet. Here, too, centralization is the watchword. Last month Disney agreed to combine its Internet assets with Infoseek, a search engine and portal company that it is buying outright; the properties, including the Go portal, ABCNews. com, ESPN. com, Disney. com, Family. com, and others scattered in five locations on both coasts, will operate as a single unit under a CEO to be named later. â€Å"This is to consolidate the Internet assets so that we can have them under common management with one agenda and one vision,† says CFO Staggs, the 38-year-old architect of Disney's Internet strategy. The company will then issue a tracking stock called go. com that can be used as acquisition currency and a way to compensate talent. Disney's assets should make it a force online. Its ESPN. com and Disney family sites are category leaders, and the company has unparalleled promotional platforms in ABC and ESPN. In a matter of months, they helped make Go the fifth-ranked portal, behind AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Lycos. And all the Disney Websites should sing when high-speed access makes it easier to watch video online. â€Å"As bandwidth expands,† Eisner says, â€Å"content becomes more important. You must have sports and news and entertainment, or you are going to be a Western Union messenger in a fax world. † He envisions a universe in which ABC News clips, ESPN game highlights, and movies like Aladdin are distributed online, cutting out middlemen like cable operators or Blockbuster Video. â€Å"I believe the entire company's product will mostly be distributed through the Internet,† Eisner says. He's a passionate Internet user too, peppering his web guys with suggestions. Says Staggs: â€Å"The only person I get more e-mail from than Michael is my mom. † The strategy sounds smart. Of course, buying ABC sounded smart too. Once again, it'll come down to execution. Patrick Keane, a Jupiter Communications analyst, likes Disney's web assets but worries that â€Å"diversified media companies move at glacial speed when it comes to the Internet. † Disney can't be as focused on new media as people at AOL and Yahoo are every day. And the straitlaced Mouseketeers will have to learn to live in an unbuttoned Internet culture, says new-media consultant Gary Arlen of Bethesda, Md. â€Å"Have you ever been to Disney World? † he asks. â€Å"You walk out of a ride and land in a place that sells souvenirs. They'd like to manage the Internet that way. Even with perfect execution, Disney's Internet investments need time to pay off; in the meantime, they'll dilute earnings. Time is what Eisner needs too. Time for the cable and phone companies to help make his broadband Internet vision a reality. Time to build overseas. Time for DVD to take hold and provide another chance to resell the library. Time to creat e the next Tarzan and a hit for ABC, time for new theme parks to open, time to reinvent Mickey once more. Time, perhaps, to appoint a strong second-in-command with clout, whether it's Bob Iger or Paul Pressler or a dark horse who has yet to emerge. Because he enjoys the support of the Disney board, Eisner can be patient. â€Å"We're in a transition period,† he says. â€Å"I would rather have every quarter be up. It was for 13 years. Everybody loves you. [But] you can't manage a company like ours quarter to quarter, maniacally, so that the media will write good things about you. † He likes to quote Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway, at last count, owned 51 million Disney shares: â€Å"I close my eyes and think about what a company's going to look like in ten years before I invest. Paine Webber's Chris Dixon says Disney's assets are top-notch: â€Å"It may take time, but we believe the values are there. † Other investors won't wait. They note that despite the earnings downturn, Disney is still priced as a growth stock; it trades at about 35 times this year's projected earnings, a 25% premium to the S;P 500. The Capital Research ; Management Group, whose entertainment industry investments are managed b y respected media analyst Gordon Crawford, used to be Disney's largest institutional shareholder, with 41 million shares as recently as last year. Crawford has sold them all. So be it, says Eisner. â€Å"You can always tell your friends through the rough times,† he says. He still gets to go to the movies, test-drive theme park rides, surf the Net, and call it work. And maybe it's just his turn to suffer in the media doghouse. After all, CEOs Gerald Levin of Time Warner and Sumner Redstone of Viacom fell out of favor when they struggled to get their arms around companies engorged by big acquisitions. Such mergers aren't easy. The challenge for Eisner is to learn from experience, show a little humility, seize the opportunity to shake up his company, and, perhaps, change his own stripes and let go a little. That's a lot to ask of anyone who's been as successful as he has for so long. But this isn't the old Disney. And the old Disney magic just isn't working anymore. REPORTER ASSOCIATE Carol Vinzant http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/09/06/265291/index. htm