Investement

This case was prepared by Boris Morozov and Rebecca J. Morris both from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The views presented here are those ofthe case authors and do not necessarily reflect the views ofthe Society for Case Research. The authors' views are based on their own professional judgments. Copyright  © 2009 by the Society for Case Research and the authors. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission ofthe Society for Case ResearchOn June 1, 2006, the house lights dimmed at the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference. On the large screens fianking the stage, a film called the â€Å"Winds of Change† started. In the film, a dignified white-haired spokesman standing in front of sentimental images of puppies, babies, balloons and birthday parties began talking about the â€Å"golden days† at Kodak— the days of the â€Å"Kodak moment† in photography. Signaling a shift in the tone of the film, the spokesman looked straight into the camera and said, â€Å"Get's ya misty, doesn't it?Yep, they shoveled on the schmaltz pretty thick—but that kinda crap doesn't work anymore. † Now people wanted everything to be digital, the speaker stressed, becoming more frenzied as he spoke about digital photography and Kodak's role in it. The viewing audience chortled when the speaker intoned. You thought they (Kodak) were just hiding out waiting for this ‘digital thing' to blow over didn't you? Oh, sure. For a while they were like, ‘Ohhh, there's no way digital's going to catch on'.. .But now Kodak's back!With swelling enthusiasm, the spokesman extolled Kodak's research and development in digital photography, ending by pulling at his hair and exclaiming, â€Å"You were a Kodak moment once and by God, you'll be one again†¦ only this time its digital. Whooo-yeah! â€Å"^ The spokesman appeared somewhat startled by his own outburst and sheepis hly walked off stage as the film ended and the lights came up. Wall Street Journal columnist, Kara Swisher then welcomed Kodak CEO, Antonio Perez to the stage to the audience's vigorous applause and cheers. Paul Simon's song, â€Å"Kodachrome† played as Perez took the stage.Swisher began her interview saying, â€Å"That was a really funny movie. I liked that film! † Her first question, however, was not so approving. â€Å"What happened,† she asked as Perez settled into his chair, â€Å"What from your perspective happened at Kodak—because it was one ofthe greatest brands in history? â€Å"^ SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL Perez responded without hesitation, saying: First of all there was this notion that came out of incredible success. The notion was that maybe if Kodak doesn't move into digital—the imaging world will never move into digital. .. They (Kodak) were running a business with gross margins between 60-70% and those things are hard to let go, e specially when you are confronting a business model that is going to give you, if you are lucky, something around 30%. So that means that you have to change the whole company. From the way you design, to the way you manufacture, to the way you distribute, you know.. .the whole thing. It is very tough. So Kodak is very late to the digital space. But Kodak was not late in investing in digital. Kodak was very rich.Kodak hired very good people and those people were actually doing the right things. In the last fifteen years, Kodak developed one ofthe most impressive IP (intellectual property) portfblios-in digital capture, image processing, pixel technology and all sorts of things†¦ color management, you name it—actually a leader in all of those spaces. Now, why didn't they commercialize that? I don't know. ^ 22 Referencing Kodak's transition from traditional photography to digital, S wisher asked, â€Å"So, how did you get the film people out—because it's a film comp any? † Perez described his approach saying.Basically, the model that I used when I visited the factories was looking at the audience and say, â€Å"How many [of you] have a digital camera? At that time it was about 60%, and I would say, well, you are the problem we have. We either move to digital—we either do this transformation effectively—or this company basically will cease to exist. There is nothing else. There is no time to argue about it†¦. This is over. We are already very late but we do have the tools that we need to make this happen. â€Å"* Eight months after the All Things Digital Conference, Kodak held its annual strategy meeting in New York City.Antonio Perez announced that Kodak had successfully completed a four-year, $3. 4 billion transformation and was poised for growth over the next four years (20082011). Investors, however, did not share Perez's view ofthe firm. Kodak's share price fell to a 30-year low following the strategy meeting amid skepticism about Kodak's future strategy. ^ Pointing out that Canon had surpassed Kodak in sales of digital cameras and that Kodak's EasyShare Gallery faced tough competition from services like Shutterfiy and Snapfish, analysts wondered whether Kodak had turned the corner. Other investors argued that the Kodak brand still had appeal for consumers and that the company's transformation would take time. Speculation about a possible breakup of the company or mergers with other technology companies appeared in the financial press. ^ Had Kodak successfully adapted to the challenges ofthe digital space? Were there other strategies that Kodak should pursue? SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 23 Kodak's Digital Strategy in 2003 Any evaluation of Kodak's transformation needed to begin with a review of Kodak's history in digital photography.Despite employing the engineer who invented the first digital camera (patented in 1978) and holding more than 1,000 digital-imaging patents,^ Kodak did not introdu ce a digital camera to consumers until 2001. Kodak's moves paralleled those at many companies whose comfortable business models were threatened by rapid changes in information technology. When asked whether Kodak had moved into digital photography soon enough, then Kodak CEO Daniel Carp replied, â€Å"I saw my first digital camera inside Kodak in 1982. Today, we're arguably one ofthe top three providers of digital cameras in the U. S.So, we did the right thing. At the same time, we shouldn't have walked away from the historical film businesses before they turned down, because it would have destroyed value. â€Å"^ Under slumping economic and competitive market conditions, Kodak faced tough pressure from its existing competitors as well as from new rivals in the area of digital photography—a $385 billion industry composed of devices (digital cameras and personal data assistants [PDAs]), infrastructure (online networks and delivery systems for images), services and media (sof tware, film and paper) enabling people to access, analyze and print images.Even though Kodak had invested $4 billion'^ into digital research and related technologies since the early 1990's and spent many years perfecting its digital cameras, Kodak's status as an iconic brand was threatened by the technological shift away from its cash-cow business of traditional film and film processing. In July 2003, Kodak reported fiat sales and a 60 percent drop in second-quarter profits. Since January 1, 2000, when Carp took over as chief executive of Kodak, the company's revenues and net income had declined, its shares had dropped by 66%, and Standard & Poor's (S&P) had cut Kodak's credit rating by five grades. ^ Kodak had reduced its workforce by 49% since 1989, cutting 7,300 employees in 2002 alone. ^^ Plans were announced to eliminate up to 6,000 jobs in 2003 to stem future losses, cutting Kodak's traditional photography divisions in Rochester, New York to fewer workers than the firm had emp loyed during the Great Depression. ^^ Kodak's balance sheets for 2000 to 2007 are presented in Table 1. Income statements for the same period are presented in Table 2.When announcing the latest rounds of workforce reductions in July 2003, Carp expressed his perspective on Kodak's challenges saying, â€Å"I think we're at the point where we have to get on with reality. The consumer traditional business is going to begin a slow decline, though it's not going to fall off a cliff. † Kodak found itself saddled with assets and employees that were no longer relevant in the world of digital photography. Traditional photography involved factories where film, paper and other silver-halide chemical-based products were made by thousands of chemical technicians, film process technicians and color printer operators.In digital photography, images captured by electronic sensors could be displayed, printed, stored, manipulated, transmitted, and archived using digital and computer techniques, without chemical processing. Kodak recognized that digital photography would require different types of employees and began hiring top executives away from computer printer companies, such as Lexmark and Hewlett-Packard. These employees brou? it needed expertise in consvuner electronics and software development. ‘†* Kodak also began closing traditional fihn processing facilities and laying off workers. SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 24Table 1 Kodak's Annual Balance Sheet 2000-2006 (In Millions 2006 ASSETS Cash & Equivalents Net Receivables Inventories Other Current Assets Total Current Assets Gross Plant, Property & Equipment Accumulated Depreciation Net Plant, Property & Equipment Investments at Equity Other Investments Intangibles Deferred Charges Other Assets TOTAL ASSETS LIABILITIES Long Term Debt Due In One Year Notes Payable Accounts Payable Taxes Payable Accrued Expenses Other Current Liabilities Total Current Liabilities Long Term Debt Deferred Taxes Minority Interest Other Liabilities TOTAL LIABELmES EQUITY Preferred Stock Common Stock Capital Surplus Retained Earnings Less: Treasury Stock TOTAL EQUITY TOTAL LIABILTTIES & EQUITY 1,487 2,669 1,202 199 5,557 10,372 7,530 2,842 36 420 2,869 1,599 997 14,320 17 47 1,003 764 1,735 1,405 4,971 2,714 1 21 5,225 2005 1,680 2,760 1,140 201 5,781 11,379 7,601 3,778 40 363 2,941 1,144 874 14,921 706 113 996 467 1,958 1,249 5,489 2,764 33 20 4,648 2004 1,258 2,544 1,158 688 5,648 12,694 8,182 4,512 532 188 1,924 1,203 730 14,737 400 69 868 2003 1,261 2,389 1,075 730 5,455 13,277 8,183 5,094 426 310 1,678 1,147 708 14,818 457 489 834 654 1,696 1,177 5,307 2,302 81 45 3,819 2002 578 2,234 1,062 660 4,534 13,288 7,868 5,420 382 53 981 972 1,027 13,369 387 1,055 720 584 1,739 892 5,377 1,164 52 70 3,929 2001 451 2,337 1,137 758 4,683 12,982 7,323 5,659 360 85 948 482 1,145 13,362 156 1,378 674 544 1,635 967 5,354 1,666 81 84 3,283 2000 51 2,653 1,718 869 5,491 12,963 7,044 5,919 0 0 947 0 1,855 14,212 150 2,05 6 817 572 1,358 1,262 6,215 1,166 61 93 3,249 581 1,989 1,083 4,990 1,852 67 25 3,992 12,932 12,954 10,926 11,554 10,592 10,468 10,784 0 978 881 5,332 5,803 1,388 14,320 0 978 867 5,935 5,813 1,967 14,921 0 978 845 7,832 5,844 3,811 14,737 0 978 842 5,852 3,264 14,818 0 978 849 6,840 5,890 1,111 13,369 0 978 849 6,834 5,161 2,894 13,362 0 978 871 7,387 5,808 3,428 14,212 SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL Table 2 Kodak's Annual Income Statement 2000-2006 (In Millions ^'^ 2006 2005 14,268 8,783 2004 13,517 8,311 2003 13,317 8,102 2002 12,835 7,391 2001 13,234 7,749 25 2000 13,994 7,105Sales Cost of Goods Sold Gross Profit SeUing, General, & Administrative Expense Operating Income Before Deprec. Depreciation, Depletion, & Amortization Operating Profit Interest Expense Non-Operating Income/Expense Special Items Pretax Income Total Income Taxes Minority Interest Income Before Extraordinary Items & Discontinued Operations Preferred Dividends Adjusted Available for Common Extraordinary Items Disco ntinued Operations Adjusted Net Income 13,274 8,278 4,996 3,101 1,895 1,331 564 262 86 -727 -339 254 7 5,485 3,485 2,000 1,406 594 211 49 -1,194 -762 689 4 5,206 3,340 5,215 3,339 5,444 3,260 2,184 818 1,366 173 -66 -164 963 153 17 5,485 3,333 2,152 919 1,233 219 -26 -891 97 32 -11 6,889 3,747 3,142 889 2,253 178 96 -39 2,132 725 0 ,866 1,031 835 168 62 -821 -92 -175 2 1,876 858 1,018 148 -23 -651 196 -66 24 -600 0 -600 0 1 -601 -1,455 0 -1,455 -57 150 -1,362 81 0 81 0 475 556 238 0 238 0 27 265 793 0 793 0 -23 770 76 0 76 0 0 76 1,407 0 1,407 0 0 1,407 SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 26 The switch by consumers to digital photography was coming much faster than expected and Kodak's traditional film, papers and photofinishing businesses were declining. By the end of 2003, analysts expected that digital cameras would begin to outsell film cameras for the first time in the United States. The digital photography industry was fast-paced and more crowded, offering razor thin profit margins.In S eptember 2003, Kodak aimounced an aggressive four-year plan to transform the company into a digital photography firm, replacing decliniag revenues and profits in the traditional fihn segment with growing digital revenues and profits. Job cuts and plant closures were prominent aspects of the firm's restructuring plans. Kodak armounced digital and film imaging strategy focused on four components: â€Å"(1) Manage the traditional film business for cash and manufacturing share leadership; (2) Lead in distributed output; (3) Grow the digital capture business, and (4) Expand digital imaging services. â€Å"^^ The traditional film business would be â€Å"managed† through organizational consolidation, cost reduction and reductions in both advertising spending and the number of unique products.Kodak hoped to expand its leadership in emerging markets, such as China and Russia, anticipating strong growth in these two markets for traditional fihn products. Distributed output referred t o the market for printed photos. Kodak plarmed to dominate all channels for printed photos—retail (minilabs and kiosks), home (printer docks and photo papers) and online printing of photos (Kodak's Ofoto site). The digital capture component of the plan addressed digital cameras and Kodak's plans to become the industry standard for ease of use and to achieve top three worldwide market share by 2006. Last, Kodak planned to expand services both online (photo album sharing) and in mobile markets (sharing and printing of photos captured with mobile phones).By the end of trading on the day ofthe digital strategy announcement, Kodak's stock fell to an 18-year low. Institutional investors criticized Kodak's announced strategy, expressing annoyance at the company's intention to invest in inkjet printing, a business dominated by Hewlett Packard. ^ ^Investment analyst. Shannon Cross, expressed the concerns of many investors saying, â€Å"There are so many questions with regard to Kodak 's future strategy†¦ the track record we've seen out of management in terms of being able to hit targets and implement a strategy has been pretty spotty. â€Å"^' The Years 2003-2007 Although shareholders and numerous investment analysts openly criticized the strategy, Kodak began implementing the new digital vision for the company.Since 2003, Kodak had pared costs through layoffs and plant closings in the traditional film division, sold off underperforming business units and increased its research and development investment in ink-jet printers. More than one hundred buildings in Kodak Park in Rochester, New York that had formerly housed thousands of employees had been razed, imploded, or sold by 2007. ^ ° From the company's peak in 1988, Kodak had cut 115,000 employees through divestitures, plant closings, and layoffs. Kodak expected to end 2007 with only 30,000 employees. ^^ Although job cuts would eventually represent cost reductions and improvements to the firm's bottom line, restructuring costs since 2003 were estimated to total $3. 8 billion. ^ Investment analysts believed that the high costs of Kodak's shift to a digital strategy would be worth the price if the company was successful at growing profits from its digital products. ^^ Other analysts were unconvinced, saying â€Å"We are increasingly skeptical that EK (Kodak) can efficiently generate SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 27 digital revenue growth and we think additional plant closings, job cuts and development costs will continue depressing results. â€Å"^†* Some analysts worried that the continual charges against earnings and mounting debt might leave Kodak strapped for important funds for research and development. ^^ Competitive pressures in digital photography made innovation important but raised concems for some analysts. Kodak â€Å"lost their magic touch.There are way too many people producing similar technology better,† one analyst said. ^^ The important events in Kodak's history since 2003 are shown as Table 3. Leadership of Kodak also was in transition during this period. In May 2005, Antonio M. Perez replaced Daniel Carp as Chief Executive Officer of Kodak. Perez had come to Kodak in 2003 after working 25 years for Kodak's competitor, Hewlett-Packard. ^^ Perez brought his extensive expertise in digital imaging technologies to Kodak and quickly became the leader of Kodak's digital transformation. Perez had been instrumental in formulating Kodak's restructuring strategy as he was Kodak's President and Chief Operating Officer in 2003. ^ Despite the ongoing criticism of investment analysts, Perez remained optimistic about Kodak's prospects saying. We said in 2003 that it would take us four years to transform this company. The first two years were loaded with restructuring costs, and the analysts are reacting to that. My response is: Well, hello, we are following our plan. We said we'd grow digital revenue and profits, and generate a healthy amount of cash, and we are doing all ^^ SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL Table 3 Key Events for Kodak 2003-2007 28 Date January 26, 2005†²Ã¢â‚¬  February 2,2005†³ March 2005†³ May 11,2005†³ January 5,2006†³* January 12, 2006'^ January 30,2006†²Ã¢â‚¬  March 2006†³ August 1,2006'* January 10,2007'^ February 1,2007 April 26,2007^† May 2007†³*' May 14, 2007^'Event Kodak's digital revenue rose 40% in the fourth quarter of 2004, more than offsetting a 16% decline in revenue for traditional film products. Kodak announced that for the first time, Kodak held the leading market share for digital cameras in the United States with 21. 9% share. Kodak changed the name of Ofoto, the online photo-sharing and printing site they had acquired, to Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Antonio M. Perez was announced as the next CEO of Kodak. Perez took over on June 1, 2005. Former Kodak CEO, Daniel Carp retired at age 57. Kodak announced a 10-year partnership with Motorola to develop mobile camera phones with Kodak sensors. Nikon stopped making most of its traditional film cameras.Kodak's digital revenues for 2005 exceeded revenues from traditional film for the first time. Digital revenues were 54% of total sales. Konica Minolta announced that it was exiting the photography industry. Some ofthe firm's photography assets were sold to Sony. Kodak announced that it would outsource the production of all digital cameras to Flextronics, a leading electronics manufacturing services provider headquartered in Singapore. Kodak announced the sale of the health care imaging division to ONEX for $2. 35 billion. Half of the proceeds were to be used for debt reduction. The sale of the division resulted in a decrease of 8,100 employees for Kodak.Kodak announced the first quarterly profit in eight quarters. Revenues for digital photography products had declined by 13%. Kodak announced a partnership with BestBuy to create the BestBuy Photo Center. The center provided Kodak's Eas yShare Gallery to BestBuy online consumers. The partnership would also provide for display of Kodak Gallery's photo gifts (mugs, purses, etc. ) in BestBuy stores. BestBuy would also offer pre-paid cards for prints and gifts. Kodak's digital consumer group sales (cameras, printers and retail printing) fell 14% due to Kodak's decision to stop offering low-end digital cameras and an industry-wide decline in printing snapshots.Kodak announced a partnership with Target to produce a co-branded site that permitted consumers to order photo prints online and pick them up in Target stores. The partnership also provided for display of Kodak Gallery's photo gifts in Target stores and for pre-paid photo cards. SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 29 One ofthe important changes championed by Perez was Kodak's new business model in inkjet printers. Kodak was upending the traditional business model in inkjet printers. Instead of pricing the printer devices low and making profits on high-priced ink cartridges, Kodak planned to sell higher-priced printers that used significantly less expensive printer cartridges. For example, Kodak's new line of all-in-one printers was priced at $149-$299, at least $50 more than comparable models. *^ The cost ofthe Kodak printer cartridges was significantly less, however, running $10 for black ink and $15 for the color cartridge. â€Å"*^ The Kodak printers were expected to save consumers 50% over the lifetime ofthe printer due to the cheaper printer cartridges. â€Å"*^ Although some analysts reacted positively to the new pricing model, others were doubtfiil saying. They (Kodak) are not fools, they are going after the sweet spot ofthe market, the people who print a huge number of photos at home, but they are up against big companies that can give a haircut to their own prices if they * ^ There was also some skepticism that consumers would pay more initially in order to save money over the lifetime of the product.A market research analyst described the consumers' perspective saying, â€Å"When it comes to printers, consumers look for the features they want, and then find the least expensive device that offers them. It is only later that they get sticker shock, when they're spending $50 for ink. â€Å"^^ For its part, HP had adopted a â€Å"wait-and-see† posture regarding Kodak's new printer pricing model. If Kodak's printers gained share, HP was prepared to respond. Kodak â€Å"is going into a gunfight with a knife,† responded Nils Madsen, marketing director for HP inkjets. ‘* Kodak predicted that it would take at least three years for the new printers to be profitable. â€Å"*^ Despite reporting a narrower first-quarter net loss in 2007, Kodak's financial results were continuing to show signs of stress.Sales of Kodak's digital camera group (including digital cameras, printers and retail printing) fell 14% during the first quarter of 2007. Traditional film revenues declined 13% over the previous year. ^^ Kod ak was losing less money, however, investors were expecting more. â€Å"Kodak needs not only to restructure, but to change its business. That's a bigger project. They don't have an overnight fix,† said one investment fund manager. ^^ Sacrificing current earnings to focus on long term success was a gutsy decision and members of the investment community wondered whether Kodak's executives had the fortitude to continue to pursue it and whether tiie path Perez had outlined for the company was indeed the right path. One investment manager siunmarized his perspective saying.That company (Kodak) used to be my favorite example of an old-tech company behind the eight ball. Kodak has crossed the Rubicon and gotten past denial. It may be struggling to figure out which road to take, but finally the company understands that the one it was on was getting it nowhere. You know what happens if you sit back and let history happen to you, so you've got to take a shot, and that's what they're ^^ Kodak also had to consider its strategies in light of changes within the digital photography industry. Much had happened since the launch of Kodak's digital strategy in 2003. Important trends included rapidly improving technologies, increases in the quality and use of SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 30 amera-enabled mobile phones, maturing demand in the United States, rapid adoption of digital photography in foreign markets, and increasing competitive challenges. Improved Technologies and a Shorter Product Life Cycle Like most technologies, the market for digital photography continued to rapidly change. Technological innovations improved the resolution of digital cameras (increased the mega pixels captured and thus improved the quality ofthe photos when enlarged). Improvements in optical and electronic technologies and subsequent reductions in production costs resulted in the introduction of higher margin, digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras into the market.These cameras featured in terchangeable lenses and appealed to consumers buying their second digital camera and to photography enthusiasts who could utilize the traditional camera lenses they already owned on the new SLR digital camera bodies. Many digital SLR models offered significantly better image quality than point-and-shoot digital cameras due to their use of larger imaging chips. Industry insiders expected strong growth in the digital SLR segment of the market as consumers looked for more capabilities and flexibility in their digital cameras. Canon, Nikon, Sony and Panasonic dominated the market for low-cost digital SLRs in 2007. Camera makers found the product life cycle of the digital era to be markedly different than the rather stable product life cycle of traditional photography.For example, the Nikon topof-the-line F-series of fllm cameras had been redesigned only six times over ahnost 50 years of production. ^ By 2006, new features-laden digital camera models were introduced every few months rat her than years apart. Makoto Kimura, president of Nikon Imaging summed up the change saying, â€Å"In the past, as a camera maker we were able to take it easy, watch what was happening. Now, we've had to revitalize ourself â€Å"^^ Industry analysts believed that the faster product life cycle and the demands for technological innovations favored consumer electronics companies rather than traditional camera makers—in manufacturing and in distribution.Electronics companies such as Sony possessed the ability to design and manufacture many of the components integral to digital cameras whereas traditional photography companies such as Kodak lacked these capabilities and had to purchase components ftom other electronic companies. ^^ Distribution of cameras also shifted with the digital age in a way that favored consumer electronics companies. Consumers were increasingly purchasing even relatively expensive digital cameras at electronics chains such as Best Buy, Staples, and Circu it City rather than at smaller specialty photography shops. Consumer electronics companies already understood the inventory and logistics demands of the national chains, while traditional photography companies struggled to gain valuable shelf space. As one researcher put it, â€Å"A new wave of technology has given the newcomers the upper hand.For the consumer electronics companies, digital photography has been all upside, while the photo industry was stuck in a slow evolution stage. â€Å"^^ Gains in Mobile Phone Camera Quality and Usage Technological improvements in the resolution of photos captured on mobile phones had increased significantly. In 2006, Nokia offered a mobile phone model with Wi-Fi capabilities and an integrated three-mega pixel camera. ^^ Other mobile phone manufacturers offered phones with an integrated two-mega pixel camera. Consumers increasingly expected that their mobile SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 31 phones would contain an integrated camera. Approximately 30 million U. S. obile phone owners used their phones to capture images in 2005, an increase of 180% over the previous year. ^^ By 2009, nearlv 70% of mobile phones were expected to contain cameras with multimega pixel resolutions. Analysts further expected that the improved resolution ofthe integrated cameras in most mobile phones would decrease the demand for disposable traditional film cameras and could have a negative impact on low-end stand-alone digital cameras. ^' Because consumers carried their mobile phones with them constantly, the integrated cameras provided a convenient way to capture images during their daily activities as well as at special events, such as concerts and parties.Improvements in mobile phone cormections to wireless networks also made it easy for users to upload and share images with friends and family. Figure 1 depicts the increase in digital image captured using mobile phones. †¢ 62 Figure Digital Images Captured Worldwide, 2002-2009 50OT c 400 D Ca mera phone images captured 9 Digital camera images captured 2002 2003 2004 2005 2{K}6 2007 2008 2009 Source: Lyra Researcti, lrc. , Consumer Imaging Intelligence, Second-Half 2005 Forecast Maturing U. S. Demand In 2006, signs indicated that the digital camera market was maturing. After growing by almost 670% from 2000-2005, unit sales of digital cameras were slowing with an increase of only 26% forecasted for 2009. ^ Prices of digital cameras were also declining, making profitability more difficult for makers of low-end cameras.For example, digital cameras with less than 4 mega pixels of resolution dropped in price by 40% in 2006. In contrast, higher-end digital SLRs tended to maintain the same price points, adding value for consumers by packing each successive model with even more features. There was a glimmer of hope for some growth in the digital photography industry as some analysts believed that U. S. consumers were upgrading their digital cameras more frequently than had been previously expected. The replacement rate was estimated at every two SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 32 to three years rather than every four years as initially predicted. ^^ However, demand was expected to decline in 2007 and beyond as many consumers had completed their upgrade cycle and fewer new consumers were entering the market. An expected slowdown in the U. S. economy further contributed to a slowdown in demand for digital cameras.Higher interest rates were beginning to depress consumer spending in 2005 as the percentage of disposable income that U. S. households paid for their mortgages and consumer debt was increasing. ^^ Growth Possibilities Abroad Digital camera sales were expected to slow down in North America in 2007, but remained strong in Europe and Japan. Emerging markets were also expected to provide growing demand as camera prices fell. ^ In 2007, digital cameras were in strong demand in Central and Eastem Europe. Unit sales of digital cameras showed substantial increase s in Russia (up 30%), Ukraine (up 70%), Poland (up 15%), Hungary (up 18%), and the Czech Republic (up 7. 7%) over 2005 sales. ^^ Although more cameras were purchased, sales revenues actually declined as a result of declining prices due to technology advances and competitive pressures.The top three vendors in the region in 2006 were Canon, Sony and Olympus (in order of share). ^^ Analysts expected continued sales growth in the region but noted that demand for digital cameras had matured in the Czech Republic.  ° China was seen as a market with enormous potential for digital camera sales due to improving economic conditions and China's more open posture to the rest ofthe world as the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing approached. Sales were expected to grow from approximately 3 million units in 2004 to between 6. 5 and 10 million units in 2008. ^^ Growth in Chinese disposable income in the major industrialized cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou had created a market of 400 mil lion potential customers for products such as digital cameras. ^^ Interest in photography was keen among Chinese consumers as more Chinese began traveling abroad and wished to bring home photos from their trips. The World Tourism Organization predicted that approximately 100 million Chinese would travel abroad in the year 2020 (an increase of 500% over 2003 figures). ^Digital camera sales to consumers outside urban areas in China were expected to be slower. Lower disposable income and need for higher priority items like household appliances caused rural Chinese consumers to delay their purchase of digital cameras. ^^'*^ Furthermore, distribution channels in rural areas were not well developed. No major electronics chain equivalent to Best Buy or Circuit City existed outside the major ^^ Contrary to earlier industry predictions, Chinese consumers did not buy traditional film cameras as their purchasing power increased, but preferred to leapfrog the older technologies to buy the lates t digital camera models. ^ Sales of traditional film cameras and film canisters declined much more rapidly in China than had been anticipated; leaving companies that had depended on selling these products at risk of being jumped over by the newer technologies such as digital cameras and camera-phones. ^^ By 2006, more Chinese consumers owned cameraphones than digital cameras. ^*SCR Battling for Market Share BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 33 The disruptive technology of digital photography had proved challenging for many traditional camera makers. In 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it would withdraw completely from the photography industry—despite being the third-largest producer of traditional photo film. ^ Nikon announced plans to gradually halt production of five models of traditional film cameras, leaving only two film cameras in its product portfolio. *^ Other traditional camera companies, such as Canon, thrived in the new digital world. Canon had become the world leader in di gital cameras with an ahnost 19% share in ^^ Consumers were offered more choices in the digital camera marketplace as companies in the consumer electronics industry began offering digital cameras. Notable examples included Samsung, a consumer electronics company with a strong position in the camera-phones segment and Hewlett Packard with strongholds in printers and personal computers.Consumer electronics companies were formidable entrants into the digital photography industry due to their strong brand awareness with consumers, established distribution channels and experience with many of the technologies involved in creating digital cameras. The competitive position of the companies in the digital camera industry rose and fell as consumers demanded more features, improved technologies and lower prices. The U. S. market shares of the top ten digital camera makers are shown as Table 4. Analysts believed that the strong gains shown by Canon and Nikon from 2005-2006 were due to their in troduction of lowcost digital single lens reflex cameras (SLRs). ^^ Worldwide, Canon led in digital camera sales with a 18. % share in 2006. *^ Sony followed with a 15. 8 percent share while Kodak was third at 10%. ** Both Canon and Sony benefitted from consumer interest in single-lens reflex models as well as growing demand in emerging markets. Sony's share ofthe global market increased as a result of its purchase ofthe digital single-lens reflex division of Konica Minolta in 2006. ^^ In the digital SLR segment ofthe industry. Canon held 46. 7% share in 2006, followed by Nikon in second with 33% share and Sony at third with 6. 2% ^^ o H a m en Olympus Samsung Fujifilm Panasonic Casio (N 068, 500 940, 800 867, 000 045, 700 185, 856, 500 496, 400 444, 700 046, 300 955,000 inChange Change From Shipments Market From Previous Previous Share Year Year 21% 000 000 18% 39% 780 000 17% 10% -31% 050 000 25% 44% 31% 326 400 68% 130. 600 18% -5% 964, 800 -15% 120% 680,500 N/A -19% 1,780,600 19 9% 350,000 N/A 136% 405,000 N/A Shipments m ^ ^ 587 600 330 000 880 000 381 600 804 900 317 400 N/A 1,782,600 N/A N/A ^ ^ V/N es H a 2 ‘Ho 2006 2005 2004 Shipments Market Share Market Share cn 00 Canon Sony Kodak Nikon ^ 00 20% 17% 16% 10% cn o o cn ( N g E g o 19. 4% 21. 9% 6. 2% 8. 1% 10. 4% N/A 8. 0% N/A SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 35 In segmented market share, signincant differences were evident in the purchasing preferences of male versus female consumers.Men seemed to prefer Canon while women preferred Kodak. ^* Analysts attributed the gender difference to women's preference for simplicity and desire for high-quality prints that could be shared with family and friends. Kodak met these needs for women with their point-and-shoot camera models and the EasyShare docking station. Men preferred the SLR models offered by Canon while Kodak was their fourth most popular choice behind Sony and Olympus. ^^ Gender differences were also observed in what users did with their digital pho tos. Women believed digital prints were more important than men (63% versus 53%). ^ ° Women printed approximately 35% ofthe digital photos they took while men printed only 25%. ‘ Men â€Å"took the picture and put it in the computer. But then it was like a roach motel for pictures. They never got out,† one industry insider reported. ^^ Although digital camera makers recognized gender differences in purchasing and usage behaviors, care was taken to address the needs and preferences of both men and women when designing and marketing photography products. For example. Canon utilized Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova in television advertising because she appealed to both men and women. by Representative data on the number of camera models and suggested retail prices offered the top five digital camera companies is provided as Table 5. jaPM a a O -t P GO O PH o O O I U U O m 00 ^ â€Å"3 O) -^ II II ^1 O uj N 0;gt; (Zl H et ‘S a  § PH 11 I « C †S a ON n Os O ON ^ 5 . -i g A †¢a †¢(-. †¢ S †¢^ o 6^ 6O â€Å". agi 00 — 0U-3  « le ^ a† y^ ob ^ e C3 .a o CM s †¢a Pi †¢O 6^ II O O Os  »2 O S— o u 1 o 00 00 o si ‘5b'p -2 S–S fe PL, ao o O ^ g a es .^5 a ^-3S a o U SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL A New Kodak Emerges 37 In January 2008, Kodak announced that its turnaround was officially over. In advance of the company's annual strategy meeting in New York City on February 7, 2008, Perez announced: It is with great pride that I introduce the new Kodak, a company with a new spirit and winning attitude.While completing a difficult and unprecedented business transformation, we also created breakthrough products and services that feature Kodak's hallmark innovation, winning customer acceptance and critical praise for a brand renowned for its smart use of technology. In 2008 and beyond, we will leverage the innovative thinking of Kodak people to deliver on our commitments to sharehol ders and increase the value of this great company. ^^ Kodak executives pointed to multiple metrics to demonstrate the extent of the firm's transformation. Kodak's industrial park in Rochester, New York had been reduced from 1,600 acres to 700 acres since 1998. ^ °Ã‚ ° Eleven film plants had been shuttered, leaving the company with only three film plants worldwide. ^ °^ As shown in Figure 2, the number of Kodak workers had been reduced from 145,300 in 1988 to around 30,000 at the end of 2007.  °^ More than half ofthe remaining employees were considered â€Å"new,† joining Kodak since the launch ofthe firm's digital strategy in 2003. ^ °^ Revenues from the Consumer Digital Imaging Group (CDIG) had increased substantially since 2003. CDIG included digital cameras, inkjet printers, camera sensors, digital picture frames, online photo finishing, and digital photo kiosks. As shown in Table 6, CDIG revenues had almost doubled, growing from $2. 37 billion in 2004 to $4. 63 bi llion in 2007. Kodak did not report profitability data by product segment. SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 38 Figure 2 Kodak Sales, Gross Profit ; Net Income Per Employee*** 2002-2006 350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 = o Q 100,000 50,000 0 50,000 2002 H Employees D Sales/Employee †¢ Gross Profit/Employee †¢ Net Income/Employee 70,000 $183,357 $77,771 $11,000 2003 63,900 $208,404 $81,612 $4,147 2004 54,800 $246,661 $95,000 $10,146 2005 51,100 $279,217 $107,339 $(26,654) 2006 40,900 $324,548 $122,152 $(14,694) o o o o m ( ^ . -H ON o 1-H s? ON ON rj !004 Perc ri †¢n 00 Tl Tl Tl 00 ^H m ON o ON VO O .-H' NO ON Tl .-H in †¢n VO o t^ a O n rj VO O 00 O 1-H 00 CN T-H o o T—H ri VO ri m O a Gro o tems ai a s a O a o (3 S U g u a ‘ S onsnmer Digi CJ r 1 Outside the U. Inside the U. S raphic Comm ilm ; Photofi Outside the U. Inside the U. S U U 11 other ealth Gronp . 5 ‘ 5 s ‘ S e t (3 / anna^ n u SCR BUSINESS CASE JOURNAL 40 Building implosions were another symbol ofthe firm's makeover.Kodak had shed more than 100 buildings since the 199O's, imploding three massive buildings during the summer of 2007 that had formerly housed manufacturing processes for the firm's film, paper and other chemical-based products. ^ °^ As the rubble of the old chemical plants was cleared, Kodak executives gave presentations for technology stock analysts praising Kodak's successful turnaround. The presentations were entitled â€Å"A New Kodak Emerges† and emphasized the end of Kodak's restructuring program; the creation of high margin businesses, such as consumer inkjet printers and camera sensors; and Kodak's expected return to sustainable profitability.According to company executives, Kodak had a clear advantage in the digital space due to its specialized knowledge of materials science (the result ofthe firm's 100-plus years of experience in traditional photography) and digital image science (through the firm's strong intellectual pro perty in digital technologies). However, stock analysts remained skeptical of the success of Kodak's transformation, continuing to question the competitive success ofthe inkjet strategy and Kodak's value proposition for camera sensors. Analysts further questioned the adequacy of Kodak's spending for research and development given the number of major initiatives it was pursuing. In 2007, Kodak spent 5. 19% of sales or $536 million on research and development, while Canon spent $3,351 billion or 8. 22% of sales on a more singular research agenda.  °^ Others continued to express concern about the commoditization of many of the business segments in which Kodak operated, persistently asking Frank Sklarsky, Kodak's chief fmancial officer, â€Å"So, where are you making your money? I just want to know. It isn't clear†¦ â€Å"‘ °^ The stock analysts' continued unease over Kodak's fixture was refiected in their stock recommendations with ten of eleven key analysts rating the shares as either neutral or as Despite the Kodak officers' assertion of successfiil transformation, there was open speculation in the press about the possibility of a breakup of Kodak or mergers with either Xerox or Hewlett Packard.Perez dismissed the notion of a merger with HP saying, â€Å"I don't have any comments about that. All those rumors—^there are many other rumors too. I wouldn't pay much attention. â€Å"^ ^^ Other rumors included mergers with Dell, a leveraged buyout by a private equity firm or billionaire investor. Warren Buffet's interest in Kodak as an investment. ‘^^ When questioned about the possibility of a breakup, Perez retorted, â€Å"They don't know anything about the company. Why would you do that? I don't see any good financial reason to do that. â€Å"^ Were the â€Å"winds of change† continuing to blow for Kodak? Was Kodak's transformation successful or were there other changes needed?Was it time for Kodak to merge or pursue a break up? Or was a leveraged buyout Kodak's best option for remaining independent?EndnotesDigital Camera Turns 30-Sort Of. The Associated Press, http://www. msnbc. msn. com/id/9261340/. Online Extra: What it ‘Boils Down To' for Kodak. (November 23, 2003).

Implementing new technology Essay

Part 1- Changes That Organisations Have Had To Make To Their Activities and Performances due to New Technology 2 Activities 2 Performance 4 Part 2 – How Employees and Employers are Affected by Changes in IT 6 Part 3 – How Organizations Can Manage Risks When Using New Technology 8 Cyber Crime 8 Security Measures 9 Part 1- Changes That Organisations Have Had To Make To Their Activities and Performances due to New Technology Activities Organisations have to adapt their activities to promote their products and acquisition of products and other businesses. Adapting Sales and Marketing Strategies. Some organisations are now changing the way that they market and sell their products to show their developments in IT. Organisations can now market their product by showing it on search engine results, this is a cheaper way in marketing their product world wide but it might be hard getting the top spot on a search results page. Business deals can not only be by the phone where people have to be employed, it can now be done by email, over the internet, conferences and video calls. This will allow the organisation to get the product quicker and will generate more business from abroad. This can also reduce the price of the product and this might be passed on to the customer, this will allow the organisation to be more competitive. Organisations can use viral marking to promote products. They can put adverts on social networks, were people will send information to another person. This will work well with teenagers who use social networks a lot. Some organisations will partner up with each other organisations to promote each products on their websites. Organisations can monitor or log sales using specialist software. This will allow them to get a much greater understanding of the impact of products on consumers. They will be able to adapt their product range on demands of customers. They will be able to do this by looking at feedback through the ordering system. Adapting New Purchasing Opportunities The developments in IT have helped organisations to have quicker and easier automated ordering systems. Some organisations use EDI to monitor stock, this helps them to track sales and when they are running low on a product, it will automatically order new stock. Organisations can change the way they sell their products to see what method is best suited. They could use catalogues which are cheaper then showing your products in shop, but they are still dear to produce, websites could be used and over the phone. Organisations might try to keep products up with the current technology. Using New Technology in Customer Support Some organisations have chosen to use new automated telephone systems, where the user has to select an option for a certain department. This sometimes leads the customer to be on hold, waiting to talk to a member of staff. Customers can get very frustrated and they will go with another company, who do not use automated systems. Organisations sometimes have a website with a FAQ page or customer support page and a contact page. Some Organisations also have a forum on their website, this lets other people with their products help each other out. Secure Funds Transfer Organisations will use Electronic Funds Transfer which help to reduces fraud and theft. Customers can use their chip and pin card to buy products which also help to reduce fraud. If a organisations has a online shop they could also use a 3rd party secure funds transfer like PayPal to make payments more secure. It prevent hackers getting in to the system they could use a firewall. Supply Chain Management An EDI system could be used by organisations to manage processes and services. It can allow organisations to talk to each other thorough the system; this will make ordering products much quicker. Outsourcing will let the organisation use a 3rd party to provide the service. Logistics Organisations can electronic tracking to see were customers product is, this also helps to improve customer service. Organisations can use software which is design to plan the most efficient route for deliveries. Organisations can minimize the amount of stock held. This helps to improve their cash flow. They can link it to their stock control system to make sure that they have enough stock for the demand of a product. Integration with Partner Businesses Organisations can partner up to provide a customer focused service. They will be able to communicate and coordinate their products or services by using an EDI or an MIS. By producing a product or service together, the organisations will be able to attract more customers to the organisations. Establishing an Internet Presence It is very important the organisation has a professional looking website. It can be expensive to build a custom built website but a website that has not had much money spent on it can look tacky and will not be the best impression on the organisation. Customers most make sure they are not mis-lead by a professional looking as sometimes the organisations are not entirely credible. On organisation website they might have support pages, promote products and services and they could also have an e-commerce site. Automation Manufacturing Processes Robots have been introduced to manufacturing, they can help to reduce cost, save time and do jobs that people do not want to do. Robots can do dangerous and precise tasks. Some organisations us both automated and manual systems. Robots can be used in very dangerous jobs, such as radioactive areas, drilling under the sea and using certain chemicals. Robots don’t have to be used for dangerous jobs but they can also be used for processes and packaging. Reducing Intermediation Organisations can try to become more efficient by cutting out the middle man. This will allow them to keep costs down and past these on to the customer but not all companies will. Some organisations will sell their own products in their website, this cut the costs of having a high street shop. Usually a business will make sure it knows more information than a consumer, as they will be able to charge more for the product because the consumer will not know much about it. Consumers now usually know much more about a product thanks for the internet. The internet has helped to bring prices down as consumers know more about the product. Performance Organisations will need to manage their services better due to IT developments. Productivity Gains Automated manufacturing and developments in customer support can help with gains in productivity. Organisations can have large productivity when they use an automated system and the use of robots that can work 24/7. Although robots will sometimes need repairs it will be able to work all the time. Robots can produce consistent products and the organization can rely on the amount of work the robots will do, this will help the organization to calculate how many products it can produce over a certain period of time and how much it will cost. Robots will need maintenance to keep up with new developments. Cost Reductions Organisations can reduce cost by just selling their products online. They save money by not having to rent out premises, not employing staff and the store layout. IT developments have helped many organisations by not having to employ staff. Increased Profitability To see if the organisation will increase profit, they can use a cost benefit analysis. When they want to introduce automated machinery they will have to see if it will make a profit or loss money. They will compare the new technology to the cost of staff. They will also look at cost saving in time as well. If the organisation does save money this is sometimes most on to the consumer but is it not always as the organisation might want to make a bigger profit. Efficiency Business can become more efficient by introducing more automated processes and using more technology. EDI systems can make businesses more efficiently by processing orders, taking payment and inform the accounts system. It allows the system to identify if a item is in stock, automatically orders stock when levels are low and it can reduce the stock amount by how many have been ordered. Improved Management Information Organisations can track and analyze productivity more easily because of development of specialized systems that can manage information. Organisations will be able monitor stock components and the flow of productivity by using a MIS. MIS can be used to create invoices and up to date information about the accounts of the company. This will allow the organisation to price their products and services cheaper to remain competitive. Control Organisations can have more control over the performance on the company by having IT systems. By having a MIS efficiency and effectiveness of performance in a business can be monitored by management. With more businesses going global it is important to locate alternative suppliers, they will be able to provide even more competitive products and saving money. Automated manufacturing will allow a more consistent and reliable outcome, allowing the organisation to stay in control. Customer Service Many organizations are providing enhanced customer service and support; some consumers are however finding it hard using new technology. This is be because some organizations have just a website for help and some people are unable to use the internet. This could lead to consumers not buying the product and the growth of sales not growing, So it is a good idea to have other ways customers can contact the organisation. Synergy and Integration of Systems Organisation can now combine IT systems due to IT development. It allows the organisation IT systems to work more effectively. Organisation needs to make sure that when it upgrades the IT systems that they will work with each other and make sure staff can use it. Organisations that have an EDI or an MIS tend to be able integrate systems more effective. Part 2 – How Employees and Employers are Affected by Changes in IT Organisations have adapted their way of working when they use new IT developments, they may have to adapt to new staffing structures and job titles. Up Skilling of Workforce Employers A business will have to make sure that it knows when to train to use new IT developments. Sometimes the organisation will have to train staff to use specialist software, the employees will not be able to learn how to use to software it just a few hours they will need time to learn the features and functions of the software. They will need to think of the employees learning styles as many people will learn in different ways and also they also have different levels of ability and confidence. This will also have to be taken in to account when they like at the impact of adapting to new IT developments. Employees Employees will have to keep up to date with technology; some employers will employ new staff with the relevant knowledge and make other employees redundant. Employers might send employers to get trained to use new software in work hours or they might be asked to go in their own time. Dealing with Redundant Skills and Employees Employers When an organisation changes the way it operates can impact the number of staff. Organisations must make sure that it does not have unnecessary cost and should deal with redundant skills and employees. When an organisation decides to make people redundant they will have to decide what role they are going to make redundant to make it worthwhile, they also need to think about any other costs like, office space and resources. Also they need to think about redundancy money they will pay out. Employees. When organisation decide to make staff redundant, they must make sure that they do not make the wrong employee redundant and make another employee do their jobs as they may not have the skill to do the work. If an employee does not have the relevant skills they might be asked too do a course or be made redundant, so the organisation can employ some one else with the up to date skills. Home and Remote Working Employers Home working can help the organisation to cut costs, as it does not have to pay for office space. Organisations will also have remote workers which will work away from the office; they will be able to use mobile technology. If staff are working from home their work may not be up to standard and the effect on the individual or family by the intrusion in their home. Employees Some employees might prefer to work from home as they will be able to be more flexible and can do work when it suits them. Sometimes if staff are working from home their work may not be up to standard and the effect on the individual or family by the intrusion in their home. Impact of Regular Restructuring Employers Regular changes in staff structures and reductions of staff can make the changes cost more and take a longer time. If an organisation makes people redundant they might take necessary skills that the organisations need and they might not be able to replace them with other staff. Employees When restructuring staff the organisation may promote staff to management and they are not ready for a high level position or they might not have the right equipment to manage staff effectively. When new teams are made to work with each other they may not be as effective as the old ones as some teams are made up of different personalities. Managing Change Employers When organisations decide to change it can be difficult to manage. It can also cost loads to change. When employing new staff it takes time, it also takes time putting new procedures into place. Organisations must be careful when moving staff to different jobs that they do not want as they might not have the skills to do their job. Employees Some employees do not adapt to change easily, some staff might have to be moved to roles they do not like and not have the skill they need to carry out the job. Some people are upset by change as they are not always in control but if they are kept informed about what is going to happen it will help them it prepare them for what is going to happen. Balance of Core Employees with Contractors and Outsourced Staff Employers A strategy is needed when considering making staff reductions, changes to job roles and outsourcing services. Outsourced staff may be on long term or short term contracts, but are not permanent. It might not be a very effective to run an organisation on temporary staff as they may not be very loyal and not always available. Employees When the organisation decides to get temporary staff they have to think about what the permanent staff will react, they might not like some one coming in and doing their work or they might try to give all the work to the temporary staff. Part 3 – How Organizations Can Manage Risks When Using New Technology It is very important for a organisation to mange risks when they are going to use new developments in IT. It is also important to make changes to security due to IT developments. Cyber Crime It is import that security on the internet is up to date with recent IT developments as the risk of cyber crime is greater. Type Of Cyber Risk Description of Risk Methods for Minimising Risk Diverting Financial Assets Criminals can easily and quickly transfer sums of money across the internet. It is helped the high amount of purchasing on the internet. A business will found it hard to track and indentify the transactions on a global scale. Make sure that hackers can not alter the website by editing the html codes and make users aware and show them how to see if the site they are giving information to is not the real site. Sabotage Communications Viruses can sabotage communications, they might be sent through email attachments and files being downloaded. Also is a piece of software is not tested properly it may contain bugs and this is as much as a risk than viruses. It is import to have security software on a computer or on the network. Make sure that software is properly tested for bugs that may occur. Steal Intellectual Property Business most of the times have the exclusive right to a design to which they have patented, which can not be copied by anyone else. Sometimes other business might copy their idea. On the internet is very easy to copy and paste someone else work, this is illegal. Business can check that their work is not being copied by using search engines, as they are able to search loads of text to match content quickly. Denial of Service Attacks This happens when a site has a lot of requests for a page on it and jamming the site, until it goes off line. This will stop the organisation from making money. Firewalls can be used to prevent most unwanted traffic, but traffic can made to evade the system and flood the firewall. They could have their website on two severs, so if one goes off line the other one will cover it. Halt e-commerce Transactions Theft over the internet is becoming a major issue, and this sometimes stops transactions. Credit and debit card theft is the main issue and spam mail being another. It is important that countries have regulations on e-commerce. Companies could use 3rd party software like papal to get payments from customers. Security Measures Firewalls A firewall is a security measure that prevents unauthorized electronic access to a computer system. A firewall’s basic task is to regulate some of the flow of traffic between computer networks of different trust levels. It may be necessary to have more than one firewall, each server may need one. Access Control Organisations must give employees an login user name and a password to make sure the computer is secure and no one can access there files . It is important that user’s privileges are monitored and that when an employee leaves that their account is deleted. If an organisation has a wireless internet connection then they will need to have it security-enabled, to prevent unauthorised access, unauthorised user could connect to the network and access important business information. Physical Security CCTV can be used it prevent and capture images or video of the people how are tampering or stealing equipment. It can record 24/7 to see what events have gone on. It can be copy to DVD and sent to the police for evidence. It can change the way people behave when they know that CCTV is watching them. Windows and doors should have locks on them for security, as this will stop unauthorized people from getting in and damaging or nicking thing. Digital keypads can be fitted on to doors and only people with the code can enter the room. Mobile devices can be secured by fitting a chain and padlock, key or combination lock attached to a metal cable. The end of the cable has a small loop that allows the cable to be looped around a permanent object. Secure locks should be put on server and communications rooms, as this will stop people from tampering with the server, and only people with a key can access it. Security Personal can look around to see if there are any suspicious people around and move people on. They could also watch the CCTV Backups It is important that orgainisations have a back up of important information, it will depend on what sort of information is backed up on a regular basis. Individuals should make sure that they back up files on a regular and frequently. It is important for organisations to make sure that they back up financial accounts before and after each month end and annually. Decisions being made about what files are saved and what data is contain in them. Backups should be also including mobile phones and PDA’s. It is important to documenting a network as it prevents loss of important network information; it can reduce the need to research solutions. The documenting must be up to date. It is a good idea to document the following:   Listing addressing schemes   Domain structures Cable runs   Customers, Suppliers, etc Disaster Recovery Procedures Back up and recovery is very important to ensure that the system is secure and safe. Having a back up and restoring is critical, some organisations should back up there data every day and done overnight, but it depends on the size of the company. Some organisations keep their records on a off site location and keep them for at least a day, but some keep them monthly or weekly. Power surge equipment should be brought to protect equipment; as if there is a electrical storm they can cause power surges and can damage electrical equipment. Organisations should have a disaster recovery policy, which gives the details about what actions can be taken in an event of a human or natural disaster which can affect an organisation. Disasters may be: fire, natural disasters, power failure, disruptions, terrorist attacks, equipment failure, human error, etc. The policy may include procedures for: data relocation, alternative sites, additional workers and equipment.

Another look into JS Mill’s subjection of women Essay

This paper intends to answer the question, â€Å"Why does Mill find it unlikely that women will join together to rebel against men? † through an attempt to identify three of his reasons. In addition to the aforementioned, this paper will provide examples to illustrate why the aforementioned reasons are still true today. Reasons Why Women Do Not Go Against Men John Stuart Mill finds it â€Å"unlikely that women join together to rebel against men† (Mill n. p. ). He has several reasons for this and three of these are the following: First of all is because of â€Å"the natural attraction between opposite sexes† (Mill n. p. ). Explaining further, women will not merge to revolt against men because loving men comes naturally to women (Mill n. p. ). The women also sympathize with what men need, for instance the men want a â€Å"woman most nearly connected with him, not a forced slave but a willing one† (Mill n. p. ). Women are most likely to love men instead of grouping themselves together and rebel because they know this is want men truly desire and women naturally want to help men satisfy such goal (Mill n.p. ). Thus, love prohibited the women to go against men (Mill n. p. ). Second is because of â€Å"the wife’s entire dependence on the husband, every privilege or pleasure she has being either his gift, or depending entirely on his will† (Mill n. p. ). Explaining further, it is â€Å"unlikely that women will join together to rebel against men† because women think that they owe their lives to the men (Mill n. p. ). This is partly because they were not provided with an education that may let them do things that typically only men can carry out (Mill n. p. ). This lack of education only let them take care of the men or serve them and because of these, they were convinced that it is only moral such is a â€Å"moral duty of women† (Mill n. p. ). Eventually, this also led women to submit to men and to yield to the control of other people (Mill n. p. ). Thus, this kind of belief/mentality prevented women to revolt against me (Mill n. p. ). Last but not least is because â€Å"the principal object of human pursuit, consideration, and all objects of social ambition, can in general be sought or obtained by her only through him† (Mill n.p. ). This is because a woman tends to believe she cannot attain goals on her own (Mill n. p. ). Again, there are several factors for this: first of all back then women were not given the chance to obtain education; second, they were made to believe that it is their duty to serve men; third, they lack self-esteem because of the first two factors aforementioned and so they feel they will never be able to make it on their own and so they have to depend on men all the time (Mill n.p. ). Thus, this kind of principle (or lack thereof) hampered women to rebel against men (Mill n. p. ). Examples Illustrating Why It Still Occurs Today Unfortunately, the aforementioned reasons why women do not go against men even if they have to still exist today. Take for instance the following: There are several cases wherein the woman refuses to file a complaint against a man because she does not want him punished/hurt because she loves her deeply. This occurs from then ‘til now because of the woman’s natural attraction for a man (Mill n. p. ). Also, up to now there are still cultures or countries that encourage women to serve the men instead of going to work or having a career of their own or going to school to get an education. This occurs from then ‘til now because of the wrong belief that it is the â€Å"women’s moral duty to serve men† (Mill n. p. ). Works Cited Mill, John Stuart. The Subjection of Women. 1869. n. a. 31 October 2008. http://www. constitution. org/jsm/women. htm.

Violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Violence - Essay Example These are the steps, which I think should be taken by the parents in order to guide the children towards a positive approach: 1. Parents should take care while communicating with their children, and according to child psychology parents should never impose any decision on children. That does not mean that parents should set their children free but they should explain every do's and don'ts to their children. It would be better to have friendly discussions with children and then softly explain your view to them along with the pros and cons of TV and video games. Tell them how video games can affect their personalities, how and in what ways these programs can cause harm to them and what would be the consequences of continuing these activities in near future. 3. Act like you have understood child's opinion, appreciate it and while appreciating gradually draw his attention towards the negative aspects of video games, like "anger" and "violence". ... 4. Draw his attention towards other useful activities and concerns to do like sports, music, picnic etc. This would help in maintaining a warm and friendly attitude. (Remember the most successful children are those whose parents are more like friends to them) 5. In most cases children can be controlled by adopting this attitude but if (in rare cases) they are unable to manage, parents should straight forwardly prohibit them from involving in such activities. Children should not be allowed to watch TV all the time or playing video games. Violent games are not only harmful to children psychologically but they also damage sensitive areas of brain tissues affecting long-term memory of a child. As we can see today video games not only comprise of games alone but also they have small movie clips in it, which often shows violence and aggression thereby inspiring and motivating the child towards such attitude. Now, who is responsible for such games, which portray pain and aggression Who to blame; society, parents or technology. I have seen "Max Payne" the game, which involves all the characteristics mentioned above. Children love to play and indulge in those games, which the technology has gifted us, so the best technique to save a child is to make him aware of the consequences beforehand. I think video games are like drugs, once you get in it becomes very difficult to remain aloof from drugs. In conclusion I would like to suggest that parents whether by hook or by crook should not allow their children in any circumstances to spoil their personalities by getting addicted to these drugs. Might be this is the way we can save our child, save a generation. Name: ____________ Course ID: ________ Student ID: ________ "Do TV and video

Individual Business Report - Zumo Smoothie bar international Research Paper

Individual Business Report - Zumo Smoothie bar international - Research Paper Example It is on this postulation that Zummo Smoothie Bar will be founded upon. Zummo Smoothie Bar will seek to serve the underserved market of smoothie lovers who don’t have too much cash to spare. It will also seek to provide better services by allowing the customers to choose their own menus as well as offer delivery services. By giving these value-adding services to the business of smoothie, it will be easier for Zummo Smoothie Bar to create a market segment for its products and survives and overcome competition from the already existing and established competitors such as Starbucks. Introduction The Smoothie market is a big market, in terms of the various market drivers such as number of potential customers (Cross, 58). Smoothies come in all forms, qualities, and amounts. In the Camden town, London, the smoothie business is a big business as indicated by the numerous smoothie bars which offer numerous services. There is however a market segment that seems to be underserved. This market segment includes those who would want to have a smoothie without having to dig too dip into their pockets. Most smoothie bars in Camden offer very expensive products which many people may not afford. In this regard, there is an opportunity to offer the products to this market segment. This market segment is composed of the people who are willing to compromise a little in the quality of the smoothie as long as they ca get on a better price (Lerner & Roberto, 90). Competitors The main competitor in the smoothie sub sector is Starbucks which offers high quality smoothies in the Camden area within London. Starbucks is an international brand which offers different types of beverages including smoothies. Apart from Starbucks, there are also a number of other competitors such as Chaboba Bubble Tea, White Kitchen, Shake My Shake and The Espresso Bar. These businesses offer smoothies as well as other beverages such as coffee and tea. Most of them are high-end smoothie bars and offer v ery expensive products. As a result, although these competitors will be offering the same products as Zummo Smoothie bar, they will not offer direct competition to Zummo due to the fact that Zummo Smoothie bar will be looking for a subsection of the market which the rest of the bars don’t attend to. Marketing strategy for Zummo of the Smoothie bar According to Weinstein (45), market segmentation is a very important market strategy. Zummo Smoothie bar will target a market segment which is composed of the younger people in the market which will include students. This segment of the market is composed of the people who may not have enough money to send too such on a product like a smoothie. In this regard, the Zummo Smoothie Bar will offer smoothies of average quality in order to make sure that its costs are within the profit threshold. This will help the Zummo Smoothie bar to be able to offer the product at a much lower price and therefore be able to meet the needs of the marke t. Discounts As Donnelly (85) says, offering discounts is a major way to engage the customers. Zummo Smoothie bar will make use of discounts as a way to attract and maintain its customers. Since the Zummo Smoothie bar will be targeting the students, they will be given discounts for buying from the shops. Quantity discounts will be offered to the customers for being regular customers. To achieve this, the customers will be issued with a

Professional Challenge-Contemporary Issues and Policies Assignment

Professional Challenge-Contemporary Issues and Policies - Assignment Example In other words, the private health agencies work with the profit motive where as the public health agencies aim for meeting the social obligations. Hence, any change in the health care policy affects significantly the efficiency of public health organization which in turn would influence the health care of the people. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the impact of current health care issues and policies on the performance of public health care organization i.e. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), United States of America. VA meets the social obligations by providing a wide range of benefits including, education and training, disability, vocational rehabilitation and employment, dependant and survivor benefits, burial benefits, medical treatment and life insurance. At the same time, VA provides benefits only to some selected and defined sections of the people like veteran, Veterans dependent, surviving spouse, child or parent of a deceased Veteran and uniformed service members. The national health care policy has always been designed keeping the overall welfare of the all the sections of the society in to consideration. For example, a joint VA and Department of Defense program was initiated which provides service members the opportunity to file claims for disability compensation up to 180 days prior to retirement from active duty or full time National Guard or Reserve duty which is very useful for the veterans under emergency circumstances. The national health care policy also facilitated the operatio n of ambulatory care & community based The economic burden of implementing new health care policies is the main factor that decides the success of the organization like VA. Day by day the needs of the patients have been growing necessitating higher number of out door units and ambulance services incurring additional costs. The national health care policy of USA has been ensuring that the

The concept of Time Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The concept of Time Management - Essay Example To facilitate the creation of a life steady with one’s deepest needs and values, there is need for an individual to lay down priorities and subsequently adhere strictly on them. How a person spends his/her time is very essential. In fact, during an interval of time, people require a time log in order to see if their time goes to waste. Having a good proportion of one’s time used up on urgent as well as important matters instead of on petty and less lucrative activities is very important. Additionally, one should seriously assess the persons to whom he/she devotes most of his/her time. This paper delves into the concept of time management; the skills needed in good time management, ways of using time properly as well as the dos and don’ts while managing time. Beardsley suggests four time redemption tricks. He stresses on the need for one to make lists of all his/her projects, noting down even those tasks that are not obligatory. One should not allow his/her inbox to box him/her in. This implies that a person should not let his/her basket of chores to man him/her. A person should simply get to the bottom of the in-basket one time every day and pick one item at a time and should not concentrate on any other item till he/she finishes the first. He adds that a job requiring not more than two minutes to complete should be handled immediately. He suggests that a person should make a review of roughly thirty minutes at every week-end in addition to making an update of his/her lists. Some skills are a must have in proper time management. These skills are the abilities that one should be acquainted with and solve his/her time management dilemmas. Possessing good time management skills enables a person to exercise control over one’s own time as well as life, in addition to one’s stress and his/her energy levels. An individual can effortlessly become accustomed to surprises as well as new opportunities. It is important to note that one ca nnot inherit these time management skills. Instead, one can only learn them and a person can never learn the principle of time management until he/she becomes a victim. As Martin asserts, the severest handicap to time management is procrastination – one should just get started and many of his/her problems will slowly disappear. There are some rules that one should keep in mind in order to become an effective time manager. To start with, a good time manager should delineate priorities and schedule his/her activities. It is wise for a person to make out the first priority classes and do anything to achieve them and to do away with second priority classes. Furthermore, an individual should shun generating impossible situations. People do this by finding themselves trapped to carrying out too many activities. People should as well define their priorities in addition to shunning distractions and loss of the main point (Martin, N.p). According to Kuther, there is a remedy to those who inadvertently create impossible situations. She argues that once a person prepares his/her lists, he/she may realize that he/she have much more on the ground than what he/she was thinking. In such a situation, she advises that one does not have to embark on everything. He/she can take a hold on a small number of it for a while, some even a much lengthy time while he/she may not even execute others at the end of the day. She says that the secret towards achieving a consistent progress on a person’s chores is to separating each task into easier component tasks. Kuther further notes that writing down everything that one wants to accomplish

Writer's choice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 35

Writer's choice - Essay Example This is because material misrepresentation of the facts of a product has a potential effect of making the customers to make decisions to purchase the product, something that would not have happened had the facts been set right. Misrepresentation of information to customers is both an ethical issue as well as a tort that can attract civil liability (CCAB, 2011). The ethical issue arises as the company’s president is only driven by greed desires to keep up with the external competition that the company faces. That is why he is keen on deliberating changing the estimated life of the company’s principal product, non-biodegradable plastic cartons, from 8 years to 12 years. He wants to do this to improve the profitability of the company while not putting the needs of the customers in mind. A potential ethical situation that can happen when dealing with bad debts is when the unethical accountants modify the financial registers of a company and scheme the numbers so as to generate a fabricated picture that the company is making profits (CCAB, 2011). This can arise if the accountant in custody of the company’s financial statements and balance sheets is under unwarranted pressure and tension from the management who want to record a success of the company. This pressure makes the accountants to provide deceitful reports of the proceeds, possessions and liabilities of the company. This type of a fraud is responsible for short-term remunerations for the company’s but it can also lead to the ruin of the company once it is discovered by the relevant authorities (CCAB,

Fast Fourier Transform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fast Fourier Transform - Essay Example A second approach includes just a single hardware operator of the butterfly type, and intending to perform in succession the computations corresponding to all the butterflies of all the stages of the graph. Such an approach has the drawback of requiring a very fast hardware operator. An input memory separate from the memory is required for writing the intermediate computation results. This avoids access conflicts when a data block enters the operator while the previous block is still being processed. It is therefore necessary to provide two memories of N0 complex words, where N0 denotes the initial size of the Fourier transform. This leads to an overall circuit of considerable size, especially when N0 is large. An intermediate approach includes a hardware operator of the butterfly type per stage of the graph, as well as a storage element. This includes delay lines or shift registers, whose function in to input the data to the operator in the right order, while aware of the butterflies of the graph of the relevant stage. Such architectures are termed serial or pipelined according to terminology well known by one skilled in the art. More precisely, an electronic device for computing a Fourier transform having a pipelined architecture comprises a plurality of successive processing stages connected in series between the input and the output of the device by internal data paths. These stages respectively comprise processing means and storage means. The processing means performs processing operations for Fourier transforms of smaller elementary sizes than the initial size on blocks of data whose sizes are reduced in succession from one stage to the next. The term "initial size" of the Fourier transform is understood here and in the remainder of the text to mean the size of the blocks received as input to the device by the first stage. The elementary sizes of the Fourier transforms performed by the various stages may be identical and equal to the radix of the Fourier transform; i.e., a Fourier transform with uniform radix. However, they may be different from one stage to another, as in the case of Fourier transforms with mixed radix. US Patent No. 6,098,088 discloses Fast Fourier Transform processor architecture, based on radix-22 single path delay feedback (R22SDF) architecture. Input data is applied to a series of pairs of butterfly means, each pair including a first type of butterfly and a second type of butterfly, with each having a feedback path from its output to its input. Until the end of the series is reached, the output of the second butterfly in each pair is applied to a multiplier, before the multiplier output is applied to the first butterfly in the subsequent pair. In order to be able to use Fast Fourier Transform processor architecture in a data communications system such as an OFDM Ultra Wideband (UWB) communications system, the processor must be able to handle a high data rate. Moreover, the hardware cost of the processor is an important factor. According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for performing a Fast Fourier Transform operation, the apparatus comprising: an input, for receiving input data; a plurality of first data processing paths, each being adapted to perform said Fast Fourier Tran

Imperfect Punishments Essay Example for Free

Imperfect Punishments Essay Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dantes Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dantes treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno and Limbo seem to be backwards and these poor people are doomed to suffer misguided punishments. Therefore, despite Dantes best attempts to justly punish each sinner, he makes a few mistakes because he is not God and Dante is unable to unbiasedly judge each sinner. If you were to attempt a journey through Hell, the first unlucky hellions you would encounter are the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno. The residents of this not quite heaven, not quite hell domain were placed here because while living, they chose to neither side with God nor with the Devil. By choosing neither good nor evil, these people sinned because they never chose to live by a set of Christian ideals. The punishment for these sinners is to constantly chase a white flag. The color of the flag symbolizes the blank and empty life the sinners led because they did not choose to follow God. The sinners are also bitten by wasps because in real life, they were never forced into any type of moral decision, so in the Ante Inferno, the wasps sting them and force them to chase the white flag. While the ordeal these sinners face seems entirely appropriate, their physical location in hell, or lack there of, is what makes their punishment wrong. This becomes very obvious when the punishment fo r those in Limbo is considered. Limbo is the First Circle of Hell and it is the final resting place for the people who died before the birth of Christianity or who were never baptized. Notable figures like Moses and Noah are former residents of Limbo, until  Christ granted them a pardon. Virgil resides in Limbo and has been given a temporary leave of absence to guide Dante through Hell because Beatrice, Dantes former love who holds a high place in heaven, is worried that he is headed on the path towards Hell. Dante shows pity for those who are stuck in Limbo because as Virgil describes, Some lived before the Christian faith, so that They did not worship God aright and I Am one of these. Through this, no other fault, We are lost, afflicted only this one way: That having no hope, we live in longing(Canto IV 28-32). Dante is said to be seized with heartfelt grief (Canto IV 33) after hearing this, but no pity is supposed to be felt towards sinners who are receiving just punishments. But how just is it that people who never knew the word of Christ and had no knowledge of Heaven or Hell are sentenced to Hell? It is not a fair punishment to doom those unlucky enough to be born before Christianity to Hell when they were not given a fair chance to learn how to gain entrance to Heaven, especially when you consider that those living in the Ante Inferno were perfectly aware of God and knew the consequences of not living a Christian life. Knowing about God and simply ignoring him seems to be a worse crime than being born before Christ. Perhaps some of the residents of Limbo may have ended up in Hell had they know about Christianity, but some may not have. The people in Limbo were never given the choice to live a life with God, so their punishment and placement in Hell should be less severe than the people who ignored their chance to gain entrance to Heaven. If Limbo and the Ante Inferno could geographically switch positions, Dantes reasonsing and punishments for the two groups would make more sense. The sinners in the Ante Inferno experience what seems to be a greater punishment  than what one would face in Limbo. Being constantly stung by wasps and forced to chase a white flag would be mentally and physically exhausting and seems to be a torture straight out of hell yet they arent even technically in hell. On the other hand, in Limbo one merely walks around and talks to other luckless souls, which does not seem to be a punishment constant with what other sinners face in hell. Dante correctly assigned the right punishments to each group of sinners, but he misplaced both groups. Limbo should be outside of Hell because they did not have the knowledge of either Heaven or Hell. The Ante Inferno should be the first level of Hell, reserved for those who knew about Heaven and Hell, choose neither side, and now must face the fact that by thei r indecision, are bound to suffer in Hell. While Dante may have geographically misplaced these two groups of sinners, he did correctly punish most of the sinners in Hell. For example, the river of blood in which boils everyone / Whose violence hurt others (Canto XII 41-42) describes the perfect punishment for those who were violent while they were alive. The degree of the violence committed also factors into the punishment. Tyrants who slaughtered many people are completely covered in boiling blood, while those who were violent against only a few suffer with blood up to their torsos. This is the perfect punishment because violence is a crime of passion and causes bloodshed. It is appropriate for these sinners to be in boiling blood, which would have been similar to their blood, simmering with rage and passion, while they committed their sin. Being immersed in this disgusting pool of heated blood would be a terrible punishment and it is just that those who commit the crime of violence and murder should suffer this endless tor ment. In order to place the sinners in the appropriate levels of Hell, Dante relies on his personal experiences and opinions about the crimes committed. The little bit that we know about Dante and his life, we learn through the opening scenes of the epic and conversations he has with spirits in Hell. The epic opens with Dante, In dark woods, the right road lost (Canto I 2). This shows the Dante is neither a devout Christian, nor is he a sinner. At his place in his life, being neither good nor bad, Dante would most likely be sentenced to life in the Ante Inferno. Throughout the epic, Dante likens  himself to Virgil, but at the same time appears to know that his work is not quite as good as Virgils. Perhaps by placing himself and the Ante Inferno in a level of Hell less severe than Limbo, Dante may still not be as good of a poet, but he is able to represent himself as a better person morally. This may not seem just to me, but to Dante this is a perfectly reasonable punishment. Dante feels the need to be superior to Virgil and since he was not able to accomplish this in life, he supercedes Virgil in the afterlife. It is also evident that Dante has a personal bias towards those who commit the sin of violence. While venturing through their circle of Hell, Dante says there in that crowd / Were many I recognized (Canto XII 114-115). He mentions that Alexander resides there and that he held Sicily under / For many a sad year (Canto XII 100-101). Dante may have placed such a harsh, yet still just, punishment on the Violent because he is avenging his country and people for the violent crimes committed against them. Alexander was responsible for an innumerable amount of Italian lives during his occupancy of Sicily and Dante is making sure that he is correctly punished for his sins. In life, Dante was unable to stop Alexander from committing his atrocities, but he is able to condemn him in Hell. Had Dante and his country not experienced the terrors of a tyrant, it is possible that without his need for revenge, Dante may have awarded the Violent a lesser punishment. Our personal experiences and feelings are what make us human, but yet they also lead us to biases, which prevent us from being as fair and just as God. It is obvious that those in Limbo who were never given a chance to have their soul saved by Christ should not be doomed eternally to a lower level of Hell than those in Ante Inferno who ignored the chance to save their soul. Yet Dante misplaces these two domains of Hell to put himself in a level nearer to Heaven than Dante will ever be able to acheive. While Virgils literary abilities will always be remembered as better pieces of work, by making Virgil his guide to salvation, Dante will reach Heaven, the ultimate goal of a Christian, while Virgil never will. The punishment of the Violent is a strong statement against those who have brought bloodshed to Italy and reflects Dantes hope for peace in Italy. Dante shows that while these sinners may have dominated the lives of others on Earth, that in hell  the Violent are completely overwhelmed by the blood that they created. Despite Dantes good intentions of creating a Hell where the punishment fits the crime, his opinions cloud his judgement. He uses Hell as a way to punish or degrade those whom he had some sort of a conflict with while alive. It is obvious that I do not agree with all of his ideas about Hell, but then again I am also not a fourteenth century Italian male. A just hell is different for everyone, depending on your own beliefs or lack of beliefs. The only universally just Hell that can be experienced is a Hell of Gods making and hopefully I will never know how his punishments compare to Dantes.

Developing Green Infrastructure in New York CIty

Developing Green Infrastructure in New York CIty Chapter 1 New York City, U.S.A. New York City background City of New York is the most heavily populated city in the United States and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. From the geographical point of view, it is located in a coastal area at the mouth of Hudson River into the Atlantic Ocean. The city’s territory has been extensively altered by human intervention, especially with considerable land reclamation. At the present time the city total area is 1214km2, 790km2 out of it being land and is increasing with every year. New York City’s land use is characterized as a highly developed urban core on Manhattan Island and a sprawling dense suburban area. The average building height in the city is approximately 142m. The city’s climate is vastly affected by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean having 2.5 °C as average temperature in winter and 24.9 °C as average temperature in summer. Hurricanes and tropical storms are rare in New York, however they are not uncommon and always have the potential to strike the area. Urban heat island in New York City In the city of New York, urban heat island is a very well-known fact and it causes a lot of problems in various parts of the city, especially in the areas with high buildings. In the last two decades there have been countless researches and analysis made by different scientists and city government regarding atypical increased heat in some urban districts. In the last years, abnormal city climate became a bigger concern also for general public and the number of local communities involving in various heat mitigation programs is increasing. One of the most problematic zones regarding urban heat island is Manhattan. This district has the shape of a high urban canyon with buildings height ranging from around 70m up to 541m but the average height is of approximately 130m. The traffic in this area is overwhelming and combined with the large amount of materials that can absorb heat during the day, Manhattan is considered the hotspot of high temperatures in New York City. However, during the day there are multiple regions with higher temperatures than in Manhattan. But then again during the night, the temperature remains elevated in this specific region while in the other areas, the cooling process happens much faster and considerably easier. Figure 5‑a Manhattan map During summer temperatures are elevated and in this period urban heat island is more accentuated. Summer temperatures in the city are in average 4 °C warmer than surrounding suburban and rural areas. During winter city temperatures are in average 3 °C warmer than surroundings.[1] According to this research Variations in New York city’s urban heat island strength over time and space[2] in New York City, on a typical summer day with 30 °C air temperature, roofs and upper parts of buildings’ facades can reach more than 80 °C, while the pavements and streets on the floor of the urban canyon have a temperature varying from 65 ° to 80 °C. Mitigation strategies Urban heat island mitigation programs Absence of parks, gardens and street trees is a well-known problem in New York City districts and in 1996 the first program with the intention of greening the city has begun. It is called the Greenstreets and the purpose is to â€Å"change unused road areas into green spaces that beautify neighborhoods, improve air quality, reduce air temperatures (†¦). Since its beginning, over 2500 Greenstreets have been built citywide†[3] and the below table shows the current status. Figure 5‑b This table shows the percentages of vegetation and impervious surfaces in some of the New York City neighborhoods. The percentages are comparative to the specific zone. Landscape architects work together with the city government and local community groups to determine how best to increase the green infrastructure in the city. In Manhattan, more than half of the buildings’ roofs and terraces are no longer impervious because of the multitude of programs implemented by the government to fight the heat. The most important plan is called PlaNYC 2030[4] and it was implemented in 2007. Since then 903000 trees have been planted and in 2014 New York City had the cleanest air in the last 50 years. Moreover, since September 2013, an additional 185000m2 of black asphalt felt roofs have been upgraded to green roofs. Currently only 14% of the city area is covered by parks and gardens and they help reduce the heat, but the program is continuing. According to NASA â€Å"about 14 percent of the New York City’s impervious surface area consists of rooftops, most of them dark, heat-generating surfaces, typically tar†[5]. If this all this area is to be transformed into green roofs, then the percentage of gardens could grow up to 28%. In January 2010, one major project called Green light for Midtown[6] has been implemented in the midtown area, Manhattan. The idea was developed as a little part of the PlaNYC 2030. This project was a â€Å"major initiative in the City’s efforts to improve mobility and safety†[7]. However it also had a smaller and not that important objective to increase the green areas in midtown and have lighter colored streets and pathways. Some trees have been planted but more have been placed in large pots to ensure flexibility. Most of the streets have been temporarily painted in green and blue colors. The project was a success at that time as the lighter surface colors ensured a lower temperature for pedestrians. Another program called NYC  °Cool Roofs[8] (White roof project) [9], has as purpose turning most of black asphalt felt roofs in New York City into white roofs. The procedure is by painting the roof covering with a highly reflective paint, of minimum 0.75 albedo as stated in the project law[10]. According to the White Roof Project research on a summer day with 32 °C a white roof surface temperature is with 6 °C warmer than the air temperature and with 44 °C cooler than a black asphalt felt roof[11]. Since the project started in 2010, more than 535000m2 of roofs have been painted white in New York City metropolitan area[12]. Figure 5‑c Map of New York City with white roofs at the end of 2012 Figure 5‑d White Roof Project research Even though white roofs are more used than green roofs, the latter have greater heat mitigation potential. In Manhattan, while a white roof has the power to cool the air temperature with 0.7 °C on a summer day, the same area of green roof can cool the air around with approximately 3 °C and the effect is extended on a larger area.[13] Indoor temperature New York City has to struggle every summer with air conditioning and mechanical ventilation of every building. Because of the intense heat and the amount of units running in the same time, long power blackouts are very common and people had to find solutions to improve the air quality indoor. A lot of companies took the decision to install living walls indoors because of design reasons, but in time they realized the positive effects that they have on indoor climate. As a result, this solution became with time popular and more people and companies take the decision to install a living wall inside to help the air conditioning. Indoor temperatures during summer are very close to the outside temperatures and a living wall indoor can reduce the room temperature with as much as 7 °C. Green structures Figure 5‑e The Trump Tower in New York City Green facades and living walls are a common choice between New Yorkers but not as common as green roofs. Living walls are mostly used inside or on terraces and balconies. Green facades are also an appealing design in New York City and they appear mostly on old buildings. On new buildings, a full or partial green faà §ade is achieved by plants that people grow in their balconies or hanging from the outside window sill. Green roofs are increasing not only because of the multitude of promoting programs and laws but also because people discovered the benefits that these structures have. Most of them are becoming used as fruits and vegetable gardens, especially on the apartment blocks, schools and kindergartens. Moreover a nice flower garden on each apartment terrace increases the property value. Therefore the real-estate agencies are taking advantage of this feature and implement green roofs and green walls in more and more buildings. As a conclusion, most of the people’s reasons for adding a green roof or living wall anywhere in the city are more oriented to economic benefits or attractive view and practical usage. However the effect on the city climate and indoor temperature is the same. Communities involvement Figure 5‑f Public tree nursery The city government has a very efficient and well-organized informing procedure for local communities and the number of volunteers for helping cool the city is increasing. Also Central Park in Manhattan area, during summer is considered the heart of cool and shade and people realized how much power vegetation can have on the city climate. Therefore one of the most important practices that communities are doing is helping the government create spaces or use the existing parks for public tree nurseries. When trees reach the necessary size, volunteers help the government plant them on streets or in areas where shade is needed.[14] As a result, New York City is becoming a greener city. Moreover, through the program NYC  °Cool Roofs and White Roof Project, people volunteer to paint their own roofs white. 1 | Page [1] Slosberg, R. B., Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W. D., 2007. New York City Regional Heat Island Initiative: Mitigating New York City’s Heat Island with Urban Forestry, Living Roofs, and Light Surfaces [2] Gaffin, et al., 2007. Variations in New York city’s urban heat island strength over time and space [3] NYC Parks. Green Infrastructure. [online] [4] Myors Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, 2014. PLANYC Progress report 2014 [5] NASA. The Making (and Breaking) of an Urban Heat Island. [online] [6] New York City Department of Transportation, 2010. Green Light for Midtown Evaluation Report [7] New York City Depertment of Transportation. Pedestrians – Broadway. [online] [8] NYC  °Cool Roofs, 2012. NYC  °Cool Roofs Annual review 2012. [9] White roof project is a continuity project of NYC  °Cool Roofs White Roof Project, 2010. White Roof Project. [online] [10] A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York and the New York city building code, in relation to roof coating standards, 347-A (January 1, 2012) [11] See Figure 5-d [12] NYC  °Cool Roofs, 2014. NYC  °Cool Roofs. [online] [13] Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W. D., Parshall, L., Lynn, B., Cox, J., Goldberg, R., . . . Watson, M., 2009. MITIGATING NEW YORK CITY’S HEAT ISLAND Integrating Stakeholder Perspectives and Scientific Evaluation. [14] American Society of Landscape Architects (Producer), 2012. Urban forests=Cleaner, cooler air