Comparative Analysis of the Purpose of - 8067 Words

A Comparative Analysis of the Purpose of Kindergarten in Finland and Ontario, Canada The theories of Friedrich Froebel, the founder of kindergarten have influenced kindergartens in several regions including in Finland and Ontario, Canada. The kindergarten program in Finland is one of envy as it contributes the nation’s successful educational system. Kindergarten in Finland is a free service available to all children, which is similar to Ontario, Canada’s program which is also free to children in the province. The following paper will explore kindergarten in Finland and Ontario and illustrate that in spite of their differing systems, the principal focus of kindergarten in each region is to prepare students for formal schooling. The†¦show more content†¦The Finnish society believes â€Å"that intervention at the kindergarten stage is the best way to give children a good beginning in life† (Jensen, 2009, p. 11). Ontario’s kindergarten system upholds the same belief and the reform that will be implemented in September 2010 will furt her solidify this conviction. Ontario’s new program will include aspects that are comparable to Finland’s. Kindergarten programs in Finland and Ontario are organized differently; in spite of the fact that they are derived from Friedrich Froebel’s kindergarten beliefs and theories. The purpose of kindergarten in each region is to prepare children for formal schooling by maintaining continuity between kindergarten and formal school programs. The continuity of the both programs creates smooth transitions for children into the formal schooling stage. This is achieved by providing children with education experiences that bridge the move from one program to another. Although, the structure of kindergarten is unique to each region, the purpose in Finland and Ontario is the same. This paper will exemplify that the purpose of kindergarten in Finland and Ontario is consistent with one another, by examining kindergarten programs, curriculum, teacher qualifications and roles in each area. Kindergarten in Finland The history of Finnish kindergartens can be traced back to the late 19th century where Friedrich Froebel’s kindergarten pedagogy and beliefs were applied by Finnish educator UnoShow MoreRelatedWrite Apa Comparative Analysis784 Words   |  4 Pagesto Write an APA Comparative Analysis Your university English Language teacher has asked you to write a comparative analysis paper. This paper, also known as a compare and contrast, allows the writer to analyze two different things or ideas. She wants you to write the paper in APA format. APA is an acronym for American Psychological Association. The APA’s format is popular in education, social sciences and behavioral sciences. This article will help you format a comparative analysis paper. 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Steve Jobs Book Review Free Essays

string(46) " He also encouraged people to speak honestly\." STEVE JOBS BY WALTER ISAACSON Dear all dignitaries and peers present here, Welcome to this hall, where we are all presented with the rarest opportunity on hearing about various respected and popular members of this world. On given an opportunity, I wondered what should be the theme of my speech. Should I go for the Nobel laureates or the most popular figurines or people who changed this world? Nobel laureates are historic, and popular people as noted are already quite popular. We will write a custom essay sample on Steve Jobs : Book Review or any similar topic only for you Order Now So, let’s hear about a person who changed the way we look at technology now. The way he drove a multibillion dollar company, the way he became a symbol of youth GOD! Yes, I’m here to talk about the authorised biography, the i-bio of the master, STEVE JOBS by Walter Isaacson. ‘Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography’ was one of the most eagerly awaited books of the year 2011. The book is a journey into the life of a legend who revolutionized the way people saw technology. Walter Issacson brings to life, the innovator, the dreamer and the devil within Steve Jobs. An absolutely must read! In my mind the sole purpose of reading non-fiction is to learn, and if you learn something, by definition you will be changed. So, what did I learn from this book? 1. I have a better understanding of Apple products and understand why they enjoy premium pricing. 2. Jobs ability to focus on only 2-3 things at once with absolute intensity. I, like many, have too many interests and hobbies and could benefit from a tighter focus on just a few. 3. Jobs was able to get the most from his employees, but sometimes with tactics that I wouldn’t be comfortable using, including intimidation and tearing down of others. 4. His goal was to surround himself with  Grade A minds. Surrounding yourself with the best is not a bad motto. 5. Life is short-treat time with your family as if you are aware of your short time on earth. So, How does the author portray the genius Was he unbiased? Well, to the author’s credit, Walter Issacson  is a biographer and a writer. He is also the director of Aspen Institute and has been the Managing Editor of TIME. Issacson has previously written the biographies of Henry Kissinger and Albert Einstein. As a  biographer of Albert Einstein  and Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Isaacson knows how to explicate and celebrate genius: revered, long-dead genius. But he wrote â€Å"Steve Jobs† as its subject was mortally ill, and that is a more painful and delicate challenge. He had access to members of the Jobs family at a difficult time. Mr. Isaacson treats â€Å"Steve Jobs† as the biography of record, which means that it is a strange book to read so soon after its subject’s death. Some of it is an essential Silicon Valley chronicle, compiling stories well known to tech aficionados but interesting to a broad audience. Some of it is already quaint. Mr. Jobs’s first job was at Atari, and it involved the game Pong. (â€Å"If you’re under 30, ask your parents,† Mr. Isaacson writes. ) Some, like an account of the release of the  iPad  2, is so recent that it is hard to appreciate yet, even if Mr. Isaacson says the device comes to life â€Å"like the face of a tickled baby.    And some is definitely intended for future generations. â€Å"Indeed,† Mr. Isaacson writes, â€Å"its success came not just from the beauty of the hardware but from the applications, known as apps, that allowed you to indulge in all sorts of delightful activities. † One that he mentions, which w ill be as quaint as Pong some day, features the use of a slingshot to launch angry birds to destroy pigs and their fortresses. So â€Å"Steve Jobs,† an account of its subject’s 56 years (he died on Oct. 5), must reach across time in more ways than one. And it does, in a well-ordered, if not streamlined, fashion. It begins with a portrait of the young Mr. Jobs, rebellious toward the parents who raised him and scornful of the ones who gave him up for adoption. (â€Å"They were my sperm and egg bank,† he says. ) Although Mr. Isaacson is not analytical about his subject’s volatile personality (the word â€Å"obnoxious† figures in the book frequently), he raises the question of whether feelings of abandonment in childhood made him fanatically controlling and manipulative as an adult. Fortunately, that glib question stays unanswered. As far as the making of the book, that in itself is a wondrous story. During the summer of 2009, Walter Isaacson got a phone call from Steve Jobs. It so turned out that Jobs wanted Isaacson to write a biography of him. After  Steve Jobs  anointed  Walter Isaacson  as his authorized biographer in 2009, he took Mr. Isaacson to see the Mountain View, California, house in which he had lived as a boy. He pointed out its â€Å"clean design† and â€Å"awesome little features. † He praised the developer, Joseph Eichler, who built more than 11,000 homes in California subdivisions, for making an affordable product on a mass-market scale. And he showed Mr. Isaacson the stockade fence built 50 years earlier by his father, Paul Jobs. â€Å"He loved doing things right,† Mr. Jobs said. â€Å"He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see. † Mr. Jobs, the brilliant and protean creator whose inventions so utterly transformed the allure of technology, turned those childhood lessons into an all-purpose theory of intelligent design. He gave Mr. Isaacson a chance to play by the same rules. His story calls for a book that is clear, elegant and concise enough to qualify as an iBio. Mr. Isaacson’s â€Å"Steve Jobs† does its solid best to hit that target. Mr. Jobs promised not to look over Mr. Isaacson’s shoulder, and not to meddle with anything but the book’s cover. (Boy, does it look great. ) Steve Jobs asked for no right to read it before it was published and had no control over what was being written before it was published. He also encouraged people to speak honestly. You read "Steve Jobs : Book Review" in category "Papers" In the book Jobs sometimes speaks brutally and candidly about the people he worked along with and also his competitors. And he expressed approval that the book would not be entirely flattering. But his legacy was at stake. And there were awkward questions to be asked. At the end of the volume, Mr. Jobs answers the question â€Å"What drove me? † by discussing himself in the past tense. His friends, colleagues and foes offer an unparalleled view of the perfectionism, passion, artistry, obsessions, compulsions and devilry that shaped his approach to the innovative products and business that resulted. Within hours of Steve Jobs’s death in October, impromptu shrines began to appear outside Apple Stores – flowers, half-eaten apples and iPhones and iPads with images of flickering candles. The man whose company had always attracted a cult following was fast becoming a saint. But, no more than a day later, the backlash began. Jobs was not a saint or even a genius, just, in the words of AN Wilson, ‘a clever backroom boy who got lucky’. What Walter Isaacson’s masterful biography reveals is that both the true believers and the cynics got Jobs wrong. In a warts-and-all portrait that continually had this reader recoiling in disgust at the petulant pioneer’s behaviour, he shows that Apple’s co-founder was very far from being a saint. As a teenager, he browbeats his kindly parents into sending him to a college they cannot afford – then drops out after a year. After teaming up with the rilliant but naive engineer Steve Wozniak he cheats him out of his share of a bonus they get for designing a game. ‘Ethics matter to me,’ the always tolerant Wozniak tells the author, ‘but, you know, people are different. ‘ And as a tyrannical leader, he is either screaming at Apple staff about their appalling inadeq uacies or stealing their ideas and taking the credit for them before an adoring public. Throughout, we see the cranky food habits, the misguided belief that a fruit diet means you only need to shower once a week and an almost wilful disregard for the feelings of others, including those of his family. But, hey, Henry Ford was not the world’s nicest man and Thomas Edison was apparently a ruthless egomaniac. Those who aspire to change the world are almost always difficult people, and Isaacson, while obeying the instructions of Jobs’s wife not to whitewash his life, presents a compelling case for his genius. Yes, he was a magpie, snatching the idea for the graphical user interface from Xerox Parc, the iPod concept from other MP3 players, the iPad from Microsoft’s tablet computer. But, as he said: ‘Picasso had a saying – â€Å"good artists copy, great artists steal† – and we’ve always been shameless about stealing great ideas. It was what he did with those ideas that proved his genius for spotting where technology might head next and shaping it to his will. The perfectionism meant driving his executives to distraction with constant demands for tiny adjustments – a different font, a paler shade of green – before anyth ing could be shipped. Jobs was not a quarter the engineer that Wozniak was or as gifted artistically as Jony Ive, the designer whose close but somewhat tortured relationship with his boss is an interesting subplot in the latter half of the book. But his creative imagination changed a series of industries – computers, mobile phones, music and, with Pixar, the movie business. His greatest creation, though, was Apple itself, a company that always wanted to be about more than technology. ‘It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough,’ he said at the unveiling of the iPad 2. ‘We believe that it’s technology married with the humanities that makes our hearts sing. ‘ Cynics would say that it has been not the humanities or the arts but a ruthless attention to marketing and margins that has enabled Apple to put more than $70bn in the bank. But the Jobs strategy of management remained pretty constant throughout his career, and it was always centred on product not profit. At its core was complete control over hardware and software and of every stage of the product’s life cycle, from conception through to the retailer. We see that strategy triumph as early Apple products define home computing, then fail as Microsoft’s rival philosophy of licensing its software prevails. Then in 1996, with Apple on the ropes, its co-founder returns. This amazing book takes you on a rollercoaster ride into the ferociously intense personality of a passionate and creative entrepreneur whose powerful drive and vision revolutionized six industries: music, personal computers, phones, animated movies, digital publishing and tablet computing. Steve Jobs also re-imagined and tried to revamp retail stores, but it did not turn out to be as revolutionary. Instead, he paved the way for an entirely new market for app based digital content. This is a book that’s mainly about innovation. Steve Jobs stands tall as the sole icon of imagination, sustained innovation and inventiveness. His vision was very clear; if you want to create value in the industry, connect technology with creativity. A company called Apple was built on this vision, which changed the entire face of technology with its imagination blended with remarkable feats of engineering. Often driven by his demons, Jobs could make those around him lurch in despair and fury. His products and personality were interrelated and his life was cautionary and instructive at the same time. Apple’s rise to that position has been characterised by a management style that is now right out of fashion – the egomaniac CEO, the obsessive secrecy, the total disregard for market research, the suspicion of collaborative ventures. Walter Isaacson has written an enthralling history of the birth of our modern digital world and the company that may have done more than any other to shape it. And, in his obnoxious, smelly, ranting, impatient, intuitive, creative and inspirational Steve Jobs, he has presented us with the greatest business genius of the past 30 years. Mr. Jobs, who founded  Apple  with Stephen Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976, began his career as a seemingly contradictory blend of hippie truth seeker and tech-savvy hothead. â€Å"His Zen awareness was not accompanied by an excess of calm, peace of mind or interpersonal mellowness,† Mr. Isaacson says. â€Å"He could stun an unsuspecting victim with an emotional towel-snap, perfectly aimed,† he also writes. But Mr. Jobs valued simplicity, utility and beauty in ways that would shape his creative imagination. And the book maintains that those goals would not have been achievable in the great parade of Apple creations without that mean streak. Mr. Isaacson takes his readers back to the time when laptops, desktops and windows were metaphors, not everyday realities. His book ticks off how each of the Apple innovations that we now take for granted first occurred to Mr. Jobs or his creative team. â€Å"Steve Jobs† means to be the authoritative book about those achievements, and it also follows Mr. Jobs into the wilderness (and to NeXT and Pixar) after his first stint at Apple, which ended in 1985. With an avid interest in corporate intrigue, it skewers Mr. Jobs’s rivals, like John Sculley, who was recruited in 1983 to be Apple’s chief executive and fell for Mr. Jobs’s deceptive show of friendship. â€Å"They professed their fondness so effusively and often that they sounded like high school sweethearts at a Hallmark card display,† Mr. Isaacson writes. Of course the book also tracks Mr. Jobs’s long and combative rivalry with Bill Gates. The section devoted to Mr. Jobs’s illness, which suggests that his cancer might have been more treatable  had he not resisted early surgery,  describes the relative tenderness of their last meeting. â€Å"Steve Jobs† greatly admires its subject. But its most adulatory passages are not about people. Offering a combination of tech criticism and promotional hype, Mr. Isaacson describes the arrival of each new product right down to Mr. Jobs’s theatrical introductions and the advertising campaigns. But if the individual bits of hoopla seem excessive, their cumulative effect is staggering. Here is an encyclopedic survey of all that Mr. Jobs accomplished, replete with the passion and excitement that it deserves. Mr. Jobs’s virtual reinvention of the music business with iTunes and the  iPod, for instance, is made to seem all the more miraculous (â€Å"He’s got a turn-key solution,† the music executive Jimmy Iovine said. ) Mr. Isaacson’s long view basically puts Mr. Jobs up there with Franklin and Einstein, even if a tiny MP3 player is not quite the theory of relativity. The book emphasizes how deceptively effortless Mr. Jobs’s ideas now seem because of their extreme intuitiveness and foresight. When Mr. Jobs, who personally persuaded musician after musician to accept the iTunes model, approached Wynton Marsalis, Mr. Marsalis was rightly more impressed with Mr. Jobs than with the device he was being shown. Mr. Jobs’s love of music plays a big role in â€Å"Steve Jobs,† like his extreme obsession with Bob Dylan. (Like Mr. Dylan, he had a romance with Joan Baez. Her version of Mr. Dylan’s â€Å"Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word† was on Mr. Jobs’s own iPod. ) So does his extraordinary way of perceiving ordinary things, like well-made knives and kitchen appliances. That he admired the Cuisinart food processor he saw at Macy’s may sound trivial, but his subsequent idea that a molded plastic covering might work well on a computer does not. Years from now, the research trip to a jelly bean factory to study potential colors for the  iMac  case will not seem as silly as it might now. Skeptic after skeptic made the mistake of underrating Steve Jobs, and Mr. Isaacson records the howlers who misjudged an unrivaled career. â€Å"Sorry Steve, Here’s Why Apple Stores Won’t Work,† Business Week wrote in a 2001 headline. â€Å"The iPod will likely become a niche product,† a Harvard Business School professor said. â€Å"High tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product,† Mr. Sculley said in 1987. Mr. Jobs got the last laugh every time. â€Å"Steve Jobs† makes it all the sadder that his last laugh is over. Perhaps the funniest passage in Walter Isaacson’s monumental book about  Steve Jobs  comes three quarters of the way through. It is 2009 and Jobs is recovering from a liver transplant and pneumonia. At one point the pulmonologist tries to put a mask over his face when he is deeply sedated. Jobs rips it off and mumbles that he hates the design and refuses to wear it. Though barely able to speak, he orders them to bring five different options for the mask so that he can pick a design he likes. Even in the depths of his hallucinations, Jobs was a control-freak and a rude sod to boot. Imagine what he was like in the pink of health. As it happens, you don’t need to: every discoverable fact about how Jobs, ahem, coaxed excellence from his co-workers is here. As Isaacson makes clear, Jobs wasn’t a visionary or even a particularly talented electronic engineer. But he was a businessman of astonishing flair and focus, a marketing genius, and – when he was getting it right, which wasn’t always – had an intuitive sense of what the customer would want before the customer had any idea. He was obsessed with the products, rather than with the money: happily, as he discovered, if you get the products right, the money will come. Isaacson’s book is studded with moments that make you go â€Å"wow†. There’s the  Apple  flotation, which made the 25-year-old Jobs $256m in the days when that was a lot of money. There’s his turnaround of the company after he returned as CEO in 1997: in the previous fiscal year the company lost $1. 04bn, but he returned it to profit in his first quarter. There’s the  launch of the iTunes store: expected to sell a million songs in six months, it sold a million songs in six days. When  Jobs died, iShrines popped up all over the place, personal tributes filled Facebook and his quotable wisdom – management-consultant banalities, for the most part – was passed from inbox to inbox. Thisbiography  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ commissioned by Jobs and informed by hours and hours of interviews with him – is designed to serve the cult. That’s by no means to say that it’s a snow-job: Isaacson is all over Jobs’s personal shortcomings and occasional business bungles, and Jobs sought no copy approval (though, typically, he got worked up over the cover design). But its sheer bulk bespeaks a sort of reverence, and it’s clear from the way it’s put together that there’s not much Jobs did that Isaacson doesn’t regard as vital to the historical record. We get a whole chapter on one cheesy ad (â€Å"Think Different†). We get half a page on how Jobs went about choosing a washing machine – itself lifted from an interview Jobs, bizarrely, gave on the subject to  Wired. Want to know the patent number for the box an iPod Nano comes in? It’s right there on page 347. Similarly, the empty vocabulary of corporate PR sometimes seeps into Isaacson’s prose, as exemplified by the recurrence of the word â€Å"passion†. There’s a lot of passion in this book. Steve’s â€Å"passion for perfection†, â€Å"passion for industrial design†, â€Å"passion for awesome products† and so on. If I’d been reading this on an  iPad, the temptation to search-and-replace â€Å"passion† to â€Å"turnip† or â€Å"erection† would have been overwhelming. Isaacson writes dutiful, lumbering American news-mag journalese and suffers – as did Jobs himself – from a lack of sense of proportion. Chapter headings evoke Icarus and Prometheus. The one on the Apple II is subtitled â€Å"Dawn of a New Age†, the one on Jobs’s return to Apple is called â€Å"The Second Coming†, and when writing about the origins of Apple’s graphical user interface (Jobs pinched the idea from Xerox), Isaacson writes with splendid bathos: â€Å"There falls a [sic] shadow, as TS Eliot noted, between the conception and the creation. † But get past all that pomp and there’s much to enjoy. Did you know that the Apple Macintosh was nearly called the Apple Bicycle? Or that so obsessed was Jobs with designing swanky-looking factories (white walls, brightly coloured machines) that he kept breaking the machines by painting them – for example bright blue? As well as being a sort-of-genius, Jobs was a truly weird man. As a young man, he was once put on the night-shift so co-workers wouldn’t have to endure his BO. Jobs was convinced his vegan diet meant he didn’t need to wear deodorant or shower more than once a week. His on-off veganism was allied to cranky theories about health. When he rebuked the chairman of Lotus Software for spreading butter on his toast â€Å"Have you ever heard of serum cholesterol? â€Å", the man responded: â€Å"I’ll make you a deal. You stay away from commenting on my dietary habits, and I will stay away from the subject of your personality. † That personality. An ex-girlfriend – and one, it should be said, who was very fond of him – told Isaacson that she thought Jobs suffered from narcissistic personality disorder. Jobs’s personal life is sketchily covered, but what details there are don’t charm. When he got an on/off girlfriend pregnant in his early 20s, he cut her off and aggressively denied paternity – though he later, uncharacteristically, admitted regretting his behaviour and sought to build a relationship with his daughter. Jobs himself was adopted, and seems to have had what Americans call â€Å"issues around abandonment†. He cheated his friends out of money. He cut old colleagues out of stock options. He fired people with peremptoriness. He bullied waiters, insulted business contacts and humiliated interviewees for jobs. He lied his pants off whenever it suited him – â€Å"reality distortion field† is Isaacson’s preferred phrase. Like many bullies, he was also a cry-baby. Whenever he was thwarted – not being made â€Å"Man of the Year† by Time magazine when he was 27, for instance – he burst into tears. Nowadays we are taught that being nice is the way to get on. Steve Jobs is  a  fine counter-example. In 2008, when  Fortune magazine  was on the point of running a damaging article about him, Jobs summoned their managing editor to Cupertino to demand he spike the piece: â€Å"He leaned into Serwer’s face and asked, ‘So, you’ve uncovered the fact that I’m bad. Why is that news? ‘† Well.. that’s the story. Sorry if I had given out a few spoilers on the book.. but they were essential to bring out the nature of an awesome personality! The book is well written and an easy read. To tell the story of Jobs’ complete life, the cast of characters is large. Mr Isaacson identifies the importance of those he included and what influence they had on Jobs. So, in a nut shell, this book, to use a few words from Job’s dictionary, is a ‘Must read! ’ How to cite Steve Jobs : Book Review, Papers

Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn. Answer: Introduction: Effective teachers have an enriching effect on the life of the students in enhancing their career and delivering them proper education. Effective teachers need various kinds of strategies to ensure that the students learn properly. It is seen that effective teachers directly influences the learning activities of the students. This paper will highlight the various kinds of strategies which are taken by a teacher to make the teaching environment effective. It will also make a clear analysis of the pedagogy and the classroom practices which are adopted in the teaching learning activity. Various literature reviews in support of the various learning theories such as cognitivism, behaviorism and constructivism are also highlighted in the paper. This paper will also give an idea of the influence of child development on learning. A critical reflection of the learning theories will also be discussed in the paper. Effective teaching leads to the improvement in the achievement of the students. The progress of the student is regarded as the yardstick through which the quality of a teacher can be assessed. A teacher must be clear of what they want their students to learn. If the teacher cannot describe or highlight properly what they want their students to learn, the goal of such teaching is not clear. The examples used in teaching must be related to daily life experience so that it becomes interesting and easier for the students to learn and grasp the knowledge quickly. The students must be also be demonstrated through the help of models which will make the classroom environment interesting (Kane et al., 2013). A teacher must try to add or present new information on the topics which were already discussed in the class earlier. These new information must be provided in small steps because it becomes difficult for the students to capture the entire information at a single time. The chunking strate gy can be followed by the teacher for effective classroom teaching (Clarke Braun, 2013). The teacher must try to present the topic in such a way that it creates interest among the students. An effective teacher always reviews the last lesson which was taught and then begins the new chapter. These will also help the students in clearing the concepts of the previous chapters. An effective teacher asks questions to the students after teaching the lesson and also asks them to explain how they got the answers (Perrott, 2014). These also help the students to present their own idea and it will also benefit the teacher as they can learn and grasp more ideas from the students. The students are also asked to explain what they had learned in the classroom in their own style. An effective teacher also sets high standards from the students. The teacher must provide a brief idea beforehand of the usefulness of learning the particular chapter. Use of various assessments and feedbacks also helps the teacher in assessing the performance of the students. The students can demonstrate their own mastery of the subject in a different way. Teachers can also use collaborative learning to make the classroom environment interesting. The teacher can place the students in small groups and ask them to prepare seminars or different tasks within the course objectives. The students will also be allowed to gain different types of skills during this period. An effective teacher also needs to monitor the performance of the students on a regular basis. For effective evaluation, the teacher must adopt various kinds of assessment approaches (Moore, 2014). A teacher can also adopt high standard methods of teaching when the students are clear with the basic and preliminary topics. These will help both the teacher and the students to learn and gather more knowledge on the particular topic (Mitchell, 2014). An effective teacher can also adopt co-operative learning and thus it will also help the students in future to work in team. Studies also indicate that students can effectively learn more in a group rather than working in a team. It a lso helps in improving the self-confidence of the students. The technique of co-operative learning is known as jigsaw learning and it is more effective because the weaker students can improve and grasp more knowledge from the intelligent students. If the teacher uses this strategy, it will also help the students in enhancing their skill in problem solving and critical thinking (Orlich et al., 2016). According to Duke, Harper Johnston (2013), both the environmental factors and the learner are important for the behaviorists. The strategies which are useful for strengthening the stimuli and building various kinds of responses are preferred by the behaviorists in the teaching learning environment. It is also described by the authors that the behavioral principles do not help in higher order learning. They also do not play any role in critical thinking or problem solving. The cognitive theories play an important role in acquiring various kind of knowledge. These theories stresses on the concepts which are to be gathered by the students. The cognitive approach lays more emphasis on various kinds of mental activities of the students. The attitudes, behaviors and values of the learner also influence the learning process. The main goal of cognitive learning is to encourage the learner and thus motivate him/her. Constructivism is an important theory and it helps in equating the learning because it stresses on learning through experience. Both the learning and the environmental factors are vital in constructivism. The behavior of the learner in such a situation is determined according to the situation. An effective teacher who follows the ideals of constructivism finds difficulty because it becomes impossible to divide the knowledge or break up task in hierarchical form. According to Kivunja (2014), stated that the most important component of constructivism is that the learner should lay more emphasis on the knowledge gathered and this is possible through proper interaction with the teacher. If the learners follow the cognitive paradigm, it will help the learner to gather more experience and knowledge through the two processes which are known as accommodation and assimilation. The students must also be engaged in critical thinking and evaluate the various kinds of evidences. The students can also be encouraged by using various kinds of deductive or inductive logical thinking. Siemens (2014) also suggested that constructivism helps the learners in the creation of knowledge and the learner can also learn from their experiences. The learners are regarded external and the entire learning process is known as the process of internalizing. They also assume that the learners have the required knowledge of the subject matter. This type of learning focuses on real life experiences and the learners can pursue or select their learning courses according to their own choice. I have learned that a teacher must make a careful analysis of the environment and judge the learner carefully. The teacher must have a clear idea of what they want their students to learn. They must try to make the chapter interesting for the students and use various innovative techniques so that it becomes easier for the students. I have learnt that a teacher must discuss the topic earlier with the students before starting the particular topic. An effective teacher can also make the students master over his/her lessons (Bayar, 2014). An effective teacher also needs to monitor the performance of the students on a regular basis. I have learned that a teacher must use daily life experience to make the course content interesting and easier for the students to learn and grasp the knowledge quickly. The use of various assessments and feedbacks also helps the teacher in assessing the performance of the students. I have learned that the teacher can also adopt high standard methods of teaching when the students are clear with the basic and preliminary topics. This will help in enhancing the knowledge of the students and the learner and it will make the learning environment effective for both of them. I have also analyzed and found that the use of collaborative and active learning will make the teaching learning process more interesting and beneficial for both the learner and the trainer. Learning through proper interaction with the trainer will be beneficial for both the persons and it will also motivate the students to share their ideas. This will also be beneficial for the teacher because the new innovative ideas of the students will help them in widening their knowledge (Nilson, 2016). The process of child development is dynamic. The children have the same learning capacity like the adults but due to lack of proper experience they cannot develop their on thinking and judgmental capacity. The teacher needs to create dynamic and diverse learning experiences so that the children can develop their self regulatory skills and self reflective. The children must have proper skill in language and it is regarded crucial for the developmental process (Wlodkowski Ginsberg, 2017). They must have proper incremental experience which is essential for knowledge and learning construction. The teachers must praise the efforts of the students when they try to develop the skills rather than concentrating on various developmental changes. The development of cognitive skills will help in enhancing child development and cognitive skills (Chen, 2014). Physical environment also plays an important role in child development. The psychological factors which affect the development of child are the quality of housing and neighborhood, noise level and overcrowding. The parenting behavior and the cognitive development also affect the psychology of the children. Overcrowding also affects the behavior of the children. The children are not motivated to perform their task properly. The children who live in crowded house cannot carry out their studies properly and thus they get low marks. It also affects their psychology when they are harassed by the teachers in the school because of their poor performance. The behavior of the parents also affects the cognitive development of the children. Research indicates that the parents of those children do not spend quality time with their children or speak with them. For proper cognitive development, the children must be allowed to participate in the various social programmes (Carr, 2014). Thus, it can be said that an effective teacher can affect the learning experience to a great extent. It is important for the teachers to collaborate with the students so that the learning environment becomes more attractive and interesting. If the students get the opportunity to organize, plan and monitor their own work, it will help them in self development. So, learning through collaboration plays a vital role in effective teaching learning process. The behavioral, psychological and cognitive skills play an important role in the development of children. Reference List Bayar, A. (2014). The Components of Effective Professional Development Activities in Terms of Teachers' Perspective.Online Submission,6(2), 319-327. Carr, M. (2014). The Online University Classroom: One Perspective for Effective Student Engagement and Teaching in an Online Environment.Journal of Effective Teaching,14(1), 99-110. Chen, S. J. (2014). Instructional design strategies for intensive online courses: An objectivist-constructivist blended approach.Journal of interactive online learning,13(1). Clarke, V., Braun, V. (2013). Teaching thematic analysis: Overcoming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning.The psychologist,26(2), 120-123. Duke, B., Harper, G., Johnston, M. (2013). Connectivism as a digital age learning theory.The International HETL Review,2013(Special Issue), 4-13. Kane, T. J., McCaffrey, D. F., Miller, T., Staiger, D. (2013). Have we identified effective teachers?. Kivunja, C. (2014). Do you want your students to be job-ready with 21st century skills? Change pedagogies: A pedagogical paradigm shift from Vygotskyian social constructivism to critical thinking, problem solving and Siemens digital connectivism.International Journal of Higher Education,3(3), 81. Mitchell, D. (2014).What really works in special and inclusive education: Using evidence-based teaching strategies. Routledge. Moore, K. D. (2014).Effective instructional strategies: From theory to practice. Sage Publications. Nilson, L. B. (2016).Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors. John Wiley Sons. Orlich, D. C., Harder, R. J., Trevisan, M. S., Brown, A. H., Miller, D. E. (2016).Teaching strategies: A guide to effective instruction. Cengage Learning. Perrott, E. (2014).Effective teaching: A practical guide to improving your teaching. Routledge. Siemens, G. (2014). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Wlodkowski, R. J., Ginsberg, M. B. (2017).Enhancing adult motivation to learn: A comprehensive guide for teaching all adults. John Wiley Sons.

The Power of Words free essay sample

Who can describe the movement of a pen as it flows across a page, forming an endless summation of shapes, bearing myriads of riddles in its creation? Words have always held a certain fascination for me, a kind of magic I am unable to resist. To write is to express oneself. Pen and paper do not judge; they have no preconceived notions about who you are or who you might become. They know only truth. Ink cannot lie. Deception comes only from the one who wields the pen, who shapes the words, and from the one who allows himself to be deceived, who can think not of his own accord. This is the beauty of language. Not only to speak a language, but to understand it, to feel its heartbeat, to know its rhythm—then may one serve as a true master, a master of communication. Communication holds a society together, as it has since the beginning of mankind’s existence. We will write a custom essay sample on The Power of Words or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I appreciate this power, along with the importance of speech, and of literacy, in the modern world. Words used effectively can manipulate, persuade, ease, irritate, or function however the composer intends. I wish to be such a composer. With the appropriate eloquence, one person can sway the opinions of an audience or open the eyes of the world to some guarded truth. Yet within such potent writing resides a veiled kind of power. Many do not acknowledge its full value, or are not even aware of its capabilities. Underestimation is dangerous. Underestimation can lead to destruction. I know this, though I do not claim to have perfected the essential skills required to craft extraordinary works of art using only words. For this, I am going to college. During my time there and forever afterwards I will be on the constant lookout for the perfect expression, the perfect phrase to put into effect. Perhaps then may I have the power to influence the world.

Status of Jewish Women in the Garment Industry essays

Status of Jewish Women in the Garment Industry essays Status of Jewish Women in the Garment Industry Socio-economic, religious and political ideologies both work together to sculpt and guide the experiences which Jewish women have had in Canadian society. In order to fully be able to understand the status of Jewish women upon arrival into Canada, one must take a closer look at her experiences within the home and in the workplace. Jewish women were once deprived of many rights and have worked vigorously to be able to be fully ensconced participants in Canadas politics and society so they can be regarded as contributors of the Jewish community. Upon arrival into Canada, the Jewish woman was seen as subordinate and inferior to man, both in the home and at work; but with great effort the Jewish woman is now seen as the building block of the family and work participation is now a fundamental part of her everyday life. The Jewish Woman and the Nuclear Family Almost every single person is faced with the labor force participation decision; this is basically a choice to participate in labor market activities as opposed to other activities such as household work, education, or retirement. As such, it influences the size and composition of our labor force and it has an impact on household activities, education and retirement programs. The beginning of wage labor attracted many Jewish women and children into the industrial labor force. For hundreds of years the Victorian, Christian, and Jewish ideology of women has characterized them as the fragile, emotional, dependant inferior class whose place was in the home (White, 3). Which meant that for years, women that worked outside the home went against the common ideology of women as a whole. Employed women were perceived by middle-class womens organizations, reformers and factory inspectors as a social crisis, creating problems of cleanliness, morality and health for future mothers (White, 3). ...

These 7 Good Life Quotes Teach You How to Enjoy Life

These 7 Good Life Quotes Teach You How to Enjoy Life We like what  Albert Einstein  had to say about life: There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. If you think about it, you are blessed to be born on this beautiful blue planet as a human being. According to the author of Tao of Dating Ali Benazir, the probability of your existence is 1 in 102,685,000 Isnt that an incredible miracle? You are in this world for a purpose. You have the ability to make this life good. Here are 7 unbeatable ways to make life good. 1: Forgive and Move On This may not be as hard as it sounds. If you think about it, forgiveness is all about finding happiness for yourself. Instead of focusing on the whys and the how-could-shes give others the benefit of doubt. Let go of dark thoughts, and give yourself a chance to heal. Move on to a better life, without carrying the baggage of anger, hatred or jealousy. 2:Learn to Love Unconditionally We all give love to receive love. How about just giving love, without expecting any in return? Love, when it takes a selfish turn becomes possessive, greedy, and obstinate. When you love unconditionally, you go with the belief that you did not expect to be loved in return. For instance, your pet loves you  unconditionally. A mother loves her child unconditionally. If you can master the art of loving unconditionally, you can never get hurt. 3:Give up Bad Habits Easier said than done. But think of how good your life can be if you could drop your bad habits. Some bad habits such as smoking, excessive drinking, or doing drugs are harmful to your health. Other bad habits such as lying, cheating, or speaking ill of others can make you a social menace. Have your friends and loved ones help you to give up your bad habits. 4:Be Proud of Who You Are You are what you think you are. So wouldnt it be wonderful if you could also be proud of who you are? Dont underestimate or devalue yourself. Sometimes, people may treat you unfairly or fail to notice your contribution to work. It is their loss that they have failed to understand you. Be proud of what you do and who you are. Life is good, no matter where you come from.   5:Be Less Judgmental Dont point fingers at others. Being judgmental is also another way of being prejudiced. All kinds of discrimination including racism, sexism, and gender bias stem from being judgmental. Give up your prejudices about others, and be more accepting of others. As it is said in the Bible: Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 6:Fight Your Fears Fears are your weaknesses. Overcoming fears take a lot of tenacity. But once you conquer your fears, you can conquer the world. Let go of your comfort zone and explore beyond your realm of joy. Push yourself to accomplish new highs by letting go of your fears. Talk to yourself and control your mind. Life is beautiful at the other end of the dark tunnel. 7:Keep Learning and Growing To stop growing is as good as dead. Dont stop learning. Share your knowledge, wisdom, and insights with others. Learn from everybodys views. Accept knowledge without prejudice or arrogance. Keep improving your skills, and build a wealth of knowledge within you. Here are 7 beautiful quotes that remind you that life is good. Read these quotes about good life and adopt them as your daily mantra. Share these quotes with others and give inspiration to your family. Harold WilkinsThe world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist. Ralph Waldo EmersonThere are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination. Carl RogersThe good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.   John AdamsThere are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. William BarclayThere are two great days in a persons life - the day we are born and the day we discover why. French ProverbThere is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience. Annie Dillard, The Writing LifeThere is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.

Building Standard Oil Company Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Building Standard Oil Company - Research Paper Example Rockefeller paid attention to every aspect of his business, checking every detail to cut his costs, to make his product better, and to add new products. Sometimes he worked with the manual laborers to understand his business better and greatly influenced his partners and managers to follow his example. Dominick Armetano described that his business: â€Å"prospered quickly in the intensely competitive industry due to the economic excellence of its entire operations. Instead of buying oil from jobbers, they made the jobbers' profit by sending their own purchasing men into the oil region. They also made their own sulfuric acid, barrels, lumber, wagons, and glue. They kept minute and accurate records of every item from rivets to barrel bungs. They built elaborate storage facilities near their refineries. Rockefeller bargained as shrewdly for crude as anyone has before or since; and Sam Andrews coaxed more kerosene from a barrel of crude than the competition could. In addition, the Rocke feller firm put out the cleanest burning kerosene and managed to profitably dispose of most of the residues, in the form of lubricating oil, paraffin wax, and Vaseline.† (Armetano, 1982) In his quest to make better products Rockefeller started in-house preparation of important inputs into the production process now recognized as â€Å"vertical integration†. ... Turning waste into a product to resell increases income and lowers the costs. Rockefeller made the oil-refining industry much more efficient, so he was able to purchase many of poorly managed refineries yet his competition like Sun Oil in the USA still existed while international competitors were even larger. Even his most hostile critics like Ida Tarbell (whose brother was in management of competing company, Pure Oil Company) recognized this efficiency: â€Å"Not far away from the canning works, on Newtown Creek, is an oil refinery. This oil runs to the canning works, and, as the newmade cans come down by a chute from the works above, where they have just been finished, they are filled, twelve at a time, with the oil made a few miles away. The filling apparatus is admirable As the newmade cans come down the chute they are distributed, twelve in a row, along one side of a turn-table. The turn-table is revolved, and the cans come directly under twelve measures, each holding five gall ons of oil — a turn of a valve, and the cans are full. The table is turned a quarter, and while twelve more cans are filled and twelve fresh ones are distributed, four men with soldering cappers put the caps on the first set†¦. The cans are placed at once in wooden boxes standing ready, and, after a twenty-four-hour wait for discovering leaks are nailed up and carted to a nearby door. This door opens on the river, and there at anchor by the side of the factory is a vessel chartered for South America or China †¦ waiting to receive the cans†¦. It is a marvelous example of economy, not only in materials, but in time and footsteps (Tarbell, 1972) Making good quality products efficiently and selling

Scope management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Scope management - Research Paper Example The study has successfully described certain issues related to project management such as just-in-time training of the employees, the leadership skills of the project managers and their leadership traits, the control system of the management, etc. These are important factors and proper regulation and control of these aspects shows significant results. This is what we see told in shape of Burj Khalifa. It not only represents human intelligence and masterpiece but also excellent skills and hard work of all those people who are being its existence. Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. The year of completion of this project was in 2010. The entire site area of Burj Khalifa is about 104,201 sq m. The project area is about 454,249 sq m. The height of the building is about 828 m. The design of this building involves the use of cutting edge technology. William F. Baker is the structural designer of the building. It consists of about 30000 homes, 9 hotels, 3 hectares of parking land, about 19 residential towers, a mall, and a manmade lake of about 12 hectares. The construction of this project began on September 2004 and the construction of the exterior was completed by 2009. The building was officially opened on January 2010 (Burj Khalifa, 2009). The name of the architect was Adrian Smith. The name of the developer is Emaar Properties. Extensive planning was done before the building was constructed. The Y shape of the building was planned so that the effect of the wind on the building could be reduced. The Y shape of the building was easy to make and would foster constructability. The structural design which was planned for the building was "buttressed" core. Each wing consists of perimeter columns and concrete core of high performance. The result of this was that the tower became torsion ally very stiff. All the geometry was applied that helped

The Three Major Security Threats in Healthcare Essay Example for Free

The Three Major Security Threats in Healthcare Essay Nowadays Doctors and Nurses has several mobile devices in order to provide patient care. Virtualization is very important in providing adequate and affordable patient care in the rural health industry. Attempts to breach security happen every day in our agency. Preventing cyber-attacks and security breaches is a never ending battle in network security. Introduction I am an IT professional focusing on network security in the healthcare industry. Every day we monitor the network for phishing/pharming, DoS attacks, Trojans, and other security breaches. Mobile Devices, virtualization and lackadaisical end-users are the biggest threats to network security. Mobile Devices An article in GCN says it best, â€Å"Mobile devices are ubiquitous in todays society, and the number and types of devices used by physicians, nurses, clinicians, specialists, administrators and staff – as well as patients and visitors – is growing at healthcare agencies across the country.† Nowadays Doctors and Nurses has several mobile devices in order to provide patient care. Cellphones, laptops, and tablets are of the norm. I can’t remember the last time I had a doctor’s visit and the doctor didn’t update my chart using a laptop or tablet. All of these wireless devices make the network vulnerable. In my opinion wireless security has always been the hardest part of the network to protect because there isn’t a physical connection that can be monitored. End-users don’t always use secure passwords or they share passwords. At our agency an employee is not allowed to bring in a mobile device other than a personal cellphone to the workplace in order to reduce security breaches. â€Å"The Office of Management and Budget, Personal Identity Verification cards had been issued to 3.75 million federal employees as of Dec. 1, 2010, or 80 percent of the government workforce, and to 76 percent of contractors who are eligible to use the cards, about 885,000 contractors.† My agency uses Personal Identity Verification or PIV cards to gain access to wired devices on the network unfortunately that is not the case for wireless devices. Although we have two-party authentication in place for all devices it would be nice to have tertiary layer such as a smart card or PIV card for wireless devices. I don’t foresee a solution happening for a few years due to the cost in an already financially burdened healthcare system. It is true that â€Å"a reliance on off-the-shelf products means that there will be no PIV card readers available for workers signing on to check e-mail or read a document while out of the office.† Virtualization The agency I work for specializes in rural healthcare therefore often they don’t have the equipment or the staffing to complete tasks such as reading X-rays, providing behavioral health etc. Over the years we have had to implement Telehealth in order to meet these requirements. A patient in rural Minnesota may have his or her x-rays read by a physician in Billings, Montana. An individual may have weekly counseling sessions with a psychiatrist that is 500 miles away. Nowadays most healthcare companies use electronic health records to access patient information. Denial of Service DoS attacks happen when a hacker manages to overload a server to render it useless. A DoS attack is prevalent and damaging in virtualized environments and can preventsthe physicians and nurses from retrieving a patient’s information. If they are unable to access patient history to include what medications they are on or what they may be allergic to etc then they are unable to provide or give the wrong patient care which could be deadly. Therefore virtualization is very important in providing adequate and affordable patient care in the rural health industry. End-Users Our agency has mandatory computer security and security training every year in an effort to preempt attacks on the network. This mandatory training is required to be taken by every employee including the IT department. Attempts to breach security happen every day in our agency. Although we have security measures in place we have to constantly educate our end users on how to handle suspicious activity, password safety etc. Unfortunately there is always that one person that opens a suspicious email or shares their password or loses their token or PIV card and they don’t report it. This makes the network vulnerable. I have always believed that end users are a company’s biggest security risk. Allowing end users to access social media, personal email etc can allow for viruses to infect PC’s server’s etc. Once a virus is in the network it will spread like wildfire which will cripple the network. Prevention We use a lot of tools to constantly monitor the network to prevent DoS attacks, viruses, packet sniffing, phishing etc. We have implemented Websense as a means of policing what websites an end-user can surf to. We have firewalls in place to prevent end-users as well as outsiders from having access to IP ranges on our network as well as outside the network. We use access list on the routers as another layer of protection. We have penetration testers in our department whose only purpose is to look for packet sniffing and holes in the network. We have another group that monitor’s suspicious activity on the network such as a spike in bandwidth or an IP that is sending or receiving a large amount of information for specific length of time. Preventing cyber-attacks and security breaches is a never ending battle in network security. Conclusion Healthcare news states that â€Å"†¦Healthcare is driving the need for network security solutions that can cover multiple types of devices and infrastructure components.† Although we are largely driven by the Federal Communications Commission and HIPPAA my department is constantly implementing new devices and measures to secure the network and protect patient and employee information. This takes constant training and a lot of due diligence to accomplish that goal. References Are mobile devices already making PIV cards obsolete? Retrieved on October 13, 2013 from http://gcn.com/articles/2011/03/11/piv-status-update.aspx PIV Cards are in the hands of most federal employees and contractors, Retrieved on October 13, 2013 from http://gcn.com/articles/2011/03/11/piv-status-update.aspx Top Five Security Threats in Healthcare, Retrieved on October 14, 2013 from http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/top-5-security-threats-healthcare

Impact Evaluation of Three Social Programs Essay -- Evaluating Three S

You are to identify a social issue and research on at least 3 social programs or efforts that try/tried to address this issue. For each program, you should look at: - Facts of the program (NPO, beneficiaries, country or region of efforts) - Objective(s) of program - Whether the program has meet its objective(s), and how far are they away from it - Evaluation of the success of the program According to the 2013 factsheet for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG), enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 per cent in 1999, which means more kids than ever are attending primary school. ("Goal 2: Achieve," n.d.) However, 57 million children of primary school education age were out of school. Globally, 123 million youths aged 15 to 24 were lack of basic reading and writing skills and 61 per cent of them are young women. ("Goal 2: Achieve," n.d.) Gender gaps in youth literacy rates are improving, from 90 literate young women for every 100 young men in 1990 to 95 women in 2010. ("Goal 2: Achieve," n.d.) In Singapore, primary education was made compulsory for all children who are above the age of 6 years and who has not yet reach the age of 15 years. ("Compulsory education," n.d.) Factors that are associated to poverty such as unemployment, physical health conditions and the illiteracy of parents increases the risk of children unable to attend school and drop-out from school. ("Right to education," n.d.) Due to the lack of access to education, adults are unable to get a stable job to generate income for the family. The poverty cycle continues when parents could not afford to send their children to school. Undeniably, many children who were living in poverty ... ...nistry of Education Singapore. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.sg/committee-of-supply-debate/files/supporting-singaporean-students.pdf Financial assistance and bursary schemes. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.sg/initiatives/financial-assistance/ Female secondary school assistance project, bangladesh. In Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEMPOWERMENT/Resources/14828_Bangladesh-web.pdf Stipends triple girls access to school. (2009, October). Retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/IDA/0,,contentMDK:21227882~menuPK:3266877~pagePK:51236175~piPK:437394~theSitePK:73154,00.html What is ida?. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/ida/what-is-ida.html Quality primary education in bangladesh In United Nations Children's Fund. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Quality_Primary_Education(1).pdf

Netflix Case Study

Running Head: NETFLIX ON THE MOVE CHANGES IN THE MOVIE RENTAL BUSINESS Contents Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Changes Within The Movie Rental Business†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4 NetFlix History and Strategies†¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 Analyzing NetFlix Results†¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 Review and Recommendations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Conclus ion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 13 Introduction Impressive is the company that is able to make it to the top of their industry in quick fashion and remain there atop of all the rest of the industries.Taking away market share from other established companies is a feat that does not occur by accident. NetFlix is a company that was born in 1997 and by 2007 had revenues exceeding $1 billion. Not all competitors were prepared to handle the new strategies being employed by NetFlix and some fell quickly. Strategies and changes within the movie rental business that allowed NetFlix to accomplish such a qu ick business success story and others to fall just as quickly will be explored to give a clear picture of some of the external factors that were relevant in the NetFlix movement.By reviewing and analyzing some of the business decisions by NetFlix over the past 10 years, it will provide a better understanding of the effects of these decisions. Although NetFlix has obtained some great results over these years, there are also lessons to be learned and recommendations that can be given so that some of the less beneficial business decisions will not be repeated. This exploration of the NetFlix business strategy and the results from executing their strategies will help gain insight on how important it is to stay involved with the customer and satisfy the needs of the market.Changes Within the Movie Rental Business The video rental industry has reinvented itself often and in impressive fashion. Providing entertainment in the most convenient and cost-effective fashion has become the motivat or for multiple changes within the industry. The video industry began to take off in the 1980’s with larger chains like Blockbuster and Movie Gallery rising over the previous smaller shops. These new avenues are providing videos granted a better selection and often better pricing for the common video consumer.The popularity of these chains became more popular around the world and the businesses kept adding buildings and locations and became very popular for their wide selections, reasonable prices, and membership perks. Before long, these businesses added the increasingly growing gaming rentals as well making it convenient to now rent games for a much lower cost than purchasing the games. Convenience was impacted once again as NetFlix came on the scene in the late 1990’s. No other businesses had made efforts to use the unorthodox method of mailing DVDs to their customers.Rather than jumping in the car and heading to the nearest video store, NetFlix capitalized on bring ing the videos to the customer using their mailbox. Not only was it convenient, NetFlix allowed customers to hang on to the DVD without incurring late fees until the customer was ready to return and pick a new movie to be shipped out. Rather than a charge for each movie as the traditional method was for all other players, NetFlix charged in a monthly fee structure that allowed movie watchers to continue to watch videos as quickly as they could watch and send back with a request for a new movie.Although NetFlix was at first looked at as a non-threat with their entrance into the market, it was not long before others began make efforts to copy the methods that NetFlix had brought to life. â€Å"Further fueled by convenience, hassle-free Redbox kiosks offering $1 new releases at your local grocery store or gas station came on to the scene in 2004 and had grown to more than 25,000 kiosks by the year 2011† (Sunderland, 2011). Redbox began as an adventure with McDonald’s in o rder to add more convenience for the McDonald’s customers.In 2004, the concept of Redbox really started gaining steam. â€Å"With the majority of locations at McDonald’s restaurants, early headlines read, â€Å"Would you like a DVD with your fries? † and â€Å"Order Your Big Mac and DVD to Go† (The History of Redbox). And what are the newest trends in making video rental even more convenient? Video streaming has taken movie watching to a new level as there are multiple companies competing in this method of delivering a wide selection of movies and TV episodes over the internet.However, NetFlix has had a start on its competition by emerging as the world’s largest subscription service for movie watchers with over 15 million subscribers in 2010 (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013). NetFlix has enjoyed being at the top of the industry until recently. Over the past 10 years, NetFlix stock has increased 1700% (Wofford, 2013). The difference today is that o ther businesses have caught on to the successful NetFlix strategies and methods. Competition has risen significantly in the internet streaming method of delivering movies conveniently to home watchers.Amazon Prime is one of NetFlix’s recent competitors in both the DVD rental and the streaming internet video. Amazon Prime is another company that has significant and impressive growth in the past 10 years as stocks have soared over 1,100% (Wofford, 2013). Although Amazon Prime had not reached the heights of growth as NetFlix has accomplished, the ride for Amazon Prime has been at a steadier pace. And there are others that have entered the DVD and internet streaming movie distribution as well. Even Walmart has begun to enter the internet streaming market to share in this growing method of convenient movie watching.DirecTV, Time Warner, DISH Network, AT&T, and Verizon are all companies that have created more competition in the market by utilizing existing or newer technology allow ing for more opportunity of movie and TV entertainment by providing convenient movie selections while sitting at home. NetFlix History and Strategies NetFlix was formed and incorporated in 1997 by two â€Å"new technology† entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph (Funding Universe). The two entrepreneurs set out to sell and rent the recently created DVD over the internet and deliver to the renter’s mailbox.Few stores in 1997 carried DVDs which was new format that was new technology as compared to the video tape. Although the DVD players were expensive as they entered the market, the two entrepreneurs set their strategy that the DVD would soon replace the video tape and began to figure how to best get it to the movie watcher. Experimentation with different mailers ended with a package that would successfully be sent to and from the renter for the price of a postage stamp. The company began to purchase copies of the nearly 1,000 available titles available on DVD and with 30 employees opened for business on August14, 1998 (Funding Universe).Pricing and discounts were created to invite the consumer to rent more while giving ample time to watch the movies and return. Soon after opening, promotions were given through sweepstakes and additional free DVDs with the purchase of some brand name DVD players. Not only could movie watchers rent but they also could keep and purchase that same DVD if it was to their liking to do so. NetFlix was not born, however, to only send DVDs through the mail. As the name implies, the founders had a vision and strategy to expand further into the access that the internet would provide.With year after year major growth, in 2006 NetFlix ended the year with over 6. 3 million members (NetFlix). In 2007, NetFlix introduced to it’s members the ability to stream and watch movies and TV shows right on their personal computers. Now the challenge for the NetFlix team was to invent a way of getting streaming movies into eve ryone’s homes. And the strategy began new life again creating and experimenting with devices to attain this. After several ideas and some failed concepts, NetFlix strategy changed once again.The widespread adoption of broadband connections to the internet had taken place in consumer’s homes and Microsoft and NetFlix strategies met up. Microsoft had already put out the Xbox and had envisioned it to be more than just a serious gaming system. Microsof t found NetFlix’s ideas of streaming movies over the Xbox device to the screen to be a good fit. Soon, many other devices and TVs were built with a chip and the NetFlix application to stream thousands of movies and TV shows right to the living room. NetFlix continued to grow and be the leaders in this industry while taking away market share rom other â€Å"traditional† methods of renting and watching videos. NetFlix management believed that the subscriber consisted of three types of customers: those who liked c onvenience of home delivery, bargain hunters who liked a good priced movie, and movie buffs who wanted a wide selection of movies (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013). The content was a weak spot for NetFlix, however. Despite having a now large movie rental business, NetFlix did not have the contacts it needed to bring the wide selection of Hollywood movies to the consumer’s screens.Although access to NetFlix may be cutting edge, few would watch if it only had older videos and TV shows (Roth, 2009). NetFlix began to search out ways to combine forces with other businesses that would give them access to more content. Not only was it lacking in content, but also needed to somehow gain access to the movie blockbusters much sooner. In many cases, hit movies would not be available to NetFlix for months and in some cases it would be years before these would be able to be watched by NetFlix subscribers.In 2008, NetFlix found agreement with Starz enabling the addition of 2,500 fresh vide os to NetFlix’s services (Roth, 2009). Underlying NetFlix’s great success from the years 2007 – 2011 was the understanding that they had to deliver additional content and make more available for streaming. Another strategy emerged in September 2011. Hastings announced that the company would charge separately for DVD rental and streaming video and that a new company named Qwikster would be formed to handle the DVD rental portion (Funding Universe).With substantial increases to consumers and issues like separate billings, users began to voice their displeasure with this strategy and many subscribers began to cancel their subscription. New subscriptions began to suffer as well with the new format and the price increase that was introduced. NetFlix reasoned that the change was needed due to the increase costs in licensing and streaming videos (Seeking Alpha, 2013). It was not long before the outcry of the customer and the loss of subscribers made Hastings rethink th is strategy.By the end of 2011, Hastings admitted that strategy was not appropriate and dropped the division of the DVD and streaming making them once again one entity. But by then, damage had been done and the poor strategy had taken its toll on the business while its stock had dropped by 75% (Funding Universe). The current strategy being pursued by NetFlix is one of moving to International expansion. Though many countries may not have the infrastructure in place to be able to stream from the internet, many countries do and this may be a unique opportunity for NetFlix to continue to grow.NetFlix has gained over 6 million subscribers within two years of its launch into International markets (Forbes, 2013). Although NetFlix seems to be leading now in the movie streaming industry just as it did with its strategy to mail deliver DVDs, competition is already on its way in the streaming movie business. Competition will continue to come up with their own unique strategies in their efforts to steal away some of the market share and success that has enabled NetFlix to continue to be successful. Analyzing NetFlix ResultsThe successful results of NetFlix over the years since its beginning can be seen in many statistical views. Focusing on the customer to tell us how NetFlix has performed would show us that from 2002 it grew from 600,000 members to over 6,000,000 members in 2006 (NetFlix). Each year after, NetFlix has gained a substantial quantity of members and in 2010 had over 20,000,000 members (NetFlix). Although there was a loss of subscribers in 2012 due to the Qwikster strategy of about 1 million subscribers, 2013 is estimated that NetFlix has over 33,000,000 subscribers in 40 different countries (Market Watch, 2013).The rebound has definitely made up for the loss of a year ago. This is amazing growth in a short amount of time and NetFlix has done well to keep ahead of its growth with its infrastructure and planning. Many of the new subscribers every year were cus tomers to local video outlets which have now suffered the reduction in business due to NetFlix’s success. The opposite effect of NetFlix’s success can be seen in businesses like Movie Gallery and Blockbuster as they have taken a large hit even to the extent of bankruptcy.Although it may be a short trip down to the video store, consumers have definitely shown by the numbers of subscribers that they enjoy the benefit and value of being able to have the movies come to them. Revenues are another way to show the success of NetFlix over the past 15 years. Like many other startup companies, the early years were not profitable. In 1999, the coming had to swallow $30 million in losses on only $5 million dollars of revenue (Funding Universe). However, by 2005 revenues had exceeded $600 million with net income of $42 million (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013).By 2008, these amounts had doubled (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013) and in 2012 NetFlix reported $3. 6 billion of revenue which was increase from the prior year by about 12% with $226 million net income (Bloomberg Business Week, 2013) . 2011 saw about a large growth of about 48% when compared to 2010 and while there was some growth of competitors in the recent years, many have seen negative growth in revenues partly due to the success of NetFlix. NetFlix has dominated market share in the digital on-line viewing of movies. According to a report by Sandvine Inc. in 2012, Netflix had captured 33% of prime-time web viewing (Edwards, 2012).As well, NetFlix has gained over 61% of all movie watching in the United States and with its aggressive strategy marches on to increase that as well as move aggressively internationally. Although international business continues to grow in subscribers, it is not yet profitable and currently is erasing much of the profits of the US business. It will take some time to get established internationally and provide profits. Stock prices for NetFlix had escalated significantly f rom the 2009 level of about $30 per share to the peak high value of $300 per share in 2011, but began a sharp downward trend in 2011 after the introduction of Qwikster.Basic earnings per share rose from a 2009 level of $2. 05 to that of $4. 28 in 2011 (NetFlix Investor Relations). It has taken some time to rebound from the events that surrounded the Qwikster disappointment, but stocks now seem to be continuing to increase as they appear to be reaching toward the $175 per share level. Review and Recommendations Over the short existence of the NetFlix company, it has done a good job at giving the customer what it has wanted and more. Over 90% of subscribers have indicated that they would recommend the NetFlix service to a friend (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013).NetFlix has been able to stay ahead of the rest of the movie rental industry by staying in touch with their customers and providing the services and movie selections that are important to them. The software that NetFlix has de veloped has made it easy for the customer to choose movies by categories and provides detail for each movie that helps subscribers make their decisions as to what to watch. The NetFlix software is also able to personalize the movie selection experience by capturing what the viewer has chosen before and what likes and dislikes the viewer has recorded after watching their selection.This personalization brings to the subscribers attention other movies that they may want to watch based on their preferences and likes in the past. NetFlix has given the opportunity for first time users to use the NetFlix services for an entire month for free. This allows the customer to feel like they are getting a real bargain as well as gives them ample time to try out the service before paying for it. The pricing structures that NetFlix has instituted gives the subscriber options as to how many DVDs can be rented at a time along with unlimited streaming.The $8. 99 membership is a bargain as unlimited DV Ds and unlimited streaming of movies is included. The largest interruption to the NetFlix business was in 2011 when it decided to split the DVD portion of the business separately from the internet streaming portion. This move was not along the same lines as their customers were wanting. Qwikster was the new company that would handle all of the DVD rentals and NetFlix would continue to provide the streaming video. The two companies would not be separate and charge separately as well for their services.With this change, a large price increase would be incurred as well as subscribers would pay separately for each service. It almost seems as though in this instance that NetFlix was not interested in what their customers wanted. The strategy to break these services into two distinct companies was not born from what would satisfy the customer but was rather an internal strategy to satisfy what the owners of NetFlix thought to be advantageous. Along with the change, the communication to th e subscribers was ineffective and poorly distributed.This poor decision did not sit well with about 1 million lost customers and stock prices fell dramatically during this period. After the fact, NetFlix heard the voices of the customer and decided to abandon this strategy and go back to the original format, but the damage had been done. The recommendation here is to find out what the customer views as important before fully developing and implementing new changes. NetFlix had been following this well until the 2011 Qwikster event.Now they have learned the hard way how important it is to know what the customer views as valuable in their services. Even with the loss of 1 million customers, NetFlix began to rebound and grow with additional subscribers, but how much more could they have accomplished without this major set- back. Conclusion I have enjoyed the services that NetFlix has provided related to DVD rentail and streaming movies and TV shows over the internet right to my living room. NetFlix has worked hard to ensure that their customers have many selections at a reasonable price.The company has grown substantially year after year with more customers, revenues, and profits and has taken and maintains the lead in this industry. Although this success has come quickly, it has not come easy. NetFlix has had to effectively plan, implement, and successfully change its strategies to satisfy its customers and stay in the industry lead. It has done well in implementing these strategies and the results speak for themselves. References The History of Redbox. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://www. edbox. com/timeline Sunderland, N. (2011). Convenience: The past and future of movie rentals. Retrieved from http://www. tetonvalleynews. net/entertainment/movies/convenience-the-past-and-future-of-movie-rentals/article_d88d5148-5000-11e0-8a97-001cc4c03286. html Gamble, J. E. , Thompson, A. A. , & Peteraf, M. A. (2013). Essentials of strategic management (3rd ed. ). pp. 277-30 3. Location: Mcgraw-Hill Irwin Wofford, T. (2013). How these companies are streaming money. Retrieved from http://beta. fool. om/tlwofford/2013/01/13/online-video-streaming-performing-well/20918/ Funding Universe. (n. d. ) Retrieved from http://www. fundinguniverse. com/company-histories/NetFlix-inc-history/ NetFlix. (n. d. ) Retrieved from https://signup. netflix. com/MediaCenter/Timeline Roth, D. (2009). Netflix everywhere: sorry cable, you’re history. Retrieved from http://www. wired. com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-10/ff_netflix? currentPage=all Seeking Alpha. (2013). Domestically funding international growth: the NetFlix strategy. Retrieved from http://seekingalpha. om/article/1293701-domestically-funding-international-growth-the-netflix-strategy Forbes. (2013). Sizing up NetFlix’s international subscriber growth potential. Retrieved from http://www. forbes. com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/03/05/sizing-up-netflixs-international-subscriber-growth-potential/ Market Watc h. (2013). NetFlix to announce first-quarter 2013 financial results. Retrieved from http://www. marketwatch. com/story/netflix-to-announce-first-quarter-2013-financial-results-2013-04-02 Bloomberg Business Week. (2013). Retrieved from http://investing. usinessweek. com/research/stocks/earnings/earnings. asp? ticker=NFLX Edwards, C. (2012). Bloomberg. NetFlix dominates streaming rivals in web-video market. Retrieved by http://www. bloomberg. com/news/2012-11-07/netflix-dominates-streaming-rivals-with-growing-web-video-share. html O’Neil, M. (2011). Social Times. NetFlix owns 61% of US digital movie market share. Retrieved from http://socialtimes. com/netflix-infographic_b73597 NetFlix Investor Relations (n. d. ) 2011 Annual report. Retrieved from http://ir. netflix. com/annuals. cfm Netflix Case Study Running Head: NETFLIX ON THE MOVE CHANGES IN THE MOVIE RENTAL BUSINESS Contents Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Changes Within The Movie Rental Business†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4 NetFlix History and Strategies†¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 Analyzing NetFlix Results†¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 Review and Recommendations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Conclus ion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 13 Introduction Impressive is the company that is able to make it to the top of their industry in quick fashion and remain there atop of all the rest of the industries.Taking away market share from other established companies is a feat that does not occur by accident. NetFlix is a company that was born in 1997 and by 2007 had revenues exceeding $1 billion. Not all competitors were prepared to handle the new strategies being employed by NetFlix and some fell quickly. Strategies and changes within the movie rental business that allowed NetFlix to accomplish such a qu ick business success story and others to fall just as quickly will be explored to give a clear picture of some of the external factors that were relevant in the NetFlix movement.By reviewing and analyzing some of the business decisions by NetFlix over the past 10 years, it will provide a better understanding of the effects of these decisions. Although NetFlix has obtained some great results over these years, there are also lessons to be learned and recommendations that can be given so that some of the less beneficial business decisions will not be repeated. This exploration of the NetFlix business strategy and the results from executing their strategies will help gain insight on how important it is to stay involved with the customer and satisfy the needs of the market.Changes Within the Movie Rental Business The video rental industry has reinvented itself often and in impressive fashion. Providing entertainment in the most convenient and cost-effective fashion has become the motivat or for multiple changes within the industry. The video industry began to take off in the 1980’s with larger chains like Blockbuster and Movie Gallery rising over the previous smaller shops. These new avenues are providing videos granted a better selection and often better pricing for the common video consumer.The popularity of these chains became more popular around the world and the businesses kept adding buildings and locations and became very popular for their wide selections, reasonable prices, and membership perks. Before long, these businesses added the increasingly growing gaming rentals as well making it convenient to now rent games for a much lower cost than purchasing the games. Convenience was impacted once again as NetFlix came on the scene in the late 1990’s. No other businesses had made efforts to use the unorthodox method of mailing DVDs to their customers.Rather than jumping in the car and heading to the nearest video store, NetFlix capitalized on bring ing the videos to the customer using their mailbox. Not only was it convenient, NetFlix allowed customers to hang on to the DVD without incurring late fees until the customer was ready to return and pick a new movie to be shipped out. Rather than a charge for each movie as the traditional method was for all other players, NetFlix charged in a monthly fee structure that allowed movie watchers to continue to watch videos as quickly as they could watch and send back with a request for a new movie.Although NetFlix was at first looked at as a non-threat with their entrance into the market, it was not long before others began make efforts to copy the methods that NetFlix had brought to life. â€Å"Further fueled by convenience, hassle-free Redbox kiosks offering $1 new releases at your local grocery store or gas station came on to the scene in 2004 and had grown to more than 25,000 kiosks by the year 2011† (Sunderland, 2011). Redbox began as an adventure with McDonald’s in o rder to add more convenience for the McDonald’s customers.In 2004, the concept of Redbox really started gaining steam. â€Å"With the majority of locations at McDonald’s restaurants, early headlines read, â€Å"Would you like a DVD with your fries? † and â€Å"Order Your Big Mac and DVD to Go† (The History of Redbox). And what are the newest trends in making video rental even more convenient? Video streaming has taken movie watching to a new level as there are multiple companies competing in this method of delivering a wide selection of movies and TV episodes over the internet.However, NetFlix has had a start on its competition by emerging as the world’s largest subscription service for movie watchers with over 15 million subscribers in 2010 (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013). NetFlix has enjoyed being at the top of the industry until recently. Over the past 10 years, NetFlix stock has increased 1700% (Wofford, 2013). The difference today is that o ther businesses have caught on to the successful NetFlix strategies and methods. Competition has risen significantly in the internet streaming method of delivering movies conveniently to home watchers.Amazon Prime is one of NetFlix’s recent competitors in both the DVD rental and the streaming internet video. Amazon Prime is another company that has significant and impressive growth in the past 10 years as stocks have soared over 1,100% (Wofford, 2013). Although Amazon Prime had not reached the heights of growth as NetFlix has accomplished, the ride for Amazon Prime has been at a steadier pace. And there are others that have entered the DVD and internet streaming movie distribution as well. Even Walmart has begun to enter the internet streaming market to share in this growing method of convenient movie watching.DirecTV, Time Warner, DISH Network, AT&T, and Verizon are all companies that have created more competition in the market by utilizing existing or newer technology allow ing for more opportunity of movie and TV entertainment by providing convenient movie selections while sitting at home. NetFlix History and Strategies NetFlix was formed and incorporated in 1997 by two â€Å"new technology† entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph (Funding Universe). The two entrepreneurs set out to sell and rent the recently created DVD over the internet and deliver to the renter’s mailbox.Few stores in 1997 carried DVDs which was new format that was new technology as compared to the video tape. Although the DVD players were expensive as they entered the market, the two entrepreneurs set their strategy that the DVD would soon replace the video tape and began to figure how to best get it to the movie watcher. Experimentation with different mailers ended with a package that would successfully be sent to and from the renter for the price of a postage stamp. The company began to purchase copies of the nearly 1,000 available titles available on DVD and with 30 employees opened for business on August14, 1998 (Funding Universe).Pricing and discounts were created to invite the consumer to rent more while giving ample time to watch the movies and return. Soon after opening, promotions were given through sweepstakes and additional free DVDs with the purchase of some brand name DVD players. Not only could movie watchers rent but they also could keep and purchase that same DVD if it was to their liking to do so. NetFlix was not born, however, to only send DVDs through the mail. As the name implies, the founders had a vision and strategy to expand further into the access that the internet would provide.With year after year major growth, in 2006 NetFlix ended the year with over 6. 3 million members (NetFlix). In 2007, NetFlix introduced to it’s members the ability to stream and watch movies and TV shows right on their personal computers. Now the challenge for the NetFlix team was to invent a way of getting streaming movies into eve ryone’s homes. And the strategy began new life again creating and experimenting with devices to attain this. After several ideas and some failed concepts, NetFlix strategy changed once again.The widespread adoption of broadband connections to the internet had taken place in consumer’s homes and Microsoft and NetFlix strategies met up. Microsoft had already put out the Xbox and had envisioned it to be more than just a serious gaming system. Microsof t found NetFlix’s ideas of streaming movies over the Xbox device to the screen to be a good fit. Soon, many other devices and TVs were built with a chip and the NetFlix application to stream thousands of movies and TV shows right to the living room. NetFlix continued to grow and be the leaders in this industry while taking away market share rom other â€Å"traditional† methods of renting and watching videos. NetFlix management believed that the subscriber consisted of three types of customers: those who liked c onvenience of home delivery, bargain hunters who liked a good priced movie, and movie buffs who wanted a wide selection of movies (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013). The content was a weak spot for NetFlix, however. Despite having a now large movie rental business, NetFlix did not have the contacts it needed to bring the wide selection of Hollywood movies to the consumer’s screens.Although access to NetFlix may be cutting edge, few would watch if it only had older videos and TV shows (Roth, 2009). NetFlix began to search out ways to combine forces with other businesses that would give them access to more content. Not only was it lacking in content, but also needed to somehow gain access to the movie blockbusters much sooner. In many cases, hit movies would not be available to NetFlix for months and in some cases it would be years before these would be able to be watched by NetFlix subscribers.In 2008, NetFlix found agreement with Starz enabling the addition of 2,500 fresh vide os to NetFlix’s services (Roth, 2009). Underlying NetFlix’s great success from the years 2007 – 2011 was the understanding that they had to deliver additional content and make more available for streaming. Another strategy emerged in September 2011. Hastings announced that the company would charge separately for DVD rental and streaming video and that a new company named Qwikster would be formed to handle the DVD rental portion (Funding Universe).With substantial increases to consumers and issues like separate billings, users began to voice their displeasure with this strategy and many subscribers began to cancel their subscription. New subscriptions began to suffer as well with the new format and the price increase that was introduced. NetFlix reasoned that the change was needed due to the increase costs in licensing and streaming videos (Seeking Alpha, 2013). It was not long before the outcry of the customer and the loss of subscribers made Hastings rethink th is strategy.By the end of 2011, Hastings admitted that strategy was not appropriate and dropped the division of the DVD and streaming making them once again one entity. But by then, damage had been done and the poor strategy had taken its toll on the business while its stock had dropped by 75% (Funding Universe). The current strategy being pursued by NetFlix is one of moving to International expansion. Though many countries may not have the infrastructure in place to be able to stream from the internet, many countries do and this may be a unique opportunity for NetFlix to continue to grow.NetFlix has gained over 6 million subscribers within two years of its launch into International markets (Forbes, 2013). Although NetFlix seems to be leading now in the movie streaming industry just as it did with its strategy to mail deliver DVDs, competition is already on its way in the streaming movie business. Competition will continue to come up with their own unique strategies in their efforts to steal away some of the market share and success that has enabled NetFlix to continue to be successful. Analyzing NetFlix ResultsThe successful results of NetFlix over the years since its beginning can be seen in many statistical views. Focusing on the customer to tell us how NetFlix has performed would show us that from 2002 it grew from 600,000 members to over 6,000,000 members in 2006 (NetFlix). Each year after, NetFlix has gained a substantial quantity of members and in 2010 had over 20,000,000 members (NetFlix). Although there was a loss of subscribers in 2012 due to the Qwikster strategy of about 1 million subscribers, 2013 is estimated that NetFlix has over 33,000,000 subscribers in 40 different countries (Market Watch, 2013).The rebound has definitely made up for the loss of a year ago. This is amazing growth in a short amount of time and NetFlix has done well to keep ahead of its growth with its infrastructure and planning. Many of the new subscribers every year were cus tomers to local video outlets which have now suffered the reduction in business due to NetFlix’s success. The opposite effect of NetFlix’s success can be seen in businesses like Movie Gallery and Blockbuster as they have taken a large hit even to the extent of bankruptcy.Although it may be a short trip down to the video store, consumers have definitely shown by the numbers of subscribers that they enjoy the benefit and value of being able to have the movies come to them. Revenues are another way to show the success of NetFlix over the past 15 years. Like many other startup companies, the early years were not profitable. In 1999, the coming had to swallow $30 million in losses on only $5 million dollars of revenue (Funding Universe). However, by 2005 revenues had exceeded $600 million with net income of $42 million (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013).By 2008, these amounts had doubled (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013) and in 2012 NetFlix reported $3. 6 billion of revenue which was increase from the prior year by about 12% with $226 million net income (Bloomberg Business Week, 2013) . 2011 saw about a large growth of about 48% when compared to 2010 and while there was some growth of competitors in the recent years, many have seen negative growth in revenues partly due to the success of NetFlix. NetFlix has dominated market share in the digital on-line viewing of movies. According to a report by Sandvine Inc. in 2012, Netflix had captured 33% of prime-time web viewing (Edwards, 2012).As well, NetFlix has gained over 61% of all movie watching in the United States and with its aggressive strategy marches on to increase that as well as move aggressively internationally. Although international business continues to grow in subscribers, it is not yet profitable and currently is erasing much of the profits of the US business. It will take some time to get established internationally and provide profits. Stock prices for NetFlix had escalated significantly f rom the 2009 level of about $30 per share to the peak high value of $300 per share in 2011, but began a sharp downward trend in 2011 after the introduction of Qwikster.Basic earnings per share rose from a 2009 level of $2. 05 to that of $4. 28 in 2011 (NetFlix Investor Relations). It has taken some time to rebound from the events that surrounded the Qwikster disappointment, but stocks now seem to be continuing to increase as they appear to be reaching toward the $175 per share level. Review and Recommendations Over the short existence of the NetFlix company, it has done a good job at giving the customer what it has wanted and more. Over 90% of subscribers have indicated that they would recommend the NetFlix service to a friend (Gamble, Thompson, Peteraf, 2013).NetFlix has been able to stay ahead of the rest of the movie rental industry by staying in touch with their customers and providing the services and movie selections that are important to them. The software that NetFlix has de veloped has made it easy for the customer to choose movies by categories and provides detail for each movie that helps subscribers make their decisions as to what to watch. The NetFlix software is also able to personalize the movie selection experience by capturing what the viewer has chosen before and what likes and dislikes the viewer has recorded after watching their selection.This personalization brings to the subscribers attention other movies that they may want to watch based on their preferences and likes in the past. NetFlix has given the opportunity for first time users to use the NetFlix services for an entire month for free. This allows the customer to feel like they are getting a real bargain as well as gives them ample time to try out the service before paying for it. The pricing structures that NetFlix has instituted gives the subscriber options as to how many DVDs can be rented at a time along with unlimited streaming.The $8. 99 membership is a bargain as unlimited DV Ds and unlimited streaming of movies is included. The largest interruption to the NetFlix business was in 2011 when it decided to split the DVD portion of the business separately from the internet streaming portion. This move was not along the same lines as their customers were wanting. Qwikster was the new company that would handle all of the DVD rentals and NetFlix would continue to provide the streaming video. The two companies would not be separate and charge separately as well for their services.With this change, a large price increase would be incurred as well as subscribers would pay separately for each service. It almost seems as though in this instance that NetFlix was not interested in what their customers wanted. The strategy to break these services into two distinct companies was not born from what would satisfy the customer but was rather an internal strategy to satisfy what the owners of NetFlix thought to be advantageous. Along with the change, the communication to th e subscribers was ineffective and poorly distributed.This poor decision did not sit well with about 1 million lost customers and stock prices fell dramatically during this period. After the fact, NetFlix heard the voices of the customer and decided to abandon this strategy and go back to the original format, but the damage had been done. The recommendation here is to find out what the customer views as important before fully developing and implementing new changes. NetFlix had been following this well until the 2011 Qwikster event.Now they have learned the hard way how important it is to know what the customer views as valuable in their services. Even with the loss of 1 million customers, NetFlix began to rebound and grow with additional subscribers, but how much more could they have accomplished without this major set- back. Conclusion I have enjoyed the services that NetFlix has provided related to DVD rentail and streaming movies and TV shows over the internet right to my living room. NetFlix has worked hard to ensure that their customers have many selections at a reasonable price.The company has grown substantially year after year with more customers, revenues, and profits and has taken and maintains the lead in this industry. Although this success has come quickly, it has not come easy. NetFlix has had to effectively plan, implement, and successfully change its strategies to satisfy its customers and stay in the industry lead. It has done well in implementing these strategies and the results speak for themselves. References The History of Redbox. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://www. edbox. com/timeline Sunderland, N. (2011). Convenience: The past and future of movie rentals. Retrieved from http://www. tetonvalleynews. net/entertainment/movies/convenience-the-past-and-future-of-movie-rentals/article_d88d5148-5000-11e0-8a97-001cc4c03286. html Gamble, J. E. , Thompson, A. A. , & Peteraf, M. A. (2013). Essentials of strategic management (3rd ed. ). pp. 277-30 3. Location: Mcgraw-Hill Irwin Wofford, T. (2013). How these companies are streaming money. Retrieved from http://beta. fool. om/tlwofford/2013/01/13/online-video-streaming-performing-well/20918/ Funding Universe. 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