Jetblue Airways SWOT and Financial Analysis

Jetblue Airways SWOT and Financial Analysis Executive summary In this report, the financial position of JetBlue Airways Corporation, a low-fare, low-cost passenger Airline Company serving the US market, is studied in order to provide recommendations to the company with regards to its investments plans. By the year 2003, the company is intending to support its growth through the acquisition of several new aircraft over the coming 13 years. The company will thus need a high capital expenditure to support those acquisitions, as well as several related investments. For the purpose of this study, a SWOT analysis of JetBlue as by its position in June 2003 is performed. A background research is conducted in order to assess how other airline companies are financing their aircraft acquisitions and other investments, and in a broader aspect, study the specificities of their financial structures. The different financing alternatives available to the company are presented and studied in relation to the financial position of the company. A non-financial analysis of the debt and equity options is conducted, in order to assess the relevance of each of those options with regards to all areas of the business other than finance. The outcomes of those analyses are combined and a recommendation is issued to the Chief Financial Officer of JetBlue: It is recommended that the company issues common stock in order to finance the needed investments in the second half of 2003. In a longer-term perspective, it is recommended to the company to use leases and secured debt for the upcoming aircraft acquisitions when favorable terms are available to the company, and to finance the remaining parts of the investments through cash generated from operations and through issuance of new equity, in order to compensate for the increasing financial and operational risks of the company. Problem Definition JetBlue Airways Corporation is a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline company serving the US market. The company completed an IPO in April 2002, around two years after it was founded. JetBlue has had a successful business model and strong financial results during that period, and performed well in comparison to other airline companies in the US during the period between 2000 and 2003. The company, as by July 2003, is seeing several opportunities to grow by adding new markets and new flights to existing destinations. To accomplish this growth, the company is seeking to purchase 65 new Airbus A320, with an option to buy additional 50 ones, and also committed to purchase 100 Embraer E190 aircraft, with the option to purchase 100 additional ones. The company needs thus to think about a way to finance those acquisitions, as well as other needed investments such as spare parts, new engines, additional hangars and a flight training center. John Owen, the Chief Financial Officer of JetBlue, is in charge of finding the best financing scheme for the company. The problem facing John Owen is twofold: First, he needs to finance the acquisitions planned for the second half of 2003. Indeed, for the period from July 1 to December 31, 2003, the company has committed to purchase 8 Airbus A320 aircraft, for a total amount of $305 million to be paid in 2003 (Exhibit 8). The company is generating cash from its operating activities that amounted to $129,725 thousand for the first half of 2003, and already generated $238,989 thousand from financing activities (Exhibit 6). This will cover for part of this capital expenditure estimated at $570 million for 2003 (Exhibit 9). So John Owen needs to finance the remaining part of this capital expenditure. Second, John Owen needs to think about a long-term financing strategy. Indeed, JetBlue is committed to the purchase of 207 additional aircraft for a total amount of $6.86 billion over 8 years. Owen has to think about the best capital structure for the company and thus the best financing strategy for JetBlues investments, including the aircraft acquisitions and the related investments. SWOT Analysis Strengths The first strength of JetBlue is its founding teams background. Indeed, the company was founded by a veteran in the low-fare airline industry, backed by a group of private equity firms. The management of the company has also the expertise of leading a publicly held company, following the IPO in 2002. The company has a successful business model and exhibits strong financial results, as well as strong revenue growth despite the downturn in the industry following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Thus, JetBlue is a perceived as a solid and growing company by the investors. The low operation costs of JetBlue are one of the most important strengths of the company. The company is utilizing aircraft efficiently generating more revenue per plane. The company is also operating one type of aircraft, the Airbus A320, thus lowering maintenance and training costs and spare parts needs. The workforce of JetBlue is non-unionized and does not benefit from strict work regulations. The distribution costs of JetBlue are also low. Indeed, the company does not provide any paper tickets. The company operates only new airplanes, thus minimizing maintenance costs and offering a good â€Å"flying experience† to its customers. The company also benefits from its reliable on-time performance, comfortable airplanes, and friendly flying personnel to attract and secure its customer base. The company serves densely populated cities in underserved airports, with high fares. This strategy helps the company capture market share in these segments. The company is financing its existing aircraft through secured debt and operating leases, on favorable terms. Those financing possibilities are still available for the company for additional aircraft purchase. Weaknesses A considerable weakness of JetBlue is its small size. The company is operating 42 aircraft, for 73 flights per day and annual revenues of $635 million. The company can probably not rely on its personnel loyalty, due to the non-advantageous working conditions and regulation. The company is operating only one type of airplane, the Airbus A320. This represents a weakness for the company as well. Indeed, the planes have the same age and might all suffer at the same time from an eventual recurrent technical problem on this type of aircraft, which should be catastrophic for the company. JetBlue does not have a line of credit, or short-term borrowing facility. Therefore, the company depends on its operating cash flow to finance its short-term and working capital obligations. The balance sheet of the company also needs to be strengthened. JetBlue also faces one of the airlines principal risks which is the rising fuel price. The company is spending a considerable amount of money in hedging for fuel prices volatility. In addition, as the company is relatively consuming low volumes of fuel, it can suffer from significantly higher prices in case of fuel shortage. JetBlue is a levered company. With a short-term debt of $26,580 thousand and a long-term debt of $731,740 thousand as by June 2003, and equity of $480,594 thousand, the companys leverage ratio is 157.8%, whereas the industry average is around 129.46% (Infinancials). Opportunities Internal The purchase of the new 100-seat Embraer E190 aircraft would allow JetBlue to enter smaller markets while maintaining low operating costs, and increase flight frequency on existing routes. The private placement of convertible debt proposed by JetBlues investment bankers would provide sufficient capital at relatively low interest rates. JetBlue is a fast growing company, and should thus bear having less debt. The company has thus the opportunity to raise additional equity. External The low fares offered by JetBlue would allow it to attract new passengers who might otherwise not fly. The mid-sized market that JetBlue intends to enter will represent a new opportunity for growth to the company. By expanding its activities, the company will purchase larger volumes of jet fuel and would thus have more leverage in procuring fuel than today. The company will thus suffer relatively less from fuel shortages. Threats Internal The company is intending to grow and become an airline company â€Å"like the others†. JetBlue might thus lose its advantages from being low-cost, small and highly profitable. The company is clearly departing from its strategy, which has been the source of its strengths up to 2003. JetBlue plans to purchase a new type of aircraft, the Embraer E190. This is again a departure from the companys initial strategy which is to operate only one type of aircraft. JetBlue might thus incur higher maintenance and training costs, higher spare parts and engines costs, and some negative impact on the maintenance scheduling. JetBlue plans to increase its aircraft fleet from 45 to 252. In addition, the company plans to invest in other domains such as spare parts, new engines, additional hangars and a flight training center. This represents a very big investment and thus a consequent threat for the company. Such an investment will let the company more exposed to financial distress and raises the question of the management ability to cope with such a rapid expansion. The company board members are very concerned about dilution. There is a threat that they will not support John Owen, the CFO, if he recommends to raise new equity capital. With the rapid expansion of the company, the jet fuel expenses, as well as the cost of their hedging will grow rapidly. The company will be more exposed to both the fuel price volatility and the growing cost of hedging it. As the company will get bigger, with higher manpower, those might want to be unionized. External The fuel price is also an external factor due to its non-predictable volatility. JetBlue plans to be the launch customer for the new Embraer E190 aircraft. Although this allowed probably the company to have a price discount, it is also a threat. JetBlue might be exposed to technical and/or non-technical problems that have been not detected by the manufacturer or other users of the jet. The reason for the company to go public was to wean off its dependence on the venture capital and private equity industries. Issuing private debt securities represent a threat for JetBlue as this might lock back the company to such private investors. In addition, those investors and the private investors in general might not be interested by the eventual convertible debenture issued by the company. JetBlue is a small client of Morgan Stanley, the investment bank in charge of proposing financing alternatives for the company. Morgan Stanley might thus charge heavily JetBlue, and/or try to bias the companys choice for its benefit. The competition from other low-cost and regular airline companies which might try to counter JetBlues expansion. The revenues of the company and its growth aspirations are subject to the economic conditions. An economic downturn or additional terrorist attacks might impact negatively JetBlues ability to finance its debt obligations. The company will also have to secure additional airport gates which will represent a threat for the company in case it cannot negotiate advantageous conditions as with underserved airports. The alternatives In order to finance the acquisitions planned for the remaining part of 2003, JetBlue received two financial propositions from the investment banks. The first alternative is to issue additional 2.6 million shares at an estimated $42.50 per share. JetBlue will thus be able to raise up to $110.5 million. The fees and commissions of the bank for this proposal amount to $3,591,250 which represents a cost of 3.25%. The second proposal from the investment banks is to issue $150 million in a private placement of convertible debentures. The debentures will be a 30-year convertible debt with a coupon rate of 3.5%. In addition, the debt will be convertible into shares of JetBlue at $63.75 per share, which represents a conversion rate of 15.6863 shares per $1,000 principal amount of notes. The notes will be unsecured obligations and will rank equal in right of payment with all other unsecured debt. Currently, all of JetBlues debt is secured. The bank will not charge any additional fees for this alternative. JetBlue can consider some other alternatives as well. Indeed, the company can issue some preferred stock. This stock might be considered as equity in accounting, to strengthen the balance sheet of the company, but will at the same time accommodate the board members concern about dilution. This preferred stock option might however fail to attract investors. Another alternative might be the issuance of simple corporate bonds. The coupon rate for those will however be higher than the 3.5% of the convertible bonds. This option will thus cost more for JetBlue than convertible bonds, especially before the companys shares price eventually exceeds $63.75. Issuing public corporate bonds will have higher cost for the company as well. Indeed, those need to be ranked by some ranking agencies and will have higher coupon rates (Exhibit 12). Two other alternatives exist for JetBlue, for the aircraft acquisitions financing: The operating lease and the secured debt (each acquisition debt is secured by the acquired aircraft). Those two options are available for JetBlue at advantageous conditions. Thus, the alternatives that will be retained for the remaining of the analysis are the operating lease and secured debt for the aircraft acquisitions, and the equity issuance and the convertible private bonds for the acquisitions and the other investments. Background Research Some background research has been performed in order to assess how other airline companies are financing their aircraft acquisitions and other investments, and in a broader aspect, study the specificities of their financial structures. This study included some regular as well as low-cost airline companies. British airway, for example, is financing its aircraft acquisitions through debt, all of which being asset related. The group is principally using finance leases and hire purchases contracts to acquire aircraft (British Airways Annual Report 2010, p.104). Delta Airlines, on its side, is using pass-through certificates to finance aircraft (Delta Airlines Annual Report 2010, p.34). In addition, the company has $5.2 billion of loans secured by 287 aircraft (Delta Airlines Annual Report 2010, p.72). United Continental Holdings has a high amount of obligations, including debt, aircraft leases and financings (United Continental Holdings Annual Report 2010, p.53). A substantial portion of the companys assets, principally aircraft, are pledged under various loans and other obligations. The company also uses secured notes, equipment notes, pass-through certificates and multiple financings secured by certain aircraft spare parts, aircraft and spare engines (United Continental Holdings Annual Report 2010, p.55). United Continental Holdings also raises cash from issuance of common stock (United Continental Holdings Annual Report 2010, p.56). The low-cost airline companies seem to be, on their side, more conservative. Indeed, EasyJet is adopting a conservative capital structure policy, including a liquidity target of  £4 million cash per aircraft, and a 50% limit on net gearing (EasyJet Annual Report 2010, p.9). All of the companys debt is asset related (EasyJet Annual Report 2010, p.85). The company holds 62 aircraft under operating leases and 8 aircraft under finance leases, out of 196 total aircraft, principally Airbus (EasyJet Annual Report 2010, p.87). RyanAir, another low-cost airline company, has a fleet of 232 Boing 737-800s. The company makes its firm-order purchases through a combination of bank loans, operating and finance leases and cash flow generated from the companys operations (RyanAir Annual Report 2010, p.42). Both RyanAir and EasyJet exhibit a capital structure that relies less on debt than the regular companies counterparts, as illustrated by the following table: It is important to mention that some small airline companies choose to issue bonds for their investments as well. SpiceJet, an Indian airline company operating to Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Goa and Delhi issued in 2005 foreign currency convertible bonds worth $90 million to fund aircraft acquisitions (IndiaAviation, 2005). All in all, airline companies are using both debt and equity (together with other financing means, including cash flows generated from operations) to raise money. In its ‘Airlines return to capital markets article, David Knibb (2009) summarizes the ways several companies found financings: Lufthansa, Air-France KLM, British Airways, Air Canada, Australias Virgin Blue, Avianca and Indian carrier Kingfisher all issued bonds during 2009. AMR used private lenders to borrow money. Some other companies, smaller, chose to issue shares: SAS, Virgin Blue, AirAsia, Kingfisher, and Icelandair. From this study, it appears that the majority of airline companies are financing their aircraft acquisitions, apart from using cash flow generated by operations, through debt, either leases or secured debt. Other investment needs are financed either through debt or equity, depending on the companies. However, a common trend to low-cost companies seems to be their conservative financial structures, in comparison to bigger, regular airline companies. Financial Analysis of the Alternatives As per June 2003, JetBlue Corporation has a short-term debt of $26,580 thousand, a long-term debt of $731,740 thousand and equity of total $480,594 thousand (Exhibit 5a). In order to compute an average interest rate for the company, data from 2002 are used: The interest expenses for this year equaled $10,370 thousand (exhibit 4), for a total long-term debt of $690,252 thousand (Exhibit 5a), thus an interest rate of 1,5%. The tax expenses as per June 2003 are of $40,188 thousand for a total earnings before tax of $95,503 thousand (exhibit 4), thus a corporate tax rate of 0.42. From exhibit 1, the JetBlues equity beta during the period from April 2002 to June 2003 is 0.69. As per the data from Exhibit 5a for June 2003, the financial structure of the company was as follows: From the Hamadas formula, we can compute the unlevered beta of JetBlue as follows: Beta(u)=Beta(l)/[1+(1-T)*(Wd/We)] With Beta(l)=0.69, T=0.42, Wd=61.21 and We=38.79 Thus Beta(u)=0.36 In addition, from exhibit 12, the Treasury bill interest rate as of June 30, 2003 is 1.09%, this will be used as the risk-free rate of return. Assuming a market rate of return 9 points higher than the risk-free return, we can use the WACC spreadsheet in order to estimate the financial structure of JetBlue that minimizes the WACC of the company: Appendix 1. It turns out that the company has an optimal financial structure, minimizing its weighted average cost of capital, following those estimated figures. Any of the two options, either the convertible debt or the equity, will probably pull the financial structure from its current optimal position. For the first alternative, the convertible debenture, the coupon rate of this bond is 3.5%, for a total amount of $150,000 thousand. The weighted average cost of debt for JetBlue, if they issue such bonds, will be: [(3.5%*150,000)+(1.5%*731,740)]/(150,000+731,740), thus 1.84%. The financial structure of JetBlue will be as follows: Using the WACC spreadsheet, we can see the companys financial position with regards to the optimal financial structure of JetBlue following the new cost of debt: Appendix2. If JetBlue chooses the debt option, the financial structure of the company will no more be the one offering the minimal WACC. The same analysis can be done for the second alternative. Following the shares issuance, the financial structure of JetBlue will be as follows: Using the WACC spreadsheet, we can see the companys financial position with regards to the optimal financial structure of JetBlue following the raise in equity: Appendix3. From this analysis, it can be noted that JetBlue will still have a financial position that minimizes the companys weighted average cost of capital, thus maximizing the overall value of the companys stock. It can be concluded, from a financial point of view, that the best alternative for the investments planned for 2003 is the equity issuance. Non-Financial Analysis JetBlues passenger revenues knew a steady growth from 2000 ($101,665 thousand) to 2002 ($615,171 thousand). The revenues are forecasted to continue to grow up to a level of $1,796.9 million in 2005 (Exhibit 9). This revenue stability and expected high growth provide a strong confidence to JetBlue in its ability to meet its financial obligations, thus having the opportunity to issue either debt or equity. The companys assets amount to $1,565,322 thousand as per June 2003. Those assets are principally composed by operating property and equipment, which are pledged under the operating leases and secured debt of the company. If JetBlue chooses to finance its future aircraft acquisitions by debt, the acquired aircraft can be used to secure the corresponding debt. JetBlue, as any airline company, incurs very high fixed costs due to its high value operating property and equipment. The company has thus a very high operating leverage and is greatly exposed to the risk of cash flow projections errors in case it does not meet the projected revenues figures. Any variation in the estimated revenues, might lead the company to a position where it could not meet its financial obligations related to debt. From this point of view, JetBlue needs to secure its cash flows. As stated earlier, the company revenues knew a high growth for the precedent years and are expected to continue growing steadily. This high level of growth allows the company to rely on equity. JetBlue is a profitable company, in comparison to peers, as stated in the following graph: JetBlue exhibits good levels of gross margin and operating margin. Furthermore, the companys return on sales, return on assets and return on equity are higher than industry averages and the company can be said to be quite profitable in comparison to company peers. This offers some flexibility to the company to rely on debt. JetBlue has a high level of tax rate (0.42), this allows the company to have an even lower cost of debt and offers the company the advantage of being able to rely more on debt in order to minimize its weighted average cost of capital. All of the companys debt is secured. In addition, the company does not have any line of credit, or short-term borrowing facility. The company does therefore not have any control restrictions or obligations towards its creditors. The shareholders of the company are on their side very concerned about any dilution. This fear of losing the control of the company limits the possibility of the CFO to issue new equity. The founding and managerial team of JetBlue is issued from the airline industry. They are used to manage a highly leveraged and public company. They should thus have a positive attitude towards high levels of debt. They should be able to deal with the opposite aspect (issuing more equity) as well. JetBlue does not need any rating agency for the issuance of the bonds, as those are private. The alternative of issuing public bonds has been eliminated as this one will incur higher costs for the company. The lenders of the company seem on their side to have a positive attitude towards the company, which should be able to issue additional secured debt for its aircraft acquisitions with advantageous conditions. The company has been performing well in the recent years. However, many major US air carriers struggled between 2000 and 2003, and some of them filed for bankruptcy protection. The market is impacted by a general economic slowdown caused partly by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The market is also subject to big variations depending on several unpredictable factors, like political stability, weather conditions, natural disasters, terrorist attacks etc. All of this calls for some financial conservatism for the airline industry. The internal stability of JetBlue will probably continue to hold, unless the company faces some financial distress, or if the shareholders are no more supporting the management team. From a short-term point of view, John Owen might lose the shareholders support if he goes for equity issuance. From a mid to long-term point of view, he might as well negatively impact the internal stability of the company if he is not conservative enough to avoid any financial distress situation. The debt offering will afford JetBlue less financial flexibility, especially due to the jet fuel prices. If fuel prices rise, this will incur less operating income and thus some difficulties to the company to meet its additional debt service payments. Owen has also to review his hedging strategy of the fuel prices volatility: If the company chooses to hedge more of its fuel consumption, it will incur much higher hedging costs. If on the contrary the company chooses to reduce hedging costs, it will be more exposed to financial distress when the prices increase. Conclusion: The best solution JetBlues market capitalization can be estimated at around $3.12 billion (74,423,693 * $41.98) as per June 30, 2003. The company is intending to grow heavily in the following years, and has plans to acquire 207 new aircraft for a total $6.86 billion up to 2011,

Julius Lester Essay examples -- Children Literature African American E

Julius Lester Julius Lester is an African American Jewish Professor at UMass-Amherst who writes children's books along with teaching classes in departments of Judaic Studies, History and Literature. Before Julius was a professor at UMass-Amherst; he was a graduate of Fisk University in 1960, where he began as a professional musician and singer. He then furthered his career to direct the Newport Folk Festival and then went on to host a live radio show. Presently, Julius is known as "foremost among black writers who produce their work from a position of historical strengths." Julius writes children's books to teach moral and political values. In many of his books, he uses African American characters to relate back to the days of slavery. For example in his book; John Henry, he uses an African American character and ,makes him into a hero. The character in the book is able to break through a cave faster than a machine which symbolizes strength and courage among the African American race. In Les ter's book, How Many Spots Does A Leopard Have?, he uses n...

Religious Perspective of Cloning :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Religious Perspective of Cloning Many questions are raised about cloning a human being. It has moral and ethical issues and their affect on our society. The real question is, what is it to be a human being? Most of the organized religions' response to the issue of cloning is in an overwhelmingly negative fashion. They are not however outright eliminating the thought. Roman Catholics, Jewish, Protestants and other religions all have diverse opinions but there overall conclusions are the same. Their concerns are for the preservation of human dignity and the individual's freedom. Cloning is not only wrong it totally goes against the religious and biblical principles that have been deeply rooted for many centuries and have been past on from our ancestors many years ago. Cloning is condemned because of the violation of our dignity. Most religions are cautious against applying the new technology to humans, but for varying reasons. "Protestant theology emphasizes the view that nature is "fallen" and subject to improvement... But while they tend to support using technology to fix flaws in nature, Protestant theologians say cloning of humans crosses the line" (Herbert, Sheler and Watson 62). There are so many possibilities that cloning brings about; and most of them bring about nothing more than destruction of the human race. As we have known today and years ago, anything that is created with good intention will find it ways to destructive consequences. Religion has played a big part in our society today and will continue its role for many generations to follow. It is religion that provides us with moral and ethical senses. Once again we must seek their guidance. Roman Catholic Church argues their religious and ethical viewpoints. Their views are based largely on the interpretation of the story of creation. The dignity that has bestowed on us from God and cloning will violate our dignity as Godchildren. We are solely responsible for maintaining and preserving what God has created. "Cloned humans are manufactured in the image of existing people instead of created by a 'unique creative of God' " (Emig, Lau and Stone). Roman Catholics are strongly against any production of human cloning research, and believe an outright ban is needed. The Jewish on the other hand favor human cloning, with justifiable explanations. Their view on human cloning is based upon historical and sacred writings that focus on human destiny.

Celebrities and Sports Stars being bad role models to children Essay

Celebrities and Sports Stars being bad role models to children In todays world you can’t even look at the news without witnessing one of these celebrities or sports stars making a mockery of them selves. Whether it’s anywhere from drinking and driving, doing drugs, racing sport cars , or doing all three of those things in one instance like singer/songwriter Justin Bieber did last month. The only thing that makes doing all that stuff worse is having millions of adoring fans who will mimic your actions, wear what you wear, even say what you say. Celebrities and sports stars have a tremendous impact on children in today’s world. If you ask a child who his or her role model is there is a higher chance they will say a celebrity or sports stars name over there own parents name. So when a kid sees his role model smoking pot or drinking liquor in his head he will think wow if he is doing that it must be cool so I should try it. How ever most of these troublemaking celebr ities say it’s the parents are the bad influence and that they are to blame for there kids choosing the celebrities to be there role models over there parents. How ever in one particular case it is the celebrity’s parent’s being a bad role model to the celebrity who then is a bad role model to millions of fans. On January 22 a day before Justin Biebers arrest for drag racing under the influence he was allegedly seen partying in a Miami night club with his father the night of the arrest; Also his father was reportedly in one of the SUV’s in the caravan of cars following Justin Biebers car to block off the rode so his son could race. When fans see something like this happening they are more likely to drink and do drugs hop in a car and attempt to race which could potentially cause serious injuries or even death to many innocent people. Parents are saying that Celebrities are rotting there children’s minds by exploiting explicit drug use, .alcohol abuse, and underage sexual behaviors These parents have bring up a good point because still being a teenager myself I see the world around me from a different perspective I see people around me drinking doing drugs and more and have gone even further to ask why they do it and the response I got back from all of them in one way or another was because one of the artists they listen to does it so he or she wanted to try it. But saying that its celebrities faults isn’t always the right thing to say  because most celebrities are actually great role models on children it’s just a select hand full of them who give a bad name to all of the others studies show that teens who idolize a celebrity who doesn’t give in to such pressures and weight and drugs will likely benefit from their obsession (www.everydaylife.globalpost.com). Although there are more good celebrities who can positively affect your child’s life a lot of these children seem to be more interested in the bad ones this is mainly because of media. Media is the main reason why these children copy celebrities. In seconds media can have a story sent all around the world and into the ears an heads of children who read or hear these stories. Media always seems to focus more on the bad things celebrities do like if a celebrity is donating a lot of his time to help research a cure for a HIV and another celebrity gets caught r acing his car the celebrity racing his car will defiantly be the one who is acknowledged for there actions. So in a way it isn’t always the celebrities faults because without a lot of these corrupt media sites to twist the stories and spread the stories into the heads of these kids they may have not even existed. But celebrities shouldn’t be attempting potentially harmful behaviors like that in the first place because there not stupid they know that the moment they get caught doing something illegal it is going to me spread through out the world have more bad consequences than good. Instead they should be using this power of the media they poses to being good things that will give off positive influences to children. This probably wont happen though cause most celebrities actually become more famous and popular for the bad things they do than the good so why would they stop doing something that will make them more popular. On the other side you have the celebrities saying that it is the parents fault that there kids are doing what they are dong. Parents do have control over what there kids can watch listen to and hear but in the end they don’t stop there kids from listening to music or seeing something that will make them behave badly out of pure laziness and before they know it there kid is drinking or doing drugs and there isn’t much the parent can do at this point. One thing that every parent wants to hear is there children tell them that there mom or dad is there role model but if that isn’t the case then the parent should find a good role model for there child. You can influence your child into likening a celebrity by having them listen to that celebrities music or watching  there movies even if that celebrity is acting inappropriately you can explain to your child that it is just a movie and he is actually a good person out side of that role and that if he or she were to do any of that in real life there would be consequences. Parents can also explain to there children that celebrities are given more leeway from police and judges because of the reputation and money. In the past century parents have been giving more freedom to there children if you got caught smoking marijuana or drinking alcohol around forty or fifty years ago you would get a beating of a life time from your parents but due to so many law changes and new laws things are not like they used to be. There is not much a parent can do now to prevent there children from doing something bad except for sitting them down and giving them a stern talk. In the defense of celebrities maybe if parents made there children want to have there parent as a role model then they wouldn’t go off looking for celebrities to be there role models. This isn’t always true it’s not like the medieval times anymore where a parent is a black smith so there child will be one. Now a lot of the time as children grow up they decide they want to go down a different path in there life and not the one there parent went down so they will target a role model who fits there idea of the person they want to become. Parents have to realize that they can’t just put the blame on a celebrity for there child’s mistakes because they are to lazy to prevent there child from following these bad influences instead they should focus on making sure there child becomes a productive and decent human being. Parents are defiantly winning the whole blame game from the point of the media but the real person to blame isn’t the celebrities or the parents. The instigator of this whole debate is all of these media sources exploiting these celebrities like they are animals. The people who work for media constantly following these celebrities taking pictures and looking for everything they do wrong. No one is perfect so you can’t expect a celebrity to behave 100% of the time they didn’t ask for all of these role models. I would never want to live a life full of people constantly following me around taking pictures; That has to be one of the most stressful jobs in the world sure they are going home to there mansions and driving around nice cars but a lot of these celebrities actually suffer from depression because of all this fame they have. Like Justin Bieber he was just a normal thirteen year old boy before Usher discovered him and  changed his life for ever. Anyone that young with that much money and power would surely do the same exact thing he is doing now. Celebrities should be aware that they have so many role models but shouldn’t bear any responsibility to them because it’s impossible to make everyone happy when you h ave that many people on your back twenty four seven. One exception I think is Miley Cyrus she started he career out on the Disney channel with millions upon millions of little girls watching her so now when those girls are all of a sudden seeing her smoke marijuana on stage and dressing in outfits that make her look half naked they are going to mimic her actions. Miley Cyrus was well aware that she was the role model to all these little girls and is using that to her advantage because she knows anything she does her millions of followers will do the same. In the song twenty three which she was featured in she displayed scenes of her smoking marijuana in a school bathroom and doing all other kinds of activities that someone wouldn’t normally do. Miley Cyrus is doing nothing but sending mixed messages into all of these girls’ heads causing them to do things they wouldn’t normally do. This all started happening because she her ratings were down and she wasn’t as popular as she used to be so her managers decided to give her a new look and re invent her and before they knew it she blew up and is now one of the most known celebrities in the entire world and she doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon epically with her newest outbreak of trying to make out with Katy Perry live onstage but she denied the kiss a nd proceeded to tweet about it which started a twitter fight which only gave both of them more fame and followers on all of there social media accounts. It even made breaking headlines over the potential war that could be happening between Russia and Ukraine.So yeah no one is to really blame for all of this because no one wants this to happen except for a select few.

New Product Development Strategy for Google Essay

Google is a world known company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997 based on the new name of their search engine that was BackRub that operated in Standford more than a year. The word Google itself comes from a pun of word â€Å"googol† a mathematical term for the number represented number 1 followed by 100 zeros that reflect their mission to organize infinite information in the web. Google is known for its search engine â€Å"Google† that is the world’s largest search engine since 2000 defeats other search engine such as Yahoo! and Bing. Since then, Google innovates and creates new products by partnership with or acquisition of some companies and the result is famous services their provided in the web or real life such as Gmail, Google+, Google Maps and Android mobile platform that is used by a lot of people around the world. QUESTION 1 Discuss and suggest some feasible application considerations when developing a new product development strategy for Google. Google is one of the biggest companies in the world that creates some of the famous product such as Google search engine, Android mobile platform, Gmail e-mail and many more. These products can compete with other products from other companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo! and many more that has market lead first rather than Google that join the business competition several years later even take a lead in the market. These products are not instant famous created but instead it’s created based on intensive and repetitive research that makes these products to be accepted by the customers. Below are some considerations when develop new product development strategy. 1. Corporate Planning Since Google established at 1998 with their web search engine â€Å"Google†, it started to create other services and applications that can be used by users to help them do their activities and business. Google focus into three primary market segments that is end users that is using Google for searching services, advertisers that will be charged when user clicks the advertisements and partner web sites of the Google (Google, 2005). Google utilizes the power of advertisements especially in the internet since there are a lot of Google users around the world that are using Google anytime and anywhere by using AdWords that can be used by anyone to advertise their business and AdSense that can be used by online publishers with displaying relevant ads about their contents. Google follows and creates customer’s trends in technology market to make sure that Google can be accepted by customers. For instance, at 2010 Google initiated cloud computing as their centerpiece strategies since a lot of companies and users are moving their storage data and processing into cloud (web) and Google offered their services for cloud computing using Chrome OS and Google Cloud Services. And Google strategies for 2011 are LTE or 4G development to gives users fast internet connection for their gadgets, mobile money that can be used by users using their mobile phone to do transactions including banking, buy and sell and review places using Near Field Communications (NFC), and increase availability of inexpensive smartphones since in 2011 Android has been used worldwide by users that can reach low end market. To expand the technology market target of users, Google creates some partnerships with some companies such as MTV, eBay, MySpace to help promotes and puts their products in their websites and services as well. Also Google do mergers and acquisitions of some companies such as Pyra Labs, Urchin, dMarc and many more to help create new market target and also new source of technology that can be developed for their products later on. 2. Marketing Planning To make sure Google introduce new products into the correct market target, Google needs to plan their marketing strategies to make sure customers and users can receive Google’s new products well. Google marketing plan can be divided into 4 categories that are Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Below are the explanations of 4 categories: a. Product  Google has categorized their products into some categories that are advertising solutions, business solutions, web solutions and product solutions that are used entirely in the web. In advertising solutions Google offers AdWord that can be used to advertise people’s businesses with flexible payment arrangements and AdSense that is used by publishers to advertise their products and contents in the web. Google will charge advertisers every time users click on Google advertisements in the web that help to increase the visitors to their website . Google offers some solutions for business purpose such as Google Cloud Services that will help business to put their data and processing into the cloud (web) that will help to expand their business and also minimize maintenance and expense since all services will be monitored by the Google itself. Also Google provides Search Appliance whether hardware or software that helps to document search in the organization. Web solutions also offered by Google for internet users such as Google search engine, Gmail e-mail services, Google+, Google Map and Blogger website blogging that can be used for free. Also Google sell products that partnership with some distributors to sell from bag, trolley and many more and also some products with Google brands in it. b. Price Google offers different price range for Google’s products that are offered to the customers from free into paid price with distinct price difference for each price. For free Google’s products it’s offered for the users for web services product such as Google+, Google Maps, Android, and Blogger that can be used by users in the web to do their activities or businesses. The reason why Google makes their web services product free is because they believed that services in internet should be free and easy to use for all the users. Google’s products with paid price is also have different price based on type of products that customer want to use. For example, AdWords will charge for the customers based on the cost per click (CPC) by the web users to advertisers with minimum startup cost for US$5.00 with flexible budget arrangement per day. Search Appliance also has different prices based on the type of hardware and software to used whether for mid size co mpany to multinational company. c. Promotion Google promotion is done by using the power of mouth advertising from one web users to other web users since users are using Google search engine to help them search what they want. While other search engine such as Yahoo! and Bing have complicated interfaces, Google offers simple and easy to use interface that makes it used by a lot of people and a lot of people will recommend it through words. Google creates some partnerships with companies to help them promote their products into the market such as Samsung and Google works together to create Google Nexus Prime, the first smartphone with Android 4.0. platform to run the phone. And Google offers open source for some of their products such as Android and Chrome OS so that a lot of people will familiar with the products before it’s released. d. Place Users can find Google easily in the internet since a lot of users are using Google to search what they want in the internet. With internet, Google can expand their products and businesses untrammeled with region, language and cultures problems since now users can access internet and check information anytime and anywhere. And using that, Google can easily promote their products and services to the users based on their search. Google also creates some representative offices in some of countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and India to help customers to set up some services and products because maybe there are some changes that need to do before put the services and products into their business. 3. Technology Management Technology management is very important to Google because with good technology management Google can produce and innovate their product based on the technology resources they have. Also with good technology management Google can compete with other competitors in the same market area to get customers and users. For example of technology management is Google Chrome, a web browser that was introduced at 2008 to accommodate user to dynamic and complex web that is based on a speed, simplicity and security. Google Chrome design is different with other browsers such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox because Google Chrome doesn’t have unnecessary toolbar or add on that makes browser slow and heavy processes but instead it’s using JavaScript engine V8 to handle all web applications fast. Google Chrome isolates each page or tab into its own â€Å"sandbox† to make sure the information in each page are secured from other page. Also Google Chrome is the first browser that supports HTML5 and extensions gallery that increases user experiences when browsing web. Google provides updates and patches for the Chrome but users can choose whether to install the updates and patches by themselves, automatically install or not to install. Google also provides source code of Google Chrome that makes it open source for public to help developing Google Chrome with name Chromium. After Google Chrome web browser hits the market, Google launched Google Chrome OS that is an cloud computing operating system based on Linux that will store the data and services optionally in the web and hard disk as well. Google also puts Chrome OS source code into open source with name Chromium OS that can be developed by public that helps development of Chrome OS. Google Chrome OS officially hits the market at 2011 in collaboration with Acer and Samsung with laptop called Chromebook. Inside Chromebook, user won’t need to install anything else but instead running web applications in interface just like Google Chrome web browser that makes the process faster, easier and more secure than other OS.

Disability in Sports

Sports for persons with disabilities are described using the disability element and not using the sporting/athlete element as is usually common in traditional sports. For example, in a sporting activity like volleyball there may be more than one team for the same gender and age category due to the different divisions created to cater for the varied degrees of disabilities. Even so, this does not mean that sports for persons with disabilities are inferior to those practiced by their counterparts without disabilities.In fact, the core tasks of organization, management, officiating, competing, and development of the sports for persons with disability are more or less similar to those carried out in their colleagues without disabilities. They are all run by international bodies that do similar tasks of identifying, nurturing, funding, and developing talent just as in the case with traditional sports. For example, the management of the game of Tennis for persons with disabilities sport is carried out by the International Tennis Federation.Persons with disabilities are accorded equal opportunities to compete at the international level during major global sporting meetings. For instance, the â€Å"Paralympics Game, Special Olympics World Games, and the Deaflympics Games† (p. 136) are the three major global sporting events that brings together competitors from all parts of the world. Again, sports for persons with disabilities are organized into summer and winter to allow for proper preparation as well as not to coincide with other global events.Basically, the underlying idea on sports for persons with disabilities, particularly the global tournaments is to explore the various abilities and reward them. The Paralympics Games are generally meant for professional athletes with one or multiple disabilities to compete. Disabilities here can be taken to include cerebral palsy, amputation, visual impairment, and dwarfs among other types of disabilities. On the other h and, Special Olympics form a relatively smaller outing for persons with disabilities.This event covers a wide range of disabilities that touches on cognitive and developmental with the main aim being not to compete for winning wards but to just to take part in the event. Generally, the rules applied here are more or less similar to those applied in traditional sports with minor modifications made to cater for specific disabilities. Deaflympics Games are more or less similar to the Paralympics only that they specifically deal with Deaf athletes.Perhaps another very important aspect of disability sports is the coaching part of it. Given their physically challenged nature, persons with disability may find it very hard committing themselves to sports. In this regard coaches working with persons with disabilities should be highly qualified and most importantly motivated individuals capable of providing both sport-specific training as well as psychological mindset to the athletes.Unfortun ately, this is not always the case with many athletes – some do not have access to coaching facilities while others access ill-prepared coaches who end up not helping them. Essentially, coaches should be professionally trained people, probably retired disability sports athletes who can understand and diagnose varied remedies for disability sports athletes. Ideally, they should be very listening so as to notice any change in attitudes among their trainees and make the necessary adjustments in training.They should also liaise with the necessary medical practitioners to have the disabilities checked to avoid cases of strain or even under training. Most importantly, they should complement disability sports-specific training styles with other traditional coaching methods such as use of video tapes for comparative purposes. Due to the bulging number of athletes with disabilities venturing into sports, there has been notable increase in demand for disability sports medicine and trea tment.Essentially, the overall fitness of athletes with disabilities is greatly determined by the nature of training they undertake as well as the medicine or treatment they undergo. Moreover, some of the disabilities demands require careful medical checkups to diagnose any potential health lapses, to prevent future infection and injury, as well as to give overall body care. Such medication should be closely linked to normal training particularly to the affected body parts.Athletes with disabilities require a great deal of equipments to perform to their optimum. Apart from the normal sports equipments utilized in traditional sports, disability sports require complex and expensive activity-specific equipments without which the activity cannot take place. Amputees taking part in wheelchair basketball may be hindered greatly due to the poor nature of their wheelchairs. Perhaps, this is one of the few areas that bring out the huge difference between traditional and disability sports.Wit h the proliferation of technological innovations, disability sports has been greatly enhanced as new, reliable, and efficient activity-specific equipments are now available. Organizing disability sports involves more or less the usual procedures involved in traditional sport. Basically, the tenets of event management are employed in making disability sports events a success. The whole process is done under the stewardship of the democratically elected management boards, depending on the type of sport being held as well as whether the event is being held at a national or even international level.It involves the forming of planning and organizing committees that are charged with the responsibilities of focusing on critical issues such as booking and preparation of fields to suit the various disability sports activities. Again, the committees’ makes accommodation and transport arrangements, preparation of sport facilities such as fields, courts etc, and coordinates security team s particularly in this era of global terrorism, and works closely with the media people.

Health economics, market structures, government interventions Assignment

Health economics, market structures, government interventions - Assignment Example MONOPOLISTIC: Share the feature of monopoly and perfect competition. Similar purpose products are differentiated by many firms operating in market. Low entry and exit barriers welcomes new participants with high profits in short run. Participants gain profits various innovations in products. OLIGOPOLY: Market is based on few dominant firms offering similar but high level of differentiated products with innovation. Firms with dominance create barrier to entry exist with extensive control over price. Despite control of firms, prices are dependent on peer firms’ decision in market. MONOPOLY: Only one firm provides goods and services. Least differentiated product but control over price is enjoyed by the firm. Industry has high level of barrier to enter and exit from market. Profits are enjoyed by firm with constantly increasing economies of scale. ANSWER #2 The monopolistic competition is a type of competition that share features of two extreme types of competition being perfect c ompetition and monopoly. Many firms are present like perfect competition while products are differentiated like monopoly form of market structures such as movies etc. In short run monopolistic industry gets attractive by offering positive profits to participant firms and new firms enter to the market in long run. It is also due to due to no to low barrier of entry and exit in the market like perfect competition. Prices continue to increase over marginal cost in similar fashion as in case of monopoly competition. Profit maximization in monopolistically competitive market requires marginal revenue to equate marginal cost while downward slope of the demand curve takes marginal revenue lower than price. Also entry of new firm results in increased supply of differentiated products resulting in shift in the demand curve. Sharing the feature of perfect competition, price is determined at point equal to average total cost. This price is similar point where demand curve is tangent to average total cost. At this point industry offers zero economic profits and hence does not attract new participants due to zero economic profits (Gartner, 2009). ANSWER #3 Public goods are defined as set of goods having following two distinct characteristics of non-excludability and non-rival consumption. Non-excludability feature refers to the fact that usage or benefit of public goods gained by certain peoples does not result in prevention of its benefits offered to others. Non-rival consumption features of public goods refer that irrespective of consumption of public goods by certain people availability of amount or level of benefit to others is not reduced. These feature contrast public goods from the private goods. The example of public goods includes services of disaster management cells managed by government, roads and street lights etc. The feature of non- excludability results in facilitation of products to all even those who bear no financial cost. All financial cost bearers and non-bearers enjoy equal benefit of public goods irrespective of tastes and preferences and diminishing value. Such facilitation results in free-riders problem in economy. People gains confidence of availability of the goods even without paying for and hence tend to adopt trend of not paying for such services. This trend presses the increased burden on payer of such facilities. Such features of publi