Team Work Essay Example for Free

Collaboration Essay Collaboration is the idea of individuals cooperating as a group to accomplish the fundamental goals of the association. The teamâ must have an away from of every one of these momentary achievement objectives just as their effect on the drawn out business objectives of the association. In numerous associations today individuals working without anyone else in accomplishing the general targets of the association can't achieve certain objectives and ordinarily expect individuals to cooperate with others because of its multifaceted nature, interrelatedness and the voluminous of the errands embraced. In cultivating  there is nobody person who claims a work zone or procedure without anyone else, individuals ought to be open and responsive to thoughts and contribution from others in the TEAM. The estimations of cooperation ought to be shared among the individuals from the group while remuneration and prizes should rely upon synergistic practices as much as individual commitment and accomplishment. It is critical to recognize â€Å"† and accordingly set a benchmark to the remainder of the groups. Anyway before leaving on  conflicts of various sorts ought to be settled inside the association. Aside from the necessary specialized ability, an assortment of social aptitudes are fundamental for achievement in a culture. The Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model (Bruce Tuckman, 1965) takes the group through four phases of TEAM advancement. These stages are fundamental and inescapable all together for the group to develop, to look up to difficulties, to handle issues, to discover arrangements, plan the work viably and convey the final products. Anyway there is a need to set up and create joint effort and trust between colleagues opposite intuitive activities, group appraisals which will empower groups to develop powerful group building qualities among one another. Current society and culture keeps on getting increasingly powerful and the elements contributing towards this incorporate the interchanges insurgency, the worldwide market, specialization and division of work. In this manner people are currently required to work with various gatherings of individuals in their workplace and furthermore the individual lives. Fruitful  that makes compelling, centered work groups expects regard for the accompanying zones referenced in Figure A. Figure An Empowerment is the way toward giving a chance or approving a person to take choices, think inventively and have a control of his/her obligations in an association. It is the duty on the association to make a workplace, which helps the longing of representatives to act in enabled ways. Top administration of associations has a significant task to carry out in making representative strengthening effective. At first the chiefs need to comprehend what strengthening truly implies; and along these lines set up limits for strengthening, in case of the directors nonappearance, the choices that could be made by staff individuals ought to be unmistakably characterized; Managers ought to likewise fabricate confidence and trust on their choices made by their representatives; further supervisors should mentor, prepare and give important data and learning open doors for staff to settle on compelling choices. They should handle circumstances carefully and not fault or rebuff their staff for minute missteps to keep away from workers escape from strengthening, The associations ought to guarantee that they evacuate obstructions that limit the capacity of staff to act in engaged manners. Representatives ought to be roused as far as pay, acknowledgment and duty so as to drive accomplishment of strengthening. The Flow Chart underneath delineates the expanding job for representatives and diminishing job for managers in the dynamic procedure in today’s setting. The administrator settles on the choice and falls it to the staff The boss settles on the choice and acquires responsibility from staff The manager welcomes idea’s into a choice while holding power to settle on a ultimate choice The chief welcomes representatives to go along with him/her so as to settle on an official conclusion The boss agents to someone else to settle on the important choices. This is just where strengthening steps in. Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) Limited proceeded it’s Sri Lankan tasks and was joined in 1932. Between long stretches of 1990 †1994, a self evaluation was led and CTC distinguished the accompanying lacunas, for example, absence of generally speaking heading, absence of mindfulness on business issues, suspended supervisory group, divisions working in segregation and in taught condition. After which the administration distinguished Key activities and activities, for example, information the board, individuals inclusion, culture change, picking up certainty of associations/representatives and upgrades in profitability through rehearsing ideas of Teamwork, modern agreement and so on. During the period 1995 †1996 CTC concentrated on building Trust inside the organization workers by adjusting Teamwork all through the association, broad preparing for shop floor representatives, normal time section framework, basic entertainment offices, regular get-togethers and so on. During 1997, imparted vision and crucial center business procedure, re-built business forms, multidisciplinary cross utilitarian undertaking groups, broad preparing and training, production of a triumphant culture, modern and non mechanical benchmarking and spotlight on ceaseless improvement.

Panera Bread Essay Example for Free

Panera Bread Essay What are the Panera Bread’s essential wellsprings of upper hand? In your judgment, are these wellsprings of favorable circumstances feasible? Why or why not? Panera’s essential wellsprings of upper hand are: (1) the particular idea of its bread shop items, (2) its image quality, (3) the air of its cafés, and (4). its situation in the eatery business Yes,Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) works the mark eatery network Panera Bread, selling hand-created breads, sandwiches, plates of mixed greens, and beverages. Panera Bread pastry kitchen bistros are frequently connected with the idea of â€Å"fast casual†, a blend between cheap food and increasingly upscale easygoing feasting. Clients despite everything pay for their food at the counter, similar to a customary drive-through joint, yet Panera orchestrates tables and seats to be helpful for bunch gatherings. Most Panera Bread cafés are situated in rural strip shopping centers and local shopping centers. As of December 29, 2009, Panera had 1,380 pastry kitchen bistros, traversing 38 states, just as certain areas in Canada. Generally, organizations like Panera have endured in downturns, which decline the recurrence with which shoppers eat out at cafés. 1] However, Panera’s methodology during the downturn has been â€Å"to remain predictable and not to respond to the recession†, keeping costs steady and offering new servings of mixed greens and sandwiches. [2] accordingly, Panera’s â€Å"fast casual† specialty (between easygoing eating and inexpensive food) adds to its relative achievement; this situating permitted it to abstain from limiting wars and keep up its edges by drawing in clients with a better item apparent to be a decent incentive for the cash. Panera bread has an extraordinary supper of Bacon Turkey Bravo with 28G of fat per dinner.

How to Out-Compete Your Competition

How to Out-Compete Your Competition The former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, once said, “if you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete”. It essentially means that if you don’t have a strategy to beat the competition, you probably shouldn’t be in the business in the first place.But how can your business out-compete competition when the business world is such a tough place to survive? Much of it is about understanding the competitive threats and overcoming them. This guide will look at the strategies your business can use to compete and to learn faster than your competition. © Shutterstock.com | alphaspiritIn particular, you will 1) understand the key competitive threats, learn about 2) the best ways to stay ahead of the competition, and 3) how to speed up the learning curve.UNDERSTAND THE KEY COMPETITIVE THREATSThe first step to take in your effort to out-compete competition has to do with analysing the threats. You cannot expect to create a sound strategy to out-compete, if you don’t know what you are competing against.It is therefore essential to analyse who your competition is and what makes them hard to beat. This will allow you to draw the right strategies and tools for overcoming the challenge. Keep in mind the threats aren’t a reason your competitors are better than you, but more the obstacles you need to overcome or do differently with your business.The competitive threats will depend slightly on the type of business you have, as well as the industry you operate in. If you are a small business or a start-up, then it is easy to feel helpless against the so-called big guys.Let’s look at how the ‘big guys’ typically aim to win against smaller companies.Better resources â€" The biggest advantage big companies have is the amount and accessibility of resources. An established business can have its finances in much stable order and it’s likely to have more connections for further financial support. Resources mean the bigger companies can have bigger inventories and thus respond faster to customer enquiries. But vast resources also make it easier to run the day-to-day operations, as bigger companies have an advantage in terms of pure manpower. This can have an effect on things such as customer service. Whereas smaller firms might not be able to respond to customers outside office hours, big corporations can often set up a 24/7-customer service without huge costs.Better product and service â€" The enhanced access to resources can also improve the company product and service development. This can end up creating better products, as well as improving the standards of service. Better product and service is also a benefit established companies enjoy. Even smaller companies that have been in the business for a long time would have gained information on the market much more than a newly established company. Established connections and years of hands-on experience can be a big competitive advantage.Lower prices â€" Product and service prices are one of the biggest influencers for consumer decisions. Therefore, getting the price right and typically to the lower end of the scale is better for business success. For the above reasons, big businesses are often able to keep prices lower and therefore, have a competitive advantage over new and small companies. The reason big companies can keep prices low is mainly down to scale. Because the companies have vast resources available, they can cut costs by holding on to bigger stock, for example. They also have more money available for marketing, which can help ke ep the product price low.All of the above points out to the economy of scale and scope. Economies of scale for a company mean reductions in the average cost, which is possible by increasing the scale of production of this product. Economies of scope, on the other hand, can lower the average costs by producing more products in total. Achieving both of these economies is typically easier the bigger the business.BEST WAYS TO STAY AHEAD OF THE COMPETITIONThe above doesn’t mean small and new businesses can’t ever out-compete competition. Businesses in all industries and of all sizes can compete against other companies, if they have a clear strategy to do so.Below are some of the best strategies companies can use to stay ahead of their competition.Develop and promote your brandSince no two businesses are the same, your business must define what it stands for to ensure customers see the difference clearly. Branding your business is essential for success because it outlines the vision a nd the values your company has.In order to talk to your customers and to carve a market share for your business, you need to be distinctive. Not everyone in the world is going to love you, but you need to clearly define the reasons big parts of customers should. You need to brand your business well, so that customers have a reason to stop and think twice about opting for your competitor.Big part of branding deals with promoting your unique selling point (USP). Clearly define what sets your company apart and continuously promote this USP to the world. Many companies seem to think their USP is something they only should know. But USP isn’t about tricking the customer to shop with you â€" it is about differentiating your business from the rest.Overall, companies that are actively involved with their community will gain competitive advantage. Be part of local events, stay active on social media and share your expertise in the media, as well as the blogosphere. Learn about your competi tion and your customerYou also need to do a lot of learning in order to out-compete. As mentioned above, it is vital to know and understand what the competition is. You need to know specific details of why some consumers choose your competitors and what they use as their USP. This information is not important so you could copy their business, but rather to see what improvements you could do in yours. It can also help you spot the areas your competitors are overlooking.But you cannot only focus on studying your competition; you also need to learn about the customers. Customer expectations and needs are fluid and you must regularly keep an eye on them. For example, a change in economic conditions might mean customers are more interested in lower prices or quality products rather than flexibility.Success stories within your industry and indeed from other industries can often teach you a lot about viable strategies. Furthermore, you should also study the failures of your competitors to learn from these mistakes and to avoid them in your business.When you are researching competition and your customer, try to keep an open mind. There could be new markets available for your business elsewhere or there might be a gap, your company can fill.Customer needs and preferences in different regions can provide valuable insights for your business. Perhaps you can expand your business to new markets either online or abroad. Diversifying into new areas can be a great way to compete with other businesses.Compete with anything but the priceYou can essentially focus on three key areas with your product or service and out-compete your competition. These are:PriceQualityServiceFor many start-ups and small businesses competing against the price of a product or service can be quite difficult because of the lack of resources. Yet, most new companies often find the price the easiest way to compete.While there’s no reason you can’t compete with the price, you must be careful with this approach. This is because most start-ups fail because the finances are just not there. Companies charge less and while customers might come in, the revenue is at an unsustainable level.The best option is to compete with anything but the price. Focus on creating a higher quality product or service, create the best customer shopping experience or establish a proper customer service culture.Saturated markets make competing on price harder and there are going to be ‘big guys’ that can absorb lower costs. But saturated markets don’t mean you can’t carve yourself a big chunk of the revenue by focusing on your own niche and the USP.Focus on customer serviceNew and small businesses should definitely put customer service at the core of the business. The digital revolution has not meant that customer interactions aren’t essential, even though face-to-face communication has become more limited for many businesses. In fact, customer service is even more vital in today’s business wo rld.Furthermore, a smile doesn’t cost a thing, right? If you create a customer first-attitude with the aim of smoothening customer experience and going the extra mile, your business will quickly become trusted and loved.You need to be in-tune with your local community and your customers. Listen to them and take their advice on board, as it can enhance the way you serve your community. If you can make customers feel special and welcomed, a higher price won’t stop customers from doing business with you.Don’t stop with your customers and community either. You also want to ensure you are the best employer in the industry. Having motivated and skilled staff will provide benefits for your customers. Furthermore, your business will grow by attracting the right kind of people to work with you.Reward people for doing business with youYou need to be able to reward and excite your customers. This often means being more innovative. Innovation can create a buzz around your company and regu lar rewards give customers a deeper sense of appreciation.If you are launching a new product or opening a new store, make sure you make the event more special. It could have giveaways and other such competitions and you could team up with other local businesses.Rewards are a big part of out-competing your competition, as they ensure your customers have extra incentive to continue shopping with you. Just look at all the big supermarket chains and coffee shops, for example. They run loyalty schemes that ensure the customers are incentivized to keep coming back. Small businesses should definitely aim for the same.Loyalty schemes, when organized properly, don’t cost that much and can provide more gains to the business. It’s also a good idea to consider teaming up with local businesses for rewards and promotions. For example, you could offer customers in your bookshop the chance to get a pedicure at the local spa, while the spa could advertise and even stock some of your specialty bo oks on relaxing and wellbeing.HOW TO SPEED UP THE LEARNING CURVE?The above strategies are all great for out-competing businesses in any industry. But anyone who has worked in the business world knows, implementing the winning strategies isn’t always straightforward. Each business in your industry will be looking over their shoulders, trying to find the magic ingredient for staying ahead.The best way to guarantee you out-compete your competition is by learning faster than your competition. If you can master the above strategies and learn the winning tactics quicker than your competition, you’ll end up on top.But how can you speed up the learning curve when it comes to business?Create a database of your customersGetting new customers makes learning harder and it costs more than attaining old ones. A clever business focuses on the customers they already have and learns from them, in order to grow the customer base.Instead of focusing solely on sales, you want to focus on creating l asting relationships. If your customers keep coming back, the sales numbers will also follow.If you want to learn about the things your business is doing right and the things it is failing in, listen to your customers. Create a proper customer database and measure different metrics of customer behavior. Which promotions make your customers shop more? What are the biggest complaints for customer service? What is the rate of return for shoppers?By understanding your customers better through a strong customer database, you can innovate accordingly and focus on the strengths while improving your weak points.Don’t get stuck with what others are doingThe only business you truly need to be concerned about is the one you are running. Getting your business to succeed has nothing to with the competition you are faced with. As Steve Blank, tech entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, said in an Entrepreneur article, “The only people who can put startups out of business in the first 18 months are themselves”. You must get your business to run smoothly and to ensure your business plan is viable. Your company needs to have its own business values, strategies and USP â€" being stuck with what others are doing won’t lead to business success. Each business will do things differently because no two businesses are alike.It isn’t to say that understanding your competitors isn’t important. It is crucial, but you cannot create a business plan solely around what others are doing. Copying another strategy or approach will quickly get your business into trouble. On the other hand, learning from others won’t.Furthermore, the point was wonderfully illustrated by Olivier Poirier-Leroy, former national level swimmer, who wrote that swimmers who focus on the process end up swimming faster than swimmers focused on results. If you are looking over your shoulder and only thinking about beating your competition, the task can overwhelm you. If you look at your business only in compariso n with the competition, success might seem like a far away dream.On the other hand, if you focus on what you are doing, implement your strategy well, then the results will follow.Collaborate and co-operate with other companiesInformation can ease your learning process and one of the best ways to gain knowledge is by collaborating with other businesses. As mentioned above, it’s a good idea to seek companies within your community and team up against the ‘big guys’.Collaborating isn’t only great for marketing your business; it can also help you understand your market potential better. If a specific collaboration works well, you can analyze what made it so fruitful. Perhaps there is a market out there you haven’t considered before and by co-operating with the community you end up finding it.In addition, you also want to use your customers to your advantage. Loyal customers can have a huge impact in attracting more customers to your business. We’ve all heard about the power o f social media and online reviews, but you must put this information to good use as well.Learn about your competitors’ changes in strategy, product or serviceAs pointed out earlier, while you don’t want to copy your competition, you still need to learn from their strategy. By analyzing the product and service, you can find the company’s USP and compare how it differs from yours. It can help you to differentiate yourself further and point out to customers the benefits of choosing you over your competitors.Learning from and scrutinizing competitors’ strategy, product or service becomes even more vital as you gain bigger market share. When you’ll become the top dog, so to speak, your competitors will want to out-compete you. At this moment, it can benefit you greatly, if you understand what the competitors are aiming to do better than you.But it must be stressed here you still don’t want to focus solely on your competitors’ strategy. If your customers are convinced by you r USP, then continue improving your product through in-house innovation and focus on customer needs rather than what other companies are doing.THE BOTTOM LINEThe business world can be quite a dog-eat-dog world and competing against your competitors will be a part of business success. But the best way to gain competitive advantage is to stay ahead of your competition by focusing on fine-tuning your own business.If you define your market well and find the right USP to attract customers, you can carve out a market presence even in the toughest of industries. Creating a solid business strategy to out-compete means you need to learn faster than your competition and turn their weaknesses into your strengths.

The Control of Fate in and on Romeo and Juliet - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1019 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/03/13 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Romeo and Juliet Essay William Shakespeare Essay Did you like this example?   Whether the entire universe composed of its brilliant cosmos and artful living beings are all wound into an intricate pattern of fibrous fates and compassion is beyond present knowledge, but the power and influence this abstract concept has on the worldly desires of humans is unimaginable. Fate is felt like an ornate cloak of unknowing over their heads and drives them to do the unthinkable as they strive to escape it or manipulate it, rather than disregarding its existence. The effects of this supposed cloak are felt on Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare’s classic play Romeo and Juliet as they feel its pressure on their love, and their response to this pressure is to be impulsive, befitting their teenage personas. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Control of Fate in and on Romeo and Juliet" essay for you Create order Having been born in the midst of a powerful feud between the two leading families of Verona, the Montagues and the Capulets, an interpersonal relationship between the two of them had been a cruel trick from the start. The effect of fate on love, conveyed through Romeo and Juliet, expresses the theme that fate’s influence exhibits control over human happiness, which can be achieved by feelings of love. Throughout the play, allusions to the lovers’ unfortunate end are made and the probable preordained demise waiting ahead of them stimulate the characters to generally exhaust their own happiness. In the prologue of the play, the Chorus foredooms, â€Å"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life† (1.Prologue.4-5). Shakespeare introduces fate as an antagonist to their love from the beginning through the term â€Å"star-crossed.† This references the stars, a metaphor to fate in accordance with their belief that the stars dictated fate. Since Shakespeare chooses to start their story with their cursed end, the main purpose of the story is not to be a tragedy or drama for the audience to empathize with, but rather an insinuation to how fate influences day-to-day decisions and a warning for the audience that they should break free of the binding mind control of fate as to not end up unhappy like Romeo and Juliet. He uses love as a metaphor for happiness to this end, since Romeo had said, â€Å"Some consequence yet hanging in the stars / Shall bitterly begin his fearful date / By some vile forfeit of untimely death† just prior to him meeting Juliet, his love (1.4.109-110, 113). Again, stars are referenced as Romeo discusses his bad luck. The young age of Romeo and Juliet serves as evidence that when young in age, the contingencies of the future looms since later years in life are usually dictated by the choices made early. Their choice was to love each other, but due to the crushing pressure of possible doom, they rushed into reaching a permanence to their love (through immediate marriage) in the name of good luck and jeopardized their happiness. The start of fate’s unsympathetic trials began with Mercutio where Romeo and Juliet’s overarching conflict of feuding families came into play. As a result of the said feud, Mercutio is stabbed in a duel and dies, cursing the famil ies immediately before, â€Å"I am hurt. / A plague o’ both your houses! I am sped† (3.1.87-88). He wishes doom, spelling out the tragic fates of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The death of Mercutio intensifies acrimony between the families and worsens the lovers’ situation. Through constant reference to fate and impending death, Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of expectancy for pain. However, as they actually reach said pain, the audience sees Romeo and Juliet attempt to lash out at their fate, albeit severing happiness from themselves in favor of choosing a cause. Romeo and Juliet’s attempts to dissent their fates of doomed love transcend their will to live and for the purpose of being with each other at least in death, they kill themselves as an act of damning fate. When Romeo is misinformed of Juliet’s death and does not hear that she is actually alive, he swears he will defy fate, â€Å"Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!† (5.1.24). Pursuant to his swear that he would rebel against fate, he enters Juliet’s tomb and right before drinking poison and killing himself, declares,â€Å"Oh, here / Will I set up m y everlasting rest, / And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars / From this world-wearied flesh†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (5.3.109-112). Again, he references the stars and conveys how he lets fate sway him into impulsive behavior, as Juliet wakes up moments after his death. Romeo feels trapped by his fate as a Montague in love with a Capulet and decides to end his fate by killing himself by her side. One can assume that he lost sight of happiness and pursued love as became his fate as a romantic yet tragic lover boy who paid too much attention to a seemingly negative fate defined by vehemently opposing families. Romeo and Juliet ends with both lovers dead and the families willing to rekindle peace after seeing the effects of their feud on the fate of those who are blind to love. Thus, the fate of Romeo and Juliet ends in their demise, as per fate’s influence on young minds. Noteworthily, the happenstance of Romeo and Juliet’s love and fate could have been a small passageway of the anthill known as the history of Verona, a small hole on their part but just a part of the story of a time that goes on. However, their individual end shows the influence of fate on humans, the control the notion itself has on whether humans can be happy about their station in life. The love they express for each other in relation to their choices conveys the complexity of how love achieves happiness and its strange relationship with fate. They suggest that perhaps, love is the fate of all that seek happiness because the love of things, people, and/or places can measure happiness. For Romeo and Juliet, their love for each other was so great they were content with giving up other happiness and ended their lives knowing love was enough solace to their fate.

The Leadership Style Known As Servant Leadership - 1920 Words

Introduction Today, many would agree that customer service is an oxymoron; there seems to be very little service associated with customers when they have a need after the close of sale. Once the business has received payment, they quickly move on to making the next sale forgetting about their current customers. While this business model may work well for the beer vendor at The Ballpark, it unfortunately does not translate well into other business models. Consequently, the lack of service in many organizations today is an indicator of a deeper problem. Recently a co-worker had an opportunity to help a family in an unfortunate situation; however it was easier to criticize instead of helping. The co-worker showed absolutely no compassion†¦show more content†¦On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus and His disciples were sitting around the table eating when He got up and poured water into a basin, and washed their feet. Afterwards, He instructed them to follow His example of serving others. In John 13:15, He says, â€Å"For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. He also taught that to be first, is to be last in His kingdom. His message included helping those who are less fortunate. He had compassion toward a crippled man that had lain by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years. In John 5:31-47, Jesus reaches out to this particular man who had given up hope of being healed and heals him then instructs him to take up his bed and walk. In John 9: 1-7, He heals the blind beggar that was born with this infirmity. Jesus’ life is an extraordinary example of servant leadership. However, the actual terminology did not come about until Robert K Greenleaf coined the phrase Servant Leader in 1970, even though the art of servant leadership has been around for hundreds of years (Keith, 2008). It was not until the work and research produced by Greenleaf that this style of leadership has been acclaimed by academicians who ha ve written it into modern day curricula. Corporate American CEOs typically do not perceive themselves to be servants. Instead more think of themselves as the authoritarian at the helm of the corporation sitting atop their organizational pyramid. Of course, the

8d Problem Solving Worksheet Free Essays

Tracking Number: |Customer Number: |Response Due Date: | | |8-D is a quality management tool and is a vehicle for a cross-functional team to articulate thoughts and provides scientific determination to details of problems | |and provide solutions. Organizations can benefit from the 8-D approach by applying it to all areas in the company. The 8-D provides excellent guidelines allowing | |us to get to the root of a problem and ways to check that the solution actually works. We will write a custom essay sample on 8d: Problem Solving Worksheet or any similar topic only for you Order Now Rather than healing the symptom, the illness is cured, thus, the same | |problem is unlikely to recur. |Step |0 |1 | |1 |Establishing the Team: |Team Goals: | | |Establish a small group of people with the process/ product | | | |knowledge, allocated time, authority and skill in the required | | | |technical disciplines to solve the problem and implement corrective |Team Objectives: | | |actions. | |Department | |Name | |Skills | |Responsibility | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |2A |Problem Definition |Sketch / Photo of Problem | | |Provides the starting point for solving the problem or | | | |nonconformance issue. Need to have â€Å"correct† problem description to | | | |identify causes. Need to use terms that are understood by all. | | | | | | | |Part Number(s): | | | |Customer(s): | | | |List all of the data and documents that might help you to define the | | | |problem more exactly? | | |Action Plan to collect additional information: | | | |Prepare Process Flow Diagram for problem | | | |use a separate sheet if needed | | |2B |IS |IS NOT | |Who |Who is affected by the problem? |Who is not affected by the problem? | | | | | | | | | |Who first observed the problem? |Who did not find the problem? | | | | | | | | | | |To whom was the problem reported? | | | | | |What |What type of problem is it? |What does not have the problem? | | | | | | | | | | |What has the problem (part id, lot #s, etc)? |What could be happening but is not? | | | | | | | | | |What is happening with the process with containment? |What could be the problem but is not? | | | | | | | | | | |Do we have physical evidence of the problem? | | |Why |Why is this a problem (degraded per formance)? |Why is it not a problem? | | | | | | | | | |Is the process stable? | | | | | | |Where |Where was the problem observed? Where could the problem be located but is not? | | | | | | | | | | |Where does the problem occur? |Where else could the problem be located but is not? | | | | | |When |When was the problem first noticed? |When could the problem have been noticed but was not? | | | | | | | | | |When has it been noticed since? | | | | | | |How Much/|Quantity of problem (ppm)? |How many could have the problem but don’t? |Many | | | | | | | | |How much is the problem costing in dollars, people, time? |How big could the problem be but is not? | | | | | |How Often|What is the trend (continuous, random, cyclical)? |What could the trend be but is not? | | | | | | | | | | |Has the problem occurred previously? | | | | | |2C |Problem Description | | |(based on the information gathered so far, provide a concise problem description) | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3 |Developing Interim Containment Actions | | |Temporary actions to contain the problem and â€Å"fix† until permanent correction is in place – document actions in Action Item Table | | | | | | | | | | |4A |Identifying Verifying Root Cause | | |Analyze for â€Å"Root Cause† of the problem. Identify and verify the Escape Point | | | | | |Brainstorm the possible causes of the problem | | | | |4A |Cause and Effect Diagram | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |circle the most likely contributors (a maximum of three) from each side. |4B |5 Why Analysis | | | |Ask – Why did this happen? | | | | | | | |Ask – Why did this happen? | | | | | | | |Ask – Why did this happen? | | | | | | |Ask – Why did this happen? | | | | | | | |Ask – Why did this happen? | | | | | | | |4C |Action Plan | | |Based on the team’s discussions. Begin to complete the Root Cause Action Plan to verify and validate the root causes and test the escape point. | | |Document this on the Action Item Table | | | | | | | | | | | | | |5 |Identify Permanent Corrective Actions | | |solutions that address and correct the root cause. Solutions determined to be the best of all the alternatives. Document and verify the Permanent | | |Corrective Action (PCA) in the Action Item Table | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |6 |Implementing Validating the PCA | | |Implement and validate to ensure that corrective action does â€Å"what it is supposed to do. † Detect any undesirable side effects. Document this on the | | |Action Item Table. Return to root cause analysis, if necessary | | | | | | | |7 |Preventing Recurrence | | |determine what improvements in systems and processes would prevent problem from recurring. Ensure that corrective action remains in place and successful | | | | | | | |7A |Address Similar Systems | | |Process / Item | | |Who Responsible | | |When | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 7B |Review the following documents / systems | |Document |Who Responsible |Completion Date | | | |Planned |Actual | |Management System Manual | | | | |Manufacturing Work Instructions | | | | |Inspection Work Instructions | | | | |Process Flow Charts | | | | |Process Control Plans | | | | |Design FMEA | | | |Process FMEA | | | | |Gages | | | | |PPAP | | | | |Engineering Change Approval | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |8 |Congratulate Your Team | | |Use all forms of employee recognition and document as necessary | | | | | |Celebrate successful conclusion of the problem solving effort | | |Formally disengage the team and return to normal duties | | | | |Was this problem solving exercise effective? Has it been verified with a follow-up? | |Yes |Signature / Title / Date |Findings | |No | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Action Item Table | |Actions |Implement Verify Actions | Action # |Problem |Containment / Corrective Action |How Verified |Action |Who Responsible |Planned |Actual |Status | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ———————– Problem People Materials Machine Method Environment Measurement Measurement Environment Method Machine Materials People Why did it get out? How is it made? How to cite 8d: Problem Solving Worksheet, Papers

Shakespeares intentions in Act Three, Scene One of Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

Shakespeares intentions in Act Three, Scene One of Romeo and Juliet? Paper Set against a background of conflict, revenge, loyalty and hatred, Romeo and Juliet, in my opinion is, as one eminent critic stated, a tragedy of youth as youth sees it1. In this play Shakespeare portrays love as a violently ecstatic, and overpowering force which inevitably and inexorably leads the lovers to their doom. Intricately interwoven into the plot of Romeo and Juliet are the timeless themes of death, violence, tragedy and passion as we race along the misadventured path of the star-crossed lovers. In Act Three, Scene One we witness the turning point of the play; Mercutios needless but predestined death drives Romeo to seek revenge for his beloved friend and pushes him further towards his doom. Once Mercutio and Tybalt are removed from the action, the audiences attention is no longer distracted and our full focus is upon the eponymous star-crossed lovers. Franco Zefferelli and Baz Luhrmann have each approached Romeo and Juliet in different ways and it is interesting to see how these Twentieth Century directors have interpreted the 1595 play. By using Act Three, Scene One, I intend to show how, over four hundred years after it was written and first acted, Romeo and Juliet retains its timeless appeal for young people. It is quite extraordinary that a play which was written so long ago, should still excite and affect people, especially in a society where traditions and values have changed so dramatically for the younger generation. Although, traditions have changed and technology has become a dominant force, society will always be affected by the emotions of love and hate which Shakespeare cleverly captured in Romeo and Juliet. These emotions will always cause conflict and will always appeal to all audiences, especially younger audiences. When Shakespeare wrote this play it must have been revolutionary for his day, dealing as it does with feuds, rebellion and family conflict and prejudice We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeares intentions in Act Three, Scene One of Romeo and Juliet? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeares intentions in Act Three, Scene One of Romeo and Juliet? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeares intentions in Act Three, Scene One of Romeo and Juliet? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Mercutio and his opposite number, Tybalt, are essential to the play as both characters add vibrancy and excitement to the play. Mercutio appears to despise Tybalt for being a slave to fashion and vanity, one of such antic, lisping, affecting phantasms, these new tuners of accentthese fashionmongers, these pardon-mes. Mercutio is so insistent that the audience almost feels compelled to accept this description of Tybalts character as definitive. Indeed, in many ways Tybalt does prove the truth of Mercutios words; he demonstrates himself to be as witty, vain and prone to violence as he is fashionable, easily insulted, and defensive. To the self-possessed Mercutio, Tybalt seems a caricature; to Tybalt, the brilliant, earthy and unconventional Mercutio is probably incomprehensible. Mercutio is one of the most unique characters in Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet his language is always powerful, imaginative and, at times, beautiful. Mercutio is Romeos friend and, therefore, he is neither M ontague nor Capulet. Consequently, he has not been born into a feud and does not need to uphold an ancient grudge. Still, his friendship with Romeo associates him with the Montagues, and Romeos quarrel becomes his quarrel. The renowned, nineteenth century critic and poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, describes Mercutio as a man possessing all the elements of a poet2. Mercutios character is very complex and vital to the plot of this play. He is a multifaceted character who can switch from prose to poetry, depending on the mood of the moment. Mercutios character stand out from the rest because of his energy in everything he does and says; his very name promises unpredictability because his nature is in deed Mercutial. He is thrives living his life on the edge, enjoying his constant plays on words which are unsurprising as Shakespeare and his contemporaries were addicted to puns. This is shown in Act II Scene IV when he says Follow me this jest now, till thou has worn out thy pump, that when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing, solely singular.3 In Act II Scene IV Romeo describes Mercutio as, A gentleman, Nurse, that loves to hear himself talk. However, Mercutio is not the superficial person these words seem to indicate; in his Queen Mab speech in Act I Scene IV he displays a fey imagination as he describes in minute detail everything about a little world he has imagined: She is the fairies midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore finger of an alderman.4 His beautiful language and blank captur the audience, transporting us to his imagined place. He creates a miniature society which he uses to explain the source of our dreams. However, his confused emotions prevent him from maintaining the delicacy of his train of thought. Mercutio is thus seen as an unstable person who treads the thin line between sanity and sobriety as he moves to disturbing, offensive language as he talks of that very Mab That plaits the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elf-lock in foul sluttish hairs, Which, once untangled, much misfortune bode5s. Mercutio cannot love and respect women and this too serves a purpose as he is a contrast to Romeo who initially worships Rosaline before falling deeply love with her. Remember, it was Mercutio who advised Romeo earlier in Act I Scene IV: If love be rough with you be rough with love6. Coleridge noted that upon the death of Mercutio the whole catastrophe is produced7. I agree with this statement because it is the murder of Mercutio which causes the enraged Romeo to kill Tybalt for revenge . Mercutios death in Act III Scene I is the turning point of the play because, from this point, the two star-crossed lovers rush to their doom. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, the attributes of a comedy die with him. Mercutios death marks the end of the plays essential comic movement because, up until now, Mercutio, with a few humorous moments of comedy from the Nurse, has carried the light mood of the play. Susan Snyder said Mercutios death intervenes to cut off this world of exhilarating ventur8e. In Mercutios sudden and violent end, Shakespeare makes the birth of tragedy coincide with the symbolic death of comedy. Furthermore, as Mercutio dies, the element of freedom and jest dies with him. This demonstrates how Mercutio is a strong representation of all that is youthful and caref ree in this play and consequently the audience respond strongly to his death. When Franco Zefferelli directed his version of Romeo and Juliet in 1968, it was considered a masterpiece screenplay of William Shakespeares intentions. Zefferelli aimed his version of Romeo and Juliet at an audience who appreciated Shakespeares language. Almost all aspects of the production are accurate and closely follow the original, making this film an excellent rendition of the play, albeit somewhat pedestrian in my opinion. On the other hand, Luhrmanns adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, beautifully portrays the two young lovers falling into forbidden love, but its pace is fast and the filming colourful, making it appeal to a younger generation while conveying effectively Shakespeares intentions. Luhrmanns production does not follow the script as strictly as Zefferellis production but is to me the more interesting and swifter adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Although somewhat altered it accomplishes the goal of intriguing late Twentieth Century youth, luring them to an interest in Shakespeares beautiful and timeless play. W. Grierson said Romeo and Juliet was one of his (Shakespeares) earlier work, the work of the artist of adolescence9 and this is perhaps why Luhrmann decided to aim his Romeo and Juliet for young people. The play contrasts the impetuosity of youth with the pragmatism of age. Juliet herself calls their love too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, and it is the duty of the director to capture the essence of her words. In Zefferellis production heavy cuts are discernible to accommodate the cinematic emphasis on noisy spectacle but he still follows the text of the play closely. I think that Shakespeare was enthusiastic about the Italian quality of the place and the people and Zefferelli transmits an almost over-powering flavour of this in his interpretation. It could be argued that he outdoes Shakespeare here because the domestic life of the Capulet and Montague families resembles that of English merchants rather than Italian nobility, whilst Zefferellis people seem wholly Italian. Zefferelli is faithful to Shakespeare, although he much enlivens the impression of Italian summer weather: hot days, warm nights, and sudden blazing sun. The whole production takes place in Italy and has an aura of post-Renaissance Italy. Zefferelli chose unspoiled medieval villages and very stylised characters; Rosaline, who is only a name in Shakespeares play, appears in Act I Scene V looking as if she has just stepped out of an Italian painting. Luhrmann, in contrast to Zefferelli, made his production livelier and adapted this classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy for the screen, by updating the setting to a post-modern, fictional city named Verona Beach. He also used modern images and powerful futuristic and exciting effects, with a modern rock soundtrack. The difference between the two families is shown through their opposite religious icons and business connections. The youths of the two clans, riding in jazzy cars with rap music blaring, carry handguns openly, which they brandish in frequent showdowns that rarely lead to bloodshed. Zefferelli cast youthful, good-looking, relatively unknown actors in his version of Romeo and Juliet, but Luhrmann chose the young teen icons, Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes, already established box-office draws. This had the added advantage of taking Romeo and Juliet to an audience that would normally think of Shakespeare as a chore to be studied in school. However, in my opinion, in bot h the Zefferelli and the Luhrmann productions, it is the charismatic, three-dimensional character of Mercutio who maintains the young audiences interest; he is a rebel of his time, whether it is the sixties or the nineties, and young people always identify with a rebel. Act III Scene I opens with a crash of thunder followed by many aimless gun shots from Mercutio into the sea. This fits with Benvolios godlike warning (delivered from the top of a lifeguards chair) to Mercutio as he says these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.10 This is a very clever way of contrasting the heart-warming matrimonial union of Romeo and Juliet, in the preceding Act II Scene IV scene, with a scene that starts so intensely with guns and thunder. Luhrmann uses ominous weather signs such as the imminent thunderstorm, as a dramatic device, to give a warning of what is to come. The gun, the lifeguards chair and the stark archway (a Proscenium Arch?) are all obvious symbols as well as being very modern. Luhrmanns modernisation of the play is further shown through the costumes that are used to divide the two opposing families and different personalities. The Montague gang are dressed in Hawaiian beach costume and have brightly dyed blond hair to demonstrate their relaxed urbanity, while the Capulet gang is in black leather to emphasise their threatening characters. One of Luhrmanns most brilliant ideas is to make Mercutio stand out visually, whilst updating the play to our cosmopolitan society, by casting an African-American actor to play the role. Another form of modernisation on Luhrmanns part is to associate Mercutio with gender-bending and with the drug culture; he is a rebel guaranteed to appeal to misunderstood teenagers. Thus, in Act One Scene Four, he drops a tab of acid (an hallucinogenic drug) before entering the Capulet house in his drag-Queen outfit. In Lurhmanns production, the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt is made unavoidable by Tybalts unyielding resolve to fight Romeo and reconfirm the masculine honour he felt he had lost in Act One Scene Four when he was prevented from ejecting the gate-crashing Romeo from the Capulet feast. Tybalt provokes Romeo by repeatedly and viciously striking him, despite Romeos refusal to fight. In my opinion, Luhrmann does this in order to engender sympathy from the audience for Romeo. Mercutio, angered by his friends passive acceptance of the humiliating blows, runs to defend the gangs honour. The subsequent fight between Mercutio and Tybalt has a powerful pace in order to make it appealing to the younger generation. This pace is helped by the fight being shot from many different angles and ensures that the audience does not become bored. Shakespeares swords are replaced with guns, pieces of wood, fists and broken bottles; all these are the weapons of the inner-city street-fighter. When Mercutio is stabbed by a jagged piece of glass, he drags himself up the stage of the fictional Verona Beach, California. Here, I think that Luhrmann is trying to show Shakespeares intention by presenting Mercutio as a performer on lifes stage. Once again Luhrmann uses his dramatic device of empathetic weather as thunder crashes whilst he shouts: A plague o both your houses,11 his curse echoing down the beach. We hear Gospel music in the background as the surrounding nature reacts to the catastrophic tragedy of Mercutios death. Waves crash powerfully together; clouds roll darker, as thunder breaks and is accompanied by the chilling howls of the wind. Luhrmann creates this eerie and slow-moving atmosphere in order to make the audience reflect on what has just happened before moving to a high-speed car chase between Romeo and Tybalt. The fight between Romeo and Tybalt is less exciting, compared with the fight between Tybalt and Mercutio, as a gun is used to kill Tybalt. However, the echoing sound of the gunshot and Romeos sorrowful face as he realises what he has done and screams, O, I am fortunes fool,12 are highly disturbing. I feel that Luhrmann succeeds in drawing sympathy for Romeo from the audience and this fulfils both his as well as Shakespeares intention. Zefferelli opens his version of Act III Scene I on a much lighter note, with a close-up shot of Mercutio holding a white handkerchief over his face. Zefferelli makes the camera blur in and out of focus in order to create the intense heat that was captured by Shakespeares words. This opening lighter tone is even more emphasised as Mercutio climbs into the public water fountain and begins bathing comically while teasing Benvolio for being moody as he says .thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy.13 Benvolio alarms both the audience and Mercutio when he interrupts Merutio with a warning, ..here come the Capulets.14 As soon as Tybalt explodes onto the scene, the atmosphere is charged with volatility. Zeffereli uses differently coloured clothing for different characters to portray their different personalities. Mercutio wears a dark blue costume, which shows his depressed mood, and the fiery Tybalt wears fiery passionate colours of orange and red, showing his hot-tempered natur e. Romeo enters this scene with evident happiness on his face, as he has just come from his wedding (preceding scene, Act Two, Scene Five). As he enters there is a deliberate pause in the action and Zefferelli creates dramatic tension by enabling us to contrast the exalted Romeo with the impending horror. Tybalt menacingly requests Romeo to turn and draw.15 Unlike Luhrmanns Tybalt, who is determined to injure Romeo seriously, we do not feel as if Zefferellis Tybalt intends lasting harm; he is contemptuously angry and wishes merely to teach the younger boy a lesson for invading his territory and making him look foolish. Zefferellis Tybalt relies on the Elizabethan weapon of impugning Romeos honour. He calls him boy16 and villain17 and, in return, Romeo replies reasonably. Zefferellis direction, at this point, gives the misleading appearance of anti-climax as it seemed as if the fatal fight could be averted. However, he is toying with us. Mercutio, undergoing yet another character change, moves abruptly from mirth to anger and accusing Romeo of calm, dishonourable, vile submission18 challenges Tybalt, the King of cats to a sword fight. Zefferelli uses swords as the main weaponry for fighting, firstly, because he was maintaining his traditional interpretation and, secondly, to allow the actors to build up tension andshow their skill. Zefferelli plans the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt to begin merely as a game and, as Mercutios mood changes once again, the action has moments of comedy with Mercutio teasing Tybalt, refusing to return his sword and, when it seems as if Tybalt will run him through, folding his arms and whistling softly. The Montague and Capulet factions seem equally good-humoured but Tybalts temper boils over, the fighting becomes more and more heated and heated until Romeo, by trying to hold Mercutio back, accidentally causes Tybalt to kill Mercutio. Unlike Luhrmanns Mercutios grim pun, Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man,19 Zefferellis Mercutios words do not echo loudly as darkness descends; in place, Zefferelli sends a struggling Mercutio up a flight of steps to the church, amidst gales of laughter from his friends untill his sudden colapse finally silences them. Ironically, the white handkerchief which began the scene so comically is the same handkerchief which had been staunching the flow of blood from Mercutios wound; this is a very effective device on Zefferellis part. The ensuing fight between Romeo and Tybalt is, in my opinion, too long and lacks the passion and swiftness of the Luhrmann production but this is possibly because the cinematic techniques were not so advanced in Zefferellis time. However, Zefferellis Romeos, O, I am fortunes fool,20 is particularly memorable, especially as it is followed by the haunting background music which has been slowed down to create a dirge-like effect. Franco Zefferelli and Baz Luhrmann, although divided by a gap of thirty years, were, in my opinion, exceedingly successful in attracting audiences to their adaptations of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. A purist might question the cuts in some speeches and scenes, the changes in plot (why is Paris alive at the end of the play in both Zefferellis and Luhrmanns productions?) and the lack of clarity in diction, especially in Luhrmanns film. However, I firmly believe that Shakespeare intended his Romeo and Juliet to be accessible to all, but to young people in particular; Juliet is thirteen years old and Romeo is not much older and their deaths are indeed a tragedy of youth as youth sees it.21 Zefferelli and Luhrmann, in my view, most definitely realised Shakespeares intentions by bringing this four-hundred years old play to a modern-age society without sacrificing its integrity.

Strategic Analysis for Imax Essay Example

Strategic Analysis for Imax Essay Example Strategic Analysis for Imax Paper Strategic Analysis for Imax Paper Term of Refrences: We have refered to the book that was assigned to us in this semster which is Management (10th edition) by Stephen Robbins, Mary Coulter and Nehrika Vohra. We also consulted Strategic Management: An Integrated Approch (8th edition) by Charles Hill and Gareth Jones. Another two books that helped us to analyse this case study were Startegic Management : Creating Competitive Advantage (5th edition) by Gregory Dess, G. T Lumpkin and Alan Eisner and Strategic Management (6th edition) by John Pearce and Richard Robinsons Description of Report: In Section 1 we analyize the corporate strategy of IMAX corporation followed by their integration strateges. In Section 2 we access the comparitive advantage of IMAX Corporation. Section 3 talks about the effect of enviorment on IMAX, both internal and external. Section 4 is the breif discussion of Industry Analysis and how IMAX has been performaing compartivily with the rest of the firm, then followed by EFE Matrix. In Section 5 we have calculated and interpreated the financl ratios of IMAX Corporation. SECTION 1: CORPORATE STRATEGY A Corportae strategy is one that specifies what business a company is in or wants to be in and what it wants to do with those business. It ¶s based on the mission and goals of the organization. Mission on IMAX as stated by co-CEO Gelfond is : ? It ¶s[IMAX] is designed to deliever the worlds most immersive movie experience? IMAX designs and manufactures large image producing format cameras and projection system as well as film development,production, post production and distribution to IMAX affiliated theatres worldwide. IMAX has about 400+ theatres in 47 countries. IMAX ¶s strategy is to entice consumers happiest infront of 60-inch plasma screen TV. In order to get a consumer out of his home and make him go and watch an IMAX format movie, the company needs to give them something amazing and something special. And IMAX does it. INTEGRATION STRATEGIES There are basically two types of integration 1. Vertical Inegration 2. Horizontal Integration Page | 1 Vertical Integration The process in which several steps in the production and/or distribution of a product or service are controlled by a single company or entity, in order to increase that companys or entitys power in the market place. IMAX is into vertical integration as it is into processing, distribution and exhibition of its own films. Vertical integration is further sub divided into two parts and that is 1. Forward Integration 2. Backward Integration Forward Integration: Gaining ownership or increased control over distributors or retaliers. When an organization becomes its own distributor its called Forward Integration e. g. a manufacturing firm open up its own franchise. In such situations the organization has control over the output. IMAX initialy was focused on large format films that were educational yet entertaining and the theatres were located in institutions, museums, aquariums and national parks. IMAX forwrad integration took place when it become the distributor of its own produced films. IMAX is relatively small when it comes to rival studios and theatres but in itself IMAX is the leader in the industry when it comes to producing image in large format. IMAX not only played its films in its own theatres but gives its films to other theatres so that they would further promot the movie. Backward Integration: Backward integration takes place when an organization becomes its own supplier. As we have earlier discussed IMAX was mainly focused on producing films that were of large format. To do so obviously they would require special cameras, projectors, screens etc. From past 15 years IMAX has aquired the ownership of the companies listed below: y y y y y y y IMAX Corporation acquiring Imagery Rentals (September 07 1995) Acquiring minority shares in Mainframe Entertaintment Inc. ( June 1999) Acquiring Sonics Associates Inc. 2009 whole ownership) Acquiring David Keighley Production. Acquiring Digital Projection Int Ltd. (September 27 2000) Acquiring Cinema Plus Ltd. (October 29,2006) Acquiring a minority stakes in Laser Light Engines Inc. (July 14,2010) IMAX has a subsidiary company (meaning IMAX has 51% ownership in that company) Sonics Associates Inc which is an audio develpement company. It manufactures the sound systems for IMAX. And David Keighley Production,which i s wholley owned by IMAX, works on the post prouduction. Most of the firms above mentioned were the suppliers to IMAX. In this way IMAX has reduced the chances of suppliers effecting the prices. When IMAX has made itself independent in manufacturing all the aspect required to deliever as high quality large format film, it has access to all the new technology which is an essntail element in survival of IMAX. Page | 2 So we can see that through backward integration IMAX has made itself more stronger by being its own suppiler. In this way it has ganied control over the technology and cost to manufacture the systems that produce 2D or 3D images or audio system. Horizontal Integration When an organization reduces the competition by combinig with its competitors. In case of IMAX it had only two competitor that too produced images in large format. One was which Iwerks which produced films in 15/70 and 8/70 format and ride simulations but its main focus was on the later. Another rival was Megasystems which manfactured large format projection system and provided technical services. But as IMAX has expanded itself to the commercial business but converting an 35mm Hollywood films into large format, Iwerks didnt do that. It limited itself to ride simulation packages that are located in theme parks or museums and such other locations. Megasystem later stopped its production of projction systems and renamed itself to Pollavision. Now Pollavision is only involved in consultancy services of the large format film theaters. If we just analyize these three organizations i. e. IMAX, Iwerks and Pollavision, all of which were the manufactures of high definiton image producing projection systems, then the only organization left in the market that converts commercial movies into large format is IMAX. Its as good as a Monopolist in this feild. And if we analyize IMAX in the category of Studios and theaters, then IMAX is relativily very small. IMAX stands at 12th position when it comes to studios, Disney taking the lead with 1st position. We think it would not effect IMAX if it didnt merge with other studios. It is because of the reason that cosumers have now fully become aware of IMAX format movies,the demand of watching movie in large format is increasing. And IMAX has expereinced a growth rate of 128% in the 1st quater of 2010 alone. It if merges with other studio, it wont be able to work with rest of the studios. IMAX should launch many more commercial theatres where it can run converted Hollywood movies of 35mm to large format so that it can compete against large theatres like Regal Enternaintment Group. Page | 3 BCG MATRIX OF IMAX CORPORATION Market Share High IMAX System Sales Production of Movies Low Conversion of Movies into IMAX format Growth Rate High Low The BCG matrix is a strategic tool used to identify that which business of the organization offers high potentail and which were draining organizations resources. Accorning to the Annual report of IMAX 2007, 51. 04% of the total revenue was generated by IMAX system sales like camers, screens, projection systems etc so we added it in the Stars section. As IMAX has has an advantage over the technology of larger-than-life image production,it should invest more in in RD of the systems used to produce 2D and 3D films. We added  µConversion of movies into IMAX format ¶ in the question mark section on BCG matrix. Its is because that though now-a-days lots of studios convet their movies into IMAX format, IMAX gains not that much from it. As IMAX is not part of any studio,it doesnt get all the share in the profit. The growth is really high in converting movies but the market share is low. In the year 2008-10 IMAX only produced one documentary and that is Space Station. IMAX is orignally know for producing documentary movies but that hasnt given them the oppertunity to have a higher market share. In the motion picture industry,documentry segmant is considered significant than the others. The Motion Picture Association of America gives out seperate award for documantry movies in the grand Oscar Award. IMAX is a brand name not only for the fact that it produces larger-than-life image format but also because of its great collection of documantries which are not only educationall but also entertaining. But as IMAX hasnt produced any movie since 2008, it ¶s not growing on the pace it should. So we added  µproduction of movies ¶ in the star section IMAX should produce more movies. The dogs section of the BCG matrix is empty because there is no such business done by IMAX that should be liquidated. Its earning profit from all the three industries that it is working in i. . photographic equipment and supplies, motion picture and video tape production and Motion Pictur and Video Distribution Page | 4 SECTION 2: PORTER ¶S FIVE FORCES MODEL It helps in accessing where the power lies in a business situation. A series of IMAX Business Talks have been developed to complement the Big Screen Business Education Pack and provide student with an overview of business operations and marketing. Porter ¶s Model is actually a business strategy tool that helps in analyzing the attractiveness in an industry structure. It let you access current strength of your competitive position and the strength of the position that you are planning to attain. Porter ¶s Model is considered an important part of planning tool set. When you ¶re clear about where the power lies, you can take advantage of your strengths and can remove the weaknesses and can compete efficiently and effectively. Porter ¶s Model of Competitive Forces Assumes that there are five competitive forces that identify the competitive power in a IMAX business situation. These five competitive forces identified by the Michael Porter are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Threat of substitute products Threat of new entrants Intense rivalry among existing players Bargaining power of suppliers Bargaining power of Buyers Page | 5 1. Threat of Substitute Products Threat of substitute products (film cinema) means how easily IMAX customers can switch to IMAX competitors product (film cinema). IMAX is the largest and most exciting film format in the world. With crystal clear images, ten times larger than traditional cinema format. Imagine the difference between watching a film at home on video and the same film at a normal 35mm cinema. The film might be the same, but the experience couldn ¶t be more different. Well consider the jump from traditional cinema to IMAX as a similar dramatic leap. Threat of substitute(film cinema) is high when: There are many substitute products (cinema) against IMAX are available Customer can easily find the product or service (film cinema)that Imax ¶s offering at the same or less price Quality of the Imax competitors(film cinema) product is better Substitute product (film cinema) is by a company earning high profits so can reduce prices to the lowest level. In the above mentioned situations, Customer can easily switch to substitute products(film cinema). The screens in IMAX Theatres are the biggest in the world. Up to eight stories high, they are ten times larger than a traditional cinema screen and fill the whole field of human vision. Sound is critical to the IMAX experience. The film soundtracks are delivered through a 15 000 watt digital surround sound system manufactured by Sonics Associates Inc, one of the world leaders in sound system design. Now-a-days you can find DVD ¶s and VCD ¶s with great resoultion. Even in cinema ¶s the quality of the film is really good so there might be customers who wont be willingto pay an extra $4-$5 to watch a movie in 3D. This could prove a fatel blow to the IMAX Page | 6 2. Threat of New Entrants A new entry of a film theatre into your market also weakens IMAX power. Threat of new film theatre depends upon entry and exit barriers. Threat of new film theatre is high when: Capital requirements to start the business are less Few economies of scale are in place Customers can easily switch (low switching cost) Your key technology is not hard to acquire or isn ¶t protected well IMAX film theatre is not differentiated There is variation in attractiveness of segment depending upon entry and exit barriers. That egment is more attractive which has high entry barriers and low exit barriers. Market research carried out by World ¶s Biggest Screens Pty Ltd has helped to define the IMAX brand in the competitive film market and understand the key drivers (and barriers) to attendance. The lessons drawn from the research indicate that IMAX can sustain a positioning as a premium cinema destination not simply b ecause it offers a better experience than other cinema destinations, but because it offers a very different cinema experience. IMAX is perceived as being at the cutting edge of new cinema, potentially offering new experiences in film. The IMAX. Experience gives visitors the sense of real exhilaration  ± a real  µbuzz ¶. It is also about the strong sense of realism of the film style which allows visitors the feeling of destination exploration; the feeling of  µbeing there ¶. There are main threats of IMAX film theatre: Primary threat: Conventional cinemas Home viewing: Pay TV, Video, free to air TV Other Darling Harbour Attractions: Sydney Aquarium Other Sydney Attractions: harbour cruises, shopping, Other Sydney Attractions: harbour cruises, shopping The Rocks area, Opera House tours, Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney Tower, bus tours, museums art galleries Some new film theaters enter into industry and low performing film theaters leave the market easily. When both entry and exit barriers are high then profit margin is also high but film theatres face more risk because poor performance companies stay in and fight it out. When these barriers are low then film theatres easily enter and exit the industry, profit is low. The worst condition is when entry barriers are low and exit barriers are high then in good time ¶s film theatres enter and it become very difficult to exit in bad times. Page | 7 3. Industry Rivalry Industry rivalry means the intensity of competition among the existing film theatres in the market. Intensity of rivalry depends on the number of film theatre and their capabilities. Period of uncertainty during liquidation and restructuring in 2000. Poor film line up, combined with the aftershocks of company restructuring, resulted in low attendance figures. Industry rivalry is high when: There are number of small or equal film theatre and less when there ¶s a clear market leader. Customers have low switching costs Industry is growing Exit barriers are high and rivals stay and compete Fixed cost are high resulting huge production and reduction in prices The marketing strategy will aim to achieve its objective in three key areas: The release of a minimum of 6-8 new films in each market A groups sales program with a key focus on niche visitor groups e. g. schools, groups and functions/ events. Value-based promotions to drive business in traditional ly softer trading periods The marketing strategy will be executed using the full range of the marketing mix including: Advertising Public Relations Internet/ Email Promotions Events Sales Point of Sale These situations make the reasons for advertising wars, price wars, modifications, ultimately costs increase and it is difficult to compete. 4. Bargaining Power Of Suppliers Bargaining Power of supplier means how strong is the position of a film theatre. How much film theatre ¶s suppliers have control over increasing the Price of supplies. Film marketing takes the form of a combination of elements: advertising, publicity promotions, word of mouth, website and e-communications. Films are released usually every 6-8 weeks in a staggered program timed to coincide, where possible, with key school holiday periods. The release of a new film is the prime driver to attendance. Each new film release aims to sell the IMAX experience through the title, reminding all consumers of the key IMAX proposition (i. e. IMAX is a giant screen cinema experience) whilst presenting a  µcall to action ¶ to visit the theatre again, or to trial for the first time. Page | 8 Suppliers are more powerful when Suppliers are concentrated and well organized a few substitutes available to supplies Their product is most effective or unique Switching cost, from one suppliers to another, is high Films are not an important than other The criteria for title selection are based on a number of factors: Format: 2D or 3D? 3D films have now surpassed 2D films as the most popular. There is however, a limited supply of 3D films (They ¶re more expensive to make) to choose from. Experience of similar titles: An examination of the success of previous titles and the potential audience reaction to new titles. Success of titles in other markets: If a film has performed well overseas, it may do well in Australia also. Title testing: Testing the appeal of a film title with current IMAX audiences through surveys site. Expand the market: Titles that present an opportunity to draw a new market into the theatres and encourage trial. When suppliers have more control over supplies and its prices that segment is less attractive. It is best way to make win-win relation with suppliers. It ¶s good idea to have multi-sources of supply. conducted on 5. Bargaining Power Of Buyers Bargaining Power of Buyers means, How much control the buyers have to drive down your products price, Can they work together in ordering large volumes. Buyers have more bargaining power when: Few buyers chasing too many goods Buyer purchases tickets of film theatre Film theatre is not differentiated Buyer ¶s cost of switching to a competitors ¶ product(film theatre) is low Film ticket cost is low Page | 9 Buyers are price sensitive Credible Threat of integration Our market research indicates that 78% of those who have seen an IMAX film express the intent to return. Activities to encourage this process include: Using the interior of the theatre building to highlight new releases Screening of trailers at least 3 months prior to the feature release Interior light boxes featuring coming soon films e. g. behind box office Whatà ‚ ¶s On Brochures featuring  µcoming soon ¶ films Buyer ¶s bargaining power may be lowered down by offering differentiated film theatres. If IMAX ¶ serving a few but huge quantity(tickets)ordering buyers, then they have the power to dictate IMAX. PORTER ¶S GENERIC STRATEGIES According to porter ¶ strategies allow company to gain competitive advantage from three different bases: Cost Leadership Strategy: A primary reason for pursuing forward, backward and horizontal strategies is to gain cost leadership benefits IMAX could be considered a part of three different industries: Photographic equipment and supplies, motion pictures and video tape production and motion picture and video distribution, it is called horizontal integration. The purpose is overhead is kept minimum, and the firm does everything it can to cut costs. IMAX should be produce and distribute its movies in digital format also this shift will allow it to lower its operational cost significantly. Differentiation Strategies: The unique feature of IMAX is large format films, which differentiated it with others filmmakers and production houses. Its library of films and by locating itself in prestigious venues firm had created a unique brand image. Its goal is to provide his customers with high quality entertainment and documentary movies with 3D images and distortion free sounds. For this IMAX had even developed a 3D directional sound technology that offered location and depth to the audio. If IMAX is able to continuously improve the quality and reliability of its programmes, it may have competitive advantage that can ¶t be taken away. It ¶s not enough simply to create a competitive advantage. A corporation must be able to sustain that advantage. And IMAX must be developed the skills knowledge and capabilities to design and assemble the critical elements in its projector and camera systems with technological changes. Page | 10 Focus Strategies: A successful focus strategy depends upon an industry segment that is of sufficient size, has good growth potential and is not crucial to the success of other major competitors. Growth opportunity for IMAX is to focus on retention of the customers. According to IMAX more than 20 percent of its audience were school group, about 70 per cent of its viewers were between 19 and 65 years of age, and the majority were college or university educated. IMAX needed to figure out a way to attract this demographic. To retain them IMAX should focused on educational documentaries and entertainment movies. As a result zoos, museums software, TV shows and toys were all redesigning their products to entertain and educate. The Value Chain The business of a firm can best be described as a value chain in which total revenues minus toal costs of all acrivities undertaken to develop and market a product or service yields value. Given is the semi income statment of IMAX. We can see that for two years 2007 and 2008 IMAX faced loses PERIOD ENDING Total Revenue Cost of Revenue Gross Profit Operating Expenses Research Development Selling General and Administrative Non Recurring Others Total Operating Expenses Operating Income or Loss Dec 31, 2009 171,211 89,659 81,552 3,755 56,207 1,247 546 61,755 19,797 Dec 31, 2008 Dec 31, 2007 106,226 115,832 68,766 74,673 37,460 41,159 7,461 43,652 2,005 526 53,644 (16,184) 5,789 44,705 562 547 51,603 (10,444) Page | 11 SECTION 3: ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS: IMAX interacts with its environment as it takes inputs and distributes its output, in form of large screen format movies with 3D images and distorted sound. Like every organization IMAX has also external and internal environment which affects its outputs. The External Environment The factors and forces outside the IMAX Corporation that affects its performance are its external environment. External environment of the IMAX Corporation has two components: a) Specific environment b) General environment Specific Environment Specific environment includes those forces and factors those directly relevant to the achievement of the IMAX ¶S goals. The main forces that that make the IMAX µs specific environment are: Customers: Customers represent potential uncertainty to the IMAX because their taste changes. Therefore IMAX should need to create educational and entertainment movies and show them in full screen format. Demand for animated and technological base movies is increasing rapidly. IMAX should merge with some large theaters like Pixer to fulfill the demands of their customers. Suppliers: IMAX had developed the skills, knowledge and capabilities to design and assemble the critical elements involved in its projector and camera systems, though most of the components were purchased from the suppliers with whom it maintained long run relationships. So it is supplier of its own cameras and projection systems. Competitors: IMAX has also competitors like other profit and non profit organizations. Now it faces competition from digital cable, satellite, DVDs and the internet all of which offer customers a much broader choice. Within the large format film segment, Iwerks was the only rival to IMAX. General Environment Includes the political/legal social cultural demographic, technological that affects the IMAX indirectly. Movies which are presented in IMAX theater should represent the social culture of Page | 12 that area, where it going to be released. Mostly the audience is college or university educated, are between 19 and 65 years of age, so its projects should fulfills theirs desires. The Internal Environment Internal environment of IMAX includes the procedures and inputs which are used to attain its goals. IMAX had successfully developed 3D cameras and projection systems to produce realistic 3D images. IMAX projection system produced images on screen that were brighter and sharper those found in conventional movie theater. The company had even produced a 3D directional sound technology that offered location and depth to the audio. IMAX also focuses on its research and development programmers ¶ to present movies in latest technological method . for this IMAX had spend $12. 6 million in research and development in past three years. As part of lease IMAX advised customers on theater design, supervised the installation of the system, trained theater staff and maintain the system. Page | 13 SECTION 4: INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Industry analysis is an market assessment tool designed to provide a business with an idea of the complexity of a particular industry. Industry analysis involves reviewing the economic, political and market factors that influence the way the industry develops. Major factors can include the power wielded by suppliers and buyers, the condition of competitors, and the likelihood of new market entrants. We analyize the positon of an organization in the industry. In this case, we will be analyizing IMAX ¶s position in the industry which is Photographic Equipment and Supplies. IMAX shares performance according to 30th July 2010 is as PERFORMANCE SUMMARY Name IMAX Corporation Ticker IMAX Change 0. 13% Photographic Equipment And Supplies YHoh726 0. 24% The above table shows us the performance of IMAX corporation in the share market. IMAX is losing by -0. 13% of the share price where as the rest of the industry is booming at 0. 24% of their share prices. The main competitors of IMAX are : Canon Inc Eastman Kodak Co X-Rite Incorporated Ballantyne Strong Inc Ikonics Coropration. Given below is table which tell us the different share prices of different firms in the industry andwhose share prices are increasing in th industry Page | 14 Top Photographic Equipment Supplies Companies By Market Cap Company Canon Inc. Eastman Kodak Co IMAX Corporation X-Rite Incorporated Ballantyne Strong Inc Ikonics Corporation Symbol CAJ EK IMAX XRIT BTN IKNX Price 43. 32 3. 97 15. 47 3. 70 7. 72 7. 30 Change 0. 28% 1. 49% 0. 13% 1. 65% 0. 39% 4. 14% Market Cap 53. 48B 1. 07B 982. 67M 316. 04M 108. 80M 14. 37M P/E 27. 23 4. 12 27. 14 N/A 43. 37 N/A We can see that on 30th July 31, 2010 Canon Inc. was leading the photographic equipment and supplies industry with share price as high as 43. 32. It expereinced an increse in its market share by 0. 8% and has the highest market capitalization in the industry by $53. 48 Billion. Where as IMAX Corporation, Eastman Kodak and Ballantyne faced a downfall in the prices of their shares by 0. 13%, 1. 49% and 0. 39% respectivily. GROWTH OF IMAX CORPORATION Below is the tabel which shows us quaterly growth of IMAX Corporation as compared to rest of the firm of the industry Leaders in Quarterly Reven ue Growth (YoY) Imax Corporation Ballantyne Strong, Inc. Eastman Kodak Canon Inc. X-Rite Incorporated Ikonics Corporation 128. 00% 47. 80% 30. 90% 10. 00% 9. 90% 3. 40% As on 30th July 2010, IMAX has expereiced growth of about 128% in an quater alone. This is amazingly high when we compare with rest of the industry. IMAX with its great control and knowledge of technology has outrun Canon Inc,who had experienced an increase in its share prices at mentioned above. IMAX also converting movies into large format,has helped to increase its revenues. This quater alone IMAX has a list of hit movies which have been converted into IMAX format. Toy Story 3, The Twilight Saga: Eclipes, Inception, Resident Evil, Avatar, Legends of The Gurdians are a few of them. Consumers interest watching a movie in IMAX format has been increasing alot. Page | 15 Following IMAX is Ballantyne Strong Incorporation which has expereinced growth of about 47. 80% this quarter. The growth is good but comparing it with IMAX Corporation, its very low. Laging behind in the league of growth is Ikonics Corporation with about only 3. 40%. Ikonics is going through rough time, with only 3. 40 % growth this quater and fall in the price of it shares. IMAX CORPORATION VS INDUSTRY We will now analyize IMAX position against rest of the industry. Below is the table which tells us about the different aspects that will detemine the value and rank of each organization. Statistic Market Captialization P/E Ratio (ttm) PEG Ratio(5 yss expected) Revenue Growth (Qtrly YoY) EPS Growth(Qtrly) Long Term Growth Rate (5yrs) Return on Equity(ttm) Long Term Debt Equity (mrq) Divident Yeild (annaul) Where: Ttm= Trailing Twelve Months Mrq= Most Recent Quater Qtrly= Quaterly Industry Leader IMAX CAJ 53. 48B 982. 67M BTN 43. 37 27. 14 CAJ 0. 87 0. 66 IMAX 128. 00% CAJ 220. 20% N/A IMAX 25. 00% EK 84. 25% N/A N/A IMAX Rank 3/6 3/6 2/6 1/6 N/A 1/6 N/A N/A N/A In finance, the Trailing twelve months (TTM) is a moving measurement calculated using a companys interim or quarterly reports together with its annual report to show the twelve months of income statement data trailing the end date of an interim or quarterly report. Coming back to the case study, IMAX is doing really good when it comes to ranking. In market captialization, IMAX stands 3rd as comapred to the 6 firms in the industry. It leads the industry in Quaterly Growth and in five years the firm most likely to have the highest growth rate is IMAX Corporation itself. IMAX gains the 2nd rank when it comes to Price Earning to Growth Ratio (PEG Ratio). The above statistics tells us that IMAX has growth potential Page | 16 AS PER PRICE TO EARNINGS VALUE Leaders in P/E Ratio (ttm) Ballantyne Strong Inc. Canon Inc. Imax Corporation Eastman Kodak Company 43. 54 27. 29 27. 18 4. 18 The P/E ratio (price-to-earnings ratio) of a stock (also called its P/E, or simply multiple) is a measure of the price paid for a share relative to the annual net income or profit earned by the firm per share. It is a financial ratio used for valuation: a higher P/E ratio means that investors are paying more for each unit of net income, so the stock is more expensive compared to one with lower P/E ratio. Very intrestingly we saw earlier that Ballantyne Strong Inc expereinced a decrese in its share price by 0. 39% but here we see that investors are more willing to invest in Ballantyne Strong as compared to Canon Inc. IMAX Corporation ¶s P/E ratio is $27. 18, the amount investors are willing to pay to have a single share of IMAX Conclusion As the above statistics has shown that up to 30th July 2010, the leader of the Photographic Equipment and Supplies industry was Canon Inc. IMAX Corporation took the 3rd rank. But in case of growth, IMAX has more potentail than any of the firms with 128% growth the first quater of 2010 alone. This shows that IMAX will lead the photographic equipment and supplies industry in coming future THE EXTERNAL FACTOR EVALUATION MATRIX (EFE) An EFE matric allows strategies to summerize and evaluate economic, social, cultural, demographic, enviormental, technological, legal and comeptetive information. Both the opportunities and threats effecting the organization are listed. It is used to see the competitness of a firm. The highest possible total weighted score for an organization is 4. 0 and the lowest possible is 1. 0. The average total weighted score is 2. 5. A 4. 0 score indicates that an organization is respoding in an outstanding way to exsisting opportunites and threats in the industry Through the matrix we see that the strategies opted by IMAX corporation are effective. Its is throught the fact that the weighted score of all the opportunities and threats is above 2. . so we can see that IMAX is responding effectivly to the opportunites and threats comign tis way. The matrix is given on the next page Page | 17 OPPORTUNITIES Increase in the demand of Hollywood Movies Teaming up with other studios for joint ventures Opening IMAX theatres within Multiplexes No competitor that is converting movies into lareg format Converting existing multiplexe screens to IMAX format MPAA has g iven documantary movies segmant special significance Opening up IMAX in Pakistan and other countries High Populartiy of watching IMAX format movies WEIGHT 0. 07 RANKING 3 W. S 0. 24 .10 2 0. 20 0. 12 4 0. 48 0. 05 1 0. 05 0. 08 2 0. 16 0. 05 1 0. 05 0. 04 1 0. 04 0. 09 3 0. 27 THREATS Piracy of movies High quality DVD s Home theatre Systems Social factor Union of labor Joint partner, AMC rolling out its own big screesns Political Intervention Change of Taste of consumers Total 0. 04 0. 02 0. 04 0. 07 0. 13 0. 07 1 2 3 4 3 4 0. 04 0. 04 0. 12 0. 28 0. 39 0. 28 0. 02 0. 01 1. 00 2 3 0. 04 0. 03 2. 71 Page | 18 SECTION 5: IMAX ¶S FINANCIAL ANALYSIS Activity (Asset Utilization) ratios: Day ¶s sales in Receivables: ays sales in receivable Days sales in Receivable 300 200 100 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 Days sales in Receivable 53. 413 224. 57 73. 357 80. 369 Days sales in Receiva ble years Interpretation: The number of day ¶s sales in receivables relates the amount of the accounts receivables to the average daily sales on account. IMAX shows better improvement in 2004 where his days sales in receivable is 53. 413 days and then in 200 5 his days sales in receivable is 224. 57days which is not good for company and then in 2006 2007 IMAX shows big improvement in their days sales receivables. Page | 19 Account Receivable Turnover: accou t ece a e tu o e Account ece eab e Turnover 6 4 2 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 Account 2 493 2 516 5 025 4 542 ece ve ab e Turnover yea s Account ece veab e Turnover Interpretation: The Account Receivable Turnover ratio gives the number of times account receivable is collected during the year. it indicates the liquidity of receivables. In general the higher the account receivable turnover, the better since the company collecting quickly from customers. In 2006 IMAX has greater account receivables turnover as compared to other years indicating the highest liquidity of receivables and in 2007 IMAX shows some decline and is significant and indicates some problem in 2007 which is 4. 542 times as compare to 2006 which is 5. 025 times. Page | 20 Account Receivable Turnover in Days: rn ver Accoun Receivable Tu nover in Days 200 100 0 n receiable Accoun Receivable Turnover in Days 2004 2005 2006 2007 72. 64 80. 37 acc Accoun 146. 4 145 Receiv able Turnov years Interpretation: The account receivables turnover can be expressed in term of days instead of times per year. In 2004,2005 2006 IMAX is efficient in managing its receivables and shows the positive trend in collection of its receivables turnover in days indicate an improvement in the control of receivables but in 2007 IMAX some negative trend in collection of its receivables turnover in days. Page | 21 Days Sales in Inventory: Days Sales in Inven ry days sales in inven ry 200 100 0 Days Sales in Inven ory 2004 2005 2006 2007 151. 09 141. 46 127. 74 107. 78 Days Sales in Inven ory years Interpretation: It relates the amount of ending inventory to the average daily cost of goods sold . t gives an indication of the length of time that it will take to use up the inventory through sales. the days sales in inventory estimates the number of days that it will take to sell the current inventory . in our data IMAX shows positive trend means that it takes less and less days to selling its inventory which is shown in the graph and this is the good symbol for the company. Page | 22 Inventory Turnover: In ventory Turnover 4 3 2 1 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 Inventory Turnover inventory turnover Inventory 2. 44566 2. 64477 3. 14123 3. 38653 Turnover years Interpretation: It indicates the liquidity of the inventory in times per year. IMAX shows the positive trend in their inventory turnover. Which is good for the company and increase in the inventory turnover indicates that the IMAX is not stocking the goods. Page | 23 Inventory Turnover in Days: Inven ory Turnover in Days inven ry in days 200 100 0 Inven ory Turnover in Days 2004 2005 2006 2007 Inven ory 149. 244 138. 008 116. 197 107. 78 Turnover in Days years Interpretation: The inventory turnover figure can be expressed in the number of days instead of times per year. It gives an indication of the length of time that it will take to use up the inventory through sales. The day ¶s sales in inventory estimate the number of days that it will take to sell the current inventory. IMAX shows the positive trend in their inventory turnover in days, means IMAX takes less and less days to sale its inventory which shows the improvement in inventory turnover in days. Page | 24 Operating Cycle: Opera ing Cycle 200 pera ing cycle 150 100 50 0 Opera ing Cycle 2004 2005 138 2006 2007 Opera in 149. 2 g Cycle 116. 2 107. 8 years Interpretation: The operating cycle represents the period of time elapsing between the acquisition of goods and the final cash realization resulting from sales and subsequent collections. IMAX shows the positive trend and takes the less number of days to convert inventory and receivables to cash. Page | 25 Liquidity Ratios: Working Capital: Worki pi l i l Worki worki pi l Worki pi l y r Interpretation: The working capital of a business is an indication of the short run solvency of the business. It is the difference between the current assets and current liabilities. If current liabilities exceed the current assets then it shows the bad short run solvency of the firm. In 2004 2005 IMAX shows that their current assets are more than their current liabilities indicating the better short tern solvency as compared to the 2006 2007 in which IMAX shows that their current assets are less than their current liabilities indicating the shows the bad short run solvency of the IMAX and unfavorable sign. Page | 26 Current Ratio: Curren Ra io 3 2. 5 c rren ra i 2 1. 5 1 0. 5 0 Curren Ra io 2004 2005 2006 2007 Curren Ra io 1. 2777 2. 4781 1. 1991 0. 8973 years Interpretation: Current ratio which is subject to seasonal fluctuations is used to measure the ability of an enterprise to meet its current liabilities ut of current assets. The above graph of IMAX shows that in 2005 his ability to pay their short term liabilities is much stronger as compared to others years. which shows the decline over the year. Page | 27 Acid-Test Ratio: Acid Tes Ra io 2 acid es ra i 1. 5 1 0. 5 0 Acid Tes Ra io 2004 0. 779 2005 2006 2007 Acid Tes Ra io 1. 8289 0. 7335 0. 571 years Int erpretation: The acid test ratio relates the most liquid assets to current liabilities because it ignores the inventory figure while collecting the short term debt paying ability of the firm. On examining the company, we can find that in 2005 IMAX is greater to 1 means that IMAX shows strong position enough liquid assets to pay their short term debt while ignoring its inventory. In 2004 2006 IMAX is closer to 1 means that it is somewhat in a better condition while ignoring its inventory. Page | 28 Cash Ratio: Cash Ra io 0. 5 0. 4 cash ra i 0. 3 0. 2 0. 1 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 Cash Ra io Cash 0. 46177 0. 39196 0. 36034 0. 22757 Ra io years Interpretation: The cash ratio relate to extreme analysis of the firm debt paying ability. Because in this ratio we only take the figures of such liquid assets as cash in bond, bank balances, marketable securities, the ratio shows that how much firm ¶s cash in their hands and accounts to pay their short term liabilities . it gives us the extreme closer view of the firm short term paying ability. The above graph of IMAX shows that the company has not more cash in hand and at bank to pay its short term liabilities. In fact the cash ratio is more extreme analysis of the firm debt paying ability so we can say that IMAX is in better conditions but not as much good because its ratio is less than in all four years. Page , sales are not adequate in relation to the available working capital. The above graph of IMAX shows working capital turnover ratio of different firms over the tfour years. e can see that IMAX have positive working capital turnover ratio in 2004, 2005 2006 because, their current assets are more than their current liabilities while in 2007 IMAX has more liability that ¶s why their working capital turnover ratio show the negative trend. in comparison the 2006 is better off in respect to their ratio as compared to 2004 2005 which indicates that in 2006 working capital is efficiently utilizing to generate sales as compared to other years and in a better position Page | 30 Operating Cash flow/Current Liabilities Ratio: OCF/Curren liabili ies OCF/c rrent liabilities 0. 2 0. 1 0 -0. 1 OCF/Curren liabili ies 2004 2005 2006 2007 OCF/Curr 0. 1819 0. 0288 -0. 085 -0. 084 en liabili ies years Interpretation: This ratio is an indication of short term debt paying ability of the firm. This ratio shows the relationship if cash generated from operating activities to the current liabilities of the firm. If the firm generates enough cash from its operations which is greater than its liabilities than the firm is in better condition and its short term debt paying ability. The above graph of IMAX in years 2004 2005 shows that there are a positive trend, means the firm generates enough cash from its operations which is greater than its liabilities than the firm is in better condition and its short term debt paying ability while in 2006 2007 shows the negative trend, shows IMAX have not cash to meet their current liabilities. Page | 31 Leverage (Solvancy, Long-Term Debt) Ratios Debt Equity Ratio: Deb Equi y Ra io 0 debt eq ity rati -5 Deb Equi y Ra io -10 -15 2004 2005 2006 2007 -6. 448 -13. 15 -4. 903 -3. 436 Deb Equi y Ra io years Interpretation: The debt/equity ratio is another computation that determines the entity ¶s long term debt paying ability. Thus computation compares the total debt with the total shareholder ¶s equity. The debt/equity ratio also helps determine how well creditors are protected in the case of solvency, for the prospective of long term paying ability, the lower this ratio is the better of the company ¶s debt position. The above graph shows that IMAX is not in a better condition showing the negative trend in all four years . The negative indicates that their stockholder ¶s equity figures in negative that ¶s why they lie below the zero line Page | 32 Debt Ratio: Deb Ra io 1. 5 debt ratuo 1 0. 5 Deb Ra io 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 Deb 1. 18356 1. 08234 1. 2562 1. 41047 Ra io years Interpretation: This ratio also indicates long-term debt-paying ability of the firm. the debt ratio indicates the percentage of assets financed by creditors and its help to determine how well creditors are protected in the case of insolvency, if the creditors are not well protected the company is not in a position to issue addition long term debt paying ability, the lower this ratio the better the company position. In the above graph of IMAX clearly shown that in 2005 is better off as compared to other years. In the 2005 the IMAX much better condition as compared to others because its total assets contain not much from the creditor side. Those firms whose ratio is less then are better off, indicating that their assets do not include more from creditors ¶ side. Page | 33 Operating Cash Flows/Total liabilities: OCF/To al liabili ies OCF/total liabilities 0. 06 0. 04 0. 02 0 -0. 02 -0. 04 2004 2005 2006 2007 OCF/To al liabili ies OCF/T 0. 042 0. 007 -0. 02 -0. 02 o al liabili i es years Interpretation: This ratio is also indication of long term debt paying ability of the firm. This ratio shows the relationship if cash generated from operating activities to the total liabilities of the firm. If the firm generates enough cash from its operations which is greater than its liabilities than the firm is in better condition and its long term debt paying ability includes transitioned interest debts and principal sum in good. The above graph of IMAX shows that in years 2004 2005 are generating enough cash from operations to meet their long term and short term debt because in these years the IMAX shows the positive trend, while in years 2006 2007 the IMAX shows the negative trend in generating enough cash to meet their liabilities over the two periods. The higher the ratio the better will be the position of the fir Page | 34 Long-term Debt-Equity Ratio: Long erm Deb Equi y Ra io l ng term debt equity rati 0 -5 -10 -15 2004 2005 2006 2007 Long erm Deb Equi y Ra io Long -4. 968 -10. 08 -3. 706 -2. 566 erm Deb Equi y Ra io years Interpretation: This ratio also shows the long term debt paying ability of the firm. This ratio relates the portion of total equity financed by the long term debt. The lesser the ratio the better will be the companys position and its ability to pay its debts. The above graph of IMAX shows that in all four years there are negative, the negative trend of the IMAX is due to that their total equity figure is in negative which leads to lie their ratio below the zero line. Page | 35 Time Interest Earned: Time In eres Earned time interest earned 2 1 0 -1 -2 Time In eres Earned 2004 2005 2006 2007 Time In eres Earned 0. 77132 0. 93299 -0. 4019 -1. 2075 years Interpretation: The time interest earned ratio indicates a firm ¶s long term debt paying ability from the income statement view. If time interest earned is adequate, little danger exits that the firm will not able to meet its interest obligations. If the firm has a good coverage of the interest obligation, it should be able to refinance the principal when it comes due. In the above figure of IMAX show the positive trend in years 2004 2005 means that in good position to pay its interest obligations on the long term liabilities while in 2006 2007 shows the negative trend and are not in good position to pay its interest obligations on the long term liabilities and it may seem also be difficult for the IMAX to pay their principals amount of their long term debts. In 2004 2005 the IMAX shows the positive trend indicating that it is generating enough income to meet its interest obligations and is able to pay its principal some debt as compared to other years. Page | 36 PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS Net Profit Margin: Net Profit M r i . r i . t rofit . . . Net Profit M r i . . . . Net Profit M r i y r Interpretation: A commonly used profit measure is return on sales often termed net profit margin. This ratio gives a measure of net income rupees generated by each dollar of sales. it is desirable for this ratio to be high, competitive forces within the industry, economic conditions, use of debt financing an operating characteristics such as high fixed costs will cause the net profit margin to vary between and within the industry,. he above graph of IMAX net profit margin shows a profitable position over the two years and its profit from sales increases substantially from 2004 to 2005, while in next two years the IMAX faces losses on sales continuously i. e. 2006 to 2007. Page | 37 Total asset Turnover: Total asset Turnover total asset turn ver 0. 62 0. 6 0. 58 0. 56 0. 54 0. 52 2004 2005 2006 2007 Total asset Turnover 0. 5701 0. 6122 0. 5948 0 . 5569 Total asset Turnover years Interpretation: The total asset turnover measures the activity of the assets and the ability of the firm to generate sales through the use of assets. The above graph of IMAX shows that who efficiently the years uses their assets to generate sales. The high figure shows that that the firm ¶s net sales are than its total assets. It indicates that the firm is not using enough of the assets to generate sales. In the above graph of IMAX, the activity of assets in the years 2004 2007 is greater than the other years that are why its ratios is lower as compared to other. As we look towards the years 2005 2006 its figure is higher indicating that this firm is not using much of its assets to generate sales. Page | 38 Return on Assets: Return On Assets 0. 1 return n assets 0. 05 0 -0. 05 -0. 1 -0. 15 2004 2005 2006 2007 Return On Assets Return 0. 043 0. 061 -0. 077 -0. 13 On Assets years Interpretation: Return on assets measures the firm ability to utilize its assets to create profits by comparing the profits with the assets that generate the profits. The higher the firm ¶s return on assets better will be the company ¶s position. The above graph of IMAX shows the return on assets of four years . By looking toward the graph we can see that from 2004 to 2005 years shows the positive and profitable trend. This indicates that in 2004 2005 management is efficiently utilizing their assets to generate profits, and also there is a positive trend over the two years while in next two years i. e from 2006 to 2007 shows the negative and non profitable trend which indicates that in these years IMAX management is not efficiently utilizing their assets to generate profits. Page | 39 Operating Income Margin: Operating Income perating inc me margin 0. 3 0. 2 0. 1 0 -0. 1 Operati ng Income argin 2004 0. 22 2005 argin Operating Income argin 2006 2007 0. 224 0. 077 -0. 031 years Interpretation: It shows the relationship of operating income to net sales. This ratio indicates that how much the firm generates income from its net sales after excluding administrative, selling and other expenses from the gross profit. The higher the figure of operating income margin the better the company ¶s better position and its profitability. The above graph of IMAX shows that the in years 2004 2005 are in better position in relation to operating income margin as compared to the other years in the IMAX Company while in years from 2006 to 2007 IMAX shows the decline means in these years IMAX Company ¶s position is not good and non profitability. So we can say that there are only two years i. from 2004 to 2005 that generate positive incomes from net sales. Further we can see that the in years 2004 2005 shows the continuous improvement over the two years while 2006 2007 shows decline over the two years. Page | 40 Return on Operating Assets return n perating assets Return On Operating Assets 2 1 0 -1 2004 2005 2006 2007 Return On Operating Assets R eturn 1. 076 1. 261 0. 415 -0. 15 On Operati ng Assets years Interpretation: This ratio measures the ability of operating assets to generate sales dollars. The higher the ratio the better will be the position of the company. The above graph of IMAX shows that there are only two years in the company i. e. 2004 to 2005 whose position is better as compared to other years in the company. Because these years shows positive figure over the two years, while next year shows big decline i. e. 2006 and in 2007 the IMAX shos the negative fingure. The IMAX company show an improvement from year 2004 to 2005 but in last two years they show the decline position In year 2004 2005 operating assets are efficiently contributing in the generation of the sales while in the years 2006 2007 are not utilizing efficiently contributing in the generation of the sales Page | 41 DuPont Return on Operating Assets: dupont return on operating assets DuPont Return on Operating Assets 2 1 0 -1 2004 2005 2006 2007 DuPont Return on Operating Assets DuPon 1. 076 1. 261 0. 415 -0. 15 t Return on Operat years Interpretation: It shows the relationship between operating and average operating assets of the firm. It indicates that how efficiently the management of the firm operates its assets to generate income. The higher the figure the better will be the position of the firm. The above graph of IMAX shows that that the management of years 2004 to 2005 has a control over its operating assets in relation to generate income while in next two years the IMAX shows the declining position means have not a control over its operating assets in relation to generate income and these two years shows the declining figure in the year 200 and 2007 indicating that they are not generating income from their operating assets in fact they faces a lose in the year 2007 . Page | 42 Sales to Fixed Assets: Sales To Fixed Assets sales to fixed assets 2. 5 2 1. 5 1 0. 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 Sales To Fixed Assets Sales To 1. 895 2. 081 1. 923 1. 725 Fixed Assets years Interpretation: The ratio measure the firm ¶s ability to make productive use of its property, plant and equipment by generating sales rupees. The above graph of IMAX shows that in the years from 2004 to 2005 have a the positive trend indicating that their fixed assets are contributing more efficiently toward the sale s while in years from 2006 to 2007 the IMAX have a negative trend indicating that their fixed assets are not contributing more efficiently toward the sales. In fact In last year they faces a lose in the year 2007 . Page | 43 Return on Investment: Return On Investment return n investment 0. 2 0. 1 0 -0. 1 -0. 2 2004 2005 2006 2007 Return On Investment Return On 0. 1204 0. 148 Investmen t -0. 041 -0. 118 years Interpretation: It applies to ratio measuring the income earned on the invested capital. These types if measures are widely used to evaluate enterprise performance. Since return on investment is a type of return on capital, this ratio measure the ability of the firm to reward those who provide long term funds and to attract provides of future funds. This ratio evaluates the earning performance of the firm without regard to the investment is financed. The higher the ratio, the better will be the position of the company. The above graph of IMAX shows that in the years from 2004 to 2005 have a better positive and shows positive trend over the two years but in last two years the IMAX shows the negative trend and shows the continues losses. Page | 44 Return on Total Equity: Return On Total Equity return n total equity 0. 5 0 -0. 5 Return On Total Equity Return On Total Equity 2004 2005 2006 2007 0. 327 -0. 3664 0. 2347 0. 3156 years Interpretation: It measures the return to both common and preferred stockholders. The higher the ratio the better will be the position of the company. This ratio is important for shareholder point of view. Higher returns attract more shareholders. The above graph of IMAX Company shows in the years 2004 to 2005 have the decreasing trend over the two years also below the zero line i. e. negative returns. Wh ile in last two years from 2006 to 2007 have a positive trend and shows the better position. Page | 45 Gross Profit Margin: Gross gr ss pr fit margin 0. 6 0. 4 0. 2 0 rofit argin Gross rofit Margin 2004 2005 2006 2007 Gross 0. 485 0. 496 0. 406 0. 355 rofit Margin years Interpretation: The ratio shows the relationship between gross profit and net sales. Higher the figure the better will be the position of the firm. The above graph of IMAX shows that the company generate profits continuously over the two years from the net sales, while in last two years shows decline from 2006 to 2007 and shows the continues losses. Page | 46 INVESTOR ANALYSIS Degree of Financial Leverage: Degree Of i i ll v r ci l Lever ge of fi Degree Of Fi ci l Lever ge 2004 2005 2006 2007 2 . 9 0. 2 r Degree 2. 296 2. Of ci Fi l Lever y r Interpretation: The use of financing with a fixed charge (such as interest) is termed financial leverage. Financial leverage is successfully the firm earns more on the borrowed finds than it pays to use them. It is not successful if the firm earns less on the borrowed funds than it pays to use them. If the earning before interest increases, the financial leverage will be favorable. If earning before interest deceased the financial leverage will be unfavorable. The above graph of IMAX shows that the years from 2004 to 2005 the negative trend over the two years earning before interest decreased the financial leverage are unfavorable while in 2006 the IMAX company goes to the below the zero line shows negative figure but then in the year 2007 shows the positive trend here the earning before interest increases, the financial leverage is the favorable and the degree of financial leverage becomes favorable from 2006 to 2007. Page | 47 Earning Per Common Share: arning per c mm n share Earning er Common Share 0. 2 0. 1 0 -0. 1 -0. 2 -0. 3 2004 2005 2006 2007 Earning er Common Share Earning 0. 086 0. 118 -0. 138 -0. 22 er Commo n Share years Interpretation: It is the amount of income earned on a share of common stock during period, applies only to common stock. The higher the ratio, the higher will be position of the firm. The above graph of IMAX company shows that only in the years from 2004 to 2005 shows a continuous positive trend in the earnings per common share and also show improvement in their earning . While in next two years the company going to down and down and not shows a good position. Page | 48 Book Value per Share: Book Value per Share k value per share 0 -0. 2 -0. 4 -0. 6 -0. 8 2004 2005 2006 2007 Book Value per Share b Book -0. 364 -0. 167 -0. 477 -0. 697 Value per Share years Interpretation: It indicates the amount of stockholder ¶s equity that relates to each share of outstanding common stock. The above figure of IMAX Company shows a book value per share below the zero line over the four years. Page | 49 Operating Cash flow Per Share: perating cash fl w per year Operating Cash flow er Share 0. 15 0. 1 0. 05 0 -0. 05 -0. 1 2004 2005 2006 2007 Operating Cash flow er Share Operatin 0. 096 0. 015 -0. 049 -0. 051 g Cash flow er Share years Interpretation: Operating cash flow per share indicates the funds flow per common share outstanding, it is usually substantially than the earning per share because depreciation has not been deducted. It is the indication of a firm ¶s ability to make capital expenditures decisions and pay dividends than is earning per share. This ratio does not viewed as substitute for earning per share in terms of its profitability. The higher the ratio, the better will be the position of the firm. The above graph of IMAX shows the negative trend continuous over the four years also shows below the zero line in last two years which is in a continuous non profitability position. Page | 50